Yun Che put away the three Filthy Snow Pellets and glanced at Li Shan.

  “Senior Brother Li, I won’t disturb your business any longer. I’ll take my leave.”

  Li Shan immediately plastered on a smile.

  “Take care, Junior Brother. Remember—these Filthy Snow Pellets must be used carefully. As I said before, the throwing technique determines success. If one fails to detonate, don’t blame me for not warning you.”

  With that, he turned around and resumed shouting:

  “Senior brothers and sisters! I still have a true treasure here—‘Frost Moon Twin-Heart Jade’! This jade is a token of the Iceheart Pavilion of the Northern Domain! Whoever holds it may enter the pavilion and seek a cultivation partner of pure Iceheart constitution for dual cultivation! I risked my life nine times out of ten to obtain this treasure—today I sell it with great pain! Fellow disciples of the Xuanfrost Sect, do not miss this heaven-sent opportunity!”

  Yun Che shook his head with a light chuckle and turned toward the menial quarters.

  Before long, he returned to his crude hut. A sweep of his spiritual sense confirmed that Zhang Mingyuan was not on the peak.

  He sat cross-legged, took out the three Filthy Snow Pellets, and examined them carefully in his palm.

  After a long while, a look of realization appeared in Yun Che’s eyes.

  Under the perception of his spiritual sense—now fused with traces of void light—the gray-blue pellets were nearly transparent. Deep within each pellet was sealed a strand of cold, sinister intent, and at the core lay a faint imprint of Li Shan’s divine sense.

  It was precisely this imprint that allowed Li Shan to trigger the explosion from afar.

  “So divine sense can be used like this…” Yun Che murmured thoughtfully.

  He extended his own divine sense, enveloping the imprint within the pellet—not erasing it, but weaving around it like a spider’s web. If he wished, he could dissolve it at any moment.

  The application of divine sense within the Filthy Snow Pellets gave Yun Che significant inspiration. After a moment of contemplation, he took out the gray-white stone bead from his robe.

  “If divine sense can be applied this way… could it also be imprinted onto the stone bead?”

  His eyes flickered as his spiritual sense slowly reached toward the bead’s surface.

  One incense stick’s time passed.

  The stone bead showed no response.

  Yun Che frowned slightly, put away the pellets, and rose to his feet. Moving swiftly along secluded paths, he arrived at a naturally formed ice cavern hidden behind a frozen waterfall on the back mountain—a place he had discovered years ago and kept secret.

  After confirming it was safe, Yun Che sat down cross-legged, gripped the stone bead, and let his consciousness sink inward.

  Milky-white void.

  Silent and boundless.

  Without wasting time, Yun Che spread out his divine sense, meticulously scanning every inch of the void, every particle of light.

  Half an incense stick.

  One incense stick.

  Two incense sticks…

  Everything remained unchanged.

  Yun Che rubbed his chin and muttered,

  “Could it be… that it truly cannot bear a divine sense imprint?”

  Before the words fully left his mouth, a sudden change occurred—

  The elongated light speck closest to him abruptly flared, then rapidly dimmed, like a candle burning out.

  Immediately after, a chain reaction followed.

  Second. Third. Fourth.

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  Within ten breaths, every luminous point in the milky-white void extinguished. Absolute darkness descended.

  Yun Che’s heart jolted violently. His divine sense surged outward, probing cautiously—yet the darkness contained nothing. Even the faint void glimmers that should have existed were completely gone.

  “No need to probe further. With your mere pseudo–Perfection Voidlight Realm cultivation, attempting to uncover the mysteries of the Heaven-Defying Pearl is nothing but a fool’s dream.”

  A voice—ancient, hoarse, and steeped in endless vicissitude—resounded within the darkness.

  Yun Che’s entire body trembled. His pupils contracted sharply.

  In nearly forty years of cultivating within this dream realm, this was the first time he had heard a second voice.

  Suppressing the storm in his heart, he took a deep breath, clasped his hands, and said respectfully,

  “Junior Yun Che greets Senior. May I ask—”

  “You are not qualified to know my name,” the voice interrupted impatiently.

  “Nearly forty years of stolen time, my guidance from the shadows, and the tenfold time differential of the Heaven-Defying Pearl—and you’ve only reached pseudo-perfection of the Voidlight Realm. Utterly dull! Especially your comprehension—you only thought of probing the pearl deeply with divine sense today? Hmph!”

  Yun Che fell silent.

  In truth, he had probed the bead before—just never with such prolonged, all-out effort.

  “What infuriates me even more is your conduct!” the voice suddenly rose in anger.

  “A cultivator should act with decisive vengeance! Whoever humiliates you should be slain! I have watched you all these years in that damned Xuanfrost Sect—if it were me, Yun Han, Sun Li, and their ilk would have had their souls torn out and refined, eternally suppressed in the Frozen Abyss! And that Zhang Mingyuan—acting like some senior brother? One palm strike and he’d be dead!”

  Yun Che forced a bitter smile.

  “Senior, I—”

  “Silence! I’m not finished!” the voice roared.

  “That trash sect even has a few passable female disciples, yet you don’t know how to enjoy them? If it were me, I’d have seized them as furnaces, drained their yin essence dry, and boosted my cultivation! Tsk tsk… it’s been over a hundred years since I last tasted such pleasure.”

  Yun Che was left utterly speechless.

  “Boy, show some backbone, will you?” the voice sighed, suddenly weary.

  “Hurry and reach the Void Transformation Realm, so I can finally leave this cursed place and see the light of day again…”

  After hesitating briefly, Yun Che asked,

  “Senior mentioned ‘pseudo–Perfection Voidlight Realm’ and ‘Void Transformation Realm’… This junior truly does not understand. I ask for guidance.”

  “Idiot! Can’t you think for yourself?” the voice snapped, then snorted.

  “Fine. You cultivators of third-grade cultivation nations wouldn’t know no matter how hard you think.”

  “Listen carefully—‘Voidlight Realm’ is the general term used in fourth-grade and higher cultivation nations for foundational cultivators. Roughly equivalent to your Qi Condensation Realm, but far broader.”

  “In your third-grade nations, you only recognize Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul. As for the Divine Transformation Realm—it is already legend to you.”

  “Once a third-grade nation produces a Divine Transformation cultivator, it may advance to a fourth-grade nation, receive resources from the Cultivation Alliance, gain the right to compete for off-world cultivation stars—and assume corresponding obligations. The same logic applies upward.”

  The voice paused, then sneered.

  “As for your so-called pseudo–Perfection Voidlight Realm—your path is crooked. The power formed by merging void light specks is special, yes, but incompatible with orthodox systems. You appear stronger than peers, yet your road is already severed… unless—”

  “Unless what?” Yun Che’s heart tightened.

  “Unless you find the method of Void Core Condensation,” the voice replied flatly.

  “Refine all scattered light specks into your dantian and form a Void Core. Only then can you break through the pseudo realm, reach true Voidlight Great Perfection, and attempt the Void Transformation Realm.”

  “But that method has long been lost,” the voice added indifferently.

  “You may as well pray for your own fortune.”

  After a long silence, Yun Che asked,

  “Why are you trapped within this pearl… and why do you help me?”

  A cold chuckle echoed in the darkness.

  “Why help you? Because your Void Affinity Physique barely qualifies you to carry the Heaven-Defying Pearl. As for why I am here…”

  The voice turned icy.

  “When you reach the Void Transformation Realm, you will know. If not… then rot here with me inside this pearl.”

  Before Yun Che could respond, the darkness receded like a tide.

  The milky-white void returned. Light specks flickered once more.

  The stone bead grew slightly warm.

  Yun Che opened his eyes. He was still inside the ice cavern, the bead resting quietly in his palm.

  The conversation felt half-real, half-illusory.

  But he knew—it was real.

  “Pseudo–Perfection Voidlight Realm… Void Core Condensation… Void Transformation Realm…”

  Yun Che whispered the words, determination flashing in his eyes.

  He tucked the stone bead close to his body and stepped out of the cavern.

  Wind and snow struck his face.

  From the direction of the Frozen Abyss Secret Realm, a shrill cry suddenly echoed—

  A Snowcloud Crane!

  Yun Che’s heart jolted. He did not hesitate further, his body turning into a gray blur as he rushed toward it.

  Deep within the ice cavern, an extremely faint sigh slowly dissipated.

  “Boy… don’t disappoint me…”

  From a tool, to a legacy, to a shared shackle—only a corner of the truth has been revealed.

  Is that voice an ally… or a curse?

  Is the “Pseudo–Perfection Voidlight Realm” a shortcut—or a dead end?

  I’d love to hear your theories in the comments.