Chapter 1127: The Lantern Pedestal

Pure, dense spiritual energy!

This is Han Wuxian's most immediate sensation after he fell onto the cold black Stone Tablet. He breathes greedily; with each inhalation, that pure, gentle, vibrant spiritual energy rushes in like sweet spring water into his dried‑up, near‑dead lungs, bringing a faint yet real sense of comfort, even temporarily suppressing the searing pain in his chest. The air is suffused with a faint, jade‑like dusty scent, completely different from the foul, rotting stench of the water realm before.

He coughs violently, spitting out blood‑stained foam and choking sludge, struggling to prop up his upper body, his back pressed against a wall likewise built of warm black jade. He looks around.

An enormous circular stone chamber, seamless as one. The lofty dome is etched with intricate star patterns that shimmer faintly, as if sealing a miniature sky within. The walls and floor are likewise covered with profound runes, emitting a soft yet resilient starlight. The whole space exudes an ancient, solemn, almost sacred tranquility. It forms an extreme, ironic contrast to the outside world's filth, Chaos, and death.

In the center of the stone chamber stands a magnified, ancient, rustic lamp base, carved from the same black jade, towering silently. Its lines are smooth yet massive, bearing an indescribable sense of age and majesty. The recess at the top of the lamp base matches perfectly in shape and size the battered bronze lamp he clutches in his arms! It seems to silently whisper a summons of destiny.

Han Wuxian's gaze is fixed, locked onto the space between the lamp base and the lamp in his arms.

His heartbeat involuntarily quickens.

This is no coincidence! This bronze lamp is the key that opens this mysterious stone chamber, or rather activates the lamp base! The pure spiritual energy filling the chamber, the aura of the powerful protective formation, all attest to the place's extraordinariness! Perhaps… this is where one can escape a dead end, regain strength, and even obtain supreme destiny!

Yet the euphoria flashes only briefly, replaced by deeper vigilance and worry.

He lowers his head to look at the bronze lamp in his arms. At the center of the lamp disk, the once pigeon‑egg‑sized bluish‑gray stone has now shrunk to the size of a fingertip! Its volume has clearly reduced by a layer! The warm bluish‑gray glow it emits has also dimmed considerably, like a dying candle in the wind, ready to go out at any moment! It is precisely this mysterious stone that, in the process of purifying dead Qi, guiding the path, and opening the portal, continuously consumes its own essence!

Once the lamp is placed into the base, activating some unknown formation or inheritance, will this stone be completely consumed?

Without it, the remaining Nine Nether dead Qi within Han Wuxian would immediately rebound, and the primordial void created by the burning spiritual blood would instantly devour him! In his current exhausted, lamp‑faded state, he likely cannot endure even a moment, and would be reduced to dry bones!

This is a cruel gamble!

If he wins, perhaps he can escape the dead end, regain strength, and obtain unimaginable destiny; if he loses, he will be instantly reduced to ash!

Stay here? Though the stone chamber is safe and the spiritual energy abundant, merely relying on the slow absorption of Qi to recover, given his primordial void and destroyed meridians, it would likely take centuries to regain mobility. Not to mention the lamp's power continues to drain, the stone shrinks! He cannot wait! Outside the chamber, that ancient presence full of resentment and coveting the lamp may also be seeking a way in! This place is far from a permanent refuge!

No retreat! Only forward!

A flash of resolute madness passes through Han Wuxian's eyes. He struggles, using his last breath of strength, inching his nearly disintegrated body toward the black jade lamp base at the chamber's center. The cold Stone Tablet rubs against his wounds, leaving faint bloodstains. Each movement drains the tiny spark of life he just regained from inhaled spiritual energy.

A few dozen zhang—a distance that feels like crossing the chasm between life and death.

Finally, he reaches the base. Looking up at the ancient, solemn recess, he feels the old aura emanating from the lamp base itself—of the same origin as the lamp but far more vast and magnificent. The bronze lamp in his arms seems to sense something, emitting an extremely faint hum; the shrunken bluish‑gray stone at the center of the lamp disk flickers slightly, like a weary bird about to return to its nest.

Han Wuxian draws a deep breath, suppressing the surging blood and deadly weakness. He extends his trembling left hand, carefully lifts the battered bronze lamp, and aligns it with the recess at the top of the lamp base.

"Life or death… in this single act!" he closes his eyes, pouring all his resentment, all his hope, all his resolve into this lift.

Clack.

A crisp, perfect sound, as if the Silence of countless ages had finally been fulfilled, rang in the silent stone chamber.

The bronze lamp fits seamlessly into the recess of the black jade lamp base!

Buzz！！！！！

In an instant, it seems a slumbering ancient leviathan has opened its eyes! The entire black jade lamp base erupts with earth‑shaking buzz! An indescribable, star‑sea‑vast, overwhelming force roars awake from deep within the base!

The ancient carvings on the lamp base instantly ignite! No longer bluish‑gray, they burst into a pure, noble, world‑creating white star light! This light, like a living thing, flows down the base, instantly illuminating the stone chamber's floor, walls, and the dome's intricate, profound star‑pattern runes!

The entire circular stone chamber, at this moment, becomes a sea of light! Countless white star‑light runes flow, rotate, and intertwine like a galaxy! An overwhelmingly massive stellar power, unimaginable in scale, fills every inch of space! The pure, gentle spiritual energy instantly turns into boiling starlight, dense and viscous enough to be almost liquid!

Han Wuxian is the first to bear the impact! He feels like a lone boat tossed in a raging sea, instantly engulfed by this vast stellar power!

"Ah!" he lets out a pain‑filled roar unlike any human voice!

The power is too great! So great it exceeds the limits his gravely wounded body can bear! The white star light surges madly into him! This is not an attack, but the purest, most primal stellar force! Yet, for a body with severed meridians, a dead dantian, and a primordial void like a torn sack, this overwhelming force is no longer a blessing but… a cataclysmic torrent!

Intense pain! Rending! Burning!

He feels every cell inside and out being washed, torn, and reshaped by the raging star light! The wound on his chest is instantly covered by white star light; flesh and blood writhe, grow, and are torn again under the stellar force! His crystallized right arm moans under the strain, the cracks sometimes forcibly sealed by a sliver of white star light, then ripped open again by even wilder power! The remaining Nine Nether dead Qi inside him, as if confronting its ultimate nemesis, emits a harrowing, piercing wail, frantically recoiling and vanishing!

But the most lethal is the primordial void, like a black hole, created by the burning spiritual blood! This white stellar power, brimming with unparalleled vitality, instinctively seeks to fill that void! Yet the filling process is brutal and direct! It is like forcing a raging star river into a dried, cracked riverbed—rather than nourishing, it utterly shatters and destroys!

Cracks begin to spider across Han Wuxian's body surface, like porcelain about to shatter! Blood mingles with white star rays, seeping from the fissures! His consciousness, under boundless agony and the onslaught of vast power, is like a dying candle in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment!

"No! It can't be!" At the brink of his sinking consciousness, the remaining will of Han Wuxian lets out a final, desperate cry! Instinctively, he activates the dormant star‑map fragments on his back! This is the only thing that can connect him to the stellar power!

Hum…

At his back, the almost‑forgotten star‑map fragments finally flare up again under the stimulus of this vast stellar force! The fissured fragments burst with unprecedented light, crazily absorbing the raging stellar power flooding Han Wuxian's body! They act like a bottomless pit, yet also like a temporary buffer, greedily soaking up the energy, trying to relieve their master's pressure!

The star‑map fragments' frantic absorption slightly eases the rate of Han Wuxian's bodily collapse. But it's a drop in the bucket! The incoming power is simply too overwhelming!

At the instant Han Wuxian feels he is about to be completely blown apart, becoming part of this stellar flood...