The Wu Clan inscriptions on the Bronze Yue bled, the crimson lines winding like living snakes into the withered palms of Lu Xiaopang. The turtle shell fragments in his hands suddenly levitated, assembling into an incomplete North Sea Star Chart—the missing center piece was embedded within the Bronze Dice that had been fashioned from the remains of The Little Girl. A low roar rolled from the throats of the Taotie bronze statues at the four corners of the altar, their stone eyelids slowly lifting to reveal pupils red as blood.
A sharp, searing pain erupted from the Star Mark on Lin Xuan’s spine, the patterns spreading like vines up to his neck. Star Sand seeped from his pores, coalescing into the hem of a wedding robe worn by the First Generation Patriarch; the blood-written script of Su Jiuli upon it was fading, as if being devoured by some unseen force. From deep within the Guixu Eye of the Sea came the sound of ice cracking. Seventy-two Ice Coffins shuddered in unison, and from the remnants of Su Jiuli’s soul within them, Xuanming True Water wept from her triple pupils, converging upon the altar to form an ancient Wu Clan blood array.
"The time has come..." the voice of the Astral Instrument Spirit emanated from the plum branch. The gnarled wood suddenly burst asunder, revealing the Bronze Casket sealed within. The relief carvings on its lid depicted the moment the First Generation Patriarch had gouged out the Celestial Fox Ancestral Soul; beneath the carcass of the Nine-T…
Chapter 36