Chapter 951: Counterstrike

The ground suddenly trembled violently, and the corpses of the dead monsters melted together, forming a black ice river that flowed deeper into the side hall. Yan Buji tried to block it, but countless ice spikes suddenly erupted from the ground, forcing him to retreat repeatedly.

The ice river flowed into the darkness, where two pale blue "lanterns" suddenly lit up.

No, those were a pair of eyes! Accompanied by a teeth‑aching sound of bones grinding, a massive creature slowly rose from the shadows.

It was formed from the fused corpses of all the monsters, standing over ten zhang tall, with six arms and three heads, each head wearing a tattered ice‑crystal crown.

"Is this the true master?" Yan Buji spat a mouthful of blood‑froth, his eyes burning with greater battle spirit.

The giant monster opened its three mouths simultaneously, and what came out was not a roar but a twisted, off‑key human phrase: "Trespasser… intruder… die…"

The monster's six arms waved at once, conjuring six different ice weapons out of thin air: sword, spear, axe, hammer, bow, and whip.

The most bizarre thing was the black crystal embedded in its chest, exactly the kind Yan Buji had seen in the spatial fissure, only ten times larger!

The first wave of attack came without warning. The ice bow was drawn to full, and an ice arrow as thick as a child's arm shot through the air. Yan Buji sidestepped, and as the arrow brushed past, it suddenly exploded into hundreds of fine needles. A gray‑mist shield materialized in time, yet three ice needles pierced the defense, embedding deep into his right shoulder.

"Sss!"

Yan Buji gasped cold air; the ice needles melted upon entering his body, but the chill spread along his meridians to his heart. He acted instantly, pointing his finger like a blade, gouging out the flesh on his shoulder. The fresh blood froze into red ice crystals before hitting the ground, clinking as they fell.

The monster seized the chance to close in; the ice spear shot out like a poisonous dragon from a cave, stabbing at his throat. Yan Buji raised his sword to block, and the spear and sword clashed, producing a deafening boom. The shockwave flattened the surrounding broken walls, revealing a massive formation at the bottom of the side hall.

It was clearly a spatial teleportation array, but its core had been manually damaged, and black slime continuously seeped from the fractured pattern.

"I see…" Yan Buji suddenly understood.

This side hall wasn't attacked by the Yin Tide; it was a mishap from an experiment by the Heavenly Cold Palace, causing an interdimensional monster invasion! Those zombies were probably cultivators controlled by the black ice crystals.

In an instant of split consciousness, the ice hammer came crashing down.

Yan Buji hastily swung his sword, and the blow drove both feet into the ground a foot deep.

A sweet taste rose in his throat, and another mouthful of fresh blood splashed onto the blade. After drinking the blood, the Abni Sword's ferocity surged, its gray mist suddenly swelling, and it even corroded the monster's arm in reverse along the ice hammer.

The monster winced in pain, and its three heads simultaneously emitted a sharp shriek. The sound‑wave attack came abruptly, ripping Yan Buji's eardrums, and two streams of blood flowed from his ears.

Worse, the sound wave triggered spatial resonance, and fine black cracks began to appear around, threatening the already fragile spatial fissure with collapse!

At the critical moment, Yan Buji became completely calm.

"Heavenly Heart Four-Form Verdict!"

Although the monster's strength far exceeded Yan Buji's expectations, its barrage of varied attacks actually filled Yan Buji with fighting spirit!

Yan Buji responded in kind with punches, palms, staff, and chain flails, matching the monster blow for blow, making it impossible to determine a winner in technique.

The monster raged, and a black light suddenly shot from its chest crystal.

Yan Buji neither dodged nor evaded, allowing the black light to pierce his chest, yet the wound bled no blood, only gray mist churned.

He grinned, baring blood‑stained teeth: "Got you."

Before the words left his mouth, his whole body transformed into a gray lightning, and the Abni Sword thrust straight into the monster's chest crystal!

The monster's remaining three arms frantically tried to block, but the gray‑mist armor repelled them. The moment the blade touched the black crystal, Yan Buji detonated all the gray‑mist energy within his body.

Boom!!!

The explosion's flash was blinding.

When the light faded, a huge void was blown out of the monster's chest, the black crystal shattered. Yet it was not completely dead; its broken body struggled to reassemble. Yan Buji knelt on one knee, the aftereffects of the shattered core began to surface, blood seeping from all seven orifices.

At that moment, the ground formation suddenly glowed with an eerie light.

The broken pattern writhed like a living thing, beginning to self‑repair! Worse, the shattered black‑crystal fragments also gathered toward the array's center, seemingly to coalesce again.

"You won't!"

Yan Buji summoned his last breath, hurling the Abni Sword toward the array's core. The long sword pierced the eye of the formation like a meteor, gray mist clashing fiercely with black light.

The entire side hall began to collapse, and spatial cracks spread like spider webs.

In the nick of time, a object flew out of Yan Buji's embrace—it was a token given by Yu Xinghai!

The token hovered, projecting the dark‑moon mark unique to Morning‑Dusk Hall. This mark resonated with the Abni Sword's gray mist, temporarily stabilizing the collapsing space.

Yan Buji, heart uplifted, bit his tongue and spat a mouthful of his life‑blood onto the token.

After absorbing the blood, the token's light flared, and the projected mark turned into a solid pillar of light that slammed into the formation. The already half‑repaired pattern shattered again, and the black‑crystal shards were gradually worn away by the pillar.

The monster let out an unwilling roar, its body beginning to crumble.

But the middle head suddenly sneered: "You… cannot stop… the great army is coming…"

Having said that, its whole body collapsed with a boom, turning into a pool of black water that seeped into the cracks and vanished.

Yan Buji collapsed on the ground, unable to move even his fingers.

Now he was at the end of his strength.

"Too strong… that monster seems to be under some restriction, otherwise with my current power I'd still not be a Nascent Soul level opponent," Yan Buji inhaled deeply.

"The great army is approaching?"

"Where did those black ice crystals originate from?"

"Or perhaps a cultivator versed in the Way of Control is practicing within a spatial fissure, or maybe a cultivator from the legendary cave paradises?"

Yan Buji was somewhat puzzled; in the Nine Heavens Five Realms, some special cave paradises serve as bases for hidden forces.

Of course, there are more than one or two cave paradises; throughout history many cultivation sects have moved into these sanctuaries to avoid calamities.

Yan Buji, versed in the Cosmic Dao, naturally knows that these cave paradises are themselves part of the Nine Heavens Five Realms, merely spiritual‑rich cultivation holy lands, similar to secret realms; however, secret realms are mostly unknown, while those cave paradises usually have owners.

"But why does this black ice space appear near the side hall of Morning‑Dusk Hall? Could it be that the people of Morning‑Dusk Hall had long sensed a mysterious space here?"

As for whether this place is closely tied to Heavenly Cold Palace, if Morning‑Dusk Hall was unaware of the spatial array here, then it was the work of Heavenly Cold Palace;

If Morning‑Dusk Hall also knew, then the situation is probably very deep.