Reborn with infinite panels

Chapter 245 Cultivation World 34
A few days later, Si Lingle and the others finally arrived at Gale Cliff.

The wind howled, whipping up clouds of yellow sand and turning the sky into a murky, hazy yellow.

Si Lingle raised her hand to shield her eyes and squinted at the distance—the Gale Cliff, which should have been surrounded by fierce winds, was strangely silent at this moment.

"Something's not right," she whispered, her voice ripped apart by the wind.

Lu Rui frowned, a wisp of spiritual light gathering at his fingertips as he reached forward. However, the spiritual light, which should have been shattered by the fierce wind, passed through the barrier in front of the cliff without any hindrance.

“The wind has stopped.” Lu Rui’s voice was low. “The gale-force winds of Gale Cliff have disappeared.”

Miao Si felt a chill run down her spine. The fierce winds of Gale Cliff had never ceased since ancient times, and even Nascent Soul cultivators dared not approach them easily. But now, it seemed to have been extinguished by some kind of force.

Miao Si walked slowly forward, the soles of her boots crunching over the gravel. The ancient runes on the cliff face were dull and lifeless, as if drained of their spiritual power, leaving only dried-up marks.

“Someone has been here.” Miao Si squatted down, her fingertips tracing a charred mark on the ground. The touch was icy cold, as if it had been burned by some kind of extreme cold.

Meng Hong's gaze sharpened. He bent down and picked up a broken crystal, turning it over in his palm. "The power of frost... and it's man-made."

Si Lingle stood up and glanced around. The wind at the top of the cliff should have been raging, but at this moment it seemed to be suppressed by some invisible force, and even the air was so still that it was suffocating.

Si Lingle looked up at the top of the cliff, her pupils suddenly contracting—at the highest point of Gale Cliff, a pitch-black rift floated in mid-air, its edges gleaming with a cold, eerie blue light, like a void rift forcibly torn open by some force.

"...A spatial rift?" Lu Rui's voice carried a rare hint of seriousness.

Si Lingle gripped the Qingchu Sword at her waist, the runes on the scabbard glowing slightly, as if warning of some danger. She took a deep breath and whispered, "Someone has opened a passage to somewhere here, and they've deliberately erased the gale."

Lu Rui was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Do you think they're still around?"

Si Lingle did not answer, but looked up at the crack with a cold gaze.

"Shall we go in?" Chunbai asked.

Si Lingle did not answer immediately. She gathered a wisp of spiritual power at her fingertips and gently touched the edge of the crack. In an instant, a bone-chilling cold spread from her fingertips, as if countless eyes were watching her in the darkness.

“This is not an ordinary secret realm.” She withdrew her hand, her spiritual energy frozen into frost.

Lu Rui remained silent for a moment, then took out a bronze compass from his bosom. The pointer spun wildly and finally pointed to the crack.

"Whatever is inside, the fact that someone deliberately erased the strong winds to open the passage means they don't want to be discovered."

Si Lingle gripped the Qingchu Sword tightly, her eyes cold: "Then we must not let them succeed."

The group exchanged glances and simultaneously leaped into the crevice.

The world suddenly turned upside down.

There was no spatial turbulence as expected, nor any violent spiritual energy storm; instead, there was a deathly silent, gray space. Beneath their feet were broken, floating stone steps, and in the distance, a dilapidated bronze palace could be vaguely seen, its doors half-open, emitting a faint, cold light.

"This is..." Lian Meng's pupils contracted slightly, "An ancient ruin?"

Just then, the Qingchu Sword at Si Lingle's waist suddenly trembled violently, and the runes on the scabbard flashed wildly, as if warning of some extremely dangerous existence.

"Someone's coming," Lu Rui whispered, his hand already on the hilt of his knife.

Si Lingle slowly raised her head and looked towards the direction of the giant hall. A dark figure stood silently in front of the hall, his black robe fluttering, his face hidden in the shadows, with only a blood-red longsword in his hand gleaming with an eerie light.

"Trespassers shall die."

A hoarse voice echoed in the dim space, and killing intent surged like a tide.

Si Lingle drew her sword, and a burst of sword energy erupted suddenly: "It seems we've found the right place."

Without a word, the man in black robes brought his blood-red longsword down in a sudden strike!

"Qiang——!"

Si Lingle parried with her sword, the sword energy colliding with the crimson blade light, unleashing a piercing metallic shriek. The shockwave exploded, causing the bronze lamps suspended in the hall to shake violently. In the interplay of light and shadow, the face of the black-robed man flashed by—a face covered in black runes, with pupils as red as blood.

"The Ye family's Blood Fiend Blade Technique?" Lian Meng questioned coldly, "What is your relationship with this ruin?"

The man in black robes did not answer. His sword stance changed, and the blood-red sword light transformed into countless ferocious ghostly shadows, roaring as they pounced towards Lian Meng.

Just as the ghostly figure was about to devour Lian Meng, a dark blade of light slashed across!

"boom--!"

Lu Rui had somehow circled behind the black-robed man, his short blade carrying the power to tear through space as it aimed straight for the man's back. The black-robed man was forced to turn and parry, his blood-red longsword clashing with the ink-black blade, unexpectedly sparking strange black and red flames.

"His blade is imbued with demonic energy!" Lu Rui hissed. "Be careful not to get tainted!"

Si Lingle and the others retreated and dodged, while simultaneously launching their attacks!
The attacks landed on the man in black robes, who suddenly grinned, and his pierced throat turned into black mist and dissipated.

It's an illusion!
The real killing blow came from above! Crimson blade light poured down like a waterfall, and Si Lingle and the others retreated hastily.

Although Si Lingle was extremely fast, her left shoulder was still cut by the blade's energy, and blood instantly soaked through her white clothes.

Others were also injured.

Seeing that the others were injured, Lu Rui's eyes widened in fury. The knife in his hand burst forth with an unprecedented jet-black light, cleaving open the space inside the hall and forcing the black-robed man back several feet.

Taking advantage of this brief moment, Si Lingle took out an array plate and quickly set up the Nine Revolutions Frost Array.

As the formation activated, the temperature in the entire hall plummeted, and countless ice crystals condensed out of thin air, transforming into a blizzard that swept towards the man in black robes!

"Crack!"

The crimson longsword finally succumbed to the pressure and shattered in the extreme cold. The man in black robes groaned, staggering backward and crashing into the bronze altar in the center of the hall.

The moment the altar was struck, a massive crimson array suddenly appeared on the ground, and countless chains shot out from the ground, binding the man in black robes tightly!

"No...impossible!" the man in black finally roared in terror, "How could the altar be..."

Before he could finish speaking, the chains suddenly tightened, dragging him into the ground! Only half of the broken mask remained on the ground, the Ye family crest clearly engraved on the inside.

The hall fell silent once more.

Si Lingyue sheathed her sword, her gaze falling on the altar—where a fragmented bronze plate floated silently, inscribed with ancient characters:

"When the Ice Phoenix bloodline awakens the bronze, the truth buried in the Nine Netherworlds will finally see the light of day again."

Even Meng saw the words on the bronze tablet. She looked down at her arm, where a bead of crimson blood was floating up against all reason, as if drawn by some invisible force, slowly drifting toward the center of the altar.

“Even if it’s your blood…” Lu Rui frowned and reached out to stop him, but was shaken away by a cold force the moment he touched the blood bead.

The blood droplet eventually fell into the groove of the bronze altar—

"Click."

The entire hall suddenly trembled violently, and the ancient runes on the altar surface lit up one by one, their pale blue light turning dark red. The ground cracked, and rubble floated in the air, as if something that had slumbered for millennia was awakening.

Lian Meng suddenly felt a splitting headache, and countless fragmented images flashed before her eyes—

A frozen battlefield, a broken bronze gate, and... a pair of ice-blue eyes exactly like his own.

"This is... a memory?" She staggered a step and was supported by Si Lingle.

The bronze plate in the center of the altar suddenly floated into the air, and the incomplete characters were completed in the bloody light:

"With the blood of the Ice Phoenix as the key and the soul of the Buried Spirit as the guide, the bronze throne, sealed for a thousand years, shall return to the world."

Before the words were finished, the altar collapsed with a deafening roar, revealing a bottomless, dark abyss below. Nine bronze chains shot upwards from the abyss, and at their ends, an ice coffin slowly rose. Inside lay a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Lian Meng, her silver hair like snow, and a phoenix-shaped mark between her brows. Her hands were clasped in front of her chest, holding a bronze key in her palms!

Everyone gasped.

Miao Si asked, "This is... yours..."

“It wasn’t me.” He quickly replied in a hoarse voice, “It was Si Wuyue, the ancestor of the Si family, who disappeared three hundred years ago and was the previous heir to the Ice Phoenix bloodline.”

Lian Meng's real name is Si Yumiao. She has a single water spiritual root and is a direct descendant of the Si family.

The moment Lianmeng's shadow fell on the ice coffin, the woman's eyelashes inside trembled slightly, as if moved by some invisible force.

"She... moved?" Lu Rui's pupils contracted sharply, and he subconsciously gripped the hilt of his knife.

Lian Meng was struck dumb, a tearing pain shooting through her chest. Looking down, she saw that the wound on her arm was strangely spreading with icy blue patterns, like vines crawling towards her heart—exactly the same as the ice phoenix mark on the woman's brow in the coffin!
“Bloodline resonance…” Lian Meng gritted her teeth and suppressed her surging blood and qi, “This body is summoning my blood!”

Suddenly, the ice coffin emitted a piercing cracking sound, and countless cracks appeared on the surface of the coffin lid. The temperature inside the bronze hall plummeted, and even the air condensed into fine ice crystals.

"Step back!" Si Lingle grabbed Lian Meng and rushed backward.

"boom--!"

The ice coffin shattered, and the silver-haired woman floated up. Her tightly closed eyes suddenly opened, revealing a pair of ice-blue eyes without pupils, with ancient runes like a galaxy flowing in their depths.

“Eight hundred years…” The woman’s voice was like ice rubbing against each other for ten thousand years, “Finally, we have waited for the blood of the same origin.” She slowly raised her hand, and Lian Meng’s arm wound suddenly burst out with pain. A line of blood was forcibly pulled out and turned into a crimson thread that wrapped around the woman’s fingertip.

Lu Rui swung his blade at the line of blood, but the blade was blocked by an ice wall that suddenly appeared out of nowhere: "Damn it! Let her go!"

The woman ignored her, staring intently at Lian Meng: "Good child, do you know why the women of the Si family never live past twenty-five?" She lightly hooked her finger, and the blood vessels suddenly tightened. "Because we are all 'vessels'... all for today, so that the true Ice Phoenix Goddess may be reborn!"

Lian Meng suddenly sneered, a sharp curve appearing at the corner of her blood-stained lips: "Unfortunately..." She abruptly plunged the dagger into her heart, "You miscalculated two things."

The runes on the dagger burst into flames, forcing out all the Ice Phoenix bloodline that had invaded the body!

"First, I knew the secret of the Si family bloodline when I was nine years old." She drew her dagger, and the blood from her heart turned into flames. "Second—" A crimson jade pendant appeared in the flames, "I have already refined half of my soul into the 'Heart-Burning Lock.' You want to devour me? Then let's both be annihilated!"

Si Wuyue sneered: "You think you can stop my eight-hundred-year-old plan with such a paltry trick?"

“If even the dream can’t stop it, then we will!” Si Lingle made a fist with her left hand, and a wisp of dark purple flame suddenly ignited in her palm—the flame had no temperature, but instead distorted the surrounding light, as if even space itself was being scorched and cracked.

Si Wuyue exclaimed in horror, "Nine Netherworld Flames!"

Si Lingle made a hand seal, and the Nine Netherworld Flames flew out.

Si Lingle attacked with her sword, her thunderous sword intent falling like a shower of meteors, causing even space to collapse in its wake. Si Wuyue screamed and unleashed all of her Ice Phoenix power to defend, but the instant she made contact with the sword light—

"Crack!"

The Ice Phoenix Mark between Si Wuyue's brows shattered, and her body began to turn to ashes from her fingertips.

“No… impossible! I clearly…” Si Wuyue looked at the ice coffin in despair, only to find that the goddess’s body inside was also dissipating at the same time.

"You think the Ice Phoenix Goddess really wanted to be reborn?" Lian Meng coughed up blood and sneered, "She voluntarily disintegrated back then to seal you... greedy 'descendants' forever."

As the last word fell, Si Wuyue vanished completely.

The moment Si Wuyue disappeared, the bronze key in the goddess's hand flew out, and then a bronze door opened.

The group was sucked into the bronze door and fell into a treasure vault.

This treasure vault is filled with countless spirit stones and other treasures.

Seeing so many spirit stones and treasures, the group did not show any joy. Instead, they used their divine senses to investigate whether it was an illusion or a trap.

However, after testing them, the six people found that these spirit stones and treasures were real.

The six people exchanged glances, took out their storage bags, and began to fill them with spirit stones.

Si Lingle's spiritual sense was stronger than that of Lian Meng and the other five, and she was also faster at collecting spirit stones.

However, there were so many spirit stones that even the empty storage bags on Lianmeng and the other four were full, and they still weren't finished.

There were still so many treasures to store, so the five of them even poured out some spirit stones to use for storing the treasures.

The treasures were distributed among the six people according to their own spiritual needs. Treasures that none of them needed were divided equally among them.

As for the spirit stones that weren't completely stored, Si Lingle stored them all. She had made quite a few storage bags, and now they were all coming in handy.

After taking everything from the treasure vault, the six people left the bronze palace.

After leaving the bronze palace, the group found a place to recuperate and heal their injuries.

After calming down, he quickly gave a brief account of the Si family's affairs.

It turns out that the Lianmeng family produced a goddess with the bloodline of the Ice Phoenix ten thousand years ago.

The goddess fell in love with a monk surnamed Ye.

However, the goddess did not expect that this cultivator had used his relationship with her to create a child with a special bloodline, all for the sake of her bloodline.

The man surnamed Ye wanted to use this child with special bloodline to help him cultivate.

This goddess was killed by the man surnamed Ye, but because she possessed the bloodline of the Ice Phoenix, she could be reborn from the ashes.

But she was heartbroken and didn't want to be reborn.

The man surnamed Ye set up an altar, hoping to revive the goddess through the Si family.

The Si family had taken precautions against this matter.

Now that the goddess's body has dissipated, the women of the Si family in the future no longer need to worry about not living past the age of twenty-five.

After listening, Si Lingle asked, "Did the male cultivator who deceived the goddess become a god?"

Lian Meng shook her head. "No, during the tribulation, I couldn't withstand the Heavenly Tribulation and was reduced to ashes."

"The male cultivator is dead, yet the Ye family still sent someone to revive the goddess. Is there some other conspiracy?"

Lian Meng sighed, "I have no idea about that."

After chatting for a while, the group set off to find the Nine Yang Treasure Fruit Tree.

After finding the Nine Yang Treasure Fruit Tree, the six of them ganged up on and killed the two-headed eagle. After killing it, they divided the Nine Yang Treasure Fruit among themselves.

After obtaining the Nine Yang Treasure Fruit, Si Lingle used her spatial magic to leave.

After leaving, Si Lingle immediately changed her disguise and her cultivation level changed again, becoming the early stage of the Nascent Soul stage.

After the change, Si Lingyue continued to gain experience.

Lian Meng and his group of five were besieged by the Ye family, but thanks to the many magical treasures they had obtained, they managed to kill their attackers.

However, all five sustained injuries of varying degrees.

However, since they hadn't lost their lives, the five were already satisfied and went straight back to their sect to go into seclusion.

The spirit stones and treasures they obtained were enough for them to cultivate and break through.