Han Yu stood silently upon the snow covered mountain while an icy map floated between him and Madam Cold Fang.
The marked locations glowed one after another across the northern frontier.
Frozen plains.
Abandoned villages.
Forest clearings.
Hidden caves.
All the places where corpses had appeared.
Han Yu counted them.
There were far more than he had expected.
The smiling corpses found recently were only the final visible traces. The ritual itself had likely been progressing for years in secret.
His eyes narrowed.
"Madam Cold Fang..."
He looked at her.
"What exactly did you an earlier?"
"You said you wanted to use ."
Madam Cold Fang’s gaze shifted toward him.
"The Freezing Abyss Glacial Art."
Han Yu imdiately rembered the battle underground.
The Frost Bat man’s attacks.
The suppression.
The black frost overwhelming the other party.
He also rembered the expression on the man’s face.
Shock.
Disbelief.
He had been completely suppressed whenever the Abyssal Frost Qi appeared.
Madam Cold Fang continued.
"It is the only technique capable of suppressing the Eternal Smiling Ancestor."
Han Yu slowly nodded.
That much he understood.
Yet one detail bothered him.
"You said suppress the Ancestor."
He looked at her carefully.
"Not your brother."
Her expression grew colder.
Han Yu suddenly felt sothing unpleasant.
"You an..."
His voice lowered.
"The Eternal Smiling Ancestor will actually return?"
"Yes."
The answer ca instantly.
Han Yu’s pupils shrank.
Madam Cold Fang looked toward the snowy horizon.
"His spirit was sealed beyond this world."
"My brother seeks to bring him back."
"He wishes to restore his vitality."
Han Yu felt his scalp grow numb.
Everything suddenly felt far more dangerous.
This had already gone beyond a strange ritual.
Beyond frozen corpses.
Beyond local disappearances.
Soone was trying to revive an ancient existence.
He imdiately rembered the reflection inside Smiling Spring.
The smiling face.
The laughter.
The presence hidden beneath the water.
Han Yu frowned.
"Then the longevity ritual..."
Madam Cold Fang nodded.
"It is real."
"The ritual grants longevity."
"But only a fragnt."
Han Yu listened carefully.
"The Eternal Smiling Ancestor receives the majority."
"The user gains barely a tenth."
Han Yu felt surprised.
Even then...
A tenth still surpassed many Blood Sect thods.
He had seen longevity arts in the sect.
Most were crude.
They consud vitality.
Souls.
Blood essence.
So damaged the user permanently. Others only granted several years. Even the stronger ones rarely exceeded a century.
Yet this ritual...
Just the leftovers alone surpassed them.
He finally understood why Palm Hand Lu had beco obsessed.
This thing could tempt anyone.
Even righteous cultivators.
Especially those approaching death.
But Han Yu also understood why it had been sealed.
This was feeding sothing monstrous.
"What happens if we fail?" Han Yu asked quietly.
Madam Cold Fang’s answer ca imdiately.
"My brother wants revenge. He intends to revive the Eternal Smiling Ancestor and unleash him upon the world."
Han Yu froze.
For a brief second...
A thought appeared.
Destroy the Blood Sect.
Destroy the people trapping him here.
Destroy his enemies.
It almost sounded beneficial.
Then Madam Cold Fang spoke again.
"The Eternal Smiling Ancestor will not stop with the Blood Sect."
Her eyes turned cold.
"He will devour everything."
Han Yu’s expression changed.
"All life?"
"Yes."
"The world itself may beco his feeding ground."
Silence fell.
Han Yu thought of Twin Leaf Peak Sect.
Li i.
His companions.
The Central Continent.
No.
He could not allow this.
"We have to stop him."
Madam Cold Fang nodded.
"Indeed."
Han Yu looked toward the floating map.
"What do we do?"
"We return to Smiling Spring."
Han Yu frowned.
"The realm is sealed."
"It is."
"But my brother will leave eventually."
Han Yu waited.
"He still needs sacrifices."
Then Han Yu rembered sothing.
He slowly raised a hand.
"Actually..."
Madam Cold Fang looked at him.
"That may not be necessary."
"What?"
Han Yu told her everything.
The hidden realm.
The smiling villagers.
The mortals wandering endlessly.
The children.
The nearly three hundred people inside.
As he spoke...
Madam Cold Fang’s expression worsened.
When he finished she closed her eyes.
"He prepared beforehand..."
Her voice carried exhaustion.
Han Yu nodded.
"But there were older ritual sites too."
"So of them used different corpses."
"Not all were smiling."
Madam Cold Fang fell silent.
She thought for several monts.
Then spoke.
"He was experinting."
Han Yu looked at her.
"He likely pieced the ritual together gradually."
"The earlier sites were failures."
"Only recently did he succeed."
She looked toward the north.
"The manifestation you saw proves it."
Han Yu rembered the spring.
The smiling reflection.
The laugh.
The souls.
"He has already sacrificed many."
Madam Cold Fang opened her eyes.
"But the villagers alone will not be enough."
Han Yu blinked.
"What do you an?"
"He needs a larger ritual."
Her hand rose.
The icy map shifted.
All the marked locations lit up.
Thin lines appeared.
Han Yu watched as they connected.
One after another.
His expression slowly changed.
The points were not random.
Together...
They ford sothing.
A gigantic circle.
His eyes widened.
"This..."
Madam Cold Fang nodded.
"All ritual sites connect."
"The smiling corpses."
"The frozen bodies."
"The villages."
"They form parts of a larger array."
Han Yu stared.
The circle stretched across hundreds of kiloters.
Its scale was absurd.
He finally understood why Madam Cold Fang had investigated this for so long.
This was never a local incident.
It was continental.
She pointed.
"These sites are complete."
Several locations glowed.
Han Yu recognized so.
The cave.
The earlier discoveries.
The forest sites.
There were so Han Yu didn’t know about. All of these were deep in the frozen areas and were probably not discovered so far. They had gone unnoticed all this ti.
Then she pointed at empty spaces.
Only two remained.
Han Yu narrowed his eyes.
Two missing points.
The circle was nearly complete.
Three fourths already existed.
Only two sites remained.
A cold feeling spread through him.
"How long have you been tracking this?"
Madam Cold Fang looked into the distance.
"Years."
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