Deep in the Far North, Cold Moon Palace, midnight.
Yun Qingyu snapped awake from his meditation, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead. Outside the window, a blizzard howled, yet the heart-wrenching dread in his chest had nothing to do with the weather—it was born from that relentless, recurring nightmare.
In his dream, a pair of ghostly green eyes always watched him from the dark. Whenever he tried to make out the face behind them, he would hear his daughter’s heart-rending cries.
"Another nightmare?" Chu Yao lit the cold jade lamp beside the bed. In its warm halo, the lunar mark between her brows emitted a faint blue light. Over the past three years, the Cold Moon bloodline had fused with her perfectly, often leaving fragments of delicate ice crystals freezing at the tips of her hair.
Yun Qingyu wiped away his cold sweat. "This time it was clearer... Those eyes felt as though they could pierce right through body and soul."
Before Chu Yao could reply, a sudden, piercing cry rang out from the next room. Exchanging a glance, the two of them flew off the bed in unison. Three-year-old Little Nianyao sat sobbing in her small crib, her arms tightly clutching an ice-carved rabbit—a birthday gift from her grandmother.
"What's wrong, my darling?" Chu Yao scooped her daughter up, only to find the child burning hot to the touch, the natural gold and blue mark between her brows glowing with an eerie green light!
"Daddy... there's a monster with green eyes..." Little Nianyao sobbed, pointing toward the window.
Yun Qingyu's divine sense instantly swept across a ten-mile radius, but he found nothing. Just as he furrowed his brow in confusion, the child suddenly curled up in agony, and a wisp of green radiance peeled away from her gold and blue mark, condensing into a demonic eye high above the room!
"The Nether Eye!" Chu Yao gasped, her Cold Moon sword qi instantly erupting. Yet that green eye vanished in a flash, as if it had never been there at all.
Little Nianyao's cries stopped abruptly as she drifted into a deep sleep. The mark between her brows returned to normal, save for a closer look that revealed a nearly imperceptible trace of green lines.
"How could this be..." Chu Yao's hands trembled. "How could the mark of the Nether Lord appear on Nian'er?"
Yun Qingyu gently stroked his daughter's forehead, sensing an unfamiliar power lying dormant within her. "I'm afraid this is connected to what we experienced back at the Jiuxiao Cold Moon Hall." He recalled the words the Demon Lord had uttered before dissipating: "The Nether Lord and Tiansha share the exact same origin..."
Urgent knocks cut him short. Outside the door, Great Elder Su Muxue of Cold Moon Palace spoke with a grave tone: "The Palace Master requests the two of you to go to the Xuanbing Hall immediately. Something major has happened!"
After settling their daughter down, the two hurried to the Xuanbing Hall. Inside, the atmosphere was murderous. All twelve elders had gathered, and the Cold Moon Mirror floating in the center was projecting a horrifying sight: deep within the glaciers of the Far North, a fissure a thousand feet long was spreading. Black-green mist poured endlessly from it, and wherever it passed, the ice dissolved and all life perished!
"The Nether Fissure." Palace Master Su Ningshuang's silver hair whipped about as she slammed her Scepter heavily against the floor. "The seal from three thousand years ago is loosening."
Yun Qingyu's pupils constricted. "Legend has it that the Nether Lord was suppressed beneath the northernmost ice plains..."
"It is no legend." Su Ningshuang pointed toward the image in the mirror, where the outlines of structures loomed faintly within the black mist. "The Nether Palace is rising. In three months at most, it will fully manifest in this world."
Chu Yao suddenly clutched her chest. "Nian'er just now..." She briefly recounted her daughter's anomaly.
Silence fell over the hall. The elders exchanged glances until Su Muxue finally sighed, "Just as I thought. Before the Nether Lord was sealed back then, he left a curse: 'The day the Jiuxiao Cold Moon bloodlines merge as one is the day the Nether realm sees the light of day once more.'"
"So Nian'er, she..."
"Is both the key and the lock." Su Ningshuang's expression was complex. "She carries the bloodlines of both factions within her. She can accelerate the shattering of the seal, yet she might also become the key to resealing it."
Yun Qingyu clenched his fists. "The Nether Palace wants to capture her?"
"Not just them." Su Ningshuang waved her hand, and the scene in the Cold Moon Mirror shifted to reveal sights from various major sects: "Heaven Sword Peak, the Chixiao Sect, the Xuandan Sect... nearly half of them have had disciples vanish mysteriously over the past half-month. And what is even more terrifying..."
The image froze on a ruined ancient city where the townspeople moved like walking corpses, their eyes glowing with green light.
"Nether Qi has already begun to corrupt ordinary mortals," Su Ningshuang said heavily. "If we do not stop this, within a year, the entire Northern Territory will be reduced to a dead zone."
Chu Yao abruptly stood up. "I am taking Nian'er back to the Xuantian Sect. Father is well-versed in ancient sealing arts, perhaps..."
"It is too late," Su Muxue interrupted her. "We just received word. The Xuantian Sect's mountain-protecting array was broken last night, and Elder Chu was severely injured and left unconscious!"
"What?!" Yun Qingyu jerked to his feet, the Jiuxiao Sword at his waist ringing out. As a major sect of the current era, the Xuantian Sect's mountain-protecting array was sturdy enough to withstand attacks from a peak Nascent Soul cultivator—how could it...
The Cold Moon Mirror shifted once more, displaying the scene at the Xuantian Sect—the main peak had collapsed, the Sword Pavilion was in flames, and the source of the destruction was unmistakably a Nether Fissure identical to the one in the Far North!
"More than one..." Yun Qingyu felt a heavy shock in his chest. "The Nether Palace is attacking all the major sects at the same time?"
Su Ningshuang nodded. "The great battle three thousand years ago left behind nine primary seals. Now, the Nether Palace must destroy every single one of them to fully release their Lord." She looked at the two of them. "You must set off immediately."
"Where?" Chu Yao gripped her Jade Flute tightly.
"The Taixu Sword Sect." Su Ningshuang spoke with absolute finality. "In this day and age, only Lingxiaozi wields the 'Taixu Demon-Suppressing Sword' capable of temporarily sealing the fissures. I will dispatch the twelve elders to reinforce the various sects respectively, but the most crucial part is..."
Before she could finish, the entire Cold Moon Palace shook violently! Icicles tumbled from the ceiling of the hall, and the images within the Cold Moon Mirror twisted and dissipated.
"Report—" A panicked disciple rushed in. "The glacier fissure is suddenly expanding, and inside the black mist... living things have appeared!"
Everyone flew out of the hall, only to see the distant sky stained an ink-green. Amidst the blizzard, countless black shadows could be vaguely seen crawling out from the fissure. Most eye-catching of all was a pitch-black procession carrying a dark-green sedan chair, slowly closing in on the Cold Moon Palace!
"Nether Vanguard Envoys!" Su Muxue's face drained of color. "How did they get here so fast?"
Su Ningshuang swept her Scepter, and the Cold Moon Palace's protective array fully activated. "Qingyu, Chu Yao, take Nian'er and leave through the secret passage. The Nether Palace is clearly coming for the child!"
"No!" Chu Yao resolutely declared. "How can we flee from battle?"
"Fools!" Su Ningshuang rebuked them with a rare, fierce shout. "If Nian'er falls into enemy hands, the nine seals will shatter in an instant! The entire cultivation world will be finished!"
Yun Qingyu pulled his wife back. "The Palace Master is right. Let us escort Nian'er to Mount Taixu first, and then..."
An earth-shattering explosion cut him short. A green beam struck the southeast corner of the palace wall, instantly corroding a massive breach! The black mist poured in like a tidal wave, with vegetation withering wherever it passed, and a few disciples who failed to dodge turning to white bone in the blink of an eye!
"Go!" Su Ningshuang's Scepter erupted with a blinding blue light, temporarily holding the black mist at bay. "Go down through the Xuanbing Well, it leads straight to the pine forest three hundred miles away!"
Yun Qingyu hesitated no longer, grabbing Chu Yao as they sprinted back. Along the way, several black shadows lunged from the mist. He drew his Jiuxiao Sword, sweeping out with golden sword qi, only to be horrified to discover that these monsters could rapidly reassemble even after being sliced apart!
"Physical attacks are useless!" Chu Yao raised her Jade Flute to her lips, blowing a tune as Cold Moon sword qi transformed into ice crystals that temporarily froze the monsters. "Use the fire of the World-Purifying White Lotus!"
Yun Qingyu instantly channeled the White Lotus power within him, igniting his blade with milky-white flames. This time, wherever his sword qi passed, the monsters let out piercing screeches and finally disintegrated completely.
Returning to their quarters, Little Nianyao had already woken up and was trembling in the arms of her wet nurse. Upon seeing her parents, the child immediately reached out her small hands: "Daddy, Mommy... the green-eyed monster is back..."
Yun Qingyu's heart tightened as he indeed spotted green light flashing outside the window. He scooped up his daughter in his arms: "Nian'er, don't be afraid. Let's play a game—whoever reaches the Xuanbing Well first wins!"
The moment the three of them rushed out the door, the entire wall was shattered by a giant claw! Amidst the dust and smoke, a black shadow three zhang tall slowly materialized—human-bodied with a scorpion's tail, bearing six eyes on its head, each glowing with Nether green light.
"Hand over the child..." the monster rasped hoarsely, "the Lord promises to leave your corpses intact..."
Chu Yao's Jade Flute burst into a piercingly high note, dozens of ice spears instantly piercing straight through the monster's body. Yet this could only briefly delay its movements as more black shadows swarmed in from all directions!
"Go!" Yun Qingyu held his daughter in one arm while wielding his sword with the other to clear a path. Combining his Jiuxiao Sword qi with the White Lotus purifying fire, he forcefully carved a bloody path through the horde of monsters.
The Xuanbing Well was located in the deepest part of Cold Moon Palace, its opening covered by millennia-old black ice. Chu Yao played a specific melody, and the ice split apart in response, revealing a bottomless passage.
"Hold on to me." Yun Qingyu gathered his wife and daughter into his arms and leaped into the well.
During the descent, Little Nianyao suddenly shrieked, "Daddy, watch out!"
A streak of green light chased down from the well opening, terrifyingly fast! Yun Qingyu spun around and swung his sword, only to see the green light nimbly dodge away, aiming straight for the child in Chu Yao's arms!
At the split second of mortal peril, the lunar mark between Chu Yao's brows flared brightly, instantly forming an ice wall. The green light crashed into the ice wall, revealing its form—it was a ghost-faced moth with a body as green as jade!
"Nether Guide Moth!" Chu Yao recognized its origins. "It can track us for a thousand miles!"
White flames surged on Yun Qingyu's sword blade, and with a single slash, he eradicated the ghost moth. However, even more green lights were pouring into the well opening, dense as a swarm of stars!
"There's no time!" Chu Yao suddenly bit her fingertip and painted a bloody rune between her daughter's brows. "Cold Moon Soul-Sealing Art, temporarily isolate her aura!"
Little Nianyao immediately fell fast asleep, the gold and blue mark between her brows masked by the bloody hue. At the same time, the three of them finally plunged into the cold pool at the bottom of the well, carried along by the undercurrent into an underground river channel.
When they climbed ashore thirty miles away in the pine forest, the direction of Cold Moon Palace was already enveloped in a sea of green clouds. Even more terrifyingly, nine green moons had simultaneously appeared in the sky, and wherever their moonlight shone, the snow was dyed an eerie color.
"The Nine Nethers Reflecting the Moon..." Chu Yao's voice trembled. "The ancient records' omen of the Nether Palace manifesting."
Yun Qingyu tightly embraced his wife and daughter: "No matter how powerful the Nether Palace is, I will never let anyone harm you."
In his arms, Little Nianyao mumbled in her sleep, "Daddy... the green-eyed uncle said... he wants to take me to play..."
Yun Qingyu and Chu Yao's expressions changed in unison—the enemy could actually invade the child's dreams! This was far more tricky than they had imagined.
Amidst the wind and snow, the figures of the family of three gradually drifted into the distance. And high above, where they could not see, the nine green moons slowly formed a colossal eye, coldly gazing down upon it all...