Emerald moss piled blue upon blue, white clouds floated like jade; mist and rosy clouds scattered their colors, while sun and moon shimmered with light.
No birds called in the silent valley. Only the stream murmured, dark green vines covered the cliffs, and dense white mist, almost solid, slowly writhed.
A white rainbow streaked across the azure sky, its low whistle drawing nearer and shattering the stillness.
As the glow faded, a boy and a girl appeared, standing hand in hand above the stream valley.
The boy had sword-like brows and phoenix eyes, his expression cool and stern, yet a touch of tenderness softened it whenever he looked at the girl beside him.
The girl smiled sweetly, dressed in dark blue-green, her fair little hand clasped tightly in his, unwilling to let go.
They were Su Qing and Tang Qian'er.
"Is this the Drowning Sound Valley that person mentioned?"
Tang Qian'er held Su Qing's arm and looked down at the quiet stream valley as she spoke.
"It should be."
Su Qing gazed at the valley, clear light flowing through his eyes. The quiet stream valley reflected within them, yet revealed an entirely different scene.
Beneath the flowing water, stark white bones lay heaped together. A bronze door stood among them, covered in gray-black rust, with only a faint trace of dark red visible through the cracks.
This was the objective of their heaven-level mission-the Heaven-Piercing Spirit Treasury.
It was also where Yu Wenmin's bones lay buried.
He had been an unaffiliated cultivator on the Northern Heavens Continent, brutal in his conduct. Having already passed the second stage of the divine soul tribulation, he had stood only a step away from the Supreme Realm.
To pass the final barrier before the Supreme Realm-the third stage of the divine soul tribulation-he had