Chapter 629
The Liu family girl's wedding dress gradually took shape in Nangong Wan's hands. The petals of the hibiscus were embroidered with seven kinds of red silk threads, and a grain of gold sand was hidden in the center of each petal to ward off evil. This morning, the little girl came to try on the dress again, and Nangong Wan noticed that the red marks on her neck had spread to behind her ears, forming spider-web-like dark patterns.
"Has anyone given you any jewelry recently?" Nangong Wan suddenly asked.
The little girl subconsciously covered the sachet around her waist and said, "I only have this."
The golden thread suddenly entangled the sachet and was torn apart, and a rusty heart-shaped lock fell out of it - it was the medium of the Netherworld Pavilion's puppetry!
When Fu Shaoping squatted on the riverbank to study the love lock, a string of bubbles suddenly appeared on the water surface. The old man's fishing rod suddenly broke, and a bright red wedding dress floated in the muddy river water, with unfinished hibiscus embroidered on the cuffs.
"It's three quarters past the hour of You." The old man's straw raincoat fluttered without wind.
There was a dull sound of chains struggling at the bottom of the river, and the whole Qingxi River suddenly boiled. Fu Shaoping knocked his pipe heavily on the water surface, and nine sparks sank into the waves, but disappeared without a trace like a mud cow entering the sea.
"Xuanwu is about to wake up." The old man's pupils showed fish scales, "Someone used the joyful evil to break the seal of the earth veins."
As Nangong Wan wrapped the gold thread around the love lock, the Liu family girl's pupils suddenly dilated. The wedding dress danced without wind, and black blood oozed out of the hibiscus pattern, gathering on the hem to form the skull mark of the Netherworld Pavilion.
"Sister, save me." The little girl's neck made a crisp sound as if silk threads were breaking, and her whole body was suspended in the air like a puppet!
Twelve golden needles flew out from Nangong Wan's sleeves, but were bounced away when they touched the wedding dress - there were counter-talismans buried in the needles.
Manager Li's wine pot suddenly fell to the ground, and blood mist gushed out of the wells on the whole street. He kicked open the wine vat in the backyard, and the bronze knife that had been soaked for many years hummed.
"Old buddy, it's time to stretch your muscles." He wiped his face, and the dragon scales condensed from the smell of alcohol spread from his neck to his arms.
The rusty knife in the center of the town suddenly cracked, and the iron filings that peeled off the blade turned into thousands of fireflies, flying towards the Liu family compound.
Wang Po's tofu spoon hit the Kitchen God's cauldron, and the soy milk in the cauldron reflected an astonishing scene: seven bronze chains were intertwined under the ground of Qingxi Town, each of which was tied to a tortoise shell engraved with a star map. At this moment, red lines were crawling along the chains, dyeing the tortoise shells bloody.
"What kind of Xuanwu is that?" Wang Po's hands were shaking. "This is the Star Soul Lock of the Seven Lords of the Big Dipper!"
The stove fire suddenly turned a dark green, illuminating her face with a grim look. The truth behind the Immortal Alliance's siege of the Netherworld Pavilion was gradually coming to light as the ground veins moved.
When Fu Shaoping kicked open the Liu family's front door, the bride in her wedding dress had already floated to the foot of the ancient locust tree in the courtyard. A red thread emerged from the little girl's head and was wrapping a pattern of the Big Dipper around the tree trunk.
"The Right Envoy of the Netherworld is not dead yet." Nangong Wan's golden threads formed into the Eight Diagrams Formation, "She is using the auspicious and evil spirits to reshape the star map."
Suddenly all the red lines stretched straight and seven babies cried at the same time in the town - the Right Envoy was actually controlling the newborns of seven families at the same time!
Shopkeeper Li's bronze knife split the blood mist, and the wind from the knife flipped over half of the eaves. Under the moonlight, you can see that each tile is engraved with a miniature star map, which is resonating with the earth vein tortoise shell at this moment.
"It's not to suppress evil spirits at all." The sparks in Fu Shaoping's pipe formed the shape of the Big Dipper, "The Immortal Alliance is using the lives of the entire town as the center of the formation to nourish the soul of the Star God!"
The rusty knife suddenly flew towards Nangong Wan by itself, and the handle cracked to reveal half of a jade slip - on it was Aunt Zhang's handwriting: "Beidou Si is the master of the Netherworld Pavilion."
As soon as Nangong Wan's fingertips touched the jade slip, the entire embroidered building suddenly shook violently. The star-patterned tiles on the eaves lit up with a faint blue light at the same time, interweaving into a huge Big Dipper pattern in the night sky.
"Be careful!" Fu Shaoping suddenly shouted, sweeping his pipe across. Three poisoned silver needles brushed against Nangong Wan's temples and were deeply nailed into the pillars - the red thread wrapped around the needle tails was still shaking.
Manager Li's bronze knife suddenly made a dragon roar, and seven blood grooves appeared on the blade. "It's the Seven Star Soul-Guiding Formation!" His face suddenly changed, "These tiles are absorbing the vitality of the people in the town!"
The bright moon was suddenly stained with blood, and seven red lights were projected from the Big Dipper, landing precisely in the seven wells in the town. The well water instantly boiled, and countless blood-colored threads gushed out from the wells, forming a net in the air that covered the sky and the sun.
"Ah!" The Liu family girl suddenly let out a scream that was not like a human voice. The hibiscus on her wedding dress turned completely black. Her body twisted at a strange angle, and there seemed to be countless worms crawling under her skin.
Nangong Wan's golden needle struck again, this time aiming directly at the girl's forehead. Just as the needle tip was about to pierce, a pale hand suddenly stretched out from the wedding dress and firmly grasped the golden needle!
"It's been twenty years." A hoarse female voice came from the wedding dress, "Zhang Suxin's needlework is still so poor."
Amid the sound of cloth tearing, a figure with red threads all over her body emerged from the wedding dress. She wore a half bronze mask on her face, with a strange smile hanging from the corner of her mouth.
Fu Shaoping's pipe suddenly became hot: "It is you, the Right Envoy of the Netherworld, Su Wanyue! That knife didn't kill you back then."
Wang Po stumbled into the yard, holding the cracked Kitchen God Cauldron in her hand: "I remember now! The people who died in the fire twenty years ago were not the people of the Netherworld Pavilion, but..."
Her words were interrupted by a sharp sound of metal friction. A loud sound of chain breaking came from the ground, and seven tortoise shells broke out of the ground, suspended in the air to form a complete Big Dipper map. Su Wanyue laughed: "The Immortal Alliance is so calculating! They pretended to encircle and suppress my Netherworld Pavilion, but in fact they wanted to use the souls of the disciples in the pavilion to nourish the Star Lord! What a pity!" She suddenly took off the bronze mask, "You didn't expect that the Big Dipper Division has long been mine!"
The face under the mask was exactly the same as Aunt Zhang!
When Nangong Wan's fingertips were still three inches away from the jade slip, she suddenly felt a piercing chill. Her golden thread trembled violently like a warning, making a sharp whistle in the air. The entire embroidered building began to shake, and the tiles collided with each other, making a crisp sound. Those seemingly ordinary tiles now glowed with a faint blue light, and every pattern was dazzlingly bright.
"Be careful of hidden weapons!" Fu Shaoping's voice exploded in her ears. Nangong Wan instinctively tilted her head, and three silver needles as thin as cow hair flew past her temple. The needle tips glowed with a strange purple light, and the red lines wrapped around the needle tails twisted like living things. Fu Shaoping's pipe drew a semicircle in the air, shooting down all the subsequent silver needles. The silver needles nailed to the porch pillars suddenly ignited, burning three scorch marks in the shape of the Big Dipper.
Shopkeeper Li's bronze knife made a long humming sound, and the seven blood grooves on the blade lit up one by one. The veins on his hand holding the knife bulged, and the smell of alcohol condensed into a light blue mist around his body. "This is a variation of the Seven Star Soul Summoning Formation," he said in a hoarse voice, "each tile is extracting the essence of the living. Look--" The tip of the knife pointed to the nearest well, and what floated out of the well was no longer water vapor, but wisps of light red mist.
The bright moon was dyed bloody at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the dogs in the town began to bark one after another. When the first red light fell from the Tianshu star position, the old well in the backyard of the Liu family suddenly spurted out a three-meter-high column of water. The blood-colored silk thread mixed with the water mist and spread, and in a few breaths it formed a net covering half of the town.
Nangong Wan found that her gold thread had become unusually heavy. She tried to cut the red thread wrapped around the Liu family girl, but found that every time she cut one thread, more red threads would come out from the stitches of the wedding dress. The girl's scream was no longer human-like. Her jaw suddenly made a crisp "click" sound, and the corners of her mouth tore to the roots of her ears, revealing the dense red silk threads inside.
"Hold her down!" Nangong Wan threw out twelve golden needles to seal the girl's acupuncture points. Just as the golden needles were about to pierce her forehead, the collar of the wedding dress suddenly split open, and a pale, almost transparent hand stretched out like lightning. The nails of that hand were painted with dark red nail polish, and the index finger and thumb accurately pinched Nangong Wan's golden needles.
The sound of the cloth tearing made people's teeth ache. A figure covered with red threads emerged from the wedding dress, and those red threads were like blood vessels wriggling under her skin. The bronze mask glowed coldly under the blood moon, and the edge of the mask grew with flesh and blood, rising and falling slightly with breathing.
"After twenty years, Captain Fu's pipe is still so nosy." Su Wanyue's voice was like sandpaper rubbing against each other. The moment she released the golden needle, a cloud of black mist suddenly burst out from the needle tip. Nangong Wan took three steps back, but was still rubbed by the black mist on the back of his hand, and a bruise in the shape of the Big Dipper immediately appeared on his skin.
Fu Shaoping placed the pipe across his chest, and the unburned tobacco in the pipe suddenly burned violently. "That knife clearly pierced your heart back then," he said in a low voice, "it turns out that the Beidou Division's 'Moving Stars and Changing Constellations' secret technique is real."
The sound of chains breaking from underground was so deafening that it hurt people's eardrums. Seven tortoise shells engraved with star maps broke out of the ground, suspended in the air and slowly rotating. On the back of each tortoise shell was a name - the seven elders of the Immortal Alliance who "died in battle" twenty years ago. Wang Po staggered over holding the cracked Kitchen God Cauldron, and the soy milk in the cauldron reflected a horrifying picture: on the top of the skull of each elder's corpse, a skull nail from the Netherworld Pavilion was nailed.
Su Wanyue suddenly took off her mask, revealing a crazy smile on her face that looked exactly like Aunt Zhang: "When the Immortal Alliance used 300 disciples from my pavilion to offer sacrifices to the stars, did they ever think about today?" Her nail-stained fingers slid across the seven tortoise shells, "Master Beidou, it's time to wake up."
The seven tortoise shells suddenly trembled violently, and the star patterns on the surface oozed dark red liquid. The liquid intertwined in the air, gradually outlining a vague human figure. Nangong Wan's golden threads suddenly straightened, and she felt an ancient and vast power awakening.
"Stop her!" Fu Shaoping shouted, and seven sparks shot out of his pipe, accurately shooting at the suspended tortoise shell. However, the sparks suddenly solidified three inches away from the tortoise shell, as if hitting an invisible wall. Manager Li's bronze knife had already chopped in front of Su Wanyue, but she casually clamped the blade with two fingers.
"It's useless." Su Wanyue's voice suddenly became ethereal. "When the Star Lord wakes up, all weapons within a ten-mile radius will be ineffective." As soon as she finished speaking, all the iron tools in the town wailed at the same time, and kitchen knives, hoes, and even door knockers broke by themselves.
The skin of the Liu family girl began to peel off, revealing the "flesh and blood" woven by the red thread underneath. Her screams had turned into strange chanting sounds, and each syllable made the star map on the tortoise shell brighter. Seven wells in the town gushed out columns of blood at the same time, and the babies controlled by the red thread floated into the air, their small bodies began to melt, and turned into seven rays of blood that were injected into the tortoise shell.
Wang Po suddenly fell to her knees, her white hair turning black at a speed visible to the naked eye. "So that's it." She touched the back of her neck tremblingly, "I am also one of the sacrifices." Under her collar, a brand in the shape of the Big Dipper was glowing.
Nangong Wan endured the burning pain on the back of her hand and tied the gold thread into a Bagua formation to trap Su Wanyue. Just when the formation was about to be completed, her gold thread suddenly turned black - the baby's hair was entangled on the thread end.
The seven tortoise shells suddenly merged, and a figure wearing a star crown walked out of the blood. The man raised his hand and waved it lightly, and the time of the entire Qingxi Town seemed to stand still. Only Fu Shaoping could move, and he saw his pipe turning into powder.
"Captain Fu, long time no see." Xingjun's voice sounded like thousands of people speaking at the same time, "Twenty years ago when you cut off a strand of my soul, did you ever think of today?"
The Kitchen God Cauldron suddenly exploded, and Wang Po's memory fragments flashed in the air: on that rainy night twenty years ago, the so-called "annihilation of the Netherworld Pavilion" was simply a scam. The real purpose of the Immortal Alliance was to use the evil souls to nourish the Star God, and the head of the Beidou Division who executed this plan was Su Wanyue's twin sister.
Su Wanyue knelt at the feet of the Star God, red lines flowing out from her seven orifices: "Please enjoy the sacrifice, Star God." Her body began to crystallize, and in the blink of an eye she turned into a red crystal statue.
Xingjun extended his hand to Nangong Wan: "Zhang Suxin's descendant, your soul is most suitable to be the final key"
The sound of the bronze knife breaking into three pieces was still ringing in his ears, and Fu Shaoping had already dragged Nangong Wan into the turbulent river. The blood-colored barrier of the Star Lord shattered behind him, but suddenly solidified when it was about to touch the water surface - a green light exploded from the jade pendant on Fu Shaoping's waist, wrapped the two of them and turned into a meteor falling to the southeast.
"Master left it behind." Fu Shaoping just opened his mouth amidst the whistling wind, and was suddenly blinded by the silver light in the sky. Countless meteorite-like stars rose from the sea, drawing messy tracks on the dark sky. Nangong Wan's gold thread suddenly broke by itself, and the thread ends burned in the air with a burnt smell.
"The Chaos Star Sea!" She grabbed Fu Shaoping's wrist with her backhand, "These are not stars, but the remnants of ancient monks!" Before she finished speaking, a three-meter-high wave hit the two of them against the reef. In the severe pain, Fu Shaoping saw a half-stone tablet embedded in the crack of the reef, and the two words "Xuanming" on it were oozing dark green liquid.
When Nangong Wan woke up, she found Fu Shaoping prying the shells on the reef with a broken knife. The beach was covered with hexagonal lines after the tide receded, and dark red seawater was stored in each groove. She was about to get up when she suddenly found that her shadow had an extra section - a red line as thin as a hair extended from the back of her neck and disappeared into the depths of the palm forest.
"Don't move!" Fu Shaoping held her shoulders and took out half a tortoise shell from his arms. (End of this chapter)