Chapter 61: Frost Soul Thunderforce

After entering the Ancestral Palace, they passed through layers of floating clouds, and the scenery below revealed itself, brimming with spiritual grace. Deep ravines and clear streams wound through the land, with rare grasses and marvelous blossoms everywhere the eye could see.

The group soared upward on their beams of light, rising a thousand feet until the immortal clouds parted and their feet touched solid ground. Only then did they truly behold the splendors of the celestial mountain.

Atop the mountain lay a broad, flat expanse, bordered on either side by verdant grass like an emerald carpet and profusions of flowers as brilliant as embroidered brocade. In the center stretched a jade-paved path, wide and long, its surface smooth as a mirror.

At the path’s end, nestled against the mountain and facing a lake, stood a grand palace complex spanning several hundred acres. Within its walls, imposing halls gleamed with golden brilliance, pavilions and lofty towers peered from behind lush peaks, ancient trees, and clear white stone springs.

Most of the trees were so thick it would take several people to encircle them, and their branches burst with exotic, radiant blooms—many of which defied naming. A gentle breeze carried subtle, wondrous fragrances through the air.

Everyone gazed around in wonder, finding the scene before them vastly different from what one might imagine of an ancient demonic sect.

Passing along the jade path to the palace’s approach, they came upon a magnificently ornate hall. Before it stretched a vast platform of jade, solemn and imposing.

Ascending the platform with the others, Pang Yue followed the group into the hall—when suddenly, his vision swam, as though he’d fallen into a cloud of mist.

When the illusion faded, he found himself alone in a vast, empty hall.

Standing at its center, Pang Yue suddenly heard the clear, crystalline chime of a jade bell. Turning, he saw a woman in white, barefoot and stepping lightly through the air, drifting toward him.

She was delicate of feature, her bearing ethereal, her form wavering between reality and illusion, as if she might vanish at any moment.

Approaching, she offered a formal greeting and said, “Well met, fellow Daoist.”

Pang Yue swept her with his spiritual sense and raised an eyebrow. “Are you a guardian spirit?”

She bowed her head. “Indeed.”

“And how should I address you?” Pang Yue clasped his hands in greeting.

With a faint smile, she replied, “You may call me Cold Jade.”

“Lady Cold Jade, does this place hold a legacy of the Nine Nether Demon Sect?” Pang Yue regarded her, getting straight to the point.

Cold Jade nodded, her voice gentle and pleasant to the ear. “The Nine Nether Demon Sect possesses four great soul-forging paths. The inheritance left here is the ‘Tenfold Frost Demon Way.’”

“In the sect’s final days, as annihilation loomed, the elder in charge of transmitting the teachings ordered disciples to build this ancestral palace, leaving its treasures for those fated to find them.”

“If you wish to comprehend our sect’s legacy, you must pass seven trials.”

How is she any different from an NPC in my previous life’s games? Pang Yue thought wryly.

He asked directly, “Are these seven trials dangerous? Are there any time limits?”

Cold Jade smiled, lips pressed together. “There are no time limits, but there is a risk of death. Consider carefully.”

“Can you reveal anything about the content of the seven trials in advance?” Pang Yue pressed further.

“Forgive me, but that is not permitted.” Cold Jade shook her head.

Pang Yue exhaled deeply, sat down cross-legged, and said, “Then allow me to restore my magic first.”

Cold Jade advised, “You’d best not tarry long. The Absolute Heaven Ice Domain experiences periodic cold surges. If you delay too much, you may be trapped here, unable to escape.”

Pang Yue nodded, indicating his understanding.

The cold surges in the Absolute Heaven Ice Domain followed a pattern; when they occurred, a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment stage would be utterly defenseless. Each window between the surges coincided with the opening of this secret realm—perhaps it was one of its hidden mysteries.

After half a day, Pang Yue stood, his magic power surging like a tide, fully restored.

“Let us begin!”

Cold Jade nodded and pointed with her hand. Suddenly, a scroll appeared in the great hall, unfurling in midair.

Upon the scroll, line after line of ancient script, fine as fly’s heads, revealed a profound magical art.

With another graceful gesture, a block of deep blue ice, three fathoms high, rose from the center of the hall.

Cold Jade announced, “The first trial tests your insight. You must comprehend this magical art and, using its power, leave a mark upon the ice. Only then may you enter the next hall.”

Pang Yue glanced at the scroll, which contained a spell called the Frost Soul Thunder Seal.

At first, Pang Yue seemed unimpressed; after all, he had spent a hundred years in the Illusory Demon Realm, waging wars across the heavens—what magical art had he not seen?

But the more he read, the graver his expression became.

This magical art was easy to begin, but the further one cultivated, the more formidable its power. Mastered to its peak, it far surpassed the seven great arts of the Flame Demon Hall.

It was a classic case of low entry threshold but a high ceiling—of immense strategic value to any great sect. Imagine, from the lowest disciples to the highest soul-forging elders, all cultivating the same art, linking together in formation, their combined magic presided over by a master—what terrifying might that would unleash!

In reality, the spells disciples learned at the earliest stages were far too crude and simple for a Golden Core cultivator to care for, while those the Golden Core masters practiced were too profound and mighty for junior disciples to even attempt.

But this Frost Soul Thunder Seal could be cultivated from the simplest to the most profound. Its creator must have been a peerless genius.

Pang Yue read through it three times and grasped its essence: the core lay in two unusual sigils—one of ice, one of thunder.

The light of the Frost Soul and the force of Thunder Seal blended in perfect harmony, nourishing each other. With magic power, one only needed to refine two ice-thunder sigils to unleash a faint trace of the Frost Soul Thunder Seal—thus completing the first layer.

The second layer required four such sigils. The third layer, eight. The fourth, sixteen—doubling each time!

This called to mind two examples from Pang Yue’s previous life.

One was the story of placing grains of rice on a chessboard—one on the first square, two on the second, and so on. By the sixty-fourth square, the number reached astronomical proportions!

The other was folding a sheet of paper—if a sheet 0.1 millimeters thick were folded 103 times, it would reach over 93 billion light-years, more than the diameter of the observable universe!

This Frost Soul Thunder Seal was much the same. At first, its power would seem modest, but with each layer, as the number of sigils multiplied, its might would become ever more terrifying.

What astonished Pang Yue most was that someone had conceived such an intricate magical art.

The spell had forty-nine layers in total!

By his calculations with the Innate Primal Tablet, to master the forty-ninth layer would require refining 5,629,499,000,000 ice-thunder sigils.

To fuse the power of so many sigils into one would surely create a world-ending divine thunder.

The number of the Great Cycle is fifty, but its use is forty-nine!

Staring at the spell, Pang Yue finally understood what this trial tested.

Comprehension meant grasping the principle of balancing ice and thunder within the art—how to unify an immense number of opposing sigils into one. That was its greatest challenge, requiring a cultivator’s deep insight into the Dao and mastery over magical power.

Turning to Cold Jade, Pang Yue asked curiously, “Has anyone in the Nine Nether Demon Sect ever cultivated this magical art to its highest state?”

Cold Jade thought for a moment and shook her head. “It is too time-consuming. Once, a soul-forging elder reached the thirty-first layer and was already nigh-invincible. He did not continue further.”

She added, “To pass this trial, you need only cultivate to the eleventh layer.”

Pang Yue smiled, holding the Innate Primal Tablet in his palm. “This magical art seems tailor-made for me. For this alone, coming here was worth it.”

With that, he activated the tablet and began to comprehend the spell, refining the ice-thunder sigils.