diff --git a/core/blockchain.go b/core/blockchain.go
index ab88f4b68e..b7738c6349 100644
--- a/core/blockchain.go
+++ b/core/blockchain.go
@@ -127,10 +127,7 @@ const (
 	// - Version 8
 	//  The following incompatible database changes were added:
 	//    * New scheme for contract code in order to separate the codes and trie nodes
-	// - Version 9
-	//  Total difficulty has been removed from both the key-value store and the
-	//  ancient store, the td freezer table has been deprecated since that.
-	BlockChainVersion uint64 = 9
+	BlockChainVersion uint64 = 8
 )
 
 // CacheConfig contains the configuration values for the trie database
diff --git a/core/rawdb/chain_freezer.go b/core/rawdb/chain_freezer.go
index 0627aca34c..7b5df7eb86 100644
--- a/core/rawdb/chain_freezer.go
+++ b/core/rawdb/chain_freezer.go
@@ -328,6 +328,14 @@ func (f *chainFreezer) freezeRange(nfdb *nofreezedb, number, limit uint64) (hash
 			if err := op.AppendRaw(ChainFreezerReceiptTable, number, receipts); err != nil {
 				return fmt.Errorf("can't write receipts to Freezer: %v", err)
 			}
+			// TODO (rjl493456442) TD has been deprecated and write garbage data for
+			// backward compatibility. See https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum/pull/30744/.
+			//
+			// The TD freezer table is retained for backward compatibility within this
+			// major version (1.14.x) and will be discarded in the next major version.
+			if err := op.Append(ChainFreezerDifficultyTable, number, common.Big0); err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("can't write td to Freezer: %v", err)
+			}
 			hashes = append(hashes, hash)
 		}
 		return nil