The blood rain transformed into shimmering blue dots before hitting the ground. Lin Mo knelt in the center of the ruins, the dual wings of the dragon instinctively wrapping around Su Wan'er’s ice-bound body like a cocoon. Zhu Yan crouched ten zhang away, the fleshy buds sprouting from its severed arm visibly writhing—the restoration power of the ancient clans was being pushed to the limit by the Beast Pearl.

  "Her soul has not perished." A celestial voice floated from the Coral City atop the Xuan Gui, and a woman wearing a veil of fish silk walked on the waves. "The cold marrow body is indeed the best vessel for a soul, but..."

  The Kui Niu suddenly let out a long, howling roar, its single foot smashing the remaining thunderclouds. It was then Lin Mo noticed the countless ice coffins floating in the sea behind the woman, each one containing a girl of similar age to Su Wan'er.

  "The Tianji Pavilion has spent five hundred years collecting cold marrow bodies." The woman lifted her veil, revealing a face seven parts similar to Su Wan'er's. "They are all my daughters."

  Lin Mo's dragon horns sparked with electricity. The wings of the dragon sensed his killing intent, scales standing on end like blades: "You are the South Sea’s Shark Queen?"

  A towering wave rose from the Coral City. The Shark Queen's long hair transformed into venomous snakes, her azure eyes tinged with blood: "It was the master of the Tianji Pavilion who forced me to bear these vessels! Each child lives no longer than eighteen years, for their souls are to be used to nurture..."

  "Nurture what?" Lin Mo suddenly raised his hand, the Beast Pearl flying from his dantian. Inside the pearl, the illusion of an ice coffin appeared, faintly revealing Su Wan'er’s sleeping form with half a jade pendant embedded in her forehead.

  The Shark Queen suddenly froze. Trembling, she touched the Beast Pearl, causing the Coral City to crumble: "So Qing Li hid the other half of her soul in..."

  "Watch out!" Zhu Yan roared.

  A scarlet rift opened in the void, and hundreds of golden-winged mayflies formed arrows that shot straight for Lin Mo’s back. The Kui Niu swiped its paw, shattering most of them, but a dozen still pierced through the dragon’s scales. Strangely, these insects did not consume flesh; instead, they laid crystalline eggs at the wounds.

  "A variant of the soul-eating insects." The Xuan Gui sprayed a mist of water to freeze the insect eggs. "The day the eggs hatch is the day you become a puppet."

  Lin Mo suddenly laughed lightly. He dug his bare hand into the flesh on his shoulder, where the eggs were, and the dragon's powerful healing ability instantly closed the wound: "Is this all the master of the Tianji Pavilion can do?"

  "No." The Shark Queen suddenly slashed her wrist, and pale golden blood drew a star map in the air. "These insect eggs are absorbing your dragon energy—look to the sky!"

  Everyone looked up to find nine blood-red stars suspended behind the clouds. Each star's surface displayed Lin Mo’s phantom, from infancy to the moment he transformed into a dragon, each significant moment being altered by some power.

  "Alter the star tracks..." Memories from Qing Zhu resurfaced just before her dissipated. "They want to reshape your fate!"

  Zhu Yan suddenly pounded its chest, letting out a war cry. The sound waves shattered the nearest blood star, and the falling fragments transformed into the figure of Lin Mo—himself at twelve, fleeing through the forest with Xiao Hui in his arms.

  "Kill these reflections!" The Xuan Gui spat out high-pressure water blades. "For every star shattered, you will lose a piece of your memory!"

  But Lin Mo was transfixed, staring at the approaching phantom. His younger self was covered in blood, the silver fur of Xiao Hui matted with clotted blood: "Why did you leave me?" The phantom spoke with Su Wan'er’s voice, "You promised to take me to eat osmanthus cake in Chang'an..."

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  The dragon wings suddenly unfurled uncontrollably. Lin Mo watched helplessly as the blades pierced the phantom’s chest, shattering the memory of him at fourteen hunting a Flame Tiger with Xiao Hui. He knelt on one knee, coughing up blood mixed with ice shards—this was the cold poison Su Wan'er had transferred to him flaring up.

  "This can’t go on!" The Shark Queen summoned an ice spear. "We must find the core of the star tracks!"

  "It’s here with me." A childish voice suddenly spoke up. Everyone turned in shock to see Su Wan'er in the ice coffin, her eyes opened at some unknown time. She floated in mid-air, her white hair moving without wind, cradling a constantly reshaping blood-red rune in her palm: "Brother Lin, kill me."

  The nine blood stars simultaneously lit up. Lin Mo saw every reflection of Su Wan'er repeating this phrase, from a young girl to a blossoming maiden, countless "hers" reaching out in the sea of stars: "Kill me, and the formation will break."

  Zhu Yan suddenly surged, punching the ice coffin: "Stop this nonsense!" But as the punch met the coffin, Su Wan'er’s phantom suddenly solidified, freezing Zhu Yan’s entire arm with her cold marrow spirit.

  "It’s useless." The Shark Queen's shoulders drooped in despair. "The star tracks have been set, unless..."

  "Unless I willingly sacrifice myself." Lin Mo’s dragon horn suddenly broke off, shattering into powder mid-air. Losing his dragon features, he returned to human form, but a light brighter than the stars shone from his palm—that was the fused Beast Pearl burning its essence, "But I have a better idea."

  He charged toward the nearest star, and at the moment he touched the reflection, he reversed his meridians. A tremendous suction force erupted from his dantian, pulling the nine blood stars along with Su Wan'er’s ice coffin into his body! The Shark Queen watched in horror as Lin Mo’s pupils split into multiple eyes, the left swirling with a river of stars while the right crystallized into frost.

  "You’re insane!" The Xuan Gui sprayed a wave of water to stop him. "To contain both the star tracks and the cold marrow body at once, you will..."

  "I will become the true focal point of the array." Lin Mo’s voice resonated with a multitude, as if thousands were speaking at once. He raised his hand and lightly tapped the void, causing the golden-winged mayflies that were consuming the Kui Niu to suddenly change direction and charge toward the Tianji warship hidden behind the clouds.

  The Shark Queen finally understood what he intended to do. She slashed her wrist, drawing a blood formation and infusing the spiritual energy of the entire sea into Lin Mo: "With the vast waters of the South Sea as a sacrifice, aid the master of the Immortal Sect—slay the gods!"

  The warship began to disintegrate under the onslaught of the insect swarm, revealing the master of the Tianji Pavilion sitting on a lotus platform. The moment he removed his bronze mask, Lin Mo's blood nearly froze—under the mask was Xiao Han’s face!

  "Good disciple." Xiao Han’s voice echoed eerily, "Now do you understand why you were chosen as the vessel?"

  Su Wan'er’s ice coffin suddenly burst forth from Lin Mo, and as the lid opened, the sleeping girl opened her silver eyes: "Because you are the one that Qing Li severed with the Zhan Yuan sword..."

  "Evil intent of the Heavenly Dao!" Lin Mo and Su Wan'er spoke in unison. The Beast Pearl exploded, its fragments transforming into a shower of stars. Each star illuminated a piece of history that had been altered: the truth of the first sect master's fall into darkness, the causal ties of Qing Li’s voluntary death, and the events of Xiao Han being possessed by the master of the Tianji Pavilion.

  Xiao Han—or rather, the true body of the master of the Tianji Pavilion—finally revealed a look of shock. Countless tendrils sprouted from the lotus platform beneath him, but they were burned to ash by the star rain: "How could you possibly touch the Heavenly Dao..."

  "Because I am not of this world." Lin Mo caught the falling Su Wan'er, the memories of Qing Li flowing through the girl’s silver eyes. "When Mother used the Zhan Yuan sword to cleave through reincarnation, she etched the truth into the core of the Beast Pearl."

  The star rain converged into a river, trapping the master of the Tianji Pavilion in the long river of time. Lin Mo saw countless versions of himself walking along the river’s surface: some who became farmers, some who fell into darkness, and even one who lived in seclusion in a peach grove with Su Wan'er. Each possibility turned into chains that bound the enemy as they touched the true body.

  "No—!" The master of the Tianji Pavilion shattered into countless fragments in the river of time. "I am the Heavenly Dao; you cannot..."

  Su Wan'er suddenly kissed Lin Mo. The kiss carried the essence of ice and snow, merging the cold marrow spirit with the power of the star tracks, forming a brilliant star ring around the two: "Remember, go to see the osmanthus cakes in Chang'an."

  Her body began to fade, but the star ring grew ever brighter. Lin Mo reached out to grasp the dissipating starlight, only to find he held only half a jade pendant—Qing Zhu's last words echoed in his ears: "Go to the Guixu; there is a well of reincarnation..."