Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The grid pattern on the walls of the secret room was still lit up.

Just as Su Chang'an reached out and touched the fox token, the ground beneath his feet suddenly trembled.

The runes throughout the entire secret room went dark at the same time.

It wasn't extinguished; it was forcibly covered by another force.

A layer of dark red light seeped out from the gaps in the floor tiles, spreading rapidly along the walls and sealing the four sides of the black iron walls completely.

The stench of blood was overwhelming.

Chen Xuan reacted a beat faster than Su Chang'an. He pulled her behind him, holding his heavy sword horizontally in front of him, the dark red blood lines on the blade pulsating violently.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time."

The sound came from the other end of the secret room.

In the very center of the dark red light membrane, a person sat on the ground, leaning against the wall. His right sleeve, half-empty, was stained with dried blood, and his left hand was pressed against a pattern on the ground.

Chen Tianyou.

His hair was half white, and his face was deathly pale, but his eyes were frighteningly bright.

His aura was completely different from before. He had desperately absorbed most of the essence in the Emperor's Blood Pool, and the purple light of the Supreme Bone seeped out through his clothes, distorting the surrounding air with heat.

Peak of the Profound Realm.

And it's still going up.

"The Emperor's Blood Pool was just bait." Chen Tianyou's lips twitched. "I knew you would find this secret chamber when I was absorbing the Emperor's Blood there."

He glanced down at his left hand, which was pressed against the array pattern.

"So I used the blood from my severed arm to set up this formation. The blood from the Supreme Bone, combined with the formation base of the Emperor's Palace, is just right to trap you here."

Chen Xuan felt the pressure.

It wasn't just a simple pressure, but a more subtle interference—the blood array was resonating with the remaining Supreme Bone aura within his body, attempting to disrupt the foundation of his newly broken Great Saint Realm.

The newly forged foundation is not yet fully stable. Although the energy from the Emperor's Blood Pool replenished his cultivation, the cracks in his foundation remain.

The blood array precisely locked onto the crack.

"He used his own blood and bones as the core of the array." Su Chang'an's voice rang in Chen Xuan's mind. "This array is specifically designed to counter those of the same bloodline. The residual aura of the Supreme Bone in your body will be controlled by him."

Chen Xuan remained silent.

He stared at Chen Tianyou, his hand gripping the sword remaining steady.

Chen Tianyou stood up from the ground.

The wound at the severed arm had been sealed by the purple bone energy and was no longer bleeding. He took two steps, and with each step, the array patterns on the ground lit up a little more.

"Do you know what's most ridiculous?" Chen Tianyou looked at Chen Xuan, "You went through all that trouble to break in, and all the things you got—jade slips, pills, short swords—are useless junk that only those with the Heavenly Fox bloodline can use."

He chuckled.

"You don't even have the right to open them."

Chen Xuan's expression remained unchanged.

Su Chang'an rolled his eyes behind him.

She didn't say anything, but her hand had already moved.

A wisp of his divine soul probed out, seeping into the cracks between the floor tiles beneath his feet. The perception of a peak Quasi-Emperor spread through the bottom layer of the blood array, like water seeping into sand.

The structure of the blood array unfolded before her eyes.

It's very rough.

Chen Tianyou used the blood from his severed arm as the array's core, amplifying the effect by borrowing the palace's array base—his idea was sound. However, he had too little time to set up the array, less than half an hour, and the connection between many nodes relied entirely on brute force, making it unable to withstand close scrutiny.

Su Chang'an counted them.

There are seventeen nodes. Three of them are fictitious, and only fourteen actually bear the load. Among these fourteen, two have extremely slight deviations in the flow of spiritual energy.

She didn't rush to take action.

Chen Tianyou is speaking.

"When my father dug out your bones and gave them to me, I was too young to understand anything," Chen Tianyou lowered his voice. "Later I understood. The Supreme Bone chose me, which means destiny is with me. You were just a vessel."

Chen Xuan finally spoke.

"Are you finished speaking?"

Chen Tianyou's eyes turned cold.

He raised his left hand, and a burst of purple light erupted from his palm.

The Blood Array is fully activated.

Fourteen nodes lit up simultaneously, and a dark red beam of light shot from the ground to the ceiling, forming a cage. The space inside the cage began to distort, and a tearing force pressed down on Chen Xuan.

Chen Xuan felt a sharp pain in his chest.

Where the Supreme Bone once grew, the flesh and blood were convulsing. The resonance of the bone energy was like an invisible hand, reaching into his body and stirring.

He knelt on one knee.

"You've knelt down?" Chen Tianyou took a step forward. "In this formation, every trace of energy related to the Supreme Bone within you will be drawn to you by me. The more you struggle, the faster your Dao Foundation will crack."

Chen Xuan leaned on his sword and stood up.

There was blood at the corner of his mouth.

Su Chang'an's voice rang out in his mind again, this time with certainty.

"The spiritual energy flow is reversed at the seventh and twelfth nodes. I'll cut it off for you; you have three breaths to recover."

Chen Xuan's pupils contracted slightly.

Three breaths.

enough.

The next moment, two very faint "clicks" came from deep within the floor of the secret room.

It was as if someone had twisted two thin ropes in the dark.

The light of the blood array suddenly froze.

The resonance that tore apart the foundation of the Dao disappeared.

Chen Tianyou's expression changed.

He looked down at the array patterns beneath his feet. The light from the seventh and twelfth nodes had gone out, and the broken points still held traces of divine soul energy that did not belong to him.

"you--"

He didn't have time to finish speaking.

Chen Xuan made a move.

He wasted not a single moment of that three-breath window.

The sword dragged on the ground, its tip scraping against the jade brick surface with a sharp, screeching sound. Dark red lines of blood pulsed wildly along the blade.

Chen Tianyou hastily raised his hand, and the purple light of the Supreme Bone condensed into a barrier.

late.

Chen Xuan's sword didn't slash down, it stabbed in.

The moment the sword tip pierced the purple light barrier, Chen Tianyou heard a crisp sound.

The sound did not come from the barrier.

It came from his chest.

A hair-thin crack appeared on the Supreme Bone.

Purple light leaked from the crack, scalding Chen Tianyou and making him shudder. He staggered backward, crashing into the black iron wall, clutching his chest with his left hand, his face filled with disbelief.

"impossible……"

The Supreme Bone is the foundation of the Emperor's bloodline, how could it be cracked?

Chen Xuan sheathed his sword.

He stood there, breathing heavily, the old wound on his hand reopening. But his gaze was as steady as a still pond.

"This bone was never yours to begin with," Chen Xuan said. "It has chosen a master."

Chen Tianyou's face contorted.

He stared intently at Chen Xuan, his gaze shifting from shock to something deeper—not fear, but resentment.

"You think you've won?" Chen Tianyou gritted his teeth, his voice squeezed out from between his teeth. "You're nothing but that fox. Without her, you couldn't even break my formation. You're nothing without her."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Chen Xuan looked at him.

Then he nodded.

"right."

Chen Tianyou was stunned.

"So you lost," Chen Xuan said.

His tone was flat. It wasn't sarcastic, nor boastful; he was simply stating a fact.

No one will cut those two nodes for you.

Nobody pulls you out of the river while they're digging your bones out.

You have no one in a dark, sunless cave to cut off your own flesh and make soup for you.

You have everything: supreme bones, imperial bloodline, and destiny bestowed upon you.

But you don't have her.

Chen Tianyou's lips moved, but no sound came out.

He looked down at the crack on his chest.

The purple light continued to leak out, and the aura of the Supreme Bone was becoming disordered, like a piece of artifact that had been barely pieced together finally unable to withstand the pressure and began to disintegrate from the inside.

The blood array completely collapsed. The dark red light membrane shattered into countless tiny specks of light, scattering throughout the secret chamber like fireflies in the dead of winter.

Chen Tianyou slid down against the wall.

He didn't say anything more.

Chen Xuan turned around and walked towards Su Chang'an.

Su Chang'an leaned against the stone platform, arms crossed, looking like she had finished watching the excitement and was ready to call it a day. But her face was paler than usual—those two subtle interferences had drained a lot of her mental energy.

"Let's go." Su Chang'an reached out and patted his shoulder. "Now that we have everything, we don't need to stay in this lousy place any longer."

Chen Xuan looked down at her.

He didn't say thank you.

He simply reached out and grasped Su Chang'an's hand. The grip was light, but their fingers were tightly clasped.

Su Chang'an did not break free.

The two walked side by side toward the exit of the secret room.

Behind him, Chen Tianyou leaned against the wall, the crack in his Supreme Bone still slowly widening. The purple light flickered, like a lamp about to go out.

He looked up at the two figures from behind.

It's very far.

He suddenly remembered that when he was very young, someone had stuffed a piece of bone into his chest.

That day was also very painful.

But no one came to rescue him.