Chapter 482: The Soul of the Ruined End

"Who are you? Where exactly are you?" Yun Che stopped, turned, and shouted at his surroundings. The voice he had just heard was so close it felt as if it had been spoken right next to his ear.

Half an hour before the Primordial Profound Ark's aura would manifest, the space around it would experience increasingly intense tremors. Currently, the space within the Ark was silent, so Yun Che felt no need to rush his departure. For the past six months, he had been trying to understand the origin of the voice that constantly spoke, clearly addressing only him.

As usual, after he shouted, he received no response for a long time.

Yun Che began to scan his surroundings. He had heard the voice very clearly just now, and its source seemed to be very close. Real sounds diminish with distance, and soul transmissions are no different. He was almost certain the voice's origin was less than ten steps away.

Yun Che slowly walked to the center of the high platform, meticulously scanning every corner. Suddenly, a faint red glow caught his eye, and his gaze fixed on the end of the platform, near the wall. Yun Che had discovered this red light on his very first day inside the Primordial Profound Ark and had even found its source. However, at that time, he lacked the power to break open the floor tiles. So, despite his curiosity and surprise at the red light, and a faint feeling that a hidden space lay beneath, he had been unable to investigate further.

Yun Che walked over and stood at the exact spot where he had first found it. Bending down, he saw faint red light flickering and emanating from tiny cracks in the floor beneath his feet, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

Yun Che pondered for a moment, then gathered profound energy in his hand and punched the stone slab beneath his feet.

Bang!! Yun Che's fist rebounded. The sensation and sound suggested the slab wasn't very thick—at least much thinner than the stone door he had spent six months breaking open. He no longer hesitated. Sitting down, he focused his mind, with Ice Profound Arts in his left hand and Phoenix Flame in his right. For six months, he had spent over eighty percent of his time repeatedly practicing the fusion process, so guiding and controlling his power throughout the process had become second nature.

Soon, the Ice Profound Arts and Phoenix Flame merged in Yun Che's hands, forming a subtly flickering ice-blue flame. With a turn of Yun Che's palm, the ice flame drifted lightly onto the stone slab below.

To Yun Che's surprise, the stone slab beneath his feet was far thinner than he had anticipated, almost as thin as a sheet of paper. After the ice flame landed, this layer of stone vanished rapidly within the flame, like a sheet of ice quickly melting. The ice flame spread outwards until it had completely destroyed the slab, forming a perfectly circular opening almost a foot wide, before finally extinguishing itself.

Peering through the opening created by the ice flame, Yun Che saw that a hidden space indeed lay beneath, shimmering and pulsating with red light.

What exactly was down there? Could that voice have come from this space below?

The one-foot-wide opening was just wide enough for Yun Che to jump through.

After hesitating for a while, Yun Che finally stepped forward and jumped through the opening.

The space hidden beneath the high platform was not very deep. Yun Che descended less than two zhang before his feet touched cold, hard, flat ground. No dangerous aura emanated from the surroundings, but Yun Che's nerves remained on edge. He raised his eyes and looked straight ahead.

This space was not large, spanning only about ten zhang in length and width. It was empty and spotless, except for a spherical red light cluster standing in the very center of the floor.

The light cluster was roughly Yun Che's height and perfectly spherical. The red light it emitted fluctuated in intensity but was generally soft and carried no aggressive aura.

What was this...? Yun Che walked over and stood before the light cluster. Although the red light wasn't intense, it was very dense, preventing Yun Che from seeing even an inch into its interior. Yet, his intuition told him that something was encased within this red light cluster.

What exactly was this? The Primordial Profound Ark must have existed for an extremely long time—to quote Jasmine, "longer than you can imagine." For this light cluster to still be emitting red light after such an immense period indicated how extraordinary it was.

Yun Che extended his arm, tentatively reaching towards the light cluster.

"Don't touch it!" Jasmine's voice echoed in his mind, causing Yun Che to halt his movement instantly. He snatched back his arm and recoiled as if electrocuted.

"Hmph, you dare reach out to touch something without understanding what it is? Do you want to die?" Jasmine said coldly.

"What exactly is this light cluster?" Yun Che asked. A light cluster that had persisted for countless years must contain a power so immense it was beyond his comprehension. His attempt to touch it had indeed been reckless.

"This isn't just a light cluster; it's an extremely powerful protective barrier," Jasmine stated gravely. "It appears harmless, but if you dare to touch it recklessly, it will immediately retaliate. Even its weakest counterattack would be enough to kill you tens of thousands of times over!"

For Jasmine to describe it as "extremely powerful," it was clear how terrifying this red light cluster must be. Jasmine's statement that "even its weakest counterattack would be enough to kill you tens of thousands of times over" was certainly not an exaggeration. Yun Che's heart skipped a beat, and he took another step back.

"You... finally... came..." A voice, ethereal as smoke, slowly resonated through the underground space. This time, it wasn't a soul transmission, but a clear, distinctly real female voice. Not only Yun Che, but even Jasmine heard it perfectly.

This voice was much closer than before, seemingly coming from right in front of him. Yun Che quickly turned his head, looking around, and cautiously asked, "Who exactly are you?"

As soon as Yun Che's voice faded, a faint white shadow slowly appeared beside the red light. It was the figure of a woman, clad in white, slightly short in stature, with half-white hair and a slightly hunched body, indicating she was an elderly person who had long since entered her twilight years.

"You... who are you?" Yun Che was startled for a moment and instinctively spoke. The old woman's figure before him was very blurry, like a wisp of white smoke, as if a gentle breeze could scatter it.

On his first day in the Primordial Profound Ark, Jasmine had told him that the one who summoned him was very likely a soul entity—a soul entity just like her. However, Jasmine's soul entity, when viewed with the naked eye, was indistinguishable from a real girl. Moreover, because of her attachment to his life, he could even touch her presence, just like touching a normal body. But the soul entity before him was indistinct and faint, like a flickering candle in the wind.

"I am a guardian... guarding my young mistress..." The old woman's voice was faint and aged. She could only transmit her soul voice once in a long while, but face-to-face transmission seemed to pose no obstacle for her. "I have been searching for you... searching for you... for a very long time... a very long time..."

"You... were searching... for me?" Yun Che pointed to himself, then glanced at his left hand and asked, "Are you searching for... the Sky Poison Pearl?"

"That's right... I piloted the Profound Ark... traversing space after space... solely to find the Sky Poison Pearl..."

"Wait!" Yun Che's face showed surprise. "The Profound Ark you mentioned, is it this enormous Ark I'm currently in? It was piloted by you?"

"In the beginning... it was indeed piloted by me... but... I was also afflicted by demonic poison at the time... destroying my life and soul with every breath... To preserve the consciousness of guarding my young mistress... I abandoned my body and eighty percent of my soul... leaving only a wisp of residual soul... and I was no longer able to pilot the Profound Ark... The Profound Ark then followed the memory imprint I originally left... constantly traversing fixed spaces... in a cycle... a three-hundred-year cycle... The Ark's power... has also been continuously depleting... and now... its power... is nearing exhaustion..."

"Fortunately, heaven took pity on me... at the end of my residual soul... and the end of the Profound Ark's demise... I finally waited for you..."

Yun Che's mouth was slightly agape as he rapidly processed the old woman's words, which were spoken slowly yet were startling in their implications. This incredibly vast Profound Ark was controlled by someone... And this old woman before him once possessed the ability to pilot such an astonishing Ark! And the Ark's fixed three-hundred-year appearance on the Profound Sky Continent, and its consistent three-hundred-year journey through fixed spaces... was all due to this old woman?

"'The end of my residual soul' is indeed accurate," Jasmine said with a hint of pity in her voice. "This residual soul will soon dissipate... it won't last more than a hundred breaths! To find the person you've been searching for in the last hundred breaths before your residual soul vanishes... perhaps there's no need for pity after all."

Within a hundred breaths? Yun Che's heart clenched. He looked at the old woman's misty figure and asked, "Who exactly are you? Why were you searching for the Sky Poison Pearl...? What can I do for you?"

The old woman detected no ill will from Yun Che, which brought her the most relief. She slowly said, "I am merely a guardian... My young mistress... my race... has long been forgotten by the world... there's no need to mention it again... My young mistress... she was afflicted by a terrifying demonic poison... In the primordial chaos... only the Sky Poison Pearl could cure it... To prevent the demonic poison from spreading... my young mistress was sealed within the 'Axis of Eternity'..."

"Axis of Eternity?"

The old woman's voice became increasingly ethereal: "Chaos erupted... gods and devils battled... the firmament overturned... deities wept and the heavens cried... I fled with my young mistress, piloting the Profound Ark... The 'Axis of Eternity' sealed my young mistress's body and soul... and also made her aura vanish within the chaos... thus allowing her to escape that cataclysmic disaster... As long as the demonic poison on her can be purified with the Sky Poison Pearl... she can awaken again... and my lifetime of sorrow can finally find a good outcome..."

Demonic poison... demonic poison!? These two words from the old woman caused Jasmine's aura within the Sky Poison Pearl to slightly waver. This was because she, too, was afflicted by a type of demonic poison. Moreover, it was the most terrifying kind of all demonic poisons—the God Extinguishing Immeasurable Soul Poison! And similarly, only the Sky Poison Pearl could purify and eliminate it.

The old woman's voice grew fainter, and her words began to sound somewhat muddled. She seemed reluctant to reveal her own and her "young mistress's" identities and origins, yet she involuntarily recounted past scenes and fragments. Her figure, already thin as a wisp of mist, became even more translucent at this moment.

She was a guardian, and for the sake of a longer guardianship, she had not hesitated to abandon her body and eighty percent of her soul, continuing to guard until the very last moment before her residual soul completely dissipated. Yun Che couldn't help but be moved. He glanced at the red light cluster and said, "Is your 'young mistress' protected within this light cluster? The Sky Poison Pearl is indeed with me. If it can truly save your 'young mistress' without causing me any personal harm, I will try my best."