Chi Ninghua gazed at this scene, a deep sense of doubt appearing on her beautiful face. "These traces... could they all have been left by cultivators who entered this place earlier?"
Chi Tongyue nodded slowly, her gaze moving along the remaining gray shadows, a sense of unease gradually rising in her heart.
Just then, the grayish-white Rat Star Seal in the distance suddenly flickered slightly. A wisp of extremely fine grayish-white dust slowly drifted out from the depths of the Rat Star Seal, aimlessly floating along the boundless void.
The dust particles did not exhibit any obvious fluctuations in their origin, nor did they disturb the surrounding spatial patterns. A few grains of grayish-white dust slowly drifted to the vicinity of the Chi Lineage's group, gently touching the shoulder of a young disciple.
The disciple, who had been whispering with his companion, suddenly froze. He slowly opened his lips, as if wanting to say something more, but a look of confusion flashed in his eyes. "I... what was I going to say?"
Upon hearing this, his companion frowned slightly. "Didn't you just say you were going to ask the elder deacon..." Before he could finish speaking, his voice suddenly stopped. The two looked at each other, both having forgotten what they had been talking about.
Immediately afterwards, the starlight in the distant Rat position dimmed again, and several Chi Lineage disciples who were secretly calculating the time also experienced a very brief moment of disorientation.
Some people clearly remember counting hundreds of breaths, but suddenly forget where they were; others try to recall the process of entering the barrier, but all that remains in their minds is a blurry gray-white glow, and they can't even clearly say when they stepped into this space.
Chi Tongyue suddenly sensed something amiss and immediately raised her hand to stop the disciples behind her from approaching the grayish-white dust. "Everyone, gather your Fate Soul and do not touch the floating dust around you!" Her voice had barely left her lips when it slowly sank down the transparent plane beneath her feet. Her once clear instruction had become indistinct by the time it reached more than ten feet away.
Upon seeing this, Chi Ninghua immediately led several stewards to quickly relay the message along the procession. The ten thousand Chi Lineage cultivators gathered their Fate Souls and their wills, and the previously somewhat scattered procession regrouped.
On the other side of the twelve zodiac constellation, the gray-white void below the ox position presents a completely different scene. There is no complete stone platform there, nor is there anything visible supporting it, but as several disciples of the Chi Lineage slowly approached, they suddenly felt an extremely heavy and solid feeling under their feet.
The originally transparent plane, which had no obvious tactile sensation, gradually became stable under the radiant glow of the Ox position, as if a vast and ancient mountain lay beneath one's feet.
A disciple of the Chi Lineage tentatively took a few steps forward, when he suddenly felt a slight weight on his shoulder. He looked down at himself but saw nothing unusual. Taking another step forward, the heaviness gradually lessened, and a mysterious yellow glow flowed gently around him. The ancient aura that had been pressing on his shoulder seemed to be gradually merging with the origin of his Fate Soul.
At the same time, another cultivator from the Xuan Yan Ancient Clan stepped onto the invisible support platform beneath the ox-shaped platform. However, after taking only three steps, his expression suddenly changed.
His legs, which had been able to stand steadily, suddenly felt heavy, as if an unseen ancient mountain was pressing down on his shoulders. He hurriedly activated his Fate Soul essence, trying to resist the immense pressure.
With each step forward, the heaviness in his shoulders intensified. After only a few steps, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, his knees bent slightly, and he had to hastily retreat to his original position.
"What kind of strange place is this?!" The cultivator's face turned pale, his eyes filled with shock.
As Chi Tianhong gazed at this scene, deep thought appeared in his aged eyes. He slowly turned his head and looked at the disciples of the Chi Lineage who had once clashed with Vajra Radiance. He noticed that when the group stood under the Xuanhuang Radiance of the Ox Position, although they could also feel a heavy, ancient aura, they were much more relaxed than cultivators from other clans.
"It seems that what lies beneath this ox-shaped star is related to the Vajra Radiance Trial we passed earlier!" he said in a low voice, then slowly raised his head to look at the dark yellow ox-shaped star in the distance, a hint of understanding appearing in his expression.
Upon hearing this, Chi Tongyue nodded slightly. However, just as she was about to continue her investigation, she suddenly discovered that several enormous ancient characters were floating below the center of the twelve zodiac constellation in the distance.
The characters were a deep gray-gold color, with extremely thick strokes, and within each stroke, countless layers of fine primordial patterns faintly emerged. The ancient characters were not attached to any stone tablet, nor were they engraved on any complete palace. They floated quietly in the center of the twelve zodiac star chart, as if they had existed there since the beginning of this gray-white space.
Chi Tongyue slowly raised her head, her clear, cold eyes moving along the massive ancient characters one by one. The Twelve Star Pivots Converging Seal Hall. The six ancient characters lay silently in the depths of the gray-white primordial chaos.
As she focused her gaze on the last word "Palace", the originally blurry ancient marks gradually became clear. The twelve zodiac signs slowly emerged along the periphery of the words. The two rays of the Rat and the Ox looked at each other in the distance, and the remaining ten stars remained silent.
The entire gray-white space lacked any obvious palace outlines, yet the aura emanating from those six ancient characters allowed Chi Tongyue to clearly sense an extremely ancient and profound solemnity.
"The Twelve Star Pivots Converge at the Seal Hall..." Chi Tongyue slowly uttered the name, her voice low and solemn.
Chi Tianhong stood beside her, a deep shock appearing in his aged eyes. "It seems this is the place where the marks from all directions truly converge after the Twelve Zodiac Trials!"
Chi Tongyue nodded slowly, then turned to look around. Only now did she truly notice that many cultivators who had entered the area earlier had already gathered in the gray-white void in the distance.
One group consisted of only a few dozen people, who sat quietly near the rat position, looking exhausted. Some of the cultivators had blank stares, as if they had been waiting there for an extremely long time. On the other side, hundreds of cultivators from different races gathered, keeping their distance from each other. Occasionally, someone would look up at the twelve zodiac constellation, their eyes revealing deep anxiety and unease.
Further away, Chi Tongyue suddenly spotted a familiar group. The group numbered about a thousand, all dressed in the ancient robes characteristic of the Shangguan Lineage; some disciples had pale faces.
Bloodstains, not yet completely removed, still lingered on the sleeves and chest. Several elders stood guard around the group, with a woman with a cold expression and an old man with white eyebrows holding a bronze staff at the very front.
It was Shangguan Wan'er and Elder White Brow who led the surviving members of the Shangguan Lineage.
Chi Tongyue's cold eyes narrowed slightly. She didn't step forward immediately, but quietly watched the battered group in the distance, a hint of surprise rising in her heart. The Shangguan Lineage had also sent a considerable number of people into the secret realm before, but now only a little over a thousand remained. Moreover, judging from the injuries left on their bodies, they had clearly experienced an extremely fierce battle.
At the same time, Shangguan Wan'er seemed to have also sensed the arrival of the Chi Lineage's group in the distance. She slowly raised her head, her gaze passing over the gray void and landing on Chi Tongyue and Chi Tianhong. A hint of surprise appeared on her originally slightly tired and cold face, but she slowly composed herself and whispered a few words to the Elder White Brow beside her. The Elder White Brow looked up, and deep surprise also appeared in his aged eyes.
However, before the two teams had even gotten close, Chi Tongyue's expression suddenly changed. She abruptly raised her right hand and gently pressed it against her right shoulder. An extremely heavy, ancient pulse suddenly and without warning emanated from deep within her right scapula.
Thump—the pulse was extremely slow, yet it carried an indescribable weight, as if some ancient mountain was slowly sinking onto her shoulder. Chi Tongyue frowned slightly, subconsciously raising her hand to press on the back of her shoulder. The moment her fingertips touched the bottom of her robe, she clearly felt an extremely steady, profound aura.
She slowly turned her body to the side and gently pulled open the collar of her right shoulder. The next moment, her clear, cold eyes suddenly widened.
A dark yellow, ancient mark had appeared in the center of the right scapula. The mark, about half the size of a palm, almost covered the entire right scapula, its outline resembling a reclining mountain, broad at the base, gradually narrowing upwards, and flat and heavy at the top.
It was as if the entire mountain had been slowly flattened by some immeasurable ancient force. The outline of the mountain was composed of countless extremely fine dark yellow lines, which intersected with each other and slowly extended along the depths of the shoulder bones, like the earth's veins that had not yet fully unfolded, deeply engraved between flesh and blood and the foundation of Fate Soul.
The mark's color was extremely deep, a dark yellow mixed with subtle gray, carrying the weight of countless years of sedimentation from the depths of the earth. No complete rays of light shone outwards from the mark's surface; only a faint, dark yellow glow slowly spread upwards from the base of the mountain, gradually climbing along the fine veins of the earth, until it quietly disappeared upon reaching the flat summit.
Then it would light up again from the bottom of the mountain shape, repeating itself slowly and steadily. Whenever the dark yellow glow spread upwards along the mountain shape's patterns, an extremely fine layer of ancient lines would appear on the skin near Chi Tongyue's right shoulder. These lines would gently stretch along the skin and then slowly close up again when the glow disappeared, like the earth that had been cracked returning to wholeness.
Chi Tongyue slowly extended her fingertip and gently touched the black and yellow mark. Thump! Her shoulder suddenly felt heavy.
Her body trembled violently, and her still-unrecovered Fate Soul foundation trembled slightly. Beneath her fingertips was only a patch of warm skin, yet she felt an extremely heavy sensation, as if she were pressing on an ancient mountain that had accumulated countless years of history.
She subconsciously increased the pressure, and the heaviness on her shoulder intensified. Chi Tongyue's expression changed slightly, and she quickly withdrew her fingers, at which point the ancient heaviness pressing on her shoulder gradually subsided.
"This is..." she murmured softly, a deep shock appearing in her usually cold eyes.
Upon seeing this, Chi Tianhong immediately turned his head to look, and then slowly raised his hand to press on his right shoulder, his aged face suddenly freezing. A dark yellow mountain-shaped mark also appeared in the center of his right shoulder blade.
The mark was exactly the same as the ancient pattern on Chi Tongyue's shoulder. It was thick at the bottom and flat at the top. Fine, dark yellow veins flowed slowly along the shoulder bone. With each pulse, he felt an extremely steady and ancient bearing power.
"I actually have it on me too!" Chi Tianhong suddenly looked up and gazed at the many Chi Lineage cultivators behind him.
Upon hearing this, Chi Ninghua immediately reached out to touch her right shoulder, and then a look of shock appeared on her beautiful face. She hurriedly turned around and looked at the deacons and disciples beside her, and found that the same dark yellow mountain-shaped mark had appeared in the center of their right shoulder blades. In an instant, the entire Chi Lineage group was filled with gasps of surprise.
"I have one on my shoulder too!" "What kind of mark is this?!" "It's so heavy! I almost lost my balance when I touched it!" "Could it be left by Vajra Radiance?!"
Ten thousand Chi Lineage cultivators examined their right shoulders and discovered that the dark yellow mountain-shaped mark had quietly merged into their flesh and Fate Soul foundation. It could neither be expelled with ordinary source energy nor peeled away from the depths of their shoulder bones.