A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6448

"Night deepened.

Darkness draped itself over the Seventeenth Firmament. The faint light of the three blazing suns weakened, and the world sank into a dim, still quiet."

"The remaining precincts of Pole Star Hall had all fallen silent as the cultivators rested and recovered.

Only the inner Soul-Refining Hall kept its lamps burning. Spiritual light remained there, steady and unextinguished, while the air lay solemn and heavy."

"Venerable Starwick had dismissed every Golden Immortal under his command, along with the watch-standing cultivators.

He alone remained inside the Soul-Refining Hall, doors closed, studying the Soul-Vault Pearl and cutting off any possible disturbance. His whole aim was to be the first to break open the relic’s secret and seize that supreme opportunity."

"He placed the Soul-Vault Pearl firmly at the very center of the soul-forging dais.

His face had set grave, his eyes fixed with total focus. Without pausing for even a moment, he drove his powerful spirit sense again and again from different angles, probing and testing for the smallest weakness in the golden-radiance bulwark."

"To break the deadlock, he held nothing back.

He used his own Golden Immortal nascence-fire to burn the pearl’s body without cease. He drew on the soul secret arts he had cultivated all his life to corrode the protective shield by force. He activated the power of the elder celestial arcanum and pressed down layer after layer, testing from every side, using every method he possessed without leaving the slightest reserve."

"Yet no matter how sharp his methods were, no matter how many he brought out, no matter how forcefully he drove them, the soulward veil remained as steady as a mountain.

The golden radiance did not shake. It did not move. Not half a crack could be found, and every attack sank like a stone dropped into the sea, useless from beginning to end."

"Time dragged on, slow and merciless.

By the time the night was almost spent, Venerable Starwick's last thread of restraint had been worn thin. The pressure inside him kept building, and his face sank darker with every failed attempt."

"He was the Hall Master of Pole Star Hall, a foremost Level Five Golden Immortal adept who held command over one side of the northern region.

When had someone like him ever been forced to swallow a setback like this?"

"He could not even break through the guarding bulwark around the True Immortal soul from the Lower Realm.

If word of that got out, the heavens would turn him into a joke. Whatever face he had left would be stripped clean away."

"Damn it! A mere protective relic belonging to some lower-realm stripling dares resist me like this!"

"Venerable Starwick cursed under his breath.

The pressure in his chest had nowhere to go. He raised his hand and drove a fist down hard onto the soul-forging dais, venting the tight, bitter force that had been grinding at him all night."

"The stone dais did not so much as tremble. It remained as hard and unmoved as ever.

The backlash ran up his arm instead, rolling back through bone and meridian. His fist went numb. His arm throbbed with a deep ache, and the strain in him only tightened further."

Then, in that exact moment, something changed.

On the stone dais, inside the Soul-Vault Pearl, the violet soul that had been quiet and still suddenly gave off a faint light on its own.

"It was not the weak flicker caused by outside flames, nor a forced tremor beaten out of it by pressure.

This was a strand of spiritual light released with clear awareness behind it. Quiet, but impossible to miss."

"Venerable Starwick's gaze locked in place. His chest hitched once, and he caught the movement instantly.

The consciousness inside that soul had actually awakened on its own?"

"Within the Soul-Vault Pearl, Jared slowly opened the eyes of his soul.

Sheltered by the Aureate Codex's golden radiance, he saw everything in the Soul-Refining Hall beyond the pearl with perfect clarity. Venerable Starwick's every look, every shift in bearing, every current running beneath the surface—nothing escaped him."

"He saw exactly what this higher Golden Immortal had become in front of the relic: the hunger to seize it, the tightening urgency, the refusal to leave empty-handed.

He also saw through the vicious design underneath it all. Venerable Starwick wanted to take the relic for himself and refine Jared along with it."

"Not a tremor passed through Jared.

He remained as steady as a mountain."

"With the Aureate Codex guarding him at close range, the Myriad Arts could not invade him, and no hardship could break through.

The Level Three Golden Immortal adept before him could press as hard as he wanted, could covet as much as he wanted, but he could not touch Jared in the slightest."

"A cold curve passed through Jared's awareness, but he gave nothing away.

He drew his focus inward again, let his soul sink back into hiding, and put on the appearance of never having awakened at all. For now, he would keep watching the situation change and would not take the first step into trouble."

"Jared had not made a move. He had not gone out of his way to provoke anyone.

But deep in his soul, the Aureate Codex had already sensed every trace of malice outside, every thread of coveting, every scheme and killing design aimed at Jared."

"A supreme relic had its own spirit, and protecting its master came first.

Once it detected that its master had been targeted and schemed against, once it detected that a higher Golden Immortal had forced his way against it again and again, its own defensive response had already begun to stir."

Buzz—

"The Aureate Codex gave a slight tremor on its own.

It lasted only an instant, silent and nearly impossible to detect. Then it slowly released a wisp of ancient nascence aura, so fine and faint that it was almost nothing."

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