The skulls at the black-robed figure’s wrists collided, emitting a shrill, wailing sound like a crying infant. Suddenly, the Astrolabe behind Lin Xuan blazed with light. A silver radiance erupted from the Dubhe position, piercing the sea of clouds like a sharp sword and illuminating the dense, ancient totems carved into the stone walls of the abyss—they were the long-lost "Mars Entering the Heart" charts!
"Remnants of the Star Palace!" The black-robed figure’s voice sounded like grinding metal, and the nine skulls ignited with ghostly green flames. The moment Lin Xuan’s toes touched the protruding rock, the seven mansions of the Western White Tiger within the Astrolabe’s Twenty-Eight Mansions lit up simultaneously, their frigid, murderous intent coalescing into tangible blades.
"Kui Wood Wolf!"
Lin Xuan instinctively recited the star chart’s incantation, and a giant wolf of blue flame leapt forth from the Kui mansion’s position. The ghost fire melted like snow on a hot stove the moment it touched the starlight. The black-robed figure retreated thirty feet, purple-black blood oozing from a crack in his mask. "You are actually capable of summoning the spirits of the Four Symbols?"
A sound of chains clanking emanated from the depths of the abyss, causing the Astrolabe in Lin Xuan’s hand to tremble violently. Looking down, he saw nine dark iron chains piercing a dragon-shaped skeleton, each chain anchored to a Bronze Sarcophagus. On the lids of these coffins, where the Big Dipper should be, seven pulsing hearts were embedded!
"Clang!"
Fragments of the Ice Soul Sword suddenly flew from Lin Xuan’s sleeve, reforging into a three-foot blade amidst the starlight. The patterns on the blade were not those of cold jade, but the tear-mark motifs unique to the North Sea Merman Clan. Seeing this, the black-robed figure let out a wild laugh and tore open his robe, revealing a Reverse Scale totem. "When the Dragon Lord had his heart gouged out three years ago, did you hear the wailing from the Dragon-Locking Well?"
A dragon roar erupted from the Astrolabe, and the Kui Wood Wolf transformed into blue light, merging into the blade. Lin Xuan swung, unleashing not mere sword energy, but a vast, shimmering galaxy. The black-robed figure set up a formation with the skulls, and the nine infant ghost phantoms manifested the "Nine-Child Ghost Mother Soul-Devouring Array," but then, the handle of the Big Dipper appeared within the galaxy.
"Dubhe as the guide, Yaoguang to break the evil!"
As the words were spoken, a silver arrow shot from the Yaoguang Star position. The Ghost Mother array shattered instantly. The black-robed figure’s mask split open entirely, revealing half a face covered in scales. Lin Xuan’s pupils constricted—the pattern of those scales was identical to the Reverse Scale on Ling Shuang’s chest!
"Sshhh!"
The arrow of condensed starlight pierced the black-robed figure’s left chest, yet no blood flowed. Instead, pitch-black mist surged from the wound, and within the mist appeared the figure of the Nether Palace Master. The person, wearing a bronze Taotie mask, flicked a finger, and the Astrolabe in Lin Xuan’s hand suddenly became as heavy as a mountain.
"The legacy of the Star Palace has been severed for a thousand years. With your meager cultivation, do you really think yourself worthy to wield the Nine Luminaries?"
The gravel on the cliff walls rattled under his raspy voice. Lin Xuan’s senses were bleeding, yet he gripped the Astrolabe tightly. Just as the hand wearing dark iron finger guards was about to press onto his crown, red fox fire suddenly rose from the bottom of the abyss.
"Does the Qingqiu Fox Clan dare to interfere with the business of the Nether Palace?"
Before the Nether Palace Master’s sneer could fade, nine fox tails wreathed in karmic fire had already wrapped around Lin Xuan’s waist. A woman in red stepped gracefully across the chains; the flowers of the underworld blooming beneath her feet illuminated the flame mark on her forehead. "You stole the North Sea Dragon Vein three years ago, and today you harm a guest of Qingqiu. Do you truly believe the demon clans are so easily bullied?"
The Astrolabe emitted a joyful chime, and the Vermilion Bird’s seven mansions rotated automatically. Through the fox fire, Lin Xuan saw a phantom rise behind the woman—a Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox howling at the sky, holding in its mouth the very South Ming Separation Fire bead that was missing from the Astrolabe!
"Su Jiuli!" The Nether Palace Master’s voice wavered for the first time. "You actually dared to fuse with the Celestial Fox’s Ancestral Blood..."
His voice cut off abruptly, for Lin Xuan’s sword had pierced the black mist. The Astrolabe had somehow embedded half of the red bead, and the South Ming Separation Fire ignited along the blade, tracing the karmic threads back to their source. Seven sounds of hearts bursting echoed through the abyss, and the seven Bronze Sarcophagi exploded simultaneously, revealing the corpses of young dragon-kin children curled inside.
"So that’s it!" Su Jiuli’s fox tail swept over the foreheads of the corpses, peeling away human-skin talismans. "Extracting dragon blood to refine the Eyes of the Candle Dragon—you seek to reverse the cycle of day and night!"
The phantom of the Nether Palace Master swelled, only to disintegrate inch by inch within the South Ming Separation Fire. At the final moment, he reached out to point at Lin Xuan’s brow. "On the seventh day after the Astrolabe appears, when Mars enters the heart, I will be waiting for you in the Yellow Springs of Jiuyou..."
*Boom!*
The entire Trial Sword Peak began to collapse. Enveloped in fox fire, Lin Xuan plummeted toward the bottom of the abyss. The last thing he saw was a Xuanming chain wrapped around the tip of Su Jiuli’s tail—the clasp design was identical to the shackles that bound the ancient sword spirits deep within the Sword Tomb.