When Lin Yunche woke up in excruciating pain, he found himself inside a floating jade coffin.
There was a black bone fragment coiled in his spiritual sea, and the patterns on its surface were exactly the same as those on the celestial stele behind Su Hanyi.
"Damn, the Nine - Orifice Exquisite Bones really live up to their reputation!" Qin Yixuan's voice came from above.
The sect master's black iron sword was hovering three inches above the young man's chest.
"But do you know why the Yunlan Sect would keep a disaster star who can activate the Heavenly Stele?"
The jade coffin suddenly tilted, and Lin Yunche fell into the icy pool filled with ice crystals. The bone-chilling icy water instantly soaked through his meridians. Only then did he realize that his original five-element spiritual roots (gold, wood, water, fire, and earth) had been completely reshaped - at present, only the pure ice attribute spiritual root remained.
"Su Hanyi's icy bloodline and the power of the Heavenly Tablet have all been absorbed by you." The sword sound of Qin Yixuan shattered the water surface. "Now it's proven that you deserve to live. Otherwise, I will personally turn you into the spirit of the ice-etched sword."
The young man endured the excruciating pain of his meridians being torn apart and began to circulate the "Ice Soul Art" that Su Han Yi had left in his sea of consciousness.
When the first wisp of ice spirit energy was injected into his heart, the black bone fragments within his body suddenly hummed, transforming all the spirit energy into dark golden liquid.
"Is this... chaotic spirit energy?" Qin Yixuan's pupils suddenly shrank. "Impossible! Su Han Yi clearly has a pure ice spirit root!"
Lin Yunche's fingertips formed a dark gold lotus flower. The petals were adorned with the patterns of the chaotic law. He recalled what Su Hanyi said before her transformation, "Survive." Suddenly, he understood that this was the way she had used the power of the Heavenly Tablet to carve out for herself a path of life.
Three months later, at the martial arts arena of Yunlan Sect.
"Lin Yunche, an external disciple, challenges the top ten contestants of the Inner Palace's Great Competition, the Ice Blade Peak Chief!"
Under the commanding voice of the new outer gate steward, Lin Yunchee stepped onto the crystalline ice arena barefoot. His white robe fluttered gently without any wind, and a blend of dark gold and ice blue light danced in his right eye - that was the mark of the fusion of the Heavenly Tablet fragment and Su Hanyi's residual spirit.
"Overestimating one's abilities!" Zhou Mingxuan, the leader of Ice Blade Peak, drew out his soul ice crystal sword and twelve ice crystal barriers instantly appeared. "Let you witness what the true ice spirit root is!"
Lin Yunche suddenly sat cross-legged and placed his palms on the surface of the arena. The dark golden energy spread like a spider web, and the originally unbreakable crystalline ice began to melt, revealing the ancient chaotic patterns that had been sealed away for thousands of years beneath it.
"Is this... the chaotic transformation array left by the first patriarch?" The elders in the observation seat were all in a state of astonishment. "How could this guy activate such an ancient forbidden spell!"
Zhou Mingxuan's ice prism sword was crumbling piece by piece within the chaotic array patterns. He was horrified to discover that his spiritual energy was being absorbed in reverse. Lin Yunche's body surface began to exude translucent bone armor, and each line of the pattern was devouring the ice elements of the arena.
"Sky Pillar Cultivates Soul, Using One's Body as a Cauldron." The young man's voice carried an air of agelessness that didn't belong to him. "Su Hanyi, is this the path you want me to understand?"
Suddenly, the entire training field was enveloped by a dark golden light column. Twelve massive bronze tripods descended from the clouds, and the runes on their bodies resonated with the bone fragments in Lin Yunche's body. Qin Yixuan finally saw the faint bone tablet-like shadow behind the young man. It was clearly the fragment of the chaotic heaven tablet, which is said to be capable of reversing life and death!