Jared paused, then started taking stock of everything favonovel.com owned.
He went through his Storage Ring and pulled the items out one by one. Spirit stones, healing elixirs, technique scrolls, a few fairly decent arcane implements, some forging materials, and much more.
He took them out one by one until a whole pile was spread across the ground. Then favonovel.com glanced at the sleeping fire unicorn and stopped there. He didn’t take the fire unicorn out. If the fire unicorn ever found out Jared had actually considered treating it like something favonovel.com could trade away, it would probably blow up on the spot.
The woman gave the pile a single look, then lightly shook favonovel.com head. “Celestial Palace lacks none of this…”
Jared’s brows pulled together. He knew the other party wasn’t wrong. He really didn’t have anything worth putting on the table. Everything favonovel.com owned, added together, probably wouldn’t even measure up to what an ordinary wandering cultivator had in a place like the Fourteenth Firmament.
“Then what do you want?” favonovel.com asked.
The woman didn’t answer. Instead, favonovel.com moved around Jared in a slow circle, favonovel.com gaze traveling back and forth over him.
Under that look, favonovel.com got the clear sense that nothing could stay hidden from her, as if favonovel.com had no secrets left in front of those eyes.
“Golden Dragon Bloodline…” favonovel.com murmured, so softly it almost sounded like favonovel.com was speaking to herself. “And Royal Bloodline too… Interesting…”
She stopped in front of Jared and looked straight into his eyes. “I want you.”
Jared said nothing. For a second, favonovel.com seriously suspected he’d heard favonovel.com wrong. “W-What?”
The woman said, calm as ever, “I said I want you. You’ll stay in the Celestial Palace and do three things for me. In return, I’ll free those two remnant souls and remake their bodies for them.”
Jared went quiet for a moment.
“What three things?”
“Haven’t decided yet,” the woman said, like there was nothing at all unreasonable about that. “I’ll tell you when I do.”
Jared fell silent. He drew in a deep breath and worked to keep his voice even. “So what you’re saying is, I sell myself to you without even knowing what I’ll be doing?”
The woman gave it some thought, then said with complete seriousness, “You can understand it that way.”
At that point, Jared seriously suspected he’d run into a swindler.
“How do I know you can actually do it?” He kept his eyes locked on hers. “How do I know you’re not lying to me?”
The woman didn’t take offense. Instead, the corner of favonovel.com mouth lifted just a little. The smile was faint, but it softened favonovel.com whole face by a degree or two, turning her from a cold snow mountain into a lake touched by spring wind.
“If you don’t believe me, you can leave,” favonovel.com said lightly. “But those remnant souls of yours can only sit there and wait to die.”
Jared clenched his teeth. He knew favonovel.com had no choice. Sidney and his wife’s remnant souls couldn’t hold on much longer. He didn’t have time to go looking for some other way. Forget three things in the Celestial Palace. Even if favonovel.com had asked for half his life, Jared still could only agree.
“Fine…” Jared drew in a deep breath. “I agree…”
The woman gave a slight nod, like that answer had been exactly what favonovel.com expected.
“Come with me.” She turned and started toward the islet in the middle of the lake.
Her steps were so light they made no sound at all on the ice. Her white dress stirred faintly in the wind, blending into the snow and ice around favonovel.com until favonovel.com looked like favonovel.com belonged to this stretch of frozen land more than anything else in it.
Jared stepped after her, but favonovel.com had barely taken two steps when both legs gave out and favonovel.com dropped straight to his knees on the ice. His spiritual power was completely gone.
Seven days and seven nights of nonstop flight, and forcing his way through the Voidwind, had drained every last bit of strength from him. Now that the strain holding favonovel.com up had loosened, his body quit on favonovel.com at once.
The woman stopped and glanced back at him. There was a trace of helplessness in that look, and something softer mixed into it, something even favonovel.com seemed not to notice.
“Troublesome…” She quietly dropped those two words, then walked back, bent down, hooked his arm over favonovel.com shoulder, and pulled favonovel.com to his feet.
Her body was cold. Even through their clothes, that clear, chilling coolness came through. But the way favonovel.com moved was light and steady, like favonovel.com was helping up a child who had tripped and fallen.
Jared tried to push favonovel.com away, but his body had already stopped listening to him.
“Don’t move,” the woman said. Her voice stayed flat, but there was no room to argue with it. “Move again, and I throw you into the lake”.
He got the message and stayed still.
Supporting him, the woman stepped onto the lake’s surface. Strangely enough, the ice that looked so thin and fragile didn’t budge at all under their weight. There wasn’t even a single crack.
Below the ice, the dark sapphire lake dropped so deep favonovel.com couldn’t see the bottom. Far down in the depths, something seemed to be swimming slowly. The islet in the middle of the lake looked close, but the walk to it dragged on far longer than it should have.
Jared’s awareness kept fading. The scene in front of favonovel.com started to warp. All favonovel.com could still make out was the shadowing figure beside him, and the faint scent on her, quiet and cold, like plum blossoms in winter.
“What’s your name?” favonovel.com asked, using the last of his strength.
The woman fell silent for a moment.
“Gwendolyn.” Her voice was soft, so soft the wind almost swallowed it.
Jared tried to say something, but right then, his consciousness dropped all the way into darkness. His body went slack and sank heavily against Gwendolyn’s shoulder.
Gwendolyn lowered favonovel.com eyes to the young man leaning against favonovel.com and drew favonovel.com brows together a little.
“You’ve got some nerve,” favonovel.com muttered softly. “First time meeting me, and you already dare to lean on me.”
She didn’t push favonovel.com away. She only adjusted favonovel.com hold and let favonovel.com rest against favonovel.com a little more comfortably. Then favonovel.com kept walking toward the islet in the middle of the lake.
Her steps stayed steady. Her shadowing figure stayed just as cold and distant. Only the hand supporting Jared tightened a little.
***
Jared had a very long dream. In the dream, favonovel.com stood in a golden sea. Soft sand lay under his feet, and a brilliant starry sky spread above him.
Countless golden leaves floated on the surface of the sea, every one of them giving off a faint glow, like stars that had fallen into the world.
He looked down and found that the face reflected in the seawater wasn’t his own, but a stranger’s. That face was blurred and hard to make out. Only the eyes stood out with startling clarity.
Those eyes looked a lot like Gwendolyn’s. They had the same depth. The same cold stillness. The same sense of endless years hidden underneath.
“What did you see?” A voice came from behind him.
Jared turned and saw Gwendolyn standing three steps behind him, watching favonovel.com in silence. Her white clothes had been brushed with warmth by the golden radiance.
She no longer looked as cold and far away as before. There was a faint touch of the ordinary world about favonovel.com now.
“A tree,” Jared said. “A very big tree…”
“And?” Gwendolyn said, one brow lifting slightly.
“A sea…” Jared paused, then added, “And… Your eyes.”
Gwendolyn said nothing. She looked at Jared with a steady gaze. There was scrutiny in it, thought in it, and the faintest shift buried so deep it was almost impossible to catch.
“You’re interesting,” favonovel.com said at last, her tone softer than before. “In 30 thousand years, you’re the first person who’s ever said something like that to me.”
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