Move them, what else can we do?

When the spell effect on Bai Ke’s face completely dissipated, he had fully transformed into Bai Lingchen, without a single trace of disguise.

Junxiao froze entirely in place, staring at that face for a long time before finally murmuring, "Master..." His voice was hoarse, choked with emotion, barely audible.

The dense spiritual energy from the Ice Soul continued to pour endlessly into Bai Ke's body. As Junxiao monitored his meridians, he noticed that the influx of energy was growing even stronger, while a force within Bai Ke's body was steadily refining and assimilating it.

At the same time, the Ice Soul itself seemed to grow more frenzied. It was like a massive, uncontrollable fan spinning faster and faster, releasing increasingly thick torrents of spiritual energy in chaotic bursts, as though it might collapse entirely in the next instant and dump all of its energy out at once.

However, the spiritual energy within the Ice Soul seemed bottomless. If it were to suddenly erupt in full, no one in this confined space would be able to withstand it.

Even now, with the ever-increasing influx of spiritual energy, everyone under the bell-formation—aside from Bai Ke—was already struggling to cope.

The spiritual energy consumed to maintain the inverted golden bell-formation was no longer enough to counteract the pressure. Excess energy kept surging, either into Bai Ke’s body or into the meridians of everyone else.

The first to falter were the group of young disciples.

They were inexperienced in refining and directing the overwhelming spiritual energy within themselves. The uncontrolled surge of energy was hindering their meridians, on the brink of tearing them apart. Several of them were already pale-faced, drenched in cold sweat pouring from their foreheads like rain.

Soon, the young disciples could no longer hold out.

A triangular structure is inherently stable, but when one point collapses, the other two cannot sustain it for long. And even if they could, the bell-formation wouldn’t last much longer at this rate.

At the speed the Ice Soul was releasing energy, forcing the bell-formation to hold would only result in everyone dying from spiritual energy overload.

Yet if the bell-formation were allowed to dissipate, the spiritual energy would flood directly into the mortal world. The ones to suffer then would not just be those present but countless ordinary people.

The moment the young disciples broke under the pressure, Junxiao raised his hand, pulling his life soul over to protect Bai Ke. Then, in a flash, he appeared at the node where the young disciples had been stationed.

With his reinforcement, the pressure within the inverted golden bell immediately lessened.

But as had been mentioned earlier, even Junxiao couldn’t hold out for long. Having endured nearly a hundred heavenly lightning strikes to shield Bai Ke, his internal injuries were severe.

As the bell-formation verged on collapse, the figure that had been lying motionless within the Ice Soul suddenly rose and began to float. A white robe billowed and swirled amidst the torrents of spiritual energy streaming out of the Ice Soul.

Junxiao, Yu Xian, and Wu Nan, who were each holding down one of the three points of the formation, all fixed their gazes on the figure now suspended in the air.

Even at this distance, there was no mistaking the face of the person hovering in the void—

He had his black hair tied up high, just like thousands of years ago. His features were handsome, with a cold aura that kept people at arm's length, like the coldest snow atop Yunfu Mountain.

However, his eyes remained closed, still not fully awake.

Junxiao had already been impacted once, and Yu Xian and Wu Nan were stunned when they suddenly saw Bai Lingchen appear in front of them again.

They opened their mouths several times, but no sound came out.

While everyone was stunned, Lin Jie, who had just released his energy from the formation point, endured the intense pain in his body and, with a pale face and an expression of astonishment, pointed in a direction and said, “How did they get out?!”

All their attention had been focused on Bai Ke, so they hadn’t noticed anything else. Now, hearing Lin Jie’s words, they were startled and immediately turned their focus back, sensing someone approaching outside the golden bell. Specifically, three people—one of them was heading straight for the bell, while the other two were still behind and had not entered the area yet.

But when they turned to look at the person coming, Yu Xian and Junxiao were stunned again.

As the person neared the golden bell, a strong, uncontrollable surge of spiritual power emanated from them. It was chaotic, as though the person could not control it.

From the strength of this energy, the person was no mere novice. At the very least, they were on par with a small sect’s elder.

However... the person approaching was Bai Zixu.

He was rushing towards the golden bell at an unprecedented speed, almost as fast as half of Yu Xian’s speed, explaining why the two people behind him couldn’t keep up.

But he shouldn’t be here! He should be in Junxiao’s secret realm, drinking tea, reading, or even resting... he shouldn’t be in this state, here at all.

Unless—

Bai Lingchen was truly waking up, and Bai Zixu’s soul, which belonged to Bai Lingchen, had been disturbed and awakened as well, bringing Bai Zixu straight here.

Bai Zixu, standing outside the golden bell, appeared disoriented. His movements were erratic and unclear.

He was about to crash into the golden bell, and the three supporting the formation points staggered—just as the immense energy spilling from the ice soul reached its peak, it almost tore the bell open. The three people supporting the points felt the first impact.

The golden bell, shining with golden runes, gave off a loud boom as cracks began to appear on its surface, seeming on the verge of collapse.

But the ice soul showed no signs of stopping. The reversing effect of the Seven-Star Pill was reaching its peak, and not only was spiritual energy flowing out instead of being absorbed, countless vengeful spirits trapped inside the ice soul were now freed, pushed out by the relaxing restraints.

Countless vengeful spirits rose from the ice soul like dark clouds and scattered in all directions, trying to escape the area.

The collapsing golden bell was suddenly hit by these spirits, and the pressure was too much for it to handle. The bell shattered in midair.

The three people at the formation points were struck by the shockwave and were thrown back, nearly spitting blood.

As the spiritual energy trapped inside the golden bell surged out with the force of a flood, Bai Ke, who had been floating in midair and had recovered his true form, suddenly opened his eyes. With a sweep of his wide sleeves, he trapped the escaping energy and quickly formed a hand gesture. Hundreds of golden beams shot out, weaving into a net that captured the vengeful spirits.

Only two of the spirits escaped: one headed straight for Bai Zixu, and the other for the injured Huo Junxiao.

Bai Ke glanced at them but did not stop the spirits. One spirit slammed into Bai Zixu’s forehead, causing no harm but entering his body instead.

The other spirit emerged from Bai Zixu’s chest, seemingly drawn by a great magnetic force, and flew directly into Bai Ke’s forehead.

After this exchange, Bai Zixu finally stopped his chaotic actions. He stood still for a moment, before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Fortunately, he was caught by the two people who arrived just in time, Aunt Pang and Zongzi.

For a moment, as the souls returned to their rightful places, Bai Ke’s cultivation rose to a new level.

He raised his hand and drew four formation points. Junxiao, Yu Xian, and Wu Nan, who were on the ground, immediately understood his intentions. They each took their positions, occupying the southeast, west and east points, while Bai Ke himself settled in the north.

He then drew two formation arrays along the four points. The swelling mass of spiritual energy was sent into the formation, and the four of them used their energy to forcefully suppress it. On the other side, Bai Ke raised his hand and tore open a rift in the void, directly connecting to the cycle of reincarnation, sending the countless vengeful spirits trapped in the golden thread net into it.

Once the last spirit entered the cycle, Bai Ke swept his long sleeves and closed the rift, then poured his energy into the mass of spiritual power.

The four of them exerted their strength simultaneously, and as they did, the world seemed to change—mountains and rivers shifted, winds rose, and clouds churned. Countless bolts of lightning struck down, one after another, each more violent than the last.

The ice soul beneath their feet, under the immense pressure, finally began to crack after enduring for a thousand years.

The cracks quickly spread across the entire ice soul, and large chunks of spiritual energy began to dissipate...

Finally, a deafening explosion rang out, shaking the ground. The ice soul, which had caused harm for a thousand years, shattered into pieces and was pulverized into dust, scattering into the air, along with the dissipating spiritual energy, which the four of them sealed beneath the earth.

Once the pressure was released, the people who had been entangled with the ice soul showed signs of exhaustion.

The young disciples, facing such a trial for the first time, had been pretending to remain calm up until now. But at this point, they couldn’t keep up the facade anymore. With so much spiritual energy forcibly infused into their bodies, they could hardly control it. After finally letting out a breath, they collapsed one after another with a thud.

Wu Nan, who had gone mad for thousands of years, had relied heavily on the flower from Aunt Pang to regain his senses. However, having been in chaos for so long, when he finally regained his mind, too many thoughts flooded into his brain. No one could bear such a mental overload, and he quickly succumbed to sleep.

Not to mention Yu Xian; he had only just recovered from a previous injury. Even though he had regained some strength, his foundation was still damaged. Having pushed himself again from the beginning to the end, without rest, he finally let go after resolving his most pressing concerns and immediately went into a deep sleep.

As for Junxiao and Bai Ke—one had already poured some of his spiritual energy into Bai Ke, was not in peak condition, and had been severely injured several times. Additionally, the soul that had returned to its original form was mixed with the ice soul’s evil energy, which would take some time to assimilate. The other had his body filled with ice soul energy and even greater evil energy. On top of that, the memories he had lost over thousands of years had returned, leaving him physically and mentally drained. Like Junxiao, Bai Ke also needed time to adjust to the returning soul and eventually fell unconscious.

In the chaotic aftermath, only Aunt Pang and Zongzi remained. Looking at the fallen people around them—some dead, some injured, some unconscious—they exuded a feeling of being “alone and detached from the world.”

Zongzi twitched his mouth and looked at Aunt Pang, saying, “So… how do we clean this up?”

Aunt Pang helplessly glanced around and replied, “Move them, what else can we do?”

 

Translator : DarNan