The lingering echoes of the closing Bronze Sarcophagus reverberated through the Star Ruins, while the blood-red marks on Su Jiuli’s palms spread like creeping vines. The Star Sand seeping from the fissures coalesced into an ancient Wu Clan vessel. Its hull was carved with Star Orbits sharing the same origin as the tribulation marks, and from the humming keel emerged the phantom image of a charred fox corpse. The tribulation mark on the corpse's forehead had transformed into the shape of an astrolabe, and embedded in a gap on its surface was a fragment of a jade pendant, which fit perfectly with the bloodstains on her palm.
The seawater stirred without wind, forming a vortex of Star Sand that lifted the ancient vessel. From the depths of the vortex rose nine bronze Soul Lamps; the remnants of souls imprisoned within their wicks were all clad in the robes of the Star Palace, and the tribulation marks on their foreheads resonated with the Star Orbits on the hull. Su Jiuli channeled the chaotic energy to strike at the Soul Lamps. The moment the blade’s light touched the lamp flames, a forest of bronze steles erupted from the abyss—the blood-red seal script on their surfaces rippled like living snakes, connecting head to tail to form the blood sacrifice array of thirty thousand years ago.
"The tribulation mark consumes its master... the array awakens, the souls return..."
Chapter 107