The Ice Abyss was silent as death. Near the ice wall, even the silhouettes of the statues could not be seen clearly. Zanxing’s shadow had completely vanished. Where she had originally been sitting, the ice cave had completely wrapped her within, standing motionless and silent amidst the ten thousand zhang of ice and snow.

Her name had become very clear, as if invisible hands were tracing it layer by layer. The characters on the stone wall were carved bone-deep, hidden among the countless thousands of names in the ice wall, buried by ice and snow.

In this silent place, this ten-thousand-zhang snowy abyss, the last bit of warmth dissipated. This had become an uninhabited, lonely tomb with no trace of life remaining.

Those glowing fireflies had also extinguished, the flower petals closed, and the surroundings darkened.

One day, two days, one month, two months—who knows how long passed like this.

Buried in the extremely cold depths beneath a thousand zhang of ice and snow, suddenly, something moved.

In this expanse of deathly stillness, the thing hidden in the snow became the only living presence. Thus, even that slight movement became particularly obvious. At first, it only struggled slightly, then, as if slowly awakening, it began trying hard to move. After that, the little thing became eager and restless, tirelessly attempting to break through its shackles time and again. Finally, those constraints were broken free, and the little thing burst through everything blocking it, charging recklessly into the world.

In the Extreme Ice Abyss, a green light suddenly appeared.

This light emerged from a certain ice sculpture, melting some of the accumulated snow around the sculpture. Those azure flowers that had already fallen silent seemed to be awakened by something, stirring from their slumber one after another, opening their petals and emitting brilliant light, blooming in lively splendor.

That green light then swept over the red-dressed woman among the chains. Large chunks of ice and snow fell, rustling from the beauty’s body. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, as if sensing the changes in the Ice Abyss, and she gradually opened her eyes until she saw everything before her.

“This is…” Bujiang focused her gaze.

In this Ice Abyss, for two years, apart from people who fell into the abyss, she had never seen any other colors. But now, that green light appeared in the Extreme Ice Abyss with rich vitality. For the first time, flowing life force appeared in the deathly silent abyss, as if in the next moment the ice and snow would melt and flowers would bloom in brilliant colors.

She looked up toward Zanxing. The light was emanating from Zanxing’s body.

“What is that…” she murmured to herself.

Bujiang had never seen such a thing. In the Demon Realm, “life force” was always precious. And since Gui Diaotang’s death, the Demon Realm’s spiritual veins had withered, and anything related to “life force” hadn’t appeared for a long time.

But if Mendong were here, he would immediately recognize this green light. The Qin Chong seed that had been hidden in Zanxing’s body for so long had finally sprouted.

That green seed, small as a tiny larva, had been sleeping ever since Zanxing accidentally swallowed it. But now in this deathly silent Extreme Ice Abyss, the Qin Chong seed had suddenly sprouted. It rapidly devoured the surrounding cold, deathly qi, deeply rooting itself in Zanxing’s spiritual root, breaking through the bud, extending branches, growing leaves, until it became a vibrant green tree, flourishing with abundant life force within her spiritual root.

Bujiang sensed the changes in the Extreme Ice Abyss.

That bit of green light was initially small, but gradually its range began to expand, projecting throughout the entire Ice Abyss. As the light swept by, whether it was Bujiang’s imagination or not, she even felt that the Extreme Ice Abyss wasn’t as cold as before.

“Zanxing…” She looked worriedly toward the motionless Zanxing. With such changes occurring, she didn’t know whether this was good or bad for Zanxing.

In her spiritual platform, Zanxing saw that green little tree.

In fact, from the night the Heavenly Fire Basket extinguished, she had never truly fallen asleep. During those days when she became a statue, Zanxing discovered a secret.

The Extreme Ice Abyss was alive.

This place wasn’t just a growing abyss—it seemed to possess human consciousness, knowing how to use people’s weaknesses to set traps. On the night Zanxing fell asleep, the Ice Abyss had indeed become colder than usual, so much so that the fire crystals couldn’t resist the cold at all and extinguished during the night. That ice and snow falling on her body, more precisely, drilled into her spiritual consciousness, trying to erode her will.

She saw many people.

They seemed to be demon cultivators who had remained here. Most of these demon cultivators, like her, had unwillingly climbed upward when they first fell into the Ice Abyss, trying to find an exit, but in the end, not one had managed to remain. Even geniuses with exceptional cultivation met the same fate.

This truly struck at people’s will—striving toward something destined to fail was something only fools would do.

Those demon race members with powerful spiritual force would all be defeated, let alone Zanxing, who was an ordinary person.

Many times, Zanxing also wanted to give up, but mysteriously, it seemed someone was gently telling her to persist just a little longer.

So at countless critical moments, she persisted a little longer.

This persistence was truly difficult because the cold of the Extreme Ice Abyss caused greater damage to spiritual power than to the physical body. Several times, she felt her spiritual consciousness was about to be frozen and shattered, that she was about to become nothingness, but every time at the final moment, a warm green light would flow through, allowing her to catch her breath.

Zanxing didn’t know what it was until the moment that green seed sprouted, and she suddenly understood.

The Qin Chong was an immortal grass seed that Sect Master Shaoyang Zhenren had obtained from a secret realm ten years ago. Legend said that thousands of years ago, an immortal ascended to become an immortal, and a spiritual herb grew on the ancient Qin left behind. This spiritual herb looked like a larva but was a spiritual grass. When consumed, it would sprout in one’s spiritual root, and as the Qin Chong gradually grew, it would slowly repair deficiencies in their spiritual veins.

When she fell into the black swamp, she had accidentally swallowed the Qin Chong that Gu Baiying had raised. Perhaps because of the restraining power of the Xiaoyuan Pearl, or perhaps because her spiritual veins had no flaws to begin with, the Qin Chong seed had never sprouted, sleeping silently within her spiritual root.

But now it was different.

The cold qi of the Extreme Ice Abyss wreaked havoc within her body and spiritual power, and Zanxing’s Golden Core had dissolved in the Ten Thousand Kill Formation, leaving her spiritual root mostly destroyed. Such a pitifully broken body was like the most suitable fertile soil for the Qin Chong. The Qin Chong inherently contained healing power—the more severely damaged the spiritual veins and body, the better the nourishment for the Qin Chong.

How much ability Qin Chong could display depended entirely on the host’s potential. Ordinary Qin Chong, growing to tender shoots, was already difficult. Those like Gu Baiying with stubborn spiritual vein ailments could at most produce branch shoots. However, this Qin Chong had grown into a small tree within Zanxing’s spiritual root, swaying gracefully, truly legendary.

From the branches and leaves of that green tree, emerald brilliance gradually seeped out, like a flowing light wave, rippling outward from Zanxing as the center.

“Crack—”

In the deathly silent Ice Abyss, a piece of ice and snow fell.

A piece of ice had shattered.

In the ice cave, Zanxing moved her fingertips.