C789 They Recognized the Wrong Person
"What is this?"
A collective gasp echoed among the human cultivators and the spectral beings of Horror Land as the Ice Concubine revealed herself.
Her skin was as white as snow, her demeanor cold and majestic. The curves of her upper body were sculpted to perfection, her full breasts and the elegant arc of her back complemented by a face so regal and untouchable, she seemed to be the Ice Goddess from the legends of the Outland Star River.
Her lower half, scorpion-like, exuded a bewitching allure.
Particularly striking was her tail, dragging along the ground, its icy, crystalline spikes gleaming with a metallic sheen, radiating a sense of extreme danger.
Anyone who witnessed the sudden appearance of the Ice Concubine, who felt her chilling aura, would find their very soul quivering.
At first glance, the Ice Concubine appeared as a deity carved from ice and snow.
Yet upon seeing her demonic lower half, one couldn't help but sense that she was bristling with spikes.
"So beautiful!"
In the grand palace, many cultivators from the Heavenly Source Continent murmured in awe, unable to contain their admiration.
They were mesmerized, regarding the Ice Concubine as if she were the most intricate and exquisite ice sculpture.
Clusters of ice-blue flames suddenly burst forth from the scorpion part of her body. These flames, seemingly born from within her, released a scent that many recognized as that of the Nether Abyss.
For many, the haunting beauty of the ice-blue flames only deepened their enchantment with the Ice Concubine's power, their souls swaying in her presence.
The Cold Abyss Ghost King watched the Ice Concubine from above, his heart aflutter with longing.
The white skeleton paused, turning his gaze to the Evil Cauldron from which the Ice Concubine had emerged, and mentally chastised Yu Yiyi, "What chaos have you wrought?"
Before he had emerged, he had instructed Yu Yiyi and Yuan Lianyao to simply stay hidden below and quietly condense the vast Yin Qi.
He had assured them that he would handle all matters above.
Yet Yu Yiyi had disobeyed, not only bringing out the Evil Cauldron but also releasing the Ice Concubine. What was she thinking?
Within the miniature world of the cauldron, Yu Yiyi wore an expression of resignation as she explained, "This was not my intention."
The Ice Concubine was inadvertently released when the Cold Abyss Ghost King emitted a unique aura that disturbed her. Without waiting for an order, she instinctively emerged from the cauldron.
Now, the Ice Concubine made her presence known, boldly locking gazes with the Cold Abyss Ghost King from a distance.
Yu Yiyi sensed the Ice Concubine's restless desire to engage in battle with the Cold Abyss Ghost King.
"There's no taking it back now. I just hope... it can still be rectified." Yu Yiyi sighed, shaking her head within the cauldron. "Don't be reckless. With your current power and rank, you're no match for any Ghost King. You'll only stand a chance after ascending at least one more level."
The Cold Abyss Ghost King, resembling a towering ice statue, had an eerily smooth and flat face, set with two cold stone-like eyes.
"Eh, no, something's off!"
A flicker of surprise and skepticism shone in the depths of his stony gaze.
"The aura is identical, and the likeness is striking—about seventy to eighty percent similar, yet..."
With a scrutinizing calm, the Cold Abyss Ghost King observed the Ice Concubine who had emerged from the Evil Cauldron, taking a second, careful look. "No, this isn't the same being!"
"It's not her," Cao Jiaze interjected from within the majestic palace. "The one you're familiar with is connected to her, but they are not the same individual. She descended from the heavens alongside her, but upon arrival, she evaded the relentless pursuit of the mighty and vanished into the depths of the Nether Abyss."
"Meanwhile, she was seized by the Devil Palace and confined to the ocean floor of the Ember Waters."
Cao Jiaze succinctly unveiled the mystery.
Mo Yan, wielding the Kyara Demon Blade, stirred his Yin God and stealthily emerged from the blade. "Lord Cold Abyss, it seems you've mistaken her identity. The one you seek, I've encountered at the bottom of the Ember Waters. She has taken over the body of a woman named Lim Zhuyun and now traverses the Boundless Land in her guise."
"Lim Zhuyun!"
Behind Cao Jiaze, practitioners from the Cold Yin Sect wore expressions of icy disdain.
This woman, handpicked by the Great Elder for training within the sect, had become the Cold Yin Sect's most shameful disgrace.
In the Ember Waters, whispers spread of a girl overtaken by a Devaputra, who had unleashed a massacre on the Cold Yin Sect's island.
"Lim Zhuyun?" The Cold Abyss Ghost King mulled over the name, a distant look in his eyes. "Is she the one possessed by the Devaputra I seek to find and destroy?"
"He's correct. The entity that caused your demise in the Nether Abyss was the Freezing Devaputra that took over Lim Zhuyun," Cao Jiaze confirmed.
Upon hearing this, a surge of icy soul lights burst forth from the Cold Abyss Ghost King's stony physique. Every soul and specter present could sense his towering rage.
They also came to realize something—the Cold Abyss Ghost King had been slain by an Outland Devaputra lurking in the Nether Abyss. Only a faint remnant of his soul had managed to flee to Horror Land, narrowly escaping death by the chilling poison.
After enduring countless hardships, he had advanced to become the Ghost King. In secret, he had retrieved the Ice Stone Tombstone back to Horror Land, paving the way for his current stature.
He had been under the mistaken impression that the Ice Concubine within the Evil Cauldron was the Freezing Devaputra responsible for his downfall.
Now, wielding the might of the Ghost King within Horror Land, he was confident in his ability to vanquish the Freezing Devaputra. Thus, he had devised a plan to coax the Ice Concubine out of the Evil Cauldron.
But it turned out she was not the same being.
The Cold Abyss Ghost King was consumed by frustration and growing impatience.
Only he knew the caution he had exercised when he had ventured into the Nether Abyss and crept into the Cold Abyss to dislodge the Ice Stone Tombstone, all the while evading the Freezing Devaputra.
He was acutely aware that the Ghost King's power would plummet the instant he left Horror Land.
Moreover, he felt no match for the Devaputra within the Cold Abyss, hence his hasty retreat with the tombstone back to the sanctuary of Horror Land.
Each time he reflected on his reluctance to confront his nemesis in the Nether Abyss, even after ascending to the Ghost King realm, he was filled with shame.
At last, the moment had come to face his adversary on his own ground. Wasn't this the confrontation he had yearned for all these years?
However, it turned out they weren't the same after all!
The Cold Abyss Ghost King was so infuriated he was nearly driven mad!
"Though they're not the same individual, they belong to the same species. Together, they traverse the Boundless Land from the Outland Star River," Cao Jiaze clarified. "Cold Abyss, these two are sisters. The elder is beyond your reach for now, but this transformed younger sister might actually prove more advantageous to you than her sibling."
"Sisters?!" The revelation reignited the Cold Abyss Ghost King's excitement.
In truth, when the Ice Concubine was first summoned by Yu Yuan to battle in Horror Land, the Cold Abyss Ghost King had taken notice, marking her as an object of his desire.
The extreme cold aura emanating from her, partly sourced from the Ice Soul Crystal and partly from a frigid expanse within the Outland Starry Sky, was irresistibly alluring to him, promising to aid in his breakthrough in the Ghost Dao.
"If you seize this chance to ascend as a Ghost God, that Freezing Devaputra who has taken over Lim Zhuyun will have nowhere to hide from your grasp," Cao Jiaze stated evenly, laying out the stark reality. "As a Ghost God, you'll have the power to eradicate all who have harmed or attempted to destroy you."
"Indeed!"
The Cold Abyss Ghost King's spirits soared.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
His colossal icy form advanced toward the Ice Concubine, and a fearsome ice storm materialized in his wake.
The myriad powerful ghosts, sworn to his service, swarmed into the tempest like swallows returning to their nest.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The bone-chilling gales of the White Bone Territory were drawn into the ice storm, condensing into countless shimmering crystals.
Within each crystal flickered the soul shadow of the Cold Abyss Ghost King. The storm continued to amass Frost Energy, exuding the formidable essence of the Nether Abyss.
Rip!
The fabric of space itself seemed to buckle under the strain of the ice storm, threatening to tear asunder.
The white bones, perched at the entrance to the depths below, sensed the rules of his domain—and even the fundamental forces of Horror Land—shift in response to the ice storm.
They were aligning to create the perfect conditions for the Cold Abyss Ghost King to unleash his might, transforming the area into the Nether Abyss, the most enigmatic realm within the Boundless Land.
"To refine an Ice Soul Crystal over ten thousand years and forge such an extraordinary physique, do you really aspire to turn the world upside down?" From the depths of his eerie green eyes, a chilling light glinted. "Cold Abyss, you're thinking too simplistically."
The white bones ascended into the sky.
White flames, bearing the hallowed might to purify the world's filth and malevolent spirits, radiated from his gleaming skeletal form.
As the flames blazed to life, the white bones transformed into a divine deity, on a sacred mission to obliterate Horror Land!
His presence, every gesture, and even the gleam in his green eyes had the power to extinguish all ghosts and spirits!
Onlookers, particularly the weaker specters, realized too late that merely by gazing into the white bones' eyes, they had ignited into flames.
"Ah! Ahhh!"
"White bones! It is the white bones that are the true blight of Horror Land, the anomaly that must be purged!"
"The White Bone Sacred Spirit Art he practices may well have been devised to annihilate Horror Land!"
"White bones! White bones! He should never have existed in this world!"
The impacted ghosts and spirits scattered like frightened birds, no longer daring to meet the gaze of the white bones. In the depths of their souls, they harbored both terror and resentment towards the white bones.
To these ghosts and spirits, the white bones were the most sinister deities, intent on reducing Horror Land to cinders.
