Nine Desolate Records

The water in the underground river is icy cold, but the bottom is not entirely dark.

Lu Li was enveloped in a pale golden halo. The Shouzhuo Sword hung at his side, its silver light flowing through the cracks in the blade, illuminating the water three zhang ahead like a starburst. The bottom of the water was covered with shimmering white crystals, arranged not randomly, but in a regular geometric pattern that stretched to the horizon.

The fragments of "Shan Hai Pian" felt slightly warm in his arms. On page thirty-seven, the totem, mostly completed by the remains of the Xuan Shui beast and the crystals at the bottom of the river, was resonating faintly with the surrounding array of crystals. Lu Li could feel that whenever he swam past certain crystals, the totem would tremble slightly, as if indicating his location.

"This is not a natural underground river." Lu Li became increasingly certain. "This is a living array... with water as its veins and stones as its symbols."

He stopped in the water and unfolded the remaining pages.

The completed totem presents a three-dimensional nested structure: the outer layer consists of eight winding and intersecting rivers, the middle layer consists of sixty-four star points, and the inner layer consists of a complex rune.

Lu Li placed his palm on a large crystal at the bottom of the river.

Infuse the power of your bloodline.

The crystal suddenly lit up, and a pale blue beam of light shot out from its surface, directly towards another crystal thirty feet away. Then, the second, the third… the entire underground river seemed to be awakened instantly, countless beams of light intertwining on the water's surface, outlining a massive, breathtaking three-dimensional array!

The center of the formation is just a hundred feet ahead.

Lu Li put away the remaining pages and swam towards the center.

The deeper they went, the greater the water pressure became. An ordinary True Talisman Realm cultivator would probably have been crushed into a pulp long ago, but the Flame Emperor bloodline within Lu Li's body became increasingly active under the pressure, with crimson-gold patterns faintly emerging under his skin, echoing the beams of light from the surrounding array diagrams.

A hundred feet is covered in the blink of an eye.

At the center of the array was not a magnificent palace, but an ordinary black stone slab.

The stone slab was about three feet square, its surface smooth as a mirror, reflecting the beams of light swirling in the water. Engraved on the slab was a line of characters, not in common script, but in some ancient hieroglyphic script.

"I have established this formation to suppress the breath of the Northern Darkness. Future generations of descendants who inherit this bloodline power can embark on the 'Journey Home'."

Breath of the Northern Darkness?

Lu Li recalled the "Frosty Abyss" mentioned in Yun Potian's notes, and the murmurs in the prisoner's memory fragments about the "Northern Extreme Frosty Abyss." Could this Dark River Array be related to the "Northern Territory" where the prisoner was sealed?

He stretched out his right hand and pressed it against the stone slab.

The sword imprint on his palm shone with a crimson-gold light.

The stone slab vibrated.

The runes on the surface lit up one by one, spreading from the edges to the center. When the last rune lit up, the entire stone slab suddenly "melted," turning into a pool of black liquid, yet maintaining the shape of a square slab.

Ripples spread across the surface of the liquid, reflecting not beams of light from the water's surface, but a scene never before seen by Luli:

It was an endless snowfield, where blizzards roared between heaven and earth. Deep within the snowfield stood a colossal city entirely constructed of ice crystals, its walls engraved with runes of the same origin as the Dark River Array. At the center of the city, a black tornado connected heaven and earth, and within the tornado, countless chains could be vaguely seen binding some enormous creature.

The image flashed by in an instant.

The black liquid solidified again, returning to its original form as a stone slab.

Followed by.

The entire underground river trembled violently!

At the same time, the crystal array at the bottom of the river burst out with dazzling blue light. All the beams of light converged on the stone slab and then flowed into Lu Li's body through his palm!

The purest and most refined laws of water, mixed with the sealing knowledge of the ancient array, surged into Lu Li's sea of ​​consciousness like a torrent. He "saw" the complete form of this array:

It is called the "Return to the Void Formation". It was set up by Emperor Yan three thousand years ago. Its purpose was not to seal the prisoners, but to "track" the exact coordinates of the prisoners' original bodies before they were divided and suppressed.

The nine anchor points only seal the "concepts" that the prisoner has split off from, while the prisoner's true "body" is suppressed in the "Ruins of Return," which is even deeper than the Nine Provinces.

The entrance to Guixu lies beneath the Northern Cold Abyss.

This underground river array is one of the "maps" leading to the Ruins of Return.

"So that's how it is..." Lu Li murmured, "Xun Wenruo and the others have no idea that the 'prisoners' they are feeding are merely reflections of the true form. Once the real prisoner awakens, all the vessels cultivated by the Demon-Feeding Project... will become its first sacrifices upon its return to the world."

As the last wisp of blue light entered his body, Lu Li felt a complete "Return to the Void Array Diagram" appear in his sea of ​​consciousness. The array diagram perfectly matched the totems on the "Fragment of Mountains and Seas," completing the last missing third.

The underground river returned to calm, and the crystal's light gradually dimmed.

He obtained the "map" leading to the Ruins of Return, but also a more sobering truth: to truly resolve the prisoner's problem, one must not only stabilize the nine anchor points, but also delve into the Ruins of Return and confront the prisoner's true nature.

Lu Li gripped the Shouzhuo Sword tightly, feeling a warm sensation on its blade.

He turned around and went upstream.

Now, he has a clearer goal.

When they swam out of the underground river, it was already late at night outside.

Lu Li emerged from a hidden mountain stream pool and looked around. This was already the edge of the Shu Mountain territory.

He went ashore, circulated his inner energy to dry his clothes, and was about to determine his direction when he suddenly caught a very faint sound of wind breaking.

It wasn't the sound of birds flying; it was the sound of someone flying on a sword.

And it wasn't just one person.

Lu Li dodged behind a boulder by the pool and concealed his presence.

In the night sky, three sword lights sped from south to north, pausing briefly above the pool.

"The breath stopped here," a young man's voice said.

"Continue the search. The Lord has ordered that we find Lu Li before he enters Lin Yuan City." It was a cold female voice, which Lu Li recognized as Han Yan.

"Senior Sister Hanyan, why is the Lord in such a hurry? According to the original plan, shouldn't we wait until he gets the Zhenlin Dagger before making contact?" The third voice sounded a little immature.

"The plan has changed." Han Yan's tone was solemn. "The leader of the Turbid Abyss Sect, 'Youmingzi,' emerged from seclusion three days ago and personally headed north. The Demon Suppression Guard Headquarters has also dispatched three commanders from the 'Heavenly Punishment Division,' all targeting Lu Li. The author speculates that they may have obtained some information about the 'Array Eye' and intend to... stifle or control Lu Li before he fully matures."

The young man gasped, "Then we..."

"Find him and lead him down another path," Han Yan said decisively. "We can't go to Lin Yuan City; it's already a trap."

Behind the boulder, Lu Li felt a chill run down his spine.

The Prince of Youming personally emerged from seclusion? The commander of the Heavenly Punishment Division was mobilized.

It seems that his activation of the Zhige Sword's legacy at the Sword Tomb has attracted far more attention than expected.

He was pondering whether to reveal himself and join Han Yan when suddenly—

A soft laugh came from the dense forest on the opposite bank of the pool.

"That little maid from Tingxuelou is certainly well-informed."

Three dark figures slowly emerged from the forest.

The leader was a middle-aged scholar dressed in a dark purple robe, with a pale face and no beard, holding a white jade folding fan. Behind him were two men, one tall and one short, both dressed in black close-fitting clothes and wearing bronze ghost masks.

Han Yan and the other two immediately landed on their swords and formed a triangular formation to prepare for battle.

"Mo Wenxuan, the 'Purple-Robed Gentleman' under the 'Youmingzi' of the Zhuoyuan Sect?" Han Yan gripped the hilt of her sword tightly.

"It is indeed I." Mo Wenxuan waved his folding fan, his smile gentle. "Since you guessed my intentions, did you also guess... that we have been waiting here for quite some time?"

He waved his folding fan lightly.

Suddenly, thirty-six dark red beams of light appeared around the pool! The beams of light intertwined in the air, forming a giant net that covered an area of ​​a hundred feet in radius. Countless pale white bone bells hung from the net, and the bells rang automatically without wind, emitting a crisp sound that made one's soul tremble.

"Netherworld Soul-Locking Array!" Han Yan's expression changed drastically. "Retreat!"

But it was too late.

The bone bells rang in unison, the sound waves spreading like tangible ripples. The three, including Han Yan, were struck as if by a heavy blow, their sword-wielding movements momentarily halting. The young junior brother even let out a muffled groan, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Since you're here, stay as you are." Mo Wenxuan's smile turned cold. "Didn't the sect leader want to find the 'array eye'? What a coincidence, our sect leader also wants to borrow the 'array eye'."

The two masked men behind him attacked simultaneously.

The taller one drew a pair of curved swords, their blades wreathed in black mist, and cleaved through the cold smoke. The shorter one shot out dozens of silver needles, as thin as cow's hair, from his sleeve, their tips gleaming with a ghostly blue, sealing off the other two's escape route.

Han Yan gritted her teeth, her sword flashing like snow, as she met the curved blade.

"Clang clang clang!"

The clanging of metal against metal was as dense as rain. Han Yan's swordsmanship was exquisite, but her opponent's twin blades were powerful and heavy, each strike making her hands numb. To make matters worse, the bone bells of the Soul-Locking Array constantly interfered with her soul, making it difficult for her to concentrate.

The other two also faced perilous situations amidst the onslaught of silver needles.

They were on the verge of total annihilation.

Lu Li sighed as he stood behind the boulder.

He didn't want to take action before he was fully recovered, but Han Yan was entrusted by his father to help him, and he couldn't just stand by and watch her die.

The sword of simplicity is drawn.

There was no flash of swords, no imposing presence.

Lu Li simply stepped out from behind the boulder and entered the range of the Netherworld Soul-Locking Array.

The moment he stepped in, all the bone bells in the formation fell silent.

Mo Wenxuan's smile froze on his face.

"Who?!"

Lu Li looked up; his left eye was clear as gold, and his right eye was deep as ink.

"Weren't you looking for me?"

He raised the Shouzhuo sword, its tip pointing at Mo Wenxuan.

"I am coming."