Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

71: Chapter 71: The Ruins of the Star Palace and Ancient ProverbsThe first light of dawn dispelled some of the chill and darkness within the forest.

After a continuous night of healing, Su Muxue’s condition had stabilized considerably. Though still far from her peak, she now possessed the strength to protect herself and engage in battle. The newfound control over her Sword Intent had bolstered her confidence.

The two of them quietly left the tree hollow, concealing their auras, and cautiously proceeded in the northwest direction Lin Mo had sensed.

The further they went in that direction, the more ancient and rugged the trees became. Many trees took on peculiar shapes, their branches and leaves seemingly gathering denser stellar Spiritual Qi. They could even see some fern-like plants that emitted faint Starlight only at night, slowly withdrawing their glow in the morning light.

The resonance from Lin Mo’s nirvana star core grew increasingly clear. It was a call, a faint sympathetic vibration between forces of the same origin, guiding the way.

Finally, after passing through a strange grove filled with giant fungi that resembled an inverted starry sky, the view before them suddenly opened up.

It was a vast forest clearing, or rather... ruins.

At the center of the clearing stood several broken, massive stone pillars. The material of the pillars was neither metal nor jade, but a dull black that seemed to absorb all light. Their surfaces were carved with incredibly intricate and ancient stellar trajectories, along with some incomprehensible large-scale biological totems, most of which were now blurred, eroded by time and vines.

At the center, surrounded by the pillars, was a half-collapsed, circular altar-like structure also made of black stone. The altar’s surface was covered in deep cracks, with a depression at its center that seemed to have once held something inlayed, now long gone.

And directly in front of the altar, a huge stone stele was slanted into the ground.

The stele was equally ruined, its upper half broken off and lost, leaving only the lower half standing there, its surface covered in thick moss and creeping vines.

But upon the remaining surface of the stele were carved several large, ancient characters! Their strokes were simple yet powerful, and even after endless ages, they still emitted a faint Starlight!

This script was completely unfamiliar to Su Muxue; she had never even seen similar records in any ancient texts.

However, the moment Lin Mo saw the characters, his chaos dao seed violently trembled! It wasn’t a sense of danger, but an indescribable familiarity and resonance! His nirvana star core spontaneously accelerated its rotation, its surface patterns flickering as if whispering in excitement!

He didn’t even need to comprehend it; the ”meaning” contained within the characters was directly imprinted deep into his consciousness through the star core’s resonance:

[Heavenly patrol... ancient path... seventh... observation...]

Fragmentary and incomplete.

But the information contained within it shook Lin Mo to his core!

The heavenly patrol ancient path? An observation point?

Could this place be... one of the stations established by the ancient ”Star Palace” in the mortal realm to observe the stars, or even... patrol certain ”paths”?!

The material of that stele... shared the same origin as the star core fragment he had fused with and the stone from the great formation of Old Man Star Remains!

”This place... is a ruin of the Star Palace.” Lin Mo conveyed the interpreted information to Su Muxue, his mental voice filled with shock.

Upon hearing this, a flash of astonishment crossed Su Muxue’s ice-blue eyes. She cautiously approached, stretched out her slender hand to brush away the moss on the stele, and carefully perceived the cold stone and the faint residual Star Power.

”The Star Palace... actually left remains here as well? What exactly were they planning back then?” she murmured to herself. Old Man Star Remains guarded the Eye of the Return to Void, while this place was an observation point. The Star Palace’s layout seemed incredibly vast.

Her fingertips traced over the ancient characters, attempting to sense any lingering will they might contain.

Just as her fingertip touched the last barely discernible rune representing the meaning of ”observation”—

Hum!

The newly formed black-green sword mark at her glabella and the zhenyuan remnant sword on her lap simultaneously trembled faintly!

An extremely faint, yet intensely familiar Vast Righteous Sword Intent was quietly stirred from deep within the stele, or perhaps from deep beneath the ruins, flashing past in an instant!

Though so faint it was almost imperceptible, both Su Muxue and Lin Mo clearly caught it!

”Lingxiao Sword Intent?!” they exclaimed simultaneously!

A Lingxiao Sword Cultivator had also been here?!

Of course! Old Man Star Remains had mentioned that Lingxiao, wishing to cleave through the dead silence with his sword and forge a path of life for future generations, must have thoroughly investigated everything related to the Burial Ancient Abyss and the source of the dead silence! He couldn’t have missed this Star Palace ruin!

Could it be that he had also obtained some clues from here back then, which ultimately led him to decide to venture deep into the Burial Ancient Abyss?

Su Muxue immediately closed her eyes and focused her spirit, channeling the Lingxiao Sword Intent within her body with all her might, attempting to establish a deeper connection with that lingering trace of resonance.

Lin Mo also focused the Perception of his nirvana star core beneath the stele and altar.

Gradually, a blurry, fragmented scene was fed back into their Perception through that faint Sword Intent resonance and the echo of Star Power.

They seemed to see—

A blurred yet straight-backed figure as sharp as a sword (undoubtedly Lingxiao), who once stood alone upon this altar, gazing up at the stars, his fingers constantly calculating and deducing in the Void Realm, his expression grave.

He then bent down, carefully examining the depression at the center of the altar. He seemed to have discovered something, his fingers tracing the edge of the pit, leaving behind an extremely faint Sword Intent imprint (precisely the one that had just resonated).

Finally, he seemed to have deduced a result, his gaze firm as he looked towards a certain direction—a direction that faintly overlapped with the location of the Burial Ancient Abyss!

The scene ended abruptly there.

Su Muxue snapped her eyes open, communicating with Lin Mo via mental link.

”Senior Lingxiao made a discovery here, ultimately pointing towards the Burial Ancient Abyss.”

”What this observation point monitored was likely not just the stars...” Lin Mo’s mental voice grew heavy. ”It probably also included the movements of the Burial Ancient Abyss, and even... could that so-called ’heavenly patrol ancient path’ be related to the Abyss?”

It seemed they had gained another clue, but the mist grew thicker. The Star Palace, the heavenly patrol ancient path, observation points, the Burial Ancient Abyss, the Eye of the Return to Void... These seemingly scattered clues were slowly being connected by an invisible thread.

And they were being drawn deeper and deeper, unable to extricate themselves.

At that moment, Lin Mo’s nirvana star core stirred again!

This time, it wasn’t pointing towards the stele or the altar, but towards the top of the tallest, relatively best-preserved broken stone pillar!

There, beneath thick layers of vines and accumulated leaves, something seemed to be hidden, producing an intense resonance with his star core far surpassing that of the stele!

Su Muxue also sensed the unusual energy fluctuation.

The two exchanged a glance and nodded.

Su Muxue took a deep breath, lightly tapped her toes, and her figure, graceful as a startled swan, silently soared up to the top of the broken stone pillar, dozens of meters high.

With a gentle swing of the zhenyuan remnant sword, she released a wisp of Sword Qi, carefully cutting away and clearing the covering vines and leaves.

Revealing the object hidden beneath—

It wasn’t any treasure, but a dark blue crystal, about the size of a washbasin, embedded in the top of the stone pillar.

The crystal’s surface was covered in natural, star-trajectory-like patterns. Inside, it seemed as if countless star dust were slowly rotating, being born and dying. It emitted a gentle, pure Stellar Power. Although its energy intensity was far inferior to Old Man Star Remains’s star core fragment, the ”quality” of its power was exceptionally refined, ancient, and possessed a characteristic of recording and transmission!

And at the very center of the crystal, a drop of... dark red, blood-like liquid seemed to be solidified!

The liquid emitted an extremely faint, yet instantly chillingly familiar aura to both Lin Mo and Su Muxue—

It was... the aura of a deadly poison, a mixture of bone rotting grass and another unknown evil energy?!

It shared the same origin as the poison afflicting Liu Qingxuan!

How could such a thing appear in the ruins of an ancient Star Palace observation point?!

Just as the two were shocked by this discovery—

That drop of dark red poisonous blood, as if disturbed by their presence, suddenly twitched!

Immediately after, the dark blue stellar crystal below erupted with a piercing light!

A blurred, twisted fragment of consciousness, filled with agony and madness, like a desperate cry, violently rushed out from the crystal, crashing fiercely into the Sea of Consciousness of the two!

[...Flee... flee quickly... they are coming... the observer... is also the observed... the ancient path... is a trap...!!!]

The consciousness ended there, abruptly cut off as if forcibly severed.

That drop of dark red poisonous blood instantly evaporated and vanished, as if it had never existed.

And that stellar crystal, having exhausted its final power, dimmed completely. A ”crack” sound echoed as its surface became covered in fissures, its spirituality utterly depleted.

Only Lin Mo and Su Muxue remained standing there, faces pale, their minds reverberating from the intermittent, despair-filled warning.

The observer is also the observed? The ancient path is a trap? They... who are they?