Joe Di was puzzled. Could it be that the Immeasura Palace Lord had also obtained a Lethe Frost Crystal? According to Baker Wynn, the Lethe Frost Crystal was so precious that it shouldn't be so easily acquired. Besides, even if the Immeasura Palace Lord did obtain the Lethe Frost Crystal, wasn't she afraid of the Dao Ban?
"Old Wynn, let me ask you about someone. Are you familiar with the Immeasura Palace Lord?" Unable to figure it out, Joe Di could only turn to Baker Wynn for answers.
Baker Wynn replied quickly, "Of course I know the Immeasura Palace Lord. She is the most formidable woman I've ever met, not even weaker than the Lotus Sage during the first Creation War. Back then, Ning Cheng nearly fell into her trap. One of Ning Cheng's Dao companions, Jane Yan, was killed by this woman."
"Ning Cheng is Damian Ning, right?" Joe Di asked. He had heard this name more than once, not just Ning Cheng, but also Ye Mo. He'd heard both names repeatedly. Ning Cheng's friend Cassie Cao was someone he had rescued, and Ye Mo's daughter Yana Rain was also someone he had saved.
"That's right." Baker Wynn wasn't surprised that Joe Di knew Ning Cheng's name. In those days, who in the entire universe hadn't heard of Ning Cheng? Even the arrogant and unrivaled Xuanhuang Lone Swallow was slain by him.
"After the Immeasura Palace Lord killed Ning Cheng's Dao companion Jane Yan, Ning Cheng was furious and would stop at nothing to kill her. But the Immeasura Palace Lord's Nirvana Mirror was terrifying—Ning Cheng was nearly trapped by it. Fortunately, Ning Cheng was strong enough to use a Frostflower of Renewal to break her Nirvana Mirror and severely wound her. Even so, Ning Cheng didn't completely kill the Immeasura Palace Lord; instead, she escaped into the Genesis Gate..." Baker Wynn recounted the events in one breath.
Jane Yan? Joe Di knew of her. Back then, both Yana Rain and Cassie Cao had asked him to save Jane Yan, but he hadn't found her in the Forbidden Mountain, so she was likely in grave danger.
Yet Baker Wynn's words made Joe Di sense something was off, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Old Wynn, you said the Immeasura Palace Lord entered the Genesis Gate? Are you certain?" Joe Di asked, pressing for confirmation.
Baker Wynn affirmed, "I saw the Immeasura Palace Lord enter the Genesis Gate with my own eyes. There's no mistake."
"Then tell me, do you think the Immeasura Palace Lord will ever come out again after entering the Genesis Gate?" Joe Di pressed further.
Baker Wynn shook his head without hesitation. "That's absolutely impossible. The Genesis Gate is filled with Creation Aura, clearly a higher realm. Any cultivator seeking to ascend must enter the Genesis Gate. Once inside, unless they abandon cultivation, no one would be foolish enough to leave. Later, when we were used as cannon fodder, we wanted to leave, but by then, we no longer had the right to do so."
Joe Di said in a deep voice, "But the Immeasura Palace Lord did come out. Now she's wreaking havoc in the Dao Domain, killing many of my friends. I chose this place for secluded cultivation, preparing to destroy her stronghold."
"Ah..." Baker Wynn exclaimed in shock, then quickly added, "That's impossible, absolutely impossible!"
"That woman truly did come out. Before, I wasn't sure, but now I'm a hundred percent certain—it's her." Joe Di declared.
There may have been many Immeasura Palace Lords, but Joe Di was certain that only the first Immeasura Palace Lord could manipulate an entire realm so thoroughly.
Baker Wynn fell silent, pondering how the Immeasura Palace Lord had managed to escape.
"Old Wynn, hurry and recover your strength. I need to enter secluded cultivation for a while as well," Joe Di said, knowing that time was running dangerously short for him.
Baker Wynn couldn't figure it out, but he knew he had to restore his cultivation as quickly as possible.
Once Baker Wynn resumed his healing, Joe Di took out the Lethe Frost Crystal from his Ninth World and placed it within the array he had set up.
With everything prepared, even Cosmic Flame shields formed around Joe Di. Only then did he attempt to open a sliver of the restriction sealing the Lethe Frost Crystal.
As soon as Joe Di's divine sense touched the restriction, he was shocked to discover it was on the verge of collapse. In other words, even if he hadn't taken out the Lethe Frost Crystal today, it would have shattered the restriction on its own, unleashing its chill across the entire Ninth World.
The Ninth World was vast, so a little chill wasn't a big deal. But over time, everything in his Ninth World would be destroyed, especially the World Tree.
Fortunately, his reincarnation had only taken a few hundred years. Otherwise, he might have succumbed to the Lethe Frost Crystal. No matter what, today he had to refine this icy crystal.
As soon as Joe Di opened a sliver of the restriction, the Lethe Frost Crystal immediately tore through it.
Boom! A terrifying wave of icy law erupted, and the Cosmic Flame shields around Joe Di began to crack. The first layer of sealing restrictions he had set up also started to fracture—it was only a matter of time before they broke.
Even though this was the second time he'd witnessed the Lethe Frost Crystal's rampage, Joe Di was still deeply shaken by its power. He dared not hesitate; his hands pressed directly onto the crystal. The icy energy shattered his Cosmic Flame shields and domain, but at the same time, Joe Di's Rule Cycle locked down the Lethe Frost Crystal, gradually stripping and refining its freezing laws.
Joe Di worked furiously to refine it, but the protective arrays he had set up kept cracking. It was only the chaotic rules of the Grand Ruins that prevented the chill from instantly tearing apart all his restrictions and shields.
Thread by thread, the freezing laws were refined by Joe Di, while his Cosmic Flame shields were frozen and shattered layer by layer.
After just a few hours, Joe Di's entire body had turned into an ice sculpture. Yet the icy aura still flowed through him, showing that he was continuing to refine the Lethe Frost Crystal's freezing law.
Joe Di was deeply alarmed. He realized he was fortunate to have refined The Vanished One and comprehended the escape laws of the Grand Ruins. Otherwise, he'd be dead by now.
Such terrifying cold wasn't impossible for him to refine—but its explosive force was so overwhelming he had no time to do so. By the time he finished, he would have already become a frozen corpse. The Vanished One allowed him to evade the deadly chill, giving him enough time to circle back and refine the Lethe Frost Crystal.
Crack! As the last protective array shattered under the Lethe Frost Crystal's chill, its freezing law instantly spread from the Grand Ruins outward.
In no time, it spread to the third layer, then the second, then the first...
At that moment, every cultivator in the Grand Ruins could clearly sense the terrifying cold. No one knew the cause, but everyone understood something had happened deep within the Grand Ruins.
Fortunately, as time passed, Joe Di refined more and more of the Lethe Frost Crystal, and its threat to the outside world diminished.
One day, two days...
After two months, every cultivator in the Grand Ruins could feel that the sudden chill from two months ago was gradually dissipating. The Grand Ruins slowly returned to normal.
At this moment, in the fourth layer of the Grand Ruins, the icy aura around Joe Di's frozen body gradually dispersed, and his body recovered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Crack! When Joe Di stripped away and refined the last thread of freezing law from the Lethe Frost Crystal, the rhombus-shaped crystal in his hand suddenly became gentle, resting in his palm like a snowflake—quiet, cold, and dazzling.
Joe Di drew out his Azure Veil Blade and embedded the Lethe Frost Crystal into it, marveling at its power.
The Azure Veil Blade in his hand emitted a faint blade light, carrying an icy aura from the depths of the cosmos. Joe Di was overjoyed—at least now, he no longer feared the Immeasura Palace Lord's Nirvana Mirror.
Back then, Lord Icewind truly meant to harm him, but Lord Icewind could never have imagined that Joe Di would actually succeed in refining the Lethe Frost Crystal.