Chapter 1156: with translation of chapter title

On the ground, the already weathered giant skeletons suddenly flared with eerie green soul fire in their eye sockets! Shattered weapons buzzed and trembled, emitting blood‑thirsty cries! Countless blurred, twisted soul apparitions in ancient, tattered battle armor rose from the scorched earth! They silently roared, like a disturbed slumbering legion, instantly filling the entire space!

These battle spirits seem to lack clear consciousness, retaining only a lingering, endless killing intent toward all "living beings" and "outsiders"!

And Han Wuxian and his two companions happen to be the only three "living beings" in this dead land!

"Not good! The ancient battle spirits have awakened!" The Ferry Envoy's face drastically changed, obviously recognizing how dangerous this is.

In the next moment, countless battle spirits, like sharks smelling blood, turned into gray torrents and madly lunged at the three! Ignoring physical form, they directly attacked the souls, their claws wielding a yin‑cold power that rends the soul!

The melee erupted instantly!

The Heaven Slaughter Sect Master roared, swinging his Blood Fiend Demon Claw and tearing the rushing battle spirits into pieces, but those soul fragments quickly reassembled, seemingly endless! The Ferry Envoy then unleashed Netherworld Ghost Fire, scorching the spirits—slightly better effect, yet likewise drowned by the tide of soul apparitions.

Han Wuxian faced slightly less pressure; the starlight radiance of the Patrol Star Torch naturally restrained these yin souls, and where its azure glow fell, the spirits emitted shrill screams, like melting ice and snow, noticeably slowing compared to the other two. Yet he did not dare relax, slashing with Silence Extinction Sword Intent in all directions, continually annihilating the incoming soul apparitions.

This sudden change temporarily disrupted the trio's death struggle, turning it into each fighting alone to resist the endless tide of battle spirits.

While fighting, Han Wuxian keenly sensed that the surge of these battle spirits was not chaotic; they seemed pulled by some invisible force, converging toward a certain central area of the battlefield! And from that direction came a faint, older, vaster energy fluctuation.

"A formation? Or… something else?" His heart stirred; perhaps that place was a breakthrough, even the key to leaving this place!

He no longer hesitated, consciously fighting while retreating toward the direction where the battle spirits gathered. The Patrol Star Torch cleared the way, and with Silence Extinction Sword Intent cutting behind, his speed actually surpassed the other two by quite a margin.

The Heaven Slaughter Sect Master and the Ferry Envoy also noticed his intention and Han Wuxian's apparent ease in dealing with the battle spirits, instantly becoming both anxious and angry.

"Trying to run?!" the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master roared, actually enduring several battle spirit attacks, spitting out a mouthful of essence blood that merged into the Blood Fiend, forming a blood shadow that forcibly broke through the spirit blockade and chased after Han Wuxian!

The Ferry Envoy also gave a cold snort, his body turning into a Nether Shade, slipping like a ghost through the gaps among the battle spirits, relentlessly pursuing!

The three—one ahead, two behind—struggled forward like three small boats sailing against a current in the endless tide of battle spirits, hard-pressed as they surged toward the battlefield's center!

The closer to the center, the denser and stronger the battle spirits became, even beginning to appear as spirit generals riding skeletal warhorses and wielding illusory giant weapons! Pressure surged!

Yet the lamp‑mark on Han Wuxian's brow grew ever hotter, and the resonance of the Patrol Star Torch grew stronger!

Finally, after slaying an unknown number of battle spirits and charging through a region littered with the colossal, mountain‑sized bones of unknown giant beasts, the scene before them suddenly opened up!

At the battlefield's center stood an enormous ancient altar, piled from countless bronze remnants and star‑fragment debris!

The altar is circular, with nine layers; each layer is engraved with countless intricate, profound patterns that contain the meaning of stellar motion and carnage of war! Most of these patterns have faded and been damaged, yet at the core a faint light still circulates, maintaining the altar's most basic operation. It is precisely this ruined altar that draws and gathers the battle spirits of the entire ancient battlefield!

And at the altar's very top, where the nine layers' patterns converge, is not a shrine for any deity or treasure, but… a door!

A towering bronze gate a hundred zhang tall, cast entirely of dark‑blue bronze, its surface covered with scars from sword chops and axe blows and dried black bloodstains!

The bronze gate is tightly shut, its seam seemingly welded shut by some force. It bears no decoration, only two enormous characters, as if torn apart by claws, exuding an austere, barbaric yet overwhelmingly imposing aura!

Han Wuxian did not recognize this script, but the moment his eyes fell upon those two characters, their meaning naturally arose in his mind:

【Star Tomb】!

This gate, is it the gate to the "Star Tomb"?!

At the same time, the Patrol Star Torch in his bosom seemed to receive an ultimate summons, bursting forth with unprecedented, almost scorching light and a resonant hum, frantically striving to break free of his control and fly toward that massive bronze gate!

Beyond the door, is it the "path of return" spoken of by the Ferry Envoy? Or… perhaps a greater danger?

Just as Han Wuxian was stunned by this bronze gate

"The immortal treasure is mine!" the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master seized the moment Han Wuxian's mind was shaken, broke free of the battle spirits' entanglement, burned his essence blood, turning into an ultimate blood gleam—a colossal Blood Fiend palm that blotted out the sky and grabbed Han Wuxian's back, aiming to crush him together with the Patrol Star Torch!

On the other side, the Ferry Envoy appeared soundlessly, producing in his hand a pitch‑black long nail wrapped in countless wailing ghost spirits—a Funeral Gate Nail! He aimed it at Han Wuxian's brow and shot it out viciously! This nail specializes in destroying souls, utterly vicious!

A pincer attack from front and rear, the killing move arrived instantly!

Han Wuxian was caught between attack and defense, about to be struck by the two Void‑Refining experts' deadly killing blows!

In this critical moment, a flash of unprecedented madness and resolve flickered in his eyes!

He not only did not dodge, but performed an action that completely surprised the two!

He fiercely took the incessantly humming, radiant Patrol Star Torch, exerted all his strength, and fiercely… smashed it into the core formation eye of the ancient altar!

"Since you all want it… let's… open it together!"

Boom——!!

The Patrol Star Torch was like a meteor plunging into an oil sea, its immense stellar power instantly pouring into the altar's shattered formation eye!

The entire nine‑layer altar shuddered violently! All its dim ancient patterns, like ignited fuses, lit up layer by layer in succession! Brilliant starlight mixed with fierce battle intent shot into the sky, briefly illuminating the darkened heavens!

Hummm!

The altar roared loudly, and the countless battle spirits that had gathered emitted terrified shrieks, retreating like a tide, as if encountering something utterly terrifying!

Immediately afterward, the tightly shut, hundred‑zhang‑tall bronze gate, driven by the altar's power, accompanied by an earth‑shaking, as‑if‑spanning‑eons heavy grinding sound…

…slowly… opened a crack!

Beyond the crack was not the imagined scene, but a rotating, chaotic vortex filled with destructive energy storms and shattered laws… a spacetime turbulence! An indescribable, terrifying suction capable of easily tearing apart Void‑Refining cultivators burst forth from the crack!

"No——!!!" The greed on the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master's and Ferry Envoy's faces instantly turned into boundless horror! They felt like leaves in a gale, utterly unable to resist that terrifying suction, screaming as they were forcibly dragged toward the crack!

Han Wuxian likewise felt the deadly pull, but he had prepared! At the moment he hurled the Patrol Star Torch, he devoted all his strength to anchoring himself, while frantically cultivating his insight into the laws of reincarnation and this place's spatial law, his body becoming like a boulder, firmly rooted, resisting the pull!

He watched the two, terrified out of their wits, being sucked toward the crack, his eyes icy cold.

But just as the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master and the Ferry Envoy were about to be sucked into the turbulence and shattered to pieces

Another change occurred!

Behind the bronze gate, within the violent spacetime turbulence, a point of… light suddenly appeared!

A lone lantern, emitting a dim yellow glow, of antiquated bronze style!

The lantern's light swayed; a pallid, slender hand, as if carved from jade, gently held the lantern and slowly extended from the depths of the turbulence.

Where the lantern's light fell, the violent spacetime turbulence… fell still for a moment.

That hand flicked a finger.

Two faint, barely visible yellow sparks struck precisely the Heaven Slaughter Sect Master and the Ferry Envoy.

The two were as if struck by an invisible giant hammer, spewing blood wildly, yet miraculously steadied their forms, not being sucked into the turbulence; instead, wrapped by those sparks, they flew backward and crashed heavily onto the distant scorched earth, their life or death unknown.

And that hand, ignoring the terrifying spacetime turbulence, slowly turned toward Han Wuxian.

In the lantern's light, faintly visible within the turbulence beyond the gate was a figure clad in tattered star‑robes, silhouette blurred, aura ancient beyond description, silently "watching" him.

A calm, indifferent voice, yet seeming to contain supreme authority, sounded directly in Han Wuxian's sea of consciousness:

"The Star-Patrolling Torch... is not used like this."

"Come in."

"Or, stay."