The mist wasn''t white.
It was an extremely thin pale gold, and it gave off the slightest trace of warmth, standing in sharp contrast to the killing cold all around it.
The moment Jared stepped into the pir maze, he immediately felt the gale wind around him weaken by quite a bit.
That pale golden mist seemed to block out the gale wind.
The farther in he went, the weaker the wind became, until in the end it disappearedpletely.
His steps grew slower and slower.
Heavier and heavier.
His spiritual power was almost gone.
His vision started to blur, and his legs felt like they had been filled with lead.
Just when Jared was about to copse, a clear chime suddenly reached his ears.
The sound came from deep inside the pir maze. It drifted through the ice in long, hollow notes, as clean as spring water in the mountains and as distant as an ancient chant.
Each time the bell rang, the mist around him gave a faint tremor, as if it were answering the sound.
Jared turned and made his way toward the chime.
His steps staggered.
His mind was already starting to blur, but that single stubborn pull kept him moving forward, one step after another.
Atst, he passed through the final row of ice pirs.
What opened up in front of him made his breath lock in his chest.
It was ake.
A huge, perfectly roundke.
Theke''s surfacey still as a mirror, reflecting the pale aurora overhead.
The water wasn''t blue, and it wasn''t ck. It was a depthless dark blue, so deep it looked like the whole night sky had been melted down and poured into it.
At the center of theke, there was the islet.
There was no pce on it, no tower, no structure at all.
There was only a single tree.
The tree was so enormous it pressed down on the eye. Its canopy blotted out the sky, and its trunk was so thick that even dozens of people linking arms wouldn''t have been enough to wrap around it.
Its leaves were gold. Every one of them shone like a tiny sun, giving off a warm light.
And that pale golden mist was rising from those leaves.
Jared stood there staring at the tree.
Something strange rose in him as he looked at it.
It gave him the unmistakable sense that the tree was alive.
Not alive in the ordinary way a nt counted as life, but alive with awareness.
With a soul.
With an ancient wisdom that seemed to stand above all living things.
"You''re here."
A voice suddenly sounded behind him.
It was light and soft, like a spring breeze brushing across theke''s surface, like moonlight spilling over a snowfield.
There was a natural coolness in it, but also a warmth that made a person settle without knowing why.
Jared spun around.
A woman stood three steps behind him, watching him in silence.
She wore a in white dress, the hem trailing across the ice and blending into the snow and frost around her.
Her long hair was ck as ink.
She had pinned it up in a simple style with the white jade hairpin, while a few loose strands hung beside her ears and stirred gently in the cold wind.
As for her face, Jared couldn''t find the right words for it at all.
It wasn''t the kind of beauty that could topple a kingdom.
It wasn''t the kind touched by celestial energy either.
Her features were delicate and cool.
Her brows were like distant mountains, her eyes like cold stars, and her lips pressed together slightly, carrying a faint distance that was there and not there.
But those eyes...
Those eyes were too deep.
So deep that Jared had the uneasy sense he wasn''t looking at a person at all, but
an ocean, a sky full of stars, some ancient world that had existed for who knew how many tens of thousands of years.
Her presence was so calm it almost couldn''t be felt, yet every instinct in Jared screamed a warning at him.
This woman''s strength was impossible to measure.
Greater than Skr''s.
Greater than anyone he had ever met.
"You are..."
Jared opened his mouth, and even he almost didn''t recognize his own voice. It came out scraped raw.
"Aren''t I the one you came looking for?"
The woman spoke lightly. The corner of her mouth lifted just a little, the smile so faint it was almost impossible to catch. "You came all the way north from 100 thousand miles away, crossed the Voidwind of Return to the Void, and stepped into the pir maze. Wasn''t it all to find this ce?"
Jared''s pupils tightened. "You are... the master of the Celestial Pce?"
The woman didn''t answer. She only stood there, looking at him in silence.
That gaze stayed calm, calm enough to feel a little distant.
But under that distance, something else moved.
A thread of curiosity, hidden so well it almost escaped notice.
"The Celestial Pce is here indeed."
She finally spoke, her voice still even. "It''s just that no one has been able to find this ce for many years. Thest person who came here was a wandering cultivator a hundred years ago. He identally stumbled into Return to the void was badly wounded by the Voidwind, and drifted to thekeside barely alive. I saved him, nursed his injuries, and sent him away."
She paused, and her eyes passed over Jared''s body.
"And you... were the first person toe here on purpose."
Jared drew in a deep breath. He forced his body to stay together when it already felt
one step from falling apart, then cupped his fist in salute.
"My name is Jared. I came here without warning because I want to ask the Celestial Pce for help."
"Help?"
She repeated the word, a faint note of amusement in her voice. "You''re very direct. Most people, when they want to ask for help, start with a few polite words first. They try to get closer, then they bring up the real matter. But you? You didn''t even stop for a drink before getting straight to it."
Jared gave a strained smile. "I don''t have much time left. I really don''t have room for
small talk."
He took out the soul crystal from inside his robe and held it on his open palm.
The two white lights inside the soul crystal had already dimmed to the limit, like the
"Inside this soul crystal are two remnant souls. They belong to an old friend of mine and his wife."
Jared''s voice came out rough
heard the Celestial Pce has the secret art, to release the remnant Souls sealed inside a soul crystal and rebuild their bodies. I''ve run out of roads, so I could onlye here and ask to see you."
The woman looked at the soul crystal in his palm and said nothing for a moment.
Then she reached out and took the soul crystal from his hand. Her fingers were long and pale, and a pale golden radiance glowed faintly at her fingertips, sitting against that cold stillness around her in a way that felt strangely at odds.
She lifted the soul crystal in front of her eyes and examined it carefully.
The two white lights inside the soul crystal seemed to sense something. They gave
a small shiver, then started drifting a little faster.
"Two remnant souls. One man, one woman. They really were husband and wife." The woman spoke in that same even tone. "The remnant souls have been preserved fairly well, but they''re far too weak. If you''de three dayster... no, two dayster, these two remnant souls would havepletely dispersed."
Jared''s chest locked tight. "Can they be saved?"
The woman didn''t answer right away.
Her gaze lifted from the soul crystal and settled on Jared''s face.
Something shifted in those deep eyes.
There was scrutiny in them. Calction too. And one more trace of something Jared
couldn''t pin down.
"He can be saved," she said atst. "But what are you going to give me in return?"
Jared froze for a beat.
The woman returned the soul crystal to him, then sped her hands behind her
back and stood by theke, her eyes resting on the enormous ancient golden tree in the middle of the water.
"Nothing in this worldes free. You want me to save them, then I take payment. That''s the rule."
Her tone stayed t, but there was no room to argue with it. "So what are you nning to offer?"
Jared went quiet for a moment, then said, "What do you want?"
The woman turned to look at him. The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. The smile
held a little more truth than before, and somehow that only made her harder to read. "What do you have on you?" the woman asked.