Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

The black hole behind him suddenly expanded, and a pale ghost infant's hand reached out from it, gently pressing towards the Chu residence's barrier.

Click—!

A clear crack appeared on the surface of the barrier.

Then came the second, the third...

Like ice breaking, the cracks spread rapidly.

Shen Qingqiu groaned, and all seven oil lamps went out at the same time. She staggered backward, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.

Chu Ling'er's chanting stopped abruptly, and the white light in the ancestral hall quickly dimmed.

The entire Chu residence was exposed to the oppressive power of the Nascent Soul Ghost Infant.

Lin Chen looked at the slowly descending ghost infant's hand and took a deep breath.

At the heart, the last three drops of blood essence began to burn.

This time, it's a real life-or-death struggle.

But just as he was preparing to fight to the death, a cold hand pressed down on his shoulder.

Ye Qingcheng appeared beside him without his noticing.

She changed into a plain white outfit, her long hair tied in a high ponytail, her face still pale, but her eyes burned with icy blue flames.

"Fifteen minutes are up," she said. "Now, leave it to me."

She stepped forward, facing the overwhelming, sky-covering ghostly infant's hand, and formed an extremely complex hand seal.

"Frosty Shadow Forbidden Technique - A thousand miles of ice, all things return to silence."

The moment the voice fell, a bone-chilling cold wave erupted from her center!

The cold wave spread silently.

Wherever it passed, fine ice crystals condensed in the air, the ground was covered with a thick layer of white frost, and even the light seemed to be frozen, becoming slow and distorted.

This is no ordinary cold air, but rather an "absolute zero" domain formed by the burning of the Frosty Yin Body's essence!

Ye Qingcheng's hair turned snow-white at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the blood vessels under her skin shone with an icy blue luster, as if her whole body was transforming into an ice sculpture from the inside out.

But she stood straight, her hands forming a steady hand seal, and the icy blue flames in her eyes burned to their fullest extent.

The hand that pressed down on the ghostly infant suddenly slowed down the moment it entered the range of the cold wave.

Ice rapidly formed on the pale palm, spreading upwards along the fingers. Wherever it passed, the black yin energy of the ghost infant's hand was frozen and solidified.

"The Frost Yin Body Forbidden Technique?" The old ghost of the Netherworld's voice carried shock and anger for the first time. "Are you insane?! Burning your very essence to cast a forbidden technique! Even if you can temporarily freeze my nascent soul, you yourself will be turned into an eternal ice sculpture, your soul and spirit annihilated!"

Ye Qingcheng's lips curled into a defiant smile: "So what?"

"In my life, Ye Qingcheng hates nothing more than being controlled and threatened. The debt of the Heart-Locking Curse, the debt of eight lives lost to the Chu family, and the debt of your attempt to use us to make medicine—"

"Someone has to come and ask for it."

She pressed her hands down sharply in a mudra: "Give me—freeze!"

boom!!!

The cold wave erupted completely, sweeping across the entire sky like a tsunami.

The ghost infant's hand was completely frozen, turning into a giant ice sculpture.

The cold wave spread upwards along the ghost infant's hand, heading straight for the black hole behind the old ghost of the underworld.

The old ghost of the underworld's expression changed drastically. He wanted to take back his nascent soul, but it was too late.

The moment the cold wave touched the black hole, its expansion abruptly stopped, its surface was quickly covered with ice, and the wailing of countless souls inside ceased abruptly—they were frozen forever in that moment.

"No--!!!"

The old ghost of the underworld let out a shrill scream. His physical body was connected to his nascent soul, which was frozen in ice. His soul was also severely damaged.

Black blood spilled from all seven orifices at the same time, and his aura weakened at a visible speed, dropping directly from the mid-Nascent Soul stage to the early Golden Core stage!

But Ye Qingcheng paid a higher price.

Most of her body had turned into ice crystals, with the ice layer spreading upwards from her feet, across her waist, and over her chest...

"That's enough!"

Lin Chen rushed forward, trying to interrupt her forbidden technique, but as soon as he stepped into the range of the cold wave, his blood almost froze due to the extreme cold power.

"Don't come any closer..." Ye Qingcheng's voice weakened, her eyes beginning to glaze over. "This is my choice..."

Just then, Shen Qingqiu staggered over.

She held a jade bowl in her hands, filled with a scarlet liquid—her heart's blood, mixed with the juice of the last leaf of the Pure Heart Glass Grass, and more than a dozen rare medicinal herbs.

"Chu Ling'er! Use your spirit to guide us!" Shen Qingqiu shouted hoarsely.

In the direction of the ancestral hall, Chu Ling'er, who was already extremely weak, bit her ten fingers, and ten drops of her blood dripped onto the tortoise shell.

The tortoise shell burst forth with a blinding white light, transforming into a bridge of light that pierced through the cold tide and connected to Ye Qingcheng.

"Using my medicinal spirit as the catalyst, and her spiritual connection as the bridge—" Shen Qingqiu splashed the liquid from the jade bowl onto Ye Qingcheng, "Reversing Yin and Yang, drawing fire from ice!"

The scarlet liquid splashed on Ye Qingcheng's body, but instead of freezing, it seeped into the ice layer.

Then, an unbelievable scene unfolded.

A faint golden-red light suddenly appeared on the spot on Ye Qingcheng's chest that was about to be frozen—it was a wisp of Nine Yang True Qi that Lin Chen had left in her body when he healed her earlier.

Guided by Shen Qingqiu's medicinal spirit power and Chu Ling'er's spiritual bridge, this wisp of Nine Yang True Qi was activated and amplified, transforming into a warm current that surged against Ye Qingcheng's Frosty Yin Origin.

Ice and fire clashed in a final battle within her body.

"Aaaaaah—!!!"

Ye Qingcheng let out a painful roar, and countless cracks appeared on the ice layer on the surface of her body. Ice crystals and flames intertwined, making her feel as if she were in purgatory.

But she held on.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

When the tenth breath had passed, the ice layer on her body shattered with a "bang," turning into ice shards everywhere.

Ye Qingcheng knelt on one knee, panting heavily. Her hair had returned to its original black color, but the ends still had an icy blue tinge.

She preserved the Frost Yin essence within her body, but at least 70% of it was lost, and her cultivation level dropped back to the early stage of Qi Refining.

But she is still alive.

Shen Qingqiu slumped to the ground, her face ashen. The bowl of "Reversing Yin and Yang Soup" had almost drained all of her medicinal spiritual power and essence.

Chu Ling'er fainted immediately, her life essence exhausted and her soul depleted.

But they succeeded.

Three people risked their lives to achieve a miracle.

In the sky, the nascent soul of the Netherworld Old Ghost was completely frozen in the black hole and could not be retrieved.

He was weak and slumped in mid-air, his eyes filled with madness and resentment.

"Very...very well..." he hissed with laughter, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "Three juniors at the Qi Refining stage, and they actually made me pay such a price..."

He suddenly looked at Lin Chen: "But you think this is the end?"

He took out a jet-black token from his pocket and crushed it violently.

"The Netherworld Decree shatters, ten thousand ghosts come to pay homage—I offer my hundred years of cultivation as a sacrifice to awaken the 'Gate of the Nine Netherworlds'!"

The moment the token shattered, a malevolent aura ten times more terrifying than before erupted from the Netherworld Old Ghost's body.

He was burning his remaining cultivation and lifespan to unleash a forbidden technique that would lead to mutual destruction!

A crack appeared in the sky above the Chu residence.

Behind the crevice lay endless darkness, and within that darkness, countless greedy, crazed eyes.