Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The Heart-Questioning Array shattered.

The black stone altar beneath Chen Xuan's feet shattered into dust, and the torrential rain, the iron chains, and the man in the purple-gold robe were all swallowed up by the white light.

He heard Su Chang'an swear.

Then the feeling of weightlessness came crashing down on me.

The two fell into the void at the same time.

Chen Xuan grabbed Su Chang'an's wrist with his left hand and thrust his heavy sword down into the rock wall with his right. The sword embedded itself in the rock, sparks flew, and the speed was barely reduced.

boom.

The two fell onto a cold patch of ground.

Chen Xuan landed on his back with a muffled groan as Su Chang'an crashed into his chest.

"...Using yourself as a cushion again." Su Chang'an propped himself up, his tone indifferent, but his fingers unconsciously touched the back of his head.

She breathed a sigh of relief and turned over to sit down next to him.

The surroundings were unusually quiet.

This is a secret room.

It wasn't large; the four walls were cast from a single piece of black iron, with faded runes embedded in the gaps. There were no luminous pearls overhead; the only source of light came from a stone platform in the center of the ground.

The stone platform is hexagonal, with dense inscriptions carved along its edges, some of which have weathered away. Above the platform floats a fist-sized sphere of light, emitting an extremely faint glow, like an oil lamp that could go out at any moment.

Chen Xuan stood up, shielding Su Chang'an behind him, his heavy sword held horizontally in front of his chest.

"This is the heart of the palace." He glanced at the runes on the wall. "The nexus of all the restrictions converges in this room."

Su Chang'an did not answer.

She stared at the ball of light, her pupils contracting slightly.

Something was moving inside the sphere of light. It wasn't the flow of spiritual energy, but a human figure. It was blurry, with almost indistinct features, but the figure was tall and slender, standing extremely straight.

Su Chang'an subconsciously took half a step back.

The sphere of light suddenly lit up.

A soft white light spread out, illuminating the entire secret chamber in minute detail. The blurry figure emerged from the sphere of light, standing with its feet firmly on the ground and its hands behind its back.

It's a man.

He was wearing a faded blue robe, without a crown, a dragon robe, or even a decent accessory.

He had a thin face and gentle features, like a leisurely scholar farming in the mountains.

The projection opened its eyes.

Those eyes swept over Chen Xuan, paused for a moment, and then looked away.

Then it landed on Su Chang'an.

The temperature of the entire sealed room seemed to have changed.

The projected gaze fixed, and the lips moved slightly.

A crack appeared in that gentle outer shell, revealing a complex mixture of things underneath—recognition, confirmation, and a fleeting moment of disarray.

"Celestial Fox".

Two words.

The sound was very soft, as if it came from a very far place, yet it fell clearly into the ears of the two people.

Su Chang'an's heart skipped a beat.

The aura of the celestial fox on her body was deliberately suppressed to the extreme, so much so that even the collateral disciples around Chen Xuan did not notice anything unusual. But this projection, which had remained for countless millennia, recognized her at a glance.

"You've mistaken me for someone else," Su Chang'an said lazily. "I'm just an ordinary person..."

"You have her blood in you," the projection interrupted her.

Those gentle eyes were fixed on Su Chang'an, as if looking through her at someone else.

"This palace was built for her."

Chen Xuan's hand tightened suddenly.

His fingers gripped Su Chang'an's wrist so tightly they almost dug into the flesh.

Su Chang'an winced in pain and glanced down at him. Chen Xuan's expression was calm, but the muscles in his jaw were taut.

She knows that expression all too well.

This kid is uneasy.

"For whom was it built?" Chen Xuan asked in a low voice.

The projector didn't look at him.

The ethereal figure slowly descended the stone platform, each step bringing a faint glow to the inscriptions on the ground. He stopped three steps away from Su Chang'an, lowered his head, and carefully examined her.

"The Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox clan produces a true clan leader only once every ten thousand years," the projection spoke. "She was the only light of my era."

The room was very quiet.

Su Chang'an stood still.

Her mind raced.

The lingering aura of the Celestial Fox's essence in the Emperor's Blood Pool, the "master" Li Changgeng, the patriarch of the Supreme Forgetfulness Sect, spoke of to her, and the "she" Chunxian mentioned in the White Bone Palace—

All the fragments came together at that moment.

This emperor and the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox Clan Chief had a past that transcended races.

And the blood flowing through her veins happened to be the same as that of the clan leader.

"So the aura of the Heavenly Fox in the Emperor's Blood Pool was deliberately left by you," Su Chang'an said.

The projection did not deny it.

"All the restrictions, mechanisms, and inheritances in this palace are unlocked by the Heavenly Fox's essence." The projected voice began to become intermittent, and the brightness of the light sphere visibly diminished. "Without her bloodline, no one can open it."

Chen Xuan finally understood what was going on.

He thought of Chen Tianyou.

Chen Tianyou, who rushed into the Emperor's Blood Pool first and desperately absorbed the Emperor's blood. The so-called chosen one who thought he had the upper hand and claimed the entire pool's essence for himself.

The Imperial Blood Pool was merely a smokescreen for the outer palace.

The true legacy is contained in this secret room.

The key is the blood of the Celestial Fox.

Even if Chen Tianyou turned the entire palace upside down, he still wouldn't be able to find the edge of this door.

Su Chang'an had also thought of this. A slight smile played on her lips, but she remained silent.

The projection took another step forward.

He raised his hand, as if to touch Su Chang'an's face. But his illusory fingers passed through the air and touched nothing.

"You and she... look very alike." The projected voice lowered, "Your eyebrows and eyes are almost identical."

Chen Xuan made a move.

He stepped to the side, shielding Su Chang'an behind him.

He didn't raise the greatsword. But his stance was more aggressive than any weapon.

"I've seen enough," Chen Xuan said.

The projected gaze shifted from Su Chang'an to Chen Xuan's face.

There was a few moments of silence.

"You have something she gave you," the projection said. "Phoenix True Fire, Celestial Fox Origin... She gave you everything she could."

Chen Xuan did not respond.

The projection seemed to want to say something, opening its mouth, but the brightness of the light sphere had already dropped to its limit. Its form began to become transparent, its edges like smoke blown away by the wind.

Su Chang'an peeked out from behind Chen Xuan.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

The projector was looking at her.

A faint smile appeared on that thin face. It wasn't the smile of an emperor looking down upon his subjects, but the smile of an ordinary person reminiscing about the past.

She still owes me a meal.

The moment the sound faded, the ball of light went out completely.

The projection, like a shattered mirror, transformed into countless points of light scattered throughout the secret chamber. When these points of light touched the runes on the walls, the dim inscriptions lit up one after another.

The black iron wall began to tremble.

One restriction after another dissipated on its own under Su Chang'an's sensing of the Heavenly Fox aura, revealing a hidden compartment behind the wall. Inside the compartment lay a jade slip, pills, a pure white short sword, and a token engraved with a fox pattern.

Everything smelled faintly of fox.

Su Chang'an stood there, staring at the fox pattern on the token, without saying a word.

Chen Xuan took her hand from behind.

This time, he restrained his strength considerably, but his fingers were tightly clasped together, as if afraid that something would take her away.

"That person," Chen Xuan's voice was low, "who is the 'she' he's talking about?"

Su Chang'an turned to look at him.

In Chen Xuan's eyes lay things she had seen for many years—obsession, possessiveness, and the deepest fear hidden within.

She pulled her hand away from his.

Then she grabbed his fingers with her other hand.

"I don't know," Su Chang'an said, "but it's none of your business."

Chen Xuan looked down at her.

half an hour.

"It concerns me," he said. "Everything that concerns you concerns me."

Su Chang'an did not respond.

She turned around and walked toward the lit-up squares on the wall.

The secret room fell silent.

The runes on the wall glowed in circles, casting the shadows of the two people on the ground, overlapping each other.