A Spiritual Bone

"Mm!"

As soon as Chen Qing spoke his name, he let out a muffled groan. The spiritual light in his Niwan Palace was crushed beneath an overwhelming, irresistible "force"! The Supreme Harmony Qi surging through his body stiffened like lead, and the mountain, sea, and starry radiance on his natal life talisman dimmed!

"Using your name as bait and borrowing the force to make your move. You have some nerve." Xu Qingfeng's gaze was gentle. As his words fell, the pressure abruptly vanished.

Chen Qing immediately let out a long breath.

"This man is truly unfathomable!"

He suppressed his turbulent thoughts, then cupped his hands in greeting, neither servile nor overbearing. "Your Highness is right. I did indeed intend to pay you a visit."

Xu Qingfeng said calmly, "I know what you have in mind, but the tenth princess bears the karma of Qingqiu. This tribulation is decreed by Heaven's Mandate and cannot be avoided. Forcing your way into it would only throw yin and yang into chaos."

Heaven's Mandate?

Chen Qing shook his head inwardly. If there truly was such a thing as Heaven's Mandate, then what did that make him, this "Chen Xu" who should never have existed?

Yet his expression remained composed. "Since Your Highness speaks of Heaven's Mandate, then was the Empress forcing the princess's bloodline to mutate also part of it?" Chen Qing did not bring up the question of who would inherit the throne. He used the princess as an opening instead.

Since he had lured Xu Qingfeng here by scheming, and the other man had not pursued the matter, Chen Qing understood that pushing too far would be unwise. As for the princess, he had no way to save her. But Li Xiao's words had reminded him that if the princess fell, he would be next.

Xu Qingfeng did not answer. He gazed at Chen Qing, then suddenly smiled. "So it was you."

"Me?" Chen Qing was taken aback.

Xu Qingfeng only said, "Heaven's Mandate is set, and a thousand rivers flow toward the same sea. Yet along the way, there are diversions, shifts, and branching currents."

Chen Qing's heart tightened.

Xu Qingfeng looked at him deeply. "Because of one small variable, the tribulation destined for the tenth princess remains, but has changed somewhat. And change is not always for the better. The Empress's 'theft from Heaven'—stealing the fortunes of the Immortal Dynasty in an attempt to seize authority over the Heavenly Dao—has also gained a few more chances of success out of nowhere."

"Stealing from Heaven?!"

Chen Qing's heart pounded.

The Empress had such ambitions?

But Xu Qingfeng's words also sent a chill through him.

A variable... Could he mean me? Was he saying the Empress would have failed, but that Chen Qing had become an aid to her instead?

Taking a deep breath, Chen Qing asked, "Since Your Highness sees through everything, why not restore order and stop this calamity that defies Heaven?"

"I am caught in the web as well." Xu Qingfeng's gaze was profound, his voice distant as if coming from beyond the clouds. "The Heavenly Dao is a net. Tug one strand, and the whole thing moves. If I force my way out of this game, the backlash could topple the Immortal Dynasty and bring misery to all living things. That is neither what I wish for nor what the Heavenly Dao will allow."

His gaze returned to Chen Qing. "But now that the variable has emerged, the hand that can break the game is yours."

"Me?" Chen Qing's brows drew together. "I'm only at the second realm. How could I shake the Empress's plans? I'd be ground to dust the moment I touched them!"

"The Dao has no high or low; each has its own path." Xu Qingfeng changed the subject. "Do you know that the beginning of every variable is tied to one thing?"

"What thing?"

Xu Qingfeng's expression turned solemn. "A spiritual bone."

A spiritual bone?!

Chen Qing's pupils abruptly contracted.

Xu Qingfeng's voice was calm, yet every word struck like thunder. "The Empress intends to steal authority over the Heavenly Dao and forge an indestructible treasure to suppress the Immortal Dynasty's fortune. To do so, she needs nine tribulation auras as a catalyst, so she can divert the backlash. Xi Yao's celestial fox origin qi is one of them! And the spiritual bone in your sea of qi..."

He pointed a finger at Chen Qing's dantian.

"The Swallowing Abyss Bone can swallow the substantial and contain the void, taking in myriad qi and returning it to one. It is the very core of her plan to refine the nine qi and construct a substitute!"

Boom!

Chen Qing's Sea of Consciousness churned, and at last he understood—

The Empress intended to use Xi Yao as kindling and his spiritual bone as the furnace!

She would use their lives to evade tribulation and escape disaster, forging a treasure to suppress the Immortal Dynasty's fortune!

"If the substitute tribulation succeeds, Xi Yao's demonic nature will devour her heart, turning her into a celestial fox beast. And you..." Xu Qingfeng's gaze was detached. "Your spiritual bone will be sealed forever, and you will never advance another step in your life!"

"How do we break this game?" Chen Qing took a deep breath and asked gravely. "Your Highness doesn't want the Empress to get her way either, does he?"

"Five days from now, on the moonless night, at the third quarter of the zi hour—"

Xu Qingfeng raised his eyes toward the floating Immortal Palace above the Imperial City. "On the Heavenly Evolution Stage, when the power of the stars is at its weakest, she will use the 'Nine Qi Substitute Tribulation, Reversing Karma Formation' to stir the star prohibition and refine the nine qi!"

The exact time!

The deadly location!

"Only when the Heavenly Dao is most deeply obscured can she find a chance to steal from Heaven. But that is also when the formation's core is at its most vulnerable." A sharp glint flashed in Xu Qingfeng's eyes. "Her enemies will also appear then, becoming a human tribulation!"

"Her schemes have long since angered all sides." Xu Qingfeng brushed that aside, then abruptly shifted topics. "What you need to do is slip into the Heavenly Evolution Stage amid the chaos—"

"Take back your spiritual bone!"

Chen Qing's breathing caught.

Slip into the forbidden grounds of the Immortal Palace? Snatch food from a tiger's jaws?

"When the bone returns to its rightful owner, the formation's core will collapse on its own." A point of starlight gathered at Xu Qingfeng's fingertip. "Then the Nine Tribulations Substitute plan will break, the Empress will surely suffer backlash, and Xi Yao's fate may yet turn."

He flicked his finger, and the point of starlight landed before Chen Qing.

"Your spiritual bone already contains a trace of Star Silence Tribulation Light, the essence left behind by the extinction of a star. For you, it is both tribulation and opportunity. If you can take it into your body, you may glimpse a sliver of the true meaning of the stars. But you may also face ten thousand calamities and never recover. After all, the rank of that tribulation light far exceeds your cultivation. If you cannot bear it, you can use this point of Annihilating Star Divine Light to draw it out and erase it completely."

Chen Qing's heart stirred. Judging by what had happened before, if his dream self absorbed the Star Silence Tribulation Light, it might be reflected back to his true self!

There were benefits, but also risks.

"Five days from now, I will tear open a gap in the star prohibition for you and conceal the secrets of Heaven." Xu Qingfeng's sleeves billowed, seeming to ripple with a river of stars. "But once you enter the Heavenly Evolution Stage, whether you live or die, succeed or fail, will depend entirely on your own fate."

Chen Qing was taken aback. The greatest obstacle had just been resolved, but he suddenly came to his senses.

Today, he had clearly set a trap to lure Xu Qingfeng in. How had things turned out like this in the blink of an eye?

As expected, those who held the secrets of Heaven in their hands...

Had always been the ones moving the pieces on the board!

At that thought, Chen Qing asked outright, "Your Highness is right, but with my meager cultivation, I'm afraid I'll be ground to dust before I even set foot on the Heavenly Evolution Stage!"

Xu Qingfeng's gaze was as still as a deep, ancient well. "Once the Nine Qi Substitute Tribulation Formation activates, tribulation and fortune will become entangled. Even the Empress herself would not dare set foot inside. If she forced a divine ability into the formation, she would be tainted by the tribulation aura, and the substitute plan would immediately collapse. This is the way of the silkworm binding itself in its own cocoon."

He raised a finger slightly, as if pointing into empty space. "By then, the Heavenly Evolution Stage and its surroundings will be entirely covered by the Circumference Star Dou Forbidden. The Emperor Lord took the orbits of the nine heavens' stars and laid this forbidden formation. It forms a world of its own. Even the Empress can only borrow its power to manipulate things from afar as she carries out her plan."

A glint flashed in Chen Qing's eyes. He seized the opportunity and said, "Since Your Highness can disturb the forbidden formation, could you give me a few pointers about how the Circumference Star Dou Forbidden works? I don't need to control it. I only hope I can borrow the tiniest gap at a life-or-death moment and find a sliver of hope."

"The Emperor Lord's authority is beyond your reach. I can borrow its power for a time, but I cannot pass on the crucial details to you." Xu Qingfeng spoke frankly.

Chen Qing's thoughts turned, and he asked, "Does Your Highness know the Star Pivot Sect? Its methods also involve the stars. Is there any connection between them and the Circumference Star Dou Forbidden?"

Xu Qingfeng pondered briefly before answering, "The Star Pivot Sect borrows the power of the constellations. The Circumference Star Dou Forbidden, however, refines starlight into a net that weaves through Heaven and Earth. It is an unparalleled forbidden art for sealing, repelling enemies, and expounding upon the Dao. Their Daos do not share the same source, and their developments diverge. Their principles are incompatible, so one cannot learn from the other."

His gaze settled on the spiritual light in Chen Qing's Niwan Palace. "But the light of your Dao foundation, there in your Sea of Consciousness, was bestowed when Heaven and Earth resonated as my father ascended. It contains the source Dao Rhyme of forbidden arts. If you can see through it, you may glimpse one ten-thousandth of the mysteries behind how forbidden arts work. However..." He paused. "Five days will pass in the blink of an eye. Comprehending this Dao is harder than climbing to Heaven."

"You think I can't figure it out?" Chen Qing's thoughts raced. "That may not be so."

Xu Qingfeng gave a slight shake of his head, taking it for nothing more than youthful bravado.

Chen Qing changed the subject. "Your Highness, since the Heavenly Evolution Stage is a forbidden place, it must have some kind of control mechanism, right? A central formation core or something that suppresses it, for example. If I could find a clue, could I make use of it?"

"The core of the Heavenly Evolution Stage is the Primordial Chaos Instrument." Xu Qingfeng spoke frankly. "The Emperor Lord forged it by refining the essence of the nine heavens' stars with a wondrous treasure of chaos. It shares the same source as the Circumference Star Dou Forbidden. Without the Emperor Lord appearing in person or the core seal that controls the forbidden formation, it will be all but impossible to reach."

Chen Qing's heart tightened slightly. His thoughts turned again, and he asked, "Once the nine tribulation auras enter the formation, is there any way to control them?"

Xu Qingfeng understood what he was thinking and said, "As soon as the tribulation auras enter the formation, they are bound by both the Primordial Chaos Instrument and the Circumference Star Dou Forbidden. They become like a wild horse with a bridle on. No matter how unruly they are, they cannot break free of their restraints. Their power is entirely under control, let alone used to break the game."

"A bridle?" A sharp light flashed in Chen Qing's eyes as he seized on the key point. "Your Highness means that no matter how violent those tribulation auras are, they'll be constrained once they enter the formation? Where does this force of 'constraint' come from? Is it the Nine Qi Substitute Tribulation, Reversing Karma Formation?"

Xu Qingfeng looked deeply at Chen Qing, as if considering why he was so fixated on such details. After a moment, he slowly replied, "Exactly. The origins of this formation can be traced back to the Dao Seeking Era."

His voice was calm, yet it stirred the air around them, and faint Buddhist chants seemed to seep out of the void:

"In that age, an Ancient Buddha saw that the karma of all living beings was like a sea, their afflictions burning fiercely. It gathered into nine qi, dragging them into a sea of suffering with no end in sight. So he made a great vow to find a way to bear their tribulations in their place."

"Later, beneath the bodhi tree, he witnessed true suchness and comprehended the principle that 'karma is like a thread, binding cause and effect. A single thought of compassion can transform it into a vajra fetter.' Thus he created this method of substituting tribulation, using supreme vows as the lure and threads of cause and effect as the rope. He formed the Nine Qi Vajra Seal and bound a sinful dragon beneath Mount Sumeru."

"The formation the Empress obtained was born from this, but it had lost Buddhism's original compassion. She turned it on its head, forcefully binding the tribulation auras with great divine powers, using the power of the stars as vajra chains and the Primordial Chaos Instrument as a seal to suppress evil. She uses it to shift tribulations and seize fortune at others' expense. Those reins are the power of the karmic fetters."

"Buddhism?"

Chen Qing's heart skipped a beat as he remembered something.

Across from him, Xu Qingfeng looked at Chen Qing one last time. His figure began to blur, like ink dissolving in water,

"Beneath the Heavenly Dao, every variable is a chance at life. I hope you can seize that sliver of change and carve a mark belonging to 'Chen Xu' into the pages of this glorious history."

A gust of wind swept by, and he vanished.

I got home late. The second update is coming right away...