Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

For the next three days, fragments of the starship continued to fall from the sky, like a silvery meteor shower streaking across every region of the Tianxuan Continent.

Most of the debris burned up as it passed through the atmosphere, but occasionally larger pieces of the ship's hull crashed into the desert or deep sea, kicking up plumes of smoke and water hundreds of feet high.

A barren wasteland south of Zhongzhou was struck by a fragment of a dragon bone, three hundred feet long, creating a crater several miles in diameter. The bottom of the crater still emits a faint silvery warmth.

But no more gray shadows emerged from the crack in the sky.

In Baidi City, the armies of various factions began to withdraw one after another after a night of revelry.

The Great Zhou cavalry were the first to break camp. Wu Zetian personally led the team away on the morning of the third day. Before leaving, she met Dongfang Weiwo at the city gate.

She rode on a white horse, the emperor's black robes fluttering in the morning breeze, looking down at Dongfang Weiwo standing on the ground, and uttered a single sentence:

"The alliance remains in effect. You've finished fighting in the heavens; I'll take care of things on earth for you—if the Taiyuan Emperor of Xizhou dares to take even half a step eastward while you're off guard, my iron cavalry will crush them from the east."

"Alright." Dongfang Weiwo stood at the city gate and didn't see me off for long, only saying one word.

Wu Zetian rode away, her thousands of iron cavalry raising clouds of dust behind her. Their crimson armor shone like a flowing river of fire as they headed north in the sunlight.

Most of the array masters from Starry Sky Manor left on the second day, but Xingyan himself stayed behind.

His bandaged hands remained in the array hall at the core of the White Emperor City's spiritual vein for two days, connecting the defensive imprint enhanced by the Eastern Unique Self bloodline with the ancient array beneath the White Emperor City.

The last batch of meteorites transported from Starry Mountain Villa were all embedded in the array holes throughout the city wall. After this renovation, the defense level of White Emperor City was more than 30% higher than before the war.

The remnants of the Taichu Divine Sect were the last to leave.

On the fifth day, Shen Jinglan led the last group of seriously injured disciples back to the Tianxuan Mountain Range. Before leaving, he sought out Dongfang Weiwo alone and handed him a crystal-clear jade slip:

"My master is too badly injured to come in person, but he asked me to convey a message to you—the gates of the Primordial Divine Sect will forever remain open to you. No matter which star system you go to in the future, as long as you return, the Tianxuan Mountains will be your refuge."

Dongfang Weiwo accepted the jade slip and put it away, watching the remnants of the Taichu Divine Sect's convoy disappear at the end of the official road.

Master Liaochen of Wanfo Temple passed away even earlier.

The next morning, he led all the monks of the temple on their journey north, leaving only the empty copper bell on the stone steps of the old residence in Baidi City. The fragment of the Northern Border Stone Gate that was originally sealed inside the bell had been taken out and personally delivered to Dongfang Weiwo's desk by Bai Yujing on the eve of the decisive battle.

The remnants of the Southern Frontier Demon Clan, led by the Burial Emperor, quietly withdrew the following night.

They did not enter the city to say goodbye. Even the traces of their camp on the western highlands were completely wiped clean, like a dark tide receding into the southern crevices.

But before leaving, the Burial Emperor used his demonic energy to carve two words on the ground in the west of the city: "Owe."

It's obvious who owes whom, but he didn't explain it clearly.

When Baidi City returned to quiet, it was already the seventh day after the starship was destroyed.

The silvery debris piled up on the streets was cleaned up, and the damaged city walls were restored to 70% of their original appearance thanks to the efforts of the Star Array Masters. The operation of the spiritual vein core has also returned to stability.

In the main council hall of Tianxuan Mansion, Bai Yujing was writing furiously on a table full of post-war documents. Pang Ban had returned to the southern front to redeploy defenses, Guan Yutian had returned to the oasis in the western continent to guard it, and Xiong Ba continued to shrink the defensive line to the west.

Inside the main house, Dongfang Weiwo sat alone by the window, with four items placed in front of him.

On the left is a fragment of the Northern Border Stone Gate—a palm-sized, dark purple bone piece with wear marks on the edges. Wu Zetian had taken it from Liao Chen's copper bell and rushed it to him.

He didn't rush to fuse this fragment because it had been sealed in Wanfo Temple for too many years, and the divine and demonic patterns on the surface of the bone fragment had become somewhat blurred. Direct fusion might miss the spiritual vein location information contained within it.

On the right is the scroll of map from the Heavenly Mystery Elder.

The upper left corner of the silk scroll, marked "Fragment of the Bronze Bell of Wanfo Temple in the Northern Territory," had been crossed out with a red pen. The lower left corner, marked "Sixth Piece Underground in Central Plains" and "Seventh Piece in the Heartland of the Southern Demon Clan," was still blank. The bottom line of the map, "The direction you go out is the direction you come back," was circled three times in red.

Before him lay a third thing: the jade slip that the Taoist Taichu had sent through someone the day after the battle.

In addition to the message, it also included a complete rubbing of the last instructions of the founder of the Taichu Divine Sect—at the end of the rubbing was a previously unpublished note that read:

"When the giant shadow of gods and demons disintegrated itself, its left arm transformed into the core of the key seal and was sealed into the Eastern bloodline, while its right arm transformed into the main body and its remains were scattered in seven places across the continent."

However, the last fragment of a finger bone in the giant shadow's right hand flew away from the continent on its own before being shattered, its whereabouts unknown. The patriarch deduced that the fragment carried some of the giant shadow's memories to the outer realms, in order to 'leave an eye outside the seal.'

Looking at the note, Dongfang Weiwo recalled the look that Lu Moshen—the old man guarding the ancient formation beneath Baidi City—had given him before flying into the void with the first piece of remains.

"You've come. My time to keep watch has come."

Lu Moshen wasn't guarding the ancient formation; he was inside it waiting for the right moment to take the severed arm out. The arm's true purpose in flying into the void wasn't an accidental escape, but to retrieve the "eye left behind in the outer realm."

He sat in silence for a long time, then carefully put away the four items one by one.

He placed the Northern Fragment and the jade slip rubbing into his inner pocket, rolled up the silk map and put it into his sleeve, and finally took off the dark gold short sword from his waist. This was something that he had spontaneously condensed at the core of the ancient formation after merging with the giant shadow on the night before the decisive battle. The sword was made entirely of the remaining energy of the key seal, was one foot and three fen long, had no sheath, and the hilt fit perfectly to his five fingers.

He placed the short sword on the table and glanced out the window. The new buds of the old locust tree had grown into tender leaves about an inch long, and birds were chirping on the branches.

A knock sounded at the door. Bai Yujing pushed the door open and entered, placing a stack of new documents on the table. His voice was hoarse from days of staying up late:

"My lord, here is a summary of the reports from all sides on the seventh day after the battle. On the western front, Officer Yutian reports that the Undying Guards of the Taiyuan Dynasty have retreated three hundred li, withdrawing back to the heart of the desert; on the southern front, Mr. Pang reports that all three routes of the Demon Clan are silent, and the Black Tide shows no signs of gathering; on the eastern sea, Ouyang Feiying reports that reconnaissance ships of the Nine Nether Ancient Clan have appeared on the surface but have not approached the defensive line, likely indicating a wait-and-see attitude."

"The Nine Nether Ancient Clan."

Dongfang Weiwo picked up the document and glanced at it. "They previously allied with Yin Yang Valley, and when the starship came, they hid underwater and didn't show themselves. Now that the starship has been driven away, they've come out to test the Tianxuan Palace's attitude."

"How does the young master intend to handle this?"

"No rush."

Dongfang Wei placed the document back on the table. "Their Haiyuan Ancient City is on the east coast, geographically sandwiched between the Great Zhou and Tianxuan Prefecture. Wu Zetian dislikes them roaming the nearshore waters even more than we do. She will put pressure on them. Let the Great Zhou clash with the Jiuyou Ancient Clan first, and we'll see how things go before we act."

Bai Yujing nodded and noted it down, then pulled out a sealed letter with three layers of restrictions from the bottom of the document and handed it over.

"This is the last thing—the Old Man of Heavenly Secrets has woken up. He had been in a coma for seven days, and just opened his eyes last night. His first words were, 'The question marks on the map have been answered. Let Dongfang Weiwo come find me.'"

"The secret letter was sent by the Tianji City rescue team. At the end, it included a note: 'The old man's legs are crippled, but his mental state is still good. He keeps repeating one sentence—'That outside isn't a bone, it's a key. The bone is the lock, and the key is the unlocking mechanism. He has to open the door before locking it.'"

Dongfang Weiwo paused slightly in the fingertips holding the secret letter.

Bones are locks, and keys are keys to unlock them.

Before falling into a coma, the old man clutched a talisman inscribed with the words, "The key seal can break through armor; you need to extract the key seal from your body and use it as a spear"—he had been trying to convey the same message:

The key seal itself is not only a core lock; it can also be transformed into a weapon to cut the boundary between "lock" and "door".

"Prepare the car."

Dongfang Weiwo stood up and tucked the dark gold short sword into his belt. "Go to the ruins of Tianji City. The Old Man of Tianji can move again, which means he wants to tell me more."

When he walked out of the main house, Xiang Yutian was sitting on the stone steps at the entrance of the courtyard, basking in the sun.

The shade of the old locust tree just covered half of his body. The iron staff rested on his knees, and he had used the power of the demonic seed to repair most of the cracks in the staff.

"Going out again?" Xiang Yutian opened one eye.

"Go and fetch Elder Tianji back to Baidi City to recuperate. Also, find out a few things while you're there."

"Alright." Xiang Yutian stretched and stood up, slung his iron staff over his shoulder. "Old Meng told me last night that he was going to take a trip to the northern ice plains, and seemed to have sensed the aura of some kind of Creation-level or higher relic. While you were away, Old Yan and I kept an eye on White Emperor City."

"The ice plains to the north."

Dongfang Weiwo stopped in his tracks, turning his head to look towards the north of the city. "The Nine Tribes of the Ice Plains are still there. Wu Zetian repelled them once but didn't completely wipe them out. Meng Chixing is going alone—"

"rest assured."

Xiang Yutian waved his hand, "That guy, even if you threw him into a field of 100,000 enemy soldiers, he'd find it too noisy. When he says he's going for a walk, he really means it, he's not going to fight."

Dongfang Weiwo nodded slightly, not pressing further, and turned to walk out of the courtyard. The carriage was already prepared. As Bai Yujing followed him to the gate, she suddenly remembered something and added:

"Young Master, news came from Ten Thousand Snake Island the day before yesterday that your father's meridians have recovered well after being reconnected, and he has once again reached the peak of the Grandmaster realm. Madam asked when you would have time to go back and visit him."

Dongfang Weiwo paused for a moment as he lifted the carriage curtain.

"...The reply said that after I bring the Old Man of Heavenly Secrets back and get my hands on the sixth and seventh bones, I will go back and stay for three days."

Three days?

"Three days."

He climbed into the carriage and settled in, his voice carrying through the curtain, "Even if the sky falls, I'll only be back for three days. My mother's plum wine should be ready by now."

Xiang Yutian overheard this from outside and muttered something while leaning on his iron cane.

"Hey, this kid has a mother... Well, who doesn't have a mother?"

The driver exited the south gate of Baidi City and sped along the official road toward the ruins of Tianji City.

In the morning light, the core of the White Emperor City's spiritual veins once again sent its dark golden light into the sky. Although it was much fainter than before the starships arrived, the stable and continuous pulse was like a heart that had resumed its beating.

Dongfang Weiwo leaned against the carriage wall, his palms outstretched, the key seal slowly rotating in his dantian.

The six bone fragments have formed a complete upper body skeleton within his body—the spine is connected, the left leg provides support, and the nodes of the chest and abdomen are filled and aligned with the three relics from Wanjie Valley. The Northern Fragment has not yet fused, but its aura has already formed an initial connection with him under the guidance of the key seal.

They still lack a piece from the underground of Central Plains, a piece from the heart of Southern Xinjiang, and "that severed hand" that flew into the void.

The direction you go out is the direction you come back. The old man's words echoed in his mind for the seventh time.

His fingers tapped lightly on the car window frame, the dark gold patterns between his knuckles flashing by.