The Rise of a Family: Starting from Daily Intelligence - Chapter 414 (Patreon)

Chapter 414: Breakthrough, Profound Yin True Water, and the Yin–Yang Road

After a night of bliss.

When Fu Changsheng woke, he saw that Yu Qingru was still asleep. He slipped out of the bridal room on silent feet, returned to his secret chamber, sealed the formation, and with a thought stepped straight into the thatched hut within the Five Elements Space. With a flick of his sleeve, the casket gifted by Cao Xianger floated before him.

He sent a hand seal into it.

A hum!

The restriction unraveled.

Inside the casket lay a single Heavenly Phoenix Talisman Treasure. “This—”

A fourth-rank talisman treasure!

The gift was priceless.

Especially for someone about to enter the Kunlun Minor World.

After studying it carefully, he found this fourth-rank talisman treasure could be used four times, each strike equal to the full-strength blow of a mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. It was a middle-grade fourth-rank talisman treasure, even stronger than the Tiangang Talisman Treasure he had depleted before.

After he finished refining it,

he couldn’t bear to part with it and tucked it close to his chest.

He turned his right hand over.

The jade slip of the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique he had traded for from Patriarch Ouyang fell into his palm. He unrolled it and pondered for a while. With a snap, he closed the jade slip. “To be safe, I should let the system verify it first.”

True, Patriarch Ouyang had signed a soul contract.

He focused his mind on the system’s Technique Deduction panel. “Evaluate the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique.”

A hum!

The panel shuddered.

A hazy yellow light fell upon the jade slip. All the characters on it began to writhe, then with a boom they exploded into a vast tide of information that poured into his sea of consciousness:

“Heavenly fiend turns to spirit, five elements return to origin; heart-fire arises of itself, Li and Kan join in harmony. Draw balefire into the meridians, the demon core as the medium; condense balefire in the Purple Mansion, return to uncarved simplicity.”

After a long while,

Fu Changsheng opened his eyes in delight.

Compared to the secret method Patriarch Ouyang had given him, the version after the system’s deduction discarded the original reliance on Leaving-Fire Pills and a sacrificial formation.

It emphasized directly harmonizing with the heart manual, using spiritual sense to guide the power of the demon core, leading yin balefire into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, and converting demonic power into pure spiritual power through a Purple Mansion grand circulation.

For those with a wood spiritual root, there was no need for external means to suppress the fire balefire; they only needed to use the Self-Generated Heart-Fire at the Tanzhong acupoint to kindle a phantom flame, balancing the conflict between wood attribute and the demon core’s yin balefire. “That really makes it much easier.”

At the same time,

a familiar mechanical chime rang in his mind: “Ding.”

“You’ve added the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique to the clan. You gain 1,000 family contribution points.”

His contribution points on the panel changed to two thousand.

Fu Changsheng’s gaze fell on the sealed fourth-rank demon core in the adjacent private vault, and he murmured, “Yongwei hasn’t left seclusion yet. In that case, I might as well take this chance to refine that fourth-rank demon core first.”

According to Patriarch Ouyang,

the Heavenly Yin Grass in Nine Nether Valley still needed three years to mature. If he wanted to harvest it early, he had to bring Yongwei along to hasten its growth.

With a thought,

the casket sealing the demon core dropped from the private vault into his palm.

He looked to the system’s Cultivation Chamber panel. “Open the cultivation chamber.”

A hum!

The panel trembled.

Waves of yellow light surged.

His vision blurred, and in the next instant he stood within the central pavilion of a lotus pool.

He flicked his sleeve.

A formation diagram shot up and unfurled in midair, shrouding the pavilion.

“Hoo—”

He turned his right hand over, and the casket sealing the Blood-Flame Sunhawk King appeared in his palm. As light flashed at his fingertip, the rune chains locking the casket snapped inch by inch. A demon core, wholly dark-blue and veined with blood-red lines, slowly rose and spun in the air.

Within the core, a hazy phantom of the demon king lay curled.

He drew a deep breath.

His fingers formed the Heavenly Fiend Seal. True essence in his dantian surged along a set trajectory. As the heart manual of the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique circulated, his pores opened; beneath his skin, a faint golden web of meridians surfaced—the technique’s unique Spirit-Vein Conduction Technique, which bypassed a traditional sacrificial formation and used the flesh itself as the vessel to draw in demonic power.

A hand seal struck the demon core.

Boom!

The core shuddered; the sealing runes on its surface cracked apart. A thread of dark-violet demonic qi oozed out like a living thing and turned into nine violet-black chains that burrowed along the golden meridians into his body.

Crack!

No one knew how long it took.

But the seventh layer of his Purple Mansion cultivation flowed naturally into a breakthrough to the eighth layer.

At this moment,

the demon core hovering before him had only shrunk to two-thirds its original size. Feeling the fullness of power within, he was tempted to keep pushing. Yet when his spiritual sense swept his body—

strange markings flickered across his bare skin. “What’s this—”

He was about to look closer,

but the markings vanished in a flash.

Fu Changsheng’s heart tightened. “What’s going on?”

Could Patriarch Ouyang have hidden something within the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique? By rights, even if so, the system should have deduced it out.

A flurry of thoughts passed through his mind.

In the end he dismissed his hand seals, willed himself out of the Cultivation Chamber, and stopped refining the demon core until he could figure out what was happening. If he got tainted by something, he would regret it too late.

He glanced at the sandglass to the side.

Two years in the cultivation chamber; outside, only four months.

His contribution points on the panel now showed six hundred.

Leaving the Five Elements Space, he found a stack of message talismans waiting outside the secret room. He sent hand seals into them, and different voices sounded:

“Father, I heard you were looking for me. I’ve already transmitted over from the Yunshan Commandery fief.”

“Husband, an Imperial Court announcement—the Kunlun Minor World opens in three months.”

“Patriarch…”

After filtering the messages one by one,

Fu Changsheng stood and pushed open the door. Just then, a familiar chime sounded:

“Ding.”

“Your son Fu Yongfu has successfully broken through to Purple Mansion. You gain 1,000 family contribution points.”

Immediately after,

his contribution points rose to 1,600.

Fu Changsheng let out a breath. With Fugerer and Yongwei both having broken through to Purple Mansion, the ten slots to enter the Kunlun Minor World were now just right. “Three months until the secret realm opens. We can make a trip to Nine Nether Valley first.”

However—

according to Patriarch Ouyang,

one had to wear a Profound Yin Jade Talisman to pass through the valley’s yin mists.

He didn’t have any on hand.

He patted his storage pouch, and a glow flashed as the Shadow Gate Mask appeared in his hand. With a thought, he entered the Shadow Gate’s space and looked at his points—less than a thousand remained. He hadn’t taken missions in a long time; most of it had been kickbacks from his subordinates. “I wonder if the Profound Yin Jade Talisman is expensive.”

He stepped up to the spirit mirror

and quickly wrote a line:

“Redeem Profound Yin Jade Talisman.”

A hum!

The spirit mirror quivered lightly, and the words refreshed to:

“One Profound Yin Jade Talisman costs 300 points. Redeem?”

Fu Changsheng pondered for a moment and exchanged for three. On this trip to Nine Nether Valley, he would bring Yongwei, and he also needed to take a formation master.

A hum!

Three Profound Yin Jade Talismans fell into his hand.

Looking at the panel with less than a hundred points remaining, Fu Changsheng muttered, “When I have time later, I’ll have to take on a mission or two.”

Leaving the Shadow Gate space,

he reached the Patriarch’s Residence, where Yongwei and Yao Yao arrived together after receiving his summons. Yu Qingru, whose pregnancy was now faintly showing, also came along. Liu Meizhen had returned to Jingzhou to handle affairs at the mulberry estate and was not present.

The three women looked him over, then all jolted in unison, speaking almost at the same time: “Husband/Father, you’ve broken through to the eighth layer of Purple Mansion?”

The last time Fu Changsheng emerged from a ten-year seclusion, he’d been at the seventh layer of Purple Mansion.

Barely three years had passed, and he’d climbed yet another step. Such speed was monstrous to the point that they hardly dared believe it.

Fu Changsheng didn’t explain. Rarely were his wife and daughters all present; he smiled. “What, I broke through and you’re not happy?”

They quickly waved their hands.

Yao Yao was excited. “Father, what are you saying? If you directly condensed a Golden Core right here, we’d be even happier.”

Yu Qingru’s heart stirred. “Husband, you advanced so quickly this time—did you refine that fourth-rank demon core?”

The clan had gained the Heavenly Fiend Spirit-Transmutation Technique; Yu Qingru, who had been haunting the clan’s scripture repository of late, knew this best. Seeing Fu Changsheng nod, everyone understood.

Fu Yongwei, a little excited, sent him a voice transmission: “Father, after I broke through to Purple Mansion, my Wood-Spirit Physique seems to have advanced as well.”

That was exactly what Fu Changsheng had been waiting to hear.

He smiled at once. “Yao Yao, Yongwei, come with me to Nine Nether Valley.”

Yu Qingru also wanted to go, but Fu Changsheng refused. There were many malign things in Nine Nether Valley. While the fetus in her womb was stable, it was still best for a pregnant woman to avoid such a place.

Fu Changsheng didn’t alarm anyone else in the clan.

He mounted the Azure Flood Dragon, and with Yao Yao and Yongwei aboard, they sped toward Nine Nether Valley.

On the way,

Yao Yao finally asked, “Father, why are we going to Nine Nether Valley this time?”

Ever since returning to the clan, Fu Yongwei had been living in the Water Curtain Cave behind Yunshan Commandery. In recent decades especially, as that cave had become forbidden ground to the clan, she seldom showed herself. This time they were even bringing Yongwei along, and Yao Yao was quite curious.

Fu Changsheng patted his storage pouch. A flash of glow, and a scroll unfurled. As he sent a wisp of power into it, runes rippled across its surface, and a living topographic map rose into view before them.

“Father, is this a map of Nine Nether Valley?”

“Mm. That’s right.”

Fu Changsheng tapped the air. The Nine Nether Cold Pool at the depths of the map surfaced. “Our goal this trip is the Heavenly Yin Grass in the Nine Nether Cold Pool.”

Heavenly Yin Grass? Yao Yao had no impression of it.

Fu Yongwei, however, was startled. “Father, by ‘Heavenly Yin Grass,’ do you mean the kind whose leaves have seven apertures, that emits a baby’s wail when it draws in yin-vein balefire, and at maturity condenses a Yin-Soul Pearl at its heart?”

It was an extremely rare plant.

Seeing Yongwei so excited, Yao Yao asked curiously, “Seventh Sister, is this Heavenly Yin Grass that heaven-defying?”

“For the average cultivator, maybe not. But for those with a spirit physique attuned to the nether, or for ghost cultivators, it’s an invaluable rarity. First, it helps communicate with the dead and the spirits. Second, if a ghost cultivator takes it over years, they can slowly condense a fleshly body.”

Having immersed herself in the Dao of spirit plants for nearly a century, Fu Yongwei had an excellent memory for rare flora.

Fu Changsheng had only known that Heavenly Yin Grass could help Widow Huang awaken a spirit physique; he hadn’t expected it to have such effects. If they could plant Heavenly Yin Grass in the rear of the Heavenly Dragon Temple, then Qiu Chan would have hope of reforging a body in the future.

Regarding the Heavenly Yin Grass,

his will to acquire it became firm.

After the three studied the map for a while, Fu Changsheng patted his pouch and sent two Profound Yin Jade Talismans floating to Yao Yao and Fu Yongwei. “The yin mists of Nine Nether Valley cannot be resisted by anyone below Golden Core. Take these Profound Yin Jade Talismans and refine them at once.”

“Yes, Father.”

The two received the talismans, sat down cross-legged, and began refining.

When they neared the valley,

to be safe,

Fu Changsheng focused on the panel within his sea of consciousness and said, “Redeem intelligence.”

A hum!

The panel trembled.

Yellow light surged.

Then—

lines of text appeared:

“1: Southwest of the yin mists at the valley entrance, an ‘Yin-Soul Tree’ hosts a swarm of Bone-Eroding Midges—shaped like dragonflies with human faces. Their mouthparts spray a marrow-corroding venom and they feed on cultivators’ bones. The eyes of a Bone-Eroding Midge can be refined into ‘Yin Marrow Jade,’ which can be used to craft evil-breaking artifacts.”

Bone-Eroding Midges?

This was the first time Fu Changsheng had heard of such a creature.

Strictly speaking—

they were yin beasts.

The system didn’t state their cultivation level, but Yin Marrow Jade was a fine material. “We can take a detour and have a look.”

After breaking through to the eighth layer of Purple Mansion,

with the Seven-Colored Glazed Beast’s divine ability augmenting him, he reckoned he could maintain the False Core realm for half a cup of tea.

Moreover,

he still carried the Heavenly Phoenix Talisman Treasure from Cao Xianger. Worth a try.

“2: When the moonlight is strongest, a ‘Yin Bridge’ will briefly surface at the third fissure on the east side of the cold pool. With a Profound Yin Jade Talisman as guide, you can step across the void, avoiding ninety percent of the yin puppets.”

Fu Changsheng’s gaze fell on the two words “Yin Bridge,” and he immediately thought of the Yin–Yang Road that connected the living to the dead.

Only—

he had yet to find data on how to construct this Yin–Yang Road. If forged successfully, the clan’s departed souls would have a destination, and the Heavenly Dragon Temple would gain a batch of usable people.

As for the region where the Netherworld lay,

he had never explored it due to insufficient cultivation.

Manpower was limited: “I wonder how this Yin Bridge differs from the Yin–Yang Road the system mentioned before.”

“3: The Nine Nether Cold Pool contains Profound Yin True Water, which can nourish a sword soul.”

Oh?

So the Nine Nether Cold Pool actually held a treasure like Profound Yin True Water?! As he knew,

besides nurturing sword souls, Profound Yin True Water was one of the treasures used by yin-attribute Golden Core cultivators to improve their cultivation. “This trip to Nine Nether Valley is already worth it.”

Only—

the True Water wouldn’t be easy to collect.

Otherwise Patriarch Ouyang’s clan wouldn’t have left it unharvested. “We’ll see once we’re inside the valley.”

If it proved too dangerous, he could return when his cultivation was higher and take it then.

“4: Xuanxiao Sect plans to go through the motions regarding the orders about Joyous Sect—sending people but doing nothing, feigning an assault on your Huizhou Prefecture.”

“Xuanxiao Sect really is—”

He had planned to have Shangguan Feng, Elder Shi, and Purple Mansion cultivators from Yunshan Commandery garrison Huizhou for a while. When Xuanxiao Sect attacked in earnest, they would feign opening the mountain-guarding array and coordinate from within and without.

Now that plan was a wash.

Judging by Xuanxiao Sect’s style, removing this tumor in the future would take some doing.

“5: A Joyous Sect plant in the far west among the great families will enter the Kunlun Minor World with you to seize Golden Sun Wood.”

“Joyous Sect again!!”

Fu Changsheng’s eyes hardened.

Jingzhou had already been swept once for Joyous Sect infiltrators.

Yet it seemed their penetration into Great Zhou was endless and relentless.

When he read the next lines,

his eyes lit up: “There’s Golden Sun Wood in the Kunlun Minor World?”

That was precisely what he needed for cultivating the Nine Heavens Starry Technique.

Only—

as to who the Joyous Sect agent was, the system didn’t say. Seeing he had only a hundred contribution points left, Fu Changsheng stopped exchanging intelligence.

He planned to redeem another batch once they entered the Kunlun Minor World; perhaps then he could identify the infiltrator—or get to the Golden Sun Wood first, which would be just as good.

He withdrew his mind from the panel.

Yao Yao and Fu Yongwei had already finished refining their Profound Yin Jade Talismans.

By the time the three reached the outer perimeter of Nine Nether Valley, dusk had fallen. At the yin-mist-wreathed mouth of the valley came the sound of a mournful wind, like countless souls whispering. The mists at the entrance were thick as ink.

“Father, this mist is indeed strange—even spiritual sense can’t penetrate it.” Yao Yao frowned slightly.

Off to the side, Fu Yongwei—going out to temper herself for the first time in decades—was nervous to the point of stiffness. She clutched her Profound Yin Jade Talisman, whose surface shone with a faint ghostly glow.

Seeing this, Fu Changsheng soothed her: “Yongwei, don’t worry too much. Once we enter the valley, you walk in the middle. Don’t stray half a step from me or Yao Yao.”

“Yes, Father.”

Fu Yongwei’s heart settled somewhat.

As soon as they stepped into the range of the yin mists, the scenery changed. The clear outlines of the valley blurred and gave way to a gray world like the nether hells. The chill mist coiled around them; even with the Profound Yin Jade Talismans guarding their bodies, threads of cold seeped into their bones.

“This mist… it even affects the mind!” Yao Yao’s expression shifted; she quickly circulated power to steady her spirit.

Fu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be distracted. Guard your spirit platform. These mists carry resentment; let down your guard and it will erode you.”

As a Wood-Spirit Physique, Fu Yongwei’s perception of heaven and earth energies was keen. Not far in, she halted and pointed left. “Father, to the southwest I sense an extremely pure yin balefire.”

Fu Changsheng’s heart stirred.

The intelligence had mentioned an Yin-Soul Tree to the southwest hosting Bone-Eroding Midges. He hadn’t expected Yongwei to be this sharp. “Come. We’ll take a look.”

The eyes of Bone-Eroding Midges could be refined into Yin Marrow Jade—fine for forging evil-breaking artifacts. Since they were here, he wouldn’t pass it up.

Following the direction Yongwei indicated, they soon came to a grove of dead trees. The trunks were black as coal, their branches twisted like ghost claws. In the middle stood a massive Yin-Soul Tree, and hanging from its crown were dozens of dragonfly-like creatures with human faces—precisely the Bone-Eroding Midges!

“So it is Bone-Eroding Midges!” Fu Changsheng’s gaze turned cold, and he motioned for Yao Yao and Yongwei to stop.

Fu Yongwei, who had noticed them a step late, blanched when she saw dozens of third-rank yin beasts. She whispered, “Father, there are too many. If we alarm them and they swarm, the three of us may not handle it.”

Her combat experience was still stuck at what it had been before she returned home in Qi Refining.

Among the midges on the Yin-Soul Tree, several were late third-rank—far stronger than she was. She stood ramrod straight, barely daring to breathe for fear of attracting their attention.

Fu Changsheng calculated quickly, then turned to Yao Yao. “Look after Yongwei.”

No sooner had he spoken

than the Bone-Eroding Midges sensed living auras. They beat their wings and took off. Their human faces contorted into feral grins. Their mouthparts gaped to reveal razor fangs, spewing violet-black venom that fell like a storm!

“Roar!”

The Azure Flood Dragon opened its maw.

The yin energy all around surged and turned into a Water-Curtain Canopy before Fu Changsheng.

Sizzle, sizzle! The venom pitted the water curtain with worm-eaten holes in an instant.

Fu Changsheng’s gaze chilled. He had no desire to waste time here. With a thought, the ghost servant Qiu Chan flashed into view. He barked, “Qiu Chan, move!”

“Yes, Master.”

Having reached quasi–fourth rank, Qiu Chan had been itching for a fight. Rarely let out, she answered with delight.

The Moon-Lilt Autumn-White Flute rose to her lips, and she played the Polar Frost Demon Chant!

“Wooo—”

Icy blue sound waves swept out, instantly freezing several midges. However—

“Hiss!”

A few late third-rank midges beat their wings wildly, a ghostly green venom light bursting from their bodies as a marrow-corroding miasma exploded!

“Chi—”

The miasma collided with the ice, stripping the frozen midges free in an instant. The poison spread, forcing Qiu Chan to fall back!

The Azure Flood Dragon roared, casting a Dragon-Scale Shield; azure-gold scales overlapped into a barrier that blocked the poison’s advance!

Irritated, the swarm didn’t relent. Their forms blurred as each split into a host of ghostly afterimages—true and false indistinguishable—rushing in from all directions.

“They’ve awakened two bloodline divine arts!”

Fu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed.

Lightning danced in his palm, and a streak of Bing-Fire Divine Thunder crashed into the swarm! “Boom!”

Thunderfire exploded. The ghostly afterimages were blasted apart, but the true bodies hid among them, waiting to strike!

Seeing the danger, the Azure Flood Dragon again cast the Water-Curtain Canopy. Waters like from a cold pool surged skyward and crashed down in great waves! “Waa—”

The sweep scattered the afterimages, but several true midges slipped through and spat venom! “Careful!” Yao Yao cried. A talisman flew from her sleeve and became a shield of light around Fu Yongwei! “Bang!”

Venom corroded the light shield with a screech. Fu Yongwei turned pale, clearly shaken.

Having tested the swarm’s strength,

Fu Changsheng said at once,

“Qiu Chan, all-out!”

“Yes, Master!”

Qiu Chan nodded. The Moon-Lilt Autumn-White Flute burst with bone-chilling light—Polar Frost Demon Chant: Frost-Soul Freeze! “Wooo—!”

This time the notes didn’t spread wide; they condensed into a single icy-blue blade of sound that slashed at the swarm’s leader!

“Hiss!”

Caught off guard, the leader belched miasma to block, but the sound blade pierced the poison and froze half its body!

The Azure Flood Dragon seized the chance, tail lashing in a Heaven-and-Earth Net!

“Waa-waa-waa—”

Countless chains of water spirit burst from the ground, binding the swarm tight!

Seeing this, Fu Changsheng didn’t hesitate. Lightning swelled in his palm—Bing-Fire Divine Thunder: Thunderfire Scorches the Heavens!

“Rumble—!”

Scarlet thunder howled like a furious dragon and swallowed the midges in an instant!

“Crackle! Crackle!”

Thunderfire rampaged, ghost shadows collapsing, poison miasma boiling away.

The swarm fell like dumplings into a pot, dropping one after another.

Fu Changsheng flicked his sleeve. Dozens of ghostly blue Yin Marrow Jades flew from the ashes into his palm. “No wonder yin beasts with bloodline arts are tricky—harder than I expected.”

The mists thinned. Charred remnants of midges lay everywhere, and the air still carried the sear of thunder and the bite of frost.

Fu Yongwei, however, couldn’t recover for a long while. Reflected in her pupils was the straight back of Fu Changsheng, stirring a wordless, surging awe.

“So… this is Father’s strength?”

She had heard that her father was formidable, but had never seen him go all out. In her impression, a cultivator’s battle was a tangle of talismans and clashing arts—yet that fight—

Was too fast! From the midges’ sudden attack, to Qiu Chan’s freezing notes, to the Azure Flood Dragon’s binding chains, to Father’s single strike of Bing-Fire Divine Thunder wiping out the field—it had taken only a few breaths! Those third-rank yin beasts that made her scalp tingle had been crushed like ants! “So this is how true experts fight.”

She unconsciously clenched the Profound Yin Jade Talisman in her hand, her throat tight.

She had studied spirit plants for a hundred years and knew the properties of myriad herbs, but facing that swarm alone just now, she might not have lasted even three breaths. And Father hadn’t even furrowed his brow.

The gap… was too great.

“Yongwei.” Fu Changsheng’s voice came. “Stay close. Don’t drift off.”

“Yes, Father!” Fu Yongwei snapped back to herself.

Just then,

a familiar chime sounded in Fu Changsheng’s mind: “Ding.”

“In that battle, your adopted daughter came to admire you from the heart. Together with the dozens of Yin Marrow Jades you acquired for the clan, you gain 2,000 family contribution points.”

Immediately,

his contribution points rose to 2,100.

They advanced nearly ten li through the mists. Though they met several waves of yin beasts, with the Azure Flood Dragon and Qiu Chan clearing the way, the three made it smoothly to the Cold-Soil Stone Forest.

The Cold-Soil Stone Forest was the only path to the Nine Nether Cold Pool.

Strangely, the yin mists at the valley mouth halted here and could not spread inward. Before them stretched ranks of gray-white stone pillars, their bodies pocked with honeycombed holes. A chill seeped from those holes, dropping the temperature at once.

Even with power warding them,

Yao Yao and Fu Yongwei’s lips turned purple with cold.

Fu Changsheng willed, and with a boom the Nine Suns Red Lotus Flame roared from his body, forming a fiery dome that covered them.

They had only taken a few steps into the stone forest

when Yao Yao suddenly stopped, her pupils shrinking—

Those seemingly random honeycomb holes on the pillars were exhaling frosts that braided into faint silver threads in midair.

“Wait!”

She yanked Fu Yongwei back, her finger trembling as she pointed at a slanted pillar three zhang ahead. “Look at the hole pattern—that’s ‘tread nine, wear one’ from the Luoshu!”

At her words, Fu Changsheng’s attention sharpened. Outside the flame dome, the sound of crystalline ice forming clicked and popped. Between two pillars on the left, eight icy hexagrams appeared out of nowhere. As the Qian hexagram lit with silver, hundreds of ice spikes shot from the ground! “Back!”

Qiu Chan swept the flute through the air. The Polar Frost Demon Chant shattered the ice spikes to powder.

In the drifting frost—

Yao Yao had already pulled a bronze Eight Trigrams formation plate from her pouch. The magnet ladle at its center spun madly.

“It really is a Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams array…”

She bit her fingertip and scored a blood rune across the plate. Twelve rays of gold burst from its surface and wove a three-dimensional trigram in the air. “The hole counts on the Kan-position pillar fit the Six-White Martial Star, but the Xun position hides the killing force of the Seven-Red Breaker Star—this isn’t a defensive array at all; it’s a killing formation that freezes spiritual sense!”

Almost at the same time,

the holes of nine pillars spewed ghostly blue ice fog together, and a full innate Eight Trigrams figure unfolded in the air.

Yao Yao darted into the center of the diagram, slammed the bronze plate into the ground—

“Heaven and earth in their places, mountain and lake in communion!”

As her sleeves billowed, eight jade talismans leapt from the plate and inset themselves precisely into pillar-holes. With a teeth-aching grind of gears, a gigantic Nine Palaces flying-star diagram shimmered above the forest. The deadly frosts became docile, flowing along the guidance of the talismans to pave a starlit ice path before them.

“Walk the Li Palace steps!”

Sweat beaded Yao Yao’s brow. With every step, a golden lotus bloomed under her boot. “Follow my lotus prints. One wrong step and you’ll trigger—”

Before she finished, Fu Yongwei’s hairpin brushed an ice crystal. A chorus of a thousand wailing ghosts rang through the forest!

“Careful!”

Fu Changsheng sent the Nine Suns Red Lotus Flame into a fire dragon that coiled around them. Yao Yao bit her tongue and sprayed blood onto the plate. The blood-stained magnet ladle erupted with blinding scarlet light. Her hands danced like butterflies as she used her own essence blood to sketch an inverted Eight Trigrams shadow above the ice path.

“Reverse the Qimen—open!”

At the moment the blood trigram smashed into the icy trigram overhead, every pillar trembled together. Tens of thousands of silver threads lanced from the honeycomb holes and wove a blazing star-net above their heads.

Yao Yao, face white, pointed to a gap in the net. “Through the Xuanji position—now!”

When Fu Changsheng, who brought up the rear, vaulted out of the stone forest, a heaven-shaking boom rolled behind them.

Looking back, they saw the gray-white pillars collapsing into themselves.

But before long,

the forest reassembled, as if nothing had happened.

Fu Changsheng’s eyes narrowed.

Patriarch Ouyang’s map did mark this stone forest, but it had never mentioned a Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams array here. Patriarch Ouyang had sworn an oath; he shouldn’t have concealed anything. Which meant that in the decades since—

either someone had arrayed this forest by hand, or Nine Nether Valley had undergone some kind of change. “Looks like we need to keep our guard at the highest.”

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