As the frost from the hilt of the Ice Soul Sword crept onto his wrists, Lin Xuan caught sight of the star mark etched into the inscription on the stele—it was identical to the mark on the Tail-Tip Gold Bell of Su Jiuli! The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox stele suddenly shuddered. The mangled remains of the star-robed body pinned beneath the base opened its single eye, the pupil flickering with the Gluttony Fire unique to the First Generation Patriarch.
"Traitorous disciple..."
The roar, like grinding gravel, rumbled from the throat of the broken body, and pitch-black Star Marrow gushed from the chest cavity pierced by the Ice Soul Sword. Lin Xuan tried to retract his blade and retreat, only to find that the sword had fused with the inscription to form cold jade chains, binding his right hand firmly to the surface of the stele. The Twenty-Eight Mansions of the Astrolabe spun of their own accord, and the Black Tortoise True Spirit descended from the void, only to freeze into a sculpture the moment it touched the inscription.
"Master, what a cunning scheme!"
The void tore open a path to the Nether Palace, and Ling Shuang, wrapped in soul-devouring chains, walked through the Calamity Star Sand. The Gu Insect between her brows had transformed into a star shape, and wrapped around her fingertips was none other than the Greedy Wolf Star Mark stripped from Lin Xuan. "To refine even your own reincarnation into the eye of the formation—truly worthy of a Star Palace Patriarch!"
The broken body suddenly lunged forward, the Ice Soul Sword thrusting through its chest along with Lin Xuan’s right arm. Pitch-black Star Marrow splattered onto the inscription, revealing hidden soul-devouring incantations. In his agony, Lin Xuan realized the truth of the script: this was no stele for suppressing sins, but a myriad-star corpse-nurturing coffin used to resurrect the First Generation Patriarch!
"Crash!"
Nine black iron chains erupted from the base of the stele, and a Bronze Sarcophagus trailed from their ends, venting star miasma. Ling Shuang laughed maniacally, tearing open the Reverse Scale on her chest to reveal a pulsing, blood-red Star Core. "Do you know, Brother, what the Master planted in my sea of souls when you severed my heartstrings all those years ago?"
The Star Core detached itself and flew toward the Bronze Sarcophagus, and the star marks on Lin Xuan’s wrists began to flow in reverse like a river. He saw a rainy night three hundred years ago, himself wielding the Ice Soul Sword to pierce Ling Shuang’s purple manor, and inside the heartstrings pulled out by the tip of his blade was a bronze bell—the very soul-devouring artifact of the Star-Fishing Old Man!
"Po Jun!"
Sensing its master’s grief, the Astrolabe burned away the cold jade chains with the Vermilion Bird Separation Fire. A dragon scale emerged on Lin Xuan’s sword-wielding hand, and the blade ignited with the sacred fire of Qingqiu. Ling Shuang’s Star Core suddenly changed direction, slamming into the single eye of the broken body: "Master, it is time to wake up!"
The lid of the Bronze Sarcophagus shattered with a roar, and the corpse of the First Generation Patriarch slowly sat up. The body lacked facial features, and across its surface floated the projections of seventy-two Calamity Stars. Lin Xuan’s Astrolabe flew toward the corpse uncontrollably, the star marks of the Twenty-Eight Mansions being devoured by the black hole in its chest.
"Good disciple..."
The corpse raised a hand, making a grasping motion, and the entire Star Palace Ruins began to collapse. Amidst the turbulent void, Lin Xuan grabbed a fragment of the stele. The phantom image that emerged upon it shattered his resolve—on the night of the blood sacrifice three hundred years ago, the First Generation Patriarch had personally nailed the previous life’s soul of Su Jiuli into the Celestial Fox stele!
"So, you had already..."
The Ice Soul Sword suddenly flew toward the corpse on its own, shattering into Star Sand the moment it touched the black hole. Ling Shuang’s body began to disintegrate, her final divine intent transmitted into Lin Xuan’s consciousness: "Quick, destroy the formation eye at the base of the stele!"
The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox stele erupted with boundless radiance, and the Heaven-Mending Technique recorded in the inscription reversed into a Heaven-Destroying Curse. Lin Xuan used his own blood to trace the "Star-Reversal Technique" taught to him by the Imprisoned Dragon Star Monarch in the void, only to find that the trajectory of the formation matched the star chart on the face of the First Generation Patriarch perfectly!
"Do you understand now why you were chosen?"
The corpse of the First Generation Patriarch spoke, a giant hand covered in Reverse Scales reaching out from the black hole. Black spots crawled across Lin Xuan’s body, covering his star marks. Just as he was about to be devoured, a fox’s howl erupted from the base of the stele—the sound carried the distinct fluctuation of Su Jiuli’s Burning Heaven Karma Fire!
"Crack!"
Fine cracks appeared on the surface of the Celestial Fox stele, and half of a charred fox tail pierced through the stone. The Tail-Tip Gold Bell let out a clear, sharp ring, and the Twenty-Eight Mansions of the Astrolabe suddenly spun in reverse. The corpse of the First Generation Patriarch let out a scream, and the Calamity Star projections on its face burst one after another.
"Jiuli!"
The moment Lin Xuan grabbed the fox tail, the memories of three hundred years ago surged forth. Su Jiuli was never of the Fox Clan; she was a living puppet crafted by the First Generation Patriarch using the Star Palace Saintess and Celestial Fox bloodline! Sealed within her Tail-Tip Gold Bell was the Yaoguang Star Core that had been stripped from him.
"Brother... shatter the stele..."
A faint soul fluctuation emanated from the fox tail, but Lin Xuan’s hand trembled violently as he held the sword. The Astrolabe suddenly slipped from his control, and the Greedy Wolf Star Mark projected a vision of the future onto the surface of the stele: the moment the Celestial Fox stele was shattered, the remnant soul of Su Jiuli would be cast into the Nether Karma Fire for eternity!
The corpse of the First Generation Patriarch took the opportunity to reform, the black hole expanding into a vortex that threatened to consume all. Ling Shuang’s Star Core suddenly self-detonated, the resulting shockwave hurling Lin Xuan into the fissure of the stele. Falling through the void, he witnessed a sight of the celestial river inverted—inside every star, the essence spirits of the Qingqiu Fox Clan were imprisoned!
"This is the true Heavenly Cycle Star Formation..."
The voice of the Nether Palace Master echoed from every star, and the fox tail in Lin Xuan’s hand suddenly erupted with black flames. The Astrolabe recast its true form within the inferno, and upon its surface appeared the terrified visage of the First Generation Patriarch—those seventy-two Calamity Stars were actually fragments of his own soul, severed to escape the Heavenly Tribulation!
Just as Lin Xuan was about to touch the core of the formation, nine levels of thunder tribulations descended from the void. On the star-locking chains manifesting within the clouds of tribulation, the shattered Destiny Soul of Su Jiuli was bound. And the Gluttony Eye on the forehead of the figure holding the chains reflected the darkest secret of the Star Palace Ruins—
In the starlight of that blood sacrifice three hundred years ago, the person Lin Xuan had personally pierced with his Ice Soul Sword was his younger self!