Reborn as a lotus, she initially refuses to hand it over to the state.

The moment Chen Mo's palm touched the lamp base, a piercing alarm sounded in the treatment pod.

His unhealed chest wound reopened, and dense gray-white lines appeared in half of his soul.

A doctor immediately pressed down on his shoulder: "You can't mobilize your soul anymore! The Law of No Life within you hasn't been cleared yet. If you continue to activate the main lamp, it will tear your soul apart again, which you've barely managed to stabilize."

Chen Mo did not stop. The woman holding a child in the lamplight reminded him of the riverside citizens who stood on the mountain road in the old city last night.

Those people also had no idea where they would be taken.

Just as he was about to continue channeling spiritual energy, a silvery root emerged from the bottom of the main lamp and gently pressed against his wrist.

Chu Zhou's voice then fell: "I saved you, not so you could die again in another place."

Chen Mo stopped moving and looked at the lights: "Master, the front line needs lights."

Chu Zhou pressed him back into the treatment pod: "What's needed is the light of Linjiang City, not just your soul. You're in charge of organizing the light array."

The roots of the blue silver plant penetrate the lamp holder, separating the main lamp from the treatment chamber.

Chen Mo no longer bears the cost of transmitting the law; he only needs to use the Azure Lotus Mark to mobilize the branch lamps in the city that are already connected to the main lamp.

He immediately contacted all branches of the Qinglian Society: "Re-examine the Guardian Lamp Array."

Hospitals, schools, and communities have each assigned personnel to maintain order; all lights are to be controlled by the Linjiang node dispatcher, and the unauthorized burning of spirits is strictly prohibited.

Su Wan sat in the next ward, her right arm still fixed in a brace.

Upon receiving the message, she used her left hand to open the communicator and instructed the Ninth Bureau to send the footage from the distant Soul Ship to all parts of the city.

The residents of Linjiang have just experienced a terrifying night, and many are still awake.

When they saw the souls pierced by golden nails in the lamplight, and the faces of those searching blankly for their loved ones, the sounds on the street gradually subsided.

In Xinhe Community, Zhou Guoqing moved out a small table and placed the lotus lantern that had protected him the night before at the door.

After searching for a while, he found another piece of old cardboard and wrote the words "Someone is watching the lights" on it.

Community workers urged him to go back inside and rest, but the old man shook his head: "Last night you were looking for my name in the files, tonight it's my turn to keep watch for someone else. I can just sit, it won't take much effort."

At the Third Hospital, Zhao Yu placed a lamp at the nurses' station.

The teachers in the gymnasium also rechecked the light array and had the students who were awake take turns telling the people around them their names and where they lived.

One by one, green lamps lit up along the city streets.

The lights did not rush directly into the starry sky, but first flowed into the underground Jianmu root network, and then, through the Azure Lotus Mark carried by the expeditionary force, were transmitted to the 108 Soul-Guiding Motherships.

Inside the main soul ship, the cyan flame, which was originally only the size of a fingertip, gradually grew into a complete lotus lantern.

Zhou Ning held Gu An under the lamp, and the thin chains on his soul body that had been tightening finally stopped drawing power.

[Linjiang Lantern City is responding to the call for lanterns to be lit for the returning souls.]

[The lights of countless homes illuminate the path to the expeditionary force's lotus-shaped imprint.]

The coverage area of ​​the spirit-returning lanterns has been expanded.

[The current connection can only transmit the perception of laws and cannot directly support large-scale soul migration.]

Chu Zhou looked at the last line of instructions and did not let the newly awakened soul rush towards the lamplight.

This place is too far from the ancestral realm. The Returning Soul Lamp can guide the way, but it cannot support a journey home for hundreds of millions of lost souls.

Gu Tianheng also noticed the problem and looked up at the dome of the main soul ship: "They have been extracted by the soul furnace for too long. Once they leave the ship, they can't even withstand ordinary cosmic turbulence. There must be a place to accommodate their souls."

As soon as the words were spoken, the outermost dozen or so motherships suddenly opened their doors. Countless pale, ghostly figures were thrown outwards from the hulls, like snow falling into the darkness, rapidly scattering towards the ancestral realm's escort legion.

Instead of continuing to prevent the soul from regaining consciousness, Magala took the initiative to break some of the chains.

The sacrificial wheel behind it slowly turned, and the human head on its chest revealed a smile: "Since you want to save us, I will return some of what I have to you."

The first batch of souls had just left the ship when their bodies were torn apart by spatial turbulence.

An old man's ghostly figure tried to grab the child beside him, but his hand dispersed first, turning into a thin white mist.

The mountain spirit immediately lifted the supporting mountain stone, and the phantom images of ten ancient mountains unfolded outwards, trapping the scattered souls within the mountain shadows.

The thick mountain walls that were originally used to defend against the fleet of ships now have large gaps.

Gu Tianheng's face darkened: "It's forcing us to pick up people!" Almost simultaneously, thousands of long, narrow black shadows rushed out from behind the white bone ship, along the gaps in the defense line, heading straight for the red gold main ship carrying the Jianmu Jiezhi.

Those things were covered in bone armor, with dark gold furnace fire burning inside their chest cavities, and curved bone blades growing from the ends of their arms.

They were not the human souls that were imprisoned; they were all battle puppets of the Hunting Grounds kept by Magala.

Bai Shan Jun stood in front of the cabin door, the tiger stripes on his forehead suddenly glowing. The first bone guard had just landed on the deck when it smashed his chest cavity with a single claw, and the dark gold furnace fire, along with half of his skeleton, exploded into fragments.

"These can be killed."

Chu Zhou's voice reached all the armored warriors, marking the positions of the Bone Guards.

The long-suppressed naval cannons finally turned, beams of psionic energy sweeping across the outer edge of the deck, blasting the onrushing bone guards into pieces.

Dozens of bone guards still managed to get through the gunfire and into the maintenance tunnel on the side of the main ship.

Bai Shanjun roared, and the White Tiger Suppression Domain spread along the ship's corridor, with a tiger claw print appearing on the chests of all the Bone Guards at the same time.

The bone armor shattered one after another, and the entire ship corridor was sealed off by malevolent energy. Bai Shanjun lay prone again in front of the Boundary Branch cabin, his tiger claws, stained with dark gold flames, pressing down on the ground, preventing any bone guard from crossing the cabin door.

In the outer starry sky, the ancient mountain of Shan Kui has reached its limit.

Millions of souls were crammed together in the shadows of the mountains, forced to watch helplessly as those who came after them were swept away by the turbulent currents, unable to reach out and pull them back.

Gu Tianheng immediately turned back to the outside of the ship, tore off the commander's golden armor with his left hand, and threw it towards the place where the dead were most concentrated.

The golden armor transformed into hundreds of crimson-gold scales, unfolding in the starry sky to form a massive soul curtain that curved inwards.

The scattered souls were caught by the Soul Curtain and slowly sent into the ancient mountain.

Gu Tianheng was left with only a blood-soaked inner robe, but at that moment, Mogala raised his bone finger and shot three golden soul arrows straight into his back.

The first arrow pierced his shoulder, the second his ribs, and the third was blocked by Gu Tianheng with his laws, but the shattered light still tore through large pieces of flesh.

He leaned forward, but did not retract his left hand that was controlling the soul barrier.

Qin Zhenyuan saw this scene from across the military formation, but said nothing more. He simply pushed the spare boundary shield behind Gu Tianheng.

The black blade barrier unfolded along the soul screen, blocking the subsequent barrage of attacks for him.

Inside the main soul ship, Chu Zhou's divine sense had already penetrated deep into the bottom of the soul furnace along the golden nails.

The patterns that were originally intertwined were gradually revealed by the Blue Lotus Purification, finally showing two completely different structures.

One set penetrates the souls of the dead, responsible for extracting their soul power; the other set penetrates deep into the ship's hull, maintaining the internal soul domain.

The golden nail serves two purposes; if it is pulled out rashly, the entire space containing the souls of the dead will collapse.

Chu Zhoulian paused slightly, then projected the two sets of patterns in front of Shen Xinglan: "The Soul Furnace cannot be destroyed. Recalculate the stable circuit and see if the Returning Soul Lamp can replace the Soul-Suppressing Nail."

Shen Xinglan immediately distributed the model to the research team at the lunar base. The ancient soul ship data transmitted back by Gu Tianheng corroborated the newly obtained patterns, quickly outlining a power supply route that bypassed the enslavement core.

"It can be replaced, but it must be powered continuously."

Shen Xinglan stared at the model: "The Soul Returning Lamp needs to fall into the secondary array eye first, and then take over the main array after the golden nail is pulled out. If there is any interruption in the flow, the Soul Domain will collapse."

Chu Zhou sent a blue lotus seal into the main lamp, and his voice resounded throughout the 108 fleets: "Change the order, remove the nails, do not destroy the furnace. I will use the ships that carried the offerings to pick up people."

In Heilong Lake, the origins of the nine nodes slowly converged towards the lotus platform.

Instead of increasing the brightness of the lights, Chu Zhou divided his power into 108 portions and sent them one by one into the secondary array eye of the Soul Furnace, following the markings at the front line.

This process was extremely taxing, and even the spiritual mist near Black Dragon Lake thinned out a bit.

The strange stone lay beside the lotus platform, observing the increasingly faint silver lines on the roots of the blue lotus, and refrained from making any more jokes.

Qin Zhenyuan reassigned the tasks to the fleet: some were assigned to protect the souls of the dead, some to set up the lantern array, and the rest to remove the nails.

The crew members remaining on the perimeter sent all the remaining psionic batteries into the battle formation to maintain the defensive line.

The teams successively sent back signals that they were ready to complete.

The first, the second, the third—the golden dots representing the motherships turned cyan one after another until the 107th lit up, but the last one suddenly went dark.

"Team 108 has lost contact."

Shen Xinglan quickly turned the detection around: "The mothership is leaving its original coordinates. It is not moving towards the other soul ships, but is moving towards the broken channel behind it."

One of Mogala's main souls had already entered the mothership ahead of time.

Inside the ship, the black earth churned up continuously, and hundreds of bone guards emerged from the ground, separating the landing fleet from the Soul-Suppressing Nails at both ends.

The gatekeeper in charge of communications was pierced through his armor by a bone blade, but before dying, he still transmitted the coordinates of the Azure Lotus to the captain's wristband.

But the wristband had just lit up when it was smashed to pieces by a golden chain that fell from the sky.

Lu Zheng, a veteran of the First Border Guard, dragged the gatekeeper back into the formation, checked his breathing, and then paused for a moment.

He removed the identity tag from the other person's chest, carefully put it away, and then turned to look at the remaining people.

"The sacrificial path is hidden underground on the north side; I know the entrance."

Lu Zheng pointed his broken spear at a mound of bones: "If it can send the offerings out, it must have a loop connecting it to the outside world. Go over there and find a way to send the message out."

A young goalkeeper grabbed the damaged communications box and followed him into the ground.

More than twenty soldiers guarded the cave entrance, and the sound of weapons clashing against bone armor could be heard continuously. People were carried into the passage from time to time.

Inside the sacrificial chamber, a golden spiral flowed along the walls. The young gatekeeper disassembled his armor and pressed a spare psionic panel against one of the interfaces; the device charred black the moment it made contact.

Lu Zheng turned around and asked, "Can it still be repaired?"

The young man gritted his teeth and removed another piece of armor: "Yes, but it'll have to be reimbursed later. Captain, this is the third time I've disassembled my own armor."

Lu Zheng drew his short sword from his waist and faced the pursuing bone guards: "Return alive, and it'll be on my tab."

A short sword pierced the bone guard's neck, while another bone blade emerged from his shoulder, pinning him to the bulkhead.

The young goalkeeper's eyes were red, but he didn't stop what he was doing.

He inserted two red-hot metal wires directly into the Hunting Court Circuit, then pressed his bloodied palm against the Azure Lotus Mark, sending out the final signal.

Inside the ancestral realm's flagship, a previously dimmed light suddenly flickered. The communication was intermittent, punctuated by the clash of weapons, yet a complete sentence still managed to be transmitted: "Team 108, still intact. Do not pull the nails prematurely."

Qin Zhenyuan immediately looked up: "Relock the location!"

Following the faint scent of the blue lotus, Bai Shanjun suddenly looked into the depths of the broken channel and transmitted the actual location of the mothership back to the military formation.

Instead of immediately launching an attack, Chu Zhou sent a wisp of purifying spiritual fire along the opened sacrificial path.

The Hunter's Court brand on the golden chains was burned off, and the 108th Soul Furnace finally lit up with a blue lamp.

The human head on Magala's chest suddenly screamed.

It has realized that the Ancestral Realm Legion does not only want to remove the nails, but is preparing to seize the entire Soul Ship. This means that the souls and Soul Furnaces collected over the years will fall into Chu Zhou's hands.

"Hundred Realms Soul Sacrifice!"

The golden sacrificial robe suddenly unfurled, and 100,000 skeletal ship shadows simultaneously turned, while at the bottom of 108 motherships, enormous golden rings leading to the same darkness also appeared.

The spirits of the Magala within each ship began to converge towards the center.

Before the lantern array takes over the soul furnace, it must extract all the souls of the dead in one go, and then destroy all the empty ships and the landing fleet.

[Forced sacrifice route detected.]

[Makara is recalling the scattered souls.]

The main Soul Furnace formation is about to lose its defenders.

[The window for taking over the Soul Returning Lantern Array has appeared; its duration is estimated to be less than ten breaths.]

"Wait until it takes its soul back."

Chu Zhou's voice entered Qin Zhenyuan's consciousness: "That is its last resort, and it will also be the time when it is hardest for it to hide itself."

Qin Zhenyuan didn't stare at the countdown.

He channeled the fighting spirit within the Mountain and River Blade Realm into a clear pulse, allowing every gatekeeper on the Soul Ship to feel the rhythm of the black blade about to be drawn.

Inside the 108th mothership, Lu Zheng propped himself up with a short spear and, along with several other veterans, grabbed the Soul-Suppressing Nails.

The young goalkeeper stood by the array of lights, his palms so scalded that the lines were no longer visible.

The last of Magala's souls left the soul furnace.

Qin Zhenyuan drew his black blade, and a clang echoed through the battle formation, reverberating across all the motherships. His command consisted of only two words: "Pull out the nails!"

One hundred and eight teams exerted their strength simultaneously, and the golden nails were pulled out of the soul furnace inch by inch.

The thin connection that originally pierced through the souls of the dead broke apart, and the returning soul lamps followed closely behind, falling into the empty main array eye.

The entire starry sky suddenly darkened.

Without the support of the Soul Furnace, the 100,000 skeletal ship shadows vanished like ashes scattered by the wind, leaving only 108 real motherships anchored in the darkness.

The next moment, one green lamp after another lit up from the bow of the ship.

The Soul Furnace stopped drawing power from the souls of the dead and instead began absorbing the spiritual energy sent by the fleet to nourish the weak souls within.

Zhou Ning hugged Gu An tightly and watched as the last thin chain running through the child's back turned to ashes.

Gu An touched his shoulder blankly, then suddenly whispered, "Mother, it doesn't hurt anymore."

The golden sacrificial passage continues to draw power, but it can no longer receive a single soul.

Mogala raised his palm, trying to regain control of the Soul Furnace through the old array inside the ship, but what responded to him was the Azure Lotus Spirit Fire that burned back along the connection.

The golden robe burst into flames from the cuffs, and Magala immediately severed the connection.

It looked at the mothership, which was now stained with blue markings, and the human head on its chest finally stopped crying, leaving only sharp gasps.

Even without the support of the soul ship, it is still a late-stage eleventh-order law-based life form.

With a single step, the enormous skeletal body swept out, and the entire starry sky was covered by a gray, weeping sea, attempting to crush the mothership and its crew together.

Gu Tianheng sent the last batch of released souls into the opened mothership, and then retrieved the fragments of the golden armor.

The fragments were badly damaged and could barely protect his chest and abdomen, while the wounds on his shoulders and back continued to bleed.

He took a step forward to face Mogala, and the crimson gold law condensed into a spear in front of him.

The two eleventh-tier forces collided head-on, instantly pulverizing the world debris in front of the expeditionary fleet.

Qin Zhenyuan did not rush into that battlefield.

He immediately ordered the shuttle ships to regroup and rejoin the landing fleet that had withdrawn from the mothership. The black blade was aimed at the sacrificial golden ring behind Mogara.

"Adjust main gun direction, target the edge of the sacrifice corridor."

Shen Xinglan sent the identified weak points to each ship: "There are no more dead souls there. Concentrate all firepower and prepare for the second salvo."

The Mokara bone spear pierced Gu Tianheng's shoulder, pushing him backward.

Gu Tianheng, however, moved forward with the momentum, grabbed its white bone shoulder blade with his left hand, and used his crimson gold spear to pierce the space between the two of them, pinning it firmly to the spot.

"You think this will atone for your sins?"

The human head on Magala's chest was close to his face.

Gu Tianheng did not answer, but tightened his grip on her shoulder blade, the finger bones and white bone making a cracking sound at the same time.

The first round of artillery fire hit the sacrificial passage, and cracks appeared on the edge of the golden ring.

Mogala immediately turned its head, wanting to abandon its skeletal body and send the core of the law into the passage, but Gu Tianheng's spear sealed its chest cavity first.

The second round of artillery fire followed immediately.

Qin Zhenyuan raised his black blade, and the fighting spirit of the current gatekeeper and the First Guardian Army behind him merged into the blade realm at the same time, slashing towards the sacrificial golden ring along the gap opened by the cannon fire.

A black knife mark cuts through the center of the gold ring.

The spatial passage connecting to the Fifth Hunting Court suddenly twisted and collapsed inward layer by layer, revealing the human head on Mogala's chest in terror for the first time.

In Heilong Lake, all ten lotus leaves of Chu Zhou trembled simultaneously.

Instead of continuing to distribute his power to the souls of the dead, he used the 108 soul furnaces he had already taken over to gather the spiritual power of the laws within the lamp array.

These soul furnaces were originally used to gather power for Mokala, but now they have become temporary arrays for the Azure Lotus Law.

One hundred and eight soul lamps simultaneously projected lotus patterns outwards, piecing together a complete blue-silver lotus leaf in the center of the battlefield.

[The Soul-Guiding Mothership Array has completed its temporary connection.]

[Can unleash a single Cleansing Law attack.]

[After this attack, the array will enter a weakened state. Please conserve the energy needed to maintain the Soul Domain.]

Chu Zhou suppressed the roots that were continuing to draw power, taking only the portion that the lamp array could withstand.

The blue-silver lotus leaf spun in the void, its thin, cicada-wing-like edge already aimed at Magala's chest.

Mogala struggled violently, its skeletal body splitting open as it tried to hide its core inside Gu Tianheng's body.

The Soul Returning Lamp had already illuminated all its escape routes, and Gu Tianheng also retreated at the same time, his crimson-gold spear piercing the core into the air.

"Pure Lotus of the World, I know the coordinates of the Fifth Ritual Officer's sacrificial route!"

Mogala finally spoke, pleading for his life, the human head on his chest opening and closing wildly: "Spare my soul! You can find as many souls as you desire!"