Water-Moon Palace Patriarch Hall.
The scent of sandalwood lingered in the air. On either side of the offering table stood pristine white jade vases, each holding a sprig of osmanthus whose surface gleamed with faint golden patterns.
One life tablet after another was arranged behind them, like mountains rising and falling, clustered around the painting at the very top.
Within the painting stood a woman in plain white robes, holding an osmanthus branch as she leaned against a railing and gazed at the moon... her face could not be seen.
The Second Palace Master led several Nascent Soul old women in respectfully offering incense, praying, "Unfilial disciple Qi Yunqing humbly invites the Patriarch's incarnation to dispel calamity and resolve this crisis..."
After the ritual, a jade pendant missing several corners appeared in her hand. She injected a stream of mana into it.
A hazy white radiance rose from the jade pendant. It was not particularly intense, yet it seemed tranquil and clear as it silently floated in midair.
"Alas..."
"Who would have thought the foundations passed down by our ancestors would be spent in our generation..."
The old woman leaning on a dove-headed staff sighed and sent out another jade fragment—the very piece missing from the pendant.
"Grand Laurel, Awaken the Spirit; let all laws heed my command... go!"
A cinnabar mole emerged between the Second Palace Master's brows. A drop of blood suddenly seeped out and fell onto the jade pendant.
The pendant instantly became whole, its seams vanishing without a trace. As though passing through the void, it sank into the Patriarch's portrait.
Ripples spread.
The woman in the painting slowly turned around...
"Kill!"
"Charge into Water-Moon Palace! Treasures, cultivation arts, the chance to defy fate and change one's life—it's all right before our eyes!"
The instant