Chapter 258: Touching Death

The roar, carrying an immense, terrifying pressure and penetrative force, echoed through every corner of the Heavenly Pool Secret Realm. The powerful experts from the Ten Top Sects were utterly horrified, retreating rapidly in the opposite direction of the sound. They all realized that someone must have perished again, but no one could have imagined that the victims of this monstrous Profound Beast were the two most formidable young cultivators of the current generation.

Jasmine, who was intently expelling poison, was startled awake by a formidable aura. Her serious and astonished voice resonated in Yun Che's mind: "What's going on? You actually provoked a Tyrant Profound Beast!"

"A Tyrant Profound Beast?" Yun Che was startled. The immense pressure from this colossal beast far surpassed that of the King Profound Flame Dragon he had encountered before. Yet, he never imagined it would be a Tyrant Profound Beast! This was because no creature at the Tyrant Profound level had ever appeared in the Azure Wind Empire; it was a nearly mythical, dream-like existence.

The overwhelming pressure from the Tyrant Profound Beast stiffened Yun Che and Xia Qingyue's bodies, causing their internal organs to spasm and their hearts to almost completely stop. To fight a Tyrant Profound Beast or escape its clutches was undoubtedly a pipe dream. Yun Che gritted his teeth and said, "Jasmine! Is your power truly completely sealed, with no way to use even a bit of it?"

Jasmine remained silent for a long time, her small brows tightly furrowed. She hadn't expected that Yun Che would provoke such a terrifying creature so soon after she sealed her profound energy. But as she had said, she couldn't undo the seal she placed on herself. Yun Che's only hope of escaping this perilous situation was completely cut off.

At this point, Jasmine began to feel some regret.

"This time, you are certain to die," Jasmine said, her voice heavy with every word.

"No!!" Yun Che shook his head violently. "I don't want to die yet... and I can't die!!"

"Qingyue... let's go, quickly!!"

Yun Che gritted his teeth, let out a roar, and with immense difficulty, stood up under the mountain-like oppressive aura. He grabbed Xia Qingyue's hand and fled forward with all his might.

"Roar!!!" Their movements provoked an angry roar from the giant beast. Facing the direction of their escape, the beast raised its right arm and slammed it downwards...

The whistling wind behind him made Yun Che instinctively turn his head. The massive fist wasn't aimed at them but at the ground beneath the beast itself, yet it still made Yun Che's pupils constrict sharply. He hugged Xia Qingyue, leaped high into the air with all his strength, activated "Burning Heart," and as his profound energy surged wildly, a translucent barrier instantly appeared around him, enveloping both him and Xia Qingyue.

"Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing!!"

Boom!! It was as if a heavy hammer from heaven had slammed into the ground. The entire Heavenly Pool vibrated. If it were summer instead of the dead of winter, perhaps half of the Heavenly Pool's water would have been sent soaring into the sky.

A tremendous sense of danger came from below. Yun Che, who had leaped high into the air with Xia Qingyue, took a deep breath, ascended instantly again using "Star God Broken Shadow," then flipped his body, positioning his back downwards to shield Xia Qingyue in front of him.

"Yun Che...!"

Xia Qingyue's cry of alarm came, but it was immediately drowned out by the earth-shattering roar.

This was, after all, an indirect attack from a Tyrant Profound Beast. Even though Yun Che had leaped high into the air, the shockwave reverberating upwards was still more than he could bear. His "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" was instantly shattered. A piece of shattered ice and fine snowflakes struck his back, causing Yun Che's eyes to bulge and his face to turn instantly ashen. A jet of blood sprayed into the air, a small portion staining Xia Qingyue's clothes, turning her pristine white "Cloud Gown" slightly red.

If not for the protection of "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing," this single blow would have been enough to kill Yun Che. He bit his tongue fiercely to prevent himself from losing consciousness, forcefully circulated his profound energy, and activated "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" again. Just then, an extremely terrifying sight appeared in their vision...

They saw an incredibly massive head, dozens of meters away from them, yet it filled their entire field of vision. Above the head were two eyes, scarlet like a blood-filled hell, their gaze focused directly on them. Then, it opened its mouth, wide as an abyss, and an immense suction force emanated from it. The shattered ice and flying snow that had been thrown into the air... and Yun Che and Xia Qingyue, clinging to each other, were all drawn towards that vast maw by an utterly irresistible force.

Instinctive cries escaped Yun Che and Xia Qingyue's lips. Yun Che suddenly understood why the giant beast's previous strike had been aimed at the ground, not at them. It knew that the Bodhi Emperor Heart Lotus had been taken by them and must now be on their persons. If it destroyed them, the Bodhi Emperor Heart Lotus would also be destroyed. By striking the ground and launching them into the air, it intended to suck them into its belly, thereby swallowing the Bodhi Emperor Heart Lotus along with them!

At this thought, a glimmer of hope for survival flashed in Yun Che's eyes. Under the immense suction, he and Xia Qingyue drew closer and closer to that abyss-like mouth. Under this suction, even if he and Xia Qingyue used all their combined strength, there would be no chance of breaking free. Yun Che stared fixedly ahead, pouring all his strength into maintaining "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing," holding Xia Qingyue tightly in his arms, and repeatedly shouting, "Hold on to me... hold on to me... don't let go... hold on to me!!"

Yun Che and Xia Qingyue's vision instantly turned black. The giant beast's massive mouth finally closed at that moment.

The wind still whistled in their ears. The moment they entered the giant beast's mouth, Yun Che felt as if he had entered a dark, bone-chilling inferno... The internal temperature of this giant beast was far, far lower than the snowy, blustery world outside. Carried by the immense impact, his body moved at an extreme speed through constant collisions, seemingly traversing countless valleys and incredibly long tunnels in the darkness. He kept his eyes closed, dedicating all his strength to maintaining "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" throughout the process, as it was their only reliance to avoid being crushed to pieces.

After an unknown period, the impact finally subsided, and they landed on an incredibly hard surface, finally coming to a stop.

The "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" they had maintained silently dissipated at that moment.

After a long silence, Xia Qingyue opened her eyes. She realized where she was but couldn't believe she was still alive... and aside from slight body aches, she was completely unharmed.

She looked up at the surrounding space, then extended her right hand. A dreamlike blue light condensed in her palm, barely illuminating the space within three meters around them.

This was likely the giant beast's abdomen, but surprisingly, it didn't resemble the inside of a profound beast's body at all. Instead, it was like an ice cave. The ground was incredibly hard, and long and short icicles hung from above. The air here was extremely foul and difficult to breathe, and the temperature was astonishingly low. Even Xia Qingyue, who practiced the seventh stage of the Ice Cloud Arts and had a strong affinity for water elements, felt a slight discomfort.

"Yun Che, are you alright?"

Xia Qingyue called out softly, but received no answer from Yun Che for a long time. Xia Qingyue moved her palm downwards, allowing the faint blue light to shine on Yun Che's body. She found his eyes half-closed, his face ashen, and a trickle of blood slowly spreading from the corner of his mouth... When her hand touched his body, she felt only a chilling cold.

Xia Qingyue quickly knelt beside him, placing her palm on his chest, her voice filled with panic: "Yun Che, are you okay?"

When she felt his inner breath flowing, Xia Qingyue's hand visibly trembled. His internal breath at that moment was as weak... as an infant's.

Yun Che's eyes slowly opened a little. A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared on his face: "So... good... we're both... not dead..."

He spoke those few words with immense difficulty.

Yun Che had been severely injured by the giant beast's earth-shattering punch, but he had no time to recover, forcing himself to maintain "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing." "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" was no ordinary profound skill; it was a berserk ability of the Evil God! While it was a berserk ability in terms of defensive power, it was by no means an ordinary defensive barrier. It was a life-saving skill meant to be activated in an instant. Every breath that "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" was maintained consumed profound energy equivalent to activating "Meteorite Descent."

From being thrown into the air to being completely sucked into the giant beast's belly, nearly thirty breaths of time passed, and during this entire period, "Cloud-Locking Sun-Sealing" had been continuously active. Otherwise, he and Xia Qingyue would have already died. This thirty-breath duration represented an enormous consumption, unimaginable for an ordinary person, especially as Yun Che was already severely injured.

Now that things had finally settled, his internal injuries had worsened several times over, and his profound energy was completely depleted, with not a trace remaining.

With severe internal injuries and no profound energy to resist the cold, the terrifyingly low temperature here was rapidly depleting Yun Che's life force every second. He felt his body grow so cold it was as if thousands of needles were piercing him, but soon, this sensation of coldness gradually vanished, causing him to slowly lose all feeling in his body.

He smelled death, and for the first time, he was this close to it, within arm's reach.

Xia Qingyue took her hand off Yun Che, her eyes becoming clouded with confusion: "Yun Che, you..."

"Qingyue... don't speak... listen to me..."

Yun Che's breathing had become extremely faint. The temperature here had caused his hands, feet, and torso to freeze stiff in this short time. His eyes were devoid of color, and he could still speak only by clinging to his powerful willpower, but he knew that this last bit of consciousness could dissipate at any moment...

Death came too suddenly and abruptly.

"Qingyue... it's good... that you're alright... I should... die very soon... After I die... don't... worry about me... You're not afraid of the cold... you might be able... to escape from here... Even if this... giant beast... is terrifying... you must... use all your strength... to escape..."

"Yun Che! Don't say any more! You won't die so easily... If we leave, we leave together! You won't die!"

This disaster came so suddenly that she was completely caught off guard. Yun Che's internal injuries were extremely severe; his internal organs were almost shattered, and his life force was so faint it might vanish at any second. She knew why he was so severely injured and why he was so weak now... When they were thrown into the air, he took all the impact on his back, leaving her completely unharmed. During the process of being sucked into the beast's mouth and falling to this spot, the impact force was terrifying, something even her strongest ice crystal defense couldn't withstand. Yet, the barrier that continuously protected them blocked all the impacts... That was undoubtedly a defense barrier of extreme toughness, and such an astonishing defense would obviously come with immense consumption.

But Yun Che could no longer hear her voice. His eyes were still half-open, but no trace of light could be seen. His limbs, torso, cheeks, hair... were all covered in a thin layer of ice. Beneath the ice, his body, now completely cold, was on the verge of its life force burning out.

"Qingyue..." he whispered softly, "If there's a next life... be my wife again... alright... Because... in this life... I haven't completely conquered you yet... I'm... unwilling..."

Xia Qingyue's body trembled, and her vision suddenly blurred.

At that moment, Yun Che's eyes lost their final focus and luster. His entire body became still, only a faint sound from his soul escaped his throat...

"Grandpa... Little Aunt..."

"Senior Sister Xue Ruo... Jasmine... I'm... sor... ry..."

"Ling'er... I'm coming to join you... Ling'er... Ling'er........"

His last words were as faint as a breeze, finally fading completely... A star-like glow, illuminated blue, slowly fell from Xia Qingyue's face, gently touching his completely frozen lips.