The night sky of the Arctic ice field was torn apart by the aurora, leaving an emerald fissure. The ice crystals sticking to the soles of Little Nianyao's boots suddenly cracked. Looking down, she saw countless female corpses dressed in snow-like gauze kneeling one hundred meters deep beneath the ice in a pilgrimage posture. Their faces, frozen in the very moment of death, wore eerie smiles, and their empty eye sockets all stared fixedly at the glowing Buddha-Demon Mark on the back of her neck. As a cold wind carrying ancient whispers brushed past her ear, she suddenly remembered a prophecy she had read three days ago in the damaged scrolls of the Sword Pavilion: "Land of the Moon's Fall, pilgrimage of ten thousand souls."
"Uncle Li, this ice isn't right..." The young girl wrapped her fox-fur cloak tighter around herself and took half a step back, the Canglan Bead at her waist bursting with blue light without warning. Fine silver patterns suddenly appeared on the ice surface, spreading outwards like living creatures. Nine ice pillars carved with lunar phase diagrams shattered out of the ice, the blood-red incantations flowing across their surfaces matching the patterns on the Hanyue Jade Pendant entirely. Suspended atop each ice pillar was an ice-sculpted beast head, and the deep blue flames clutched in their jaws suddenly shifted, pinning Little Nianyao's shadow to the center of the ice field.
"Crack—"
Chapter 22