Shengjing Noble

Nian Xi subconsciously pulled the teddy bear closer to her arms, but the blue light flowed along her fingertips to her wrist, outlining the same mysterious symbol as the notebook on her skin.

The crystal chandelier in the Fu family's old house suddenly shook violently. The century-old oil paintings on the wall oozed ink-colored liquid. The portraits that should have been still actually slowly moved their eyes and stared at everyone.

"Put the things down quickly!" The shout of Fu Mingyuan, the head of the Fu family, was shattered by the sudden thunder.

The branches of the sycamore trees outside the study window were slapping the glass frantically, and countless translucent human figures were vaguely emerging in the heavy rain.

They all had symbols around their necks similar to the one on Nian Xi's wrist, and their withered fingers kept drawing strange patterns in the air.

Nian Xi felt a force running rampant in her body, and the notebook opened automatically, with the yellowed pages turning without wind.

Bloody words appeared on one of the pages: "The seventh reincarnation begins, and the star core host is about to awaken."

She suddenly remembered the anonymous text message she received this morning -

“Be careful of the bear next to your pillow, it is waiting to talk to you after you fall asleep.” Thinking of this, I felt a chill on my back.

Fu Chenzhou, the eldest son of the Fu family, quickly took out a dagger embedded with silver runes. The blade reflected the true appearance of those transparent figures: they were distant relatives of the Fu family who mysteriously disappeared twenty years ago.

"It's the backlash of the secret technique!" He threw the dagger at the nearest phantom, but saw that after the sharp blade penetrated the opponent's body, a ball of black mist exploded on the wall.

The foundation of the old house suddenly made a teeth-grinding creaking sound, and the entire study began to tilt.

Nian Xi was wrapped in blue light and floated up. The teddy bear doll turned into pieces and then reassembled into a diamond-shaped crystal emitting a faint light.

Fu Mingyuan's pupils shrank suddenly as he looked at the crystal. He trembled as he took out the ancestral jade pendant from the safe. The concave part in the center of the jade pendant was exactly the same shape as the star core.

"It turns out... what we are protecting is not the jade pendant..."

Before Fu Mingyuan finished speaking, the core of the star suddenly burst into a strong light, and spider-web-like cracks appeared on the study floor. Countless withered hands wrapped in chains broke out of the ground.

Nian Xi felt a voice whispering in her mind: "Choose, become a container, or be destroyed..."

Fu Chenzhou was already swinging the rune sword, slashing at the withered hand closest to Nian Xi.

A family secret spanning a century was completely revealed the moment the star core awakened.

Fu Chenzhou's rune sword collided with the withered hand, causing a harsh metal friction sound. The chains on the surface of the withered hand were actually shattered by the sword light.

The broken chain flew like a living snake and entangled the pillar of the study. With a loud bang, the whole stone pillar broke in half, and the bricks and stones of the ceiling fell down.

"Take Nianxi to the ancestral temple!" Fu Mingyuan smashed the jade pendant to the ground. The ancient mechanism opened and the secret door in the corner of the study slowly appeared.

He drew out the bronze short blade from his waist and held back a shadow that was trying to get close to Nian Xi. His cloudy eyes were filled with determination. "I'll cover you!"

Fu Chenzhou embraced Nian Xi, who was almost unconscious, and rushed towards the secret door on the shaking floor.

Fu Mingyuan's roar came from behind, accompanied by the sharp screams of the phantoms and the crackling sound of burning runes.

The corridor behind the secret door was dark and damp, with the smell of rotten earth blowing in the face. The walls were inlaid with dim night pearls every few steps, flickering in the cold wind.

"Chen Zhou...I feel so uncomfortable..." Nian Xi curled up in his arms, the symbol on her wrist became brighter red, as if it was about to bleed.

The star core was beating violently in her heart, and every tremor made her consciousness more blurred.

In a trance, she saw a blurry figure at the end of the corridor. The figure was wearing simple Hanfu, and his face was 70% similar to hers.

"Don't sleep!" Fu Chenzhou suddenly pinched her philtrum, his voice filled with unprecedented tension, "Do you remember when you asked me when you were a child why every generation of the Fu family had to guard the ancestral temple on the night of the full moon? Because what we are guarding is not a family heirloom at all, but..."

His words were interrupted by a violent vibration.

There was a loud bang from the back of the tunnel, and the pursuers had broken through Fu Mingyuan's defense line.

Dozens of phantoms came wrapped in black mist, and one of the phantoms was holding Fu Mingyuan's bronze short blade in his hand, with dark red blood on the blade.

"Father!" Fu Chenzhou's eyes were bloodshot. He gently put Nian Xi on the ground and drew the long sword from his back with his backhand.

The sword glowed with an icy blue light, which was the starting move of the Fu family's secret technique "Hanyuan Jue".

However, just as he was about to meet the enemy, Nian Xi suddenly opened his eyes, and the unique blue light of the star core flashed in his eyes.

She stood up slowly, with mysterious runes surrounding her body, and walked towards the end of the corridor with light but precise steps.

The figure that looked similar to her gradually became clearer, and it turned out to be an ancient painting hanging on the stone wall.

In the painting, a woman is holding a star core in her arms, with a burning palace in the background. Below it is a line of small words: "When a star core descends into the world, it will inevitably bring disaster. Only by sacrificing the host can the wrath of heaven be appeased."

"So I am the sacrifice..." Nian Xi's voice was ethereal and cold. The moment he reached out to touch the ancient painting, the entire stone wall began to crack.

Countless memories flooded into her mind like a tide: three hundred years ago, the ancestor of the Fu family accidentally obtained the star core. In order to suppress its power, each generation had to select a member of the family with pure blood as a container; the "accident" twenty years ago that caused many members of the family to disappear was the disaster caused by the last awakening of the star core...

The phantoms suddenly stopped attacking, all knelt down on the ground, muttering something.

Fu Chenzhou rushed over and grabbed Nian Xi's shoulders, but was bounced away by an invisible force.

The star core flew out from Nian Xi's heart, hovered in front of the ancient painting, and gradually overlapped with the star core in the woman's hand in the painting.

The entire ancestral temple began to shake violently, the ground cracked into bottomless ravines, and the roar of ancient beasts could be heard faintly.

"We can't let the star core fully awaken!" Fu Chenzhou wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and took out a yellowed notebook from his arms. It was the one they found in the study.

On the blank space of the last page of the notebook, bloody words suddenly appeared: "Only with blood as a guide and soul as a bond can the star core be reshaped."

He gripped the sword tightly and looked at Nian Xi with a firm gaze, but Nian Xi gave him a sad smile.

The next second, she took the initiative to step into the light emitted by the star core, and her voice echoed in the void: "This time...it's my turn to protect the Fu family..."

The light from the star core completely devoured Nian Xi. Fu Chenzhou rushed into the ball of light regardless of everything, but felt as if he had fallen into a chaotic sea of ​​stars.

Countless fragments of memory whirled before his eyes. He saw that three hundred years ago, the ancestor of the Fu family bound his soul to the star core in order to seal it.

Seeing the disaster twenty years ago, his mother resolutely walked into the sacrificial circle in order to protect him when he was young.

"It turns out that everything is fate..."

Fu Chenzhou murmured to himself, and at this moment, he felt a familiar force pulling him.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a space constructed by the power of the star core. Nian Xi was suspended in the center, her body entangled in chains, and the star core was constantly absorbing her vitality.

"Stop!" Fu Chenzhou swung his sword and slashed at the chain, but found that the sword would be bounced back every time it touched the chain.

The star core let out a shrill scream, the space began to distort, and countless phantoms appeared again, surrounding him.

These phantoms no longer attacked, but instead chanted ancient spells in unison, and the power of the star core grew stronger.

Nian Xi opened his eyes with difficulty and said weakly: "Chen Zhou, don't waste your energy... The star core must have a host, otherwise the whole world will be destroyed by its power."

"No! There must be another way!" Fu Chenzhou roared, and suddenly remembered the notebook in his hand.

He flipped through the pages quickly and finally found a line of tiny words in the cracks: "Twin bloodlines, sharing the star core."

He looked up suddenly and remembered a legend that has been passed down in the Fu family - every three hundred years, a child with twin blood will be born in the family, and he and Nian Xi are the twins of this generation!

"Nian Xi, believe me!" Fu Chenzhou placed his hand on the star core, closed his eyes, concentrated all his energy, and tried to establish a connection with the star core.

The star core vibrated violently, and a powerful force surged into his body along his arm. The severe pain almost made him lose consciousness, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.

Nian Xi looked at Fu Chenzhou's painful expression, tears falling down: "No... I don't want you to die..."

"We are of twin blood. Only when we work together can we truly control the core of the star!" Fu Chenzhou shouted.

With his persistence, the power of the star core began to become docile, and the phantoms stopped chanting.

As the power of the two continued to be injected into the star core, the light of the star core gradually softened.

Eventually, the star core split into two and merged into their bodies respectively.

The space began to return to calm, and the shadows gradually dissipated. Before leaving, they saluted in unison, as if paying tribute to the new guardian.

When Fu Chenzhou and Nian Xi returned to the real world, the ancestral temple had returned to peace.

They found Fu Mingyuan unconscious in the ruins. He was only seriously injured but his life was not in danger.

From then on, the Fu family no longer viewed the star core as a disaster, but as a mission to protect.

Fu Chenzhou and Nian Xi jointly studied ancient secret techniques, looking for ways to better control the power of the star core.

On every full-moon night, they would come to the ancestral temple, looking at the twinkling stars in the sky, guarding the Fu family and this land.

The story about the star core will also be passed down from generation to generation in the Fu family with a brand new look...

Three years later, on the night of Jingzhe, strange ripples suddenly appeared in the star core array of the Fu family ancestral temple.

Fu Chenzhou and Nian Xi, who were studying ancient books, felt a pain in their hearts at the same time. The star cores vibrated violently in their bodies and turned into two streams of light that disappeared into the night sky.

A dull roar came from the distant mountains, as if a giant beast had awakened deep in the earth.

"It's the Wuwang Abyss in the southwest direction!" Nian Xi pointed to a dark blue track in the sky, which was the direction where the star core was flying.

The rune on her wrist lit up again, and this time what appeared was no longer a warning, but an ancient map - the end point marked on the map was the Fu family's forbidden area, Wuwangyuan.

Legend has it that an ancient evil god is sealed there, and unusual movements occur every thousand years.

Fu Chenzhou tightly grasped the newly forged star-patterned sword at his waist, and the sword made a clear sound due to the resonance of the star core.

When the two passed through the barrier covered with talismans and stepped into the Wuwang Abyss, they saw tens of thousands of glowing crystals floating at the bottom of the abyss. There was a figure trapped in each crystal, who was the psychic who had disappeared in recent years.

"These people have had their original power drained away..." Nian Xi squatted down, and just as his fingertips touched the surface of the crystal, the entire abyss suddenly began to hum with the sound of mechanical operation.

Countless metal chains broke out of the ground and intertwined into a huge gear structure in mid-air. The star core was trapped in the center of the gear, being eroded by some dark red energy.

"Be careful! This is a combination of ancient mechanical technology and sorcery!" Fu Chenzhou swung his sword to cut off the entangled chains, but the blade was covered with frost the moment it touched the metal.

A sinister laugh was heard from the darkness, and a man wearing a bronze mask walked out slowly, holding a half-broken jade pendant in his hand - it was the missing part of the Fu family's ancestral jade pendant.

"After three hundred years, the core of the star is finally complete." The masked man raised his hand, and the crystals of the abyss began to melt. The trapped psychics turned into black mist and were injected into the core of the star.

Fu Chenzhou felt that the star core power in his body was being pulled, and Nian Xi suddenly covered his heart, and black blood oozed out of his seven orifices.

"He is using the broken jade pendant to reversely control the star core!" Nian Xi said with difficulty, "The jade pendant must be destroyed..."