It was Bai Lingchen's face.

Originally, the greatest threat of the Ice Soul lay in its black-hole-like ability to drain the vitality and spiritual energy of all living beings around it.

However, when the Seven-Star Pill was swallowed by the Ice Soul, the aura of the Ice Soul momentarily froze before it suddenly reversed and overturned, like a massive turbine abruptly stopping and then violently spinning in the opposite direction.

Junxiao, who was guarding Bai Ke atop the Ice Soul, felt the immense force locking them suddenly release. Before he could react, a torrent of overwhelming spiritual energy surged out of the Ice Soul, flooding into his body.

The energy was heavy and tainted with a sinister undertone, causing unbearable pain as it coursed through his meridians. It felt as if he had been force-fed a massive bite of food, choking him as it lodged painfully in his chest, threatening to tear him apart, while more and more was mercilessly stuffed down his throat, forcing him to swallow.

But Junxiao quickly realized he was not the only one experiencing this. Gritting his teeth through the pain, he swiftly began to circulate his energy, forcibly guiding the rampant spiritual energy into proper pathways and making it flow systematically through his meridians. At the same time, he ran his fingers along Bai Ke’s major acupoints, tracing them. Even without focusing, he could feel the wild torrents of spiritual energy rushing through Bai Ke’s veins beneath his skin.

Junxiao, already possessing a high cultivation level and abundant spiritual energy, felt the influx made his flow sluggish and unmanageable. But Bai Ke was different. Though he had some cultivation, compared to Junxiao or Yuxian, his abilities were like a shallow layer of water at the bottom of a vast barrel—barely enough to notice.

When this flood of spiritual energy entered Bai Ke's body, it encountered no resistance whatsoever, flowing effortlessly, like a hundred rivers converging into the sea.

Outside the Ice Soul, Yuxian and the newly arrived Wu Nan experienced similar situations. Even the young disciples Yuxian had been protecting could feel an unstoppable surge of spiritual energy flooding into their bodies unbidden.

As soon as Yuxian felt the energy rushing through his meridians, he frowned. Like Junxiao, he immediately began forcibly consolidating and channeling the energy, guiding it to circulate properly.

At first glance, receiving such an enormous influx of spiritual energy seemed like a blessing—a windfall that had fallen from the heavens.

But Yuxian's expression was grim. The energy contained the taint and corruption inherent to the Ice Soul. For those with unsteady wills, the rapid surge in spiritual power could easily lead to inner chaos, deviation, or even falling into demonic cultivation. While experienced cultivators like him could manage, the young disciples were not prepared for this. Who could predict how many of them might succumb?

The first to speak up was Lin Jie, who struggled to control the rampant energy in his body and called out to Yu Xian, “Ancestor, what’s going on? I can’t seem to keep this under control!”

Wu Nan furrowed his brow deeply and turned to Yu Xian. Having once succumbed to inner deviation for thousands of years, he had an instinctive wariness of such abrupt influxes of energy, like someone burned by fire becoming wary of sparks.

Before Yu Xian could answer, there was a sudden commotion nearby. Turning his head, he saw that the injured leaders of the Hengtian Sect—whose spiritual bases had been destroyed by Wu Nan earlier—were now moving.

A sense of foreboding struck Yu Xian. If this energy could reach them, it would naturally also flow into the Hengtian Sect’s members. These evildoers had finally been suppressed, but if their spiritual seas and dantian were refilled with this energy, they could recover their strength. Worse still, the corruption in the energy could merge with their existing malevolence, amplifying it further. It would be a recipe for disaster.

Without hesitation, Yu Xian raised his sword and summoned a barrier, forcibly blocking the overwhelming spiritual energy from reaching the Hengtian Sect.

He gritted his teeth and endured the strain, then turned to Lin Jie and said, “Do you remember the conclusion we came to back in Junxiao's secret realm?”

Lin Jie, unable to recall in the moment, shook his head, while Wu Nan was even less familiar with the context.

“I’ll explain the details to you later,” Yu Xian said to Wu Nan before continuing, “In short, back then, we discovered that ever since that blockhead entered the Sanqing Pool, the Ice Soul began exhibiting unusual activity. The only distinctive thing about that blockhead was the Seven-Star Pill inside him. That tells us that the Seven-Star Pill has the ability to influence the Ice Soul.”

“How—” Lin Jie, straining to guide the turbulent energy in his meridians into balance, said, “How does it influence it? That pill’s properties are inherently wicked. Could it be that its influence is just pure chaos—sometimes absorbing energy, sometimes releasing it?”

“The Seven-Star Pill, once fully formed, has a specific effect: it amplifies the host’s spiritual power exponentially in its early stages, but once the power reaches a critical point, the host’s meridians reverse, and their blood and qi flow backward,” Yu Xian explained, his hands steady on his long sword. “The Ice Soul, from the beginning, has never behaved like a lifeless object. It wouldn’t be wrong to say it has now become the host of the Seven-Star Pill. And the distinctive characteristic of the pill is this: the higher the host’s cultivation, the greater the influence; the lower the cultivation, the lesser the effect. The Ice Soul, as the host, is brimming with spiritual energy and possesses extraordinary power, so the influence on it is naturally enormous. That’s why—”

Wu Nan, though unfamiliar with the prior events, quickly grasped the logic from Yu Xian’s explanation and interjected, “So the Seven-Star Pill skipped its initial stages and directly reversed the Ice Soul’s meridians and qi flow?”

“Exactly!” Yu Xian nodded. “That’s exactly what I think. Right now, the Ice Soul has completely inverted. Once a force that absorbed spiritual energy, it’s now become something that releases it.”

Lin Jie exclaimed, “Then isn’t that great?! Once its energy is fully drained, it’ll stop causing trouble and just become a useless piece of stone!”

Wu Nan, however, frowned slightly and shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“Exactly,” Yu Xian agreed. “It sounds easy, but no one knows the full depth of the Ice Soul’s spiritual power or when it will run out. If it keeps scattering its energy like this, it could lead to major problems. The mortal world beyond isn’t like the Hengtian Sect, surrounded by restrictive barriers. It can’t handle such havoc. The only solution is to contain this endless spiritual energy here…”

Before he could finish, Wu Nan leaped into the air. His indigo robes billowed as he summoned a spiritual brush and began painting runes midair. Wherever the brush’s tip landed, golden light swirled.

With incredible speed, Wu Nan completed a rune and launched it into a specific location, calling out to Yu Xian, “Ancestor!”

Yu Xian didn’t need further instruction. Understanding Wu Nan’s intent immediately, he leaped to the spot where the rune had landed, positioning himself as one of the formation’s anchor points.

Seeing Yu Xian in position, Wu Nan continued drawing with his brush. He quickly completed a second rune and directed it to another location. Without speaking, he then swept the spiritual brush in a wide arc, moving Lin Jie and the other young disciples to that rune’s location.

With two anchor points set, Wu Nan drew a third rune and sent it to the third location. Finally, he descended and stationed himself at the last point.

Once the formation was complete, it formed an enormous inverted golden bell that extended from the heavens to the ground, encasing them and the Ice Soul within its bounds.

This formation was perfectly suited to the current situation. Each of the three rune points required a massive influx of spiritual energy to sustain the inverted golden bell, and that energy came directly from the overwhelming spiritual power flooding into their bodies. This created a delicate balance between the formation’s energy demand and the energy supply.

However, this balance was not absolute—it was only a relative equilibrium.

The speed at which the formation consumed spiritual energy was far slower than the rate at which the Ice Soul was releasing it, so the formation could only maintain itself temporarily, providing a brief reprieve.

Above the Ice Soul, the densest and most torrential spiritual energy continued to pour madly into Bai Ke’s body. When the force binding them loosened slightly, Junxiao intended to take Bai Ke and leave the Ice Soul's core. However, as he shielded Bai Ke’s heart meridian and prepared to move, he noticed that Bai Ke's previously furrowed brows gradually relaxed.

The tension in his muscles eased, and what was unbearable spiritual energy for everyone else seemed to act as a soothing balm for Bai Ke.

This reaction made Junxiao pause. After all, Bai Ke’s life and safety were his top priority. If this overwhelming spiritual energy was temporarily beneficial to Bai Ke, Junxiao didn’t mind enduring the excruciating pain to stay here with him.

It was as if Bai Ke was reclaiming all the cultivation from a past life that had been destroyed by the Ice Soul a thousand years ago. The more spiritual energy he absorbed, the stronger it became.

Eventually, Junxiao couldn’t help but suspect that it might have something to do with the Seven-Star Pill that had once resided in Bai Ke's body, leaving traces of its properties behind. As a result, Bai Ke seemed increasingly like a living Seven-Star Pill, drawing all the Ice Soul’s spiritual energy into himself.

Junxiao, standing nearby, could clearly feel the influx of spiritual energy into his own body diminish significantly. The unbearable swelling pain in his meridians subsided to a more manageable level.

Yet he didn’t care about his own condition. While forcibly channeling the spiritual energy in his body, he kept his eyes fixed on Bai Ke, ready to take him away at the slightest sign of distress—even something as minor as a frown.

However, as the spiritual energy within Bai Ke became more abundant, his appearance began to change.

Junxiao had previously disguised Bai Ke to resemble the young Bai Lingchen. Although Lin Jie and the others couldn’t detect anything unusual and simply thought Bai Ke had somehow swapped faces, Junxiao could tell it was the effect of layered spells.

Now, though, he watched as that spell-like quality gradually faded. Yet Bai Ke’s transformation wasn’t drastic; his blind eyes and the crimson streaks around them, which looked like bloodstains, did not reappear.

To Junxiao, the changes seemed more like subtle adjustments to the youthful face.

His features became more mature, more defined. His complexion remained pale, framed by black hair, while his slender, sharp face took on a refined elegance.

The boyish vigor faded from him, replaced by an icy, aloof demeanor—

It evoked images of the snow-covered peaks of Yunfu Palace, blanketed by endless, drifting snowfall.

Even if Junxiao had closed his eyes, he could still picture it clearly—

That was Bai Lingchen’s face.

 

Translator : DarNan