Her heart was pierced by chains, the ends disappearing into the void of the Chaos Shadow.
"Sister..." Thunderclap's call was swallowed, as Gui Xu's darkness enveloped them, plunging into an unknown abyss.
In the darkness, the sound of dragging chains echoed, while Yun Che's Xing Wen illuminated the cramped cavern.
The walls were etched with the prayers of the Starfall Clan, and not far from the Central Stone Platform lay a Duan Jian, its inscriptions matching those on the Astrolabe in his hand.
Xiao Qingli touched the inscriptions, and suddenly, the ice-blue Soul Fire surged: "This is ' Sword Tomb of Avici,' Bai Ruoyou's burial ground... She actually hid the remnants of the God-Slaying Sword here!"
The Duan Jian sensed the Astrolabe and transformed into Liu Guang, piercing Yun Che's palm. The patterns of the Return to the Void Blood Pact spread across his body, and his pupils split into a second pair of vertical slits—
Those were the "Guanshi Eye" belonging to the Heavenly Emperor.
Outside the cavern, a sound of breaking chains resonated, and Chaos Shadow's whispers seeped into his bones: "Found you..."
Within Sword Tomb of Avici, Shattering the Gods' broken blade plunged into Yun Che's palm, as the patterns of Return to the Void Blood Pact grew like poisonous vines.
His vertical pupils reflected the remaining memories of the blade—Bai Ruoyou stood amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, piercing through the chest of the Heavenly Emperor's avatar with her sword, only for it to shatter upon reaching his heart.
"So you had already tried Shattering the Gods..." Yun Che tightened his grip on the hilt, as black blood seeped from the humming broken blade. "Then let me borrow your final journey!"
The rock walls of the sword tomb exploded violently as Chaos Shadow's Tentacles reached into the fissures.
Xiao Qingli's Soul Fire coalesced into an ice wall but was corroded by Tentacles, leaving charred marks: "Hurry! It’s devouring space!"
Yun Che swung his sword at the Tentacles; surprisingly, the broken blade absorbed their shadowy power, its edge glowing with an eerie brilliance.
The shadow emitted a inhuman shriek and retreated into the void before flinging a drop of Black Blood that pierced Xiao Qingli's shoulder.
"You’re injured." Yun Che tore off a piece of his clothing to bandage her, but Black Blood burrowed into his Xing Wen like a living thing. "This is... Causality poison?"
Xiao Qingli grimaced: "The blood of the Heavenly Emperor; anyone touched by it is doomed—unless you reverse Causality."
Deep within the sword tomb, a Bronze Sundial floated above an altar, its Dials rusted and worn.
Xiao Qingli's fingertips brushed over its Star Map: "This is the Starfall Clan’s forbidden artifact 'Reverse Time Sundial,' capable of reversing three days' worth of time, but each use costs a hundred years of life for its wielder."
Yun Che’s vertical pupils glowed with bloodlight: "Three days is enough for me to storm Heaven."
"Fool!" Xiao Qingli grasped his wrist tightly. "Reversing Causality will consume your memories; you might forget why you fight!"
Suddenly, the Dials began to turn on their own, warping time and space within the sword tomb.
Yun Che saw countless versions of himself being obliterated in parallel Causality, with only a blood-soaked figure in black robes standing atop a throne of corpses—this was the fate of one who had fallen to darkness.
He pressed the Dials, and Xing Wen pierced Gnomon Heart: "If this is the Heavenly Mandate... then I will defy fate and change the course!"
In that instant, as time flowed backward, Yun Che's Sea of Consciousness was torn into fragments. He fell into Jiao City of the Eastern Sea three days prior, where the Xuanming Sect hunting ship had yet to attack, and Xiao Qingli was confronting the One-Eyed Old Man.
"This time, I will eradicate the root of all calamities." He surged forward over the waves, and the Shattering the Gods blade was drawn early. The sword energy swept like a black dragon over the hunting ship, and before the Xuanming Sect cultivators could form their formation, they were severed in two. The old man fell to his knees in terror: "Lord Starfall, spare me! I am willing to offer up Gui Xu Water!"
Yun Che's vertical pupil locked onto the old man's soul: "Where is your Transmission Seal with the Heavenly Emperor hidden?"
Before the old man could self-destruct his Sea of Consciousness, Yun Che's sword tip had already pricked out a Blood-colored Jade Tablet—inscribed on it were records of sacrifices made by various sects to the Starfall Clan’s remnants over the past three hundred years in the Eastern Sea!
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