Following behind him, Evelyn grew more and more shaken. After a while, even the whole climb started feeling unreal.She realized Jared's understanding of wards had reached a point that simply shouldn't have been possible.No matter how airtight those wards looked, there was always a tiny flaw in front of him.And every single time, he caught that flaw and passed through with ease, as if the lightning beams that could kill even High Immortal Realm experts were nothing more than a breeze brushing his face.Even when he occasionally brushed the edge of a formation, all he did was flick a finger lightly. The violent lightning beam that should have erupted at once bent away like a tamed snake, circling around them before smashing into an open patch in the distance and throwing up a cloud of dust."Young Lord, h-how are you this familiar with the Celestial Basilica's wards?"She finally couldn't hold it back anymore. Her voice shook as the words came out. "The Godslayer Grand Array took the Celestial Basilica a hundred years to complete. Three Grand Elders at the True Immortal Realm joined hands to set it up.Even disciples inside the Celestial Basilica couldn't get through this easily without specially made passage tokens. Even if an Elder came in person, they'd still have to move carefully."Jared didn't look back. His steps stayed light, as if what lay beneath his feet wasn't a bottomless cliff at all, but a flat open road."I'm not familiar with them. These wards are just too crude." Jared's tone carried plain disdain.The corner of Evelyn's mouth twitched, and she nearly choked on her own saliva. Too crude?This was the Mountain-Guarding Grand Array the entire Luminous Sanctuary took pride in.Across the whole Fourteenth Firmament, no one knew how many forces had tried to imitate it and failed.Countless powerful cultivators had tried to sneak in, only to return defeated-or die inside it so completely not even their bones were left behind.And in Jared's mouth, all of that became "too crude"?All at once, Evelyn realized she still knew far too little about Jared.This man looked young, but just how many secrets was he hiding? Who exactly was he?Why did even the Celestial Basilica's highest secrets look like a joke in his eyes?Could he have once been some reclusive formation Grandmaster who never showed himself to the world?"Young Lord,"Evelyn drew in a deep breath and tried to steady herself, but the questions pressing inside her only grew heavier. "If you can break these wards this easily, then why did you go up and ask questions earlier? Wouldn't it have been better to come up like this from the start? Why bother doing something extra and putting them on guard?" Jared's steps paused for half a beat, and he turned his head to glance at her.Something deep flickered through those dark eyes, like layer after layer of calculation hidden underneath."That was to test them. I wanted to see whether the Celestial Basilica was really as good as the outside world says."noveldramaHe paused, then went on. "If I really could have swaggered straight through the front entrance, that would've meant there was a serious problem inside the Celestial Basilica—or that they were deliberately baiting people in, waiting with their mouths open for prey to walk in on its own.But from what I can see now, their vigilance is high. Their frontal defenses are tight. What they neglected was this side path, and that exposed the arrogance underneath. They think no one in the world can break this formation, so they left behind this one blind spot."When Evelyn heard that, a chill ran straight through her.So that had only been a test.Young Lord's scheming really ran deeper than anyone could measure."Arrogance?"Evelyn repeated the word, still not fully understanding, her eyes carrying a trace of confusion."Yeah.
Arrogance."Jared let out a cold laugh, and his voice carried sharp and clear through the mountain wind. "They think their formation has no equal in the world, but they have no idea the Heavenly Law runs in cycles When something reaches its limit, it turns into its opposite. "The more they chase perfection, the easier it is to leave flaws buried in the details Only someone who truly understands the nascence of formations can spot that kind of flaw. In their eyes, everyone else in the world is a fool, and only they stand above all others. That's the road to their own destruction." By the time he finished speaking, the two of them had already reached the edge of the mountaintop.Jared stopped and slipped behind a massive blue-gray boulder. Through a narrow crack in the rock, he looked out toward the palace complex on the summit.What spread out before them made even Evelyn draw in a sharp breath.The buildings of the Celestial Basilica looked even grander than they had from the foot of the mountain, every part of them flaunting luxury and power.At the center stood an enormous Celestial Palace, built entirely from an unknown kind of white jade.Under the sunlight, that jade gave off a soft milky glow, as if it carried something sacred of its own and made people hesitate to look straight at it.The roof of the hall was set with countless luminous pearls, and they weren't ordinary gems at all. They were specially refined spirit-gathering pearls.They had been arranged in the shape of a star chart, and under the sun they scattered dazzling light. The whole Celestial Palace was lifted into something that looked like the celestial palace itself, wrapped in streams of auspicious radiance. Around the main hall, dozens of side halls of different sizes spread outward.Every one of them had carved beams and painted rafters, and every one carried an imposing air.On the flying eaves and bracket sets,all kinds of divine beasts had been carved in intricate detail. There were phoenixes with their wings spread as if they were about to take flight, unicoms standing instern majesty and Flood Dragons baring fangs and claws. The carvings looked so lifelike it seemed they might come alive at any moment and stand guard over that holy place.And on the square in front of the Celestial Palace, more than a hundred cultivatorshad gathered.They were dressed in all kinds of ways. Some wore rich brocade robes and fine clothes, obviously people from major families, carrying themselves with naturalbearing.Others were in ragged clothes, with sallow faces, looking like down-and-out wandering cultivators. Weariness sat plain in their eyes.But they all had one thing in common. Their eyes were packed with hunger and strain, like they were standing in line for judgment from fate itself.They formed a long line and went one after another to a massive black stele in the middle of the square.The black stele stood 3 yards tall, pitch-black from top to bottom, its surface coveredin dense, intricate runes. A faint pulse rolled off it, enough to make a person's chesttighten.Whenever someone stepped up to the black stele, two Basilica disciples in white robes stood off to the side and watched over the process. Their faces stayed cold, like high gods looking down at insects below.The test itself was simple. All they had to do was press a hand against the blackstele.Then the runes on the black stele would light up and give off different colors.Some turned green, marking a low-grade bloodline. Some turned purple, marking a mid-grade bloodline. Some turned gold, marking a high-grade bloodline.The color of that light decided what would happen to them next.