Trials of the Abyss

Chapter 319: Tracing the Past

Time froze and the projection of Pang Jian's spiritual sea sealed in place.

Only Pang Jian, still frozen in mid-air, had the awareness to sense the strange scene unfolding behind him.

The elders of the Ice Race and the warriors rising into the sky on their Spirit Avians were all stuck in place, suspended in an eerie stillness as if encased in ice.

An eerie, pin-drop silence permeated the Frozen Land.

The silence stretched on.

Crack!

A sharp sound rang out from the altar below, and the thick white fog rapidly receded.

The cold fog vanished into the Heart of Winter like a sharp inhale.

Pang Jian peered down and saw a prick of light deep within the crystalline heart.

The light grew brighter and brighter until it became so luminescent it took Pang Jian's breath away.

The glaciers casting their divine radiance on Pang Jian also became blindingly radiant.

Whoosh!

The enormous crystalline heart slowly rose from the altar in a dazzling display of divine light.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Divine light also shot out of the six towering pillars surrounding the altar, aiming toward the space behind Pang Jian as if about to pierce the barrier.

The six broad beams of light enveloped the projections from Pang Jian's Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea—the bright moon, the blazing sun, the stars, the lightning vortex, the fiery pool, the Leaves of Life, and the black turtle scute.

A strange sensation abruptly filled Pang Jian. It was like a badly damaged Heavenly Dao was being repaired.

Inexplicable mysteries Pang Jian could not fathom quietly emerged from deep within the earth, the glaciers, the rocks on the snow-capped peaks, the frozen lakes, and even the areas shrouded in cold mist.

Hidden laws were revealed, distorted principles of the Heavenly Dao were corrected, and erased divine essence was restored.

The Frozen Land was undergoing an incomprehensible change because of Pang Jian's Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea.

At the center of the transformation lay the Heart of Winter.

Whoosh!

The six broad beams of divine light pulled the projection of Pang Jian's Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea into the six towering ice pillars.

Intricate patterns depicting the sun, moon, stars, flames, lightning, leaves, and scutes appeared on the six ice pillars.

The ice pillars glowed even more brightly as the designs seemed to come to life.

The Heart of Winter was still slowly rising into the air and started to shrink until it was no larger than a fist.

Whoosh!

The Heart of Winter flew into Pang Jian's spiritual sea and settled at the bottom of his ice pool.

At that moment, the seal on time and space was abruptly lifted.

Boom!

Pang Jian fell from the sky and crashed where the Heart of Winter had once been.

Although the strange projection vanished, the six towering ice pillars continued to radiate divine light.

"Outsider!"

"What happened?"

"My thoughts and consciousness were frozen just now, but I seemed to see a strange projection behind the outsider when I regained consciousness!"

"In the ancient legends, our ancestors once lived in a world with the sun, moon, and stars. They bathed in starlight and moonlight!"

"The stars and the moon were once part of the sky in the Frozen Land!"

The members of the Ice Race murmured as they gazed up at the sky in wonder.

"Quickly, look at the ice pillars!" somebody shouted.

All eyes turned to the six towering pillars.

The ice pillars were miraculously patterned with the sun, moon, stars, flames, lightning, leaves, and scute.

"The Heart of Winter is gone!" an Ice Race member cried in horror.

"Silence!" Second Elder Bing Yuan, knelt beside the fallen Pang Jian, gripping the Frost Scepter with trembling hands.

Pang Jian stared vacantly at the sky.

Bing Yuan wailed fearfully, "Outsider, what happened? How did the Heart of Winter disappear into your body?"

He could sense the divine artifact, which the Ice Race regarded as the core of the Frozen Land, had settled within Pang Jian.

"Second Elder, we must retrieve the Heart of Winter, even if it means skinning him alive and extracting his bones!"

"This young man is wicked beyond measure. He's guilty of the gravest of sins!"

"He stole our Heart of Winter!"

The other elders cried fiercely.

They all had Rank Six bloodlines and could faintly sense the Heart of Winter within Pang Jian.

"Silence, all of you!" Bing Yuan yelled. Even after taking several deep breaths to steady his emotions, his voice still shook when he addressed Pang Jian, "Tell me, you..."

Pang Jian remained silent for a long time before saying softly, "Give me a moment."

Bing Yuan was stunned.

"I'm perceiving the message the Ice Demon left behind."

With that, Pang Jian closed his eyes and focused his attention inward.

The stars in his dantian were dim, and the sun and moon had shrunk to the size of a grain of rice.

His spiritual sea was completely drained of spiritual power, the lightning vortex had become a vortex without lightning, and the fiery pool was reduced to a flameless basin.

The eight Leaves of Life and the black turtle scute were also exhausted of power.

Only his sea of consciousness and Providence Mystic Reservoir Acupoint remained unaffected.

The six ice pillars had absorbed all his other energies and powers while the time was frozen.

In exchange, he had gained the Heart of Winter, which had settled at the bottom of his ice pool.

When the Heart of Winter sank into the pool, Pang Jian a strange connection clicked into place, as if the divine artifact had accepted him.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The Bee Sovereign and a swarm of golden bees whirled through the dense mist surrounding the Heart of Winter.

The Heart of Winter's mist contained the divine consciousness of Outer God Puppets that had perished in the Frozen Land for millennia, and the bees devoured it with great delight.

As the bees feasted, Pang Jian gathered his golden divine sense and sent them deep into the crystal core of the Heart of Winter.

A small, walnut-sized crystal sphere lay at the center of the Heart of Winter.

Sitting atop the crystal sphere was a fair-featured Ice Race man dressed in silver robes.

The man was the dead Ice Demon, and this was the remnant of his divine soul.

Strands of silvery white cold light emanated from the divine soul and came into contact with Pang Jian's golden divine sense.

Images flickered through Pang Jian's mind.

Outside the Abyss, there was a world known as the Mystic Frost World, where a celestial body named "Winter" once existed.

Winter was the Ice Demon's homeland and the birthplace of the Ice Race.

The Ice Demon ascended to godhood in Winter, ruling over all living beings in the Mystic Frost World and acting as the protector of the Ice Race.

Many celestial bodies like Winter existed within the Mystic Frost World, with other races and Spirit Beasts living on them.

As the Ice Demon was a member of the Ice Race, when he became the God of the Mystic Frost World, the Ice Race naturally also became the ruling race.

One day, an Outer God crossed the boundless starry expanse and arrived in the Mystic Frost World, igniting a war against the Ice Demon.

The war lasted for hundreds of days.

During the battle, the nine celestial bodies in the Mystic Frost World were torn apart, including Winter, the birthplace of the Ice Race.

Knowing he was doomed, the Ice Demon retrieved the crystal core of the fractured Winter, imbued it with a portion of his divine power, and sent it into the depths of the bizarre mist with a fragment of Winter.

By doing so, he preserved the legacy of the Ice Race and ensured their survival.

Shortly after, the Ice Demon perished, and the Frost Crystal God became the new God of the Mystic Frost World.

The races worshiping the Frost Crystal God then slaughtered the remaining Ice Race.

Over time, the fragment of Winter in the bizarre mist became the Frozen Land.

The Ice Race on the Frozen Land were the last remnants of their kind.

They were the legacy of the entire Ice Race.

The Frozen Land was merely a fragment of Winter and had since been cut off from the Mystic Frost World, which was why it had an incomplete Heavenly Dao.

The Ice Demon had deliberately sealed the Heart of Winter within the Frozen Land, causing the Ice Race here to struggle to reach the full potential of their bloodline.

However, this seal prevented the Frost Crystal God from sensing the Frozen Land.

The new God of the Mystic Frost World could neither eradicate the remaining Ice Race nor retrieve the Heart of Winter.

Even so, the Frost Crystal God never forgot this matter and had sent her followers to search for the lost fragmented land, hoping to reclaim the Heart of Winter.

The barrier and the bizarre mist had successfully concealed the Frozen Land for millennia, and the foreign races from the Mystic Frost World had yet to find it.

Whoosh!

The final strand of the cold light disappeared, taking the Ice Demon's divine soul with it.

Pang Jian silently processed the long-forgotten history of the Ice Race as his divine sense lingered beside the crystal core of the Heart of Winter.

He had seen everything from the sky in the Mystic Frost World as if he were an omniscient god watching passively from above.

During this time, the golden bees around the Heart of Winter continued to feast on the divine consciousness of the Outer God Puppets within the mist.

As the golden bees gorged themselves, their bellies swelled, and they produced golden honey, which they deposited in Pang Jian's sea of consciousness.

The honey accumulated and condensed, causing new golden strands of divine sense to flow from the acupoints in Pang Jian's sea of consciousness.

The golden divine sense within Pang Jian's sea of consciousness continuously increased.

Meanwhile, Bing Yuan and the rest of the Ice Race could only stand vigil beside Pang Jian, watching helplessly as he lay motionless on the altar, shrouded in icy mist.