A bone-chilling cold penetrated to the marrow.

Boundless coldness enveloped everything.

His meridians were shattered, his Dantian destroyed.

The mountain gate collapsed in flames.

The sight of his fellow disciples falling one after another, and his master’s final cry.

In Shuanghou Gu, everything was to be buried in silence and icy cold. But deep within, a fierce unwillingness and resentment, a persistent will to survive, surged like inextinguishable lava beneath an iceberg.

Thump.

Ling Mo fell into the icy river, his entire body covered in frost, forming a thin, white icy shroud that temporarily encased his shattered body and soul.

Silence.

Emptiness.

No hope, no sound, no warmth, not even his own pain was clear. Only the desire for revenge and an extreme craving for power became his sole spiritual support.

He gradually began to hear other sounds: the nearly stopped flow of his own blood, the faint heartbeat like colliding ice shards.

The ice spirit root within him resonated with the principles and power of Shuanghou Gu, and the seeds of future upheaval slowly began to sprout.

Standing on the bank of the icy river, Ling Mo successfully pulled himself ashore.

He looked down at his hands, checking his injuries, and found that most of them had healed.

His body had undergone a strange transformation.

His skin had turned pale, faintly revealing a crystalline texture. When his fingertips touched the air, a slight movement would produce tiny ice shards.

He felt power!

A cold, hard, and utterly pure power, like solid ice, intertwined with his flesh and blood.

He slowly clenched his fist and struck an ice mound nearby.

The ice mound exploded, transforming into a plume of the finest ice dust, scattering in all directions with the blast.

Ling Mo’s face twisted, however, as he felt a strong conflict between the cultivation techniques of the past and his physical body when he tried to use them.

That simple punch had caused internal injuries.

A thought flashed through his mind: “I must adjust properly before I can leave this place.”

Outside, there must still be people hunting him.

So, he went into seclusion, beginning to process this strange transformation.

Several years later.

He stood on a hill, looking back, and Shuanghou Gu was only a blurred outline in his vision.

His heart was filled with excitement. During the adjustment process, he had refined his cultivation technique, creating the “Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong,” skyrocketing his combat power and elevating his cultivation to the Jin Dan stage.

Now, it was time for revenge!

He sought out his former enemies. There was no superfluous talk, only the most primal slaughter.

His physical body, his fists, were the most terrifying weapons. The power of extreme cold froze countless foes. Wherever he walked, frosty footprints automatically spread beneath his feet.

One by one, forces were annihilated.

Men, women, cultivators, mortals—all transformed into ice sculptures with various postures and expressions of terror.

The success of his revenge rapidly eroded his humanity. Ling Mo’s heart grew colder, and he became more indifferent to all living beings.

The pained roars and curses of creatures, even their hot blood, could not stir any ripple of emotion in his eyes.

He was like human-shaped snow and wind, bringing calamity wherever he went.

The pursuit by the righteous path naturally followed.

“Ling Mo, you’ve become a demon! The cultivation technique you created is incomplete and has affected your mind!”

“Surrender now, perhaps someone can still cure you.”

Ling Mo merely raised his palm-blade.

The battle began.

Battle after battle.

He was eventually captured, imprisoned, and reached the end of his life.

In the moment of his death, his eyes flickered with life.

“Finally… freedom.”

In a very short time, Ning Zhuo experienced Ling Mo’s entire life.

His eyes sparkled with intensity: “With the spine as the pillar of heaven and earth, bearing the weight of Xuanbing! With the meridians as ancient ice rivers, guiding the cold current! With flesh and blood as fertile soil, nurturing an indestructible demonic body!”

“This is the ‘Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong’!”

“But… it is incomplete and has a major flaw. Those who cultivate it will gradually lose their humanity, becoming merciless wind and snow. Even their rationality will be eroded, eventually almost completely lost.”

Ning Zhuo felt as if he was there, clearly perceiving the entire process. Humanity flowed away from Ling Mo’s heart like water. At first, only human emotions such as joy, sorrow, and fear were replaced by absolute rationality and calmness.

Then came apathy; he felt no distinction between all living beings and the human race, his heart no longer moved.

“He didn’t kill intentionally; it was just that as the wind and snow passed over, all living beings received the same treatment.”

While feeling emotional, the more Ning Zhuo pondered, the more he gained.

He was now completely certain that Ling Mo was the greatest gain from the second batch of demonic souls purchased!

“His comprehension wasn’t particularly outstanding, but through a fortuitous encounter in Shuanghou Gu, his spirit root and physical body underwent a transformation within the valley.”

“This transformation allowed him to survive, and in the process of adjusting and refining his original cultivation technique, he naturally created the ‘Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong’.”

It was not strange for a transformation to occur.

Shuanghou Gu is one of the world’s wonders, on par with Fenxing Keng. The former is filled with the principles of ice, frost, and sound.

Ling Mo’s body and soul were fragmented at the time, yet he had an ice spirit root that resonated with the outside world, thus activating the principles of Shuanghou Gu, which then eroded his physical body.

This kind of transformation often leads to death, but Ling Mo was very lucky.

He survived and even improved the “Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong,” further utilizing his mutated body and spirit root.

Essentially, Ling Mo and Ning Zhuo were the same.

Ning Zhuo received the blessing of Qingwu Langjun’s principles, adding the principles of military strategy, mechanisms, and artifact refining to his being.

Ling Mo, on the other hand, was eroded by the environment of Shuanghou Gu, adding the principles of ice, frost, and sound to his being.

But Ning Zhuo’s situation was beneficial without harm, while Ling Mo’s was likely not. His subsequent descent into demonhood should largely be due to the blessing of these principles.

When he was pursued, captured, and caught, he was almost entirely an ice sculpture, with very little flesh and blood remaining.

The influence of “Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong” was only a small part; more of it was due to the principle blessings on him.

Just as in Shuyu Ting, ordinary stones transform into various beautiful jades in that environment. For a stone, becoming jade means completely losing its original self.

The same was true for Ling Mo. He ultimately became human-shaped wind and snow, or rather, an external active sub-entity of Shuanghou Gu.

This reminded Ning Zhuo of the battle between Situ Xing and Zhu Fenxiang.

At the end of that battle, Zhu Fenxiang’s divine statue underwent Daohua, almost causing major trouble. Fortunately, the powerful array in the Yanwu Tang immediately suppressed it. However, this also meant that the Yanwu Tang could not be used for a long time.

“Deities using divine power, divine techniques, and so on, is an expression of related principles.”

“So-called Daohua should be a large number of principles being applied to an item. But the item cannot bear it, causing the principles to leak out. It’s like water overflowing from a cup.”

In short, “Ling Mo was not cut out for it”!

He couldn’t bear it.

Ning Zhuo, however, could.

“Is it due to my innate talent? That allows me to receive external principles?” Ning Zhuo became more curious about this mysterious talent.

Ling Mo’s lifetime of experience and memories brought a rich foundation to Ning Zhuo.

In his later life, after completely becoming a demon, his combat power could rival a Yuan Ying cultivator.

“It’s a pity it’s not Yin-attribute.”

If such a gain were Yin-attribute, Ning Zhuo felt there would be at least a sixty percent chance of rescuing Yuan Dasheng.

“I’ve had enough of two batches of demonic souls, neither of which had a master cultivating Yin-attribute techniques.”

“If they’re not masters, they can’t help with Yuan Dasheng’s problem.”

“It seems I can’t entirely rely on the black market here.”

“Wuxiang Zong is, after all, a righteous force, so the scale of the black market here is still limited.”

Ning Zhuo had a premonition that to obtain Yin-attribute demonic souls, he would have to start with Baizhi Xiancheng.

However, the entire Qingjiao Army was disliked by the Yin-world Cangtian and had enmity with Wangchuan Difu, making it unsuitable for large-scale capture of Yin-attribute demonic souls.

In this regard, Ning Zhuo still needed to be patient.

Ning Zhuo recorded the “Yongji Xuanbing Zhuti Mo Gong,” then used the Luo Shu, the two Confucian arts of “Hanging Hair and Piercing Thigh” (meaning diligent study), and so on, to re-learn and quickly digest this foundation.

After studying it several times, he gained a lot, and inspiration frequently struck him.

He then took out the “Bingdiao Mi Dian” (a gift from Ning Jiufan) and read it twice more.

Still not satisfied, he then took out the “Ling Shuang Ao Xue Wu Fa Tu” to observe.

Finally, he took out Xue Shu Yu • Xie, studied its entire body, then buried his head at his desk, pen flowing like a divine hand, rapidly sketching out new related mechanism diagrams.

Meanwhile.

At the Ban family ancestral shrine.

In the secret chamber, numerous Grand Elders gathered, their gaze focused on the clan’s destiny pivot chain in the center.

The clan’s destiny pivot chain was in operation.

Streaks of spiritual light flowed and converged along the tracks, and spiritual pivot sliders occasionally collided with the secret-patterned copper bells, producing clear, melodious chimes containing unfathomable heavenly secrets.

Spiritual aura ascended, transforming into a manifestation of destiny.

At first, it was merely a blur, but as the clan’s destiny pivot chain continued to operate, it became clearer.

A Grand Elder expressed surprise: “Is this Ning Zhuo’s destiny manifestation? We can already measure it?”

The person next to him explained: “Last time we used the clan’s destiny pivot chain to contend with him on the destiny level, and received the aid of a king’s decree. Now, the destiny of our Ban family, the Banji king’s decree, and Ning Zhuo’s human tribulation are more deeply intertwined.”

“Therefore, the clan’s destiny pivot chain can clearly measure a portion of the truth.”

Concerning the king’s decree and a human tribulation, the Grand Elders became utterly focused, observing meticulously.

In the center of the scene, there was an arm, seeming both empty and not empty, between reality and illusion—this was Ning Zhuo’s destiny manifestation.

The arm of destiny was spread wide, its five fingers flexing and extending, seemingly containing infinite profound mysteries. Its posture was like a dragon extending its claw, continuously grasping and seizing in the void.

Each grasp brought a wisp of icy frost, which was absorbed into the palm. With each absorption, the arm solidified a bit more.

“Ning Zhuo’s destiny is in the shape of an arm, what does this signify?”

“It’s growing stronger with every breath; this rate of growth is simply terrifying!”

“What do these icy frost auras represent? Xuanjia Dong doesn’t have much to do with ice-attribute.”

While they discussed, another change occurred.

A plain white sheet of paper appeared out of thin air, as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet it seemed to bear the weight of a mountain.

The paper vibrated silently, scattering countless black ink dots, which rained down like a sudden shower, dripping onto the arm of destiny.

A sizzling sound arose as the ink dots, like living things, quickly permeated into the arm.

Immediately, tiny fly-sized characters appeared on the arm’s surface, all formed from ink.

The ink characters converged, forming articles.

Once an article was complete, it would turn itself over. The “skin” of the arm of destiny then peeled and changed, and in an instant, it transformed into continuously turning book pages.

Everyone seemed to hear a rustle, as the outermost page peeled off the arm like a falling leaf.

The Grand Elders’ eyes suddenly brightened, and someone whispered: “Someone is trying to cause trouble for Ning Zhuo. From the looks of it, it’s about writing, perhaps a Confucian cultivator?”

“Aren’t Confucian cultivators generally optimistic about Ning Zhuo?” More people were puzzled.

The changes in destiny continued.

A thorny vine, as if painted with red lacquer and covered in barbs, spread forth.

The thorns, like living things, coiled around the arm, specifically intertwining around the ring finger of the five fingers, forming a thorny ring.

The ring continuously tightened, clamping down on the finger.

The thorny barbs deeply pierced into the finger, and wisps of destiny energy escaped, quickly absorbed by the barbs.

The Grand Elders were puzzled, muttering to themselves: “Who is this, secretly trying to cause trouble for Ning Zhuo?”

In the final change, clouds gathered from all directions around the arm of destiny, forming a posture to envelop it.

The clouds condensed into one body, initially like a magnificent immortal palace and city of jade, exquisitely beautiful. Then the cloud city’s outline gradually distorted, transforming into an enormous, plain white coffin!

The coffin descended, appearing slow yet as heavy as a mountain. Even as the Grand Elders merely observed, seeing this scene, they felt a deep sense of oppression, even suffocation.

The truth of the destiny faded away completely.

The many Grand Elders looked at each other.

“Why does it feel like Ning Zhuo is laden with disaster?”

“It seems that if left to develop, he will self-destruct…”

“So what should we do next?”

The Grand Elder took action, activating the clan’s destiny pivot chain, which underwent another transformation.

After the transformation, the destiny manifestation reappeared, forming three stars. One star was orange-yellow, with mechanisms turning on its surface. One was scarlet red, with demonic energy rising. And one was deep purple, its star body continuously deforming strangely, like smoke or mist.

The Grand Elder said in a deep voice: “Previously, when we fully dealt with Ning Zhuo, the clan’s destiny pivot chain underwent a peculiar change. We have now deduced the answer.”

“This is the manifestation of Banji’s king’s decree, working together against Ning Zhuo, helping our clan’s destiny pivot chain avert danger.”

“We achieved our original goal, allowing Ning Zhuo’s good fortune to rapidly burst forth and consume itself intensely. In the future, when he is weakened, we will have Banji take action to resolve his human tribulation.”

At this point, some Grand Elders immediately understood why there were three stars.

Banji’s immortal aptitude was the “Wan Yan Mogua,” representing three destinies: mechanisms, demonic arts, and strange arts.

This perfectly corresponded to the three stars before them.

The Grand Elder continued: “The king’s decree manifested, helping our divination succeed.”

“The current three stars are the crux of Ning Zhuo’s destiny.”

“They represent the eruption of his destiny in three aspects: mechanisms, demonic arts, and strange arts.”

“Once the three stars have erupted, his destiny will turn from prosperity to decline, falling into a slump.”

“At that time, it will be the opportune moment for Banji to act!”