by Mars Gravity
She raised her eyes and saw a empty space around her. Then she extended her right hand and a lump of illusionary blue light condensed in her palm, slightly illuminating an empty area of ten meters around her.
This should be the stomach of that enormous beast, but the incredibly strange thing was that this place did not seem like the interior of a profound beast’s body at all. It was actually more like an icy cave. The floor was incredibly hard and icicles both long and short suspended in the surrounding. The air here was extremely foul, making it hard to breathe. The temperature was lower than what she could have imagined. Even with the seventh stage of the Frozen Cloud Arts, and an intimate connection with the water element, Xia Qingyue was still feeling slightly uncomfortable.
“Yun Che, you’re okay right?”
Xia Qingyue called out gently, but she did not hear a response from Yun Che for a long time. Xia Qingyue moved her hands down to let that weak blue light shine on Yun Che’s body, but she discovered that his eyes were half shut and his complexion was deathly white like paper. A smudge of blood slowly extended from the corner of his mouth… When she touched his body, the only thing she felt was an ice-cold sensation.
Xia Qingyue quickly knelt beside his body. Her palms pressed against his stomach and her voice became more panicky: “Yun Che, are you still okay?”
When she checked the flow of his internal energy, Xia Qingyue’s hands distinctively shuddered. Because at this moment, his internal energy was as weak… as an infant’s.
Yun Che’s eyes slowly opened up a bit. His face exposed an incredibly faint smile: “So… great… we’re both… alive…”
It took him a great amount of effort to say these few short words.
Under the enormous beast’s earth-quaking fist, Yun Che suffered an extremely severe injury, but he didn’t have time to stabilize his energy and had to forcefully maintain “Sealing Cloud Locking Sun.” “Sealing Cloud Locking Sun” wasn’t a normal profound technique, but an explosive technique of the Evil God. Although it was an explosive defensive technique, it wasn’t an ordinary defensive barrier, but a defensive skill that could only be utilized for a short moment to save his life. With each breath that “Sealing Cloud Locking Sun” was active, the consumption of profound strength was equivalent to an activation of “Falling Moon Sinking Star”.
From being shaken into the sky until they were completely sucked into the stomach of the huge beast, a total of thirty breaths had passed by. During this period of time, “Sealing Cloud Locking Sun” had to be continuously maintained; otherwise, he and Xia Qingyue would have met their deaths a long time ago. The thirty breaths of activation had a huge consumption that an ordinary person would have difficulty imagining; furthermore, this consumption was still in a state where Yun Che suffered a severe injury.
Now, he finally calmed his energy, and his internal injuries had also intensified by many times. His profound strength was completely exhausted without even a trace remaining.
His internal injuries were incredibly severe, and he did not have even the slightest bit of profound strength to combat the cold. Every second in this frighteningly low temperature deprived Yun Che of a great deal of life force. He felt like his body was pierced by a myriad of needles, and very quickly, the ice cold sensation he felt disappeared bit by bit until he gradually lost all feeling of his body.
He smelled the taste of death and it was the first time he was this close within reach of it.
Xia Qingyue took her hands away from Yun Che’s body. Her eyes became confused: “Yun Che, you…”
“Qingyue… don’t say anything… listen to me…”
Yun Che’s breathing became incredibly weak. The temperature here caused both his hands, legs, and body to become frozen stiff in this short amount of time. Both his eyes had also lost all color. He was able to speak because he relied on his strong and unwavering consciousness, but he knew that this last bit of consciousness could disappear at any moment…
Death came too fast and sudden.
“Qingyue… good thing… nothing happened to you… I should… die any moment now… After I die… don’t… take care of me… You don’t fear cold… perhaps it’s possible… escape from here… even if this… huge beast… is even more frightening… you have to… use all your strength… to escape…”
“Yun Che! Don’t talk anymore! You can’t die that easily… If you want me to leave, we have to leave together! You won’t die!”
This calamity was too sudden, and it caught her completely unprepared. Yun Che’s internal injuries were incredibly severe. His five visceras and six internal organs were practically all smashed apart. His life force was incredibly weak and it was possible that it could disappear in the next second. She knew how he suffered such a severe injury. She also knew why he was so weak right now… When they were shaken into the sky, his back faced downwards to bear all the force of the impact and left her without the slightest bit of injuries. From the moment they were sucked into that enormous beast’s mouth until they landed here, that incredibly terrifying force was something that even her most powerful ice crystal defense could not withstand, but that barrier that constantly protected them blocked all the impact… That was without a doubt, an extremely tough and resilient barrier. With such an incredibly powerful barrier, one could imagine just how much power it consumed.
Except, Yun Che was already unable to hear her voice. His eyes were still half open, but not a trace of light remained. His four limbs, body, cheek, hair… Was already completely covered by a layer of ice. Underneath that layer of ice was an ice-cold body that was on the verge of completely burning out its entire life force.
“Qingyue…” He softly muttered: “If we meet again in the next life… become my wife again… okay… because… this life… I still have not completely conquered you… I… am not satisfied…”
Xia Qingyue’s body shook and her vision became fuzzy all of a sudden.
Both of Yun Che’s eyes lost their final traces of focus and spirit during this moment. His entire body became still. Only his throat moved ever so slightly to say the words that came from his soul…
“Grandfather… Little aunt…”
“Senior sister Xueruo… Jasmine… I’m…sorry…”
“…”
“Ling’er… I’m coming for you… Ling’er… Ling’er…”
His final mutters were as weak as a breeze, until it completely faded away… Then, a shining drop of blue starlight descended from Xia Qingyue’s face and lightly struck his completely stiff lips.
Chapter 258: Finding the Hope of Life in Despair
Xia Qingyue touched her own cheeks and felt her ice cold tears.
She was stunned in place, because she couldn’t believe that she was shedding tears.
Things such as tears were too unfamiliar to her. After she wept that one time when she was four, she never shed a single tear again. Frozen Cloud Asgard’s Frozen Heart Arts made her calm under any circumstance; no happiness, grief, sorrow, or anger. Under the Frozen Cloud Arts, her heart was always cold and effective. Practically nothing could invoke a tremble in her heart… Apart from when she faced Yun Che.
…And only when she faced Yun Che.
She did not understand the reasoning behind this either.
But at this moment, after touching the tears on her own face, she finally came to a conclusion…
Her jade white hand slowly hung down and lightly touched Yun Che’s face. Her line of sight had already became fuzzy because of her tears. In this fuzziness, what she saw wasn’t a frozen stiff face, but a face that was sometimes unwavering, sometimes apathetic, sometimes overbearing, and sometimes smiling…
In her world, Yun Che was a very special existence. It was not only because they were husband and wife, but also because he was different from all the other men she had met… Those other men were either terrified and couldn’t look her in the face in front of her, or tried too hard to put on a guise of an elegant noble, but were still un
able to hide their lecherous eyes, which disgusted her. Only Yun Che… was able to completely be himself in front of her. Even when he was in his most dire straits, he did not feel the slightest bit inferior to her. He was so incredibly mysterious that it felt like she wanted to completely understand everything about a man for the very first time. Sometimes, he was so calm that it amazed her, sometimes he talked and acted like a child, and sometimes he acted like a scoundrel… But she was able to instill every one of his aspects into her heart, and then accidentally recalled them one time after another…
Only, she was a person who was destined to chase after the peak of the profound road. To achieve this height, she was willing to let go of everything and naturally expel those images which were subconsciously imprinted in her heart…
Except, in this world, not everything was controllable through willpower alone.
After the first tear dropped, her eyes became stream that overcame all its obstacles. Streaks of tears flowed down uncontrollably and quickly moistened her entire face.
“Yun Che… You don’t need to wait for the next life… In fact… on the Sword Discourse Arena, when you defeated me, you had already conquered me…”
“No matter how much I meditate… I couldn’t genuinely completely seal away all of my emotions. My constant indifference was merely my own selfish way of escaping…”
“At that time, for the sake of opening all of my profound entrances, you used more strength than you could bear and almost permanently damaged yourself. If not for you, the Xia Qingyue today would not exist… You have fought with all your might on the Sword Discourse Arena only for the sake to prove that you are qualified to be my husband. You would rather use extra energy and intensify your internal injuries to divert the direction of your attack than harm me… And right now, you protected me for my sake again, with all your strength and life force… You’re obviously very smart, but do you actually believe after doing all this for a girl… that there would still be a girl who wouldn’t be conquered by you…”
Xia Qingyue slowly stood up and placed both her hands on her chest. She shut her eyes and lightly said: “Yun Che, you’re the man who I, Xia Qingyue, had married. How can you just die like this… As a husband, you did many things for me, and I never bore any responsibility as your wife…”
“At least this one time, I want to let you know… I, Xia Qingyue… am willing to be your wife…”
A dim ray of blue light emerged slowly from Xia Qingyue’s body and gradually became more concentrated. Its illumination made this ice-cold area seem extra illusionary. These blue lights lasted a long time until Xia Qingyue drew it out and gathered all of it into both her hands, and condensed it into gaudy, icy bristles of blue light within her jadelike hands.
Xia Qingyue gently stooped down and laid both her hands over his stomach. She had a bewildered expression as she silently watched the blue light flow out like water onto Yun Che’s stomach enter within his body bit by bit… Very quickly, a layer of dim blue colored halo of light appeared over the surface of his body.
When the light dimmed, a weak and gentle light illuminated the incredibly tranquil face of Xia Qingyue. She lightly shut her eyes. At this very moment, she was indescribably beautiful.
………………………………….
Yun Che had already fallen into the abyss of death. Before the moment his consciousness had completely faded, he believed that he would never wake up again.
But under the abyss of death, he suddenly started sensing the existence of his body. The ice cold sensation on the surface of his body became clearer and clearer, and was no longer as unbearably cold as before…
Did I arrive in an icy hell?
…Before he died, he killed many people; after death, he was going to go to hell no matter what…
Yun Che felt a sharp pain slowly being transmitted from his chest that made his consciousness become increasingly awake. Little by little, he opened his eyes and barely caught a glimpse of a few weak rays of blue light.
“You’re finally awake, hmph! You didn’t die even like this, your life is really tenacious.”
The sound of Jasmine’s voice echoed by his ears. Although the her voice was panting with rage, it was still unable to conceal the sound of joy and relief.
“I… didn’t die?” Yun Che made great effort to open his eyes and said with a tone of disbelief. Although his internal organs were still in pain, it wasn’t like the shattering pain from before. The air was ice-cold, but it was no longer a bone-piercing cold. On the contrary, a feeling of warmth spread over the surface of his body. His five senses had been restored to normal and his four limbs had also regained their sensations. His originally completely exhausted body had also regained some strength.
“You should have died, but that girl gave all of her profound strength to you, sealed your internal injuries and isolated you from the cold air, so that you can temporarily regain consciousness. However, this is the inside of a Tyrant Profound Beast’s body, it’s simply impossible for you two to leave. Therefore, you two will still die in the end… The only difference is that the order is inverted. She is going to die before you.”
It was… Qingyue?
Her profound strength… she gave me all of it?
Yun Che’s was astonished. He clenched his teeth and suddenly supported himself up. Under the weak blue light, he saw Xia Qingyue peacefully crouching over his body. Her snow white face was incredibly calm and peaceful without a trace of emotion, but it had a slight trace of an incomprehensible satisfaction.
“Qingyue! Qing….”
Yun Che’s hand touched Xia Qingyue’s hand. Then, he withdrew it like lightning with a look of horror on his face. Because she cultivated in Frozen Cloud Arts, Xia Qingyue’s body was slightly cold already; however, it wasn’t a freezing cold, but a rather refreshing cold. But now, Xia Qingyue’s body was as cold as profound ice.
“She used all her profound strength to moderate your internal injuries, help you withstand the cold, and restore your vitality. She doesn’t have any profound strength left to protect her own body and simply cannot withstand the cold air here. If it wasn’t for her body being accustomed to the frigid cold all year round, then she might have already froze to death before you woke up. However right now, she is at her last breath… This is an ice attributed Tyrant Profound Beast, the cold air within its body is severe. It is simply something you two cannot hope to resist!” Jasmine said coldly with furrowed brows.
“Qing… yue…”Yun Che got up with great difficulty and slowly touched Xia Qingyue’s cheeks with his hands… His movements were very very soft since the Xia Qingyue right now was like an icy beauty that would break on contact. It made one’s heart ache and suffocate.
She, who was obviously cold and detached towards him from the start was willing to quietly protect him before his severe injuries had healed, and when he met great danger, was willing to leave with him… Now, she was willing to risk her own life in order to save him.
He never understood why she was cold and indifferent towards him all the time, but right now, he clearly saw through her true intentions under the surface of that frozen exterior.
“Qingyue! Wake up quickly… Qingyue… Wake up!”
He gently shook Xia Qingyue’s upper body and worriedly shouted for her to get up. He immediately had an idea and took out a large pile of clothes from within the Sky Poison Pearl and laid them over Xia Qingyue’s entire body until all his own clothes had been taken out… And in the end, even took out the Jasmine’s pink bed sheet to wrap them tightly over Xia Qingyue’s body.
Only, the temperature here was too terrifyingly low. The cold air permeated Xia Qingyue’s body like a nightmare and gnawed away more and more of her remaining life force.
“Not good… I must leave. Only death awaits here… Have to leave!!” Yun Che clenched his teeth with all his might and tried to get up. A sharp pain transmitted from his chest. His back and his rigid limbs weren’t completely listening to
all of his orders, and made him fall down ruthlessly again. Before he struggled one more time, he suddenly discovered that in this pitch black darkness, in addition to the blue glow on the surface of his body, there was another strand of green light.
Yun Che rapidly raised his left hand and shockingly saw the Sky Poison Pearl was glowing with an illusory ray of green light.
This was the Sky Poison Pearl’s detection light, and the flickering green light was especially strong, proving that it the thing it discovered was so close to him that it was only a few steps away!
“Don’t tell me there is actually a treasure hidden inside here?” Yun Che said subconsciously.
Jasmine appeared and looked at Xia Qingyue, then looked at the shining Sky Poison Pearl and coldly said: “This ice attribute profound beast is able to open its mouth and swallow half a mountain. Swallowing an extraordinarily precious treasure is not strange at all.”
Yun Che gasped for breath with all his strength and reached out to point forward: “Jasmine, can you go take there and take a look at what the Sky Poison Pearl found… After all, the Sky Poison Pearl is emitting a very strange light time time. Not only is this time’s light intense, the frequency it is flickering at is also very high. Perhaps it’s something that it doesn’t usually find.”
“You’re dying soon, why do you still care about some strange treasure?” Jasmine’s small and exquisite brows locked in place as she said somewhat angrily.
“I don’t care about some strange treasure… Rather, I care about any possible traces of hope!” Yun Che crudely gasped for more air and said: “There is nothing on me that can help Qingyue and I leave this place… Right now, the only thing that can save Qingyue and me is only some sort of teleportation thing… Just in case…just in case what if that precious treasure actually had a space attribute!?”
“Naive! Do you truly believe there are such coincidences in this world?” Jasmine mumbled to herself, but still walked towards the direction that Yun Che pointed in. Her exquisite and delicate red figure quickly entered the darkness… Shortly after, Jasmine suddenly let of a cry of surprise from up ahead.
