27: Chapter 27 Frozen Turtle Breath, Rising and Falling in the Sea of ​​Evil

Crawl? With his bones completely shattered and his internal organs displaced, every single movement brought excruciating pain; he would probably fall completely apart before crawling even three zhang.

Refining Evil Qi? That was a path to death. In his current state and cultivation, actively drawing Evil Qi into his body would have only one outcome—exploding and dying.

Thus, there was only one path left—to turn himself into a "stone," a "corpse," in this Hell of Evil Qi.

Expending the last of his strength, he would completely conceal himself, entering the deepest state of suspended animation, gambling that the evil sword about to break its seal would not care about a grain of dust beneath its feet.

This was the most passive choice, but also the only choice that offered a chance of survival at the moment.

Lin Ye hesitated no longer; indeed, he had no time to hesitate. The evil sword's next wave of attacks could fall at any moment.

Forcing himself to summon one last breath of Qi, he did three things simultaneously:

First, he channeled the Ice Soul Sword Art with all his might! Not for attack, nor for defense, but to recklessly force all the remaining icy spiritual energy in his Dantian out to the surface of his body, bypassing the Meridians entirely, especially through his wounds and seven orifices! The extreme cold instantly froze his flowing blood and ice-sealed his churning internal organs, covering his body in a thick layer of frost mixed with blood. In an instant, his entire being resembled a frozen sculpture.

Second, he connected the ancient ring yuan sha on his left hand with the bone ring "bone ring" on his right hand! Not to absorb Evil Qi, but to form an extremely weak internal cycle that could only sustain the most basic life cycle. The Ancient Ring absorbed the "metallic sharpness" from the surrounding violent Evil Qi, converting it into the purest Geng Metal vitality to protect his heart; the bone ring drew upon the residual cold energy of the Ice Eye within his body, keeping his body frozen and preventing most of the Evil Qi's erosion. The dual-ring cycle was like an oil lamp flickering in a wild wind, keeping his last thread of life from being extinguished.

Third, he pushed the Qi Concealment Technique to an unprecedented extreme! It was not just about concealing his aura, but suppressing his heartbeat, blood flow, thought fluctuations, and even the "vitality" of his Soul to near nonexistence. At this moment, he truly seemed like a piece of lifeless profound ice, a skeleton thoroughly soaked in Evil Qi.

Having done all this, his consciousness, like a candle in the wind, rapidly sank into boundless darkness.

In the final instant before completely losing consciousness, he "heard" the ear-piercing sound of the last two chains snapping on the high platform, and the earth-shaking, terrifying sword hum of the evil sword as it broke free...

Then, there was only endless cold and darkness.

Time lost all meaning.

Perhaps it was but an instant, or perhaps a thousand years.

Lin Ye felt himself drifting in a boundless ocean of Evil Qi. His body was freezing cold and his consciousness was blurred; only a tiny speck of warmth at his chest (converted by the Ancient Ring) and a solid shell of ice on his body's surface (maintained by the bone ring) kept him from completely sinking and dissipating.

He could not "see," but he could "feel."

He felt that after the evil sword broke its seal, it was like an unleashed Vicious Beast, madly crashing and roaring within the hall of the Inner Chamber. The terrifying Sword Intent and Evil Qi swept through everything, leaving the already ruined hall in even worse shape. More than half of the eight stone pillars had collapsed, and the walls were covered with sword scars.

He felt the evil sword attempt to charge at the gate's Restriction, but though the Restriction was on the verge of collapse, it still stubbornly resisted. The pale blue runes flickered, seemingly about to extinguish at any moment, yet always holding on by a hair.

He felt the evil sword's violent aura sweep over his "frozen corpse" time and again. Perhaps the effects of the ice-seal and the Qi Concealment Technique were too good, perhaps it had just escaped and its intelligence was chaotic, or perhaps it truly disdained to pay attention to a "dead ant," but it never launched a direct attack on him.

He felt his injuries healing at an extremely slow pace under the ice-seal and the dual-ring internal cycle. His broken bones were connected and reinforced thread by thread by the Geng Metal vitality; his ruptured internal organs were frozen by the icy spiritual energy to prevent further deterioration; and his completely depleted spiritual energy was restored bit by bit under the nourishment of the faint energy extracted by the two rings from the violent Evil Qi.

This was a painful and agonizingly slow process.

It was like enduring bit by bit through an endless, freezing winter night, waiting for a dawn that might never come.

He knew not how much time had passed.

The evil sword's madness seemed to gradually subside. It appeared to accept the fact that it could not break through the Restriction for the time being, and began to drift aimlessly within the Inner Chamber, absorbing the dense Evil Qi and water vein Yin Qi (which were poisonous to Lin Ye) of this place to repair the dark red cracks on its blade.

Meanwhile, the Restriction on the gate of the Inner Chamber seemed to have stabilized after enduring the initial violent impact. Although it was covered in cracks and its light was dim, it still stubbornly remained.

A stalemate had formed.

Lin Ye, this "frozen stone," was thus forgotten in a corner of the hall, blending in with the actual rubble and ice debris.

His consciousness drifted through the endless cold and darkness, occasionally flashing with fragmented memories: the bullying in the Miscellaneous Chores Courtyard, the thrill of seizing the foundation establishment pill in the back mountain, the life-and-death line at the Cold Bamboo Pavilion, the desperate flight in the underground river, the bitter cultivation beneath the Ice Eye, and the remote treasure-fishing in the stone chamber...

These images were like a revolving lantern, and also like flames tempering his will.

He could not die.

There were still people to kill.

There was still vengeance to exact.

There were still secrets to uncover.

And... higher peaks to climb.

This thought, like a spark of fire in the dark, supported his nearly extinguished consciousness.

Finally.

At some unmeasurable moment.

The ice shell on his body's surface let out an extremely faint "crack" sound.

It was not shattering, but rather the vitality within had accumulated to a certain level and was beginning to melt from the inside out.

The faint warmth at his chest gradually grew stronger, flowing slowly toward his limbs and bones along the tiny, newly reopened Meridians.

From the leather fragment of the "gui water escape talisman" he had been clutching in his right palm, a faint sensation of coolness was transmitted, resonating with the gradually reviving Ice Soul Sword Art spiritual energy inside his body.

Lin Ye, slowly and with extreme difficulty, opened his eyes.

What met his eyes was still that ruined hall, scarred by sword marks and filled with a pale red mist of Evil Qi.

But compared to before he lost consciousness, the Evil Qi seemed to have settled somewhat, no longer so violent but instead flowing slowly like a viscous liquid.

The pitch-black evil sword was currently hovering in the center of the hall, its tip pointing to the ground. It rotated slowly, absorbing the surrounding Evil Qi as if sleeping, or perhaps gathering strength. The dark red cracks on the blade seemed to have healed somewhat, its light restrained, but the extremely fierce aura it exuded had become even deeper and more terrifying.

The gate's Restriction was still there, its light faint, as if it could completely extinguish at any moment.

And as for himself...

Lin Ye tried to move a finger.

An excruciating pain shot through him, but it was no longer the unbearable sensation of shattering; rather, it was the dull ache of a severe wound yet to heal. His bones had reconnected, and his internal organs had returned to their proper places, but he was still far from fully recovered.

His cultivation... had actually turned disaster into a blessing. Under the tempering of the Evil Qi and the dual-ring internal cycle, he had made a Breakthrough to the third layer of Qi Refining! Although it was only the Early Stage, and his Realm was unstable, requiring a long period of consolidation, the total amount and purity of his spiritual energy were a major step up from when he was at the second layer!

More importantly, his resistance to and understanding of "Evil Qi" as an energy had reached a completely new level. The red traces of Evil Qi remaining on his left arm had actually faded by more than eighty percent and had faintly fused with his muscles and bones, as if becoming a part of his body.

He was alive, and he had grown stronger.

But the crisis was far from over.

He was still in the Inner Chamber, the evil sword was "sleeping" not far away, and the Restriction was teetering on the edge of collapse.

And in his hand, he only had a fragment of the "gui water escape talisman."

His leather pouch was outside.

The path to survival seemed close at hand, yet as far as the horizon.

He had to retrieve his leather pouch from outside without waking the evil sword, and then use the escape talisman to leave.

How could he get out? How could he get the leather pouch?

His gaze turned once more to the stone platform where Master Xuanyuan's remains sat cross-legged, specifically toward that inconspicuous little black hole.

The bone ring "bone ring" once again transmitted a faint sensation of pulling.

Perhaps... there really was another way out over there?