Chapter 491: Bone‑Eroding Defense Line

Ao Li's sword tip brushed the ground, and the trench it cut suddenly seeped blue liquid. The sappers were about to pour the demon‑repelling potion when they saw the wooden stakes sprouting roots in the liquid, growing bark like snake scales. "Switch to cinnabar." Lín Jìn's hand that grabbed the vial froze— in the reflection of his pocket watch, those roots were winding along the ley lines toward the Soul‑Soothing Tower.

###1. The Crawling Trench

When the soldiers were digging the seventh zhàng, the iron spade struck a bronze array disc. The snake‑eye gem at the disc's center suddenly rotated, drawing the poured potion into a spiral. "It's an ancient defensive array!" the accompanying array mage exclaimed, pulling out a tracing paper, but failed to notice the pattern on the paper quietly re‑forming— that night, every tracing under moonlight revealed Shen Mo's visage.

Lín Jìn used his pocket watch to plug the gap in the disc, and the sound of gears meshing oddly matched the rhythm of the prayers from the Dark Altar. Ao Li's jade pendant suddenly heated up, and black mist seeped from the Crack, coalescing into an arrowhead that pointed straight toward Lingxiao Pavilion. They eventually covered the bottom of the trench with Mo Sect talisman papers, unaware that the luminous patterns on the back of each talisman perfectly matched the motifs of the Abyss Gate.

###2. The Reversed Cannon

When a disciple of Lingxiao Pavilion was calibrating the magical cannon, the runes automatically flipped at noon. As the test shot of the light cannon struck the bullseye, the ground of the range suddenly collapsed into a mirror surface, reflecting five upside‑down Ao Lis assembling identical cannons. "Just an energy resonance." the Transmission Jade Slip of Pavilion Master Xuanfeng glowed coldly, ordering deployment according to the original plan.

A disciple on night watch discovered that the barrel oozed black blood when the moon shifted three inches. The boldest one reached out to wipe it, and his fingertips instantly sprouted scales identical to Shen Mo's. By dawn, everyone who had wiped the cannon had become the finest gunners—their eyes flickered with the reflection of the Nine‑Star Conjunction.

###3. The Twin Crossbow Engine

When the Mo Sect's mechanical crossbow arrived, Ao Li's Sword Sheath resonated with the engine. As she pulled the test fire, nine arrows merged in the air into a black snake that slithered into a fissure and vanished. "A drop of blood is needed to recognize the master." the blade of a traveling craftsman flashed like a snake's shadow, and Lín Jìn cut his own finger first. The moment the blood droplet seeped into the crossbow, he saw a future scene: at the third quarter of the Rat Hour, the crossbows would collectively swivel, their tips aimed at the Soul‑Soothing Tower.

During final assembly, each gear was engraved with a warding rune. Yet after the craftsmen left, the rune strokes began to proliferate, turning into a miniature Sacrificial Array Diagram. When Ao Li brushed the crossbow, a snake scale sprang from the mechanism's case—it was the Inverse Scale she had lost on the battlefield three days earlier.

###4. The Perfect Wall

On the day of completion, the setting sun dyed the wall gold. Pavilion Master Xuanfeng sent a gilded plaque, and the instant it was nailed into the wall, silver fluid seeped from the brick joints, solidifying into the four characters "Eternal Guard of Rivers and Mountains." Amid cheers, Lín Jìn's pocket watch suddenly ran backward, and he saw the back of the plaque crawling with snake‑shaped Zhengtong—identical to the patterns on the Dark Altar.

Just as the celebratory banquet's wine was poured, the entire wall suddenly became insubstantial for three breaths. Everyone raised their glasses, but only Ao Li saw countless pale arms protruding from the wall's reflection, loading the crossbow with arrows engraved with the Inverse Five‑Star. When she turned to speak, Pavilion Master Xuanfeng was smiling, raising his cup, his teeth flashing with the sharp glint of a serpent.

###End, The Solidified Reflection

At the third quarter of the Rat Hour, the final defensive sigil took effect. The frontier suddenly fell into absolute silence, even the crackle of torches vanished. Ao Li's jade pendant projected a phantom of the wall, while Lín Jìn's pocket watch reflected glowing footprints across the ground—each footprint extending toward an energy node of the defensive works.

As they rushed up the battlement, moonlight was turning the entire wall transparent. Inside the wall, nine women who looked exactly like Ao Li were loading black crystals into the magical cannon, while the chains entwined among the crossbow gears matched Lín Jìn's pocket watch chain perfectly. From the deepest shadow, Shen Mo's voice seeped through the brick fissure: "Thank you for forging the Burial Coffin Sacrifice altar."