In that instant, his mind almost went buzzing and became completely confused. However, soon after, that confusion was dispelled —

Although the faintly visible lower half of the face looked almost identical to Yin Wushu's, how could it be him?! How could Yin Wushu be dressed in wide sleeves and with his hair grown long again, unconscious and sealed within such a heavy layer of ice?!

Almost immediately, Xie Bai thought of things like illusion arrays. Just as he came to his senses, he heard a sharp intake of breath from Lou Xianyue beside him.

He glanced at Lou Xianyue and followed her gaze towards the top of the steep cliff.

There, another figure sat on top of the cliff, almost perched on the edge. The wind on the top of the mountain swirled the snow around the person, lifting half of their coat.

To ordinary people, the position was somewhat distant, but with Xie Bai's vision, they could clearly see the person's appearance, as if they were right in front of them.

That was Yin Wushu!

He sat cross-legged, with his back straight, his eyes closed tightly, and his lips pale, almost devoid of any blood color. The scattered snowflakes fell on his hair and eyelashes, making him appear silent.

Above his head, the swirling black clouds formed a vortex-like pattern, appearing particularly heavy and dense, with a deep black color. At his feet, countless faint golden threads extended from him, penetrating the thick layer of ice along the steep cliff. In the shadow, they were entwined tightly around the person encased in ice.

Lou Xianyue and the merman were dumbfounded, staring at the scene without saying a word, not knowing what had surprised them.

Xie Bai didn't have time to pay attention to them. As he tried to ignore the person in the ice and stepped forward to climb up the cliff to check on Yin Wushu's condition, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if someone had forcefully pierced his flesh and bones with a steel nail, stabbing into his heart.

Caught off guard, he grunted and doubled over, clutching his chest tightly.

Immediately after, the area of his chest began to throb with the frequency of his heartbeat, each beat causing a sharp pain, both in the location of the pain and in the piercing sensation, reminiscent of the three copper nails driven into his heart back then.

Those three copper nails had disappeared when he woke up all those years ago, leaving only three blood holes in his chest, which quickly scabbed over.

Now, he realized that this burning sensation came from his chest, because besides the pain in his chest, the heat from all over his body began to dissipate rapidly.

It was like squeezing water out of an already dry towel, and even more water could be squeezed out.

The last bit of warmth in Xie Bai's body gathered at his chest, which was almost melting, while the rest of his body slowly stiffened and froze. This mixture of heat and cold was truly torturous. In just the blink of an eye, his already pale face lost all color, and a thin layer of cold sweat oozed from his forehead, quickly turning into frost.

For a moment, Xie Bai felt as if he had returned to the days before he was five years old, back to the days when he was repeatedly tormented by the Hundred Ghosts Corpse-Nurturing Formation.

He gritted his teeth and endured for a while, but finally couldn't hold on any longer. With a "thud," he fell to his knees on the snow-covered ground.

"Xiao Bai!" Lou Xianyue was shocked and grabbed his arm, then exclaimed, "Why are you colder than the ice?!"

His fingers spasmed tightly around his chest, and the little black cat couldn't even get close. Lou Xianyue and the merman were shocked and didn't know what was going on. They didn't dare to act rashly.

In the intense pain, Xie Bai suddenly heard the sound of thousands of ghosts crying, like a tide rushing over, sorrowful and panicked. It seemed that an invisible hand reached into his chest, stirred around, and with a phantom-like click, two black mists dispersed from his chest. One drifted and flew directly to the top of the cliff, winding around Yin Wushu, while the other passed through the thick layer of ice and wrapped around the person in the ice.

At the moment when the three people above and below the cliff were bound together, the black clouds in the sky surged violently, and a strong wind rose out of nowhere. A tremendous pressure emanated from the three individuals, directly knocking Lou Xianyue and the merman far away. The merman was knocked out of his fish-tail form, coughing up blood as he collapsed like soft mud on the ground, while Lou Xianyue fell like a broken kite tens of meters away, unable to get up.

For a moment, thunder roared accompanied by flashes of lightning in the rolling black clouds. The wind and snow seemed to be pulled by some strange force, pouring down from the cliff, crashing wildly into the thick layer of ice below.

Xie Bai's mind was occupied by intense pain, but he retained a faint sense of perception. He vaguely felt like his body had become an empty vessel, with thick and pure spiritual energy pouring in from one side and rushing out from the other.

However, he couldn't tell which was entering and which was exiting.

On the cliff, the blood drained from Yin Wushu's face in an instant. His tightly closed eyes trembled slightly, as if trying to open but being trapped in some kind of situation that prevented him from doing so.

The golden threads spreading from him into the ice began to break one by one. Each time one snapped, it emitted a sharp clang, like some kind of countdown, piercing the eardrums and causing inner unrest.

And with each sharp clang, cracks would appear on the thick layer of ice on the cliff.

In the blink of an eye, the ice wall was covered with long and winding cracks, resembling a tangled spider web. The white cracks destroyed the transparent ice surface, obscuring the figure of the person in the ice, making it impossible to see his appearance clearly.

Just as the last golden thread under Yin Wushu snapped, the heavy ice layer, now riddled with cracks, exploded with a loud bang. Along with the shattered ice, numerous black objects, each about the size of a finger, flew out. These were the eighty-one Soul-Nailing Nails. As some flew out, they brushed Xie Bai, leaving two long, thin wounds on his hand and face, from which a few drops of blood seeped.

At this point, Xie Bai hardly felt the minor injuries on his skin and flesh. Because in his mind, a clear whistle directly pierced the wailing of the fierce ghosts, causing a sudden pain in his temples. He felt a sweet sensation in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood.

As the blood was expelled, the piercing pain in his chest gradually subsided like a retreating tide, gradually diminishing until only a faint discomfort remained.

Xie Bai gasped twice, weakly releasing the hand that had been clutching his chest, hanging his head in silence for a moment before summoning the strength to open his eyes and look up. However, he saw that the thick layer of ice had completely shattered, and the person in the ice had disappeared without a trace.

He was stunned, and suddenly turned his head to look at the cliff and saw a black mist curling away and returning to his body, and Yin Wushu, who was sitting cross-legged on the cliff, suddenly opened his eyes.

 

Translator : DarNan