80: Chapter 80 The Abyss Knocks on the Door, the Ice Stele Appears and Disappears

The moment his voice fell, his loosely clenched right hand pressed down fiercely.

It was not a brute-force strike against the ice surface.

Instead, he took that thread of Dark Gold Core light—prepared long ago, thin as a gossamer strand yet condensed with his final spirit and spiritual power—and, like the most precise scalpel, drove it fiercely into the invisible fissure outlined by his Resonance Perception!

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There was only a sound, as if coming from the depths of an ancient glacier, so low it was almost impossible for the ears to catch, yet it vibrated directly at the level of the Soul.

"Hum..."

The instant the sound rang out, the ice layer within several zhang of Shen Xiao's feet suddenly lost all luster, turning into a deep black that seemed to devour everything.

Following that, a ripple—invisible to the naked eye but incredibly clear within his Resonance Perception—exploded outward, centered on his right hand inserted into the ice.

That was not a shockwave of energy.

It was a ripple of "Rules" being disturbed.

It was the displeased tremor emitted by a Restriction that had slept for eons, forced to open its door by a key bearing the aura of an alien "Protocol."

"Ugh!"

Shen Xiao let out a muffled groan, feeling that what came from the palm of his right hand was not coldness, but a strange, "hollow" suction.

The thread of spiritual power he had probed with was like a clay ox entering the sea, instantly losing connection with his main body.

More terrifyingly, the Silver Pattern on the surface of the Dark Gold Core within his Dantian, as if summoned by some existence that was of the same Origin but far more ancient and vast, suddenly erupted with blinding silver radiance!

The silver radiance pierced through his body, passing through his tattered clothes to form a thin halo on the surface of his skin.

This halo formed a stark contrast with the deep black ice beneath his feet.

"Warning! High-dimensional energy structure contact detected!"

"Protocol... parsing... error... unknown ancient protocol interface accidentally touched!"

"Energy being forcibly parsed by unknown structure... parsing speed exceeded... core stability decreasing!"

The System's cold, urgent prompts flooded his mind, accompanied by unprecedented chaotic noise, like an old radio with poor signal.

But Shen Xiao could no longer concern himself with that.

Because that invisible tremor had already spread throughout the entire bottom of the Ice Rift Valley.

"Hiss!!!"

"Roar!!!"

First, there was dead silence.

The fleeing, roaring, and trampling sounds of all the Cold Marrow Beasts vanished in the hundredth of a second the ripple spread.

Replacing them was an extreme, trembling fear originating from the instinct of life.

Then, it was an eruption.

The few Cold Marrow Beasts nearest to Shen Xiao suddenly went rigid, their dark blue crystal bodies stiffening, and the ice armor congealing on their surfaces emitted "crackling" sounds of shattering.

The pure cold marrow energy within them boiled and churned violently as if encountering a natural predator, even beginning to backfire upon themselves!

The herd let out wails so shrill they were distorted; no longer orderly being driven, they crashed around the valley like headless flies, trampling each other, their icy tentacles flailing wildly, sweeping down large swathes of the surrounding ice pillars.

The chaos instantly escalated into a catastrophic riot.

Meanwhile, in the direction of the valley entrance, that mass of golden Luck light—Lin Yun's Heavenly Dao Luck—which had been steadily advancing and dazzlingly bright, also underwent visible, violent fluctuations under the total interference of this ancient, dead-silent power!

The golden light flickered wildly like a candle in the wind, unstable and wavering.

At the edges of the light, a layer of grayish-white frost bearing an aura of decay even congealed—that was the power of the ancient Seal, capable of eroding even Heavenly Dao Luck!

Lin Yun's advancing figure came to a sudden halt, the halo surrounding him emitting an overwhelmed "hissing" sound, and for the first time, an unconcealable shock and anger appeared on his handsome face.

"What is that?!"

He shouted in a low voice, his gaze like lightning, piercing through the chaotic herd and the suddenly thickening ice mist, locking firmly onto the location of Shen Xiao. There, at this moment, was emanating an aura of an "alien object" that made even him feel palpitations, an aura completely out of place with this world.

The temperature of the entire Ice Rift Valley plummeted at this moment to an inconceivable degree.

The air seemed to be frozen, and every breath brought the stinging pain of ice shards scraping against his throat.

The rock walls emitted "creaking" groans, and vast swathes of ice peeled off and collapsed, revealing the more ancient, dark-colored rock body beneath.

Shen Xiao felt as if his entire body had been nailed to the spot.

No, not nailed.

It was the Restriction node beneath his feet, which had originally only been emitting fluctuations, that had completely "come alive" under the stimulation of his thread of "key" spiritual power!

A tiny energy vortex, no more than three feet in diameter, quietly emerged beneath his feet.

The center of the vortex was pure darkness, while its edges flowed with dim, ice-blue ancient runes that seemed as if they could extinguish at any moment.

An irresistible suction came from within, latching tightly onto the thread of spiritual power he had probed with, and following the weak connection between that spiritual power and his main body, it acted like a greedy tentacle, attempting to drag his entire Dantian, especially the Dark Gold Core currently erupting with silver radiance!

"Get... away from me!"

Shen Xiao bit the tip of his tongue; the sharp pain jolted his spirit, and he frantically drove the Dark Gold Core, wanting to sever that connection of spiritual power.

But it was too late.

His Resonance Perception, under the dual stimulation of this suction and the agitation of the System Silver Pattern, was as if forcibly "squeezed" behind that thin layer of the Seal.

A fleeting glimpse.

It was a void so absolute that even the word "darkness" seemed pale in comparison.

Within that void, an object was suspended.

A tattered, ice-blue stone stele covered in spiderweb-like cracks.

The stele was not large, only as tall as a person, and the runes inscribed on its surface were not static; instead, they were constantly flowing, being born and dying, as if enacting some supreme truth of the Universe's birth and destruction.

It floated silently, yet it emitted a heavy pressure that suppressed eons and froze time and space.

What shook Shen Xiao's mind even more, almost causing his Soul to leave his body, was... the core aura emitted by that stele... it actually shared a secret, same-Origin "level" of existence with the aura of the mysterious "Tomb Guardian Seal" Legacy on Xia Lengbai's forehead in his memory, as well as the most fundamental Silver Pattern aura that settled deep in his core after every plunder and conversion by his System!

It was as if they all originated from some long-lost ancient "Protocol" that transcended the rules of the current Immortal Realm!

Just in this split second while Shen Xiao's mind was lost—

"Evil creature! How dare you disrupt the order of Heaven and Earth!"

In the direction of the valley entrance, Lin Yun's angry shout exploded like thunder!

He had clearly also perceived the terror and abnormality of this Restriction fluctuation, and had even seen the predicament of Shen Xiao being sucked in by that vortex. This was a crisis, but also an opportunity!

He no longer held back; the vast Heavenly Dao Luck surrounding him erupted, no longer dispersed to drive the beasts, but instantly condensed above his head into a massive, glittering golden hand covering several dozen zhang!

The giant hand had clear lines, its palm seemingly supporting a blazing sun, carrying the brilliant Heavenly might to suppress evil and rectify chaos, and it slammed down mercilessly toward the very core of the energy turbulence, the area where Shen Xiao and that vortex were located!

He wanted to take this opportunity to suppress and crush this unexpected incident, along with the variable that was Shen Xiao!

Before the golden giant palm arrived, its terrifying pressure had already caused the ice layer around Shen Xiao to further sink and shatter.

And the immense power of the Heavenly Dao contained in this palm strike slammed fiercely against the ancient Seal, which was already covered in cracks!

"Crack!"

A sound of shattering, incredibly clear, as if coming from the depths of his Soul.

The fissure at the Restriction node, under the impact of Lin Yun's palm strike containing the great power of the Heavenly Dao, suddenly expanded!

That small energy vortex seemed to have been injected with a violent catalyst, its diameter instantly ballooning from three feet to one zhang!

The suction increased exponentially!

"Pfft!" Shen Xiao violently spat out a large mouthful of blood, which froze into red ice crystals before it even hit the ground.

He felt that his body, especially his right arm and Dantian, was truly about to be torn apart and swallowed into that terrifying vortex!

At this life-or-death juncture, the ruthlessness of being forced into a desperate situation thoroughly erupted.

"Sever!"

He roared in his heart, no longer attempting fine control, but instead, in a manner bordering on self-destruction, drove the Dark Gold Core to violently contract inward, and then fiercely vibrated it outward!

"Pfft..."

It was as if some invisible tendon had been forcibly snapped.

The connection of spiritual power that had reached deep into the Restriction node was forcibly severed, at the cost of damaging some of his Meridians and the Origin of his core!

At the same time, the terrifying suction of the vortex reached its peak, and then, due to this sudden "disconnection" and the spatial disturbance caused by Lin Yun's golden giant palm striking the edge of the Seal, a violent, directionally chaotic recoil force was generated!

Utilizing this recoil force, Shen Xiao, with his body curled up like a stone thrown from a catapult, shot off like a cannonball toward a dense area of jagged ice rocks to his rear.

"Boom!!!"

The second after his body left the spot, the area where he had just been, along with the ballooning vortex, collapsed with a roar!

It was not a simple subsidence of the ice layer.

It was as if space itself had caved inward, forming a dark hole more than five zhang in diameter, deep and bottomless!

At the edge of the hole, the ice-blue ancient runes flickered wildly and then quickly dimmed, the terrifying suction forming a visible, twisted cyclone that, like a great whale drinking water, mercilessly swallowed the nearby broken ice, fractured ice pillars, and even a few Cold Marrow Beasts that had been unable to escape far enough and had approached during the earlier chaos, into that deep darkness without a single sound being emitted!

The majority of the power from Lin Yun's golden giant palm, which had descended from the sky, struck the "solid" ice layer at the edge of the hole.

"Boom!!!"

Ice dust shot into the sky, mixed with golden light spots being eroded and dissolved by the ancient power, like a strange display of fireworks.

A portion of the palm power inevitably seeped into the influence range of the dark hole.

Seeing the golden light make contact with the grayish, decaying runes flowing at the edge of the hole, it immediately emitted a "hissing" sound, like a red-hot iron pressed onto ice.

The power of Luck, which contained the orthodoxy of the Heavenly Dao and brilliant light, was actually rapidly eroded and dissolved by that ancient, dead-silent power of the Seal, dissipating into wisps of blue smoke!

"What?!"

Lin Yun's pupils contracted, his composure lost, replaced by thick suspicion and a trace of imperceptible horror.

His Heavenly Dao Luck had actually been dissolved?

What the hell was sealed at the bottom of this Ice Rift Valley?!

He abruptly withdrew his somewhat dimmed golden palm, hovering in mid-air with an ugly expression, staring fixedly at the dark hole below that was still slowly expanding and emitting an ominous aura, as well as those ancient runes at the edge of the hole that flickered, seemingly mocking him.

On the other side, Shen Xiao struggled to adjust his posture while rolling; his back slammed heavily against a protruding ice rock, and he rolled down the slope a dozen more times before being stopped by another cluster of ice bamboo shoots.

His bones felt like they had fallen apart, his internal organs were displaced, and his Meridians were numb with pain.

Coughing up blood foam, he struggled to lift his eyelids a fraction, but his gaze was locked firmly ahead. Right there, amidst the broken ice blocks that had collapsed at the edge of the dark hole, a palm-sized, ice-blue fragment with tattered edges, yet an exceptionally deep color as if it had condensed the chill of eons, was revealed for an instant as the collapse occurred, and was about to be buried by more broken ice.

The aura emitted by that fragment... was of the same Origin as the ice stele he had caught a fleeting glimpse of in the deep pit!

Deep within Shen Xiao's pupils, the fragment about to disappear was reflected, and he carved its position firmly into his mind.

Almost at the same moment he locked onto the fragment.

Far away on the ice plains, on the summit of a solitary peak covered in eternal wind and snow.

Xia Lengbai, who had been quietly lurking in the shadows with her aura merged into the ice and snow, trembled without warning.

She slowly raised her hand, her slender fingertips gently touching her smooth forehead.

There, the complex and profound light-blue "Tomb Guardian Seal" was emitting unprecedented warmth, like a sleeping heart being awakened, beating powerfully, one beat after another.

She raised her head, her cold, beautiful face turning toward the direction of the Ice Rift Valley. In her ice-blue eyes were reflected the chaotic energy halos faintly coming from the distant horizon, as well as the incomparably clear, heavy, and ancient... echo of the Protocol deep within her Soul.

Shen Xiao withdrew his gaze, forcibly swallowing another mouthful of blood that had surged to his throat, the bloody taste mixed with ice shards filling his mouth.

Supporting himself on the ice bamboo shoots, he stood up shakily, dragging his almost numb right leg, and stumbled toward the location of the fragment in his memory.

Beneath his feet, deep within the ice layer, the ancient pulse that had been forcibly disturbed and then temporarily calmed, faintly came through, like the snoring of a sleeping giant beast.