Chapter 962

I have no idea what that Cold Heaven Venerable is up to....

Just as Yan Buji was deep in thought, the array set at the cave mouth suddenly gave an alarm—someone had triggered the outer restriction!

He immediately restrained his aura, extending his divine sense along the array. Outside the ice mountain, a female cultivator held a strange bronze mirror; wherever its light shone, the hidden array patterns sprang into view.

"Heaven-peeking Mirror?" Yan Buji's heart tightened.

This is an ancient treasure specially designed to break concealment arrays—even Yan Buji had heard of its great reputation.

Earlier, Yan Buji had specifically inquired about ways to break the restriction, and this Heaven-peeking Mirror was one of them.

I never expected it to be in the hands of the Cold Heaven Palace.

The old man and the youth stood on either side, the three approaching in a triangular formation. The youth held a Jade Box in his hands, and the aura emanating from it made Yan Buji's flesh crawl.

"Old thing, we know you're inside." The female cultivator's voice pierced the ice: "The Palace Master orders that if you hand over the black ice crystal, you may leave a whole corpse."

Yan Buji gave a cold smile without a word, quietly altering the array's layout.

Since concealment failed, he would take the offensive.

When the three Holy Envoys stepped into the hundred‑zhang radius of the mountain, the entire ice mountain suddenly shuddered violently. It was not an attack, but Yan Buji deliberately detonated the mountain's internal fragile structure!

Boom—boom—boom!

Tens of thousands of tons of ice and snow cascaded down, instantly engulfing the three, but it clearly could not kill them; Yan Buji's purpose was merely to buy time.

He swiftly mobilized his power and quickly set up the arrangement.

Amid the dust of the collapsing ice mountain, a gray shadow slipped silently into the ground.

Yan Buji employed the Five Elements Escape Technique, racing along the dark river beneath the ice layer.

It was a retreat route he had long planned; the dark river ultimately flows into the largest underground lake in Beichuan, a place with passages in all directions, ideal for shaking off pursuers.

It's not that Yan Buji doesn't know how to use the Instant Movement Technique and the Heaven Gate Law, but he sensed no void‑blocking force nearby, which in itself indicates a serious problem.

The three Holy Envoys quickly extricated themselves from the avalanche, and the Peering Heaven Mirror in Han Yue's hand had already locked onto the gray shadow moving underground.

"Damn, this old thing is really slick, actually not using the Instant Movement Technique to escape!" the youth's face darkened; as they closed in, they had already laid a remarkably intricate celestial formation, feeling no void‑blocking aura, yet it merged with the local heavens and earth by exploiting the properties of the Ice Law, making it extremely hard to detect.

If Yan Buji dares to employ any Cosmic Dao Technique, he will inevitably be back‑fired!

"Chase! They won't get far!"

However, when they pursued to the underground lake, they lost Yan Buji's trail.

On the lake's surface floated a dozen or so gray‑mist‑formed false bodies, each swimming toward a different channel. More troublesome, the lake water was mixed with the "Soul‑Confusing Sand" that disturbs consciousness, making it impossible to discern real from fake.

"Split up and chase!" the female cultivator gritted her teeth. Yet the instant the three separated, the lake bottom suddenly flared with a blinding crimson light; Yan Buji had already planted a Purple Sky Divine Thunder seed there!

Boom—boom—boom!

Continuous explosions raised towering waves in the lake. It was not to harm the enemy, but to completely scramble all breath traces. When the waters calmed, Yan Buji's true form had already vanished without a trace.

At the edge of Beichuan, in a ruined ancient temple, the light of the teleportation array gradually faded. Yan Buji stepped out of the array, his complexion pale but his eyes bright. Though forced to abandon the Profound Ice Spirit Spring—a superb healing spot—he at least escaped the pursuit.

More importantly, he uncovered the details of the Cold Heaven Sovereign.

"The old monster from a hundred thousand years ago wants to use a contemporary cultivator's body to reincarnate..." Yan Buji stroked the black ice crystal, "But judging by the state of that ice cocoon, it will need at least three months to fully recover."

He gazed toward the Tianhan Palace, a cold smile curling his lips. Three months is enough time to accomplish many things.

Why does he so desire this black ice crystal?

"An old monster on the verge of sainthood couldn't make its weakness so obvious, unless… it hadn't realized this thing was its weakness before, but that's unlikely either."

Yan Buji always loves to consider his enemies without doubt; after all, he now faces the Tianhan Palace, a massive power that has dominated Beichuan's ice domain for hundreds of thousands of years, comparable to, if not surpassing, those saintly sects.

Moreover, the Cold Heaven Sovereign is about to achieve sainthood; although Yan Buji does not know which step he has reached, he knows the opponent has certainly arrived at the pinnacle of cultivators here, within the Great Vehicle Stage, beyond further advancement…

Therefore, within this black ice likely lies some secret of sainthood!

Or perhaps… something precious the opponent unintentionally left behind?

At that thought, Yan Buji began pondering how to resolve this matter.

After a long while.

Yan Buji sat cross‑legged behind the ruined statue in the abandoned ancient temple, his palm supporting the black ice crystal.

The ice crystal glimmered with an eerie sheen in the dim light, sometimes a deep blue, sometimes pitch black, as if a life flowed within; he tried various methods.

Bleeding, consciousness probing, spiritual energy infusion—all failed to glimpse its mysteries.

"Consciousness cannot permeate..." Yan Buji furrowed his brows, "What on earth is this?"

It is related to the Cold Heaven Sovereign, the spatial fissure of the Dawn‑Dusk Hall…

"If that's truly the case..." a flash of brilliance sparked in Yan Buji's eyes, "Perhaps it can be used to sense kindred breath!"

He immediately shifted his approach, no longer forcing a break‑through, but entwining a strand of desire around the ice crystal to simulate its energy fluctuations. Sure enough, the crystal quivered faintly, and fine, hair‑like crimson patterns surfaced on its surface.

"It's responding!"

Yan Buji closed his eyes, gathered his spirit, and focused all his attention on the ice crystal.

Gradually, he sensed a faint resonance coming from the northwest, far away.

"Go have a look."

Sheathing the ice crystal, Yan Buji's form drifted out of the temple. He did not fly straight to the target; instead he circled widely, intermittently sinking into the earth and turning into wind, ensuring any pursuers were shaken off.

Three months later, Yan Buji stood on a seemingly ordinary snowfield.

There were no distinctive markings here, yet the black ice in his hand trembled most violently at this spot.

"Underground..."

He leaned forward, pressing his palm to the snow, and the gray mist seeped into the ground.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, a smile curling his lips; a hundred‑zhang below lay an ancient cave buried beneath ice and snow!

Finding the entrance took some effort.

Eventually, deep within an inconspicuous ice fissure, Yan Buji discovered a stone door covered by ice. Ancient runes were etched on it, now blurred, but the characters "Profound Darkness" could be faintly discerned.

"Profound Darkness..." Yan Buji mused, "Seems to share the same origin as the Cold Heaven Sovereign's cultivation method."

The seal on the Stone Gate had weakened over the years, and Yan Buji broke it without expending much effort.

The instant he pushed the door open, a chill more bone‑piercing than the Beichuan Ice Region slammed into his face, making even his current Peak of Refining Void cultivation shiver.

The interior of the cave residence was not spacious, and at its center was an ice crystal altar.

The most eye‑catching was the mural on the wall behind the altar: a white‑robed man resembling the Cold Celestial Venerable yet younger, inserting a piece of black ice into his brow.

The inscription beneath the mural read: "Mysterious Darkness proves the Dao, three bodies return to one."

"Three bodies return to one..." Yan Buji suddenly realized, "So the Cold Celestial Venerable is walking the Daoist 'Sever the Three Corpses' path?!"

Yan Buji, in his mortal period, had studied the classics of many schools and was well‑versed in Daoist scriptures.

The text described it as an extreme path to sainthood, refining one's own benevolent thoughts, malevolent thoughts, and attachments into three separate bodies, and after the three bodies have cultivated to fruition, re‑fusing them to assault the Saint Realm.

Yet the risk is immense; a minor slip can result in complete demonic madness.

"No wonder three saint envoys are needed..." Yan Buji sneered, "They are the new three‑corpse carriers!"