Chapter Ninety: The Nine Stars Align, and the Heavenly Gate Begins to Open

I returned to the Star Vein Grand Formation with Yiyi and Xiaobai.

This time, my heart was utterly different from before.

Standing at the center of the great array, I swept my gaze across the eight spiritual stones already in place, and finally let it settle on the dreamlike, multicolored stone in my hand.

“Yiyi, Xiaobai, step back a little,” I said in a low voice.

The two girls obediently retreated to the edge of the hall, their faces tense with anticipation.

I drew a deep breath and focused all my will on the ninth spiritual stone, slowly feeding it into the formation.

The stone in my hand began to hum, its radiance bursting forth in a blaze of seven-colored light.

“Go!”

With a soft cry, I sent it toward the blank node at the very heart of the array.

This time, there was no obstruction whatsoever.

The ninth spiritual stone, like a drop of water melting into the sea, fitted perfectly into the eye of the formation.

A thunderous boom erupted.

The entire Penglai Immortal Isle—no, the spiritual veins of all the Eastern Sea, and even the whole Earth—let out a violent roar at that very instant.

With the nine stars in place, the great array was fully awakened.

On the ground, every formation line lit up with a brilliant golden radiance never seen before. No longer chaotic, no longer flickering, they formed a complete and magnificent chart of the starry river. Nine beams of energy, thick as dragons, shot into the heavens and converged into a single point beneath the dome of the hall.

Space, like a painted scroll being torn apart, began to form a deep and stable vortex, shimmering with boundless starlight.

That was the heavenly gate leading to the true world of cultivation.

I could feel countless powerful auras surging from the far side of the vortex.

Yet at that very moment, my expression changed.

I realized that maintaining the opening of this heavenly gate required an unimaginable amount of energy. The nine spiritual stones had only provided the key and the coordinates; the true fuel driving the great formation had to come from the one who controlled it.

Like the old man of the Returning Ruins, who burned himself to start the teleportation array, I too had to serve as the source of power.

“Rise!”

I bellowed, unleashing the full force of my Nascent Soul cultivation without reserve. Vast spiritual power poured into the Star River Grand Formation like a flood breaking through a dam.

The vortex of the heavenly gate spun faster and became even more stable.

But after only a few breaths, the spiritual power within me was being drained at a terrifying speed, and my face turned deathly pale in an instant.

The formation consumed far more than I had estimated.

“Father!”

“Master!”

Seeing this, Yiyi and Xiaobai rushed forward without hesitation, pressing their palms against my back.

Two streams of pure energy—Yiyi’s complete Golden Core power and Xiaobai’s six-tailed celestial fox demon power—surged into my body, lending me their strength.

And yet, even with the power of the three of us combined, it was still a drop in the ocean before this monstrous formation.

The heavenly gate vortex had only stabilized for a moment before it began to fluctuate violently once more, showing signs of collapse from insufficient follow-up energy.

A gush of blood spilled from my mouth.

I could no longer hold on and forcefully severed my connection to the formation.

Above the hall, the nearly formed heavenly gate flickered resentfully a few times, then gradually dispersed and returned to calm. The light of the nine spiritual stones dimmed with it, sinking back into silence.

I dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, an overwhelming emptiness yawning within me.

I had failed.

My cultivation was still far from enough.

“Father, are you all right?” Yiyi hurried to support me, concern written all over her eyes.

“Master…” Xiaobai looked at me anxiously as well, her golden eyes full of self-reproach, as though blaming herself for not being strong enough.

“I’m fine.” I waved a hand and slowly stood, wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth.

Though I had failed, I felt no discouragement in my heart. Instead, a kind of clarity filled me.

This attempt had shown me the truth in full.

The Star River Grand Formation was on a level far beyond my imagination. What it connected were universes of two different dimensions. To drive it, I feared one would need at least the cultivation of the Spirit Transformation stage.

With my current Nascent Soul cultivation, forcing it open was no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

“It seems we all need to become stronger,” I said in a grave voice, looking at the two girls before me.

Yiyi and Xiaobai exchanged a glance, then both nodded hard.

Especially Yiyi. This was the first time she had so clearly felt her own helplessness. She no longer wanted to hide behind me as before, watching me fight alone and bear everything alone.

She wanted to stand beside me, to become my aid rather than a weakness that had to be protected.

Her gaze had never been so resolute.

“Father, I want to cultivate,” she said, looking at me, word by word. “Really cultivate, like you.”

I looked at the fire blazing in her eyes and nodded with satisfaction.

Now that her body had reached perfect completion, she possessed a talent for cultivation no less than any favored child of heaven. What she lacked was only a heart that truly longed to grow stronger.

And now, that heart had awakened.

“Very well,” I said. “Starting today, the entire Penglai Immortal Hall enters seclusion.”

From the Thousand Scrolls Pavilion, I passed on to them the finest techniques most suited to Yiyi and Xiaobai: the Nine-Aperture Exquisite Heart Sutra and the Nine Transformations of Qingqiu.

After that, I activated the hall’s spirit-gathering formation, drawing the spiritual energy of the entire immortal isle into the three secluded chambers where we would cultivate.

The gates of the immortal hall slowly closed.

And so began a long cultivation, one that would decide the future.