Devouring demons, I attain immortality.

Lin An squatted on the reef, munching on dried fish. The jade slip soaked in the seawater for half an hour before finally revealing a complete map.

The entrance to Guixu is hidden between three active volcanoes, and the passage is opened by the tide at noon on the 15th of each month.

"Tomorrow is the fifteenth," the dragon slapped its tail against the water's surface. "The Xie family must have laid a killing formation at the entrance."

Late at night, three Xie family warships appeared on the horizon.

Lin An slithered down to the bottom of the ship and dug a hole, discovering that the cabin was filled with black gunpowder engraved with runes.

He connected the fuse to the dragon's ice crystals and was discovered by patrolling monks as he swam toward the second ship.

"Thief..."

The monk's shout was pierced back into his throat by the icicle.

Lin An chained the three boats together, and the dragon spewed air to freeze the sails.

At noon, the sea indeed split open into a deep abyss.

The Xie family's warship was swept downstream by the whirlpool when the gunpowder at the bottom of the ship was suddenly detonated by ice crystals.

The series of explosions collapsed the crater, and lava and seawater mixed together to form scalding mud that poured into the crater.

Lin An grabbed the dragon's tail and rushed into the crevice.

The high-temperature steam smelled burnt as six Xie family monks repaired the damaged protective shield.

He swung his broken sword and slit the throats of two men. The remaining four men were frozen into ice sculptures by the dragon as soon as they took out their talismans.

Behind the protective shield is a massive bronze gate, inlaid with 360 star-patterned bronze nails.

The dragon used its claws to pry at the copper nails: "You must pull them out in the order of the star chart; pulling one out of order will trigger..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lin An had already used the tip of his knife to pry off the copper nail from the Horn constellation.

The door suddenly flipped open, revealing a passage filled with sharp spikes.

He grabbed the frozen Xie family cultivator and threw him in, where barbed iron nets popped out from the spikes.

"You brute!"

The dragon shattered the iron net.

The two glided across the ice passage, which led to a suspended platform.

There are nine holes on the opposite cliff face, and spiders with human faces crawl out of each hole.

Lin An cut his palm, and blood dripped onto the platform runes.

The moment the star map lit up, a bluish light flashed across the correct opening.

He dragged the dragon into Cave No. 7, which was three zhang away, and the spider swarm missed.

Black oil seeps from the cave walls and ignites with green flames when it comes into contact with air.

Lin An tore off the outer robe of the Xie family cultivator and patted the flames, discovering that a fire-avoiding array was engraved on the ground.

The dragon spewed ice through the center of the formation, forcefully carving out a path.

Turning the corner, I bumped into an old man with a white beard setting up an array.

The old man was so frightened that he smashed the jade bottle in his hand, and a puppet with three heads and six arms jumped out from the purple smoke.

Lin An kicked away the burning outer robe, which covered the puppet. The cloth, soaked in black oil, burned into a fireball.

"Where is the core of the formation?" The tip of the knife was pressed against the old man's throat.

"Under...under the Dragon King's coffin..."

The old man's eyeballs suddenly burst open, and worms crawled out of his brain.

The dragon froze the corpse in time, and the insects twisted into the shape of the Chinese character "谢" (xiè, meaning thank you) inside the ice.

After passing through the tomb passage filled with mechanical figurines, we finally saw the so-called Dragon King's Coffin, which was actually a piece of meteorite iron engraved with runes, suspended above the lava pool by eight bronze chains.

The pool contained hundreds of skeletons, covered with crystals.

"Those are failed attempts," the dragon sniffed. "The Xie family uses living people to cultivate star marrow crystals to power the great formation."

Lin An cut the two chains, and the coffin tilted, revealing the array plate at the bottom.

The remaining six chains suddenly came to life, with blades popping out from their ends.

The dragon coiled around three of them, its scales flying as it was sliced ​​by the blade wheel.

"Cut the crystal!"

Lin An dodged the blade wheel and slashed the Nine-Turn Demon-Slaying Blade towards the lava pool.

The shockwave from the exploding Star Marrow Crystal snapped all the chains, and the coffin crashed into the magma.

The moment the array plate was revealed, he swung his broken sword and plunged it into the core array pattern.

The entire Guixu began to collapse, and the roars of the Xie family elders echoed from all directions: "You've ruined three hundred years of hard work!"

Countless wronged souls emerged from the crystal, only to be absorbed into the star map as fuel.

The dragon dragged Lin An away, with collapsing boulders crashing down behind them.

When the seawater rushed in, they were swept away by the undercurrent to a deserted island thirty miles away.

Lin An spat out two mouthfuls of seawater and found that he was holding half of an undestroyed Star Marrow Crystal in his hand.

"The Xie family still has six branch altars left."

He crushed the crystal, and the powder arranged into points of light in his palm.

The dragon lay sprawled on the beach, blowing bubbles: "Let me rest for a bit..."

Suddenly, a black flag rose on the distant sea, and nine warships flying the skull and crossbones flag surrounded them.

A roar echoed from the deck: "Hand over the Star Essence Crystal, and we'll leave you with a whole corpse!"

Lin An stuffed the last half of the dried fish into his mouth and gripped the newly formed Star Chart knife hilt.

The waves crashed against the rocks, creating blood-red foam.

The pirate ship fired a grappling hook and pinned it to the reef.

Lin An leaped onto the deck of the main ship using the swaying chains, and the pirate leader swung his meteor hammer at him.

Suddenly, the dragon leaped out of the water, bit the hammer head, and threw the man off the boat.

"You stole my food?"

Its tail smashed two small boats.

Lin An cut the sail ropes to entangle the helmsman, snatched the binoculars, and saw that the flagship's cabin door was engraved with the Xie family's hidden pattern.

Suddenly, black mist rose from the flagship, and bats with poisonous stingers flew out of the mist.

Lin An tore off a piece of canvas to cover his head and face, then reached into the ammunition compartment and lit the gunpowder barrel.

The shockwave from the explosion capsized three ships, and screams of agony echoed from within the black mist from the Xie family cultivators.

The remaining four ships turned to flee, but the sea suddenly froze over.

The dragon, panting heavily, froze the bottom of the ship. Lin An jumped onto the flagship and kicked open the captain's cabin.

On the mahogany table lay a secret letter from the Xie family, which read, "Escorting Star Essence Crystals for the Xuantian City Auction."

Three days later, at the gambling den in Xuantian City.

Lin An placed the last half of the Star Marrow Crystal on the gambling table.

As the dealer lifted the dice cup, the woman in purple at the next table suddenly threw out a silver needle.

He turned his head and bit the poisoned needle, then pierced the farmer's throat with his other hand. The man had hidden the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles in his sleeve.

"A spy for the Xie family?"

He stepped on the woman's wrist and pressed her for answers.

Before grinding her venomous fangs to dust, the woman spat out three words: "Auction house..."

That night, in a secret underground room at the auction venue.

Eight Xie family cultivators were packing crystals into boxes, the bottom of which were engraved with teleportation arrays.

Lin An crawled in through the ventilation duct and used the star map knife to cut the chandelier's iron chain.

The crystal chandelier smashed three wooden crates, and star marrow crystals rolled all over the ground.

When the alarm sounded, the dragon sprayed ice from the outer wall to seal off the exit.

A cultivator crushed a jade talisman, and suddenly an iron cage descended from the dome of the auction house.

Lin An grabbed the crystal and stuffed it into the gap in the iron cage. The intense light from the activated teleportation array engulfed half of the venue.

"They teleported west!"

The dragon crashed through the roof.

Lin An saw seven shooting stars streak across the night sky, the brightest of which fell into the misty swamp.

The swamp was filled with miasma, and the Xie family cultivators were setting up a temporary magic array.

Lin An trampled the warning monument by the pool, and the century-old miasma sealed within the inscription rushed towards the Xie family.

While they were in a panic, the Star Chart Blade cleaved five array stones in two.

The last two cultivators jumped onto their flying swords and fled, only to be riddled with ice spikes from the dragon's sneeze.

Lin An dug out a bronze box at the core of the formation, which contained a blood letter exchanged between the Xie family elders and the Demon Realm.

A dilapidated temple on a stormy night.

The stolen spirit beast legs were roasting over the fire.

The dragon suddenly raised its scales: "There's someone on the roof beam!"

Purple pollen fell through the gaps in the roof tiles and instantly ignited upon contact with a spark.

Three masked men burst through the window, their curved blades forming a deadly array.

Lin An kicked over the fire, and the embers ignited their poisoned leggings.

Amidst screams, he ripped off the mask of the leader, revealing him to be an enforcement elder of the Heavenly Sword Pavilion!

"Even you've all sided with the Xie family?"

The Star Chart Blade was held against the old man's neck. The old man gave a bitter laugh: "They kidnapped my granddaughter..." Before he could finish speaking, red threadworms emerged from his seven orifices.

The dragon burned the corpse and found half a jade pendant in the ashes: "This is a token of the Southern Frontier Witch Village." Lin An remembered that the Heavenly Sword Pavilion leader he had rescued had said that the Xie family had a blood pool in the Southern Frontier.

As they passed through the Valley of Poisonous Insects, the guards of the Witch Village released man-eating butterflies.

Lin An sprinkled star marrow crystal powder onto the arrow, ignited it, and shot it towards the swarm of butterflies. The explosion's flames drew out the blood pool guards, whose skins were covered in runes.

"The blood pool is beneath the altar!" The dragon froze the fire-breathing gargoyle.

Lin An pried open the altar stone slab, beneath which were more than three hundred children, their hands and feet connected to their blood vessels for transfusion into the central blood pool.

When the blood vessels were severed, a giant skeletal hand emerged from the pool of blood.

Lin An stuffed the Star Marrow Crystal into his hand joint, and the crystal's energy burst through his entire arm.

Among the rescued children was one with a jade pendant tied around her wrist; she was the granddaughter of the law enforcement elder.

On the way back, the girl suddenly had convulsions.

The dragon discovered that the Xie family's soul nail was embedded in the back of her neck. When it pulled out the nail, the soul nail turned into black smoke and fled to the north.

Lin An looked at the black smoke and sneered, "Perfect, lead the way."

When they reached the frozen plains, a blizzard obscured their vision.

Suddenly, bone spears pierced out from under the ice. Lin An rolled away to dodge, and the ground shook open a crevice in the ice, from which hundreds of snow corpses crawled out.

The dragon breathed fire, melting the ice surface, and the snow corpse fell into the icy river and was swept away.

Black smoke seeped into the glacier crevice, from which ripples of magical energy emanated.

Lin An blasted open the ice wall and saw Xie family cultivators using soul nails to control disciples from various sects to practice swordsmanship.

The Star Chart Blade was plunged into the center of the training ground, and the sword energy of the Twenty-Eight Constellations shattered all the Soul Nails.