Chapter 21: New Shadows in the Dark Tide

Watanabe Miyuki's enhanced puppet guards surged like a tide. Shen Qingluan's protective light shield trembled under the impact, cracks spreading like a spiderweb. Chen Jiuzhang swung the Broken Serpent Blade, but the runes on its surface dimmed from overuse, and each clash sent jolts of pain through his hands. Zhang Chengying's electric scooter frame finally collapsed. He rolled awkwardly to dodge incoming blows, his peachwood sword's lightning talisman fully depleted.

"This can't go on!" Su Nian's chains wrapped around a puppet guard's neck but were seized by the enemy and used to choke her. Her face flushed as she struggled, catching a glimpse of a silver glint in the shadow of the Heaven-Piercing Tower—a figure cloaked in black, only revealing a pair of glowing blue eyes beneath the hood.

Just as the puppet's claws were about to pierce Su Nian's chest, a silver chain shot through the air, wrapped around the puppet's wrist, and flung it away. The hooded figure stepped from the shadows, a bronze compass hanging at his waist humming faintly in resonance with Chen Jiuzhang's Celestial Master Token.

"Your combat methods... are far too crude," the stranger said in a raspy voice, metallic and calm.

Watanabe Miyuki's pupils contracted. "You! The bearer of the Mystic Compass—you dare interfere with my plans?" With a wave of her hand, she recalled the phantom of Yamata no Orochi. Its flicking tongue spread a poisonous purple mist across the battlefield.

But the cloaked man remained unfazed. He rotated the bronze compass, and an ancient star map appeared on its surface. Wherever the compass pointed, the poison mist dissipated as if hitting an invisible barrier.

Chen Jiuzhang, seeing the reappearance of the Twenty-Eight Star Spirits behind him, pressed the Celestial Master Token onto the Broken Serpent Blade. He noticed the compass's star map resonated strangely with the birthmark on his chest—as if some long-lost bloodline connection stirred between them."Who are you?" he shouted between swings of his blade.

The cloaked man offered no answer, instead pointing toward the Heaven-Piercing Tower. Suddenly, the tower's runes reversed in motion, and the puppet guards froze mid-strike.

"To enter the Guixu Secret Realm, you must break through the Three Seals," he said, gesturing to the base of the tower, where three glowing doors—gold, silver, and blue—had appeared. "But choose wrongly, and the price is eternal damnation."

Shen Qingluan, staggering to her feet, felt the Imperial Jade Seal fragment burning in her palm. "Why are you helping us?"

The cloaked figure turned slightly, his glowing blue eyes sweeping over the group and finally settling on the birthmark on Chen Jiuzhang's chest. "Because the aura he carries… is just like the one I've been searching for."

With that, his figure dissolved into a black mist, leaving behind only the bronze compass floating in midair, its needle slowly pointing toward the golden door.

Watanabe Miyuki let out a shrill laugh. "Fools! You think an extra helper can change your fate? These three doors lead only to three death traps!"

She summoned Yamata no Orochi for one final strike. Its tail swept across the battlefield, shattering the earth.

Chen Jiuzhang gripped the Broken Serpent Blade tighter, glancing from the Celestial Master Token in his hand to the hovering bronze compass. A strange sense of trust surged within him."No matter what lies ahead—let's charge!" he shouted, leading his companions toward the golden door.