Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

All the droplets simultaneously lit up with an icy blue light, rapidly rotating and merging, eventually coalescing into a bead the size of a longan, crystal clear like ice crystals.

Frosty Primordial Pearl, complete!

The mist surrounding Ye Qingcheng suddenly receded and disappeared into her body.

She opened her eyes, and a fleeting glint of icy blue starlight seemed to appear deep within her pupils.

"I...success?" She felt the gentle yet powerful cold current within her body with some disbelief. It was no longer rampaging but rather moving as she pleased.

Lin Chen withdrew his hand, his face paling even more, but his eyes held approval: "The first stage of Foundation Establishment is complete. You can now initially control the Frost Yin Qi, but you still need to diligently cultivate and consolidate it."

He stood up, his body swaying slightly.

Ye Qingcheng instinctively supported him, and when she touched him, she felt that his body temperature was frighteningly high, and the veins on his arm were faintly glowing golden red.

"Your backlash..."

"It's alright." Lin Chen waved his hand and took out the Ice Heart Pendant from his bosom.

The jade pendant's luster dimmed further, and even a tiny crack appeared on its surface.

Ye Qingcheng looked at the jade pendant and suddenly said, "If... if all seven of us with the Nine Yin Physique were by your side, could we completely resolve the backlash?"

Lin Chen was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Theoretically, three people with the Nine Yin Body can maintain their strength for three years, five people can maintain it for ten years, and when all seven are gathered, Yin and Yang will be completely balanced. The Nine Yang Burning Heaven Body will no longer be a curse, but a true opportunity of the Heavenly Dao."

He looked at Ye Qingcheng: "But this isn't the time to talk about this. You've just broken through and need to consolidate your gains. I'll go check on Miss Shen."

"Wait." Ye Qingcheng called out to him, taking out a piece of mutton-fat white jade that she wore close to her body—a family heirloom.

"Take this. Although it's not as good as the Ice Heart Pendant, it can still temporarily absorb some excess yang energy."

Lin Chen was taken aback.

"Don't misunderstand." Ye Qingcheng turned her face away, her ears slightly red. "I just don't want you to die at the hands of that Netherworld Old Ghost. If you're going to die, it will have to be after I take revenge myself."

Lin Chen looked at the warm, smooth white jade in his hand and finally accepted it: "Thank you."

He pushed open the door to the secret room, and the morning light poured in.

Outside the door, Shen Qingqiu and Chu Ling'er stood side by side, both looking exhausted, but their eyes were bright.

Shen Qingqiu held a completed design drawing in his hand: "The composite formation 'Yin-Yang Reversal Universe Formation' has been designed, with three core formation eyes and twelve auxiliary formation eyes."

"The materials list is here. The Ice Guards need to prepare them within six hours."

Chu Ling'er held up a tortoise shell covered with densely packed ancient characters: "I communicated with the vengeful spirit in the locust tree and obtained fragments of memories from when my second uncle and the others were murdered."

"Ghost Face killed people at the Chu residence to collect 'blood relatives' vengeful spirits'—these vengeful spirits are connected by blood, and their resentment is even purer, making them excellent materials for refining the main soul of the 'Ten Thousand Souls Banner'."

She bit her lip: "They also told me... that the Netherworld Old Ghost's techniques have a fatal weakness."

The four sat around a long table.

In the middle lay Shen Qingqiu's array diagram, Chu Ling'er's tortoise shell inscriptions, and the intelligence that Ling Feng had just extracted from Ghost Face.

"The Netherworld Old Ghost, whose real name is unknown, has been cultivating the Netherworld Soul Devouring Technique for over four hundred years."

Ling Feng pointed to the messy handwriting on the intelligence file—it was a record of Ghost Face's intermittent dictation under the influence of the True Dew.

"Fifty years ago, he made a mistake when he forcibly broke through to the Nascent Soul stage. Although he successfully formed the Nascent Soul, it was flawed, leaving three 'Yin cracks'."

Lin Chen frowned: "A yin rift?"

"The Nascent Soul is the crystallization of a cultivator's soul and cultivation, pure and yang in nature. However, the Netherworld Old Ghost forcibly broke through by devouring the souls of living beings using evil methods, resulting in an impure Nascent Soul with cracks." Shen Qingqiu calmly analyzed:

"The Yin Rift will constantly leak his original soul power, and it needs to be repaired regularly with a large amount of living souls. This is the fundamental reason why he is eager to refine the 'Yin-Yang Reversal Death Pill'."

Chu Ling'er added, "I saw in the memories of the vengeful spirit that when Ghost Face was setting up the formation, he muttered to himself, saying, 'Whenever the sect leader has a full moon, his Yin Rift will flare up, and his strength will drop to the peak of the Golden Core stage for three hours.'"

"The night of the full moon..." Lin Chen looked out the window, "Tonight is the fifteenth."

Ling Feng quickly calculated: "The Netherworld Old Ghost will arrive no later than tomorrow night, but if he travels at full speed, he might arrive before midnight tonight. If the weakness period on the night of the full moon is real—"

"This is our only chance," Ye Qingcheng replied, a cold glint in her eyes. "The difference between the Nascent Soul stage and the peak of the Golden Core stage is like heaven and earth."

Shen Qingqiu shook his head: "Even a peak Golden Core cultivator is far beyond our ability to contend with head-on. Ghost Face was at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and it took the four of us working together to barely defeat him."

"At the peak of the Golden Core stage... it would take at least three late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators or one early-stage Golden Core cultivator to have any chance of dealing with them."

The council chamber fell silent.

The gap in strength is too great; it cannot be completely bridged by trickery.

Lin Chen tapped his fingers lightly on the table, deep in thought: "Miss Chu, you mentioned before that the aura of the Yao Guang Star Position was entangled with a powerful evil energy. What exactly did that feel like?"

Chu Ling'er closed her eyes to recall, her fingers unconsciously stroking the tortoise shell:

"It's very chaotic... The aura of the Yao Guang star position itself is very pure, the gentlest of the Nine Yin bodies, but the evil energy surrounding it... is full of destruction, madness, and greed, as if it wants to devour everything."

"Moreover," she opened her eyes, a hint of confusion flashing in them, "that evil aura felt somewhat similar to the Yin energy of the Netherworld Old Ghost... but it was more ancient and primal."

Lin Chen and Shen Qingqiu exchanged a glance.

"The Netherworld Sect's search for the Nine Yin Body is not just for the Netherworld Old Ghost alone," Shen Qingqiu said slowly. "The 'Mysterious Yin Chronicles' records that in ancient times, an evil cultivator created the 'Nine Yin Foundation Seizure' method, which can seize the unique physical origin of others and transfer it to oneself."

"If there are others within the Netherworld Sect who have their eyes on the Nine Yin Body..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ling Feng's phone vibrated!

He opened the voice message, and Ice Guard's urgent voice came through: "Captain! A large-scale fluctuation of Yin energy has been detected thirty miles to the southeast! It's moving extremely fast and is expected to arrive at the Chu residence within half an hour!"

"How large is it? What level of cultivation do you have?" Ling Feng asked sternly.

"The yin energy is so intense it blots out the sun; it's at least... at least at the Golden Core stage! No, it might be even higher!"

Everyone's expression changed drastically.

"How could it be so fast?" Ye Qingcheng clenched her fists. "Wasn't it supposed to be tomorrow?"

"He wasn't traveling at full speed at all." Lin Chen stood up, a golden glint in his eyes. "Or rather, he deliberately slowed down to make us relax, and then suddenly sped up—that's the hunter's style."

Shen Qingqiu had already put away the blueprints and quickly gave the order: "Captain Ling, according to plan one, all non-combat personnel must immediately enter the underground chamber."

"Ice Guard Group One activates the outer perimeter alert formation, and Group Two assists me in setting up the core array."