The celestial assembly's riddle traps Shen Yi, breaking the conventional patterns to display his sharp edge.

The juice of the moonlight grass at the end of the dark alley suddenly emitted a fluorescent glow. As Shen Yi leaped onto the eaves following the spot of light, he happened to see the exhibition platform hanging in mid-air, suspended by mysterious iron chains.

Nine glazed lamps were hung in the eight cardinal and sub-cardinal directions, casting a bright, ice-like radiance onto the jade box engraved with the three characters "Heavenly Secret Seed".

"Does this fellow Daoist wish to try the Heavenly Secret Lock?" Lingxuan's silver bell chimed softly at the edge of the platform. Her fingertip pointed at the Twenty-Eight Mansions star orbits hanging down from the glazed lamps. "The ninefold restrictions are interlinked; even the elders of our Spirit Artisan Pavilion have broken seven jade slips trying to crack them."

Just as Shen Yi reached out to touch the star orbits, a folding fan inlaid with dragon bones abruptly thrust in from the side.

Ouyang Yu's dark brocade robe stirred waves of sandalwood fragrance. Deliberately, he tapped the Tianshu position within the star orbits with his fan ribs. "If Junior Brother Shen cannot unlock it, why not beg me to teach you the art of stellar divination?"

The bluestone bricks beneath the exhibition platform suddenly fractured into fine lines, causing several disciples to gasp and retreat three steps.

Out of the corner of his eye, Shen Yi caught sight of Ouyang Yu's left hand hidden within his sleeve, forming a blood-amulet incantation. Those cracks precisely matched the position he had just tapped—this man actually dared to tamper with the star orbits using demonic arts!

"Many thanks for Senior Brother's kind offer." Deliberately, Shen Yi placed his palm over Tianquan, the most chaotic position of the star orbits. The bronze hoe inside his system inventory suddenly vibrated, injecting a wisp of silver radiance into his meridians. "However, a simple farmer knows a few clumsy methods." As he spoke, the silver-spike patterns behind his ears suddenly spread to his fingertips, tracing out half a wheat-ear-shaped spirit pattern upon the star orbits.

The observation platform suddenly rang with the crisp tone of a bronze chime, and the entangled star orbits unexpectedly and spontaneously reorganized into the embryonic form of the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions.

So shocked was Lingxuan that she knocked over the teacup on her desk. "Is this the ancient star map of the Agricultural God offering sacrifices to heaven?"

"A mere trick of the craft." Ouyang Yu sneered coldly, and the blood amulets in his sleeve suddenly transformed into three red butterflies that lunged toward the exhibition platform.

The mandarin duck pendant at Shen Yi's waist suddenly grew scorching hot. As he spun to evade the attack, he happened to catch a faint flash from the emerald hairpin that Gao Yao had hidden among the crowd—those three spirit stones corresponded precisely to the Heavenly Spear Triple Stars in the Purple Forbidden Enclosure!

Abruptly, Shen Yi grabbed a handful of spiritual spring water from the edge of the exhibition platform and dashed it across the star orbits.

The flowing water, wrapped in starlight, refracted seven-colored rainbows beneath the glazed lamps, causing the ninefold restrictions previously hidden in the shadows to suddenly manifest.

Ouyang Yu's complexion changed drastically; the blood amulets he had concealed within the brick seams were actually scorched into blue smoke by the rainbow light.

"Fellow Daoist Shen, watch out!" Lingxuan suddenly flung her silver bell, barely blocking a dark ray that targeted the center of Shen Yi's back.

The bronze tripods surrounding the exhibition platform abruptly spewed out green smoke. Shen Yi's silver-spike patterns flickered like stars within the mist, unexpectedly resonating with the farming diagrams upon the restrictions.

The system countdown suddenly burst with red light in his sea of consciousness: 300 seconds remaining!

Cold sweat beaded on Shen Yi's temples. He noticed that at the gap in the restrictions scorched by the rainbow light, the half-length shape of a bronze key was vaguely exposed—it was precisely the phantom image that had condensed in his sea of consciousness moments before!

"Could Junior Brother Shen be planning to admit defeat?" Ouyang Yu suddenly laughed loudly, the red butterflies flying from his sleeve having now turned ink-black. "Pray look, everyone, this country bumpkin cannot even touch the star orbits..."

Shen Yi suddenly yanked open the front of his robe, and the farming diagram outlined by the silver-spike patterns at his collarbone suddenly came alive.

He snatched the spiritual plant atlas from the exhibition platform and slammed it against the gap in the restrictions, causing the nine glazed lamps to simultaneously burst with blinding light—the evening primrose illustrated in the atlas suddenly unfurled its leaves, its roots actually driving straight into the grain of the bronze key!

A teacup shattering sound came from the observation platform, and the aged spirit artisan grabbed the railing with trembling hands. "Using vegetation as a key... this is the lineage of Shennong..."

Before he could finish speaking, the exhibition platform violently shuddered.

The silver-spike patterns on Shen Yi's palms began to scorch his flesh. Staring at the phantom images of bronze farming tools emerging within the restrictions, he abruptly heard the system emit a harsh warning.

The bronze tripods at the four corners of the exhibition platform began to ooze black mist, while Ouyang Yu's blood-stained fingertips were quietly pressing down upon a certain ancient formation eye.

Gao Yao's moon-white skirt suddenly swept past the edge of the exhibition platform, her emerald hairpin refracting a peculiar patch of light at a certain angle.

Shen Yi felt the half-key in his sea of consciousness begin to burn, while the system interface abruptly popped up a scarlet warning box:
[Warning! Forced cracking will trigger the Ninefold Thunder Tribulation]

Shen Yi's fingers hovered before the final restriction, the vibration of the bronze farming tools nearly tearing apart his sea of consciousness.

Catching a glimpse of the blood-jade formation disk sliding from Ouyang Yu's sleeve out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly curved the corners of his lips... In the blinding glare of the glazed lamps, pale golden juice suddenly oozed from Shen Yi's fingertips.

The evening primrose seeds in his system inventory had somehow taken root in his palm, their dense root systems growing wildly along the grain of the bronze key.

"The Tianquan position belongs to wood, and the Wolf Star corresponds to the vernal equinox..." Mumbling to himself, Shen Yi twirled the leaves of the evening primrose and, amidst the astonished gazes of everyone, suddenly pressed the entire spiritual plant into the gap of the star orbits.

The moment the roots touched the spiritual spring water, they traced out the reflected image of the Big Dipper constellation within the light curtain refracted by the glazed lamps.

Ouyang Yu's folding fan snapped with a crisp "crack." "This wild approach..."

"Evening primrose grows counter to the light when encountering water." Shen Yi grinned ruffianly, pulling down the collar scorched black by the silver-spike patterns to reveal the agricultural totem faintly visible at his collarbone. "Could it be that you all do not know the root systems of spiritual plants understand the latitude and longitude of heaven and earth far better than astrolabes?"

Leaning on his bronze staff, the aged spirit artisan suddenly rushed onto the exhibition platform. With calloused hands trembling, he stroked the reorganized star orbits. "The three principal stars of the Purple Forbidden Enclosure actually correspond to the three jiao acupuncture points of a spiritual plant!" A brilliant light burst from the elder's turbid eyes. "Using the meridians of vegetation to replace stellar divination—brilliant, simply brilliant!"

The nine glazed lamps simultaneously extinguished.

The evening primrose in Shen Yi's palm unfurled its leaves in the darkness, silver-white fluorescence flowing along the patterns of the Twenty-Eight Mansions and ultimately condensing into a wheat-ear-shaped light pattern at the lockhole of the jade box.

With a soft "click," the jade box containing the Heavenly Secret Seed sprang open, and phantom images of spiritual plants simultaneously emerged across all twenty-eight stellar positions.

"Impossible!" The blood-jade formation disk in Ouyang Yu's sleeve abruptly shattered, and he hurriedly used his folding fan to shield the flying shards. "Such base methods..."

"Senior Brother Ouyang's sandalwood fragrance is mixed with scarlet blood vine juice, isn't it?" Shen Yi suddenly leaned close to his ear, whispering while rolling a blood-stained jade fragment between his fingertips. "Using demonic bone-corroding powder to fake a stellar orbit backlash, you had better take care not to injure your precious golden core."

The surrounding crowd suddenly became restless.

Several senior disciples stared fixedly at the wisps of black qi faintly manifesting beneath Ouyang Yu's brocade robe, and without a sound, they retreated half a step.

Lingxuan's silver bell chimed at the opportune moment, fixing Ouyang Yu in place just as he was about to erupt. "The immortal gathering's restrictions have been opened; please maintain a three-step distance between yourselves."

Tossing the three Heavenly Secret Seeds in the jade box, Shen Yi suddenly blew a frivolous kiss toward the eastern observation platform.

Behind the cyan jade table, Gao Yao hurriedly used her teacup to cover her burning face, forgetting that her emerald hairpin was still reflecting starlight—three rice-grain-sized spots of light happened to fall precisely upon the spiritual plant atlas Shen Yi had unfolded.

"Fellow Daoist Shen, stay your steps!" The aged spirit artisan suddenly blocked Shen Yi as he was about to leap off the exhibition platform, shoving a bronze medallion engraved with rice ear patterns into his hand. "Three days from now, the Spirit Artisan Pavilion will hold its disciple-recruitment ceremony. If you are able to cultivate using the Heavenly Secret Seeds..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a massive crash echoed from the northwest corner as a bronze tripod overturned.

Shen Yi's silver-spike patterns abruptly grew scorching hot. Turning his head, he just in time saw Gao Yao being led away from the observation platform by two elders wearing mysterious iron masks.

The maiden's moon-white skirt brushed against the bluestone steps, and the abandoned emerald hairpin refracted a bloody radiance at a bizarre angle.

"That is... the mark of the Heart-Devouring Gu?" Shen Yi's pupils constricted slightly.

The mandarin duck pendant in his system inventory suddenly cracked with a fine line. Feigning that he was leaning down to tie his bootlaces, his fingertips swiftly swept past the spot where the hairpin had fallen—within the residual warmth of the spirit stone, Gao Yao's unique green bamboo fragrance was mixed in.

Lingxuan's voice transmission suddenly drilled into his eardrum: "At the third quarter of the戌 hour, by the Sword-Washing Pool at the back mountain." As she spoke, her silver bell gently brushed against Shen Yi's sleeve, dropping a glazed fragment inscribed with trapping array patterns.

Down on the platform, Ouyang Yu was wiping his blood-stained fingertips. The newly changed ink-jade pendant at his waist faintly displayed blood-colored patterns identical to those on the hairpin.

Tossing the Heavenly Secret Seed into the air and catching it again, Shen Yi turned around, his dark outer robe deliberately brushing against Ouyang Yu's wound. "Does Senior Brother know what the Heart-Devouring Gu loves to devour most?" He smiled with curved eyes and brows, while the bronze hoe hidden within his sleeve had already cut open his palm. "It is precisely this sort of..." The remaining sound transformed into a secret voice transmission, "...filthy thing raised on demonic blood."

As night fell, Shen Yi crouched upon a crooked tree by the bank of the Sword-Washing Pool, staring absent-mindedly at the silver-spike patterns on his palm that were gradually fading.

The system interface suddenly popped up a prompt: [Heavenly Secret Seed cultivation progress: 1%], while the crack in the mandarin duck pendant was oozing pale cyan liquid—that was unmistakably the spiritual breath of Gao Yao's natal magical artifact.