Devouring demons, I attain immortality.

Memories surge like a tide.

As Lin An's head throbbed with pain, he saw past scenes appear in the illusory image of the Chaos Bell: the young Xie Jinghong kneeling in the snow, holding the bell fragments Lin An offered him, swearing, "With this, I will never be a lackey of the Xie family!"

"Soul-Locking Curse..." Ye Hongyi suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood, "He planted a curse that reverses Yin and Yang in the fragments; your memories have been altered!"

The Xie family patriarch grinned maliciously and made a hand seal, causing the fragments of the Chaos Bell to burst forth with evil light: "It's too late to understand now! The Twenty-Eight Constellation Sword Souls return to their places—"

Suddenly, the ground beneath Burning Demon Valley cracked open, and twenty-eight bronze coffins emerged from the earth.

Each coffin lid was engraved with constellation totems, and the remnant souls inside the coffins corresponded one by one with the constellation map on Lin An's sword hilt.

"System, devour them!"

Lin An roared, only to find that the power of devouring was blocked by some kind of restriction.

The Xie family patriarch pointed his sword at the heavens, and the purple aura of the Formless Heavenly Demon poured into the coffin: "The stars have returned to their places, the Heavenly Gate has reopened! Patriarch Xie, it's time to close the net!"

Suddenly, a blinding golden light shone on the eastern horizon, and a gigantic hand that blotted out the sky tore through the clouds.

The lines on his palm were actually living immortal seal script, with the power of laws flowing through every groove.

With a flick of his finger, the giant palm sent Lin An's Primordial True Fire swirling back.

"A true immortal from the upper realm..." Ye Hongyi slumped to the ground, her invulnerable scales cracking inch by inch. "So the Xie family patriarch had already ascended!"

A thunderous voice emanated from the giant hand: "After a hundred years of nurturing, you have finally become a cauldron. Lin An, I accept your Primordial Dao Body."

At the critical moment of life and death, Lin An suddenly plunged the broken knife into his dantian.

Bronze-colored flesh and blood splattered everywhere, revealing the flickering chaotic fire at its core: "Old thing, do you know why I was able to fuse with the Chaos Bell?"

He dug out the embers with his bare hands and pressed them against the twenty-eight coffins. Suddenly, Ao Ling's dragon soul phantom appeared: "Because the true Chaos Embers were long ago replaced by Father with the 'Ancient Demon Core' from the Northern Frontier!"

The star totem on the coffin suddenly turned red, and the twenty-eight sword spirits that were supposed to fly toward the immortal palm suddenly changed direction, turning into chains to bind the giant palm.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin An soared into the air, burning his Dao foundation to transform into a stream of light that crashed into the immortal palm:

"Today, let the celestial realm know that even ants can devour the heavens!"

The earth veins of Burning Demon Valley suddenly exploded, and the ancient demonic energy and immortal spiritual power collided to create a chaotic vortex.

Before being swept into the storm, the Xie family patriarch suddenly threw half a fragment of the Chaos Bell at Ye Hongyi: "Tell her... the truth about the Blood Night in the Northern Frontier lies..."

Before he could finish speaking, the demon's body was shredded by the gale.

Ye Hongyi gripped the fragment tightly and saw the last scene within: on the day the Xie family patriarch ascended to heaven, he personally placed the real fragment of the Chaos Bell into the baby's swaddling clothes—the cinnabar between the baby's eyebrows was none other than the young Lin An.

A bell tolled amidst the chaotic storm, and the shattered Twenty-Eight Constellation Sword Souls reformed, only to be stained with blood the instant they took shape.

Lin An's mangled body fell from the void, clutching half a dragon horn tightly in his arms: "Ao Ling, you said the Immortal Killer..."

From the direction of the northern border came the mournful howls of ten thousand wolves, and three hundred blood-red monuments rose on the snowfield.

Each stele bears the name of Lin An, and the base of the stele suppresses the Xie family's century-long fortune.

Ye Hongyi staggered toward the unconscious Lin An. Before her reverse scale was completely shattered, she finally saw the totem that appeared on her chest—it was a life pattern intertwined with a celestial wolf and a blue dragon, the mark of the boundary breaker in the prophecy.

The heavy snow in the northern border bent the ancient pine tree, and Ye Hongyi, carrying the unconscious Lin An, fell into an ice cave.

As the campfire was about to die out, a soft tinkling of jade bells suddenly came from outside the cave. The dragon girl, wrapped in a white fox fur coat, lifted the curtain and entered, her hair adorned with seven bone bells made of silver.

"Wolf blood mixed with dragon breath, that's quite rare!"

The dragon girl squatted down beside the fire to add fuel, the green snake on her wrist flicking its tongue to sweep away the ice shards from Lin An's clothes. "My name is Bai Li, the last priestess of the Southern Frontier Witch Clan."

Ye Hongyi gripped the broken piece of her scale tightly: "If you intend to take advantage of my misfortune..."

"What are you robbing?"

Bai Li suddenly lifted her left sleeve, revealing a fragment of the Chaos Bell that had merged with her forearm.

"You carry three fragments within you, yet you haven't even awakened the true spirit of the bell."

The campfire crackled and popped, and the bronze pattern on Lin An's right arm suddenly began to move.

Bai Li conjured witch fire at her fingertips, drawing a star map in the void: "Eight hundred years ago, during the cataclysmic collapse of the heavens, the witch clan used half of their essence blood to bury the Chaos Soul in three places—the Demon Tomb in the Northern Frontier, the Ruins of the Eastern Sea, and the Divine Tree in the Southern Frontier."

Outside the cave, the wind and snow intensified, and the sound of a huge object crushing through the ice could be heard.

Bai Li's expression changed slightly as she flung out seven bone bells to seal the cave entrance: "They've arrived quickly. The merfolk of Guixu have caught a whiff of the bell's scent."

"What do you want?" Ye Hongyi pressed her hand against the short knife at her waist.

The green snake on the dragon girl's wrist suddenly coiled around Lin An's neck: "I want him to go to the Southern Frontier to remove the curse after he wakes up—three years ago, he swallowed the sacred curse of the Witch Clan but failed to keep his promise, causing my sister to sacrifice herself to feed the divine tree."

The ice cave exploded with a deafening roar, and a five-zhang-tall ice shark broke through the snow and entered, its forehead inlaid with a fragment of the Ruins of Return.

Bai Li unleashed a chain of magical fire: "Take him away! The Ice Shark wants..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lin An suddenly opened his eyes, and the bronze markings on his right arm coiled around the ice shark's claws like a living python: "So noisy!"

A thunderous ancient voice boomed from the Ice Shark's chest: "The Ruins of Return will not tolerate thieves!"

Lin An conjured a broken blade with a flick of his wrist, the blade now imbued with the witch fire of the Southern Frontier: "Steal? Back then, it was your merfolk elder who begged me to take this cursed thing away!"

Ye Hongyi was shocked to see an illusion appear amidst the flashing sword light: a young Lin An walking on the waves, followed by a mermaid dragon girl holding coral.

The dragon girl's appearance was seven parts similar to Bai Li's, but she had half a fragment of the Chaos Bell stuck in her heart.

"Sister!"

Bai Li suddenly screamed in agony, and the witch fire transformed into a longbow.

As the three bone arrows pierced the air, the fragment on the ice shark's forehead suddenly reflected an underwater altar—countless merfolk were impaled on their tail fins by chains and nailed to a giant bell-shaped totem.

Lin An's pupils contracted: "The old dragon actually used its subjects to nourish Zhong's soul..."

The icy shark's claws pierced his right shoulder, bronze fragments mingling with golden blood splattering everywhere: "[Traitors deserve to die!]"

Bai Li suddenly bit her tongue, smearing the blood on the Witchfire Longbow: "In the name of the Witch Clan, I summon Zhong Ling!"

The fragments in Lin An's arms flew up and pieced together a broken bell shape on the ice shark's forehead.

Time seemed to stand still, and the Dragon Girl's clear singing rang in everyone's ears; it was actually the merman's phantom gently caressing the coral:

"The sword is buried when the tide rises, the bell is picked up where the moon sets..."

The ice shark knelt abruptly, tears forming into silken threads that drifted towards Lin An: "Princess...I await you in the Ruins of Return."

The wind and snow suddenly stopped, leaving only half a piece of silk in the ice cave.

Bai Li trembled as she picked up the blood-stained coral fragments: "Now you believe it? The one who took the Ruins of Return three years ago wasn't..."

Lin An suddenly groaned and knelt down, the bronze pattern on his right arm creeping up his cheek.

Ye Hongyi pulled open his clothes and was shocked to see a bell-shaped brand on his chest, inside which was a phantom of a dragon girl similar to Bai Li.

"Twin Gu?" Bai Li ripped open her collar, revealing a mirror image of a brand in the same spot. "What you swallowed wasn't a Sacred Gu, but my sister's life soul!"

The sound of dragon boats cutting through the air came from afar, and eighteen glass lamps illuminated the snowfield.

A man wearing a bronze mask stood at the bow of the boat, pointing a jade flute at Lin An:

"I am the Eastern Sea Patrol Envoy, ordered by the Dragon Lord to capture the immortal-killing criminal! Young friend Lin, the fragments of the Void you stole should be returned to their rightful owner."

Outside the ice cave, the dragon boat-shaped glass lanterns cast a strange and colorful glow on the snow.

Bai Li suddenly snapped off the green snake from her wrist, its blood drawing a witch clan totem in the snow: "Your Excellency the Border Patrol Envoy has arrived at just the right time. Do you recognize this?"

Nine animal bones rise from the totem, each joint engraved with a mermaid weeping over a pearl.

The masked man's flute playing abruptly stopped, and cracks appeared on his bronze mask: "The Weeping Bone Array of the Witch Clan... You are Bai Tang's..."