Many children, many blessings: Stealing the offspring of powerful figures to cultivate immortality.

Pei Zheng's spear was placed across the threshold, its tip pressing against the ancestral mark of the young master on the back of Pei Yunji's hand. The condemned prisoner in the blood test stele had already raised his head, and dark silver fire lines crawled along the corner of the stele toward the stone door.

Pei Yunji gripped his sword and stepped forward, a ring of purple-gold demonic vines immediately appearing around his waist. Jiang Yining dragged him back to his original position: "The position of young master can be regained even if it's lost, but the ancestral mark has been burned into your dantian. What will you use to settle accounts with Pei Henian?"

"He won't let me go even if I stay outside."

Pei Yunji pointed at the fragment of the Mirror of Revelation with his sword sheath: "The Blood Tablet identifies the ancestral mark, but it cannot distinguish whether the bloodline comes from the original body or the substitute. As long as we put the blood of the two ancestral bodies into the same fake body, five breaths will be enough for us to cross the threshold."

Jiang Yining released the demonic vines, extracted a small amount of the elder's blood from the Blood-Chasing Seal, and wrapped it around the edge of the mirror: "You are only allowed to use one drop of your young master's blood. If you give me half a drop more, I will slap this mirror back into your hands."

Pei Yunji cut open the ancestral mark, and a drop of silver blood fell into the mirror. The right hand of the death row inmate's fake body then grew the young master's seal, and the fire lines on the monument changed direction, beginning to write sin marks around the fake body.

Pei Zheng sheathed his spear: "The passageway can only be maintained for five breaths. Once the time limit is over, the fire on the monument will burn both inside and outside the gate at the same time. Whoever falls behind will be written into the death row."

Jiang Yining pulled Jiang Siyue into her arms, her purple-gold wood energy flowing around the child's limbs: "Siyue, hold onto the big red chicken tightly. Don't reach out, and don't let it touch the ground. Do you understand?"

Jiang Siyue covered the Fire Spirit Falcon's sharp beak and nodded vigorously: "Siyue only hugs her mother and won't let go no matter who calls her."

Lou Xiaotian slung the Overlord Spear behind his back, letting Jiang Yining seal the blue mark on her chest: "The life-protecting blood pact has been withdrawn. I'll stand guard three steps behind you and won't try to steal the door."

Fan Chenxin stood to her left, sword in hand: "When the monument fire passes the substitute, I will sever the outer layer of fire lines to prevent the Buddha's breath from entering your Blood Pursuit Seal."

"Remember what you said."

Jiang Yining pushed the mirror towards the threshold. The death row inmate stepped across the stone line, and all the fire patterns in the blood test tablet rushed towards the mirror.

As the first breath fell, Jiang Yining carried her daughter and stepped into the main tomb. Lou Xiaotian followed her footsteps into the door, the green vines on his chest now only leaving a thin mark.

As the second breath ended, Chu Ling Shuang dragged the heavy hammer across the stone line. The hammer's tail grazed the fire on the tombstone, and sparks landed on the tomb bricks, burning several finger-sized holes.

As the third breath began, Fan Chenxin turned and swung his sword. The dark gold blade sliced ​​through the pursuing fire. He did not linger in the fight and used the force of the stone gate's rebound to retreat inside.

At the fourth breath, Pei Yunji stepped across the threshold, and silver flames emanated from the ancestral mark of the young master on the back of his hand. Jiang Yining grabbed his wrist and covered the silver flames with Pei Henian's elder aura.

The blood test tablet identified the two ancestral bloods as the same crime. The tablet fire abandoned Pei Yunji and turned to chase after the fake death row inmate outside the door.

As the fifth breath was about to end, Pei Zheng inserted his spear into the doorway and used his ancestral bone to seal the closed stone crevice: "I will stay on the passageway to verify the blood token. If Pei Henian sends his guards into the tomb, they will have to get past me first."

Pei Yunji suppressed the remaining flames of the ancestral inscription and said through the narrowed crack in the door, "You'd better not cling to an ancestral rule that has long been altered."

"If the ancestral rules are corrupt, I will find out who did it. If the young master's rules are corrupt as well, I will investigate you as well."

Pei Zheng drew his gun and stepped back, and the stone door closed between the two of them.

The main tomb occupies the entire mountainside, with dozens of black stone pillars supporting the dome. In the center, the blood pool is over a hundred feet wide, with dark red water swirling around the withered giant root, and seven drops of blood marrow the size of fists hanging above the root.

Each of the seven drops of blood marrow was a different color. As soon as the pressure from the pool reached the shore, the Fire Spirit Falcon folded its wings, and the fox tail phantom behind Jiang Siyue also extended half of itself.

Chu Ling Shuang inserted the hammer handle into the crevice in the rock to block the wave of blood surging from beneath the mother and daughter's feet: "If these seven things come at once, I can only block the first two at most. Don't rush to get closer."

Cen Jin's remnant soul emerged from the military flag, and the iron armor stopped ten feet away from the blood pool: "The seven drops of blood marrow originally guarded the seven roots of the divine tree. The Guardian Army used them to heal the alien beasts that participated in the battle. After the tomb was destroyed, only three drops retained their true essence."

"What was in the remaining four drops?"

Jiang Yining put her daughter down, and the purple-gold wood energy formed a protective array under Jiang Siyue's feet: "Siyue, stand inside the circle, and retract your fox tail. If the blood marrow recognizes you as a sacrifice, your mother needs to break its defenses first."

"Don't worry, Mother, I'll keep an eye on the big red chicken in April."

Jiang Siyue hugged the Fire Spirit Falcon tightly. As soon as the fat bird stretched its neck, she pressed its sharp beak back into her arms.

Jiang Yining released seven Soul-Devouring Demon Vines, their tips reaching towards the blood marrow in turn. The green marrow on the left, the red marrow above, and the golden marrow at the bottom of the pool all sprouted tender buds. The remaining four vines were pierced by the dark silver hooks before they even reached the edge of the pool.

She cut off the damaged vines, and the outer shells of the four drops of fake blood marrow cracked open, each containing a Spirit-Peeling Array Bead: "The fake marrow is waiting for the divine tree host to enter the pool. Once the four beads are put together, they will pull out the ancestral root from the Qi Sea."

Pei Yunji took out the ancestral bone and, through the sword sheath, approached the array groove by the pool. Dense silver lines were reflected in the ancestral pattern on the back of his hand: "The Pei family later added four layers of the Spirit-Stripping Array. The false marrow is the first layer, the withered roots at the bottom of the pool are the second layer, and there are two more layers hidden in the stone pillars and the top of the tomb."

Fan Chenxin lowered the black blade, and the Buddha light spread along the tomb bricks, with twelve thin lines passing through the spot where Jiang Yining had originally stood: "There is a blood-drawing spot every six steps along the pool. You stay within the blade light, and I will only follow the formation and not touch the silver leaves."

"There's no need to guard so closely."

Jiang Yining glanced at his still-healing palm wound: "Your Buddha bone was just cracked. Once you've revealed the battle line, stop using your strength. Don't wait until I have a free hand to deal with you."

Lou Xiaotian thrust the Overlord Spear into the crevice in the rock. The green wood energy sank into the ground along the spear shaft. The withered roots at the bottom of the pool were soothed by the same source of power, and the hooks that were piercing the vines retreated back into mud and blood: "They contract once every six breaths. I can hold them off for half an hour."

"If you can't hold on any longer, report your numbers and use less of your resources to make up for lost time."

Jiang Yining controlled the demonic vines to bypass the array's traps and touch the three drops of true essence.

A beastly roar emanated from the green marrow, a firebird with outstretched wings appeared from the red marrow, and a unicorn cub curled up in the golden marrow. Three streams of life force entered the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree along the tips of the vines. The third ancestral root unfurled, while the remaining young roots remained sealed in the mist.

"The true essence has already recognized the divine tree. Before extracting the essence, we must first dismantle the four array beads."

Jiang Yining retracted the vines: "No one is allowed to go into the pool. First, find the control latches on the top of the tomb and the stone pillars."

Chu Ling Shuang had already circled around to the west side of the tomb chamber. She tapped the collapsed wall with the handle of her hammer, listened carefully to the location of the cavity, and smashed through the mountain wall with one blow. Large pieces of broken stone rolled down, revealing half of the gray-white ridge of a boat.

The wrecked boat lay diagonally deep inside the mountain, its bow broken off and its hull riddled with burn holes. The remaining skeleton was still hundreds of feet long, and three well-preserved array grooves were hidden beneath the stern.

Cen Jin turned the military flag, and the Xuanjia garrison dragged a broken plank from the pile of stones: "This is the last interdimensional ancient ship of the Guardian Army. The stern was taken from a Void Star Beast. It originally had thirty-six array slots, but now only three are still usable."

Pei Yunji leaped onto the wrecked boat and used his sword sheath to sweep away the stone chips: "The first line of defense is against the pressure of the void, the second line is to protect the stern, and the third line is responsible for positioning. The boundary markers have already been dug up."

Jiang Yining walked to the third array slot and traced the pattern with her fingertip. The folded structure at the bottom of the slot matched the cross-border immortal ship of the Canglan Realm, only lacking the star map bone plate to support the boundary marker.

Jiang Siyue did not leave the protective formation. She pointed to the stern of the ship and asked, "Mother, someone inside the ship is calling for Siyue. They keep saying they can't go home."

Jiang Yining returned to her daughter's side, and Mu Qi first checked her palms and dantian: "Do you have a headache? Did Ye Zi pull you over?"

"No, a few children are crying. They won't let April touch the boat by herself."

Jiang Siyue raised her hand: "Mother, can you come with me?"

Jiang Yining tied a thin purple-gold vine between the mother and daughter's wrists, and then had Chu Ling Shuang guard their backs before taking Jiang Siyue's hand and helping her press the gray-white bone shell onto her.

The nine-tailed fox's breath traveled along the ancient ship's remaining patterns. Deep within the Myriad Spirit Tree, four sleeping young leaves stirred twice, and the crying in the cabin dissipated, the resonance finally settling in the spatial positioning slot.

Cen Jin spread the tattered flag on the stern of the ship: "The ancient ship once transferred the guards of the sacred tree and children from the war. The Pei family ancestors cut off the return-to-boundary array and stole the main branch of the sacred tree. The children in the rear cabin were unable to leave."

Chu Ling Shuang gripped the hammer handle, the veins on the back of her hand bulging: "The Pei family's genealogy records the stolen tree as a salvaged branch, and they even dared to erase a whole boatload of children."

Jiang Yining let the demonic vines burrow into the broken hull, pulling out a star map bone plate from the ashes: "We'll settle the accounts after we get out. The ancient ship needs repairs, the boundary markers need replacements, and what's still missing to power it?"

Pei Yunji examined the three interfaces on the edge of the bone plate: "Star Beast spinal cord, Boundary Breaking Crystal, and three drops of Nirvana Ancestral Blood. The first two should be stored in the Ancestral Hall's secret vault."

"Put the bone plates away first, and leave the three drops of essence in their original positions as well."

Jiang Yining put the Star Chart Bone Plate into her storage bag: "Whoever touches the blood marrow before the Spirit Stripping Array is completely dismantled will open the door for Pei Henian."

Pei Yunji returned to the pool and placed the ancestral bone close to the fourth array buckle. His hand did not touch the stone trough, but the young master's ancestral mark lit up on its own, and the elder's authority hidden in the seal followed the ancestral bone into the center of the array.

"Step back. Pei Henian isn't waiting for you to break the formation; he's waiting for the young master's ancestral seal to approach the blood pool."

Jiang Yining's demonic vines had barely wrapped around Pei Yunji's wrist when the dark silver patterns detached from his skin and embedded themselves into the stone groove.

The three drops of true essence simultaneously turned towards Jiang Yining, and the three-colored lines of blue, red, and gold traversed the tomb chamber, nailing into the third ancestral root of the Myriad Spirits Divine Tree. Immediately, the sound of chains being dragged came from the bottom of the pool.

Pei Yunji raised his sword and slashed at the ancestral mark. The blood pool bounced back the sword's edge, dragging him to his knees by the edge of the pool: "The blood marrow recognized the divine tree, and Pei Henian also obtained the key to the Spirit Stripping Array by borrowing my Young Master Seal."

The first dark silver chain burst forth from the water, passed over Pei Yunji's shoulder, and wrapped around Jiang Yining's right wrist.