The Story Never Ends

Jared had his robes tattered and one arm missing. They could see many wounds and brown spots on his body. These brown spots were radiating a dangerous aura that made them wary even though there were all in the Domain Realm.

"A very strong devil essence. Did they meet a Devil Emperor?" Vance had a solemn look on his face.

"Indeed, a very strong one at that. Although the Sect Master seems fine, I can sense his aura is unstable." Liliana gazed at the Sect Master keenly as it didn't escape her sharp senses.

But she didn't dare to scan him with her Divine Sense and know more about it. After all, she would surely get caught even though she had the strongest Divine Sense among all of them.

Vance knew all about this and didn't doubt what she said. So, he asked, "Who might have pushed them this far?"

"Maybe that monster," She guessed.

Vance trembled when he heard it. He knew that there was only one person that could be referred to as a monster. He was about to say something, but he couldn't as the Sect Master finally spoke.

"You all should have been guessing why I went out, didn't you?"

"Yes," the elders nodded.

"Jared ran into Conard," The Sect Master said seriously.

"What!" The elders had the same reaction as Vance. They couldn't believe it.

"I just had a battle with him and he is as strong as ever." He then roughly explained what had occurred.

The elders became tense when they listened to it and gazed at Jared with pity. They could understand his situation.

"Don't look at me like that," Jared yelled in anger as he felt ashamed. He then took out a black cloak from his spirit ring and wore it straight away.

"Jared, you leave and take care of your injuries. It's the first thing you need to do." The Sect Master ordered.

"Sect Master, I will go only after the Secret Realm closes. I have some important tasks here," Jared replied.

"You.." The Sect Master's expression changed since how could there be a more important task than removing the devil essence from his body at once? But recalling what had happened to his daughter, he decided to let it be.

"I know what you want to do here. But make sure you finish it fast. I don't want your cultivation base regressing," He explained.

"I understand," Jared bowed.

"It's not that I don't care about Nora, it's just that there are bigger problems ahead. Despite the fact that we repelled Conard and had an edge in this battle, he is still not done. He should be making his moves soon." He gave a deep look to Jared.

Jared nodded and didn't say anything more. He knew what the Sect Master was indicating. He wanted him to recover to his peak state quickly and let the matter of Nora slide for the time being.

Next, the Sect Master glanced at the other elders and warned them, "Don't leave the Sect these days and be prepared to head out at any moment. In addition to it, it would be better if you can call your disciples back from seclusion."

"We will," They replied in unison.

"Ok! Now I'm going into retreat. Don't disturb me until something big happens." He disappeared without waiting for their reply. Not only that, he didn't even wait for the disciples to come out from the Secret Realm.

As a result, the elders could guess that the battle with Conard must not have been easy for him. Maybe he was seriously hurt, and he didn't want them to know about it?

The elders discussed it and the time passed without them noticing.

***

Inside the Secret Realm,

"You can take them all." Davion smiled as he gave Leyla the treasures that they had collected during this time.

"You have some conscience after all." She didn't reject it and accepted it all.

"Now for this.." He then took out the lighting pearl that they had obtained in the frozen lake and slapped it in the middle.

"Creak.."

The pearl broke in half, and he gave her one of the halves. As for the other, he kept it for himself. This was because he knew that this pearl was precious like the flower he had plucked from the female rock.

"I think you should take this all," Leyla suggested as she felt quite guilty. She knew that she wasn't of much use during the fight with the squid. Not only that, she even took away all the treasures. So, she thought that she had taken enough advantage of him.

"No worries. The lightning energy here is too massive for me to absorb, and it might get wasted in the process. Thus, it would be nice if you take it since it is essential for you too." He reasoned.

"But.."

Seeing her stubborn character, he said, "Just take it. However, don't report to your mother that I had bullied you," He winked at her.

"Shameless." She finally took it as a part of the deal.

"Haha, I would like it more if you can sing some praises of me infront of your mother." He joked.

She was about to reply when all of a sudden, the whole secret realm began shaking.

"Father, what is happening?" The child asked and gripped his clothes tightly in fear.

"The Secret Realm is closing," Leyla answered.

The moment she said this the space above them cracked and they were being dragged into it. But the unusual thing was that it didn't pull the child. So, Davion gripped his hand and pulled him upward.

"There is something wrong with this kid." Leyla thought when she saw this.

***

"It's time." The elders looked at the gate ahead of them which was trembling and saw disciples emerging out of it.

"Swish…swish.."

In a few minutes, everyone had come out and the gate began to close slowly.

"Click"

Afterward, the key popped out from the center and it flew straight towards the residence of the Sect Master. Then the gate began to fade in the speed visible to the naked eyes.

"Bang"

The gate disappeared and the sky returned to normal. The disciples smiled and gazed at the sun that was hanging in the sky. Although they were only gone for six hours, they had missed this warm atmosphere.

"Haha, I found a rare heavenly dark mushroom that would help me breakthrough in the blink of an eye." One of the disciples boasted.

"Is that it? I found a spirit stone mine from where I harvested a lot of middle-grade spirit stones," The other scoffed.

"What!"

The disciples began gossiping with each other about what treasures they had obtained and began showing off. This made the Peak lively and harmonious. But they failed to notice that many of them were missing due to excitement.

This made Jared completely furious. So, he loudly shouted, "Silence."

His thunderous voice sounded in everyone's ear and made them come back to their senses. They looked in that direction and saw an elder approaching them.

"Did we do something?"

"Why does he seem to be so angry?"

"Who knows?"

The disciples whispered among themselves. But they didn't know that Jared had managed to listen to it all.

Thus, he released his aura and scolded them, "Shut up!"

A tremendous pressure befell them, and they found it difficult to stand up. They were about to fall on their knees when suddenly the pressure they fell was automatically diffused.

"Jared, you are being too harsh," A female's voice sounded in the air.

"Liliana…" Jared muttered while gazing at her coldly.

Liliana also gazed back and the atmosphere became tense. She wouldn't intervene if her daughter wasn't here.

"Humph!" Jared withdrew his aura and didn't want to create issues with her. After all, he was here for some other purpose.

Next, he eyed the disciples and finally set his sight towards the creature behind them. Following his sight, the disciples knew whom he was looking to. It was Nora's mount. Now, only did the disciples realize what was wrong.

"So, you are alive." Jared pointed his hand towards it and closed his fingers.

The bird instantly felt its neck being grabbed by a powerful pair of hands. It produced noises and tried to break free, but it was useless.

"Come here."

The bird reached ahead of him in a jiffy. Then he spat a mouthful of blood in the air and made some hand signs. The blood circled in the air and landed on its head forming a strange pattern.

"Let me see what actually happened." Jared put his palm on the pattern and a rectangular screen materialized ahead of him. On the screen, one could see different images and sceneries. Indeed, they were the memories of this bird during its time in the Secret Realm.

"Terrifying." Davion had beads of sweat on his forehead. He couldn't believe this elder had such sickening abilities.

"Damn, he might see me meeting the bird at the end."