Chapter 500: Clues Emerge

The Frost Flower on the surface of the Ice Coffin writhed eerily under the moonlight, Lín Jìn's fingertip brushed a rune shaped like a pocket watch gear, and it was suddenly slashed open with a blood wound. The blood bead was absorbed by the ice before it could fall, and the entire coffin suddenly became transparent—inside, curled not a corpse but a memory cocoon wrapped in a glowing umbilical cord.

"Is this… a Space‑Time Cocoon Chamber?" Ao Li's Dragon Chant Sword suddenly resonated, its hilt's vertical pupil reflecting a scene from three hundred years ago: the young her playing in the Dragon Tomb, having once burned the same rune array with fledgling dragon flame.

###**I. Shedding Time Array Diagram**

Lín Jìn scraped the Frost Crystals from the surface of the Ice Coffin with a fragment of a pocket watch; the ice shards coalesced in the air into a miniature causal image entity. When the watch chain wrapped around the ice figure's wrist, the Ice Coffins throughout the valley suddenly began to resonate, the Coffin Lid runes slithering toward the center like living snakes. At that moment the Mo School cultivator's compass exploded, the splattered copper pieces forming a complete Shedding Time Array Diagram—at the Array Eye, Lín Jìn's birth eight characters were glaringly displayed.

"So every Ice Coffin is a Time Anchor," Ao Li's Sword Qi sliced open the edge of the diagram, and from the crack surged a syrupy substance that solidified into a half‑body of Shen Mo. This puppet suddenly spoke, its voice in the tone of Pavilion Master Xuanfeng: "Good disciple, you have finally grasped the true answer's door ring."

###**II. Inverse Scale Key**

When Lín Jìn set the pocket watch fragment into the Array Eye, a phantom of a Dragon Clan altar rose beneath the ice surface. The Inverse Scale Sword planted at the altar's center resonated with Ao Li's Dragon Chant Sword, and the hilt's vertical pupil shed blood tears. Where the blood bead fell, the Ice Coffin Group projected nine overlapping space‑times—within each, Ao Li repeatedly thrust the sword into a close relative's heart.

"The third stanza of the nursery rhyme!" Ao Li suddenly recited a forbidden Dragon Clan verse, "Inverse Scale opens, cocoon garment breaks, the one who feeds the cocoon weeps blood..." The Ice Coffin exploded in response, and what flew out was not shattered ice but memory fragments. Lín Jìn caught one fragment, which showed Pavilion Master Xuanfeng inserting a serpentine jade hairpin into the back of infant Ao Li's neck.

###**III. Twinborn Array Pivot**

The Mo School cultivators suddenly knelt in unison, their Lifebound Artifacts slipping from their hands and soaring into the air to form a second Shedding Time Array. When the two arrays overlapped, Lín Jìn's pocket watch suddenly restored to like new, its glass face reflecting a horrifying truth: the so‑called "True Destiny Return" was in fact Ao Li's dragon soul split into nine hundred and one fragments, each sealed within an Ice Coffin.

At the Array Eye, the Inverse Scale Sword suddenly rose from the ground, its tip pointing at Ao Li's brow. Her hand that held the sword rose involuntarily, and within the hilt's vertical pupil appeared Ling Yue's visage: "Kill him, and you will break the Reincarnation." At the same time, the chain of Lín Jìn's pocket watch suddenly coiled around Ao Li's ankle, the watch face revealing the scene of their first meeting—at that time, hidden within the pocket watch was a half segment of a Dragon Clan Inverse Scale.

###**IV. Truth Within the Cocoon**

When the sword tip pressed against Lín Jìn's throat, the memory fragments projected by the Ice Coffin Group suddenly coalesced into a solid form. Ao Li's ancestor from three hundred years ago emerged from a light cocoon, and the Inverse Scale Sword in her hand also pointed at a youth whose appearance resembled Lín Jìn's: "Every space‑time repeats this choice."

The Dragon Chant Sword suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light, and the runes of all Ice Coffins rose from their coffins, assembling in the air into a circular destiny chart. At the chart's center emerged Ling Yue's complete Soul—half of her face was Ao Li, half was Lín Jìn, and the glowing umbilical cord tangled in her hair linked each space‑time's Ice Coffin.

"You are my twin cocoon garments," Ling Yue's voice tore the void, the twin moons colliding at that moment. The erupting moonfire ignited the destiny chart, and within the flames the ultimate truth surfaced: the so‑called causal image entity was nothing but the remnant soul of Ao Li after slaying a close relative, and Lín Jìn's pocket watch was the cocoon shell that housed all Reincarnation memories.

###**End, The Sound of Knocking the Door**

When Ao Li's sword tip pierced Lín Jìn's skin, the pocket watch suddenly emitted a mournful screech of gears jamming. The glass face reflected a mirrored world scene: nine "Ao Li" with scaled necks were simultaneously swinging swords, and beneath their blades lay the corpses of Lín Jìn from different space‑times.

The Ice Coffin Group at that moment exploded collectively, the flying glowing umbilical cords winding into a cocoon. Ling Yue's figure became increasingly distinct within the cocoon; she lightly touched the edge of the destiny chart with her fingertip, and the entire Lingxiao Pavilion realm suddenly became ethereal—the ground beneath everyone's feet turned into transparent watch‑glass, and the reflection of the Shenyuan Gate was slowly opening deep within the glass cracks.

In the wind came the chant of the nursery rhyme's final stanza: "Day the cocoon breaks, time the door is knocked, ten thousand cocoons turn to ash never to be known..." Ao Li's dragon horn suddenly snapped, and from the break emerged not blood but a pocket watch chain wrapped in syrup.