Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The dull thud of dragging iron chains echoed from the deepest part of the abyss. The sound wasn't loud, but it possessed a penetrating power that defied the laws of space, clearly striking the souls of everyone inside the ice palace.

Su Chang'an's outstretched right hand froze in mid-air. His five fingers twisted to their limit, the fingertips only half an inch away from the Taiyin Moon Amber that emitted an icy blue glow. In that very half inch, the originally pure Taiyin cold energy suddenly changed.

The eternal, frigid depths of the abyss were forcibly shattered. Thick, grayish-black death energy surged and billowed from the pitch-black abyss. The death energy was so dense that wherever it passed, the laws of the void were corroded, leaving fine black spots. The Yin Storm intertwined with this death energy, transforming into turbid pillars of wind that frantically annihilated everything within the ice palace.

Su Chang'an was the first to be affected. Her remnant soul churned violently under the corrosive influence of the gray-black death aura. The edges of her soul, which had been barely solidified by the chilling energy, instantly peeled away large patches of light. Cracks spread upwards from her arm, heading straight for her heart.

She didn't stop. The essence of the Heavenly Fox reversed within the illusory meridians, forcibly stabilizing the collapsing soul. Her right hand reached forward again.

Beneath the abyss, another strange event occurs.

Millennia of accumulated resentment and deathly aura compressed wildly at the mouth of the abyss. From the gray-black mist, large, solid, eerie blue scales emerged. Each scale was the size of a millstone, its edges covered with sharp barbs. The scales rubbed against each other, emitting a piercing, teeth-grinding sound.

A colossal creature slowly emerged from the abyss.

This is a Taiyin Corpse Dragon that is thousands of feet long.

It had no flesh or blood, formed entirely from pure death energy and millennia-old resentment. Two thick dragon whiskers floated in mid-air, casually sweeping across the side walls of the ice palace. The indestructible millennia-old ice, touched by the dragon whiskers, instantly turned into ashes and fell away in a flurry.

The Corpse Dragon appeared in the world, its mighty dragon power pressing down on all directions like a tidal wave.

The Ice Palace could not withstand the terrifying pressure that surpassed even that of a Great Sage. The towering jade pillar, hundreds of feet high, snapped in two. Cracks several feet wide shattered on the surface of the ice, spreading wildly towards the sky like a spiderweb. The dome collapsed, and large chunks of black ice, mixed with deathly energy, crashed into the abyss.

Outside the Moon Palace, at the edge of the Void Locking Formation.

Di Shitian stood with his hands behind his back on the desolate plain, his dark gold nine-dragon imperial robe draping steadily amidst the storm of deathly energy. He looked at the enormous dragon shadow rising within the ice palace, a cold mockery flashing in his eyes.

The forbidden gate has been opened wide, and the deathly veins have turned against them. This group of desperate outlaws who dared to plunder the Demon Court's secrets will ultimately become food for the Corpse Dragon.

The enormous head of the corpse dragon was raised high. Two eerie green flames ignited in its empty eye sockets.

The ghostly flames swirled, sweeping across the ice palace.

It completely ignored Tianpeng, who was holding a nine-toothed rake and whose body was stiff. It ignored Gu Xiang and Bai Yin, who were standing guard below, their auras rising to their peak.

His eerie green eyes were fixed on Su Chang'an, who was at the end of the icy steps, about to grasp Yue Po.

An intense killing intent locked onto that figure in the pristine white robe.

Below the ice steps, Gu Xiang and Bai Yin witnessed this scene, and their eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

Gu Xiang didn't hesitate for a moment. He rapidly formed hand seals in front of his chest, his fingertips cracking from the excessive force. The golden dragon of the Great Zhou Dynasty's national fortune roared forth from his dantian. Without hesitation, he ignited the life force he had just rebuilt with the blood of the Heavenly Fox. His full head of white hair instantly lost its luster, turning into withered grass. Dark golden chains of righteous energy coiled around his body, and he forcefully rose from the ice steps, braving the deathly storm that corroded his soul.

At the same instant, Bai Yin stomped down heavily with his right foot.

A massive crater, tens of feet deep, blasted open in the icy ground. His naked upper body was torn apart, the gnarled flesh repeatedly severed, only to be forcibly healed by the Heavenly Fox's blood. The Geng metal aura, mixed with his heart's blood, condensed on his body into a dark red suit of killing armor. Bai Yin propelled himself forward, his body rising high, and he lunged recklessly towards the corpse dragon's head.

Both of them have gone mad.

Reason, strategy, and weighing of options vanished the moment Su Chang'an was locked in the aura of death. They were left with only one thought: to stop that monster.

The corpse dragon did not turn its head.

Its massive body writhed slightly above the abyss. Its thousand-foot-long tail, covered in eerie blue ice spikes, lashed out from the bottom of the abyss.

There are no complex changes in the laws, only pure and extreme power crushing everything.

The dragon's tail swept across the void, shattering all the spatial laws along its path.

The dark golden dragon symbolizing the nation's destiny was the first to be struck. Its tail lashed out at the illusory dragon. With a mournful cry, the dragon shattered into countless dark golden specks. A cloud of blood exploded in front of Gu Xiang's chest, his ribs caved in. He coughed up blood, his body flying backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the depths of the ice wall behind him, creating a bottomless black hole.

The dragon's tail, still brimming with power, slammed into Bai Yin, who was lunging from the side.

The dark red killing armor shattered under the impact of the dragon scales. Bai Yin's arm bones broke instantly, the white bone fragments piercing through his flesh and exposed to the air. A mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed from his throat, and his body went out of control, flying out like a rag doll, crashing heavily below the ice wall where Gu Xiang had fallen.

A desperate strike from the peak of the Great Saint Realm was utterly ineffective against the Taiyin Corpse Dragon.

On the icy steps, Su Chang'an could clearly see the tragic scene below.

Her soul had become completely transparent under the corrosive influence of death energy. She did not retreat; her left hand gripped the edge of the broken ice steps tightly, while her right hand suddenly reached forward and grabbed the Moonstone that emitted a clear, icy blue glow.

The extreme cold power instantly flowed back into his body through his palm.

Countless fine cracks exploded on the surface of the soul.

The Corpse Dragon opened its blood-red maw, which resembled a black hole.

Deathly aura swallowed all light. Darkness descended upon the ice palace.

Su Chang'an, along with the Taiyin Moon Amber in his hand, was swallowed whole by the Corpse Dragon.

The massive dragon body suddenly contracted backward, carrying endless death energy and chill, and slid back into the bottomless abyss of death.

The sound of the iron chain being dragged gradually faded into the distance until it disappeared completely.

The abyss returned to deathly silence.

Below the ice wall, Bai Yin used all his strength to roll over. His broken arms hung limply at his sides. He bit down on a protruding icicle with his teeth and dragged his mangled body, inching towards the edge of the abyss. Blood left a long red trail on the ice.

Gu Xiang fell from the black hole. He had lost even the strength to stand. His righteous energy dissipated, and he braced himself on his elbows, his nails digging into the ice, as he struggled to move towards the abyss.

In their eyes, only utter despair and madness remained.

Beneath the abyss, darkness reigns endlessly.

Su Chang'an continued to fall into the endless void.

The expected corrosive power to refine her soul did not appear. The Taiyin Moon Amber, which she held tightly in her palm, now emitted a soft and stable icy blue glow. The glow transformed into a semi-transparent light shield, tightly enveloping her shattered soul body.

The viscous death energy on the outside was blocked by the light shield and could not advance an inch.

The descent seemed to last a long time, yet it also seemed to happen in an instant.

Finally, my feet touched solid ground.

Su Chang'an steadied herself. She released her left hand, but her right hand remained tightly gripping the Moon Amber. The icy blue light illuminated the surrounding scenery.

This is not the flesh and guts of the Corpse Dragon.

What comes into view is a strange, frozen space.

Beneath her feet lay a smooth, dark blue expanse of solid ice, reflecting the faint glow of her moonlit amber. All around her stood thick ice pillars, their interiors containing the frozen remains of various strange and grotesque demons.

What's most unsettling is the silence here.

There was no sound of wind, no churning of death, and even the sense of the passage of time was completely stripped away.

Time seems to stand still here.

Su Chang'an looked down to check his own condition. Under Yue Po's protection, the cracks on his soul body stopped spreading, and the Heavenly Fox essence slowly circulated within his body, repairing the previous damage.

She didn't stay where she was. She lifted her foot and walked deeper into the space.

Her footsteps landed on the ice without making a sound. The absolute silence amplified her senses. She walked through the icicles, her gaze sweeping over the frozen skeletons. These skeletons were in various poses, each retaining the action of its last moment in life, frozen in time by a power surpassing even that of an emperor.

The space seemed to have no end.

Su Chang'an walked for an unknown amount of time, and the icicles in front of him gradually thinned out.

Suddenly, the view opened up.

At the end of the space, a huge white jade altar appeared.

The altar is made entirely of the finest mutton-fat white jade, with no intricate patterns on its surface, only natural jade texture.

In the very center of the altar sat a person.

A woman.

The woman wore an ancient and elaborate palace dress, the long hem of which spread out on the white jade altar. The style of the dress was extremely simple and ancient, neither the clothing of the Great Zhou Dynasty nor the existing style of the Demon Court, exuding a sense of the passage of time.

She wore no jewelry. Her long, black hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall, creating a striking contrast with the pure white altar.

Su Chang'an held the moon amber and stopped ten steps in front of the altar.

By the soft glow of the moonlight, she could see the woman's face clearly.

Su Chang'an's soul was violently stirred, and his calm and undisturbed state of mind was turned into a raging storm.

The curve of his eyebrows, the lines of his nose, his cool and aloof features, untouched by worldly dust.

The woman's appearance was exactly the same as that of the nine-tailed celestial fox who was trapped underground in the far north and bound by 372 chains.

It's like looking at yourself in a mirror.

Tianpeng's poignant accusations outside the Guanghan Palace and Di Shitian's cold-blooded scheming in treating Su Xiaojiu as a pawn formed a perfect closed loop at this moment.

They regarded Su Xiaojiu as a substitute.

The person in front of you is the one being replaced.

The woman on the altar had long eyelashes that trembled slightly.

In this stagnant time, she slowly opened her eyes.

Those were a pair of deep blue eyes.

His gaze, in its shifting light, revealed neither a sharp, murderous intent nor the oppressive aura of a superior. Instead, it conveyed only the profound vicissitudes of millennia of history and a deep compassion for the suffering of all beings.

The woman gazed silently at Su Chang'an below the steps.

Their eyes met.

Ten thousand years of time overlap at this moment.

The woman parted her red lips slightly. Her voice was ethereal and otherworldly, as if it came from nothingness, and resounded directly in Su Chang'an's sea of ​​consciousness.

"You've arrived."

The woman looked at Su Chang'an with a calm gaze that revealed a profound understanding of fate.

"I am Chang'e."

She paused, a faint ripple appearing in her deep blue eyes.

"Or perhaps, I am you."