Chapter 498: Unexpected Trigger

Cold mist solidified into a blood hue in an instant, and the touched Ice Coffin emitted a shrill wail. Cultivator Li Zhao staggered backward, his fingertips clinging to fragments of runes peeled from the Coffin Lid—those fragments writhed in his palm, gradually forming the characters "Ling Yue". Lín Jìn's pocket watch suddenly slipped from his hand and flew out, its chain coiling around the Ice Coffin like a poisonous snake, the gear‑clacking syncing with the heartbeat emanating from within the coffin.

###**I. Ling Yue's Terrifying Mutation**

The entire valley's ice spires hung upside down, their tips exuding black icy dew. Ao Li swung her sword at the rampaging Ice Coffin, but the Sword Qi was devoured by a serpentine Array Eye that surfaced on the coffin's face. "Step back!" she shouted, pulling Lín Jìn three zhang back; where she had stood, luminous vines erupted—those vines' tips blossomed with Ice Flowers shaped like pocket watches, each petal engraved with a cultivator's birthdate.

Nine hundred Ice Coffins simultaneously burst with a dim blue radiance, weaving into a ninefold Star Chart in the sky. When the third star ignited, the icy ground beneath everyone turned transparent, revealing Qingtong Suo buried deep in the earth—at the end of the chain was not a monster but the true form of the Mysterious Wind Pavilion Master, frozen in ice. He had a serpentine jade hairpin lodged in his chest, its tail extending into countless luminous umbilical cords that linked all the Ice Coffins.

"We've all been deceived..." Lín Jìn's pocket watch exploded at that moment, its splintered gears embedding into the Ice Coffin. Each gear transformed into a miniature sundial, the Silent Sundial Needle pointing toward the blood moon torn open in the heavens.

###**II. Ling Yue's Bleeding Cry**

Blood‑red moonlight poured over the Ice Coffin Group, and the Coffin Lids exploded one after another. The shattered ice vaporized into black mist before touching the ground, and within the mist pale arms emerged—those were the ancient cultivators who had sealed Ling Yue three centuries ago. Yet each of these reanimated beings bore Inverse Scales on the back of their necks, their pupils reflecting a reversed pattern of nine stars in conjunction.

Ao Li's jade pendant suddenly grew hot, and the core of the Dragon Soul Pearl revealed a horrific truth: the so‑called Ice Coffin seal was actually nourishing Ling Yue with the essence blood of successive sealers. When the nine‑hundredth Ice Coffin was opened, a half‑emerged female figure protruded from the blood moon—her long hair woven from luminous vines, her visage bearing a striking seven‑part resemblance to the embodiment of Cause and Effect.

"Three thousand years…" Ling Yue's voice echoed with a crackling ice timbre; she lightly tapped her fingertips, and the three nearest cultivators instantly melted. Their flesh congealed into a syrupy substance that, in the air, formed the missing Array Eye of the dark altar.

###**III. Inverted Seal**

Lín Jìn picked up the pocket‑watch fragments, and the sharp edges of the gears suddenly revealed hidden script—indeed the Forbidden Art his master had etched onto the stone wall before death. When the fragment sliced his palm, splattered blood pearls in the air coalesced into an Inverse Five‑Star formation, chanting, "Feed the cocoon with human blood, and awaken the demon's array!"

Ao Li's Sword Qi resonated with the blood array, and the Dragon‑Roar Sword shed its disguise, revealing a true form covered in Inverse Scales. At the hilt, a scarlet vertical pupil opened, its iris reflecting a scene of a young Ao Li thrusting the sword into Ling Yue's heart. "So I am the final seal…" her hand that gripped the sword trembled slightly, the blade's Inverse Scales resonating with Ling Yue's vine‑woven hair.

Ling Yue let out a chilling, sharp laugh, and more arms sprouted from the blood moon. Each arm clutched shattered pocket‑watch components, and as the pieces reassembled, everyone realized that the so‑called "true destiny" was in fact Lín Jìn's being sliced into nine hundred and one fragments of time.

###**IV. Moon‑Devouring Cocoon**

The valley began to collapse, and the shattered ice coalesced into a massive cocoon. The Mysterious Wind Pavilion Master's frozen true form suddenly opened its eyes, the jade hairpin on his chest erupting with a blinding flash: "The hour has arrived." The reflections of all cultivators detached from their bodies, their necks sprouting serpentine scales that transformed into luminous chains binding Ao Li.

Lín Jìn felt the pocket‑watch's core amid the pool of blood, and the gears of time reversed at that instant. He saw himself three years prior receiving his master's relic, the end of the watch chain tied to a single strand of Ling Yue's green hair. As the truth was about to be unveiled, Ling Yue's vines pierced his chest—their tips winding not around his heart but around a Dragon Soul Pearl riddled with cracks.

"Did you think you were seeking destiny?" Ling Yue's voice suddenly took on the tone of the Mysterious Wind Pavilion Master, "From the moment you took the pocket watch, you have been the cocoon bearing Ling Yue."

###**End, Shattered Mirror's Residual Light**

Ao Li's Inverse Scale sword pierced the blood moon, yet it only shattered the illusion of a mirrored, watery moon. The true body of Ling Yue has forever lain dormant deep within Lín Jìn's pocket watch—among the endlessly reversing gears, it seals her Soul, fragmented into countless pieces. When the final Ice Coffin melted, the valley revealed a horrifying whole: the entire Lingxiao Pavilion was built atop a gigantic pocket‑watch model, and the "ground" beneath everyone was in fact the cracked glass of the watch face.

The blood moon suddenly exploded into ninety thousand luminous scales, each reflecting the image of Ao Li pierced by chains. Ling Yue's sigh echoed through the void: "Savor the final moment of clarity, for when the cocoon shell finally falls…"

Before the words finished, Lín Jìn suddenly seized the Inverse Scale sword and thrust it into his own heart. The blade's tip sank into flesh, and the pocket‑watch fragments and Dragon Soul Pearl erupted in a blinding flash—at the heart of the light, the fragments of nine hundred Ice Coffins were assembling into a brand‑new destiny chart, its surface unmistakably depicting the scene of the two's first meeting.