Trials of the Abyss

Atop the Sacred Mountain, crystal-clear ice shards the size of a palm leaf shot out from the altar shrouded in cold fog.

These shards struck the divine artifact, the Heart of Winter, causing it to crackle loudly under the impact.

The outer crystalline layer of the Heart of Winter occasionally unleashed a shimmering wave of frost, scattering the incoming ice shards.

A faint yet piercing light flickered deep within the dense cold fog like a twinkling eye was observing from within the Heart of Winter.

Pang Jian remained unaware of this.

The emergence of the ice walls obstructed Pang Jian's path to kill the Grand Elder.

Whoosh!

Pang Jian soared up to attack the Ice Race Grand Elder from above.

"Esteemed guest, I urge you to calm down!" cried the elder holding the Grand Elder’s scepter.

Whoosh!

A glistening icy river burst forth from the Grand Elder's scepter and stretched magnificently across the sky.

The piercing cold ran wild, absorbing Pang Jian's Cosmic Fission into the crystalline ice river in the sky and gradually freezing it.

"Bing Lan! What on earth is happening?" the elder woman called to the Grand Elder. "What did you see in his mind?"

"He-he..." Grand Elder Bing Lan pointed one shaky hand at Pang Jian before stretching out his other toward the elder holding his scepter. "Give me the Frost Scepter!"

"Explain yourself first!" The elder holding the Frost Scepter snorted coldly.

"Evil entities have possessed him! He's not a follower of the Ice Demon!" the Grand Elder shrieked. "Hurry, give me the Frost Scepter! There's a sinister consciousness deep within his soul. Only the Frost Scepter can defend against it!"

Pang Jian was hovering in the air using the black turtle scute and was about to unleash the explosive Chaos Sword Technique when he heard the Grand Elder's words.

Is he scared of my golden divine sense? Pang Jian realized. In that case—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Strands of golden divine sense surged from Pang Jian's eyes like golden lightning bolts and streaked toward the Grand Elder's ice-blue pupils.

The ice walls and the shimmering icy river could not block the golden divine sense as they were imbued with divine consciousness.

Pang Jian's golden divine sense phased through the barriers as if they were nothing and entered the Grand Elder's eyes.

An unfamiliar sea of consciousness appeared before Pang Jian.

Hundreds of cube-shaped ice crystals floated in a freezing void, each containing a fragment of the Grand Elder's soul.

The scattered ice crystals trembled as if struggling to reassemble into a complete entity.

It appeared a figure composed of these ice crystals once floated in this mysterious space, but had since been destroyed and needed to be reconstructed.

There was nothing but drifting ice crystals in the cold void.

"Ah! An outer-world evil!" The Grand Elder's scream resonated from the soul fragments within the ice crystals when the golden light appeared.

The Bee Sovereign had shattered his soul, severely damaging it and leaving him desperately trying to recover his strength so he could reassemble it.

He had been in the process of doing this when the terrifying golden divine sense.

"Bing Yuan! Give me the Frost Scepter!" his real body roared.

His only hope of fending off the golden divine sense invading his soul sea was with the Frost Scepter.

"It's too late." Pang Jian's voice echoed from the golden divine sense.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Bee Sovereign and the golden bees infiltrated the Grand Elder's soul sea, using Pang Jian's golden divine sense as a marker.

"He's going to die." The Bee Sovereign gazed coldly at the incomplete figure formed from ice crystals and frowned. "The ice crystals don't contain any divine consciousness. There's no value for me to devour them.

"Master, your golden divine sense is just as powerful as the divine consciousness of the Outer Gods. You'll have an overwhelming advantage over them if you can enter their soul sea.

"Master could try—"

Before the Bee Sovereign could finish his suggestion, Pang Jian manipulated his golden divine sense like a blade within the Grand Elder's soul sea to target the soul fragments within the ice crystals.

Pang Jian's golden divine sense seemed to have transformed into divine weapons like heavenly blades and sacred swords capable of cutting through anything in their path.

Boom!

The ice crystals in the Grand Elder's ice-blue soul sea were so fragile they shattered at the lightest contact with Pang Jian's blades of golden divine sense.

Shattering the ice crystals and eradicating the soul fragments within was an effortless task for the blades of golden divine sense.

It was as easy for Pang Jian as an Outer God seeking to corrupt a cultivator's sea of consciousness.

The Grand Elder of the Ice Race is weaker than I expected. Would others at his level crumble just as easily if I were to invade their soul seas with my golden divine sense? Pang Jian wondered.

Meanwhile, the Grand Elder's pitiful and desperate cries gradually faded into silence.

His cold, desolate soul sea collapsed in the blink of an eye, crumbling into nothing.

Pang Jian's golden divine sense hovered above the Grand Elder's muddled sea of consciousness.

"Oh, he's dead."

The radiant strands of golden divine sense then returned to Pang Jian's sea of consciousness.

"Bing Lan!" cried the other six elders of the Ice Race.

All they had seen was a flash of golden light in Pang Jian's eyes, and seconds later, their highly revered Grand Elder breathed his last.

An aura of death emanated from Grand Elder Bing Lan.

Cold, accusing eyes turned toward Pang Jian.

The elder still holding the Frost Scepter had not been able to hand it to the Grand Elder in time, and he gripped it tightly as he warned, "Everyone, keep your guard up. It's just as the Grand Elder said, he possesses the same evil power as the Outer God Puppets!

"He's capable of invading our soul sea with malicious intent! Hold fast and protect your soul sea against the evil presence!"

The six remaining Ice Race elders swiftly activated the power of their artifacts to fortify their soul seas.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Shimmering cold white light radiated from the artifacts and enveloped each of the six elders' bodies.

The cold light was reminiscent of Pang Jian's protective shield. It also carried an aura akin to the Heart of Winter and seemed capable of warding off the divine consciousness of the Outer Gods.

Ancestors of the Ice Race had used these artifacts to defend their soul seas and hunt down the Outer God Puppets imbued with divine consciousness for millennia.

Quiet probing revealed the effectiveness of the shimmering white cold light.

Even if he were to unleash his golden divine sense again, it would not be able to penetrate the cold light or invade the soul seas of the remaining six Ice Race elders.

Conversely, the cold light could dissipate and weaken his golden divine sense.

"He deserved to die." Pang Jian glanced down at the six remaining elders with a cold look. After weighing his words, he added, "He lost faith in the Ice Demon. He only wanted to save his own skin and use me as his way out. Neither the Frozen Land nor any of you were considerations in his heart."

Second Elder Bing Yuan held the Frost Scepter and replied coldly, "It doesn't matter what Bing Lan may have done. You had no right to kill him. Outsider, we wish to avoid bloodshed, so we hope you will surrender peacefully and explain everything to us."

"Surrender?" Pang Jian shook his head with a cold laugh and casually tilted his head back to gaze at the sky.

"Outsider, you won't be able to escape."

"Don't even think about leaving the Frozen Land before explaining!"

"Bing Lan's death was the result of your sly maneuvers. There's no chance you'll escape with our soul seas fortified."

Four elders ascended into the sky with the assistance of their artifacts and surrounded Pang Jian above the altar.

When the Ice Race warriors below saw four elders emerge from the fog with visible hostility toward Pang Jian, they responded in kind.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Ice Race warriors filled the sky and surrounded Pang Jian on their Spirit Avians.

It's time to go, The Bee Sovereign sighed helplessly.

The death of the Grand Elder had irreversibly worsened the situation. It had become infinitely more difficult to seize the divine consciousness within the Heart of Winter.

It was better to take their chances in the Forbidden Land of the Thunder God or the fragmented land with the perished Fire God than face the six elders with Spirit Condensation Realm equivalent cultivation in the Frozen Land.

Agreed. Pang Jian no longer cared about how the Ice Race viewed him and did not hesitate to act.

His spiritual sea surged like a rising tide.

The sun, moon, and stars in his dantian lit up dazzlingly, while the lightning vortex and fiery pool in his spiritual sea roared into motion.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The smooth, crystalline glaciers near the Sacred Mountain suddenly reflected divine light onto Pang Jian like mirrors one after another.

A mysterious force appeared to be controlling them.

Time halted and everything came to a stop.

The members of the Ice Race stared blankly at Pang Jian, their thoughts and consciousness frozen.

Although Pang Jian was still aware, he found he could not move.

He tried to reach out to the Bee Sovereign, only to realize the mysterious force had also paralyzed the Bee Sovereign.

A deep sense of unease filled him.

Something strange seemed to be happening behind him.

Whoosh!

A bizarre, dreamlike scene slowly unfolded in the space behind Pang Jian, revealing tiny stars, a blazing sun, a brilliant moon, a swirling lightning vortex, and a seething fiery pool.

The mysterious force projected Pang Jian's Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea into the sky above the altar, making it seem almost like they were tangible objects.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Clusters of green leaves, imbued with the mysteries of life and radiating life energy, floated in the air like lotus leaves on a pond.

A hard, blackish-yellow object expanded into an ethereal massive shell.

The mysterious force had also projected the Leaves of Life and the black turtle scute onto the space behind Pang Jian.

This enigmatic scene etched itself deeply into the eyes of the Ice Race members still staring blankly at Pang Jian, becoming an indelible, profound imprint that could never be erased.

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