Chapter 303: The Merit Power That Was Sucked Away

Watching Yuan Qi pretend to be profound, Wei Zhenjie felt somewhat disgusted and stopped pressing further.

After all, asking would yield nothing.

Yuan Qi's mouth had always been tightly sealed; if anything ever slipped from his lips, it was surely because he intended for the world to hear it.

When Wei Zhenjie fell silent, Yuan Qi finally spoke.

"Please do me this favor, Brother Wei; I wish to ascend the Sky-Climbing Tower to take a look."

Behind the Celestial Department's office building stood an ancient nine-story stone tower named the Sky-Climbing Tower.

Along with the Star-Gazing Tower and the Time-Flow Tower, the Sky-Climbing Tower was known as one of the Three Great Ancient Towers of Central Street, its history tracing back to the Ancient Era.

Wei Zhenjie stared at Yuan Qi for a moment, then smiled and said, "The moonlight is quite pleasant tonight; come, I will accompany you to the rooftop to admire the night view." With that, he rose and walked out.

Yuan Qi smiled and quickly followed.

With Wei Zhenjie leading the way, the two soon reached the ninth floor of the Sky-Climbing Tower.

The ninth floor of the Sky-Climbing Tower was merely a smooth, mirror-like circular platform, devoid of any obstructing objects around its perimeter.

Standing on the ninth floor of the Sky-Climbing Tower, one could clearly see everything on the ninth floor of the Star-Gazing Tower.

On the ninth floor of the Star-Gazing Tower, besides a white jade table, lay the lower half of a serpent's body.

The brilliant light illuminating the center was emanating from the white jade table.

As time passed, the light was gradually fading.

Wei Zhenjie's gaze turned deep: "That serpent demon actually managed to trigger an extraordinary phenomenon in the Zhou Tian Star Chart; the demonic race certainly possesses many tricks."

Yuan Qi replied, "...Among the demonic races, the Bai Ze lineage's arts of astrology and divination are no weaker than those of the human race."

Wei Zhenjie looked at Yuan Qi: "That serpent demon rushed into the Star-Gazing Tower just before death to trigger the Zhou Tian Star Chart's eruption, clearly intending to lure Hua Changxi inside. And you? Opening the gates so widely, were you also targeting Hua Changxi?"

Yuan Qi smiled: "Anyone destined may step into the Star-Gazing Tower."

Seeing Yuan Qi resorting to such ambiguous remarks again, Wei Zhenjie shot him a look that plainly said, 'You are truly annoying.'

"Brother Wei, Brother Yuan, why didn't you inform me when there was excitement to be had?"

A teasing yet dissatisfied voice exploded beside their ears; following the sound, Wei Zhenjie and Yuan Qi saw Shi Yishi panting heavily as he climbed onto the ninth floor of the Time-Flow Tower.

Upon seeing Shi Yishi, Wei Zhenjie raised his eyebrows: "Brother Shi usually keeps to himself; what brings you out to admire the moonlight tonight?"

Shi Yishi chuckled: "What reason is needed to admire the moonlight? I simply came because I wished to."

The ninth floor of the Time-Flow Tower was more luxurious than those of the Sky-Climbing and Star-Gazing Towers, at least possessing a stone table and stone chairs.

Watching Shi Yishi sit cheerfully on the stone chair, Yuan Qi said nothing, instead sitting cross-legged right there, facing the Star-Gazing Tower.

Seeing this, Wei Zhenjie's eyes flickered continuously; with both Yuan Qi and Shi Yishi appearing simultaneously, it seemed something major was about to occur tonight!

Wei Zhenjie's gaze also shifted toward the Star-Gazing Tower, his expression unsettled.

Meanwhile, inside the Star-Gazing Tower, Hua Changxi held the Fire Spirit Sword, scanning her surroundings while cautiously approaching the light at the tower's summit.

The serpent demon likely possessed no remaining offensive power, yet she feared other dangers might lurk within the Qintian Tower.

Fortunately, she encountered nothing on her ascent.

Hua Changxi ascended unimpeded to the eighth floor, where, in the corridor leading to the ninth, she saw the lower portion of the serpent demon's massive body.

The serpent demon's upper body had clearly already climbed to the ninth floor.

"It's still not dead?"

Observing the serpent body still rising and falling slightly, Hua Changxi was startled.

Just as Hua Changxi condensed a Fire Spirit Divine Needle, preparing to finish off the serpent demon once and for all, the creature's body suddenly erupted with brilliant blood-red light, from which several golden threads flew out.

The instant the golden threads emerged, the serpent demon's massive body began to shrivel at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Witnessing this scene, Hua Changxi's complexion changed drastically, and she hastily retreated; just as she assumed this was the serpent demon's desperate final counterattack before death, those golden threads shot straight toward the white jade table on the ninth floor.

The moment the golden threads merged into the white jade table, the black night sky, previously devoid of visible stars, began to brighten bit by bit, followed by the emergence of star after star.

On the Sky-Climbing Tower, Yuan Qi had somehow produced a pure black turtle shell; as soon as the stars appeared, he began observing them from afar while forming hand seals with both hands, muttering incantations under his breath.

As his hands continuously shifted through various seals, faint spiritual light slowly emerged on the turtle shell, twisting and deforming as it traced out a pattern.

"Who has triggered the Zhou Tian Stars?"

The emergence of the Zhou Tian Stars startled countless people, awakening several ancient monsters who had been in secluded cultivation for hundreds or even thousands of years.

On the Sky-Climbing Tower, Yuan Qi's hands forming seals moved so fast they became a blur, yet only a tiny fraction of the pattern's outline had been traced on the turtle shell.

Just as he gritted his teeth to exert more effort, the spiritual light on the turtle shell suddenly scattered completely. Simultaneously, the myriad stars that had abruptly filled the night sky vanished once more.

Looking at the turtle shell, now pitch-black again, Yuan Qi felt so frustrated he wanted to smash it: "I was just a hair's breadth away."

Wei Zhenjie, standing nearby, also felt some regret; Yuan Qi was clearly using the Zhou Tian Stars to deduce something, but unfortunately, the stars had appeared for far too short a time.

On the Time-Flow Tower, Shi Yishi was also frowning; the Four Spirits Historical Record had not appeared!

Meanwhile, inside the Star-Gazing Tower, after seeing the golden threads rush to the ninth floor and confirming the serpent demon was thoroughly dead, Hua Changxi hesitated briefly before stepping up to the ninth floor, where she witnessed the sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance of the stars filling the sky.

"So this is the Zhou Tian Stars?"

She had half-expected the appearance of the Zhou Tian Stars to be far more magnificent; the starry sky just now had merely added a few more stars, that was all.

Hua Changxi felt somewhat disappointed, then shifted her gaze to the sole white jade table on the ninth floor.

What were those golden threads?

Furthermore, why had the serpent demon gone to such lengths just before dying?

Unable to figure it out, Hua Changxi walked over to the white jade table.

The surface of the white jade table was pristine and smooth as a mirror, with the five characters 'Zhou Tian Star Chart' carved in the center of its upper side.

"So this white jade table is called the Zhou Tian Star Chart."

"Those few golden threads that flew from the serpent demon's body just now must have been the medium required to activate the Zhou Tian Star Chart."

Hua Changxi carefully circled the Zhou Tian Star Chart several times; to test whether it held any danger, she directly tossed the shriveled serpent corpse onto it.

Seeing the serpent body suffer no attack, Hua Changxi dragged it back down, then extended her hand, intending to probe the Zhou Tian Star Chart for any other mechanisms.

The moment her hand touched the Zhou Tian Star Chart, something unexpected occurred.

The myriad stars that had just faded reappeared; this time, the light emanating from the Zhou Tian stars was even more brilliant.

The night sky overhead instantly became dazzling, startling Hua Changxi; instinctively, she tried to pull her hand back, but to her horror, she discovered her hand seemed glued to the white jade table, unable to withdraw no matter how hard she pulled.

Not only was Hua Changxi startled, but Yuan Qi atop the Dengtian Tower and Shi Yishi atop the Guangyin Tower were also taken aback.

Fortunately, both regained their composure in an instant; one brought out a tortoise shell again for divination, while the other watched excitedly as the History of the Four Spirit Realm materialized.

In the vast and profound night sky, the myriad stars shone brilliantly, their starlight condensing.

Continuously, beams of starlight descended; gathering together, they cascaded down like a waterfall toward the location of the Guanxing Tower.

In the blink of an eye, the Guanxing Tower was submerged in starlight.

The sight was undoubtedly magnificent and spectacular, yet Hua Changxi had no mind to watch; she struggled desperately to withdraw her hand, so much so that she failed to notice the Guanxing Tower rising and undergoing transformation.

"Bang!"

Hua Changxi suddenly yanked her hand back with such force that she lost her balance and fell sitting onto the ground; only then did she realize that the stars overhead seemed within easy reach.

Atop the Guangyin Tower, Shi Yishi, with trembling hands, wrote upon the History of the Four Spirit Realm: "Qiling year 4991, tenth month, twenty-eighth day: The Guanxing Tower manifests."

Atop the Dengtian Tower, Yuan Qi could no longer attend to the patterns appearing on the tortoise shell; mouth agape, he stared in astonishment at the completely transformed Guanxing Tower, now piercing the azure sky.

At this moment, the Guanxing Tower was adorned with starlight and wreathed in nebulae, both brilliant and dreamlike.

Yuan Qi had always believed that the changes concerning the Guanxing Tower he had divined some time ago might assist him in deducing the future trends of the Four Spirit Realm's situation; who could have imagined...

What exactly did that Hua Changxi do to accumulate such a vast amount of merit power, directly activating the Guanxing Tower and causing the true Guanxing Tower to reappear in the mortal world?

This karmic debt is enormous!

While Yuan Qi felt both joyous and burdened, Hua Changxi was merely extremely uneasy; looking at her hand, she wondered, "What was sucked away from me?"

Although she currently detected no abnormalities in her body, she had indeed felt the Zhou Tian Star Chart absorb something from within her.

"Was it the golden threads?"