I drifted suspended in the liquid spiritual energy of the Guixu Hidden Realm, fingertips brushing against a reef encrusted with coral, savouring the heady rush of mid-stage Core Formation power surging through my meridians. Several months had passed since I formed the Core Formation, and not only had my cultivation solidified firmly at the mid stage — now there were even faint signs of a breakthrough pressing toward the late stage. The needle on the System Compass was spinning wildly, pointing toward the deeper reaches of the realm, as though something in those depths was calling out to me.

"Rookie, stop dawdling," the System Elder's voice rang out inside my mind. "According to the compass, there is a strong likelihood of ancient ruins ahead. There may even be key materials for repairing the Zhenhai Sword."

I gave a nod, reined in my aura, and shot forward as a streak of light in the direction the needle indicated. The Guixu Hidden Realm was worthy of its name as the forbidden ground of the Eastern Sea. The deeper one went, the denser the spiritual energy — and the more savage. Black reefs loomed like snarling beasts, jagged and menacing, jutting up from the liquid qi all around, while ghostly blue arcs of lightning flickered between the rocks at intervals: the realm's natural defence mechanism.

I lost track of how long I flew before the view abruptly opened up before me. A vast valley appeared — its walls sheer black cliffs soaring on every side, blanketed in complex runes that radiated an aura of ancient, unfathomable mystery. In the centre of the valley, a crumbling forest of stone steles stood in silence, as if bearing quiet witness to a glory long since past.

"This is the place," the System Elder said, a thread of excitement in his voice. "Go take a look — quickly."

I pressed down the agitation in my chest and touched down before the stele forest with careful steps. Most of the steles were badly damaged: some broken clean in two, others riddled with cracks, the inscriptions upon them worn nearly beyond recognition. Even so, I could still feel the vast sword intent permeating the carvings — a force that transcended both time and space.

"System. Analyse the inscriptions."

"Ding! Analysing inscriptions… Analysis progress: 10%… 30%… 70%… Analysis complete!"

As the System's chime faded, passage after passage of ancient text surfaced in my mind.

"Ten thousand years before the Blue Star calendar's reckoning, spiritual energy was abundant and spirit veins ran in every direction. Blue Star stood as the sacred land of cultivation across all the myriad realms. Ten great veins of the highest order threaded through the continent, nurturing all living things, giving rise to countless souls of extraordinary brilliance…"

"Huh?" I stared at the inscription in shock, struggling to imagine what Blue Star must have looked like in all its glory ten thousand years ago.

"Yet beyond the heavens there lurked a demon, known as the Nine Abysses. Its kind were savage and brutal, feeding upon spirit veins; wherever they passed, not a blade of grass survived. Ten thousand years ago, the vanguard forces of the Nine Abysses Demon Palace descended upon Blue Star, intent on siphoning the energy of this world's spirit veins…"

My heart clenched at those words. The Nine Abysses Demon Palace!

"The cultivators of Blue Star rose up in resistance, waging a desperate battle against the demon cultivators of the Nine Abysses — a conflict that would come to be known as the War of the Spirit Veins. Yet the demon cultivators were formidably powerful, and the spirit veins teetered on the brink of destruction. To protect the very foundation of Blue Star, a gathering of peak cultivators resolved to destroy the cores of the spirit veins themselves, so that the Nine Abysses demon cultivators might never fulfil their ambition…"

Boom.

It was as though a thunderbolt had detonated inside my skull. I finally understood the truth behind Blue Star's withered spiritual energy. Not a cataclysm of heaven and earth. Not natural decay. A war — a brutal, devastating war. A desperate choice made by Blue Star's cultivators to defend their home.

"With the spirit vein cores destroyed, spiritual energy drained away in an instant. All ten great veins ran dry. Only a handful of minor veins remained, and even those were thin and feeble…"

"System," I asked, my voice trembling. "This — this is the true reason Blue Star's spiritual energy dried up?"

End of Chapter 86: The Truth Carved in Stone