A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 5635

"No rush," Sylvia replied. "Crowds are thick right now. We should wait. If you've other affairs, see to them first."

Jared gave a crisp nod. "Very well. Stay here and wait for me. I'll scout a bit farther."

"Be careful, Mr. Chance." She spoke the words like a gentle tether.

He inclined his head once more and vanished into the night-cooled air.

This time, he followed the route the middle-aged cultivator had described, cutting through bramble, mist, and moonlit granite. Half an hour later, he stepped into a secluded gorge, its silence so deep it felt as though the valley itself had forgotten the world.

The farther Jared ventured, the more the crowd thinned. At last, only a few veteran cultivators remained—grim silhouettes whose very breath hummed with restrained power, sweeping the broken landscape as though prying secrets from dust.

Among them stood a white-haired elder. Every measured shift of his robe suggested the authority of a senior master from some storied sect, the sort of man to whom halls of disciples bowed without being told.

Jared closed the distance in three long strides. "Honored elder, might I trouble you for a word?" he asked, polite but unflinching.

The elder turned, eyes sharp as awls. "Speak. What is it you want?"

Still speaking gently, Jared produced a palm-sized item pouch. When its seal flickered open, the soft glow of a hundred high-grade celestial gems spilled through his fingers like starlight. "I seek information, Sir, and would rather compensate you than waste your time."

A brief spark of surprise danced behind the elder's calm mask, but he allowed no other emotion to surface. "Very well," he said, voice suddenly smoother. "What do you wish to know?"

"Have you seen, within this region, the Celestial King from the level eight Celestial Palace?" Jared asked without preamble.

The question seemed to stun the elder. He shook his head slowly. "I... do not know what you are talking about."

Yet while the denial hung in the air, the elder's gaze drifted back to the pouch as though iron filings to a magnet.

Understanding the silent price, Jared produced another identical pouch—another hundred stones. "If your answer proves useful, these are yours as well."

Greed gleamed, then vanished behind the elder's measured smile. "All right," he said. "What I witnessed was this—the so-called Celestial King had been subdued by two of his own hall lords."

"Subdued? Are you sure?" Jared's pulse hitched. They've already bound him?

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