The array shifted once again.

The stars in the sky transformed into a rain of swords, hurtling down toward them.

Seeing this, Jocelyn Grant’s expression grew grave. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"Sean, what do we do?" she cried. "The array’s attacks are getting stronger and stronger!"

As she spoke, she stepped in front of the severely injured Sean Lockwood.

Sean Lockwood had always treated her with sincerity, and Jocelyn Grant truly didn’t want anything to happen to him. So when she saw him grievously wounded and coughing up blood, her heart ached.

"Sean, how are you? Can you hold on?"

The moment Jocelyn Grant spoke, she began to sob even harder.

She didn’t want Sean Lockwood to misunderstand her because of this.

’I really didn’t mean to do it.’

’It must be from losing to Celeste Grant so many times. It’s become a conditioned reflex. Yes, that must be it.’

Thinking this, Jocelyn Grant hurriedly explained, "Sean, I’m so sorry... I didn’t do it on purpose... I don’t know what happened. I must have just been scared."

"You won’t blame me, will you? I’m sorry..." she sobbed.

Sean Lockwood glanced at her, then grabbed her shoulder and pulled her aside.

"It’s fine," he said. "I don’t blame you. I know you didn’t do it on purpose."

Of course, he was angry.

Seeing Jocelyn Grant now shielding him, he considered that maybe she really hadn’t meant it, that it was just a moment of panic. But his trust in her had still been chipped away.

Jocelyn Grant was his Taoist Companion, yet when danger loomed, she had pushed him forward to block the swords. Even if she didn’t mean to, his heart had grown cold in that moment.

’After I’ve treated her so well... to be honest, I want to slap her across the face.’

’Whatever. Forget it!’

It didn’t matter how much of Jocelyn Grant’s affection for him was genuine.

Sean Lockwood currently needed her Primal Moon Constitution to aid his own cultivation, so he could afford to be magnanimous, overlook her transgression, and continue to protect her.

With that in mind, he spun his spear.

Gathering his cultivation, he thrust the spear straight toward the sky. A barrier materialized at its tip, enveloping them both.

The rain of swords descended, crashing against the barrier above the spear.

Under such a ferocious assault, the grievously wounded Sean Lockwood felt his blood surge, and he coughed up yet another mouthful.

"This Six Nine Star Killing Array is incredibly powerful," he managed to say. "All we can do now is stall for time and wait for the Sect to find us and break the array from the outside. That’s our only way out."

PFFT—

Seeing him spit out more blood, Jocelyn Grant’s heart shattered.

"Sean, how are you? Are you okay? This is all my fault. I’m the one who did this to you."

"Don’t talk."

’I don’t want to talk,’ he thought. ’Every time I open my mouth, I spit blood. Is this woman trying to talk me to death?’

Seeing that they were out of options, Jocelyn Grant finally produced a Space Transmission Treasure.

She looked at Sean Lockwood with a desperate expression and said, "Sean, I have a Space Transmission Treasure. It might be able to get us out of here. The problem is, I don’t know where it will take us. I have no control over the destination—it could teleport us to a land of great peril. But the situation is critical, so we can’t afford to worry about that. Let’s just get out of here first."

Hearing her words, Sean Lockwood felt so frustrated he could have coughed up a lung. The feeling was suffocating.

’Is this woman actually trying to kill me?’ he wondered. ’Why didn’t she take out a treasure like this earlier?’

’Of course.’

He remembered the first time he’d met Jocelyn Grant. She had appeared before him via spatial teleportation. He should have realized back then that she possessed a Space Treasure.

Sean Lockwood couldn’t hold out any longer.

"Let’s go. Now."

The moment the words left his mouth, he couldn’t stop coughing up blood.

Jocelyn Grant nodded.

"Okay... let’s go now. Sean, I won’t let anything happen to you."

Sean Lockwood was speechless.

He didn’t know how to respond to that. His feelings for Jocelyn Grant were now a tangled mess.

If she hadn’t pushed him in front of those swords, there was no way he would have been so severely injured with his level of cultivation.

Jocelyn Grant stared at the Space Treasure in her hand.

’In a situation like this, leaving is the only option,’ she thought. ’No matter where we end up, it’s better than dying here.’

Jocelyn Grant poured her Spiritual Power into the Jade Token to activate the teleportation. At that very moment, a ring of array runes materialized on the ground beneath them.

A vortex swirled at their feet, and an instant later, they vanished without a trace...

「Meanwhile, outside the array.」

The entire Maplewood on the back slope of Redleaf Peak was ablaze, the fire spreading rapidly as flames leaped high into the air. Sean Lockwood’s own courtyard was now a sea of fire, almost completely incinerated.

"Little Martial Uncle’s residence is on fire!"

"Hurry, someone! The Maplewood is burning!"

"The Redleaf Maples are on fire! Quick, put it out!"

"What? Little Martial Uncle’s butt is on fire?! Let’s go, let’s go take a look!"

The disciples of Redleaf Peak were the first to discover the fire at Sean Lockwood’s residence.

Hearing the commotion, disciples from all the other peaks immediately flew over to help fight the blaze.

Disciples from the Primal Heaven Sect proficient in Water Element Techniques hovered in the air, forming hand seals to cast their Magic and extinguish the flames. But they quickly discovered there was something strange about this fire. A normal Rainfall Skill did nothing to it; the blaze just kept spreading, growing more and more intense.

One of the disciples shouted, "Quick... go get an elder!"

The words had barely left his lips when an elder’s voice echoed through the air.

"What is going on? Why would Redleaf Peak suddenly catch fire like this?"

An elder from the Primal Heaven Sect arrived on his sword, followed closely by the Peak Master of Redleaf Peak himself.

Just before this, the Peak Master had been visiting Autumn Moon Peak, enjoying a quiet drink with his junior martial sister. He had finally summoned the courage to take her hand when a disciple burst in to report that the Redleaf Maples were on fire.

He had spat the mouthful of wine he was drinking directly onto his junior sister’s face. He was the only one who saw the utterly horrified look she gave him. ’She’s never going to speak to me again,’ he thought, which filled him with a burning rage.

His gaze swept over the crowd, but he couldn’t find Sean Lockwood anywhere. He turned to a disciple from his peak and demanded, "Where is Sean Lockwood?"

The disciples all shook their heads.

One of them spoke up.

"We don’t know."

"Peak Master, we don’t know where Little Martial Uncle is. He wasn’t here when we arrived."

"I didn’t see him either."

The Peak Master’s face darkened.

This was the residence of his disciple, Sean Lockwood.

And now, with this huge disaster unfolding, that very disciple was nowhere to be seen.

Just the other day, the other peaks had been laughing at him because of his disciple. Now, his Redleaf Peak was in trouble again, and once again, it involved his disciple. The thought was like a knife to the heart.

’Is this disciple of mine here to collect a karmic debt or something?’ he wondered grimly.

Staring at the inferno, the Peak Master felt his vision swim with rage, nearly choking on it.

He was certain someone was targeting his Redleaf Peak on purpose. How else could he explain why the other peaks were fine, while his suffered one incident after another?

"This is outrageous! Who dares to provoke the Primal Heaven Sect like this?!"

The elder hovered in the air, frowning as he sniffed the wind.

"The smell of Fire Flame Grass?" he said. "Mixed with the blood of a Jadefire Serpent. When combined, these two ingredients are extremely flammable. A low-level Rainfall Skill will be useless against this. We can only wait for it to burn out. Who could possibly bear such a deep-seated grudge against our Primal Heaven Sect?"