Probing the enemy's weaknesses with ingenious strategies, Shen Yi breaks the deadlock and displays his grand ambition.

Shen Yi's fingers rustled against the yellowed pages, startling the jade-slip sprite that had been dozing beside the inkstone.

Fluttering its wings and scattering a few ink specks, the little creature pushed more bamboo slips toward him, its face contorted in bitter anguish.

"Volume 731 of the Illustrated Compendium of Exotic Beasts records that the Netherworld Dark Serpent sheds its skin three times every new moon." He grabbed the cold spirit tea on his desk and took a gulp, the fragments of dragon-scale grass floating in the brew leaving a metallic tang on the tip of his tongue.

The system's light screen flickered before his eyes: [Keyword "shedding" detected. Consume 50 spiritual energy for deep analysis?]

The moonlight seeping through the western window of the attic wandered across the floor, reflecting a web of bloodshot veins in the depths of his eyes.

The jade box brought back from the northern cliff three days ago was growing warm against his chest. The curse mark patterns formed after devouring the blazing sun vine bore a seventy-percent resemblance to the cracks on the snow lotus in Gao Yao's hair.

"Senior Brother Shen!" Urgent footsteps sounded from the wooden ladder as Hao Yu rushed up, clutching mud-stained bracers. "Black mist is seeping into the western array eye again, and Senior Sister Lingyun says the last half-bottle of dragon-scale grass juice..."

Before he could finish, the bookcase in the southeast corner emitted a crisp sound like shattering glass.

Shen Yi whirled and threw his teacup, watching the splashed tea condense into a golden barrier in mid-air, burning the emerging book-devouring insects into blue smoke.

These demonic insects, which specialized in eating ancient texts, had been appearing with increasing frequency in the library recently.

"Tell Lingyun to use the green-yang flower juice mixed with my spiritual energy to hold the line first." He traced a spell in the air, injecting spiritual energy carrying the aroma of crimson fruits into Hao Yu's bracers. "I'll go mend the array in two hours."

When the attic returned to silence, Shen Yi pressed his palm onto the volume titled Secret Records of Heavenly Craftsmanship.

The light-blue halo of the two words "Inverse Scale," which the system had suddenly prompted last night, still lingered on his retinas, but the corresponding page had been gnawed by insects until only half an illustration remained—at the vulnerable spot of the giant snake in the painting, the three most crucial scales were conspicuously missing.

When the third watch drum sounded, he was staring blankly at the calming sachet Gao Yao had secretly slipped into his lapel.

Mixed with the herbal scent of the snow lotus was a sudden trace of a bloody odor.

Raising his eyes, he saw the young woman standing in the moonlight, leaning against the bookcase, the dark red on her plain white sleeves looking like blurred ink.

"Didn't you agree to let Lingyun change your dressing?" He teleported to Gao Yao's side, and the moment he touched the chill at her fingertips, his heart gave a sharp, painful twitch.

The cracks on the snow lotus hairpin had already spread to the fifth line, emitting a bizarre purple glow under the moonlight.

Gao Yao rested her forehead against his shoulder and chuckled softly. "The disciples of the eastern array made three mistakes in their hand seals. If we wait until tomorrow..." Her voice cut off abruptly, and she suddenly turned her head to cough up a froth of blood mixed with ice crystals, which instantly turned into frost upon splashing on Shen Yi's hem.

The hand with which Shen Yi grasped her wrist was trembling.

The spiritual energy that should have been warm and gentle was now like a stream wrapped in ice thorns. This was clearly— His pupils contracted sharply as he recalled the prompt of "cold toxin backlash" that had flashed across the system log the day before when the soil of the immortal realm swallowed the blazing sun vine.

"I brought a new array map." Gao Yao shoved a warm jade slip into his palm, the ice crystals on her eyelashes fluttering down as she blinked. "Elder Xuanfeng said the western wing..."

In the distance, the roar of a defensive array shattering suddenly echoed, and the palms they held together simultaneously lit up with curse marks.

Shen Yi watched her transform into a stream of light streaking toward the scene of the incident, the snow lotus cracks fracturing even further amidst the surging spiritual energy.

He gripped the jade slip, which still retained her lingering warmth, and suddenly realized that the trajectory of those cracks matched the curse marks on the jade box perfectly.

When the morning light stained the window lattice red, seven medicinal formulas for curing the cold toxin were piled before Shen Yi, each with its key medicinal ingredients crossed out in vermilion.

The jade box hummed and vibrated inside his chest. After being nourished with crimson fruit last night, hair-thin, ice-blue veins had emerged within the curse mark patterns—the exact same color as the ice crystals Gao Yao had coughed up.

"Senior Brother Shen! The sect master urgently summons you!" Mingxin's tearful cry came from downstairs. "The northern cliff array eye..."

Amidst the ticking of the water clock, Shen Yi crushed the last half-stalk of the blazing sun vine and scattered it into the censer.

In the rising smoke, the incomplete ancient text suddenly began to reassemble.

When the purple smoke condensed into the four characters "Bone-Eroding Cold Spring," he snatched the jade slip recording the geography of the Myriad Mountains and rushed out of the attic, the wind whipped up by his hem overturning three hundred volumes of totem analyses on his desk.

When twilight dyed the eaves of the library red, Shen Yi's brush tip hovered slightly trembling above the array map.

The jade-slip sprite was dozing while hugging half a spirit stone when it was suddenly choked by the purple smoke rising from the desk, causing it to sneeze three times—that wispy column of smoke, calcined from cold-toxin crystals, was tracing out the incomplete array pattern in the shape of a moon wheel.

"Please look, everyone." Shen Yi brushed his sleeve, stained with medicinal juice, against the edge of the inkstone, and seven light spots emerged within the projection array map driven by his spiritual energy. "The fluctuation of demonic Qi at the third quarter of the Shen hour yesterday completely coincides with the lunar eclipse array eye recorded in the Records of Star Evolution."

Elder Xuanfeng's silver beard was tossed by the draft blowing through the room, and his aged finger pointed at the light spot in the northeast direction. "This should be the array pivot. How could demonic Qi be overflowing here?"

"Because the array pivot has been replaced with this." Shen Yi shook half a charred vine from his sleeve, and ice crystals immediately oozed from the severed cross-section.

When the projected light spot shone on the vine, the previously incomplete moon-wheel array pattern suddenly filled in its gaps, revealing snake-scale-like patterns.

Amidst an uproar in the room, Hao Yu suddenly raised his still-bleeding bandage. "I remember now! On the night the demonic cultivators launched a sneak attack last month, their waist tokens had this same scale pattern when they retreated!"

Shen Yi exchanged a glance with Xuanfeng, both looking toward the increasingly full moon outside the window.

The system prompt sounded right at that moment: [Moon-phase energy field resonance detected. Consume 100 spiritual energy to activate demon-slaying deduction?] The fingers hidden in his sleeve dug into his palms, recalling the uncanny blue radiance that the ice crystals Gao Yao coughed up last night had emitted under the moonlight.

"Senior Brother Shen!" When Lingyun shoved open the wooden door, half her hair bun was undone, and several weeping-blood grasses rolled out of the medicine basket she held in her arms. "The defensive array of the western guest room... those vines are devouring the moonlight!"

When everyone rushed over, they saw Mingxin tremblingly holding a peach-wood sword.

The twisted vines clung to the array patterns, every leaf covered in frost, hissing like a spitting viper when the moonlight brushed across them.

Shen Yi suddenly grabbed Gao Yao's cold wrist, and amidst her astonished gaze, he pressed his fingers together to slash his own fingertip, flicking a drop of blood toward the base of the vines.

The moment the crimson blood drop touched the frost, the vines twitched violently, and the scale patterns on their surface wriggled like living creatures.

The silver threads of Elder Xuanfeng's horsetail whisk surged, wrapping around the demonic Qi core that was about to escape; that ball of black mist actually enveloped half a fragment of a shed snake skin.

"I see!" Gao Yao suddenly broke free from Shen Yi's support, and the snow lotus hairpin burst forth with clear light.

Her fingertips traced stellar tracks in the air, forming a triangular formation with Shen Yi's yet-to-dissipate blood drop. "The lunar eclipse demon-slaying array mentioned in the *Declarations of the Perfection True Script* requires..."

"Requires a living medium corresponding to the Three Talents stellar positions." Shen Yi took over, his gaze sweeping across the snow lotus on her head, its cracks still spreading.

The "Cold Toxin Purification Rate 73%" that suddenly popped up on the system interface made his heart beat wildly. The Crimson Sun Ginseng he had cultivated with immortal realm soil last night was burning hot in his Qiankun pouch.

At midnight, eighteen star-guiding lamps floated above the martial arts arena.

Hao Yu led the disciples in carrying array stones, while the medicinal mist mixed by Lingyun emitted a golden glow under the moonlight.

When Shen Yi embedded the last array-pattern jade token into the ground, he suddenly caught a familiar scent of snow lotus.

"Your Crimson Sun Ginseng." Gao Yao's pale fingertips pressed against his back, and warm spiritual energy wrapped in medicinal fragrance poured into his meridians. "I just asked Senior Sister Lingyun for it." Her earlobes flushed red as she rattled the empty medicine pouch, and the snow lotus, with its cracks already crawling to the edge of the petals, appeared crystal clear in the lunar radiance.

Shen Yi backhanded and gripped her wrist, through which she was transmitting spiritual energy, touching the chaotic turbulence of intertwining ice and fire beneath her skin.

The blue light of the activating defensive array illuminated the palms they held together, and those entwined spiritual patterns miraculously overlapped with the snow lotus cracks, temporarily curbing the spread of the cold toxin.

"It's done!" When Elder Xuanfeng's cheer came, the golden array map covering the entire immortal sect happened to coincide with the full moon.

Mingxin suddenly pointed at the Crimson Sun Ginseng at the array eye and screamed, "Look! The demonic Qi is melting!"

Yet Shen Yi stared with constricted pupils at the cracks spreading across the surface of the array stones—the Seven-Luminary Stones serving as the array foundation were decaying at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Amidst the frantic flashing of red warnings on the system light screen, Lingyun's trembling voice came from behind the crowd: "The inventory of dark crystal iron... is only enough to sustain three hours."

The moonlight was suddenly blocked by dark clouds, and the snow lotus in Gao Yao's hair emitted a faint sound like cracking porcelain.

Shen Yi gripped her gradually chilling hand, watching the snake shadow emerge amidst the flickering array patterns, and suddenly recalled the faint inverse-scale pattern on that half-piece of shed snake skin.

The Crimson Sun Ginseng at the array eye suddenly burst into a fierce red light, scorching the receding demonic Qi with a burnt smell.

Amidst the cheers of the disciples, Shen Yi's fingertips touched the slightly vibrating jade box inside his Qiankun pouch—that section of snake bone dug from the immortal realm soil was now producing a bizarre resonance with the array map.