And now, this flower had disappeared. It vanished completely, without a trace.

“Is it because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl?” Zanxing thought in a daze. She had gained everything because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, causing so many plot developments that shouldn’t have happened in “Nine Heaven Summit.” In the end, Gui Yansheng seized the treasure, and she nearly lost her life. Now her Golden Core had dissolved, her Yuanli was completely lost, and she had lost everything because of the Xiaoyuan Pearl.

For the “Heavenly Way,” this “accident” that was her had been erased. From now on, she was no longer constrained by the plot and had truly become Yang Zanxing, able to roam freely across this strange and wondrous continent.

“But what use is that now?” Zanxing sighed. She couldn’t do anything now, dragging around a sickly body with a sick cat. Forget about sword-flying and cultivating while traveling the world as before—now she was tired just from taking a single step.

Mimi flicked her tail and scratched at Zanxing’s hand.

Zanxing looked down at her, then suddenly smiled helplessly. “Forget it, since things are already like this, I can only start over from the beginning. First,” she looked overhead, “we need to get out of this cursed place.”

She didn’t know where this place was, but it was extraordinarily cold. Although the flower fox fur kept her from freezing to death, sitting too long still allowed wisps of cold air to creep in from all sides. Everyone spoke of bottomless abysses, but looking up from this place, that’s what truly had no end. All around were crystalline ice caves, with protruding ice stones between them. She was currently at the bottom of this ice abyss with no exits on any side. To get out, she would probably have to climb upward.

Zanxing looked up at the ceiling. The ice and snow seemed to grow upward endlessly—perhaps she could climb until the Year of the Monkey and Month of the Horse and still not get out.

She took a deep breath, stood up, leaning on the Wuyou Stick, brushed the snow particles from her clothes, and patted Mimi’s head in her arms, sighing: “I suddenly regret very much that when I chose a spirit beast, I didn’t pick one that could fly.”

Mimi cried out in dissatisfaction.

Zanxing smiled and patted her head. “Let’s go.”

In the dark great hall, a golden-robed youth sat on the high throne with his eyes slightly closed, as if dozing. Beside him stood a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl in pink robes, beautiful and delicate, carefully kneeling on the ground to pour tea.

A black-clothed Mo Sha walked in and stopped before this person. Seeming somewhat apprehensive and not daring to approach, he spoke respectfully: “Demon Lord, the people on Gufeng Mountain are searching everywhere for Yang Zanxing’s whereabouts.”

The youth lazily hummed in acknowledgment.

“Now that the Xiaoyuan treasure is in hand, why doesn’t the Demon Lord attack the cultivation world directly? We could catch them all in one net.”

The youth slowly opened his eyes.

He had a pair of golden pupils that were beautifully shaped. When he looked at people, there always seemed to be a hint of innocent childishness hidden within. He smiled and glanced at the black-clothed Mo Sha before him, making the Mo Sha’s heart turn cold involuntarily.

This youth’s cultivation was profound—even Yang Zanxing with her Heavenly Demon bloodline had died with just one move in his hands. Moreover, this person’s methods were cruel, and his temperament unpredictable. Who knew which word might displease him…

“You make a good point,” the youth replied with a smile. “I was thinking the same thing.”

The Mo Sha’s heart relaxed, and he was about to speak when he suddenly felt his chest turn cold. He looked down to see a bowl-sized bloody hole in his chest. He opened his mouth, only managing to look toward the youth on the high throne before falling with a “thud.”

Gui Yansheng still stared at him with a grin, saying, “Since you spoke so well, I’ll reward you with your life first.”

The other black-clothed Mo Sha around had never expected this youth to suddenly make a killing move. One of them, apparently close to the dead Mo Sha, was stunned for a moment before immediately drawing his spirit artifact and pointing it at the youth on the throne, roaring angrily: “Demon Lord! Liufeng served you so faithfully, yet for just one wrong word, you strike with such deadly force!”

“So what?” Gui Yansheng replied indifferently. “I make the rules here.”

“Brothers!” That Mo Sha seemed unable to bear it any longer. “He’s completely insane! How many of our people have died at his hands these past days? Kill him! Otherwise, we’ll all end up like Liufeng sooner or later!” With that, he and the other Mo Sha charged at Gui Yansheng with murderous intent.

Gui Yansheng didn’t even look at them, merely waving his sleeve lightly. A white paper umbrella flew from his sleeve with a “swish,” and the splattered blood droplets fell on the paper umbrella, dripping down the snow-white umbrella surface one by one.

In just an instant, several dismembered corpses appeared on the ground.

The youth sighed, and the Ashura Umbrella returned to his hand. He methodically folded the paper umbrella away before shaking his head: “The demon race is pathetically weak.” After thinking, he curiously muttered to himself: “The Xiaoyuan Pearl is so powerful—my cultivation greatly increased after using it for just one day. Why was it like a useless object in Yang Zanxing’s hands? Could it be… that even pure Heavenly Demon bloodline amounts to nothing more than this?” He pondered for a while without concluding, then spoke with some regret: “Unfortunately, Yang Zanxing is already dead, and I can’t ask a dead person.”

His gaze swept over the blood covering the hall floor, appreciating the scene with interest for a long while. Finding it somewhat boring, he said lazily: “How dull.” Then he stood up.

The young girl who had been kneeling to one side pouring tea had long since lost all color from the scene before her, sitting rigidly in place, not daring to move.

Gui Yansheng glanced at her: “Rongchun, clean this up.”

“Yes,” the girl called Rongchun answered with a trembling voice.

“I’m going into closed-door cultivation for a while. Unless it’s something important, don’t disturb my training.”

He left the great hall.

Rongchun tremblingly cleared away the tea set from the table, walked to the corpses, closed her eyes, steeled her heart, and quickly began cleaning up.

The ice surface seemed to be getting more slippery.

Zanxing hugged Mimi to her chest, struggling to climb up along the protruding stones in the ice cave.

Climbing this ice cave was much more exhausting than it looked. The ice surface at the bottom was easier to walk on than higher up—the higher she climbed, the more slippery the ice became.

Zanxing almost suspected this was intentional. Perhaps in the past, others had tried to escape by climbing up the ice surface, but because it was too slippery, they fell. After falling several times, they probably didn’t have the strength to continue.

However, Zanxing could still barely continue climbing upward. First, because the Wuyou Stick could serve as a crutch to support her body, and second, because the shoes Liu Yunxin had given her were truly suitable for walking on ice. Liu Yunxin’s embroidery skills were exceptional, and she always liked to make floral patterns on shoe soles so that when stepping in snow, they would leave flower-patterned footprints, which was quite charming. On Zanxing’s birthday, she hadn’t paid attention to what pattern was on the bottom of the shoes Liu Yunxin gave her, but it must be quite intricate, because even on this kind of ice surface, she could still walk with some difficulty.

All around were small flowers that glowed—these flowers had only two petals that opened and closed like living little lamps, emitting azure light. As Zanxing climbed upward, she discovered that these icy caves seemed to have statues cast within them. These statues were sealed in ice, and she could vaguely make out human shapes. A guess flashed through Zanxing’s mind—perhaps these weren’t statues at all, but living people.

If that were the case, this ice abyss contained at least thousands of snow caves, and if each cave sealed a corpse… imagining thousands upon thousands of corpses silently watching her climb alone was far too horrifying.

“They must be statues,” Zanxing told herself. “They’re just statues.”

On the walls of the ice caves, many characters seemed to be carved. Some were already very blurred, others still looked new. Zanxing leaned closer to look—they seemed to be people’s names. She didn’t recognize any of these names. She thought: Could these be the names of people who died here? At this thought, her heart turned cold, and she climbed faster.

The higher she climbed, the colder it became all around. The warmth of the flower fox fur seemed to be gradually swallowed by the cold air, and coldness began seeping through the fur. Zanxing looked up—after climbing for so long, the top was still endlessly far away, so distant it filled one with despair.

But… there was no second path to take here.

She stopped, took out a handful of Yuanli Pills from her Qiankun Bag to share with Mimi, rested for a moment, then continued climbing upward.

One day, two days, three days… She didn’t know how long she had been climbing. Zanxing’s five fingers had become stiff with cold, and all her fingernails had cracked. Her shoes were soaked by melted ice water, and the flower fox fur draped over her had absorbed the cold air, becoming as cold and heavy as stone, both rigid and cumbersome… Just when she felt her hands could barely grip the Wuyou Stick and was considering whether to take out the Heavenly Fire Basket Tian Fangfang had given her for warmth, she suddenly heard rustling sounds from overhead.

The sound was very faint and somewhat muffled. Zanxing struggled to lift her head, and the endless ceiling above finally seemed to change. Before her eyes, a large circular platform made of ice blocked her view.

The sound was coming from atop the circular platform.

What was above the platform?

She suddenly became excited—perhaps this was the key to getting out. Zanxing looked down at Mimi. Because it was so cold, Mimi was sleeping longer and longer. She had previously forced herself to devour the divine fire from the Ten Thousand Kill Formation to protect Zanxing, leaving her extremely weak. If they didn’t get out soon and it continued to get colder, perhaps she would sleep like this forever, never to wake again.

This place would slowly kill them—they truly couldn’t stay long.

Zanxing gritted her teeth, rubbed her hands, and ultimately couldn’t bear to use the Heavenly Fire Basket. She continued gripping the Wuyou Stick tightly and climbing upward.

When she once again stepped on a protruding ice stone and climbed past an ice cave, suddenly the rustling sound from before echoed again in the vast ice abyss. This sound was much clearer than before, seeming like the clanking of iron chains.

“How rare—there’s still a living person here.”

A woman’s voice carried over, creating ripples in this boundless ice abyss. She asked: “Little girl, who are you?”