Several thousand nautical miles from the Xuanmiao Sect.
On the seabed.
In the depths of the dark, freezing seawater stood a massive serpentine trench, like a scar upon the ocean.
Hot and cold currents of seawater constantly surged and swirled within this trench.
Endless torrents of heat flowed unceasingly from the bottomless trench, turning this place into a breeding ground for countless microorganisms and marine life.
A green-lamp moray eel twisted its soft body as it sped here from another stretch of sea, entering the depths of the trench in the blink of an eye.
The trench grew ever deeper, and the green light on the eel's head became increasingly conspicuous and bright, illuminating its surroundings.
No one knew how deep the eel had swum.
At last, a faint grayish-white hue appeared within the eel's light.
Strangely, although the water in the upper layers of the trench was scorching hot—
At its very bottom, it was instead bone-piercingly cold.
The pitch-black floor of the trench was covered everywhere in chunks of gray ice.
These ice layers were mixed with mud and sediment, looking utterly unsightly.
Yet among all the gray ice, there was one spot completely different from the rest.
It was an oval chunk of deep-blue fluorescent ice, with tiny notches along its edges.
On the dark floor of the trench, such an ice block was like a spotlight, exceptionally eye-catching.
At the center of the ice stood a tall woman clad entirely in black, her face covered by a black veil.
Lowering her head, the woman quietly watched another woman lying motionless within the ice.
If any disciple of the Xuanmiao Sect had appeared here and witnessed this scene, they would have recognized her.
The woman in black was Yuan Du Zi, current leader of the Yuanxi Daoist