"I heard it can be refined..." Sprout had only spoken two words when he caught Joe Di's unfriendly look. He swallowed the rest and meekly said, "And it can be used with a Blood Pact..."
Joe Di's eyes lit up. That's it. Without hesitation, he spat a drop of blood onto the Graystone. After waiting a long while, the Graystone remained completely inert.
Feeling somewhat disappointed, Joe Di picked up the Graystone. As his cultivation grew, he became increasingly aware that wearing the stone around his neck might not be a good idea.
Whenever he touched the Graystone with his spiritual sense, he could feel a vast aura within it, as if origin and order were interwoven. If he ever encountered a powerful cultivator, a sweep of their spiritual sense would expose all his secrets.
The value of something that could help one comprehend Arraycraft was immeasurable. Even though Joe Di had never truly mingled in the world of cultivators, he knew wearing this thing on his chest was like carrying a ticking time bomb.
Since the essence blood had no effect, this time Joe Di forced his spiritual sense into the Graystone. Previously, whenever his spiritual sense communicated with the Graystone, it was always because he encountered difficulties while studying Arraycraft. He had never before tried to forcibly probe the stone's interior like this.
Boom! As soon as Joe Di's spiritual sense barely breached the Graystone, a terrifying aura crashed into his sea of consciousness, as if the order of heaven and earth had been rewritten. Suddenly, Joe Di sensed a dreadful cosmic law. Blood mist spurted from his mouth.
A ripping pain tore through Joe Di's mind. His vision went black, and at that moment, his only thought was that he was finished.
The Graystone in Joe Di's hand turned into a streak of gray light and shot into the center of his brow.
"Big brother..." Sprout, who had been knocked aside by the overwhelming aura, scrambled up in a panic and rushed over.
If Joe Di died, it would die too.
Almost at the very instant the stone entered Joe Di's brow, the stunning woman in the Jade Coffin twitched her brows, and even her hand moved slightly. Soon, faint spiritual energy began to gather from the surroundings, absorbed by the woman.
"Big brother, are you alright?" Sprout rushed to Joe Di's side and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Joe Di open his eyes.
Where's the stone? Joe Di looked at his empty hands, panicking inside. The stone was far too important to him; if anything happened to it, he'd be just an ordinary cultivator.
As an ordinary cultivator, not to mention three years—even in thirty years, he might not become a Level Four Array Master.
"I'm fine..." Joe Di had just spoken when he sensed something new in his sea of consciousness.
A stone streaked with a golden lightning bolt lay quietly in his sea of consciousness. Joe Di let out a sigh of relief; he didn't know how the golden stone had entered his sea of consciousness, but as long as it was still there, everything was fine.
He relaxed even further. With the stone hidden in his sea of consciousness, even the strongest cultivators shouldn't be able to detect it—unless they could break through his sea of consciousness.
"We can go now." Joe Di stood up.
"How are we supposed to leave?" Rootling asked in confusion. Just because Joe Di was fine didn't mean they could leave yet.
"Just follow me," Joe Di said. For three years, he'd studied Arraycraft using only basic array knowledge and the thirty-four pillars in this grand hall.
Based on his understanding, the thirty-four pillars here, together with the two outside, formed a Thirty-Six Star Formation. He couldn't hope to fully unravel such a grand array, let alone set it up himself.
But Joe Di figured he didn't need to set it up or fully understand it—he just needed to get out of this grand hall.
This grand hall was indeed part of the Thirty-Six Star Formation, which also included trapping arrays, killing arrays, and other array patterns woven within.
Joe Di believed all he had to do was destroy the killing array's pattern and open the hall's doors. He couldn't fully comprehend the grand array, but he could at least identify the killing array's pattern.
Just because he couldn't set up the killing array didn't mean he couldn't destroy it.
Joe Di circled the grand hall again. On the sixth day, he finally stopped, certain that the pillar he stood beside was the one controlling the killing array pattern in Skystar Palace.
Joe Di summoned his cleaver. Sensing Joe Di's focused intent, Sprout quickly called out, "Big brother, I'd better hide inside the ring."
Three years ago, Joe Di had kicked Zachary Zhai flying. When Zachary crashed into Skystar Palace's stone wall, the violent killing aura shredded him to pieces—Sprout remembered that scene all too clearly.
Even though it knew dying with Joe Di was inevitable, it still didn't want to die so miserably.
Rootling didn't argue, and Joe Di had no intention of leaving the little sapling outside. If something went wrong after breaking the killing array, having Rootling out there would only make things more chaotic for him.
After putting Sprout away, Joe Di's aura surged. The Celestial Cleaver turned into a ripping blade light and slashed down, the blade momentum forming in an instant...
Just as the ferocious blade intent condensed, a frightened, crisp voice cried out, "Don't..."
Joe Di's scalp tingled—he actually saw the woman in the Jade Coffin sit up, frantically trying to stop his strike.
If he'd tried to stop his Bleakwind Blade before unleashing it, maybe he could have held back. But once the Bleakwind Blade was let loose, its unstoppable momentum left no room for retreat. With his current strength, he still couldn't fully control the technique.
Boom! The Celestial Cleaver smashed into the stone pillar.
Joe Di's plan was to destroy the killing array pattern on the pillar with one strike, then break open the grand hall's doors.
But as soon as the strike landed, Joe Di sensed something was wrong—he seemed to have made a grave mistake. Suddenly, it was as if he lost control of his own body, the space around him spinning in a terrifying vortex. Even though he'd reached the Seventh Level of Qi Refinement, he was hurled around by the spinning force, slamming repeatedly into the hall's walls.
The sound of bones cracking echoed, blood mist spraying everywhere. Joe Di could only rely on sheer willpower to hold onto a shred of consciousness.
At the same time, the Jade Coffin was flung aside, and the woman inside was tossed out as well, colliding again and again with the hall's walls as the vortex raged.
Deep within Celestia, inside a protective array, a thunderous sound erupted. Several beams of light burst through the array, tearing open a massive, terrifying black hole in the space beyond.
The green planet, which had been Earth's neighbor for years, broke free from its former restraints and plunged into the enormous black hole.
After Celestia vanished into the black hole, it gradually restored itself.
After Celestia vanished into the black hole, the black hole gradually restored itself.
......
At that moment, everyone on Celestia felt the planet shaking violently, as if it might break apart at any second.
All anyone could do was grab hold of a tree or something solid and hang on tightly.
No one knew how much time had passed before the woman flung from the Jade Coffin finally managed to grab a stone pillar. Then she took out an inscribed tablet from her ring.
She rapidly formed hand seals, and the violently spinning grand hall finally began to slow down, eventually coming to a complete stop.
With anger on her face, the stunning woman walked over to Joe Di. By now, Joe Di had already lost consciousness, blood still trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Even without using her spiritual sense, the woman could see that all of Joe Di's bones were shattered, and his meridians were in complete disarray.
She had originally intended to slap Joe Di into a pulp, but now she sighed and murmured, "I suppose it was because of you that I woke up early. When the time comes, I'll just leave you on some planet to fend for yourself... Hm? Why are all those trial-goers still here?"
The woman's spiritual sense swept out. She quickly realized that all those who had come to this planet seeking the Inscribed Tablet, or trying to seize it, were long dead. Now, those here for trials were weak to the extreme—mere ants compared to the cultivators of the past.
No, before these ants, there had been some slightly stronger ones who'd also come for trials. Her spiritual sense detected several caves belonging to cultivators who hadn't even reached the Foundation Establishment stage. What was going on? How long had she been asleep?
Frowning, the beautiful woman quickly set these thoughts aside. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, walked over to the Jade Coffin, and put it away with a wave of her hand. Her Lan Clan had sacrificed too much for this planet. It had once belonged to her mother, and her mother had perished here.
Today, Ruby Lan would reclaim this planet for her mother. From now on, Skystar Star would have nothing to do with outsiders.
(Author's Note: That's all for today's update. Good night, friends!)