Time slipped by. The Ice Sect returned to its customary tranquility. Although the Saint Realm experts could all clearly sense a scorching energy radiating from within a certain iceberg, Qing Ya had instructed them, and no one went to disturb it.
Ten days passed. A month passed. Two months passed... The scorching energy never ceased, flaring up from time to time.
Even though none of them particularly cared for Yang Kai, his determination and perseverance earned a certain grudging respect.
From time to time, Qing Ya and Qian Yue would glance toward the iceberg, sighing softly with melancholic emotion.
Inside the ice chamber of that iceberg, Yang Kai moved like a man possessed, mechanically repeating his actions — transmitting his True Yang Energy and divine sense to Su Yan without pause, moment after moment.
For the first several days, he received no response at all. But gradually, he began to sense something unusual stirring. In the murky depths, it seemed as though a wisp of divine consciousness was trying to respond to him, yet it could never find the right direction to reach back.
Upon detecting this, Yang Kai's spirits soared, and he redoubled his efforts without holding anything back.
He had no idea how long had passed before even he began to feel profoundly exhausted.
Without warning, his divine sense plunged into utter darkness — as though he had fallen into a bottomless abyss, losing all sense of direction.
A bone-deep chill spread outward from his soul. Yang Kai couldn't help but shudder. He looked around and found nothing but endless blackness, without the faintest glimmer of light. The only thing he could feel with absolute clarity was a cold so piercing it seeped into his heart.
Here, a mood of loneliness and longing pervaded everything. Faintly, barely perceptibly, Yang Kai heard a subtle voice calling his name.
His heart trembled. In that instant, he understood — this was Su Yan's spiritual world.
She had activated the Ice Body Seal, the Ice Sect's closely guarded secret, shutting herself away from all sensation. Her mind lay shrouded in darkness, yet somewhere within, a thread of her subconscious still lingered, trying to respond to Yang Kai but trapped as if caught in a nightmare, unable to break free from the dark bonds.
Yang Kai searched frantically, his footsteps never pausing, but the road beneath his feet seemed to stretch on endlessly.
His divine sense surged wildly, piercing into the dark space, broadcasting his emotions in every direction.
At some point, he received an unusual signal from a particular spot. Yang Kai stopped where he stood, closed his eyes, and focused his perception.
A moment later, he slowly opened his eyes. Ahead of him, in the darkness, a faint point of light was blooming.
Yang Kai broke into a grin. His soul form sprinted toward the light with all its might. As he drew closer, a familiar aura emanated from the glow — it was unmistakably the energy of Su Yan's divine consciousness.
The light grew brighter and brighter. The instant Yang Kai passed through it, the surrounding darkness was swept away in a flash, replaced by brilliant, dazzling brightness.
What he saw made Yang Kai's face go blank with astonishment.
He recognized this scene all too well.
Lingxiao Pavilion!
Through his divine sense, he could see everything — the run-down hut where he used to live, Su Yan's small pavilion, the Contribution Hall, and every other familiar building, all present and accounted for. Even the winding paths were exact replicas.
The only difference between this and the real Lingxiao Pavilion was that it was utterly deserted, wrapped in an eerie silence. And everywhere, it was bitterly cold, with ice hanging from every surface.
This was Su Yan's spiritual world. Everything here could be shaped by her thoughts and will, just as in Yang Kai's own sea of consciousness, where the Five-Colored Warm Spirit Lotus had manifested as a five-colored treasure island.
The fact that Su Yan's spiritual world took the form of Lingxiao Pavilion could only mean one thing — she deeply missed the time she had spent in the sect, and her subconscious had constructed her inner world in this image.
This was not something she had deliberately created, and Yang Kai understood that clearly.
Unfortunately, even here, Yang Kai still could not find any trace of Su Yan.
Standing in place, he thought for a moment, then smiled. Almost at once, he knew exactly where Su Yan was.
His soul form set foot on that long-untraveled path, weaving through the sect's winding walkways until he arrived at the edge of Kunlong Gorge behind Lingxiao Pavilion.
At the lip of the vast gorge, several fruit trees still swayed in the wind, their branches bearing a handful of bright red fruits. Yang Kai had planted these trees with his own hands all those years ago. When the Evil Lord had broken free from Kunlong Gorge, these trees had been destroyed — yet here, within Su Yan's spiritual world, they had come to life once more.
Standing by the trees, Yang Kai lingered in quiet reminiscence for a while. Then, without warning, he leaped downward.
In midair, he pivoted nimbly and, with practiced ease, slipped into a cave opening set into the gorge wall.
This was Yang Kai's own cave dwelling — the one he had carved out at great effort when he was still weak and powerless. Each slab of rock in the walls had been painstakingly cut away with his True Yang Energy.
The cave was modest, no bigger than two rooms. The outer chamber was where Yang Kai used to sit and cultivate. Inside, a stone bed served as a place to rest.
Senior Sister Xia Ningshang used to nap on that very stone bed from time to time.
Passing through the outer chamber and stepping inside, Yang Kai found exactly what he expected — a familiar, graceful figure lying upon the stone bed.
Even within this spiritual world, Su Yan remained in deep slumber. After activating the Ice Body Seal, she had shut away her divine consciousness as well. Had it been otherwise, she would have sensed Yang Kai's presence long ago.
He walked over slowly, stopping at the edge of the stone bed. He crouched down gradually and gazed upon the sleeping beauty before him, his face filled with infinite tenderness.
As though sensing someone's arrival, Su Yan's eyelashes quivered faintly. Her delicate brows creased slightly, and then, a moment later, a smile of quiet relief blossomed at the corner of her lips.
Her long lashes fluttered more and more intensely. Suddenly, her eyes opened, and she stared at Yang Kai, crouched at the side of her bed.
Yang Kai froze.
Their gazes locked, and for a moment, he still couldn't believe what was happening.