Chapter 63

As the scraping of the Bronze Sarcophagus lid cut through the seawater, the Star Mark roots along Su Jiuli’s spine erupted in growth. The roots pierced the cracks in the tortoise shells of the seabed altar, feeding on the soul paste seeping from within. The left eye of the Celestial Fox Ancestral Soul, embedded in the fissure on her forehead, had blinked open. Deep within its pupil, it reflected the scene inside the sarcophagus: the vessel, which should have been empty, held a shrunken version of Su Jiuli, her body covered in Star Marks. The child suddenly looked up. A fine slit opened in the unformed Star Mark on the child’s forehead, from which emerged Bronze Roots identical to Su Jiuli’s own. The three hundred child skeletons on the seabed suddenly knelt, and the verdigris growing in their eye sockets solidified into chains, dragging Su Jiuli toward the sarcophagus.