Black scale armor

As the moonlight was torn to shreds by ravenous dark clouds, Shen Yi was in the midst of crushing his fifth celadon teacup.

The shattered porcelain ground into fine dust beneath his palm, mixing with the cold sweat seeping from his palm lines to leave winding, dark stains across the desk.

"The Sanqing Temple made excuses that their spiritual veins are exhausted, and the Zixiao Pavilion hasn't even opened their mountain-guarding barrier." Hao Yu slammed the transmission jade slip onto the desk, which was piled high with formation diagrams, sending a half-length cinnabar brush rolling straight into the inkstone. "Those old foxes tuck their tails in like quails the moment they catch a whiff of demonic energy!"

Elder Xuanfeng's crane-patterned wide sleeves brushed across the array disc, causing fragments of the Seven-Prism Stones to flutter down like snow. "If we abandon the Tiangang Big Dipper Array..."

"Then when the demonic tide presses upon our borders, what shall we use to block it? Will we use Junior Brother Mingxin's trembling legs?" Shen Yi suddenly burst into laughter, his fingertip poking at a crimson mark on the formation map.

Mingxin, curled up in the corner, instantly flushed red as the array flags he was clutching tumbled in a clatter all over the floor.

Ling Yun's hand shook slightly as she held the medicine cup, sending the brownish medicinal liquid crashing into tiny whirlpools against the rim of the celadon bowl. "There are only thirty catties of profound crystal iron left in the treasury, and the medicinal potency of the crimson sun ginseng won't last past midnight." Her voice was as soft as melting thin ice in early spring, yet her gaze was locked firmly onto the ice-cracked snow lotus nestled within Gao Yao's hair.

Shen Yi touched the vibrating jade box hidden inside his Qiankun pouch.

That section of serpent bone had begun to grow scorching hot since morning, burning a series of blisters into the skin of his waist, as though something was about to burst forth from the very soil of the immortal realm.

A system light screen suddenly flashed with a warning, a crimson countdown suspended directly across his retina: Three hours.

"I am going to check the spiritual vein in the back mountain." When he stood up, he knocked over his bamboo chair, the gold-threaded intertwining vine patterns on his cuffs brushing against Gao Yao's icy-cold hand back.

The young girl's eyelashes fluttered like a dying butterfly, and a wisp of black mist was presently crawling along the petals of the snow lotus toward her temple.

The sound of the torrential rain pounding against the mountain-guarding barrier was like thousands of ghostly hands scratching for purchase.

When Shen Yi rushed into the back mountain's mine shaft, stepping through the thick mud, Hao Yu's hand holding the night-luminescent pearl was still shaking. "Have you lost your mind? This abandoned mine was..."

The fluorescence illuminated the savage claw marks gouged into the cave walls.

Shen Yi's boot heel crushed half of a rusted mining pick, while the system's scanning light screen cast a ghostly blue grid across the damp rock face.

A familiar tremor radiated from deep beneath the earth, and the serpent bone inside the jade box let out a piercing screech that set his back teeth aching.

"It's a swarm of spirit-devouring rats!" Hao Yu's alarmed scream and the night pearl plummeted to the ground simultaneously.

Dense, scarlet eyes lit up within the darkness. Shen Yi backhanded three fire-thunder beads, the explosive shockwave blowing away the wooden hairpin that bound his hair.

As the final beast turned to charred ash amidst the thunder and fire, Shen Yi wiped the blood foam from his face, greeted by the system's prompt chime alongside a bizarre echo reverberating from the depths of the mine: [Unmined profound crystal vein detected, purity 92.7%, reserves...]

"Is it enough?" Hao Yu counted on his fingers, looking precisely like a haggarding matron at a village market.

Shen Yi abruptly seized a fragment of stone and hurled it against the rock wall.

The exact instant the cracks spread like a spiderweb, a silver-gray fluid oozed from the fissures, gleaming with the faint shimmer of stardust in the fading light of the night pearl.

A new warning popped up on the system light screen: [Mining will consume 80% spiritual power; failure will trigger spiritual backlash.]

"The people of the Rejuvenation Valley said that the hidden wound in your heart meridian..."

"Help me ask Ling Yun for two bottles of spirit-recovery pills." Shen Yi had already crossed his legs and seated himself before the mineral vein, pressing his palm against the scalding serpent bone.

The system planting interface unfolded in the void, and his Adam's apple bobbed as he stared at the blood-red "High Risk" label trailing behind [Profound Crystal Ore Seed].

***

When the torrential rain finally ceased, Shen Yi burst open the apothecary's door, carrying half a basket of silver-gray ore on his back.

Ling Yun's silver needle nearly pierced his carotid artery. "Have you grown tired of living? Your heart meridian's spiritual power is in such complete chaos..."

"Is this enough to patch the array eye?" He dumped the ore onto Elder Xuanfeng's array disc, stray locks of hair still matted with cobwebs from the mine.

The very second the Seven-Prism Stones made contact with the profound crystal ore, the array patterns suddenly surged with life like a living creature, and the array flags Mingxin was clutching snapped straight into rigid silver lines with a crisp swish.

The snow lotus resting by Gao Yao's pillow emitted a clear, resonant hum.

Shen Yi reached out, intending to touch the receding black mist between her brows, but his vision suddenly went pitch black.

The system light screen exploded with a sky full of blood-red blossoms deep within his sea of consciousness: [Spiritual backlash countdown: 12 hours.]

"Senior Brother Shen!" Mingxin's startled cry was shredded by the night wind.

Shen Yi steadied himself against the alchemy furnace, tasting the flavor of iron rust upon the tip of his tongue.

He touched the quieted jade box inside his Qiankun pouch; scale-like patterns had inexplicably surfaced across the exterior of the serpent bone, fitting together with the starry map on the array disc with absolute perfection.

The rain-washed moonlight cut obliquely through the window lattice, casting a narrow line of dim light across the young girl's pale lips.

Shen Yi swallowed the sweet taste of blood rising in his throat, his fingertips brushing past the teardrop trembling at the corner of Gao Yao's eye, threatening to fall.

The ice-cracked snow lotus in the young girl's hair suddenly burst with clear brilliance, beating back the black mist lingering around her temples by a fraction of an inch.

The system light screen flickered unsteadily in his sea of consciousness, the countdown to the spiritual backlash hanging like a guillotine blade suspended above his head.

"Senior Brother Shen, all the spirit-recovery pills in the medicine pavilion are right here." Mingxin's hands were still trembling as he held the pale green jade box, yet the twelve deep-purple pills within were neatly aligned.

The lad had managed to retrieve all the scattered array flags at some point, crudely carving warding talismans onto their poles.

Elder Xuanfeng's wide sleeves fluttered wildly as the Seven-Prism Stones and profound crystal ore melted into a liquid galaxy upon the array disc. "The Tiangang Big Dipper Array requires thirty-six array eyes. We are still lacking..."

"The southeast Xun position is short three catties of lunar essence sand." Shen Yi cut him off, the serpent bone within his Qiankun pouch suddenly growing burning hot.

He recalled the bizarre totems he had witnessed deep within the mine the previous night; the star charts painted on the rock walls using the blood of fierce beasts matched the mineral vein trajectories scanned by the system with absolute precision, as though someone had calculated this calamity a millennium ago.

Hao Yu hurled a half-eaten spiritual fruit at the formation map. "Lunar essence sand can only be found in the Immortal Realm's Chamber of Commerce, and those profiteers are price-gouging right now..."

"To the back mountain." Shen Yi snatched up his outer robe stained with mineral ash, the blisters on his waist stinging fiercely as they rubbed against the fabric. "The system scan shows a companion mineral vein on the third level of the abandoned mine." As he spoke, he fixed his gaze on Ling Yun's slender hands as she applied the silver needles, causing her to misalign by half an inch, pricking a single bead of blood from Gao Yao's wrist.

The mountain paths following the heavy rain carried the scent of rust.

Shen Yi crushed the skeletal remains of spirit-devouring rats blocking his path, the system light screen projecting a three-dimensional model of the mine shaft across his retinas.

A blinking red dot was stuck within a fault zone, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the location of the debris shaken loose when the serpent bone shrieked the night before.

"This mining tunnel collapsed ten years ago." Hao Yu raised a newly crafted torch, its flame core whipped wildly this way and that by the seeping gloomy wind.

Rotting support timbers emitted crisp cracking sounds beneath their boot heels, until Shen Yi touched a protruding spot on the rock wall—etched upon it were scale-like carvings identical in pattern to the serpent bone.

When the third array disc was embedded into the nodes of the mineral vein, the entire cavern suddenly trembled like a living entity.

Hao Yu's startled cry lodged in his throat, transforming into a strange whimper as countless silver-gray fluids oozed from the rock fissures, condensing in mid-air into a waterfall of stars.

***

The system prompt sounded with a crackling current of static: [Lunar essence sand purity 99.3%, can be refined...]

The very moment Shen Yi's fingertips brushed against the flowing star sand, the jade box at his waist burst with scorching heat.

The serpent bone shot into the air, projecting a massive astral map illusion across the ceiling of the mine shaft.

A constellation position that had been deliberately erased aligned precisely with the gap in the Tiangang Big Dipper Array.

"Hurry up and gather it!" Hao Yu yanked his Qiankun pouch, thrusting it straight into the waterfall of star sand, his cuffs corroded instantly into honeycomb-like holes.

Shen Yi, however, stared intently at a flickering patch of light within the illusion. The system planting interface automatically popped up the planting option for [Starfall Sand], bearing a blood-red warning label for the cost: Twenty years of lifespan.

When Mingxin stumbled into the mine shaft clutching his array disc, he happened to catch Shen Yi biting down on the tip of his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood directly onto the star sand.

Those silver-gray fluids abruptly solidified, transforming into a sky full of falling stars that plummeted into the Qiankun pouch.

The young disciple was so awestruck by the wondrous sight before him that he momentarily forgot his pain, until he caught sight of the shock of white hair that had suddenly sprouted at Shen Yi's temples.

"Is this enough?" Shen Yi tossed the bulging Qiankun pouch to Elder Xuanfeng, his hair tips still dusted with crystallized star sand.

The instant the array disc made contact with the lunar essence sand, thirty-6 golden rays soared into the heavens, weaving a flowing web of stars across the exterior of the mountain-guarding barrier.

Mingxin's array flags, carved with warding talismans, fluttered without wind, the cinnabar on their surfaces suddenly bursting into spiritual flames.

It was precisely at this moment that Gao Yao awoke.

The young girl's fingertips hooked into the hem of Shen Yi's robe as the ice-cracked snow lotus bloomed with its seventh petal amidst her hair.

When Shen Yi turned around, he knocked over the medicine cup, sending the brownish liquid splashing across the array patterns to form a strange totem—matching the star charts in the mine with absolute, terrifying exactitude.

"You always love treating miracles as your daily meals." Gao Yao's pale lips pressed against the side of his neck, a teardrop rolling past the burn scar on the youth's collarbone.

Shen Yi caught the cold fragrance of the snow lotus in her hair, mixed with the scent of blood, as a fresh prompt abruptly materialized on the system light screen: [Ice Soul Snow Lotus maturity 100%, can be refined...]

The water-clock striking midnight pierced through the curtain of rain.

Shen Yi stood before the swirling array eye, watching Mingxin plant the final array flag into the Xun position.

Hao Yu was stuffing dried spiritual fruit into the gaps of the array disc, claiming it would "add a bit of sweetness" to the formation.

Elder Xuanfeng's crane-feather cloak was coated in star sand, and a rare smile touched his usually solemn face. "The array is complete. It can withstand a hundred thousand demonic troops."

"I am afraid it goes beyond that." Shen Yi stroked the newly formed cracks spreading across the jade box.

That section of serpent bone had begun to exhibit crimson veins since morning, resonating with an ever-approaching red marker displayed on the system light screen.

He gazed out at the churning dark clouds beyond the barrier, suddenly recalling the illusion he had witnessed while planting the Starfall Sand—beyond the nine heavens, a pair of scarlet eyes was peering through the star sand, watching the mortal world.

Gao Yao's snow lotus hairpin suddenly emitted a clear chime.

Shen Yi turned to catch the staggering young girl, only to discover that her palm was tightly clenched around a fragment of black scale armor.

The edges of the object were as sharp as a blade, radiating a netherlight that did not belong to the Three Realms.