A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 5653

Jared and Sylvia stirred awake on the blistering sand. The moment consciousness returned, pain slammed through their skulls as if a blacksmith's hammer had landed squarely between their eyes.

When their vision cleared, an endless desert stretched to every horizon, wind screaming across the dunes and flinging needles of grit that stung their cheeks.

Overhead, the sun blazed like a thousand knives, turning the world into a furnace where even the air shimmered under the merciless heat.

Sylvia pressed a trembling hand to her temple. "Mr. Chance, where in the heavens are we?"

Her voice quavered, equal parts wonder and fear.

Jared shook his head, brow knotted, sifting desperately through ragged memories that refused to come together.

Moments ago—or perhaps lifetimes—they had been inside the main hall of Heaven Gate Sect's ruins, reaching for an ancient tome that pulsed with golden light. That touch had triggered a blinding flash; consciousness snapped off, and when he came to, they were on this alien wasteland.

"I haven't a clue," Jared admitted, sweeping the horizon again. "This isn't level nine, and it's nothing like any realm we've traveled before."

Their gazes met—an unspoken mirror of dread, each seeing in the other the same fragile uncertainty.

Determined to learn more, they agreed to gain perspective from the sky.

But when they summoned their energy, the desert answered with silence. An invisible weight clamped to their limbs, anchoring them to the sand and smothering every attempt at flight.

Even their spiritual senses bled away after only a few kilometers, as though the air itself chewed holes in their power.

"How can our strength be cut down so brutally?" Sylvia cried, worry carving lines across her dusty face.

Jared drew a slow breath, forcing calm. "Panic won't help. If we can't fly, then we walk. We might find other people somewhere out there, and we'll ask them."

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