Chapter 68

When the branches of the Bronze Forest tightened around Su Jiuli’s throat, the child corpse in the altar’s blood pool opened its eyes. Deep within those pupils pulsed the fox fire of the First Generation Patriarch, and the Star Mark on its forehead resonated with Su Jiuli’s own. She struggled, snapping off a bronze branch, but instead of sap, the fracture spewed the soul-blood of the Wu Clan, laced with Star Sand. The droplets fell into the forest, congealing into three hundred miniature altars beneath her. The child corpse rose, treading upon the waves of blood. With every step it took, a bronze tree pinning Su Jiuli’s soul remnants withered away. Nutrients surged through the earth veins toward the altar, and the Star Anchor in the First Generation Patriarch's hands grew brilliant, its tip piercing the Xuanwu totem on the altar's surface. Su Jiuli’s petrified fox tail shattered completely, its fragments swept toward the child corpse by a violent gale, only to turn into bronze powder before touching the Star Mark.