Han Lian frowned. "Are we rushing this? The three of us are stuck at early Divine Transformation. Can't we wait until we reach mid Divine Transformation before we activate the formation?"
Yun Chen replied, "This timing is optimal. It's when Azure Star's self-protection is at its weakest."
He looked to Yunxi and continued, "Ran Xi letting Reincarnation air shattered the public will's magnetic closed loop. This is the best window. If we miss it, the price will be much higher."
Xun Kun knit his brows. "I have no problem starting now. I'm worried our strength won't last until we knock open the Gates of the Underworld. If we falter then, everything will be for nothing."
"Amitabha. Then we use merit to make up the difference. This time we must succeed. Failure means waiting another hundred years to attempt it again. By then, what Azure Star becomes is anyone's guess."
Hearing Yun Chen's explanation, Han Lian and Xun Kun both drew deep breaths, then turned to Yunxi.
Yunxi spread her hands. "I honestly don't know how it came to this. The ending of Reincarnation was my preset if the formation's activation were forcibly interrupted by Azure Star's authorities. I didn't tailor it to match reality on purpose."
Han Lian ground her teeth. "You wrote it a little too precisely. It feels painfully real."
Yunxi could only chuckle sheepishly. The scene had surfaced in her mind after she studied the Special Department's reincarnation system in operation. Only then did she decide to reveal the truth that Azure Star's rulers had tried so hard to bury, using a film to tell ordinary people. She had not expected that one stroke of inspiration would bring forward the activation of the Five Elements Reincarnation Array.
Yun Chen made the call. "Move. No delays. We must initiate the array now, or we will miss the best time."
Han Lian glanced at Yunxi, signaling for her to release the great white bear. Han Lian needed to brief Bai Feng, otherwise he would drag them down.
With a flicker of divine sense, Yunxi pulled Han Baifeng out of the spatial storage, plucking him from the ice lake mid-swim.
Bai Feng was still dazed, frozen in a swimming pose. When he recognized the seniors before him, he scratched his ear and looked to Han Lian.
While tearing open space, Han Lian said, "I'll take Bai Feng over and explain on the way. You three head to your respective main arrays."
She yanked Bai Feng into the rift. Bai Feng only had time to wave a paw at the three.
Yunxi turned to Xun Kun. "Want me to send you over?"
Xun Kun's face darkened a shade, but he refused, "I'll tear space and go myself. Don't worry, I won't get lost."
Xun Kun's hopeless sense of direction had long been exposed, so he stated it boldly.
"Alright, we split up."
The three of them each tore open space and headed to the main arrays they would be activating.
After delivering Bai Feng to his station, Han Lian spoke solemnly, "Bai Feng, the activation of the Five Elements Reincarnation Array determines whether we can return to Weiyu Realm. Do not hold us back, or be ready to die trapped in this aura-starved small world."
Bai Feng nodded. "Understood. I knew leaving the secret realm would come with a price, though I didn't expect this. If my cultivation falls, you need to find heavenly materials to patch me back up."
"Quit nagging. Once we're back in the Northern Region, heavenly materials abound to raise your cultivation."
Man and bear finished their exchange and separated.
Half an hour later, a pillar of violet light pierced the heavens. It was followed by pillars of gold, black, white, and ice-blue surging upward in turn. The five pillars converged in the sky, coalescing into a colossal circular array wheel. Then four smaller pillars rose and poured into it. The wheel swelled again and again until it nearly covered all of Azure Star.
The spectacle jolted every soul on Azure Star.
"This is exactly like that scene in Reincarnation!"
"Does that film show the future?"
"No way. It has to be fake."
"Will the authorities stop it?"
"If they do, will we really become a dead star?"
"What do we do?"
The star network exploded. With too many people online, it crashed entirely under the flood of information.
Families of power, led by Wei Lansong, gathered to watch drone feeds. The room was a chaos of clashing opinions.
Some demanded the phenomenon be severed at once.
Some, fearing Reincarnation's ending would come true, refused to allow interference.
Some were contacting their clans to prepare for the worst.
Some, unwilling to give up what they had, issued covert orders to halt the vision.
Every motive lay naked on the table.
Meanwhile, the four cultivators and one beast holding the Five Elements Reincarnation Array were under crushing strain. The spirit stones helped, but the formation was drawing on the spiritual, demonic, Buddhist, and bestial power within their bodies without pause. The five of them had to keep replenishing themselves, terrified of being drained dry, more afraid that the formation would collapse before the Gates of the Underworld were knocked open.
When all nine formations of the Five Elements Reincarnation Array were fully engaged and the gate-knocking formation blanketed Azure Star, the location Yun Chen had calculated for the Gates still showed no response.
Everyone grew tense, especially Yun Chen. He had calculated and led the arrangement. He had determined the Gates' position. If this failed, he would have dragged his companions into a pit.
Sensing the abnormality, Yunxi clenched her teeth. "Everyone, inject the power of merit into the array. We take the gamble."
Yun Chen, Han Lian, and Xun Kun complied. They had come too far to back down without opening the Gates.
With the infusion of golden merit light, the great array covering Azure Star began to flicker. When the four streams of merit finished pouring in, the array blazed with gold. A golden pillar lanced toward the point where the Gates lay. Three breaths later, a black hole formed at that spot. As it slowly widened, the unique aura of the Underworld seeped out.
Only then did the four and the beast exhale. They quickly swallowed pills to refill dantians that had been wrung dry. Almost at the same instant the Gates opened, immense phantoms manifested above the five arrays: a towering golden Buddha, a demonic immortal dharma image, a divine maiden's apparition, a gigantic ice-blue lotus, and a white bear roaring at the sky.
In the next heartbeat, Yunxi, Yun Chen, Han Lian, Xun Kun, and Bai Feng flashed to the fore of the Gates. Yunxi lit soul-incense at once, hoping underworld bailiffs would appear from the forcibly opened passage.
At that moment, several missiles streaked toward the position of the four cultivators and the beast suspended in midair.
Yunxi's face went cold. Azure Star's rulers dared to strike at them. As her divine sense swept out, she seized the power of wind and sent the missiles back the way they came. Explosions rumbled across Azure Star.
"Amitabha."
Yun Chen furrowed his brows and chanted, but he did not stop Yunxi.
A voice reached the ears of the four and the beast. "What is going on here? Who dares summon us in a place like this?"
"This passage was forced open. Be careful."