Chapter 5636 Did You Ask
- Jared stayed on high alert, placing each footstep gingerly as he ventured deeper into the shadow-choked gorge. Dank, venomous miasma curled around his calves, yet his tempered flesh dismissed the poison as though it were morning mist. For nearly an hour, he pressed on, nerves stretched taut until a faint conversation drifted through the haze. He slid behind a crooked pillar of rock, held his breath, and narrowed his eyes. Barely fifty paces ahead, three figures hovered in the murk. The first, wrapped in regal gold, should have radiated authority. Instead, lifeless eyes and a slack face marked him a puppet bereft of will. Beside him stood two men in austere white robes—Jaehaerys of the First Hall and Brennan Hartley of the Second—pillars of the Celestial Palace.
- "Mr. Jaehaerys, how much longer must we wait? Why hasn't Malevolent Path Hall shown up?" Brennan's impatience rasped across the fog-laden air. They had shackled the Celestial King for days, loitering in this cursed canyon, yet their partners in treachery remained ghosts.
- What the two conspirators did not know was chilling. Prince Percival Wulverton—the envoy meant to meet them—and the Grand Elder were already dead. Even Lord Ashcroft, a celestial lord, had fallen. Percival's plan had been simple: subdue the Celestial King's palace with the Third Hall Master, then escort their prize here. Fate, bloody and abrupt, had intervened. Now Malevolent Path Hall scrambled for a stand-in, leaving Jaehaerys and Brennan marooned with their living trophy.