From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 464 The Direction Guided by the Star Chart

I rubbed my aching temples, and as soon as my fingertips touched them, I recoiled as if burned by hot coals—ever since the star map appeared in the pillar of light, this burning sensation had lingered in my mind, like a fine needle pricking at my nerves.

"Miss Xiao." Ling Feng's voice suddenly became very low, and when I looked up, I met his tightly furrowed brows.

The veins on the back of his hand holding the sword bulged, and the tip of the sword was slightly tilted in the direction we came from. "Although the aura of that old ghost and the Blood Fiend has dissipated, the miasma in this ruin is mixed with the smell of blood..." His Adam's apple bobbed. "They are probably still hiding in some crevice."

I followed his gaze across the mottled stone wall, and sure enough, there were several dark red spots in the shadows—the remnants of the ghostly aura of the Netherworld King.

The fierce battle just now shook off a lot of stalactites, and half a bloodstained scale was still embedded in the pile of broken rocks. It must have broken off when I struck him with the lightning talisman.

"We need to hurry." I gritted my teeth, the faint silver lines on the star map churning in my mind. "The location of the Immortal Sect..." I took out the tattered star map scroll I had copied from the pillar of light. On the yellowed silk, the positions of the seven main stars were marked very deep with cinnabar. "According to the star orbit calculation, it should be in the 'Hidden Abyss' at the deepest part of the ruins."

"Hidden Abyss?" The Azure Lotus Fairy's fingertip lightly touched the small characters on the edge of the star map. Her wide, white sleeves swept across the silk, carrying a faint fragrance of lotus blossoms. "I've seen records of it in ancient texts; it's where ancient immortals sealed away a great evil." Her eyes widened in worry as she looked up. "Even Senior Kongling said he had never set foot there..."

“That’s why we need to hurry.” I clenched the star chart in my palm, the rough edges of the silk scarring my hand. “This heat…” I pointed to my brow. “It’s probably the star chart urging me on. If we delay any longer, it might trigger some unforeseen events.”

Ling Feng suddenly slammed his sword into the ground, the crisp sound of metal striking rock startling several roosting crows into flight.

"If you ask me, let's just cut through those broken rocks and charge straight in!" He said, but the tips of his ears turned red, perhaps because he remembered that when he was entangled by the Ghost King's ghostly mist, it was I who used the Purifying Fire Talisman to burn through that black mist. "However..." He scratched the back of his neck, "Wouldn't the teleportation array that Fairy Qinglian mentioned earlier save some effort?"

The Azure Lotus Fairy took out a jade slip from her sleeve and handed it to me, her knuckles turning white from the force of her grip. "This is a teleportation array diagram I copied at the Myriad Swords Pavilion years ago. The teleportation array in the ruins is old, but if the core runes can be repaired..." Her voice suddenly softened, "...it's just that the coordinates of the teleportation array might have been altered..."

"I'll try." I took the jade slip, and when my fingertips touched the cool jade surface, the burning sensation of the star map suddenly surged, so hot that I almost let go.

This is... approval?

I stared at the pale blue patterns flowing on the jade slip and suddenly remembered the trajectory of the runes flowing in the pillar of light—it was three-tenths similar to the core runes of the teleportation array.

We found the teleportation array in the third hall.

Most of the glazed tiles on the roof of the palace were broken, and moonlight leaked down, casting mottled shadows on the bluestone slabs.

The teleportation array is engraved in the very center, surrounded by eight dragon-shaped pillars. The pearl on the dragon's head has long been removed, leaving only a dark hole, like eight pairs of eyes staring at us.

"Step back." I crouched down, my fingertips brushing against the cracks at the center of the array.

The stone surface was cool, yet it possessed a strange warmth, as if it had been deliberately nurtured.

The jade slip was burning hot in my sleeve. I took it out, and the runes on the diagram overlapped with the stone array. "This is the 'Star Shift Array,' no wonder." I pulled out the dagger from my waist, cut my fingertip, and dripped a drop of blood onto the "Gate of Life" position of the array's core. "An ancient teleportation array requires the bloodline of the array master to activate."

Ling Feng gasped, "Miss Xiao, are you crazy? What if this..."

"Shh." Fairy Qinglian pressed down on his arm, her palms sweating. "There is the aura of a pillar of light in her blood. She recognizes her now."

The moment the blood seeped into the cracks in the stone, the entire stone formation suddenly glowed with a bluish light.

I stared at the cracked runes, my nails digging deep into my palms—I had to hurry, I had to reconnect the broken "star-guiding runes".

Fingertips flew across the stone surface, and with each talisman drawn, the heat between his brows lessened.

When the last "stable pattern" was completed, the stone formation suddenly burst out with a blinding white light!

"Close your eyes!" Ling Feng's roar mingled with Qinglian Fairy's low moan. I instinctively curled up, but the light was not scorching. Instead, it felt like my mother's hand, gently supporting my waist.

When I opened my eyes again, the bluestone slabs under my feet had turned into scorched earth, and there were grayish-white mountain shadows in the distance. The wind carried a strong spiritual energy, but also a fishy smell like rotting wood.

"Is this the Hidden Abyss?" Ling Feng's voice was muffled. He still held his sword in his hand, but the tip of the sword was trembling slightly.

I looked down and saw that my shadow was stretched very long. The pebbles on the ground had a faint blue hue, like countless tiny moons embedded in them.

"The spiritual energy is too dense." The Azure Lotus Fairy's wide sleeves billowed in the wind as she reached out to catch a wisp of gray mist drifting by. "This mist..." Her expression suddenly changed, "...is sealed resentment!"

I suddenly felt a slight tremor under my feet, as if something was slowly turning over underground.

Ling Feng's sword was drawn with a "hum," and a blue lotus magic seal condensed at the fingertips of the Azure Lotus Fairy.

I stared at the ground; the bluish pebbles trembled gently with the tremors, and a distant rumble like muffled thunder came from somewhere, as if…

"Run!" I had barely uttered a word when the tremors beneath my feet intensified suddenly, and pebbles bounced up and fell back down, stinging my insteps.

Ling Feng grabbed my wrist, and the magic seal of the Azure Lotus Fairy exploded with a "bang," causing us to stagger backward.

The ground cracked.

I stared at the spiderweb-like cracks under my feet and heard the sound of the soil churning, as if countless hands were scratching at the ground.

Ling Feng's palms were covered in sweat, and I could feel his pulse beating rapidly, pounding against my wrist.

The Azure Lotus Fairy's breathing quickened in her ears, and her magic seal shone even brighter, but she still didn't unleash it—she was also waiting, waiting for the moment when that thing would truly break through the ground.

As I stared at the ground, watching the eerie blue light seeping from the cracks, I suddenly remembered the three missing stars on the star map.

They are currently positioned directly opposite the soles of my feet.

The moment the ground cracked open, Ling Feng pulled me back two steps, my heel getting stuck in the crack of the rubble and I almost fell over.

Blue light spots surged out of the cracks, densely packed like a punctured honeycomb—they weren't pebbles at all, but countless bluish-gray stone hands!

"Watch out!" Ling Feng's sword sheath slammed heavily against my lower back, pushing me to his side.

When I looked up, the first stone statue had already emerged from the ground: a seven-foot-tall stone body covered in mottled armor, with half-dried mud still clinging to the tip of the stone spear, and the eerie blue flames in its eye sockets crackling as they pierced straight toward my face!

"Hurry!" The Azure Lotus Fairy's Azure Lotus Seal was the first to meet the attack. The pale pink ball of light struck the stone statue's chest, but it rippled outwards as if it were hitting the surface of water.

The stone spear, using the recoil, moved even closer. I gritted my teeth and spun around to avoid it, the tips of my hair scraping painfully from the spear.

Ling Feng's sword struck the stone statue's leg with a clang, sparks flying. His hand went numb from the impact, and a chip appeared in the blade: "This thing is harder than black iron!"

I pressed my back against the cold stone wall and watched as the third stone statue emerged from the crack in the ground on the left.

Although their movements were clumsy, their sheer numbers made up for it—seven of them had already stood up within ten steps, and the encirclement formed by stone spears and swords was slowly closing in.

Amidst the shrill whistling of the stone spears slicing through the air, I suddenly noticed a dark pattern on the chest of each statue: like a snake, or a twisted star trail, tinged with a dark red under the glow of the eerie blue flames.

"Wait a minute!" I grabbed Ling Feng's wrist as he was about to swing his sword, my fingertips brushing against the chest of the nearest stone statue.

The dark pattern suddenly became incredibly hot. I gasped and pulled my hand back, only to see the stone statue abruptly stop moving, the flames in its eye sockets flickering.

"Miss Xiao?" Ling Feng's voice carried a hint of surprise.

I licked my dry lips, and a wisp of the faintest wood elemental energy gathered at my fingertips—the burning sensation from the star map when I repaired the teleportation array was of the same origin as wood elemental energy, perhaps...

The moment the spiritual energy touched the dark patterns, the stone statue made a "crack" sound as stone chips crumbled, and the eerie blue flames in its eye sockets went out with a "poof".

I took two steps back and watched it fall straight to the ground, the stone spear hitting the ground and kicking up dust.

"They're runes!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "The dark patterns on their chests are control runes!"

Use wood elemental energy to guide the energy along the grain of the wood, don't use offensive magic!

Ling Feng's eyes lit up, and he changed his sword-wielding hand to a pressing motion, with a blue light rising from his fingertips: "I knew Miss Xiao would have a way!" He pressed his hand on the chest of the nearest stone statue, and the runes instantly shone like flowing fire, causing the statue's movements to pause.

The Azure Lotus Fairy's wide sleeves billowed, and her fingertips produced seven showers of azure lotus light. Each one landed precisely on the stone statue's chest, gradually smoothing out the dark patterns in the soft light, and extinguishing the flames in its eyes one by one.

As the last stone statue crashed to the ground, Ling Feng, clutching his knees, gasped for breath. Sweat dripped from his forehead, leaving small dents on the stone surface. "Damn it," he muttered, "it's even more tiring than fighting the Netherworld Ghost King." He kicked a stone spear at his feet, and the spearhead clattered and rolled a long way away.

The Azure Lotus Fairy, however, did not relax. She took two steps along the edge of the wasteland, the hem of her white skirt brushing against the scorched earth, and suddenly squatted down: "Miss Xiao, look at this."

I leaned closer and saw her fingertips tracing the surface of a half-buried tombstone.

The monument was covered with cracks, but several planetary orbit-shaped symbols flowed through the cracks—seven parts similar to the silver lines of the star map in my sea of ​​consciousness.

“This is…” I crouched down, and just as my fingertips were about to touch it, black mist suddenly rose up around the broken monument.

The black mist was sticky and clinging to the back of my hand like a thick paste, carrying a stench like rotting flesh that went straight into my nose.

"Evil energy!" The Azure Lotus Fairy's Azure Lotus Seal instantly solidified in her palm, but the edges of the seal were corroded by the black mist, leaving fine cracks. "Someone used insidious methods to nourish the resentment here. The broken stele... it's probably been used as the core of the formation." When she looked up, the corners of her eyes were tinged with a bluish-gray. "This method... resembles the 'Bone-Eating Evil' of the Blood Fiend lineage."

I gripped my sleeve tightly.

I have long been familiar with the Blood Fiend Elder's methods. Last time in the third hall, he used Ghost Mist to launch a sneak attack. If we hadn't had enough Purifying Fire Talismans, we would have been caught off guard.

But how could he have arrived at Hidden Abyss before us?

unless......

“He might have been following us all along.” I pointed to the fallen stone statues at my feet. “The control runes on these statues are very similar in pattern to the runes on the Netherworld Ghost Generals that Blood Fiend Old Ghost used to control.”

Ling Feng's sword was drawn with a "whoosh," the tip of the sword parting a cloud of black mist that was drifting in: "Where is that old thing hiding?"

I'll chop it down right now—"

"laugh."

The chilling laughter scraped against my eardrums like a rusty knife.

My spine stiffened, and as I turned my head, I saw the Blood Demon Elder strolling out of the black mist: he was wrapped in a black robe adorned with skulls, his withered fingers pinching a crystal dripping with black liquid, his eyes sunken, yet gleaming with a venomous, eerie light.

“Young friend Xiao.” His voice was like two stones rubbing against each other, “I knew it, how could the Star Chart recognize a piece of trash without spiritual roots?”

"So you've been hiding something quite interesting inside you." He brandished the crystal in his hand, and black mist suddenly condensed into chains that wrapped around my ankles. "But it doesn't matter... once I retrieve what's inside this crystal, you won't even be worthy to carry my shoes."

I instinctively tried to form a hand seal, but found that my dantian felt like it was being pressed down by a large rock, and my spiritual energy surged to my throat and then fell back down heavily.

The moment my fingertips touched the lightning talisman in the storage bag, they were burned by the black mist and started to smoke – this crystal was suppressing my spiritual power!

"You old bastard!" Ling Feng's sword, wreathed in flames, slashed at the Blood Fiend Elder, but was deflected by the black mist. "You think you can suppress Miss Xiao's spiritual power?"

Grandpa will burn this piece of junk!

"Fellow Daoist Ling, don't be anxious." The Blood Fiend Elder chuckled sinisterly, his withered finger drawing a bloody line on the crystal. "This 'Spirit-Locking Crystal' was refined using the spirit cores of thirty Golden Core cultivators. The more she struggles, the faster her spiritual energy dissipates." His gaze swept over me as if I were meat waiting to be slaughtered. "Why don't you kneel down and beg me now? Maybe you can at least have a whole corpse..."

I bit my tongue, and the sweet, metallic taste of blood exploded in my mouth.

The star map in my mind suddenly became hot, and the burning sensation rushed straight to my dantian along my meridians, causing the stone that was pressing down on me to the point of being unable to breathe to crack with a "crack".

I stared at the crystal in the Blood Fiend Elder's hand. The black mist was thickening at a visible speed, and the baleful aura around the broken monument was churning like boiling water, condensing into a hideous ghost face behind him.

"Miss Xiao?" The Azure Lotus Fairy's voice was filled with worry; her magic seal had been corroded to the point of being only a faint shadow. "Your complexion..."

"It's nothing." I tugged at the corner of my aching mouth, my nails digging deep into my palm.

The burning sensation from the star chart was still spreading. I could feel something flowing from my sea of ​​consciousness to my dantian along with the heat—it was the suppressed spiritual power, which, under the guidance of the star chart, was gradually breaking through the shackles of the "Spirit Locking Crystal".

The Blood Demon Elder's laughter suddenly stopped.

He stared into my gleaming eyes, his withered fingers clenching the crystal tightly. The ghostly face in the black mist suddenly opened its mouth wide, emitting a piercing shriek.

"You..." He took a half step back, "How come you have... on you?"

"The real contest has only just begun." I loosened my clenched fist, which had turned white, and spiritual energy seeped out from between my fingers, condensing into a ball of pulsating light in my palm.

The silver lines of the star chart swirled wildly in my sea of ​​consciousness. I stared at the crystal in the Blood Fiend Elder's hand. The black mist was growing thicker and thicker, like a dark cloud that was about to devour everything.

And I know that the answer we are looking for is hidden beneath this dark cloud.