Chapter 1121: Betting One's Life

Inside the barrier, Han Wuxian was drenched in blood, his right arm limp and numb, nearly unconscious. He clung desperately to the metal arm fragment still emitting a faint azure starlight, as if grasping at a last straw. The power of the star map fragments had been almost drained in that moment, becoming hot and silent, and the star crystal fragments in his bosom had also dimmed considerably.

Outside the barrier, the twisted silhouette formed from condensed filthy black qi let out a silent furious roar; more black qi poured in from cracks in the vault, coalescing into thicker tentacles that madly lashed at the barely holding star‑pattern barrier. Each impact dimmed the barrier's light further and multiplied its cracks.

Han Wuxian lay in the icy mire, gazing through the trembling azure barrier at the madly writhing filthy shadow outside; the cold of death once again enveloped him. The remnant's power was too feeble, the star map fragments nearly exhausted… perhaps the next strike would shatter the barrier and consume him completely.

Just as his consciousness faded and he was about to give up resistance, his palm pressed against the cold metal device; a faint trace of thought, imbued with endless vicissitudes and fatigue, like a candle in the wind, silently flowed along the azure star‑power circuit into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

In that thought fragment there was no complete language, only a few broken images and an ultimate feeling:

A vast, glittering star river burned and collapsed…

Countless cultivators clad in identical star‑pattern armor, like moths flying into fire within the filthy black tide, each burst forth their final starlight and then fell into silence…

A towering, majestic silhouette stood alone at the core of the shattered stars, thrusting his broken, hole‑riddled strange staff fiercely into the boiling dark‑purple energy torrent…

Finally, that towering figure glanced back.

Not looking at Han Wuxian, but gazing into the endless void, his eyes filled with boundless sorrow, resolve, and… a faint hope for a successor.

Boom!!!

Outside the barrier, a massive tentacle condensed with more filthy deathly qi, radiating an aura of total annihilation, slammed down fiercely!

The azure star‑pattern barrier, like fragile glass, emitted a final groan of being overloaded and shattered completely!

The icy pool water, laden with intense filthy deathly qi, instantly engulfed Han Wuxian entirely!

The icy filthy deathly qi, like billions of poison‑coated ice needles, instantly pierced Han Wuxian's chest, torn open by the tentacle; the pain surpassed bodily limits, becoming a soul‑rending shriek. The madness, resentment, and devouring hunger of the Nine Abysses, like a breached flood of filthy qi, surged violently along that icy tentacle into his limbs and bones, assaulting his sea of consciousness on the verge of collapse.

"Ahhh!" Han Wuxian could not even utter a scream; his consciousness convulsed in extreme agony and pollution, like a candle in a gale about to gutter out. The star map fragments on his back burst with unprecedented heat and light, stubbornly blocking the first wave of the filthy surge like a reef, yet instantly faded, the cracks seeming to deepen.

Hum!

At the brink when his consciousness was about to be utterly polluted and assimilated, the fragment of thought imprinted by the Star Torch Commander that had flowed into his sea of consciousness seemed utterly activated by this same‑source filthy deathly qi! No longer vague images, it turned into a pure, vast, unyielding torrent of stellar will, bearing ancient sorrow and steadfast resolve to protect, exploding violently in Han Wuxian's collapsing sea of consciousness.

"Guard… protect… star… fire…" A vast, weary thought fragment imbued with supreme majesty, like a final precept, was directly etched onto the origin of Han Wuxian's body and soul!

Accompanying this thought imprint, a flood of fragmentary information about this "Formation Nexus" surged forth! Not a complete control method, but the core, fundamental "context" of this vast metallic space.

It was like a "node" of a vast stellar spell formation; its core energy circuit was precisely the huge, polluted "Earth Vein Cold Marrow" pool below! And that broken metal arm was one of the crucial "keys" for controlling the node and channeling the pool's violent energy.

Life and death hung by a thread, inspiration flashed like lightning! Han Wuxian's lingering consciousness, amidst agony and chaos, seized the fleeting "passage" within that information flow.

A theoretical emergency "spillway" star road, existing to vent or transfer rampant energy when a node runs amok, leading to an unknown place! Its core activation pattern lay deep within the metal device his palm pressed against.

"Spillway… star road!" The instinct to survive overwhelmed all pain and fear! He had to activate it! This was his sole chance at life.

Yet activation required energy! Massive energy! The power of the star map fragments had been drained by the filthy surge and the effort to sustain his last breath; the star crystal fragments in his bosom had dimmed to a mere drop in the bucket! Meanwhile, the filthy deathly qi pouring into his body was madly eroding his final source of strength.

His life essence, his vital blood!

No choice! Only to wager his life!

"With my ruined body… I burn my vital blood… I draw the star map… I open the star road!" Han Wuxian sent forth a blood‑weeping roar in his heart! He abandoned all defenses, no longer resisting the rampant filthy deathly qi within, and instead poured all his remaining will, the faint understanding of stellar power just gained from the Star Torch Commander's imprint, together with the star map fragments' final resonant echo, into a single point.

Burning his life‑essence blood, he forcibly triggered the deepest resonance of the star map fragments!

Pfft!

What spurted from his mouth was no longer fresh blood, but a mass of origin‑blood blazing with faint stellar flames, crimson‑gold! This blood, as if alive, instantly merged into his right palm pressed against the metal device! His entire right arm, from the palm outward, saw the vessels beneath the skin flare with a piercing crimson‑gold light, as if molten lava coursed through them! Meanwhile, the star map fragments on his back seemed to sense his resolve and sacrifice, emitting a final unwilling, cracked hum; all their light and residual star power surged frantically along his spine and meridians toward the burning right arm.

Sizzle!

At the point where his right palm met the cold metal device, a blinding white light erupted! Inside the perforated device, the lingering ancient star patterns were forcibly conducted and ignited by star power fueled with his life‑essence blood and the star map fragments' origin—no longer the previous defensive azure starlight, but a burning, blood‑tinged incandescent white!

The humming surged to a piercing, violent pitch! The whole pool bottom shuddered violently; the mire beneath Han Wuxian was swept aside by an invisible force, revealing a huge, complex ancient star‑pattern diagram on the metal pool floor below, now blazing madly with blood‑colored star power! The diagram's center lay exactly beneath him.

Roar!!!

The shadow condensed from the filthy core let out a roar of extreme fury! It clearly sensed that this puny "worm" was trying to pry open the power it deemed forbidden! The tentacle pierced into Han Wuxian's chest burst forth even more terrifying annihilating deathly qi, seeking to reduce him to nothing! At the same time, more filthy tentacles, like violent pythons, lashed savagely at the forming blood‑colored star‑pattern diagram.

Too late!

Just as the filthy tentacles were about to utterly destroy Han Wuxian and the diagram…

Rumble rumble rumble!!!

The enormous Earth Vein Cold Marrow pool seemed to be violently stirred by an invisible giant hand! The pent‑up, vast and chaotic stellar cold‑marrow energy accumulated over countless millennia was forcibly drawn and extracted by that blood‑colored star‑pattern diagram! The viscous pale‑blue liquid instantly boiled and roared, forming a gargantuan, inverted terrifying vortex! The vortex's center lay precisely beneath Han Wuxian, where the incandescent white and blood‑colored diagram intertwined.

An irresistible, everything‑rending immense suction erupted violently from the diagram's center! Its strength was such that it instantly sucked in Han Wuxian together with the filthy tentacle impaled in his chest, the scattered star crystal fragments nearby, twisted metal debris, and even large clumps of mire—all were drawn into it!