Starfire Burns Forever, the Flame Passes On; Chaos Tide; Qingyuan Ancient Path Supreme Remains

"Senior Brother Xu." Gou Hui called softly, offering him a jade slip. "News Wenqu Star Lord sent back from Yuheng Realm."

Xu Xian unfurled the jade slip, and his brow gradually relaxed. "Good news. Yuheng Realm's origin has been completely purified. A Spiritual Eye User has emerged among the newborn Demon Race, capable of seeing through Chaos disguises."

"Senior Brother Zhang's side has made progress too." Gou Hui pointed to Tianxuan Realm on the star map. "They found a way to resist Chaos Erosion—inscribing the Star Chain Array's runes onto cultivators' Golden Cores."

As they spoke, Xu Xian suddenly groaned and clutched his dantian. Gou Hui was startled. "What's wrong?"

"The seed... is growing!" Cold sweat beaded across Xu Xian's brow as he sat down cross-legged with difficulty. He looked inward into his dantian and saw that the Gray-Gold Seed's roots had already burrowed into his Golden Core. The two had actually begun to slowly merge!

A strange yet familiar memory surged into his mind—it was the scene of Qin Wang concealing a wisp of his life-bound spiritual consciousness within the seed in his final moments before transforming into the Heaven-Slicing Sword.

"Junior Brother... you're still alive?" Xu Xian called softly in his heart.

There was no response, but the seed clearly pulsed once, as though answering his call. More miraculously, Xu Xian discovered that the old wound on his right shoulder had begun to heal—the injury from Chaos Erosion long ago, one that had remained impossible to cure these past three months.

Gou Hui stood guard anxiously at his side when she suddenly noticed a faint gray-gold pattern emerging between Xu Xian's brows. "Senior Brother, your forehead—"

Before Xu Xian could inspect it, alarm bells suddenly rang throughout the headquarters. A guard rushed in with a panicked report. "A