The sound of scratching from the Ice Coffin mingled with the funeral songs of the Fox Clan, piercing the altar as the Xuanming True Water surged upward in a pillar. At the summit of the water column emerged half of a Bronze Casket; the carvings on its surface depicted the scene of Su Jiuli with nine chains piercing her heart, the ends of which were tethered to the First Generation Patriarch's shattered Astrolabe. The moment the Star Mark on Lin Xuan’s spine transformed into a living python and its jaws clamped onto the Bronze Casket, the mangled remains of The Little Girl squeezed out from a crack in the Ice Coffin. Across her exposed ribcage, the sacrificial inscription of the Celestial Fox Ancestral Soul was carved in plain sight.
The Bronze Divination Bamboo Slip, which had emerged from the spot where Lu Xiaopang vanished, suddenly burst apart, its fragments coalescing into a Wu Clan parchment. The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox totem on the scroll began to writhe, and as all the fox tail chains snapped, the wail of an infant erupted from the Longevity Lock at the tip of the tail—a cry that resonated with the fox-like shrieks of The Little Girl’s remains. The Astral Instrument Spirit detached itself from the shards of the Dragon Bone Sword, guiding seventy-two Bronze Nails to pierce Lin Xuan’s limbs. The remnants of Su Jiuli’s phantom, sealed within the nails, wept tears of blood in unison: "To carve out the heart is not the true tribulation; deep affection is the tragedy..."
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Chapter 38