The instant he stepped into the Ice-Burial Bone Sea, it felt as though he had entered another world.
The wind and snow outside, the light, even the fluctuations of the laws of heaven and earth were largely shut out by the overlapping layers of deep, ghostly blue, ten-thousand-year profound ice. It was not utterly dark inside. The enormous masses of ice gave off a faint glow, illuminating the passages with strange, shifting colors, as though he were walking through the belly of a colossal beast.
The air was stagnant and bitterly cold. The chill here seemed to possess weight and viscosity, seeping into every opening. It did more than freeze the flesh; it carried an uncanny power that corroded the soul and ground away the will. An ordinary Spirit Transformation cultivator likely would not last long before their soul froze stiff and they became part of an ice sculpture.
Purple qi swirled around Ye Chen, as though he had unfurled an independent domain, keeping all cold and negative energy at bay. He walked at an unhurried pace, light shifting within his Dual Pupils as he carefully examined this labyrinth of ice.
The passages branched in every direction, with countless forks. The ice walls were smooth as mirrors, reflecting his solitary figure. His spiritual sense was severely suppressed and disrupted here, as though distorted by some chaotic magnetic field, making it difficult to extend far. The Nameless Fragment and the Black Iron Piece against his chest emitted a steady, persistent heat, guiding him like the most precise compass.
He did not choose the passages that seemed spacious or bright. Instead, he followed the fragment's guidance completely, threading his way through the tangled ice caverns. Sometimes he had to squeeze through ice fissures barely wide enough for one person; sometimes he had to climb nearly vertical ice walls; sometimes he even had to shatter the icicles blocking a passage with precisely controlled force.
Along the way, he encountered quite a few "residents."
There were transparent Profound Ice Serpents shaped like enormous pythons, spewing freezing breath; there were Ice Wraiths condensed from pure icy baleful qi, formless and intangible, yet capable of instantly freezing a cultivator's soul; and there were ancient remains of all shapes sealed within the ice walls, dead for untold tens of thousands of years, yet still radiating a heart-quaking pressure.
Any one of these beings could have unleashed a storm of bloodshed in the outside world. Here, however, they were merely part of this deadly realm's ecosystem.
Ye Chen dealt with these obstructions simply and efficiently. A flick of his finger sent a strand of purple qi to purify and annihilate them; a sweep of his gaze shattered their cores with the power of his Dual Pupils; or a slight shift of his body made him vanish eerily from their perception.
He did not slaughter indiscriminately. He was more like a traveler who had strayed into another's territory, clearing only the obstacles in his path. As for the other beings lurking in the darkness, he ignored them so long as they did not attack first.
"The creations of heaven and earth truly are wondrous." As Ye Chen proceeded, he studied the unique laws of this place. The Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Cavern had existed for untold ages. Its Extreme Cold Law, chaotic fragments of space and time, and lingering wills from ancient times had intertwined, collided, and evolved, forming a cruel and uncanny "Dao" unique to this place.
He could feel the resonance between the fragment and the iron piece growing stronger the deeper he went. They even began actively absorbing a faint, ancient aura of origin from the surrounding space, and the symbols and patterns upon them grew clearer and more vibrant.
After traveling for the better part of half a day, he passed through an especially narrow passage lined with sharp ice spikes, and the space before him suddenly opened up.
It was an enormous underground ice cavern, its vaulted ceiling towering overhead, with countless huge icicles hanging down like sharp swords. At its center lay the Cold Pool, roughly a hundred zhang across. Its water was not transparent, but a deep, ghostly blue that seemed capable of swallowing all light. Its surface was still and unbroken, yet it gave off a chill even more piercing than its surroundings.
Suspended above the center of the Cold Pool was an irregular, polygonal crystal. It was pitch-black, utterly out of place among the ghostly blue ice crystals around it. Its surface was covered in even more intricate, even more ancient dark-gold patterns, and it resonated intensely with the fragment and iron piece against Ye Chen's chest!
A third fragment! And far larger than the first two!
Ye Chen's gaze sharpened, and he was about to step forward.
Buzzz—!
The entire ice cavern shuddered violently! The Cold Pool's tranquil surface suddenly began to boil—not from heat, but from some strange phenomenon caused by cold taken to its utmost extreme! A will far more terrifying and ancient than the demonic wolves in the Ice Pillar Forest, or even a Void Insight cultivator, awakened with a thunderous surge, like a prehistoric beast rising from slumber!
The ghostly blue water surged into the sky, condensing in midair into a hazy, ice-blue phantom dozens of zhang tall. It was not humanoid, but more like the manifestation of a law, radiating supreme majesty that commanded all ice and froze space and time! Its aura had actually reached late-stage Void Insight, and even... brushed the threshold of Tribulation Transcendence!
"Trespassing upon forbidden ground... coveting the sacred relic... die!"
A cold, vast mental fluctuation, devoid of all emotion, swept through the entire cavern like a tsunami, slamming into Ye Chen's soul! Thick layers of ghostly blue ice instantly covered the cavern walls, and even space itself seemed on the verge of freezing solid!
Ye Chen's gaze grew slightly stern. This was no living creature, but an... Ice-Phoenix Spirit, born over long ages from this place's ten-thousand-year profound ice and some remnant of an ancient, ultimate law of ice! Or rather, a guardian of part of this ice cavern's origin!
Its power had already approached the ceiling of this world!
The ice-blue phantom raised an enormous palm formed from ghostly blue ice crystals and brought it crashing down upon Ye Chen's head! Wherever the palm passed, space cracked beneath the unbearable strain, and the extreme cold seemed capable of freezing thought itself!
Faced with a strike that would force even an ordinary Tribulation Transcendence cultivator to brace for battle, Ye Chen finally became a little more serious.
Rather than retreat, he took a step forward. He held two fingers of his right hand together like a sword. The purple qi at his fingertips was no longer restrained; it erupted, transforming into a blazing pillar of sword light that pierced heaven and earth! Upon it, there was no longer merely the intent of creation and ending. Faint visions of the sun, moon, and stars appeared, surrounded by earth, water, fire, and wind, as though enacting the birth and destruction of an entire universe!
"Primordial Chaos—Dao Genesis!"
The sword pillar collided with the enormous crystalline palm!
There was no earth-shaking explosion, only an uncanny hum, as though the laws themselves were being forcibly rewritten and twisted!
Ghostly blue and purple radiance madly intertwined, eroded each other, and annihilated! The ultimate law of ice contained within the crystalline palm began crumbling and melting inch by inch the instant it touched the Primordial Chaos Purple Qi, as though it had met its natural nemesis! Meanwhile, the purple sword pillar grew ever more brilliant. The Dao of cosmic birth and destruction within it forcibly overwrote and assimilated the surrounding ice laws with unmatched dominance!
The ice-blue phantom let out a silent roar, its enormous body trembling violently, clearly shaken by the tremendous impact. It was formed from laws and cold energy, while Primordial Chaos Purple Qi was the ancestor of all qi and the source of the Great Dao, giving it an innate power to suppress the phantom!
"Impossible! How could this world... possess such power?!" For the first time, shock and disbelief entered that icy mental fluctuation.
Ye Chen stood wielding his sword, his robes snapping in the energy storm, his gaze as calm as a deep pool.
"How could a frog at the bottom of a well know the vastness of the celestial river?"
He turned his wrist slightly. The purple sword pillar blazed even brighter and, like a pillar holding up the heavens, bore down ruthlessly upon the ice-blue phantom!
"Break!"
The sword pillar crushed through. With a mournful cry of defiance, the ice-blue phantom exploded, turning back into pure, ghostly blue cold energy and returning to the Cold Pool. The terrifying will that had awakened swiftly weakened and fell dormant once more.
Silence returned to the ice cavern. Only the black crystal at the center of the Cold Pool continued to emit its dim glow, answering the light of the fragment and iron piece in Ye Chen's hands.
Ye Chen dispersed the sword pillar, and his aura settled. He looked at the black crystal, then sensed the eager stirrings of the objects against his chest. He knew the greatest goal of this journey lay right before him.
Yet he did not immediately retrieve the crystal. His gaze turned deeper into the Cold Pool, beneath its ghostly blue waters.
His Dual Pupils pierced through layer after layer of obstruction, dimly discerning the bottom of the pool. It seemed... something else still slumbered there. A fluctuation subtler, more ancient, and more dangerous than that of the Ice-Phoenix Spirit pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
The secrets of the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Cavern seemed to run deeper than he had anticipated.
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