Devouring demons, I attain immortality.

The Devouring System was frantically analyzing the fragments of the Star Palace Ancestor's memories. The star map inside the Chaos Bell appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness, and each crack corresponded to a place where a sword soul was buried.

The Star Palace envoy suddenly tore his robe, black blood seeping from the grotesque star tattoo on his chest: "You think the Star Palace only sent seventy-two people?"

Before the words were finished, the sound of chains breaking came from the depths of the passageway, and three ancient corpses bound by meteorite iron chains broke free of their seals, their natal stars pulsating in their empty eye sockets.

Lin An threw Elder Xie's mangled body at the ancient corpse, and while it was gnawing on it, the blade had already cut into the messenger's spine.

The extracted Star Palace Secrets revealed that these thousand-year-old corpse puppets needed to be fed with the sword souls of living people, and that a total of twenty-eight of them were buried underground in the Heavenly Sword Pavilion.

The saintess suddenly flashed to the edge of the lava, her silver bells jingling as she unleashed a torrent of Gu worms: "The Rebirth Gu within the Bell is about to awaken!"

Before she finished speaking, the entire passageway suddenly trembled like a heartbeat, and half of a bronze bell wall rose from the magma, its surface covered with sword marks resonating with the star map on Lin An's scabbard.

Lin An pressed down on the bell wall with one hand, and the power of devouring transformed into thousands of threads that probed into the crack.

The system notifications were refreshing rapidly when the three ancient corpses suddenly turned and lunged at the saintess. The soul-controlling talismans on their foreheads had been replaced with Miao totems at some point.

"Playing with puppetry?"

Lin An coldly sneered as he refined half of the bell wall into the Xuan Tian Mirror. Wherever the mirror light swept, the ancient corpses all knelt down.

The saintess staggered back three steps, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. The Gu egg that slipped from her sleeve fell right into the lava, and the swarm of fire centipedes that hatched instantly swallowed the screams of the Star Palace envoy.

As the earth's veins trembled for the second time, Lin An leaped out of the ground carrying the half-awakened Chaos Bell.

The star map on the scabbard flickered and pointed towards the depths of the East Sea, while the newly unlocked star trajectory prediction function of the Devouring System was drawing the entangled fortunes within a thousand miles into a spider web, with the unconscious young master of Nine Nether Island clearly entangled in the center of the web.

When the young master of Nine Nether Island opened his eyes in the bumpy bronze carriage, he was met with the Gu worms jumping on Lin An's fingertips.

The eerie blue halo emanating from the insect's abdomen resonated in unison with the Nine Nether Heart-Devouring Gu sealed within his body.

The aroma of roasted chestnuts wafted from outside the carriage curtain, mingling with the fishy smell of fishmongers' knives three zhang away. This was the busiest intersection in the West Market.

"Does the young island lord know that the herb your father cultivated in the herb garden was not the 'Three Watches Grass'?"

Lin An lifted a corner of the carriage curtain, letting the sunlight fall precisely on the scales on the boy's neck.

Within the blood vessels beneath that skin, the unique Transformation Dragon Gu of Nine Nether Island swam.

The carriage suddenly stopped, and the two-headed dragon horses pulling it let out terrified neighs.

Suddenly, the candy stall in front of them exploded, and the splashed malt syrup condensed into poison needles in the air.

Lin An flicked open the hidden compartment of the carriage, revealing the unconscious female cultivator from the Star Palace inside. The star-fixing sand embedded between her eyebrows echoed the star banners hanging from the pavilions on both sides of the long street.

"Seven Killings Formation."

The young master spoke in a hoarse voice, sparks flying from the scales rubbing together in his throat.

"The third fold of the wine flag in the southeast corner is the key point of the formation."

Lin An kicked the female cultivator out of the carriage, and the moment she hit the ground, the paving stones of the entire long street flipped over.

The moment the eighteen poison puppets burst from the ground, the Devouring Vortex had already climbed up the roof along the star banner.

The old man selling chestnuts suddenly threw down his copper pot, and the hidden fire mirror at the bottom of the pot shot out a red light, which was refracted by the Xuan Tian Mirror onto the rouge shop on the west side, where a loud explosion occurred. It was the hidden spy of Jiuyou Island.

"Your father was even willing to use his own son as bait."

Lin An grabbed the young master by the collar and leaped onto the roof of the carriage, which had already been torn apart by the poison puppets.

The Nine-Turn Demon-Slaying Blade deflected three cold arrows, and the Gu worms attached to the arrowheads twisted into ash within the star map on the blade.

As the salty sea breeze, carrying the stench of blood, rushed into the cave, the Holy Maiden was using Gu fire to roast the fragments of the Chaos Bell.

The star patterns that floated on the bell suddenly twisted, reflecting the burning warships of Jiuyou Island on the sea a hundred miles away.

The silver bell on her wrist suddenly rang, and seven Azure Blood Silkworm Gu burrowed into the rock crevice, sucking the Star Palace scouts who tried to approach into dried corpses.

"The map of the Twenty-Eight Mansions that he wanted is hidden in the tide gauge."

Suddenly, the saintess spoke into the empty cavern, and the Gu fire at her fingertips transformed into the phantom of the Lord of the Nine Nether Island.

The phantom's abdomen was swollen as if it were ten months pregnant, clearly indicating that it was the core of the poison puppet that had swallowed the entire herb garden.

Ripples spread where water droplets fell from the rock top, and Lin An, carrying the young master's shadow, stepped out from the void.

He spread the blood-stained star banner on the bell wall, the bloodstains perfectly filling the missing northeast corner: "Your son's Transformation Dragon Gu has backfired. Island Master, why don't you exchange it for the Poison Puppet Formation?"

The illusory image of the Lord of Nine Nether Island suddenly burst open, and three Soul-Devouring Dragons rushed out from the exploding poisonous mist.

Before the golden silkworm gu in the saintess's sleeve could even form its web, Lin An had already crushed the star-fixing sand in his bosom.

Amidst the screams of the female cultivator from the Star Palace, a starlight cage descended from the top of the cave; it was actually a dragon-trapping cage reforged from fragments of a celestial globe.

"The tide is coming in!"

The young master suddenly broke free of the restriction and lunged at the bell wall, the scales scraping sparks off the bronze surface.

The Devouring System suddenly notified that fluctuations at the entrance to the Ruins of Return had been detected. Lin An then pressed the young master into the crack in the bell wall, and the sound of a tsunami immediately came from three hundred miles away.

As the first ray of moonlight shone on the whirlpool of the sea eye, Lin An's toes touched the star-patterned sword of a floating corpse.

The corpse was wearing a sword robe in the style of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion from twenty years ago, and the jade slip in its bosom was engraved with Elder Xie's handwriting, "Twenty-Eight Constellations Town Returns to Ruins".

The swarm of Gu worms manipulated by the saintess formed a floating bridge at the edge of the vortex, with the faint light of a sword soul shimmering in the abdomen of each Gu worm.

The young master of Nine Nether Island suddenly let out a dragon's roar, his scales standing on end and pointing towards a certain spot on the seabed: "Father hid the core of the poison puppet in the Water Crystal Palace!"

Before the words were even finished, the Star Palace warship had already broken through the wall of waves.

The bronze armillary sphere standing on the deck gleamed with bloody light, and the star map drawn by the seven messengers through their wrists resonated with the star map on Lin An's scabbard.

Twenty-eight bronze pillars suddenly rose from the seabed, each with a sword mark on its top corresponding to a missing sword spirit.

"So that's where it was all!"

Lin An laughed loudly as he crushed the floating corpses, swallowing the vortex and plunging straight down to the seabed along the bronze pillar.

Inside the Water Crystal Palace reflected in the Mysterious Heaven Mirror, the Lord of Nine Nether Island was embedding the core of the Poison Puppet into the gap in the Chaos Bell. However, what came out of the bell was not the sound of a bell, but the faint sound of thousands of Gu worms hatching their eggs.

Suddenly, the Holy Maiden unleashed a sacred artifact to bind the young master, then transformed into a golden silkworm and plunged into the vortex.

Lin An allowed the Star Palace warship to crash into him. The instant the mast broke, the Nine Revolutions Demon Slayer Blade had already pierced the core of the Celestial Instrument, and the system notification appeared: [Devouring the Celestial Star Array].

Amidst the surging light of the star map on the blade, the entire sea began to recede into nothingness.

The roar of the bronze pillar shattering shook the seabed sand and rocks, and Lin An rushed into the Water Crystal Palace by stepping on the surging dark currents.

Dozens of tentacled, fleshy tendrils emerged from beneath the Nine Nether Island Lord's black robe, stuffing the core of the poison puppet into the rift in the Chaos Bell.

The mucus seeping from the bell's walls carried Gu worm eggs, which hatched into thousands of blood-winged mayflies the moment they came into contact with the poisonous puppet's evil energy.

"Using your son to raise Gu poison and your wife to refine puppets, the island lord certainly knows how to make the most of everything."

Lin An flung away the severed arm of the Star Palace Messenger. The star-patterned tattoo on the severed limb suddenly exploded, turning into a cage that trapped the swarm of mayflies that pounced on him.

The Xuan Tian Mirror was placed against the bell wall, but the scene reflected in the mirror was not the current one. Three hundred years ago, the Star Palace Ancestor was stroking the Chaos Bell in the same posture. The star blood that seeped from his fingertips seeped into the cracks in the bell and condensed into twenty-eight sword marks.

The Lord of Nine Nether Island let out a snake-like hiss from his throat, and the algae entwined between the palace pillars suddenly hardened into chains.

The chain that Lin An severed reassembled in mid-air, its end connected to the unconscious saintess.

The golden silkworm Gu King that had risen to her chest was pierced by the chain tip, and the exploding golden mist revealed the Soul Control Spell passed down from the Star Palace.

"What a clever three-way spy operation!"

Lin An scoffed, and the star map on the scabbard suddenly lit up seven constellations.