The rain curtain was like smoke, concealing everything between heaven and earth.

Only the Zhenren’s figure remained transcendent, cold, and condensed as always.

“Sect Master?” Gu Baiying frowned.

“Mendong didn’t lie to you.” Shaoyang Zhenren’s gaze was calm. Rain fell on him, but seemed unable to touch his robes, bouncing away lightly. He looked at Gu Baiying and spoke flatly: “Yang Zanxing’s life tablet has shattered. She is no longer a person of this world.”

“CRASH!” Thunder rolled down from the cloud layers, striking the young man heavily and knocking him to the ground. He had no strength to get up for a moment, lying on his back. After a long time, he slowly spoke: “I don’t believe it.”

Rainwater fell from the sky, washing away the dirty bloodstains from his face. Shaoyang Zhenren’s voice drifted faintly into his ears: “The demon head is dead. With the Qin Chong matter as a way out, Chihua Gate will not continue to blame you.”

Gu Baiying spoke hoarsely: “You know she wasn’t the murderer.”

“But you used soul-sending techniques to split off a strand of your primordial soul and give it to Yang Zanxing. Everyone knows this, and it has ultimately planted a thorn in the hearts of all the sects.”

“Why would her life tablet shatter? Was she captured by people from the cultivation world? No, if that were the case, the people from Chihua Gate would come to gloat – they couldn’t possibly be this quiet.”

“Right now, forming the demon-extermination army is urgent. Taiyan Sect must also contribute, and among the younger generation, your cultivation is exceptional – all the major sects think highly of you.”

“You didn’t find her body, so she must still be alive. What does a shattered life tablet matter? Maybe it’s just some kind of illusion to deceive the eyes.”

The two spoke past each other, paying no attention to what the other was saying. Mendong knelt to the side, biting his lips tightly, his heart uneasy and not daring to speak.

Shaoyang Zhenren said, “After the sect examination, Mayi brought you two back to the sect because he divined that an ominous star was coming to the world. Calculating the time, it was exactly when Yang Zanxing came up Gufeng Mountain.”

Gu Baiying’s voice sank: “She is not an ominous star.”

Shaoyang Zhenren stood quietly in place. The wind and rain in the mountains swayed, trying to wrinkle his robes, yet the rain curtain could not wet his robes in the slightest. He remained neat and pressed, his snow-white hair incompatible with the surrounding darkness, like an immortal from the ninth heaven, forever calmly standing outside the mortal world.

Emotion and love were burdens to him. He had no emotions and no desires.

Shaoyang Zhenren looked at Gu Baiying, his gaze pausing, seeming slightly absent-minded, as if seeing someone else through Gu Baiying. After a long time, he finally spoke: “This stubborn nature of yours that refuses to yield is exactly like your mother.”

Hearing him mention Qinghua Xianzi, Gu Baiying was startled.

“When your mother left that year, she asked me to take good care of you. I promised Qinghua to protect you and keep you safe and sound, so I definitely cannot break my word.” At this point, his expression became somewhat subtle, seeming to contain some kind of contradiction. After pausing, he continued: “Yang Zanxing is not a person within the Heavenly Dao. I originally thought that through her, perhaps your fate could be rewritten, but…”

“Things have come to this point. Your fates are entangled too deeply, which may not be a good thing for you.”

“It’s time for this to end.”

Gu Baiying keenly detected the strangeness in Shaoyang Zhenren’s words. He looked toward Shaoyang Zhenren, struggling to stand up: “Master, what do you want to do?”

Shaoyang Zhenren lowered his eyes. A brilliant white light gradually rose in his palm hidden within his sleeve, and he suddenly struck toward the top of Gu Baiying’s head.

“Master!”

“Sect Master Ancestor!”

“RUMBLE——”

Enormous thunder rolled past. The torrential rain struck the Five Thunder Platform until it swayed precariously. The mountain forest fell silent, with only Mendong’s low sobbing remaining around.

Shaoyang Zhenren withdrew his hand and looked at the person collapsed in the formation.

“Stopping here is for the best.”

……

The Ice Abyss seemed even deeper than yesterday.

If a person climbed up an inch, the Ice Abyss seemed to grow up a zhang. In the long run, this truly destroyed enthusiasm and taught people despair.

Azure flowers bloomed and withered, withered and bloomed again. No matter how many days and nights passed, the person sitting against the ice wall never woke up.

Around her, the rudimentary form of an ice cave had begun to appear, gradually wrapping and approaching her. The person who had already frozen stiff had accumulated another layer of ice and snow thicker than before.

She gradually no longer looked like a person, but more like a statue, sitting here silently, no different from the countless thousands upon thousands of ice sculptures in the Ice Abyss.

A strand of demonic essence flew from an angle, struck this person’s body, causing a few snowflakes to fall rustling, then quickly returned to silence.

The sound of huge iron chains grinding echoed in the abyss. Bujiang pressed her chest and swallowed the sweetness in her throat.

A long time had passed since Zanxing fell into slumber.

She continuously used her demonic essence to melt the ice and snow falling on Zanxing’s body. At first, it was fine, but later the effect became very weak. Yet Zanxing showed no signs of waking up. She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but the Extreme Ice Abyss seemed much colder than usual.

It was said that the higher the cultivation of those who fell into the Ice Abyss, the heavier the cold in the abyss became. Bujiang had never noticed this before because no matter how capable the demon cultivators who fell here were, they couldn’t compare to her with her Heavenly Demon bloodline. But now that Zanxing had entered the Ice Abyss, whether it was the speed of ice accumulation or the coldness of the entire Ice Abyss, both were deeper than before.

But Zanxing had now lost all her essence and was no different from an ordinary person. Why would she still have such an effect on the Ice Abyss? Could it be because Zanxing was Gui Diaotang’s daughter and possessed the Demon Lord bloodline, so the Ice Abyss sensed it? But could the Demon Lord bloodline that was forever sealed still be called the Demon Lord bloodline?

A bone-chilling coldness covered her limbs. Bujiang couldn’t help but shiver.

This was too terrible. Continuously transferring demonic essence to Zanxing caused her great depletion, and unfortunately, the Ice Abyss had become much more severe than before at this time. Bujiang herself was also somewhat unable to hold on. She began to gradually feel drowsy, and in this place, the first reaction when spiritual power was frozen was to begin frequent and long periods of slumber.

She looked toward the corner of the mountain wall. There, the three characters “Yang Zanxing” had become much deeper than before.

When they completely sank into the ice wall, with the writing clear and bone-deep, that would be when Zanxing perished, with no room for reversal.

Bujiang endured, secretly accumulating strength, and continued transferring power to Zanxing.

Azure flowers bloomed and withered for several cycles. The abyss was silent, with only frost and snow covering layer by layer soundlessly, freezing heaven and earth into crystal fragments.

Someone’s movements began to become sluggish, gradually stiffening, until finally completely motionless. Countless ice and snow quietly crept up. In the huge abyss, the original brilliance of the red dress worn by the woman locked by dark chains was covered by a layer of pale, cold mist, becoming somewhat dim. Her fingertips curved slightly, still in the posture of transferring essence, but her alluring eyes had already closed.

She had become a beautiful statue.