The thorned vines took the opportunity to crazily bore into the magical creature’s body, the surface of the tendrils glistening, clearly greedily devouring the creature’s energy.

Under the crushing force of the wooden statue and the energy plundering by the thorned vines, the creature’s body gradually flattened, black scales shattered, demonic flames extinguished, and finally, with a ’bang’, it turned into a pool of stinking black viscous substance, completely devoid of life.

The glowing green crystal stones in the eyes of the wooden statue slowly dimmed, its figure trembled slightly, and then returned to stillness.

Dongfang Qi leaped from the top of the wooden statue, his green robe fluttering fiercely in the cold wind.

At this moment, the ice bones in the center of the ice valley suddenly shook, the ice layer cracked open a neat gap from the center, and an entirely shimmering white ice scepter slowly rose.

The staff was engraved with twining branch patterns, at the top was inlaid a pigeon-egg-sized ice crystal stone, exuding pure and abundant spiritual energy.

Dongfang Qi approached, grasping the ice scepter with both hands, a rush of cool energy flowed into his body through his palms, instantly soothing his post-battle fatigue.

He nodded slightly, evidently quite satisfied with this scepter.

But when he cast his gaze beyond the ice valley, his brows slowly furrowed, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes.

With his strength, dealing with the magical creature before him had cost him considerable effort; whether his clan and those golden bloodline geniuses under the Dongfang Clan’s command could survive safely was uncertain.

Thinking of this, Dongfang Qi did not hesitate any longer, flying quickly towards the outside of the ice valley.

......

Roar——!

Atop the ice mountain, the dragon’s roar resounded through the skies. The golden holy dragon unfurled its body of several dozens of feet, its scales glowing intensely, diving down with world-shattering momentum.

Below, the black-scaled serpent demon hissed with a red tongue, miasma surrounding it staining the snowflakes black.

"Boom!"

The holy dragon hit the serpent demon’s vital spot precisely, the serpent demon shrieking miserably as it was flung back, crashing heavily into the ice mountain’s main peak.

The entire ice mountain collapsed instantly, huge chunks of ice crumbling down, the booming echoing in the snowy realm, collapsing majestically after just a few breaths as snow fog filled the sky.

In the snow fog, a golden spear light tore through the air, with dragon patterns swirling on the spear shaft, the dragon’s might awe-inspiring.

"Splat!" The spear pierced through the serpent demon’s head like a meteor, nailing it dead onto the broken ice.

The aftershock from the ice mountain resumed, causing it to further sink by several feet.

A figure in bright yellow descended slowly; it was Ji Taiyan.

With a flick of his finger, golden dragon flame ignited along the spear shaft; the serpent demon’s body was swiftly consumed by dragon flame, turning to ash and dissipating in the wind and snow within moments.

Ji Taiyan landed on the ice rock, his gaze sweeping over the ruins, his brow furrowing sharply.

Beneath the ice at the spot of the serpent demon’s demise, a partially destroyed dark gold sealing array was revealed, at the center of which two arm-thick bones were intertwined, covered with fresh flesh from which demonic qi incessantly seeped.

"A creature born from two bones, possessing such power," his heart sank.

The dangers hidden in this treasure vault far exceeded expectations.

What secret could possibly be concealed here?

The cold wind swept snow against Ji Taiyan’s face, his eyes flashing with determination.

He must uncover the truth; otherwise, countless geniuses would perish here.

...

Within the treasure vault, danger lurked on all sides. The intense light from spiritual energy explosions flickered throughout the corridors.

In one icy corridor, a golden bloodline genius slashed through a magical creature’s claw with his sword, only to be bitten back, screaming as he fell.

In another stone chamber, someone used a secret technique to ignite spiritual energy, perishing together with the creature, shattered ice mixed with flesh and blood flying in all directions.

Inside the ice valley, the Holy Blood Clan displayed their divine power, shattering magical creatures.

The sharp clash of blades, the howls of creatures, and the wails of humans intertwined, creating a symphony of life and death.

Strangely, no matter how fierce each battle was, the violent fluctuations of energy seemed confined by an invisible barrier, never spreading beyond, as though the entire treasure vault were split into countless independent cages of life and death.

In the deepest part of the vault, hundreds of human-high ice mirrors were neatly arranged in three rows, their surfaces gleaming as they clearly reflected scenes of battles everywhere, even capturing the alarm and horror on the faces of the geniuses, as well as the ferocity of the creatures.

In front of the ice mirrors, a figure stood silently like a statue—his countenance was strikingly handsome to the point of perfection, wearing a crown inlaid with light blue gems crafted from ice crystal, a snow-white robe hanging to his ankles, the hem embroidered with intricate ice patterns, holding a magic staff with an ice soul embedded at its top, exuding an aura of authority like an emperor reigning over a world of ice and snow.

Behind him, four ice and snow spirit beasts lay ready.

The Ice Crystal Phoenix’s wings were sculpted like glass, its tail feathers gleaming with icy blue radiance, fine ice mist condensing beside its beak; the snowy-maned giant bear was the size of a hill, its white fur fluffy as wool, claws scraping the ground leaving deep bone-exposing ice scars; the spirit deer was surrounded by a faint golden glow, ice flowers crystallizing in the forks of its antlers, blooming into fleeting ice crystals where it stepped; and a giant beast resembling a pangolin, its dorsal plates covered with layers of rhomboid ice crystal scales, reflecting a cold metallic sheen under sunlight, crouched like a mobile ice-armored fortress.

"Young Master, these humans’ strength is indeed beyond expectation."

The spirit deer shattered an ice crystal beside its hoof, ice flowers on its antlers trembling as it spoke, "Especially those direct lineage of the Holy Blood, who can shatter Mokaluo’s avatar by themselves. If we seek assistance from the Empire’s top experts, perhaps we can..."

"No." Lan’s voice was as cold as ice, the ice soul at the top of the staff gleaming faintly, "The Empire’s greed is engraved in their very bones, once their mightiest intervene, everything our race has prepared to suppress Mokaluo, along with the inheritance from years past, will be completely pillaged."

He raised a hand to brush over the ice patterns on his robe, his gaze tranquil, "We must use their strength to weaken Mokaluo, but in the end, the one to conclude it must be our Ice God Race."

"Exactly." The white bear boomed, its heavy breath puffing out two clouds of white mist, solidifying into fine ice particles in the air, "Never trust anyone again—wasn’t the lesson from years past painful enough?"

Upon hearing this, the spirit deer, Ice Crystal Phoenix, and pangolin-like giant beast all nodded in silent agreement.

During the upheaval in the Ice God Race, they were still in their juvenile phase, not having firsthand experience of the battlefield, yet the devastation that followed and its causes and consequences, they remembered clearly.

If not for the naive trust in external "aid" back then, the Ice God Main City wouldn’t have been easily breached and the entire race wouldn’t have faced extinction, leaving only a few remnants like them guarding this cold seal.

"Over the thousands of years of suppression, Mokaluo has been siphoning our race’s power to grow itself stronger and stronger." The white bear’s claw slammed heavily onto the ground, causing the ice surface to crack with fine lines, "Yet we continuously fill the energy void in the sealing formation, our power long weakened from its peak. If no external force intervenes, in at most twenty years, it will break free of the formation—and when that time comes, we’ll all be buried with it."

"Thus these humans are the best tools." Lan’s gaze swept over the battling figures in the ice mirrors, his tone unwavering, "We can manipulate their trial paths, making them tools to deplete Mokaluo. But in the end, whether it can be utterly destroyed still depends on that one—"

Before finishing his words, both he and the four spirit beasts turned their eyes toward the depths of the hall.

There stood a throne entirely forged from thousand-year-old profound ice, with armrests carved into coiling ice dragons, scales pieced together from countless tiny ice crystal shards, refracting an eerie blue glow; embedded in the seatback were dozens of silent ice souls, whose once brilliant shine had already dimmed, the surface overrun with cobweb-like cracks.

The base of the throne connected with an ice mountain below, the mountain entirely crystalline, yet faintly within its core pulsed a writhing shadow—that was Mokaluo’s heart.

Even sealed for thousands of years, that heart still pulsed slowly, every beat causing the ice mountain to tremor slightly along with it. This frozen throne had suppressed Mokaluo for thousands of years, yet now, Mokaluo’s heart still beats ever stronger, while the cracks along the throne edges widened, the original dense profound ice began to flake off, even the suppressive force in the air was gradually weakening.

"We don’t have time."

Lan looked at the ice mirrors, his tone calm yet with a hint of determination: "This time, we must eliminate Mokaluo, once he awakens, not only will we perish, the whole world will be completely destroyed by Mokaluo."

Upon hearing this, the few spirit beasts nodded in unison, their eyes looking at the beating heart within the ice mountain, becoming even more resolute.