The roots of three hundred Blood-Weeping Stele Inscription trees intertwined to form a bronze altar. Dark blue Wu Clan blood seeped from the gaps in the roots, coiling across the surface of the altar to trace a sacrificial totem. A female infant, supported by dragon scales and fox tails, hovered at the center of the altar. Nine bronze lamps rose from beneath the earth, the fox fire dancing on their wicks to illuminate the hunched figure of Lu Xiaopang. He knelt in the Wu Clan’s underground palace, using a bone knife to carve the prophecy "Starfire Rekindled" onto a tortoise shell; each crack oozed the soul-burying blue blood of the North Sea Flood Dragon Clan.
The Star Mark on Lin Xuan’s spine suddenly burned like a searing iron, and seven bronze chains erupted from his split flesh, binding him to the gnarled roots of the plum trees. Fine Wu Clan script pulsed across the surface of the chains—the "Forbidden Earth-Heaven Communication Spell," chanted by the First Generation Patriarch when he carved out his own heart. The female infant tapped her fingertip into the void; the eyes of the bronze Taotie statues at the four corners of the altar began to bleed. The trails of blood converged into a Star Chart, at the center of which was the fragmented soul of Su Jiuli, sealed within a coffin suspended by nine chains.
"Three hundred years of blood sacrifice; the time has finally come to collect the debt." The voice of the Astral Instrument Spirit emanated from the plum branches, and…
Chapter 31