When Dugu Jiu’s figure vanished over the horizon, three thousand steel blades disintegrated into iron dust, and an inch-long sword mark was left on the web of each wielder’s hand.

-----------------

On the Observatory, the pool of blood suddenly erupted into a thirty-foot wave, and the force of the blast sent Guo Lang’s Daoist Hat flying.

Blue veins bulged on his bare scalp, and jade-white tendons gleamed with a cold light under the moon.

The twelve main Blood Jars wailed in unison, and the Profound Iron Chains sealing their mouths were melted into liquid iron by the boiling blood within.

Guo Lang had no choice but to stop, staring blankly at the Blood Jars before him.

"Why have you stopped?"

The Empress’s voice drifted from beneath the Nine Dragon Canopy, her Twelve-Streamed Jade Crown swaying slightly.

The golden bricks beneath her feet, etched with the Profound Bird Pattern, were beginning to crack, and a blackish-red Dirt Qi from the Earth Vein seeped from the fissures.

CLANG!

Guo Lang staggered and fell to his knees in the center of the Star Map. He stared in a daze as the Taiyi Splitting Light Sword in his hand shattered inch by inch. The world-shocking Divine Weapon, passed down through generations of Ghost Valley, had crumbled, unable to withstand the backlash from heaven and earth.

"We’re still short... We still need three million living souls to complete the Celestial Human Bridge... We’re still short."

His face filled with bitterness as he suddenly recalled the scroll of Ancient Silk from Ghost Valley’s collection, which he had seen in a secret chamber of the Astronomical Bureau just yesterday.

A blood sacrifice of ninety million can defy heaven and change fate.

At the time, he had heavily circled the number with a Vermilion Pen, the tip of his brush so forceful it tore through three sheets of rice paper before he ultimately erased the figure completely.

The Empress’s expression darkened. She looked up at the vast sky, at the gradually dimming Primordial Spirit Breath.

As the Empress rose, the sun, moon, and stars on her twelve-ornamented black robes actually began to spin in reverse.

"Then send the Incense and Candle Sect to Jian Nan Dao, to Mosenan Dao, to... Jiangnan Dao!"

The Golden Brilliance Sword at her waist slid half a foot from its scabbard of its own accord, its gleam illuminating the inscription on the Observatory’s foundation.

Mandated by Heaven, long may she reign.

Guo Lang’s expression was wooden. He said nothing.

"The Earth Dragon is flipping over!"

Below, the guards on the walls of Jade Capital City cried out in terror.

The crenelations on the city walls began to crumble, and water from the Moat poured back into the city.

-----------------

At Mituo Temple in Mosenan, the morning bell suddenly rang on its own, and cracks appeared on the surfaces of eight hundred Copper Bells.

The Buddhist Beads in Abbot Liaochen’s hand disintegrated. The old monk pressed his wrinkled palm to the ground, clearly feeling the violent surges within the Earth Vein.

His gaunt back suddenly straightened. The sound of clashing metal came from beneath his Kasaya, and wisps of golden light began to appear on his body, as if it were a gilded statue.

"Abbot, should we dispatch the Arhat Hall?"

The head monk looked at the Great Hero Hall, which had begun to tilt.

Abbot Liaochen closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "The Earth Dragon Flipping Over is a heavenly calamity, not something mortals can stop."

-----------------

The Profound Iron foundation at the base of the Observatory suddenly cracked. A snapping sound came from the Great Tendon in Guo Lang’s left leg as it gave way under the strain.

He was already on one knee. In the blood pool, only the last three lines of the hexagram were incomplete, and seven of the twelve main Blood Jars had already exploded.

"Dear Minister Guo!"

Seeing this, the Empress could no longer contain her emotions. Her furious shout shook the roof tiles loose.

This ruler of the Great Zhou suddenly shattered the golden bricks underfoot, her figure soaring onto the Observatory like a sparrowhawk.

Her Palace Boots, embroidered with the Profound Bird Pattern, landed on the edge of the blood pool. Her Golden Silk Armor gleamed coldly in the moonlight. "My Golden Brilliance Sword can sever the Earth Vein!"

Guo Lang’s pupils contracted sharply.

"Your Majesty, you mustn’t!"

Guo Lang’s warning was drowned out by the ring of the sword.

The moment the Golden Brilliance Sword struck the blood pool, a roar like that of a Primordial Giant Beast echoed from deep underground.

The twelve Coiling Dragon Pillars snapped in response. The Great Tendon in Guo Lang’s right arm suddenly broke, and the jade-white sinew shot out like a bowstring, lashing against a pillar and leaving a three-inch-deep gouge.

-----------------

Deep within the East Sea Returning Ruins, Penglai Pavilion’s Sea Suppression Tower was slowly tilting.

Fairy Yun Lan walked barefoot upon the waves. The whirlpool stirred by her Water-Splitting Needle suddenly exploded into a thousand-foot curtain of water.

A silvery light flowed like water patterns across her wheat-colored skin, and wisps of Essence Qi coiled around her, making her look like an Exiled Immortal who had descended to the mortal world.

"Pavilion Master, the eye of the sea is starting to flow backwards!"

An Elder’s hoarse cry was lost in the roar of the waves. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Yun Lan gazed at the reddening western horizon, an inscrutable expression on her face.

Suddenly, she turned her head.

"Into the sea. Open its eye."

-----------------

A notch suddenly appeared on the Golden Brilliance Sword on the Observatory. Blood Beads welled up from the web of the Empress’s hand.

Guo Lang struggled to prop himself up with his right arm, its tendon snapped, and shouted hoarsely, "Retract the sword! The Earth Vein Dragon Qi is about to backlash!"

Before his words had even faded, a continuous, muffled roll of thunder echoed from beneath Jade Capital City.

The ground in all Thirty-Six Districts collapsed at once, revealing the crimson magma of the Earth Vein below.

The Jade Vein in Guo Lang’s left leg finally snapped completely. He collapsed like a rag doll into the eye of the formation, watching as the last three Blood Jars melted into liquid iron in the magma.

"Why?"

The Empress’s black robes were scorched by the Earth Fire, her Golden Skin was covered in cracks, and her expression was a mixture of bewilderment and helplessness.

Nearly a hundred years of planning, all ruined at the final step. The entire Observatory was collapsing.

Guo Lang laughed miserably, spitting up flecks of blood. "Three million living souls aren’t enough to complete the Celestial Human Bridge... Your Majesty, have you ever heard of ’Kanglong Youhui’? In this era, the Stars have not yet returned to their positions, and the Earth Vein is still dormant. Heaven and earth will not allow the Primordial Spirit to be forcibly opened. The current situation is just like two thousand years ago, when the Primordial Spirit was on the verge of dispersing but hadn’t fully scattered. In a few more decades, it will fall silent again."

"Even if we threw in another thirty million living souls, it would be for nothing! Your Majesty, give up! Human effort cannot overcome destiny. This is fate! It is the will of heaven!"

"You deceived me!!"

The Empress’s expression was ferocious. Her grayish-blue hair rose without any wind, writhing like a nest of snakes.

Her eyes blazed with endless killing intent and fury.

"I made you the Director of the Imperial Observatory and granted your entire family endless glory and wealth. Whatever you wanted, I gave. Whatever you wished to do, I permitted. Your status was no less than that of dear Minister Faang—second to only one and above all others."

"So why... did you deceive me!!"

As she spoke, her voice grew louder until thunderous roars erupted from her throat, splitting the sky. Visible shockwaves of sound spread out, reaching every corner of Jade Capital City.

Guo Lang laughed bitterly.

"Your Majesty, in this world, you were born in the wrong era. If it were five hundred years from now—no, three hundred—perhaps you could truly pursue the path of Longevity. But now, no matter the effort, all we can do is force out the Heaven and Earth Primordial Spirit buried in the Earth Vein. I... I have already tried countless times."

After a long silence, the Empress sighed deeply. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly pressed down on her violently trembling Golden Brilliance Sword.

She snapped her head up, her sharp gaze piercing through the clouds to look into the distance.

The Director of the Imperial Observatory, who had been about to speak, was startled to feel a stinging pain in every pore of his body, as if he were being pricked by ten thousand invisible sword points.

The golden threads on the Empress’s twelve-ornamented black robes suddenly snapped. She was horrified to discover that the surface of the Coiling Dragon Golden Pillar thirty feet away had, at some unknown point, become covered in hair-thin sword marks.

"Sword Qi... This is the Sword Qi of the Ninth Realm!"

Guo Lang roared hoarsely as the Star Disc in his hand split in two with a KRAK.

The three thousand six hundred Bronze Lamps surrounding the Observatory were extinguished all at once. Only the blood in the Blood Jars continued to boil.

When Dugu Jiu’s figure appeared above the clouds, the ring of ten thousand swords echoed throughout Jade Capital City.

Seventy-six legendary swords from the secret collection of the Six Gates burst from their armory. In teahouses and taverns, ordinary Iron Swords trembled and embedded themselves in beams and pillars. Even the Wooden Swords in the hands of small children all pointed in the same direction.