Chapter 1996 - Seven-Star Glazed Array

Liu Wuxie's audacious challenge drew no answer. The cultivators around him understood their own motives all too well. Had any of them possessed a genuine solution, they would never have waited several days to offer it.

"Very well. I'll take you up on that challenge," said a man who appeared to be in his thirties. He had not been among the crowd that morning, and his face seemed unfamiliar.

Yet something about the man stirred a faint sense of recognition in Liu Wuxie, though its source eluded him. He also sensed a different purpose behind this arrival. While the others coveted the Cloud Mist Pearls, this man had come for him.

"That's Yan Wuji, a member of the Yan Clan of Mulberry Sea City," Yun Zhong informed Liu Wuxie through a private transmission.

Yun Zhong rarely traveled to Mulberry Sea City, but the Yan Clan had visited the manor a year earlier to buy several Cloud Mist Pearls. Yan Wuji had accompanied Yan Jingfu, the clan's patriarch, and Yun Zhong still remembered him from that encounter.

Liu Wuxie was Cloud Mist Manor's only hope, and Yun Zhong knew he had to stand behind him whatever happened. Should Liu Wuxie fail to hold the crowd in check tonight, they might force their way through the defensive barrier. With the manor's current strength, a clash would result in mutual destruction and heavy losses for both sides, the last outcome the manor wanted.

"So you're from the Yan Clan. That's a surprise. I assume the Liang and Wen Clans have sent their people as well?" Liu Wuxie asked, sweeping his gaze over the crowd. If the Yan Clan had dispatched someone, he believed the other two clans had done likewise.

Even with his identity exposed, Yan Wuji showed not a flicker of surprise.

No sooner had Liu Wuxie finished speaking than two more experts stepped out of the crowd, one from the Liang Clan and the other from the Wen Clan.

The surrounding cultivators watched in bewilderment. They had been preparing to make their own move, yet others had stepped forward ahead of them.

"We never thought you'd recognize us, Liu Wuxie," the two experts said. Icy auras poured from them and closed around him.

"Let's spare ourselves the talk. You three came to kill me, and you've agreed to my conditions. Now show everyone what you can do. Keep the Cloud Mist Pearls from disappearing, and my fate is yours to decide," Liu Wuxie replied. He had no intention of wasting time on these men. The spiritual array outside was ready, awaiting only the final step.

With the Asura Star already flickering, the disappearance of the pearls was imminent.

Acting on their patriarchs’ orders, Yan Wuji and his companions had hurried after Liu Wuxie but failed to intercept him along the way. With no other choice, they had entered Cloud Mist Manor that afternoon and waited for an opportunity to strike.

After exchanging glances, the three nodded and shot skyward. They began inscribing runes, sending them through the defensive barrier and deep into the cloud mists.

"What are those three up to?" the cultivators below asked, baffled by the men's actions.

"They're trying to seal the Cloud Mist Pearls inside barriers so they won't disappear. It's a reasonable approach," a Great Golden Immortal explained, nodding in approval.

The pearls lay scattered over a wide area. Sealing each inside its own barrier would force anyone attempting to steal it to come into contact with that barrier. The method lacked finesse, but it could yet prove the most effective approach.

"Why didn't that occur to me?" several cultivators wailed. They clutched their heads in frustration. A fine opportunity had slipped past them and into someone else's hands.

Yan Wuji and his companions worked swiftly, enclosing more than a hundred Cloud Mist Pearls in just fifteen minutes. The result was like sealing the pearls in a vacuum bottle, and the weakness was plain. Those barriers would make it difficult for the pearls to draw in the surrounding energy, much less the essence of the sun and moon.

That drawback did not trouble the three men. They needed only to keep the pearls from vanishing to win their wager with Liu Wuxie.

Roughly fifteen minutes passed before they descended to the ground, satisfied with the results.

Only Yun Zhong frowned at the sight. The manor had attempted the same method before, and its success had been limited. Prolonged confinement within those barriers would allow the pearls' energy and essence to dissipate. They would gradually wither until they reverted to cloud mists.

He turned to Liu Wuxie without delay, but Liu Wuxie signaled him to be patient.

"We've stopped the Cloud Mist Pearls from vanishing, Liu Wuxie. Get on your knees and accept your death!" the three men demanded.

Even if they killed Liu Wuxie here, the Azure Jade Palace would have no grounds to interfere, as a valid wager bound both sides.

They had spotted Liu Wuxie much earlier, yet no opening to act against him had presented itself. None of them had expected him to hand them that opportunity through a wager of his own making. That was why Yan Wuji had stepped forward without a moment's delay.

"Hold on," Liu Wuxie replied, shaking his head, then abruptly turned toward the southwestern sky.

Wondering what had caught his attention, the surrounding cultivators followed his gaze. A star of unusual brightness had appeared in the sky, shining more brilliantly than even the moon.

"What kind of star is that? How can it shine so brightly?" the cultivators on the ground exclaimed in shock. Never before had they seen a star with such dazzling brilliance, and something about this one struck them as peculiar.

Liu Wuxie's earlier account of the Seven Sirius Stars had prepared Long Ying and Long Yuanxiong for this sight. They did no more than exchange a glance, each finding shock mingled with relief in the other's eyes.

Liu Wuxie had said a new star would appear tonight, and the heavens had borne out his prediction. He had told the truth about the Seven Sirius Stars.

At the sight of the new star, Yun Zhong clenched his fists in visible excitement. His anxiety receded. He knew this gave Liu Wuxie's words even greater credibility.

Five more stars emerged next. Each occupied one of five other directions, corresponding to the star in the southwest.

"I remember what Liu Wuxie said about the Seven Sirius Stars this morning. Six stars have gathered now. Could there really be such a thing as the Seven Sirius Stars?" Some cultivators began to waver, their composure slipping.

They could still recall the mockery Liu Wuxie had endured that morning for speaking of the Seven Sirius Stars.

"What complete bullshit! The Seven Sirius Stars don't exist in this world!" Yu Yan sneered. He believed that Liu Wuxie's account was nothing more than an invention meant to stir up fear.

"Doesn't this seem strange? The six stars are in six different directions. If a seventh appears, that would give us a seven-star alignment," another cultivator asked.

With six stars now occupying those positions, a seven-star alignment seemed possible, regardless of whether Liu Wuxie's explanation held true.

"Liu Wuxie, enough excuses! Not a single Cloud Mist Pearl has vanished in fifteen minutes. It's time to die," Pei Zhongyi said, stepping forward to side with Yan Wuji and his two companions.

According to Yun Zhong's account, several Cloud Mist Pearls had disappeared without explanation every night for an entire month. The thousands that had once hung overhead had dwindled to a few hundred. Those losses had dealt Cloud Mist Manor a devastating blow.

"Put him to death!" Everyone turned their attention to Liu Wuxie, venom filling their stares as though they wished to tear him apart.

Liu Wuxie met their hostility with unbroken composure. Yan Wuji and his two companions let their Golden Immortal Realm auras pour toward him as they slowly got closer.

Three sharp whooshes suddenly cut through the air. Three Cloud Mist Pearls slipped through the newly erected barriers and disappeared before everyone's eyes.

"What? The Cloud Mist Pearls are vanishing again!" the manor's deacons exclaimed. Not once had their eyes strayed from the sky. Even so, they had been powerless to do anything but watch another three pearls disappear.

A feeling of foreboding rose in Yan Wuji as his pupils contracted at the news. They had sealed every Cloud Mist Pearl inside a barrier, certain that not even a Great Golden Immortal could steal them.

How could pearls so close vanish without any of the experts sensing where they had gone? Silence settled across the entire training ground as everyone craned their necks and stared skyward.

"Please do something, Young Master Liu," Yun Zhong pleaded, approaching Liu Wuxie. Cloud Mist Manor could withstand no further losses.

Even the loss of one Cloud Mist Pearl would cause heartache, so immense was its value. As he spoke, Yun Zhong directed a glare at Yan Wuji and his two companions.

Without those three interfering, Liu Wuxie would already have completed the array, sparing the manor the loss of another three Cloud Mist Pearls. Every preparation was in place. Only the final step still awaited him.

"I'll need a drop of your blood, Manor Lord Yun," Liu Wuxie replied, nodding.

The appearance of the Asura Star left little time to spare. He needed to activate the Seven-Star Glazed Array quickly.

Yun Zhong drew a dagger without a moment's hesitation and cut his palm. He squeezed a considerable amount of blood from the wound for Liu Wuxie.

As Liu Wuxie began forming hand seals without delay, the blood from Yun Zhong's palm ascended into the sky.

None of the onlookers could fathom his purpose.

"Heaven rings out, and earth drums! Seven Stars, return to where you rightfully belong!" Liu Wuxie used both hands to trace strange diagrams, then swiftly sent them into the ground.

From the Glazed Trees' locations around Cloud Mist Manor, six beams of light erupted at once and speared into the sky.

After taking in the immortal beasts' blood, the Glazed Trees had flushed red and then turned white. The shifting color signaled that the blood's energy was merging with the ground, giving rise to a rhythmic drumming.

Only the Slaughter Star's absence allowed Liu Wuxie to attempt this. Once the final of the Seven Sirius Stars appeared, even he would stand no chance against it.

The seven pillars of light braided together to form a barrier around Cloud Mist Manor. Strangely, the moment that barrier formed, the six stars disappeared from the sky.

One by one, the barriers that Yan Wuji and his companions had raised burst into fine particles that scattered and faded in the air. That left the Cloud Mist Pearls free once again.

"What kind of diagrams are those? Why do I have the feeling I've seen them before?" someone murmured.

Liu Wuxie's inscribed runes included several diagrams that only an Immortal Venerable could create. Since no one present had reached that realm, the crowd could not recognize the diagrams. All they could grasp was a sense of familiarity.

For the first time, Long Ying regarded Liu Wuxie with a grave expression. He had slain the three Ji Clan disciples and shown he could fight above his realm, but even those feats had left her viewing him as an ordinary cultivator.

People believed Liu Wuxie could never rise to prominence due to the burden of his fifty immortal roots.

As his blood slowly fused with the diagrams, Yun Zhong seemed to perceive the spiritual array's core. The power of his primordial spirit resided in that blood. Liu Wuxie's role extended only to helping him establish the array, but Yun Zhong himself would have to control it in the future.

Liu Wuxie, after all, would depart Cloud Mist Manor tomorrow.

When roughly an incense stick's time had passed, Liu Wuxie finally lowered his hands. His work on the Seven-Star Glazed Array was complete.

"Look at the Cloud Mist Pearls, Manor Lord! They've calmed down, and every one has returned to its original position!" the deacons in the training ground exclaimed, dancing in excitement.

Before this, the pearls had stirred restlessly, many drifting beyond the manor's boundaries.

A sinking feeling gripped Yan Wuji and his two companions. If Liu Wuxie had truly put an end to Cloud Mist Manor's crisis, the wager's terms would leave all three of them doomed.