Chapter 949: Space Rift

The cold wind halted the instant Yan Buji stepped through the city gate, replaced by a suffocating dead Silence. The white breath he exhaled solidified into ice crystals before him, fluttering down and making faint crackling sounds. Ice corpses on both sides of the passage flickered in the gray mist, their faces frozen at the final moment, terror eternally fixed.

The Abni Sword fully unsheathed, its blade wrapped in gray mist that eroded the surrounding chill, emitting a hissing sound like a venomous snake spitting. Yan Buji's fingertip brushed the sword's spine, a strand of gray mist seeping into the ice along his finger. The feedback tightened his brows; this ice was not ordinary cold but contained a twisted nether force.

"Sure enough, it's not as simple as the Xuanming Yin Tide," he muttered, his boots crushing ice crystals beneath him. In the hand of the ice corpse of the black‑robed elder ahead, the Branch Hall Token glowed with an eerie blue light. The moment Yan Buji reached out to touch it, the token snapped with a "crack," revealing a black crystal the size of a fingernail.

The crystal floated up, then suddenly erupted in a blinding black light! Yan Buji stepped back three paces, the gray mist forming a shield before him. Yet the expected attack never came; the black light twisted and coiled like a living thing, forming a rotating portal before him.

From within the portal came a chilling wail, as if ten million wronged souls were lamenting in unison.

"Spatial Rift?" Yan Buji's pupils snapped shut.

Before he could think further, an uncontrollable suction suddenly erupted!

He gouged two deep trenches with his feet on the ice, the Abni Sword thrust into the ground, sparks flying, yet it was still dragged inch by inch toward the black hole.

The moment the gray mist met the black light, it melted like snow hitting boiling oil, and at the last instant he abruptly swung the sword blade sideways.

The world shattered before his eyes.

When Yan Buji once again sensed his body's existence, he found himself floating in a chaotic void. There was no up, down, left, or right, only twisted bands of light slithering around like a massive python.

In the distance floated the wreckage of a sub‑hall of the Dawn Dusk Hall, its ice corpses writhing strangely, as if something was about to break through the ice.

"Spatial fissure..." he instantly identified the environment. Such artificially created sub‑space is usually a secret testing ground for top sects, but this place had clearly gone out of control.

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot from his back; Yan Buji instinctively spun and swung his sword, the Abni Sword colliding with the incoming claws and sparking blinding flames!

The attacker was a humanoid monster, its body covered in crystal‑like scales, its head resembling a wolf whose skin had been stripped away.

More horrifying, a frost‑flower seal of the Heaven Cold Palace was emblazoned on its neck! The monster opened its mouth, spewing ink‑blue ice flames; Yan Buji traced a circle with his sword edge, the gray mist solidifying into a vortex that devoured the ice flames entirely.

"Early Refinement of Void?" sensing the monster's aura, Yan Buji sneered even more. Ah

The Abni Sword suddenly trembled and buzzed, seven ancient runes along its spine lighting up in succession. When the final rune burst forth blood‑red light, the sword's gray mist instantly turned into countless fine threads, piercing the monster's seven orifices and entering its body.

The monster let out a terrifying wail as its surface scales exploded one after another. Yan Buji gestured with his sword, all the gray threads simultaneously contracted, twisting the monster into a ball of blood‑filled mist. Yet before he could catch his breath, the void rippled, and dozens of figures bearing the same aura materialized from all directions!

"Thirty‑seven heads... all in the Refinement of Void stage," Yan Buji licked his suddenly dry lips. These monsters were clearly artificially bred war weapons; the seal on their necks matched exactly the emblem on the Han Shuang Robe. The first three monsters that surged forward formed a triangular formation, their claws tearing space fissures that resembled black lightning.

Yan Buji suddenly withdrew all defenses, allowing the claws to pierce his chest, but at the moment of contact his body vaporized!

The three claw strikes collided, triggering a spatial collapse, and the re‑coalesced Yan Buji appeared behind the monster; the Abni Sword sliced a crescent of gray light. As three heads rose, the severed necks expelled eerie blue ice crystals.

The battle erupted fully. Six spider‑like monsters spat out crystalline webs, each strand chilling the soul with freezing cold. Yan Buji crossed the sword in his left hand, while his right hand wielded the Rift Staff, chanting the seal!

A twisted black hole manifested in his palm, swallowing the webs along with two monsters that failed to dodge.

The black hole instantly exploded, the splintered ice shards turning the nearest three monsters into a sieve.

This was Yan Buji's proof, after his Cosmic Dao breakthrough, of his mastery over the Cosmic Dao Law, especially with the Rift Staff—a Seven‑turn Immortal Accumulation that had accompanied him for years and was now wielded as effortlessly as an arm.

But more monsters surged from the void.

A gigantic beast with bone wings sprouting from its back suddenly ambushed, and Yan Buji, unable to dodge, was slammed hundreds of zhang away, shattering countless floating ice rocks along the way. His blood froze before it could spill; he thrust the Abni Sword into an ice rock behind him to halt his retreat, only to see seventeen or eighteen icy flames intertwine into a death net that descended upon him.

"Trouble." Yan Buji brushed the ice shards from his mouth, then abruptly bit his tongue tip, spitting his essence blood onto the blade. The Abni Sword emitted a delighted hum, its edge swelling to a hundred zhang, and countless twisted human faces rose within the gray mist.

When the massive sword cleaved down, the entire space trembled! The icy flame net split in two, the aftershock bisecting seven monsters at the waist. The slain monsters' bodies turned into icy water, only to re‑coalesce in the distance.

The battle stalemated. Yan Buji gradually realized these monsters could infinitely resurrect by exploiting spatial properties, while his own mana recovered extremely slowly in the alien dimension. After the thirty‑fourth execution of the same wolf‑headed monster, he suddenly noticed that every monster, upon rebirth, briefly passed through a specific coordinate.

"Got you." Yan Buji abruptly abandoned his defenses, bracing three claw strikes as he charged toward that point. Blood crystallized in the air into red ice, and amid excruciating pain he saw a faceted black ice floating there.

It was the enlarged version of the crystal from the Branch Hall Token!

All the monsters had black‑ice filaments inside them, linked to it.

Eight monsters seemed to sense his intent and lunged madly to block. Yan Buji let out a long howl, the Abni Sword flew from his grip, splitting in the air into myriad sword shadows that formed a strangling sword formation. He formed complex seals with both hands, gray mist seeping from every pore. "Nine‑dark Abyss, hear my command!"

The gray mist solidified into eighteen chains that pierced the void, and the whole space suddenly rang with a crisp, glass‑shattering sound. All monsters froze in unison, the black‑ice filaments inside them trembling violently. Yan Buji, bleeding from his seven orifices, laughed uproariously, his hands tearing as he shouted, "Come out!"

The black‑ice crystal was ripped violently from the space, its surface instantly riddled with cracks. The monsters emitted desperate wails as their bodies began to collapse.

Seizing the chance, Yan Buji recalled the Abni Sword; man and blade merged into a gray meteor that pierced straight into the crystal's core!

Crack—

The world inverted again. When Yan Buji fell back into the Branch Hall passage, he clutched the shattered black‑ice crystal in his hand. All the ice corpses around vanished, leaving only a field of ice powder. He staggered to his feet and found that within the crystal shards was sealed a familiar aura—the very source of the "living corpse" mentioned in Yu Xinghai's mission jade slip.

From afar came a muffled crack as ice layers shattered, as if a colossal being was awakening.

Yan Buji shoved a pill into his mouth, glanced toward the depths of the Branch Hall, and sneered, "Heaven Cold Palace... what sins are you forging?"

The Abni Sword sensed its master's battle intent, emitting a blood‑thirsty hum. He walked forward across the ice powder, and within the crushed crystals under his boots, faint twisted human faces flickered briefly.