Scared Awake

Gu Ningyun released her head. With a thought, a flute appeared in her hand.

Holding the flute horizontally, she began to play. Purple star power flowed gently across the instrument's body.

At first, the music sounded like the break of dawn, piercing through endless darkness and abyss, showering the mortal realm with celestial light.

Listening closer, it felt like tens of millions of soldiers charging onto a battlefield.

Before them were the enemy's cavalry, sabers, and spears; behind them was the city wall they swore to defend with their lives.

Blood stained the sky, and smoke rose from all sides.

In the soldiers' eyes was a light they would protect even at the cost of their lives.

As long as they still drew breath, no one would ever breach the wall behind them.

The music continued, the purple qi lingering with profound meaning.

Endless conviction and boundless courage gathered from thousands of battlefields, like a grand Guiyuan.

They merged into a river, carrying an unceasing resilience and an all-consuming fighting spirit.

The music grew passionate, and the purple qi surged.

The power gathered from the endless Guiyuan brought courage, conviction, and fighting spirit, causing the purple qi to shine even brighter.

The music reached its climax.

The brilliant purple qi pierced through the eons-old sorrowful song, breaking past the limitations of her cultivation, and echoed across the entire Luan'an Mountain Range.

The moment the pain in her sea of consciousness vanished and the suppression on her spirit energy dissolved, Wen Xuan reacted instantly. “Run!”

In the final moment before she lost consciousness, Gu Ningyun saw the Record of Primordial Stars in her sea of consciousness flare with a brilliant purple light.

Countless profound runes flashed rapidly before her eyes, like a book she couldn't understand being flipped through at high speed.

As if only a second had passed, yet also as if thousands of years had gone by, the book finally reached its very last page.

The river of runes ground to a sudden halt, and what appeared before her was a blank page.

For some reason, she instinctively channeled her star power.

Ancient purple characters slowly materialized on the blank space—

《Song of the Breaking Array》

With the stars as the foundation, the endless will of warriors as strength, and 《Guiyuan》 as conviction, channel the power of the sun's purple qi to break all restrictions placed upon living beings.

Created by Gu Ningyun, Innate Star Body, early Foundation Establishment stage.

...

Why this title?

Jiang Yao's face flashed across her mind, and the inscriptions and border city walls stood tall in her heart.

Gu Ningyun couldn't help but think that perhaps it was because the soul of this melody came from the battlefield.

Her consciousness could no longer hold on and began to fade. Before she closed her eyes, Gu Ningyun's final memory was of a strong arm catching her by the waist and Wen Xuan's anxious face.

“Get out of the Luan'an Mountain Range first!”

“Ningyun must have done something! The song isn't working anymore!”

“She's lost consciousness. Let's return to the sect first.”

“Without the flute, the song will take effect again. Use Swift-Walk Talismans...”

...

In the dark, silent void, Gu Ningyun caught a faint, delicate scent of vegetation.

Something cool and round was fed into her mouth. A silver spiritual glow moistened her meridians, and she gradually began to feel her body again.

Just as she was about to use her divine sense to inspect her internal state, another ice-cold thing was slipped into her mouth.

She moved her tongue, and the coldness dissolved, heading straight toward her sea of consciousness.

Her sea of consciousness...

She tried to mobilize her divine sense... Huh??

Where was her divine sense?

Wait, where was her sea of consciousness?

Gu Ningyun bolted upright like a dying patient suddenly jolted to life, completely scared awake.

A hand as cold as jade withdrew from her forehead.

Gu Ningyun followed the hand and looked forward, freezing instantly.

The woman standing before her wore a Xiaoyao cloud-patterned long robe. Her long hair cascaded down like a waterfall, her eyes were slender, and her gaze was as gentle as water.

She exuded an aura of elegance and composure.

The familiar herbal scent from the darkness lingered faintly. Gu Ningyun quietly took a deep breath, and the fragrance grew slightly richer.

It was a very, very comforting scent.

The very breath that had pulled her out of the heavy darkness.

Her forehead was lightly flicked. “You silly girl, why did you sit up so suddenly? You scared the life out of me.”

Gu Ningyun's sniffing motion froze.

Me?

What kind of self-address was that?

To think that Daoist Lord Yi Shu, the Peak Master of Alchemy Peak, had such a personality.

She was truly a completely different person compared to when she kept her mouth shut.

She murmured, “Martial Aunt Yi Shu.”

“Mm.”

Gu Ningyun looked around. This was likely one of the treatment rooms on Alchemy Peak.

Aside from the bed she was on, there were four other empty beds in the room.

She even spotted Wen Xuan's hairband on one of them.

It went without saying who had occupied those four empty spots.

Where did the four of them go? Were their seas of consciousness still damaged?

Yi Shu tossed three small jade bottles over. “One Soul-Nourishing Pill a day, one Star Pill morning and night, and one Meridian-Moisturizing Pill every night. Once you're done with these, I'll prescribe you something else.”

Gu Ningyun scrambled to catch them. Having just woke up, her limbs were somewhat unresponsive.

Could something have gone wrong with her meridians?

Startled by the thought, she didn't dare circulate her cultivation technique. She hurriedly asked, “Martial Aunt Yi Shu, what's wrong with me? My limbs aren't listening to me, and I can't even feel my sea of consciousness. Also, where did Wen Xuan and the others go?”

“Your sea of consciousness was completely depleted and severely damaged by that song. Fearing you might recklessly use your divine sense, I temporarily sealed it. As for your unresponsive limbs, it's likely because your meridians were completely drained in a short period of time. The other four are in better shape than you. Just take your pills regularly for a while and avoid fighting. Since Mu Chenze and Jun Luo were injured, the Mu and Jun families sent people to take them back. You've been unconscious for a month. That little girl Wen Xuan suspected my medical skills were lacking, claiming she wanted to investigate if there was some hidden cause I failed to detect. In any case, the four of them ended up going to the Mu and Jun family estates.”

Yi Shu looked utterly speechless. “Well, look who's awake now. I'll send a transmission to that little girl right away and see what she has to say.”

Gu Ningyun gripped the identity jade token at her waist, instinctively wanting to probe it with her divine sense to see if there were any messages from Wen Xuan and the others.

But she came up empty, only then remembering her sea of consciousness was sealed. She silently withdrew her hand.

Yi Shu had a knowing look on her face, as if to say, See? I knew you wouldn't be able to resist using your divine sense.

“In ancient times, a great demon fought a powerful human cultivator at the border of Nanwangzhou. After the battle ended, both the expert and the great demon vanished without a trace. No one knew if they were dead or alive, as neither bodies nor survivors were ever found. Since then, whenever cultivators passed through the Luan'an Mountain Range right before dawn, they would occasionally hear a faint song.”

As Yi Shu spoke, she knit her brows in confusion. “But no cultivator has ever encountered a song as powerful and aggressive as the one you ran into. The songs they heard were minor, harmless, and purely hallucinatory. Once dawn arrived, they would be perfectly fine.”

Yi Shu's words filled in the missing pieces of Mu Chenze's explanation, letting Gu Ningyun understand the origin of the song.

Yet, while clarifying the historical context, this explanation also brought her a deeper level of confusion.

“Why?” Her voice was raspy and bewildered. “Why was it so specific to the five of us? Could it be because we ate Blue Lake Scallops and weren't fooled by its low-grade illusions?”

“That's definitely not the reason.”

Yi Shu shook her head. “There are countless high-level cultivators who can see through low-grade illusions, yet none of them have ever experienced what you did.”