Chapter 1098: White Jade Skeleton

The abyssal gale whistled by his ears, bearing a bone‑piercing chill.

Han Wuxian's figure vanished in a burst of starlight, and in the next instant, as if a massive invisible hand had ripped him from the void, he was slammed heavily onto the cold, hard rocky ground!

Puff!

A mouthful of scalding blood could no longer be held back, splashing violently onto the dust‑covered floor and leaving dark‑red stains. Inside, his meridians felt as if pierced by countless red‑hot steel needles; the backlash of the forcibly driven earth‑spirit essence and the tearing of spatial displacement intertwined, causing his vision to blacken in waves, nearly fainting. The gray cloak engraved with the "Shift Stars, Change Dipper" sigil had now turned entirely to ash, leaving only a few charred strips clinging to his torn garments.

He forced the last sliver of clarity to hold, the light Dao Mark struggling like a dying candle in the wind, gathering all his breath, while he laboriously lifted his head to scan the surroundings.

This was not the mist‑shrouded sheer cliff opposite the Rift Valley, but the interior of a… massive, naturally formed cavern. The air was dry and icy, heavy with dust and an indescribable ancient aura as if centuries of time had settled there. The cavern ceiling rose far above, lost in profound darkness, with only a few feeble shafts of light leaking through unseen fissures, like stingy silver flakes, barely outlining the cave's shape.

What shook his spirit even more was that, deep within the cave, under that faint light, a humanoid skeleton sat cross‑legged!

The skeleton was jade‑white, crystal‑clear and warm, as if carved from the finest jade, timeless and immortal, emitting a restrained, pure radiance. It maintained the five‑heart upward cultivation posture, its head slightly bowed, seemingly gazing at the ground before it.

The ground before the skeleton was not empty. There, a certain dark‑red, seemingly dried and solidified liquid had been used to draw a massive, intricate circular pattern. At the pattern's center lay not a rune but a fragmented star map sketched with lines. The star map was dim and lifeless, its lines broken and intermittent, as if part of it had been forcibly erased, exuding an indescribable sorrow and resentment.

Around the star map lay scattered shards of broken jade and the lifeless remnants of ancient artifacts. Directly in front of the skeleton's crossed knees rested a palm‑sized jade slip of deep star‑blue hue. Its surface was mirror‑smooth, unadorned, yet it faintly emitted an unusually pure stellar vibration that resonated subtly with the Star‑Spreading Cipher within Han Wuxian.

"Ancient cultivator's relic… Star‑Jade Slip…" Han Wuxian's heart trembled violently, a wave of indescribable excitement rising. This skeleton, in life, must have been a peerless master whose cultivation pierced the heavens and who specialized in stellar power! That broken star map, that jade slip… could very well be his legacy!

Yet, the instant his mind was drawn to the scene, a cold, sinister thought deep within his body—dormant for days, born of the filthy lake's foulness—snapped awake like a venomous snake thrown into boiling oil!

"Roar!"

A roar brimming with spite, greed and a lust for destruction did not echo at his ears but detonated deep within Han Wuxian's soul. The evil thought seemed provoked by some intense stimulus—perhaps the repulsion of the cavern's pure stellar power, perhaps sensing Han Wuxian's yearning for the Star‑Jade Slip.

No longer content to lurk and corrode, it erupted fully!

A cold, viscous, black‑purple foul force scented with sulfur and decay surged like a breached dam, instantly breaching the Star‑Spreading Cipher's defense line that Han Wuxian barely maintained, raging toward every meridian and acupoint of his body! This power was imbued with Chaos and brutal will, wildly Devouring and contaminating the stellar energy he had painstakingly refined and the remaining earth‑spirit essence, seeking to seize control of his body!

Han Wuxian's body convulsed violently; beneath his skin, bluish‑black veins bulged like twisted earthworms, clashing fiercely with the faint, flickering light Dao Mark, forming a terrifying mottled pattern. Thick black vapors filled his eyes in an instant, leaving only a faint star glimmer deep in his pupils struggling. The charred scar on his cheek seemed to come alive, spreading spider‑webbed black lines, grotesquely fierce.

"Ugh—ah!" a beast‑like wail of pain roared from his throat; his hands clawed the ground, nails gouging deep scars into the hard rock. Reason was like a candle in a gale, ready to be completely drowned by the surging evil thought and destructive desire. He felt himself falling toward a filthy, icy abyss, countless twisted tendrils coiling around his soul, trying to drag him into eternal darkness!

Possession! No, more precisely, a foul thought from the Nine‑Depths of corruption seeking to fully demonize him, turning him into a puppet that knows only slaughter and destruction!

At that hair‑trigger moment when his soul was about to plunge completely into ruin

Buzz!

The cross‑legged jade‑white skeleton, its head slightly bowed, its hollow eye sockets flickered ever so faintly. A thought as fine as a filament yet supremely pure and condensed brushed past Han Wuxian's soul on the brink of collapse, as if traversing millennia of time.

No words, only a mood.

It was the boundless, endless starry sky—eternal, encompassing all, witnessing rise and fall. Stars are born and die, the universe turns; no matter how turbulent the darkness, the brilliance of the stars never truly extinguishes. A resilient will, forged through ages, seeing through life and death yet harboring an everlasting pursuit of the Dao, like an undying lighthouse in the cold sea of stars.

That thought brushed past, and the faint star light deep within Han Wuxian's soul seemed infused with boundless power, flaring up instantly!

"Star…s… not… extinguish…"

A hoarse, muffled word struggled out of Han Wuxian's throat, tainted by black vapors. It was not his own voice, but a cry ignited by his bloodline, by the very source of the Star‑Spreading Cipher, and by the will of that ancient cultivator's relic!

The fading light Dao Mark, on the verge of extinction, erupted at this moment with unprecedented brilliance! No longer a dim glimmer, but dazzling, radiant starlight! The stellar energy within, devoured and polluted by the evil thought, ignited like stubborn iron thrown into a furnace, fiercely burning, boiling, and purifying under the star's glow!

The Star‑Spreading Cipher's operating speed broke its limits! No longer guiding, but Devouring! Frenziedly Devouring the foul evil force raging within, the remaining earth‑spirit essence, and all of his own potential!

Use the body as the furnace! Use evil as fuel! Use stars as fire! Forge an indestructible form!

"Ugh…ah!!!"

A more agonizing roar echoed through the cavern! Han Wuxian's body curled, then snapped upright, the bluish‑black veins on his surface intertwining, vanishing, and rebirthing wildly with the brilliant starlight! Each clash brought excruciating pain; each vanishing burned away a sliver of foulness; each rebirth tempered his sinews and flesh in starfire and corruption, imparting a faint jade‑like luster!

His consciousness, amid extreme pain, became strikingly clear. He saw the foul evil thought, under the star's blaze, manifest countless twisted ghost faces and screaming tendril phantoms, wildly striking back. He saw the remaining earth‑spirit essence turn into dense golden radiance, like a shield of the earth, protecting his heart meridian and dantian against the fiercest onslaught of the evil thought. He saw his own stellar energy continuously refined and compressed through destruction and rebirth, becoming ever more concentrated and radiant!

It was a brutal war fought within a single inch of space! Victory would remake the body, defeat would spell irreversible ruin!

Time lost all meaning amid the extreme agony. After an unknown span, the cavern's raging energy fluctuations and painful roars gradually subsided.

Han Wuxian, as if hauled from water, was drenched in sweat, bloodstains, and expelled filth, collapsing onto the cold floor. His chest heaved violently, each breath searing. The grotesque black lines on his face had faded considerably, leaving only faint traces; the charred scar seemed lighter as well. The black vapors in his eyes vanished, replaced by deep exhaustion, and within that fatigue a point of star‑light shone, more pure and resolute after being honed.