Chapter 963

I have cultivated the Xuanming Ice Soul Technique to its utmost, yet I could never break the final bottleneck. By chance I obtained the method of the three corpses attaining the Dao, and thus cut out three bodies... but the Evil Corpse went out of control, slaughtering living beings and drawing a swarm of cultivators to attack. Forced to seal the three corpses, awaiting a later day...

Who?!

Yan Buji felt a sudden jolt in his heart, and suddenly heard a voice that seemed to come from antiquity, but when he looked around, he found no trace of anyone.

"The three corpses become saints... this is the life gate..."

Yan Buji looked around in confusion, and his pupils suddenly contracted; the figure in the mural seemed to have known his return across ten million years, leaving behind a lingering thought.

The mural began to change continuously.

It was the perspective of the Benevolent Corpse of the Venerable Cold Heaven.

In the great war a hundred thousand years ago, it was the Benevolent Corpse that covertly weakened the main body's power, allowing the swarm of cultivators the chance to seal it. The Benevolent Corpse was gravely injured as a result, and before it perished here it left this ice crystal and the cave...

In its final memory, the Benevolent Corpse left a warning: "The Evil Corpse is treacherous, the Corpse Keeper is obsessive; if the two break free, they will bring disaster to all living beings..."

Yan Buji withdrew his spirit, and although the black ice in his hand had not increased in size, its internal energy had, for unknown reasons, become more condensed.

More strangely, he felt a certain connection with this ice crystal, as if he could faintly sense the location of another identical crystal far away—the second crystal that should be sealing the core of the Corpse Keeper!

"Interesting..." Yan Buji toyed with the fused black ice. "The Venerable Cold Heaven probably didn't expect his greatest weakness to end up in my hands."

He was about to continue observing when his expression suddenly changed; the warning formation at the cave entrance was triggered!

"You came quickly..."

Yan Buji sprang to his feet, preparing to leave.

In a flash, his form turned into light smoke and vanished into the cave's shadows.

A moment later, three familiar figures appeared at the entrance—it was the Three Holy Envoys! They looked rather disheveled, clearly the pursuit had not been easy.

"This is it!" the female cultivator pointed the Peering Heaven Mirror in her hand at the altar. "The secret realm sensed by the Palace Lord is right here... huh?"

Her gaze fell on the empty altar, and her complexion changed abruptly: "Someone has already been here before us!"

The elder hurried forward to inspect the altar; using an unknown secret technique, a small sword suddenly appeared on the altar: "'Xuanming Sword' is still here."

He reached out to take the black sword.

"Don't touch!" the young man shouted sharply. "Did you forget the Palace Lord's warning? On this sword..."

Before the words finished, the elder's hand had already grasped the hilt.

In an instant, the black sword emitted a terrifying suction; the elder's body withered at a visible speed, and in the blink of an eye he became a desiccated corpse!

"Damn it!" the female cultivator and the young man both flinched back, staring at the scene in horror.

Yan Buji, hidden in the shadows, froze in place. Though he vaguely sensed that something beneath the altar was extraordinary, he guessed it was a "gift" the Venerable Cold Heaven deliberately left for intruders, so he did not act.

It now seemed that the Venerable Cold Heaven had long anticipated someone would find this place.

"We've been tricked!" the female cultivator gritted her teeth. "That old thing deliberately left the sword to harm us!"

The young man's face darkened: "What do we do now? The black ice is gone, Cold Frost is dead..."

"We should first return to report to the Palace Lord," the female cultivator said reluctantly, glancing at the altar. "Since that person could safely take the black ice, they must know something. The Palace Lord has his own way to find them..."

The two hurried away, ignoring even their companion's corpse.

After confirming they had truly left, Yan Buji revealed his form.

"It seems the Venerable Cold Heaven has already sensed it..." he mused, looking at the cave entrance. "We must seize the time to find the second ice crystal; the Venerable Cold Heaven surely still has one in his possession."

"The Benevolent Corpse was buried here; the Evil Corpse must be the present Venerable Cold Heaven, and the Corpse Keeper is also sealed nearby... What would happen if I released the Corpse Keeper?" Yan Buji squinted, a plan forming in his mind.

He naturally could not personally release the Corpse Keeper; after all, they share the same origin as that great being, and if it realized he was scheming, his fate would be dire.

But what if it were the remaining two Holy Envoys?

A malicious plan surfaced in Yan Buji's mind.

Yan Buji's figure raced across the boundless snowfield, gray mist swirling with biting wind, leaving a faint, wavering trail behind him.

He clenched the black ice in his hand; the crystal's surface intermittently flashed with crimson patterns, pointing toward the location of the Corpse Keeper's seal.

"We need a sufficiently powerful beast..." Yan Buji narrowed his eyes, his spirit spreading outward like a tide.

Ordinary Divine Transformation stage beasts are far insufficient to confront the Three Holy Envoys; at least a Dao-Integration stage beast is required, and it must be extremely ferocious.

Three days later, he arrived at the most dangerous "Demon-Burial Valley" in North River.

This was the battlefield relic from the ancient war between humans and demons, still inhabited by many ancient-blooded ferocious beasts. At the valley entrance lay countless white bones, both human and beast, weathered by wind and snow into mottled fragments.

Yan Buji did not rush in; instead he set up dozens of monitoring formations around the perimeter. Soon, the arrays reported several powerful auras within the valley:

In the northeast corner there is a "Xuanming Ice Jiao", early Dao-Integration stage, adept at ice techniques; in the southwest a flock of "Blood-beaked Thunder Eagles" resides, each only at Refining Void stage but in numbers enough to threaten Dao-Integration cultivators; deepest within lurks a pulse that makes his heart race, a late Dao-Integration "Nine-Underworld Earth Dragon"!

"That's it," Yan Buji's eyes flashed with brilliance.

The Nine-Underworld Earth Dragon is an ancient aberration; its skin is rough and flesh thick, and it can manipulate subterranean yin qi, perfectly countering the ice techniques of the Heavenly Cold Palace.

He proceeded cautiously into the valley, stepping on formation nodes each time to ensure he did not disturb the other beasts.

As he delved deeper, the foul stench in the air grew stronger, and the ground began to exude a viscous black slime—corrosive secretions from the Earth Dragon.

Suddenly, the ground ahead trembled violently, and a massive black silhouette burst from the earth!

It was a colossal black insect, its body entirely ebony, over three zhang in diameter, its length incalculable. It had no eyes; its head was a huge maw lined with spiraling razor teeth, its body enshrouded in nauseating yin aura.

"Humans..." the Earth Dragon emitted a hoarse spiritual wave: "Seeking death!"

It roared and spewed a black mist; wherever it passed, even ice and snow instantly corroded into pus.

Yan Buji was prepared; his form flickered and split into nine afterimages. The black mist shattered only three of them, while his true body had already circled to the side.

"Take this!"

Gray mist coalesced into dozens of long spears, thrusting fiercely at the Earth Dragon's joint surfaces. Yet these attacks, capable of piercing a Divine Transformation cultivator, left only a few white marks on the black shell.

"Ants!" the Earth Dragon twisted its body, its massive tail sweeping horizontally. Yan Buji hastily raised a gray mist shield, yet the blow hurled him several hundred zhang, slamming him hard against the mountain wall.

"Cough..." he spat out a mouthful of blood-foam, unshaken and pleased: "What a strong brute force!"

This is exactly what he needs!

Yan Buji no longer lingered in battle; he pretended to be outmatched and turned to flee. The Earth Dragon roared, pursuing relentlessly, causing mountains to collapse and the ground to split wherever it went. He deliberately led the Earth Dragon out of the Demon-Burial Valley, and along the way "accidentally" let a few drops of fresh blood fall onto the dragon's slime—laying the groundwork for his later plan.

After fleeing a hundred li, Yan Buji suddenly employed an evasion technique to shake off the earth dragon. Confirming that the ferocious beast was still raging in place, destroying the mountain, he swiftly turned toward the direction of the corpse‑seal site.