The King Of Warriors novel (Jared Chance) novel Chapter 6259

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 pillar 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 disappeared completely.

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 collapse, a clear chime suddenly reached his ears.

The sound came from deep inside the pillar 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.

At last, he passed through the final row of ice pillars.

What opened up in front of him made his breath lock in his chest.

It was a lake.

A huge, perfectly round lake.

The lake's surface lay still as a mirror, reflecting the pale aurora overhead.

The water wasn't blue, and it wasn't black. 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 the lake, there was the islet.

There was no palace 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 plant 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 the lake'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 plain white dress, the hem trailing across the ice and blending into the snow and frost around her.

Her long hair was black 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.

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 last bit of candle flame in the wind, ready to go out at any second.

"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. "I heard the Celestial Palace 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 only come 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'd come three days later... no, two days later, these two remnant souls would have completely 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. Calculation too. And one more trace of something Jared couldn't pin down.

"He can be saved," she said at last. "But what are you going to give me in return?"

Jared froze for a beat.

The woman returned the soul crystal to him, then clasped her hands behind her back and stood by the lake, her eyes resting on the enormous ancient golden tree in the middle of the water.

"Nothing in this world comes free. You want me to save them, then I take payment. That's the rule."

Her tone stayed flat, but there was no room to argue with it. "So what are you planning 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.