Chapter 631 – Final Madness, Life Star Art - Part 2

Hall of Life.

By now, the fourth group had already been inside the hall for several days.

Familiar with the layout, they moved swiftly.

The beginning was narrow and winding, riddled with maze-like passages.

But after days of walking, the path suddenly opened wide.

Blood fiends staggered through the dark. The group concealed themselves, sending out puppets and Ping’an’s clones to distract them. But with Li Yuan stepping in at key moments, they made it through unscathed.

After a week, they reached the stone wall where the painting had been etched.

But this time, they didn’t stop. They pressed on, deeper into the unknown.

The Hall of Life held not even a trace of spiritual energy or Yin and Yang. Under such conditions, even Li Yuan was feeling the strain.

Every time he destroyed a blood fiend, his energy reserves were depleted, and there was no ambient energy to replenish what he lost.

As time went on, he could feel the suppression tightening, his power beginning to wane, ever so slightly.

Still, this group represented the strongest cultivators this era could offer. Every one of them focused, meticulous, and seasoned in survival.

Step by step, they made their way, minimizing risks as they approached the final point marked on the Radiant Buddha’s map.

That endpoint was...unusual.

After all, in a place that had been a straight, continuous corridor, a sudden recessed fork in the path stood out like a sore thumb.

As always, the scouting fell to the Ping'an’s clones and the Puppetry Dean’s puppets.

The puppet took the lead, Ping'an’s clone followed close behind, and the rest of the group stood outside, on high alert.

No one here was naïve anymore. Many had long since shed their youthful illusions. In fact, quite a few of them were the kind of old monsters others feared. So when faced with a map supposedly left behind by a powerhouse from the Age of the Ancient Gods, none of them dared take it lightly.

A long time passed.

Then, Ping'an’s expression shifted into one of quiet awe.

“There’s no danger inside,” he said. And then added, almost as an afterthought, “Maybe there used to be, but not anymore.”

The Puppetry Dean spoke up directly: “The bones of Radiant Treasure Buddha are inside. He left behind some information as well.”

That stunned the group into silence.

Then, cautiously, they stepped into the fork.

At the end of the passage, there was a hollow just large enough for one person to sit.

Bones lay scattered, filling the small space in messy disarray.

Faint glimmers of light revealed several lines carved into the back wall of the hollow.

“Seven-colored Buddha Light shines across the vast cosmos; atop 3,000 worlds, the sacred mountain stands alone. Countless ages of Heaven and Earth have passed...and still, no destined one has come.”

It was clear these words had been carved by Radiant Treasure Buddha himself.

As for that

destined one

, the crowd collectively scoffed.

They were all old devils, each with enough tricks and experience to sniff out danger from a mile away. Who’d believe something so poetic? For all they knew,

destined one

was just code for a host body waiting to be possessed.

Still, judging by phrases like

shines across the cosmos

and

3,000 worlds

, and the fact that all they’d seen along the way were the Radiant Treasure Buddha’s remains, it was obvious this man had been one of the supreme figures of the Age of the Ancient Gods.

Then came the second line.

“This Hall of Life is a passage of reincarnation. The carvings are traces left behind by souls passing into rebirth.”

The third line followed.

“Though the path is now sealed, the end still reveals glimpses of Samsara.”

And the fourth...

“To glimpse Samsara...is perhaps to transcend it.”

After that, etched faintly into the stone wall amidst the tangled remains, was a crude, primitive-looking map. Barely visible, it twisted through the rock like a deep, haunting scar.

The group fell into silence.

A passage of reincarnation?

They all understood the implication.

This had to be where souls went after death, traveling through some mysterious realm before being reborn into new lives.

And this

passage

...this must be that very path to reincarnation.

The

painting

they’d seen all this time? It hadn’t been made by anyone.

They were the echoes of life itself, imprints left behind as souls crossed the boundary between death and rebirth.

The Radiant Treasure Buddha must have stumbled upon this place during the Age of the Ancient Gods, though how or why was a mystery.

Trapped inside, he must have held out for centuries with his immense cultivation, carving these messages and leaving behind a map, hoping that someone would one day find it and help free him.

But time...time shattered all plans, no matter how carefully laid.

The Radiant Treasure Buddha hadn’t done anything wrong. But in the end, he simply couldn’t hold out.

That was why, with his dying breath, he left behind those few carved lines, one last act of kindness, a flicker of compassion for whoever came after.

The group stood in silence, a wave of quiet emotion passing through them.

Then the former Sect Master of the Arcane Supreme Sect glanced around and asked, “Should we keep going?”

Most of them had been keeping track of time since they entered.

Nearly ten days had passed already.

And Li Yuan, their strongest shield, couldn’t stay with them forever.

At some point, he’d have to leave. That much was certain.

At the very latest, it would be by year’s end. Only five months left now.

Li Yuan looked at Ping'an, then at Bai Xinxuan, and finally at Meng Xingxian. He turned to the rest and said, “You should return to the carvings and focus on your cultivation for now. Come autumn, I’ll take you to the very end.”

Everyone breathed a little easier.

In their hearts, they couldn’t help but feel grateful. The Primordial Emperor still prioritized his family. This was already the best arrangement they could hope for.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Ten days later.

The group emerged from the Hall of Life, completely drained. One by one, they withdrew to recover, preparing for the next descent.

Li Yuan, meanwhile, returned to studying the Life Star Art.

This skill required stargazing, and the secret method it relied upon could only be used by those who had cultivated all Three Souls to their peak.

He hadn’t thought much of it before. He’d assumed the secret steles were a naturally formed relic. But this time, a strange doubt stirred in his heart.

If the secret steles had always existed...then why? Why was it that in the ancestral memories he’d glimpsed from the ancient Yu Dynasty inside the Hall of Life, there was no record of any cultivation involving Heaven, Earth, and Human Souls?

It didn’t add up. It was a contradiction.

Could it be that during the Yu Dynasty, the Heavens hadn't yet formed the secret steles...but they appeared afterward?

Others couldn’t access memory echoes left in the path of reincarnation. But Li Yuan could.

And so this doubt became his alone to wrestle with.

Why?

He frowned slightly.

Still, the arrow had already been nocked. There was no turning back. He raised a hand and pressed it to the Life Star Art Stele, beginning his comprehension.

The Life Star Art was divided into three stages.

The first was

Star Observation

, which required all Three Souls to be complete and perfected.

The second was

Star Selection

, choosing the celestial body to bind with.

The third was

Star Fating

, forging a connection between the self and the star.

Li Yuan had already reached the peak stage in all Three Souls, and after six months of study, he now saw the first step, Star Observation, with newfound clarity.

His perception surged outward through the stele like a piercing beam.

His body remained grounded. His soul stayed in place.

But his consciousness, his thought, traveled, shooting through some strange and mystical channel into the vast beyond.

There, he saw the stars more clearly than ever before.

And the stars...were whispering.

But when he listened closer, he realized they weren’t whispering. They were all

speaking

, all at once.

Some boomed like thunderclaps. Others murmured like the whirl of deep-sea vortexes, or shrieked like haunted winds howling through tombs. Some wept like ghost-children. Others roared like blazing infernos. Each one had its own unique voice, its own rhythm.

Li Yuan had gazed at the stars many times before. But never, never, had the heavens felt so loud, so

crowded

.

But then he reminded himself... He wasn’t observing the stars with his own eyes, but through the secret art stele. The stele was mysterious, profound, and beyond comprehension. Naturally, things wouldn’t appear the same.

As for the

voices

of the stars, they were likely just natural manifestations of their vast energies, no doubt powerful, but nothing to lose sleep over.

He refocused, studying the stars in greater detail.

Some were enormous, others small. There were drifting meteors and shooting stars, brilliant suns flaring with golden light, and even strange celestial bodies, bone-white and planet-shaped, yet inexplicably occupying the positions of stars.

The objects closest to him were just space debris, meteorites and streaking comets.

But the farther his consciousness reached, the more exhaustion crept in.

After probing a short distance more, a wave of unspeakable fatigue washed over him. He pulled his thoughts back and lifted his hand from the stele.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

That night.

Bai Xinxuan was meditating in seclusion.

Elsewhere, Ying Zhuoyao, draped in a soft gauze robe, nestled quietly beside Li Yuan. Her slender, cool hands rested gently on his shoulder, kneading him with practiced ease.

“How’s the larger situation looking?” Li Yuan asked.

Ying Zhuoyao replied sweetly, “It’s growing more and more obscured...but no major fluctuations.”

Li Yuan nodded thoughtfully. Then, without warning, he turned slightly and glanced at her.

“What is it, Master?” she asked with a soft smile.

“Nothing. Keep going,” he replied.

He closed his eyes again, letting her fingers ease his tension.

Time slipped by like a slow stream. The night stretched long and silent.

Ying Zhuoyao’s eyes gleamed in the dim light. Her hands moved rhythmically, light, then firm, then light again.

Gradually, she leaned in closer, her graceful body softly tilting toward Li Yuan, drawing near...

But just then, a sudden tapping came from the window. It was the sharp sound of a beak tapping against the frame.

Li Yuan’s eyes flew open. Ying Zhuoyao quickly withdrew her hands and straightened up.

“Sheng’er,” Li Yuan called.

“Papa, I hope I didn’t interrupt anything with Auntie Ying?” a polite voice answered from outside.

“We weren’t asleep. Come in,” he replied.

Creak...

The window opened, and a little black crow flew in and landed.

“Papa,” the crow said, getting right to the point, “the Ghost Gate King, who vanished years ago, has suddenly reappeared. He’s less than 50 kilometers from the Hall of Life.”

The Ghost Gate King, one of the notorious Six Beast Kings.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The six were the Silver Wolf King, Golden Wasp King, Great Ape King, Black Ram King, Ghost Gate King, and Giant Toad King.

The Giant Toad King had died over 20 years ago.

After that, Li Yuan had ordered his people to monitor the gray mist, and also to track down the Ghost Gate and Black Ram Kings. But both had vanished without a trace, as if they’d been wiped clean from the Eastern Sea.

The other three beast kings had also mysteriously disappeared around the same time.

Eventually, the gray mist faded, and the entire affair was quietly dropped.

Li Yuan had been too focused on cultivation to personally join the search.

He had assumed the beast kings were gone for good.

But now the Ghost Gate King had resurfaced.

And Li Yuan, with years of battlefield instinct honed into gut feeling, immediately sensed that his was no coincidence.

Something was wrong.

The closer it got to the Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth, the less peace there was to be had.

Li Yuan gave his black robe a tug and wrapped it tightly around himself.

He turned to Ying Zhuoyao and said, “You stay here. It’s dangerous out there.”

Then, without another word, he took off with the little black crow leading the way.

In the darkness behind him, Ying Zhuoyao raised her hand and called out, “Be careful, Master!”

But Li Yuan was already gone.

He flew swiftly through the night sky, the little crow huddled inside his collar. After all, despite her intelligence, she was still just a normal crow, and not built for speed.

The night wind roared. Li Yuan hadn’t even reached his destination yet, but he could already feel the thick gray mist looming in the distance.

The Inner World was like a dying man in his final moments, a flash of clarity right before madness took over.

The mist wasn’t the frightening part.

What chilled the bone were the voices, twisted, unnatural howls, shrieks, sobs, and wails of fury and despair. They clawed through the darkness, a chaotic symphony of the damned, drilling straight into the soul.

And near the source of that dreadful chorus, low rank cultivators were already succumbing. It was as if they’d been cursed. Some leaned weakly against trees, some collapsed inside pavilions or behind walls, wherever they could muster what little willpower they had left to resist the soul-piercing cries.

When Li Yuan arrived, he looked down from the sky and saw it: within the haze of gray, the outline of a door.

And from that door...beasts were emerging.

Rotting, deformed creatures, one after another, dragging themselves through the threshold and into the world.

Not long after, the former Sect Master arrived, followed closely by Meng Xingxian and Han Feng.

Then came a thunderous boom.

A new disturbance tore through the mist. And from within surged three monstrous figures, their bodies massive and their cries filled with a kind of wild, uncontrollable hysteria.

The group turned to look.

A giant silver wolf.

A massive golden wasp.

And a towering ape, broad as a mountain.

All three emitted a terrifying pressure. And yet, their movements spoke of fear, not aggression.

They were running for their lives.

The former Sect Master narrowed his eyes and floated closer to Li Yuan. He spoke in a low voice, “Alliance Leader...those are the true bodies of the Silver Wolf King, Golden Wasp King, and Great Ape King.”