The instant the dark red light merged completely into the Lord of the Devil-Sealing Abyss's body, Devil Qi seethed around the Devil Master. Dark golden light seeped through the gaps between his scales-the sealing patterns of the Star Palace. Lin Wudao wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. The Sword of the Falling Star hummed in his palm, the stellar patterns emerging on its blade resonating strangely with the runes on the Devil Master's body.
"Watch out! He's going to forcibly absorb the earth veins' Devil Qi to reshape his body!" The Holy Maiden held her jade flute across her chest, and the sound waves she played struck the Devil Qi, creating ripples. Su Yao lashed out with her gilded whip, wrapping it around Lin Wudao's wrist and dragging him out from beneath the Devil Master's descending claw. The blow instantly smashed a bottomless crater into the ground.
Lin Wudao gazed into the abyss. Devil Qi surged from the earth veins, spiraling upward like an enormous black dragon. The Devil Master threw back his head and howled, and the wounds left by the Sword of the Falling Star healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. Lin Wudao suddenly recalled a scene from the immortal corpse's memory fragments-in High Antiquity, the Devil Master had relied on the Nether Demon Crystal at the core of the earth veins to sustain his undying body.
System! Scan the disturbances in the earth veins! Lin Wudao cried urgently in his mind.
Ding! Nether Demon Crystal reaction detected. Coordinates: three thousand zhang beneath Immortal Burial Valley. The Devil Master is establishing a connection through an Ancient Witch Clan formation!
Seeing his expression change abruptly, Su Yao asked urgently, "What's wrong?"
"We have to sever his connection to the Nether Demon Crystal!" Lin Wudao plunged the Sword of the Falling Star into the ground, channeling stellar power along its blade into the earth veins. "Holy Maiden, use your jade flute to disrupt the formation's frequency. Su Yao, come down into the earth veins with me!"
The Holy Maiden raised her jade flute high. Seven golden sound waves transformed into chains that wound around the altar's stone pillars, and the formation left behind by the Ancient Witch Clan began to warp and crumble. Lin Wudao seized Su Yao's hand and circulated the Power of the Falling Star to tear open a spatial rift. Together, they leaped into the pitch-black earth-vein passage.
Thick miasma filled the underground space. Lin Wudao's Falling Star Physique activated on its own, converting the encroaching Devil Qi into stellar power. After they advanced a hundred zhang, a crystal radiating a deep blue glow hovered at the center of the earth veins. Ancient Witch Clan incantations covered its surface-it was the Nether Demon Crystal. Around it, nine blood-red chains extended straight up to the surface, resonating with the altar.
"So that's it. The Ancient Witch Clan had long been paving the way for the Devil Master's revival!" Su Yao swung her whip and severed one chain, only for the others to swell abruptly and turn into blood-colored pythons that lunged at them. Thunder and fire erupted from Lin Wudao's Chaos Sword, cleaving the pythons into dust as he simultaneously marshaled the Power of the Falling Star to bombard the crystal.
But the incantations on the crystal's surface lit up, forming a barrier that reflected every attack. More terrifying still, the tremors from the surface grew increasingly violent-the Devil Master's body had finished reforming, and he was closing in on the earth veins.
"This isn't working!" Lin Wudao suddenly remembered the chain fragments left behind by the immortal corpse. "System, activate chain resonance!"
The chain fragments flew from inside his robes, turning into streaks of light that merged into the crystal. In an instant, the incantations on its surface began rotating in reverse. Lin Wudao seized the opening to thrust the Sword of the Falling Star into a gap in the barrier. "Break!" With his furious roar, cracks appeared across the crystal's surface, and its deep blue glow receded like the tide.
"No!" The Lord of the Devil-Sealing Abyss's roar shook the earth veins until they collapsed. The Devil Master's enormous figure burst through from above, his claw sweeping straight at Lin Wudao. At that critical instant, the phantom Star Palace in Lin Wudao's sea of consciousness expanded explosively. Countless stars fell from it, forming a Falling Star Cage around him.
"With my soul's blood, I summon the stars!" Lin Wudao bit the tip of his tongue and spat Essence Blood onto the Sword of the Falling Star. The power erupting from the sword resonated with the Star Palace, and the entire space within the earth veins began to warp as stellar power and Devil Qi collided wildly. The Devil Master's body crumbled inch by inch amid the clashing forces. Dark red light flew from his remains once more, attempting to escape into the void.
Su Yao reacted swiftly, winding her gilded whip around the light. Lin Wudao seized the opportunity to unleash the Chaos Heaven-Devouring Instruction and forcibly devour it. Amid the excruciating pain, a system notification sounded in his sea of consciousness:
Ding! Successfully devoured the remnant soul of a Devil Master from High Antiquity. Chaos Heaven-Devouring Instruction has broken through to the perfection realm! Gained control of the Star Palace's second level!
When Lin Wudao and the others returned to the surface, Immortal Burial Valley had regained its calm. In the distance, cultivators from the Jade Void Palace and the major sects were clearing the battlefield. Lin Wudao looked at the reconstituted Jade Slip in his hand, the phantom Star Palace flickering in his palm. He knew that although this crisis had been averted for now, the secrets of the Star Palace's second level were only the beginning of the true challenge...
"Where do we go next?" Su Yao asked softly.
Lin Wudao tightened his grip on the Jade Slip and looked toward the sea of stars. "To the Star Palace. I can feel it. The second level holds truths about the Demon-Sealing Abyss, the Ancient Witch Clan, and..." He paused. "The truth about my origins."