If worst comes to worst, with Penglai Daoist Palace’s influence, stirring up some trouble inside the Eternal Ice Castle and maneuvering an Ice Castle Inspector into place is not difficult.
By then they could openly and legitimately search the interior of the Eternal Ice Castle.
...
The next day, Cang Nan Immortal Monarch and Miao Ling Immortal Monarch left together with the Immortals of Penglai Daoist Palace.
Upon the city tower of the Ice Castle, Zhang Jian watched the group go off into the distance.
Zhang Jian’s brows were slightly furrowed; he knew this crowd would most likely not give up so easily.
It wasn’t just Penglai Daoist Palace—other Immortal Sect Dao Lineages of the Celestial Realm were continuously arriving, or on their way here.
Some Immortal Gods seemed dead set on making trouble for him.
Zhang Jian immediately reconvened the many Immortal Officials within the Ice Castle, ordering them to lead the Celestial Soldiers and Divine Generals inside the Ice Castle and tighten patrols.
Once anyone was discovered trespassing into the Eternal Ice Castle Forbidden Area, or they were attacked, he granted the Immortals the authority to retaliate to the fullest extent.
His order went out in very timely fashion.
In a short span of time, in parts of the Eternal Ice Castle’s Forbidden Area, including around the Eternal Ancestral Acupoint and Eternal Ancestral Vein, figures of Immortal Gods began to appear.
These Immortal Gods were ghostlike and unpredictable, and their Dao Practice was not weak.
Because of this, the Eternal Ice Castle clashed several times with Immortal Gods from outside.
There were even Celestial Soldiers and Divine Generals injured.
This greatly enraged Zhang Jian, and he immediately declared that he would invoke the Eternal Ice Castle Forbidden Technique to seal off several million square kilometers around the Eternal Ice Castle.
With the Forbidden Technique activated, no Immortal may trespass.
If anyone breaks into the Ice Castle’s critical grounds, their life and death are their own responsibility.
Things quieted down considerably after that.
Within the Eternal Hall of the Eternal Ice Castle, Zhang Jian once again summoned the Immortals to make further arrangements.
Zhang Jian would never underestimate the Immortal Gods’ desire for power.
The Eternal Ice Castle’s slaughterous Forbidden Technique was not necessarily enough to halt the Immortals’ steps.
During this process, ’accidental killings’ were almost unavoidable!
Once accidental killings occurred, it would inevitably offend other Immortal God factions.
But for the Immortals of the Eternal Ice Castle, fulfilling the Immortal Position assigned by the Celestial Court was the first priority, so Zhang Jian still encouraged them to strike with heavy hands.
Against those Immortal Gods who dared touch the Eternal Ice Castle’s bottom line, there was no need to hold back.
Especially those who injured the Eternal Celestial Soldiers—arrest them on the spot and send them directly into the depths of the Eternal Ice Prison.
"Celestial Monarch, but this isn’t a solution either. They keep wandering around the Eternal Forbidden Area, and in the end they’ll disrupt the normal operation of the Eternal Ice Castle!"
Inspector Immortal Official Gu Ning Daoist frowned.
Spiritual Martial Immortal Official Yuan Jiang’s face was also solemn at this moment.
He was merely an Immortal God of Taiyi Celestial Immortal Level.
Now, outside the Eternal Ice Castle, Immortal Gods of Taiyi Great Perfection were not few, and rumor had it a Daoist Monarch had already appeared—how could this not make the entire Eternal Celestial Army restless.
Zhang Jian’s expression remained calm.
"No matter. Once they fail to find what they’re looking for around the Eternal Forbidden Area, they’ll naturally leave."
"Now that the Forbidden Technique is active, each Immortal just needs to guard their own post. If a Daoist Monarch barges into the Immortal Prison’s critical grounds, a Celestial Court Daoist Monarch will come to deal with it."
Hearing this, the Immortals’ faces relaxed slightly.
Zhang Jian had given them a calming pill.
Indeed, the Eternal Immortal Prison was, after all, a critical place of the Celestial Court, not somewhere other Immortal Gods could run wild.
On the Celestial Monarch’s divine seat, Zhang Jian sat impassive, but in his heart he was somewhat grave.
In truth, he wasn’t afraid of outside Immortal Gods breaking in; he was more worried that the Celestial Court would use this as a pretext to send someone to take over the Eternal Ice Castle.
At that point, he would find it hard to move.
Zhang Jian sighed inwardly.
He had actually planned to wait a while longer, to let his Dao Heart fully elevate and make contact, before going to meet that terrifying Jiu Feng.
Now, however, he had no choice but to deal with her again.
...
Having made up his mind, Zhang Jian no longer hesitated.
Ninth layer of the Eternal Ice Prison.
The icy cold pierced to the bone; the colossal Profound Nether Treasure Tree stood amid the Chaotic Qi Flow, its crown reaching to the heavens.
Countless streams of Profound Nether Ancestral Qi turned into roaming dragon-serpents that pierced through Jiu Feng’s True Body. Her four limbs were stretched into a great X; if one looked closely, one would see a thin layer of light covering her whole form.
Deep within the light, strokes like dragons and snakes—another terrifying Talisman was suppressing her True Body, rendering her completely immobile, her Daoist Monarch’s Primordial Spirit forced to sink into eternal desolation.
Jiu Feng spent several Inference Eras of time before she managed to probe out a single thread of her Primordial Spirit’s power.
Yet it was limited to just that; the seals upon her body were terrifying.
Thus Jiu Feng knew that relying on herself alone, there was no way to escape.
At this moment, she perceived the fluctuation of All Heaven Profound Nether Ancestral Qi Divine Power in the void of the ninth layer of the Eternal Ice Prison, and a faint smile surfaced upon her lips.
She knew that the one she was waiting for had finally once more become unable to hold back.
Her expression was calm, only in those dark, ink-like eyes a rare ripple rose bit by bit.
She had been trapped here for far too long; she did not wish to go on like this.
Moreover, upon her rested a Sea of Blood deep vendetta.
...
Within the Chaotic Qi Flow, Zhang Jian stepped into the ninth layer of the Eternal Immortal Prison, and right before him two forked paths directly appeared.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Jian’s heart stirred, and he simply lifted his foot and walked toward the left.
Following this little chaotic path, Zhang Jian kept walking onward.
Moments later, Zhang Jian saw a great river of Ice Seal, this river incomparably vast, utterly devoid of human presence, only boundless white mist shrouding the frozen surface of the river.
From this terrifying river, Zhang Jian sensed a dreadful chill.
Hidden within it was faintly a kind of Ice Seal of the Path of Heaven and Earth, an eternal loneliness that froze the Dao Heart.
Zhang Jian was slightly astonished; crossing over this river of Ice Seal, he now saw a very peculiar sight, a small stone house appearing by the side of the river.
The stone house was laid out in the form of a small courtyard, and at this moment this courtyard too was completely Ice Sealed by Profound Nether Divine Power.
Zhang Jian glanced at the appearance of the small courtyard.
It was an ordinary courtyard, with side rooms to left and right, and in the middle an ancient well.
By the ancient well, however, he saw a line of strange Dragon and Phoenix Treasure Talisman characters, dragons soaring and phoenixes dancing, carved upon the Earth.
Zhang Jian was no stranger to the Dragon and Phoenix Treasure Talisman; he merely swept a glance over it, and at once a strange look flashed in his eyes.
"Haotian, you cannot confine this God!"
Emperor Haotian—this was the name of a certain Celestial Emperor after the Ancient Era.
Yet this Celestial Emperor’s time on the throne was not long; afterwards came the Celestial Lord Jade Emperor.
It seemed that this Daoist Monarch who had been imprisoned had actually escaped.
Who knew what method he had used to break free of the Eternal Immortal Prison.
As mighty as Daoist Monarch Black Teeth was, he had been suppressed to death; the Jiu Feng Great God also could not escape, yet he had been able to free himself and depart.
Zhang Jian was secretly amazed.
But what was Jiu Feng guiding him into this place for?
Could it be she wished him to comprehend the Dharma Gate by which the other escaped the prison, and lend her a helping hand?
If so, then Jiu Feng was looking far too highly upon him!
Zhang Jian swept his gaze over that Ice Sealed stone house; he did not enter.
Inside and out of that stone house, all was filled with all sorts of twisted Great Dao Laws; entering it, the troubles he would incur might well be greater than any benefit. At once he simply turned and left.
Once he departed from this place, only a single path remained in the void.
He lifted his foot and stepped into it; this little chaotic path was extremely long. Zhang Jian faintly felt that as his steps went deeper, within it grew ever colder, a chill of eternal loneliness spreading out from within.
Even with Zhang Jian’s Dao Practice, at this moment he still felt a chill arising from the depths of his heart.
The little path beneath his feet formed by Chaotic Qi Flow was gradually Ice Sealed.
Zhang Jian gradually felt that he himself could no longer withstand this terrifying chill; the Earth Emperor Ancestral Qi he seemed to be controlling, and even the Dao Fruit Immortal Light, all faintly became somewhat unsettled in their circulation. He could only immediately rouse the Innate Divine Power Nine Revolutions Chaos Green Lotus Transformation Great Method.
Streams of Chaotic Qi Flow bloomed out from all around his body, and only then did he feel much better.
All around, within his line of sight, unknowingly layer upon layer of violent snow had begun to fall, this snow rustling down, veiling the heavens and covering the sun.
At this moment, even Zhang Jian felt himself shrouded by ice and snow, by eternity, by freezing; his vision lost its sense of direction, his thoughts tending toward rigidity.
An unprecedented terrifying Divine Power had unknowingly surfaced around him.
A strong ripple rose in Zhang Jian’s eyes.
This was precisely the power of the Ancient Rain and Snow Gods, Winter God Xuanming.
Truly terrifying to the extreme.
Zhang Jian was not unfamiliar with Immortal Techniques of Eternal Level.
Yet the Divine Power of this Winter God Divine Position before him was truly too dreadful, like a tide of cold sealing the All Heavens and Myriads of Worlds, making all the worlds rigid, stripping them of Vitality.
But Zhang Jian also knew that the emergence of such Winter God authority meant that he was already close to the Xuan Ming Divine Position.
A slight ripple welled in his heart.
With such a vast power so near at hand, Zhang Jian still could not fully restrain his Dao Heart.