The moment the lid of the Bronze Sarcophagus was shifted, the Star Orbits of the Nine Heavens shuddered in unison. What surged from the coffin was not the remains of the First Generation Patriarch, but Xuanming True Water, viscous as ink—floating within it were countless skeletons formed of Star Sand, each bearing on its brow a Star Mark of the same origin as Lin Xuan’s! The ice mirror where The Girl's Benevolence had been extinguished suddenly shattered, its shards piercing Su Jiuli’s reincarnated Destiny Soul. Pus and blood seeped from the Sundial Needle Star Mark on her brow; as the droplets hit the ground, they coalesced into a fragment of a Marriage Covenant from three hundred years ago: "With remains as sacrifice, the Nine Heavens shall be silent forever."
The Bronze Key in Lin Xuan’s hand suddenly spun out of control, the Star Sand within it flowing in reverse, pinning his arms to the ruined pillar of the altar. The carvings on the pillar’s surface came to life, revealing the truth of the First Generation Patriarch’s heart-gouging: what he had taken back then was not Su Jiuli’s heart, but the life-covenant between the Celestial Fox Ancestral Soul and the Star Orbits! The Xuanming True Water spilled from the coffin, hardening upon contact with the ground into chains of ice crystals, dragging Su Jiuli’s Destiny Soul toward the depths of the Bronze Sarcophagus.
A roar of cracking dragon bones echoed from deep within the Guixu Eye as nine Azure Dragon skeletons shattered…
Chapter 50