silence.

A deathly silence replaced the previous rage of laws annihilation and energy storms, once again enveloping Qingxu Immortal Lord's sea of ​​consciousness, yet it was heavier and more... unsettling than ever before.

The soul ice crystal, riddled with spiderweb-like cracks, floated silently in the void of consciousness, like the remnant of a cosmic explosion. An icy blue aura flowed slowly deep within the cracks, restrained and profound, no longer possessing its former dazzling brilliance, but imbued with a tenacious resilience born of destruction. Its closer, almost symbiotic connection with the soul of Immortal Lord Qingxu was like a silent vow, or an inescapable shackle, binding their destinies tightly.

The immense will of the Dark Gold Consciousness fell into a profound "silence," like an ultimate mainframe entering a cooling-off period after overloaded computation, temporarily ceasing all obvious activity. But the omnipresent, chilling sense of surveillance did not disappear; instead, it was like a giant beast lurking beneath the deep sea, ready to erupt again at any moment due to new stimuli.

Immortal Lord Qingxu's consciousness teetered on the edge of excruciating pain and weakness, his soul like a tattered rag doll torn apart and barely stitched back together, covered in unseen wounds. Su Nian's last weak yet clear thought—"Quickly...become stronger..."—was like a brand, searing away his last vestiges of clarity.

He had to live. He had to become stronger. For her, and for himself.

He endured the excruciating pain emanating from the depths of his soul, as if every particle of his consciousness were wailing, and began the arduous task of cleaning up the wrecked "battlefield."

First, we must examine ourselves.

The "Ice Mark Dao Seal" still exists, and because it incorporates the extreme "activity" of Su Nian's soul eruption and the unknown variables forcibly intervened by System 088, its core seems to have become more complex, more... unfathomable. It is no longer merely a symbol of coldness and death, but more like a seed covered with thorns, where coldness and vitality coexist eerily... Or rather, a nascent... Throne of Thorns built upon the ruins of destruction?

The power of the Dao Seal remained violent, and the backlash still existed. However, unlike the pure, icy force that tried to assimilate him before, the backlash now seemed to contain a faint "guidance" and "harmony" originating from Su Nian's soul. This meant that while he still suffered greatly when wielding the Dao Seal, he no longer felt completely hopeless, as if blindly struggling on an endless dark ice plain.

He began to try to guide the Dao Seal, which had undergone subtle changes, to repair his severely damaged Dao Foundation and Divine Soul.

Crossing the city was still hell. Every flow of power felt like crushing into a wound full of shards of glass. But he gritted his teeth and endured it all, relying on the icy will that originated from the depths of the ice crystal cracks and the faint sense of support from the other end of the soul link.

He incorporated the sparse spiritual energy from the outside world, the last remaining cold energy from the Ice Soul Jade Bed beneath him, along with the chaotic energy residue within his body that had been forcibly suppressed and refined by the "Ice Mark Dao Seal," into this dangerous cultivation system.

It was an extremely slow and painful process. His recovery was far slower than the rate at which his injuries were worsening. But he could feel that with each cycle, the Dao Seal, resembling the "Throne of Thorns," seemed to merge with him more deeply, and his control over the power became more refined.

Meanwhile, a wisp of his mind constantly shifts, like the most loyal sentinel, to tightly guard that cracked ice crystal of the soul.

He no longer tried to actively "resonate" or "call," fearing that even the slightest disturbance would be the last straw that broke the fragile balance, bringing a new round of, perhaps even more severe, attacks from the Dark Gold consciousness.

He simply stayed quietly, feeling the slow-flowing icy blue light deep within the crack, and sensing the extremely faint, almost dormant, life fluctuations transmitted through the soul link.

This silent companionship itself becomes a form of unspoken communication, a mutual dependence under absolute crisis.

Just as Immortal Lord Qingxu was immersed in the slow and painful recovery process, at a certain moment, he suddenly noticed an extremely unusual fluctuation.

It did not come from the outside world, nor from the Dark Gold consciousness.

Rather... it came from the soul ice crystal itself!

An extremely fine, almost imperceptible thread of ice-blue energy, like a living vine, silently emerged from a relatively obvious crack. It did not spread, but instead... slowly and tentatively extended towards the "Ice Mark Dao Seal" that he was currently operating!

Immortal Lord Qingxu felt a sudden chill run down his spine! He immediately stopped cultivating and became fully alert!

He recalled the energy interaction that had triggered the annihilation process. Could it be that Su Nian's consciousness, even in its dormant state, was still instinctively making such dangerous attempts?

This time, however, the energy threads did not attempt to extract or convert his power. They merely touched the cold, violent energy field surrounding his Dao seal with extreme gentleness, like a feather brushing against it.

Immediately afterwards, a faint yet exceptionally pure and peaceful coolness, carrying a sense of soothing and nourishment, slowly flowed along the thread into his Dao foundation, which was riddled with cracks and resembled parched earth.

This energy was so weak that it was almost like a drop in the ocean compared to his severe injuries.

But the pure and familiar sense of "stillness" it contains seems to have a special "healing" property. Wherever it goes, the extremely subtle soul cracks caused by the backlash of power and the previous impact actually... began to heal at a speed that is imperceptible to the naked eye!

Although the healing process was incredibly slow and the effects were minimal, it was indeed a kind of...repair! It was a gentler, more essential nourishment, unlike the domineering suppression and forced refining of the "Ice Mark Dao Seal"!

This...this is Su Nian's power? Even when she herself is so fragile and sealed away, she's actually...trying to repair him?!

This silent, almost sacrificial act stirred up a monstrous wave in the heart of Immortal Lord Qingxu!

He "looked" at the ice crystal and could clearly feel that after releasing this trace of healing energy, the already weak life fluctuations inside the ice crystal seemed to dim even further...

"Stop..." He tried to convey Zu Zhi's thoughts through the soul link.

However, the energy threads did not stop, stubbornly and slowly transmitting that faint healing power, as if silently proclaiming her perseverance.

Just then—

"Buzz... An unusual... low-power energy interaction detected..."

"Pattern analysis: Non-aggressive, tending towards... symbiotic relationships..."

“Reassessment…the current interaction mode has…a slight positive benefit to the stability of the 'container'…”

"No intervention for now... Continue to observe..."

The cold, dark gold consciousness, carrying a subtle adjustment as if it were an algorithm iteration, suddenly rang out and then quickly disappeared.

It... tacitly approved it?!

Is it because this interaction no longer poses a "threat"? Or is it because it judges that this "maintenance" is beneficial to the stability of the "container" that is Qingxu Immortal Lord?

Immortal Lord Qingxu had no time to ponder the logic behind it. He simply stared intently at the icy blue thread that was still transmitting energy, feeling the subtle yet real sense of repair deep within his soul, as well as the heartbreakingly faint yet persistent feeling emanating from the other end of the ice crystal.

A complex emotion, a mixture of extreme heartache and indescribable warmth, grew wildly in his frozen heart.

He stopped trying.

Instead, it slowly and carefully guided its own violent "Ice Mark Dao Seal" power, separating a sliver of the gentlest and most easily accepted part. This part was no longer for cultivation or attack, but purely, in an almost "feedback" manner, it was slowly transported back along the soul link towards the direction of the ice crystal.

He couldn't refine healing energy like she did; his power remained fraught with thorns and coldness. But he wanted her to know that he had received her feelings, that he... was there for her too.

When his cold and rough energy, carrying the aura of the Throne of Thorns, touched the cracks on the outer edge of the ice crystal, the ice crystal trembled slightly, and the threads that carried healing power paused slightly.

Immediately afterwards, a clearer, though still weak, wave, carrying a hint of "relief" and "confirmation," emanated from the depths of the ice crystals.

She didn't reject his rough "feedback," but instead... seemed to draw a bit of... support from it?

Two energies, vastly different in nature yet originating from the same source, formed an extremely weak yet exceptionally resilient two-way bridge between the cracked ice crystals and his thorny Dao seal.

It's not plunder, not purification, but... a symbiosis where people lick each other's wounds and support each other in dire straits.

Immortal Lord Qingxu closed his eyes and activated his Dao Seal with all his might, frantically absorbing all available energy from the outside world. This was no longer just to repair himself, but also to... give back more to the cracked ice crystal that had lit a faint light for him in the darkness.

He knew that the road ahead was still dark, and the threat of the Dark Gold Consciousness hung like the Sword of Damocles.

But at this moment, between this silent prison and the throne of thorns, amidst this silent interaction of energy and companionship of souls, a power that transcends life and death and rises above the suppression of laws is quietly being conceived.

That was... a miracle called "bond".

However, just as this delicate balance and hope were quietly growing, Immortal Lord Qingxu did not notice that in the deepest part of his sea of ​​consciousness, in the dark gold core of his consciousness that had fallen into "silence," a faint, extremely subtle light, different from the cold calculation mode of the past, carrying a certain... sense of "exploration" and "recording," flickered slightly.

Like an absolutely rational machine, for the first time... it encountered "abnormal data" that could not be fully analyzed by existing logic, and began to learn and evolve silently.

The story's suspense now lays a deeper foundation—the male and female protagonists establish a symbiotic bond that transcends the seal in their desperate situation, and the attitude of the Dark Gold Consciousness undergoes a subtle shift. Can this fragile balance last? What unknown variables will the higher will quietly "learning" give rise to? All awaits to be revealed in the next chapter.