Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

As Dongfang Weiwo took that step, the space of Guixu seemed to be dented by a giant foot. The gray-white mist rolled to both sides like waves, revealing the dark golden ground beneath his feet, which had not been seen for a long time—the ground was covered with dense bone patterns, like an ancient altar covered with ashes.

The phantom was forced backward by the force of the Sky-Stopping attack. Its three bony feet scraped across the ground, leaving several gray-black scorch marks. All the half-open eyes looked towards Dongfang Weiwo, their indifference and mockery replaced by astonishment and doubt.

"You shouldn't have this strength," the phantom said, its voice like a chorus of voices. "The Soul-Locking Bone has only been inside you for a moment, and you haven't even fully removed your left ankle bone. How could you possibly be awake?"

"The laws of the Void have ceased to exist, and your perception is inherently inaccurate," Dongfang Weiwo said coldly. "You're only focused on my skeleton, forgetting that this place is also suppressing you." He raised his sword, the tip pointing directly at the illusory figure. The marrow fire and that wisp of blood-red flame intertwined on the sword, burning and hissing as the gray-white mist rose.

"What kind of fire is that?" The phantom retreated slightly.

"Heart Blood Fire." Lu Moshen's voice came from behind, hoarse yet containing a hint of surprise. "He actually ignited the Heart Blood Fire at this critical moment. You're finished. You're just a soul, without bones and blood to fuel it. The Heart Blood Fire only burns remnants of souls. Don't think that just because you're a wisp of a god or demon's will, even the obsession of the god or demon himself would give way to the Heart Blood Fire."

Dongfang Weiwo no longer looked at his sword; he could feel it. The crimson flames weren't hot; instead, they felt like extremely cold, fine threads drawn from his heart and wrapped around the sword. With each breath of burning, his chest ached, as if a thorn was twisting in his heart. This was the price.

"Young Master." Yan Fei's voice rang out from the mist. He staggered back from the gray-white fog, his sword gone, a deep crack between his brows revealing bone, blood staining half his face. His left hand was loosely clenched, a faint glint of sword light still lingering between his fingers. "It severed one of my sword meridians, but it didn't kill me. If you use fire, I'll guide it into the circle for you."

"Yan Fei," Dongfang Weiwo said, "step back. If you are injured again, your primordial spirit will dissipate."

"I've already used up my power once," Yan Fei chuckled, blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. "Now, being able to share this sword strike with you is worth it."

Before Dongfang Weiwo could speak again, he leaned forward, his entire body drifting towards the illusory figure like a ghost. The sword light at the tip of his left finger suddenly grew, transforming into a semi-transparent longsword. He slashed horizontally with his sword, the sword energy like an extremely thin white line, cutting a crack in the gray-black mist.

The phantom uttered a low shout, its two bony legs rising to pierce through Yan Fei. But in that instant, Chuan Ying suddenly appeared from the side. His right palm was crippled, but his left palm had already condensed into blade energy, the blade light as sharp as a bolt of lightning, slashing at the two bony legs from the waist.

"Your sword intent has weakened further," the phantom sneered.

"To kill you, I won't use my will, I'll use my life." Chuan Ying's blade flashed, and he actually used his palm to strike the bone foot hard. The bone foot broke off with a sound, and the phantom roared. Another bone foot pierced Chuan Ying's right shoulder with lightning speed, pinning him to the ground.

Chuan Ying gritted his teeth, his left palm still exerting force, the blade energy burning against the illusory figure along the bony foot. The gray-black mist was dispersed by the blade energy.

"You two are courting death!" the phantom roared. It spun rapidly, creating a gray-black storm that swept Yan Fei and Chuan Ying away. The two landed on the ground, unable to get up again.

But it revealed an empty door behind it.

Dongfang Wei was already behind it.

This sword strike wasn't earth-shattering. He simply thrust the sword into the core of the illusory image, the very spot where Wan Wujiu's heart had once been. Crimson flames surged along the sword's blade, like a drop of cinnabar falling into dark gray water, instantly spreading outwards.

The phantom suddenly froze. At the same time, those half-open eyes opened to their widest extent, and what was reflected in their eyeballs was no longer gray and black, but a sky full of dark gold and blood red.

"No—" It let out a thousand overlapping screams, and its entire phantom burst into flames from the inside out. The Heart Blood Fire, like a malignant sore, swept along every branch, every wisp of mist, and every inch of its remaining soul. The gray-black mist transformed into countless tiny dark golden sparks in the flames, like scattered fireflies, drifting across the Ruins of Return.

"I can't die here! I can't—" The phantom's voice gradually transformed from a collective lament into an ancient, solitary roar, "I've guarded this prison for countless eons! Why should I die for it again! Why!"

Dongfang Weiwo stood in the fire, expressionless.

"You've served time in prison. But now you're being released," he said. "You've forgotten yourself."

"I haven't forgotten! I remember everything! My entire clan was wiped out, my youngest children were thrown into the cave, and only this last wisp of consciousness remains!" The phantom writhed wildly in the firelight, its voice a mixture of grief and rage, "If I don't leave, I will die too! What does this world have to do with me!"

"So you are not worthy of the name of gods and demons," Dongfang Weiwo said.

He drew his sword.

The Heartfire suddenly receded, then exploded again. The phantom was blasted into countless sparks, like a reversed rain, falling heavily to the ground. The three skeletal legs and the half-open eyes all turned to ashes in the flames.

Only a fragment of dark gold ankle bone fell from the flames and landed with a "clang" at Dongfang Weiwo's feet.

Quiet.

In the desolate ruins, all was silent. Even the white mist had ceased its churning.

Dongfang Weiwo lowered his head and picked up the broken ankle bone. It was magnetically attracted to the other half of his left leg, and as soon as it fell into his palm, it automatically melted into his left leg. The excruciating pain struck again, and he swayed, using his sword to support himself so that he wouldn't kneel.

Now, the entire left ankle bone is intact.

Lu Moshen sighed deeply, as if a heavy burden that had weighed on him for thirty years had been lifted: "It's dead. It was burned away by your heart's blood fire. But you must be careful, that fire uses heart's blood as fuel. Using it once will shorten your life by several years."

"I can't worry about that anymore," Dongfang Weiwo said. He raised his head, slowly turned around, and walked towards Wu Wudi.

Wu Wudi lay on his back on the ground, his chest caved in, his breath barely a whisper. Chuan Ying and Yan Fei were also at their limit; all three were hanging by a thread.

Lin Xiaoman had already run to Wu Wudi's side, placing her left palm on his chest. Blood from her palm seeped into his body along with a bluish-gold light, barely maintaining his heart's pulse. But the grayish-white color on that small patch of flesh was spreading at a visible speed.

"This Void is eating them." Lin Xiaoman looked up, tears welling in her eyes. "I don't have enough blood, so I can only let him hold on a little longer."

Lu Moshen asked, "Where is that Divine Demon Marrow Pearl?"

Lin Xiaoman was taken aback and took one out of her bosom. Dark golden liquid flowed slightly inside the bead, much dimmer than before.

"The other one," said Lu Moshen.

Lin Xiaoman took out a second one. The two marrow beads appeared simultaneously, and the air in the chamber suddenly distorted slightly. Lu Moshen said, "Crush them. Give one to Wu Wudi, and the other to those two. These marrow beads are formed from the erosion of the body. Although they are tainted with resentment, their base is divine and demonic marrow fluid, which can temporarily replace their lost life force."

Lin Xiaoman crushed one as instructed. Dark golden liquid flowed out, but did not disperse. It condensed into three beads the size of longan in mid-air, which automatically flew towards Wu Wudi, Yan Fei, and Chuan Ying, landing between their eyebrows and flashing inside.

All three shuddered violently. Wu Wudi was the most severely affected, spitting out a mouthful of black blood. The cavern in his chest slowly swelled up; though not fully healed, he was no longer on the verge of death. The bleeding from the crack between Yan Fei's brows also stopped. Chuan Ying's ashen right palm regained some color.

"Your lives are spared," said Lu Moshen, "but this is no place to stay for long. You must leave Guixu as soon as possible."

Dongfang Weiwo looked at him: "Leave? The prison isn't sealed yet. The ninth fragment has fused, but my skeleton isn't complete. How can the prison be sealed?"

Lu Moshen remained silent. His face appeared even more withered in the dark golden embers, as if it might fall apart at any moment.

"Come here." He beckoned to Dongfang Weiwo.

Dongfang Weiwo walked to the bone bed. Lu Moshen looked at him, a faint light flickering deep in his eye sockets.

"Did you hear what that remnant consciousness said just now?" Lu Moshen asked.

"It said it didn't want to die in this prison again," Dongfang Weiwo said. "It said this world has nothing to do with it."

"Do you know what it's guarding?" asked Lu Moshen. He slowly raised his right hand. That hand was almost transparent, like grayish-white glass, and you could see the finger bones inside. He pointed to Dongfang Weiwo's chest.

"In the prison of the gods and demons, there is a person. A person even more ancient than the gods and demons. He uses this world as a furnace to forge a unique 'bone'. The Myriad Star Domain is his abandoned furnace. Tianxuan and Tianwu are just charcoal in the furnace. The remains of gods and demons, the corridors and marrow passages, and the fragments of bones you have seen along the way are all the dregs left behind by his failed attempt to forge bones."

Dongfang Weiwo's pupils contracted slightly.

"What's his name?"

"No one knows," said Lu Moshen. "We call him 'Bone King.' The God-Demon Clan sealed him with the lives of their entire race. Now, the fontanelle of that infant has loosened. If you leave now, it won't be long before the Bone King breaks the seal. When that happens, the first thing he'll take is this nearly complete skeleton inside you. Because it's his bone, and he's calculated every step of the way."

Lin Xiaoman stood up, her voice trembling: "Demon God Lü, you sent us to seal the prison, but what is needed to seal the prison?"

Lu Moshen looked at Dongfang Weiwo: "A complete divine and demonic skeleton requires nine bones, eight fragments, a leg bone, and a soul-locking bone—none can be missing. You are currently missing most of your left leg. The method of imprisonment involves you using your body as a lock, sitting on that fontanelle, and using your heart's blood fire as a seal to re-seal the gate. After it is re-sealed, you will never be able to leave. This is the truth of the covenant of burial bones. It is also the ending that I did not write in these words."

"What if I don't seal it off?" Dongfang Weiwo asked.

"Then you can leave and live for a few more days. The Bone King's breaking of the seal won't happen in a day or two. It might take years, or it might take decades. You can take a few more glances at this world."

From the deepest part of the Ruins, a muffled sound suddenly came.

The sound was extremely distant, yet it made everyone's heart skip a beat. It was as if something in the deepest part of the fog, from the very bottom of the earth, had gently turned over.

Lu Moshen's expression changed completely.

"It's awake," he said, "much faster than I expected."

Dongfang Weiwo tightened his grip on his sword. He turned to look at the gradually dissipating gray-white mist behind him. The mist was slowly receding in all directions, revealing the true form of Guixu. It was a boundless bone plain, the earth covered with gray-white bone dust, and in the distance, a rift stretched across the sky, extending from the ground to the unseen dome. The rift was pitch black, yet a faint, dark golden light flickered at its edge, like an eye slowly opening.

The light wasn't intense, yet it sent a chill down everyone's spine.

Dongfang Weiwo turned to look at Lu Moshen.

"How long will it take to seal the prison?"

"Three breaths," said Lu Moshen, "from the moment you plunge the sword into your fontanelle until the fire of your heart and blood ignites the seams between your bones. Three breaths. But within these three breaths, the Bone King will take your life. He will emerge through the door you entered through."

Dongfang Weiwo nodded.

"Okay," he said calmly, as if speaking to himself, "Then I'll seal it."

Lin Xiaoman suddenly grabbed his arm: "If you seal it off, you'll never be able to get out!"

Dongfang Weiwo looked at her and suddenly smiled.

"Who said I was coming out?" he said. "I promised Demon God Lü that I would come here to retrieve the ninth fragment. Now, what I need to do is bring this all to a close. You take them out. Back to the Bone Alliance. The Tianwu Continent, and the road ahead, don't look back."

Lin Xiaoman stared at him, and tears finally fell. She didn't cry out, but just gripped his arm tightly, her knuckles turning white.

"I'll wait for you," she said. "You said that once you've collected all the bones, you'd come back to Green Bamboo Town with me to see the lanterns. I won't go back on my word for you."

Dongfang Weiwo looked at her, his eyes slightly warm, but he simply nodded.

"Okay. Look at the lights."

He turned towards the crack that stretched across the sky.

At the same time, the dark golden light within the crack suddenly intensified. A gigantic hand formed from shattered bones emerged from the crack.