(Consider this a New Year's Eve extra.)
On the Abyssal Continent, in the northern Endless Sea.
Dense fog shrouded these waters year-round. The sea was black as ink, and even a Nascent Soul Cultivator's Divine Sense struggled to pierce its depths.
The marked routes on nautical charts ended here. Farther north lay a forbidden region cultivators spoke of only in hushed tones.
Legend said it connected to the Desolate Ancient Glacier, the remains of an ancient frozen battlefield where nine out of ten died—and the tenth did not survive either.
Yet at the edge of this forbidden region, an unremarkable, nameless island stood quietly.
The island was only a few miles across, all jagged reefs and barren stone. Even seabirds refused to land there.
From the surface, it looked like any other desolate reef.
Three thousand zhang beneath the sea.
Between layer upon layer of deep-sea rock, a chamber barely a zhang across had been hollowed out with extraordinary skill.
Its walls were covered in intricate concealment patterns. A faint, ghostly light flowed through them, perfectly masking every trace of spiritual power and Divine Soul aura within.
Even a Nascent Soul Late Stage cultivator passing by would never discover this hidden chamber in the rock without deliberately sweeping every inch with Divine Sense.
The chamber was sparsely furnished.
A cold-jade bed, a stone table, and two stone stools.
Several sealed storage chests stood in a corner, their surfaces likewise covered in sealing runes.
They held the true wealth the Bone Demon Old Devil had amassed over centuries—most of his rare treasures, cultivation legacies, and the resources he had prepared for his rise from the ashes.
On the cold-jade bed lay a Spirit-Splitting Puppet identical in appearance to his original body.
At that moment.
The puppet's tightly shut eyes flew open!