Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

"But all seven masters were good people."

"Without them, I wouldn't be alive today."

Su Qingxue turned her head to look at the rapidly receding mountain scenery outside the window and said softly, "A person who can teach a disciple like you must be no ordinary person."

"They are indeed extraordinary." Lin Chen's gaze was deep. "The seven masters each have different areas of expertise, but they are all imprisoned in Kunlun Heavenly Prison for various reasons."

"I asked them why they were in jail, and they just said... it wasn't the right time yet."

Shen Qingqiu astutely grasped the key point: "The Kunlun Heavenly Prison seems to imprison people who possess special secrets or abilities, yet cannot be killed?"

"You could say that," Lin Chen nodded. "The Heavenly Prison has its own set of rules. It's rumored to be the 'Forgotten Land' of the cultivation world, and very few people who go in ever come out again."

"I can come and go freely because..."

He paused for a moment: "Because I'm practically a 'prison guard'."

These words startled everyone.

"A jailer?" Qin Yurou blinked.

"Yes." Lin Chen explained, "My seven masters made an agreement with me that I must return to Heavenly Prison every year to visit them and handle some 'outside' affairs for them."

"In exchange, they taught me the techniques to help me suppress the backlash from the Nine Yang Technique."

Chu Ling'er asked softly, "Will they welcome us when we go back this time?"

"Yes," Lin Chen affirmed. "Although my masters have different personalities, they all love me dearly. You are my..."

He carefully considered his words, "Important people, they won't make things difficult for you."

Mu Qingyao asked curiously, "What's it like inside the Heavenly Prison? Is it terrifying?"

"It wasn't scary," Lin Chen recalled, "it was just very...lonely. Snow and wind raged year-round, and the sun never shone through the darkness. The seven stone palaces stood isolated among the glaciers."

"But the masters have kept the place very vibrant. The eldest master planted a patch of ice lotuses, the second master raised several snow eagles, and the third master's stone hall was full of books..."

He described it, his eyes filled with nostalgia.

The convoy crossed the plains and gradually entered the plateau region.

The air grew thin and cold, and the outline of the majestic Kunlun Mountains in the distance became increasingly clear.

Three days later, at dusk, the convoy arrived at the last supply point on the outskirts of the Kunlun Mountains—a small village with only a dozen or so herding families.

Further ahead, vehicles cannot pass.

Everyone got off the bus and changed into heavy cold-weather gear.

Lin Chen parked his car at the home of a familiar herdsman and asked him to look after it.

"We'll rest here tonight and hike into the mountains tomorrow morning." Lin Chen assigned tasks. "Qingxue and Qingcheng, check the equipment and supplies. Qingqiu, prepare medicine for altitude sickness and to keep warm."

"Yu Rou, take care of Ling'er and Qing Yao. Their cultivation is the weakest, so they need to take the medicine in advance to adapt."

Everyone agreed and went about their own business.

Nighttime, by the hearth in a herdsman's home.

The group sat around, eating simple tsampa and mutton soup.

Outside the window, the wind and snow began to rise, and the howling wind sounded like the roar of a wild beast.

Qin Yurou held the hot soup, looking out the window with some worry: "With such heavy snow, will we be able to go into the mountains tomorrow?"

"The snowstorms in Kunlun never stop," Lin Chen said, poking at the embers. "But my masters taught me how to identify safe routes. As long as I don't encounter 'snow tornadoes' or 'ice fissure riots,' I can safely reach the Heavenly Prison."

"Snow tornado? Ice crevasse riot?" Ye Qingcheng raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't sound like anything good."

"The Kunlun Mountains possess their own spirit," Su Qingxue said. Her Xuan Yin Body made her exceptionally sensitive to the extreme cold environment. "I can sense that the ice and snow here contain an ancient and immense will."

"It doesn't exclude us, but it won't offer us special protection either."

Shen Qingqiu distributed several crimson pills to everyone: "These are 'Blazing Sun Heart Protection Pills,' which can maintain body temperature and blood circulation for six hours."

Take it before leaving tomorrow morning.

She looked at Lin Chen: "Your Chaotic Body is not afraid of the cold, but the others need extra protection. Especially Yu Rou, whose Yin-type body is more prone to imbalance in extreme cold."

Lin Chen nodded: "Understood. Tomorrow I will use chaotic energy to create a barrier for everyone to reduce energy consumption."

Chu Ling'er hugged her knees and suddenly whispered, "I feel... there are many 'voices' in the mountains. They are ancient, sad, and some... angry."

In Kunlun, a place brimming with countless legends and secrets, the senses of those with psychic abilities are exceptionally sensitive.

Mu Qingyao also whispered, "The plants here... although there are few, each one has a very distinct 'personality.' They don't really welcome outsiders, but they know we mean no harm."

The group shared their perceptions, feeling both anticipation and a vague unease about the Kunlun Heavenly Prison they were about to enter.

As night deepened, everyone went to rest.

Lin Chen sat cross-legged by the fire pit, keeping watch. His Chaos Nascent Soul slowly circulated within his body, sensing the energy flow within a radius of several miles.

Suddenly, his brow twitched slightly.

In the distance, amidst the wind and snow, a faint yet strangely familiar energy fluctuation flashed by.

"This is..." Lin Chen suddenly opened his eyes.

That fluctuation actually resonated with the nascent chaos within his dantian!

It wasn't hostility, but more like a...call?

He got up, silently pushed open the wooden door, and stepped into the wind and snow.

Outside, a blizzard raged, reducing visibility to less than ten meters.

But Lin Chen's chaotic perception pierced through the wind and snow, locking onto a direction—southeast, about five miles away, at a glacier crevice.

He hesitated for a moment, looked back at the sleeping people inside the house, and finally decided to go and investigate alone.

The chaotic energy circulated around him, preventing the wind and snow from getting close.

Lin Chen moved swiftly through the glaciers like a ghost.

The five-mile distance was covered in the blink of an eye.

It was a bottomless ice crevice, about three zhang wide, with glistening blue ice frozen at its edges.

Right at the edge of the crack, a strange plant was swaying gently in the wind and snow.

It was a small grass, no more than a foot tall, crystal clear like an ice sculpture, with translucent light blue leaves and a swirling, chaotic light in the center of its stem.

The most peculiar thing is that the wind and snow cannot get in within three feet of the grass, as if there is an invisible protective shield.

"Chaotic Ice Soul Grass?" Lin Chen recognized this rare item, which was only recorded in ancient books. "Legend has it that it only grows in places where chaotic energy and extreme cold meet, and it is extremely rare to see one in ten thousand years."

As he approached, the little grass seemed to sense the same aura, its leaves swaying gently, and the chaotic light at its center shining even brighter.

Lin Chen squatted down, stretched out his finger, and gently touched the grass blade.

hum-

A pure yet gentle stream of chaotic cold energy flowed into his body through his fingertips!

The nascent chaotic sprout in the dantian trembled suddenly, absorbing this power of the same origin with great thirst, and grew another bit at a speed visible to the naked eye!

"This grass..." Lin Chen exclaimed in surprise, "It actually contains such pure fragments of primordial chaos?"

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the roots of this Chaos Ice Soul Grass were deeply embedded in the ice crevices, seemingly drawing upon something.

Lin Chen hesitated.