Chapter 108

The cracks in the Sundial Needle seeped with an eerie light, like a stellar trajectory pointing toward the abyss. Su Jiuli stepped across a floating bridge formed of Star Sand, each footfall creating ripples that reflected the drifting, charred remains of a fox. On the creature’s forehead, the tribulation mark had faded to a dark gold, its trailing ends burrowing into the void like roots, hungrily absorbing the power of the crumbling Star Ruins. At the end of the floating bridge loomed the ruins of a collapsed Star Palace. Amidst the broken walls and pillars, three hundred bronze halberds were driven into the ground at an angle, the chains coiled around them long since rusted to dust. As her fingertips brushed against a halberd handle, the rust flaked away, revealing Wu Clan blood-seals engraved beneath—the script came alive upon contact with her blood, slithering like red snakes toward the tribulation mark on her wrist. "The tribulation mark... it devours its host. In the end, there is no escape."