Ye Chen left Ghost-Crying Ridge without looking back. The blood and despair of those ambushers were nothing more than insignificant dust along his path, to be brushed away without a second thought.
He headed north, his figure blending into heaven and earth as he used Shrink Earth to an Inch, moving far faster than any flying magical treasure. The scenery below raced backward. The signature scarlet and murky yellow of the Blood-Baleful Wasteland gradually fell behind him, replaced by ever-sparser vegetation and steadily falling temperatures.
The farther north he went, the more the spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed to grow "sluggish" and "icy." It was no longer as violent as on the wasteland, yet it carried a chill that seeped deep into the marrow. The sky was no longer an eternal murky yellow, but a cold gray-blue, with tiny ice crystals occasionally drifting down on the wind.
Ten days later, a boundless world of pure white appeared at the far end of the horizon.
This was the Northern Border, the Profound Ice Plains.
Before he even set foot within them, a chill capable of freezing the soul struck him head-on. Fierce winds swept up grains of ice like countless tiny blades, slicing through the air with shrill whistles. As far as the eye could see, there was only pristine snow and ancient ice. Mountains, plains, ravines—everything lay beneath pure white, as though heaven and earth had just been born and all things had fallen silent.
The fabric of space here seemed far more stable than in the Blood-Baleful Wasteland, but the omnipresent extreme cold law imposed a new, harsher suppression. An ordinary Golden Core cultivator without a special magical treasure or cultivation method to protect them would likely have their blood freeze in an instant, turning them into an ice sculpture.
The primordial chaos purple qi naturally circulating around Ye Chen kept out the chill that could split refined metal. Standing at the edge of the ice plains, light shifting within his dual pupils, he carefully sensed this unfamiliar world.
"Such dense profound ice qi. It has almost condensed into tangible law," Ye Chen murmured. He could sense an extraordinarily pure, extraordinarily ancient ice-origin power in the depths of these plains, far beyond ordinary ice and snow. That also explained why this land could nurture such formidable powers as the Mystic Maiden Palace and the Ice Soul Demon Sect.
He took out the Nameless Fragment and the Black Iron Piece. After entering the Northern Border, the resonance between them had weakened somewhat, seemingly disrupted by the dense aura of profound ice here. Yet their direction remained clear, pointing deep into the ice plains toward the region known as the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Cavern.
"Looks like I'll have to go deeper." Ye Chen put away the fragment and stepped into this world clad in silver and white.
Beneath his feet lay solid ice accumulated over untold tens of thousands of years, harder than refined iron. The snow whipped up by the gale slipped silently aside within three feet of him, unable to touch him at all. Like a dot of ink moving through a white painting, he advanced slowly but steadily into the depths of the ice plains.
Unlike the Blood-Baleful Wasteland, where danger lurked on every side, the Profound Ice Plains felt empty, deathly silent, and so cold that they seemed capable of erasing all life. After traveling several hundred miles, he had heard almost nothing except wind and snow, nor seen a single living creature. Even traces of the most cold-resistant ice-type demon beasts were rare.
Yet such utter silence often concealed even greater danger.
When Ye Chen reached an enormous glacial chasm, he stopped. The gorge was bottomless, its sides smooth as mirrored ice. Howling winds surged up from its depths, sounding like ghosts wailing and gods shrieking.
His gaze settled on the seemingly level stretch of ice across the gorge.
His dual pupils saw through false appearances. That place was not empty. Dozens of figures almost indistinguishable from the ice and snow lay silently in hiding, their auras restrained to the utmost. Without Ye Chen's extraordinary spiritual perception, they would have been almost impossible to detect. Pale ice-blue demonic patterns were embroidered on their robes, and they exuded an aura sharing the same origin as the Profound Ice Plains, yet far more sinister, cold, and uncanny.
People from the Ice Soul Demon Sect.
They seemed to have been waiting here for quite some time.
The corner of Ye Chen's mouth lifted slightly. It seemed news from the Blood Demon Sect traveled quickly. Or perhaps the powers of the Northern Border were far more wary of outsiders than he had imagined.
He neither concealed himself nor took a detour. Unhurriedly, he walked straight toward that stretch of ice where murderous intent lay hidden.
The instant he stepped onto it—
Crack-crack-crack—
The ice beneath his feet split without warning! Countless thick ice spikes gleaming with eerie blue light erupted from below like enormous pythons poised to devour their prey, instantly cutting off every avenue of escape! At the same time, countless sharp shards condensed out of thin air along the ice walls on either side and shot toward him like ten thousand arrows loosed at once, their piercing whistles tearing through the air!
The hidden Ice Soul Demon Sect cultivators revealed themselves at the same moment. Rather than approach, they swiftly formed a bizarre formation and activated hand seals. The dense moisture in the air instantly condensed into ice-blue chains that coiled toward Ye Chen from every direction as though alive. Runes flickered along the chains, which radiated a chill capable of shackling spiritual power and freezing the soul!
A trap! And a meticulously prepared killing ground that combined terrain and manpower to their utmost limits!
The sudden assault fit together without a seam. Ice spikes attacked his lower body, shards sealed the sky above, and chains surrounded him, placing Ye Chen in a death trap in an instant! These methods were far more sophisticated than the ambush at Ghost-Crying Ridge. This was clearly the work of a native Northern Border power, one deeply versed in the subtleties of ice laws.
Faced with this nearly certain killing blow, a faint spark of interest finally flashed through Ye Chen's eyes.
"Interesting."
He still used no magical treasure or divine ability. He merely raised one foot, then... stamped lightly downward.
Boom!
A deep, thunderous impact rang out, as though an ancient giant god had stamped upon the earth!
An invisible ripple spread rapidly from where his foot landed, like rings sweeping across water!
The massive ice spikes shattered the instant they touched the ripple, as though crushed beneath an invisible, colossal force, bursting into fine powder!
The sharp shards raining through the sky struck what seemed to be an invisible wall. They shattered and swept backward, shooting instead toward the Ice Soul Demon Sect cultivators maintaining the formation!
As for the ice-blue chains coiling toward him, the moment the ripple swept past them, their runes dimmed and their cold dissipated. As though stripped of all spiritual essence, they snapped inch by inch and scattered as drifting ice crystals!
The might of a single stomp shattered every technique!
The Ice Soul Demon Sect cultivators suffered the formation's backlash and spat blood in unison. Their faces filled with horror as they stared at the black-robed young man still standing calmly in place, as though they had witnessed some inconceivable existence!
Their painstakingly prepared Profound Ice Killing Formation, combining the strength of dozens of Nascent Soul cultivators and several Spirit Transformation cultivators, had been broken so effortlessly... with a single stomp?!
"Impossible! You... who exactly are you?!" The voice of the mid-stage Spirit Transformation demonic cultivator leading them trembled with terror.
Ye Chen's calm gaze swept over them, as though he were looking at a pack of snow foxes making trouble in the snow.
"Tell Venerable Hantian."
His voice rang with perfect clarity through the wind and snow, carrying an unquestionable authority.
"I, Ye Chen, have come to the Northern Border only to retrieve one thing. I have no intention of making an enemy of him."
"But if he insists on standing in my way..."
Ye Chen paused, his gaze suddenly turning icy. The surrounding temperature seemed to drop another few degrees, and even the howling gale froze still.
"I don't mind giving this Northern Border a new master."
With those words, he paid no further attention to the terrified Ice Soul Demon Sect cultivators. One step carried him several miles away. A few more, and he vanished into the boundless wind and snow, as though he had never appeared.
Only the Ice Soul Demon Sect cultivators remained, standing dumbfounded and exchanging blank looks. Their entire bodies were cold, though whether from the frost or fear, they could not tell.
The wind and snow continued, yet they seemed to carry the endless majesty left behind by that mysterious visitor, shrouding these pure white ice plains.
With Ye Chen's arrival, the first page of the Northern Border's gathering storm quietly turned.
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