In a lush and quaint courtyard.

Behind a series of rockeries and trees in the backyard, there was a dilapidated-looking house with its door tightly shut. Two middle-aged men stood guard at the door, preventing anyone from disturbing what was happening inside.

The house was quite eerie, not only lacking windows but also devoid of electric lights or any traces of modern equipment. Illumination came solely from two slender red candles.

In the center of the house stood an old wooden table with a dark green antique round plate on it. Upon closer inspection, one could see some faded symbols engraved on the bottom of the plate, following a peculiar pattern and interconnecting to form a complex formation.

Next to the plate were a small ebony box and a neatly folded white handkerchief.

A youth in a moon-white robe stood properly beside the table, looking down at the plate with a hint of undeniable solemnity between his brows.

This type of slightly vintage clothing was the most particular about the wearer. Most people would look a bit old-fashioned in it, but this young man had an excellent physique and temperament. Wearing such a robe, he created no sense of incongruity, only giving people the impression of the elegance cultivated in a prominent family.

The youth gently stroked the edge of the plate with his hand, then slightly raised his hand, and a trace of bright red appeared on his fingertips, dripping onto the center of the plate drop by drop.

As the fresh blood continued to fall, the youth seemed to have his vitality drained by a ghost. His complexion instantly turned a shade paler. After more than a dozen drops of blood flowed and his face had turned as white as paper, he withdrew his hand, picked up the white, soft, silky handkerchief placed aside, wiped the blood from his fingertips, and stared intently at the plate without blinking.

The moment the blood fell onto the plate, the blood-stained plate seemed to come alive from its slumber, emitting a faint green light. The bright red blood, like a snake, spontaneously meandered along the trajectory of the formation at the bottom of the plate, dyeing the originally inconspicuous formation lines blood-red, revealing a hint of eeriness.

The instant the blood completely covered the formation, the youth seized the opportunity to throw a small ball into the plate. The green ball, as if possessing intelligence, spun around inside the plate like a headless fly after falling in. But on a closer look, one would find that its rolling trajectory had a certain rhythm, and throughout the entire rolling process, it did not get stained with a trace of blood, still translucent green and pure.

As the green ball spun around, the bloodstains seemed to be absorbed by the plate, quickly fading. Finally, the green ball rolled around eight or nine times in the plate and happened to stop on a small depression in the center of the plate. By this time, the bloodstains in the plate had almost completely disappeared—except for a few inexplicably remaining pale traces, crooked and irregular.

The youth dared not delay for a moment and quickly picked up a talisman paper to make a rubbing of these few traces.

In just a few seconds, the bloodstains in the plate had completely dissipated. The youth reached out to take the green ball from the plate and carefully placed it back into the small ebony box. He then picked up the talisman paper and, under the illumination of the candlelight, squinted to carefully observe the traces rubbed off on the talisman paper, gradually revealing a hint of gravity in his eyes.

The youth pushed the door open and walked out of the room. After closing the door, he raised his hand and carefully sealed the door with the talisman paper.

Seeing his pale face, the middle-aged men guarding the door showed a hint of concern. "Young Master."

This handsome youth was called Fu Chenhua, the eldest son of the legitimate bloodline of the Fu family in this generation.

The Fu family was a Taoist priest family with nearly a thousand years of heritage. Their ancestors had produced imperial advisors who served emperors. Although the Fu family had begun to keep a low profile due to the dwindling of their descendants in recent generations, they still held an undeniable status in the metaphysical world.

Fu Chenhua was extremely talented, unrivaled among the younger generation of the Fu family. If nothing unexpected happened, when the current patriarch of the Fu family—his father—retired at the age of fifty, he would naturally become the next patriarch of the Fu family.

Fu Chenhua's brows were heavy. He shook his head slightly, interrupting what the middle-aged man was about to say. "It's alright. You may leave first."

With that, he walked away in a hurry, leaving the two middle-aged men standing there looking at each other.

Everyone in the metaphysical world knew that the Fu family had recently encountered a major incident.

The second master of the Fu family, Fu Shanming, the biological brother of the current head of the Fu family, had stolen an ancestral magical artifact enshrined in the Fu family's ancestral hall to try to capture a ferocious ghost. As a result, not only did he fail to catch the ghost, but he also lost the artifact and suffered a backlash, leaving him with only half his life left, still lying unconscious in bed.

Although the Fu family immediately contained the news about this matter, the commotion caused by Fu Shanming being carried into the main residence covered in blood was too great to conceal. In just a short day, almost the entire metaphysical world knew about this embarrassing incident of the Fu family.

The Fu family was a prominent family that could have squeezed into the top three of the entire metaphysical world three hundred years ago. However, the descendants of the past two generations had obviously shown generally low aptitude, slowly falling out of the ranks of the top families.

They were already in a somewhat awkward position, and now they had created a ridiculous incident of a legitimate descendant stealing a family artifact, simply allowing others to laugh at them and further tarnishing the Fu family's reputation.

However, only a vague outline of this matter had been leaked. Details such as which artifact was stolen and the origin of the ferocious ghost that even the Fu family's enshrined artifacts could not contain were unknown to anyone.

Because of this incident, the atmosphere of the entire Fu family had been very solemn for the past two days.

After a day of investigation and discussion, they even made the decision to have Fu Chenhua, the most talented of this generation of the Fu family, sacrifice his essence blood to activate a formation that had not been used for two hundred years to glimpse the heavenly secrets. The situation must be quite grim.

For cultivators, essence blood was the most important thing besides their lives. Under normal circumstances, losing one or two drops of essence blood would require more than half a month of recuperation. The price of glimpsing the heavenly secrets was obviously more than just one or two drops of essence blood.

After leaving the small room, Fu Chenhua made his way to the Fu family's council hall at the fastest speed, not even having time to knock on the door before pushing it open and entering directly.

All the elders of the Fu family, including his father, were waiting here. Seeing him enter, they all showed unusual expressions to varying degrees on their faces. Under the watchful eyes of many, Fu Chenhua carefully took out a pale yellow talisman from his sleeve and handed it to his father, who was sitting in the main seat.

The head of the Fu family took the talisman in his hand. After just one glance, his expression instantly changed.

He composed himself and passed the talisman to an elder with graying temples sitting beside him. After looking at it, the elder's face was not much better than the patriarch's. He silently handed the talisman to the elder next to him.

After everyone had passed the talisman around and looked at it, the room had fallen into a deathly silence.

The rubbing on the talisman clearly showed the result of this divination to everyone: great misfortune.

The situation this time was actually far more serious than the outside world had guessed, because what was stolen this time was a magical artifact related to the fate of the Fu family.

To put it bluntly, the life and death of Fu Shanming was secondary. For the current Fu family, the most pressing matter was to find the whereabouts of that magical artifact that had disappeared.

That artifact was called the Heavenly Star Shuttle. It was said to be made of Blood Star Sand left over from the ancient primordial era. Because of its special material, it contained a trace of the power of destiny.

Every creature in this world, and even an ethnic group or a country, has its own destiny. Destiny determines fate. Since ancient times, there have always been people who wanted to seize the destiny of others through various means.

So a thousand years ago, when that old ancestor of the Fu family who had become the State Preceptor accidentally obtained this treasure and discovered that it actually contained the power of destiny, he immediately made a contract with it in ecstasy. The descendants of the Fu family would use their essence blood to make offerings to nourish it for generations, and in return, a portion of the destiny within this Heavenly Star Shuttle would be divided and merged into the destiny of the Fu family.

Starting from the next generation after the State Preceptor, the Fu family would give birth to several extremely talented geniuses in each generation, leading the Fu family to squeeze into the ranks of the top clans in the contemporary metaphysics world. This thriving trend lasted for more than a dozen generations, and only began to show a slight decline in the past two hundred years.

It can be said that the prosperity of the Fu family that lasted for nearly a thousand years is inseparable from the Heavenly Star Shuttle!

But now, with the offering day that comes once a year approaching next month, if they cannot find the Heavenly Star Shuttle before then, the contract between the Fu family and it will automatically dissolve.

Moreover, since the Fu family failed to make offerings to it on time as agreed, as the party in breach of contract, they will also be punished by the power of the contract.

At that time, without the blessing of the Heavenly Star Shuttle and having to endure the backlash of the contract, their Fu family would probably really be finished...

The unfilial descendant who had the audacity to steal the Heavenly Star Shuttle has not yet woken up and cannot provide any clues. Left with no choice, they could only take Fu Shanming's essence blood to calculate the last place the Heavenly Star Shuttle appeared - the Heavenly Star Shuttle must be nourished with the essence blood of the Fu family descendants to be activated.

As Fu Shanming was the last person to use this artifact, his essence blood has a trace of guiding effect.

The calculated result was in a dilapidated rental house. The owner of the room was an ordinary college student who had some indirect entanglements with Fu Shanming, but this person himself was nothing special.

But strangely, yesterday after the location was calculated, when they sent a paper person to scout and search for clues in that rental house, the paper person personally made by the patriarch was devoured by resentment from who knows where before it could even enter the room.

Could it be that the ferocious ghost is still lurking in that rental house?

The Heavenly Star Shuttle is the supreme treasure that has blessed their entire family for more than a thousand years. A ghost that even it cannot subdue, how strong must the resentment on its body be?

With trepidation, after some discussion, the clan finally decided to have the most talented youngster of the Fu family activate the formation and divine the fate of the Fu family.

But unexpectedly, in the end, such a result appeared.

The silence spread among the crowd for a long time, until the patriarch broke it.

He said to his only son, who had lost a lot of essence blood for divining this hexagram and had no color left on his face, "Chenhua, go back and rest first. The medicine from the medicine room should have been delivered to your room. Remember not to miss a single dose in these three months."

His only son was the most talented and promising one of this generation of the declining Fu family. In order not to let him damage his foundation because of this hexagram, the family took out their best medicinal herbs and elixirs to make up for his loss of essence blood.

Because his body was indeed a little weak after the loss of essence blood, his hands and feet were cold, and his head was also dizzy from time to time, Fu Chenhua softly agreed when he heard this, and left the council hall without pleasantries.

After returning to his room, he drank the soup medicine specially prepared for him by the family, made from countless rare medicinal materials and nourishing elixirs. Only then did he feel a little warmth in his almost emptied body, and a hint of color appeared on his face.

More than a dozen drops of essence blood is not a small amount. Even with a large supply of precious medicinal materials, it would be impossible to recover without five or six years.

Logically speaking, such a sacrifice should not fall on a youngster like him, but he was the one with the highest attainments in divination in the Fu family now. At a time like this when the fate of the entire family was at stake, he could only put his personal safety behind.

Although his body was very tired, at this turbulent time, Fu Chenhua really couldn't sleep. He lay in bed and rested with his eyes closed for a while, then got up and went to a small courtyard not far away.

Although this courtyard was small, the number of servants was several times more than other places in the Fu family. There were also several young members of the Fu family standing guard at the door, with confused and bored expressions on their faces.

In this courtyard, the culprit who caused the loss of the Heavenly Star Shuttle, his second uncle Fu Shanming who was still in a coma, was being kept.

Although those elders wished they could strangle his second uncle to death, they still needed to rely on his essence blood to find the whereabouts of the Heavenly Star Shuttle later. So at this time, Fu Shanming absolutely could not have any accidents. They used medicine to keep him alive, ensuring that he would not die before the Heavenly Star Shuttle was found, and increased the number of people guarding him.

Seeing him come over, a sweet-looking young girl's eyes lit up, and she showed him a smile with a few hints of admiration, "Cousin, you're here too."

In order not to cause panic in the clan, currently only the elders and he, the prospective next-generation patriarch, knew about the loss of the Heavenly Star Shuttle. These clan members who were ordered by the elders to stand guard in front of Fu Shanming's courtyard only knew that their always good-for-nothing second uncle had stolen a treasure and caused big trouble, leaving himself with only half his life.

So naturally they also didn't understand why the elders would send them to do this kind of doorkeeping work, only vaguely guessing in their hearts that the situation was probably even more serious than they had imagined.

Fu Chenhua softly responded, "I'm here to see Second Uncle."

The girl's eyes flickered as she asked, "Brother Chenhua, when will Second Uncle get better?"

The corners of Fu Chenhua's lips curved into a faint smile, and in just a few words, he dispelled the girl's intention to probe him for information. He then entered the courtyard.

The doorkeeper naturally recognized him, so he didn't encounter any obstruction as he entered the house.

The house was filled with a strong scent of Chinese medicine, which was very pungent. However, Fu Chenhua had just drunk a bowl of soup with a similarly unpleasant taste, so his sense of taste and smell were still numb, and he didn't feel much.

Fu Shanming lay on the bed, his face devoid of any color, his vitality greatly diminished, his Yintang acupoint black. His chest rose and fell weakly, his breathing barely audible.

He looked down at Fu Shanming, who was hovering between life and death, without a hint of concern in his eyes.

From his earliest memories, this nominal second uncle had never left him with a good impression.

Unlike his father, Fu Shanming—a brother born of the same mother—had an aptitude much inferior to his father's, so much so that even among the collateral branches, there were many with stronger aptitudes than him.

But this was nothing. Born into the Fu family's main lineage, Fu Shanming naturally had inherent advantages. Later, his biological brother even became the patriarch. Even if he himself had no real ability, his life in the Fu family would never be bad.

In fact, this was indeed the case. Although he was the weakest in the main lineage, the resources he received were still better than those of most of the clan members.

Although there was considerable private criticism within the clan about this, since most of those resources were supplemented to his second uncle by his father from his own private collection, and since apart from this little favoritism, his father had been an impeccable patriarch, no one had ever publicly argued about this matter, at most just privately making a few sour remarks.

But who would have thought that his father's long-standing preferential treatment not only failed to make this person feel a few points of gratitude towards the family, but gradually inflated his ambition. Not to mention his daily arrogance towards others in the clan, relying on having a younger brother who was the patriarch, now he even dared to go after the magical treasure tied to the fate of the family!

Originally, the Heavenly Star Shuttle was not so easy to steal that day. But perhaps it was the Fu family's destiny to suffer this calamity. A while ago, there was a small problem with the formation in the ancestral hall. Before it could be discovered during an inspection, his second uncle took advantage of this opportunity to steal it.

Fu Chenhua used a small bottle he carried with him to collect a few drops of Fu Shanming's essence blood, intending to send it to his father later.

The previous investigation had ended without success. Next, they would definitely still need to use his second uncle's essence blood. This was the little contribution he could make to the family.

Just as he put away the small bottle and was about to turn and leave, the door was pushed open without even a greeting, and a sinister air current blew in from behind.

— Yin energy!

Fu Chenhua's heart sensed something was wrong. He immediately took out a talisman from his sleeve, made a hand seal, and the talisman shot towards the door!

It's just that he had just lost more than a dozen drops of essence blood today, and his qi and blood were insufficient. His strength had also greatly decreased from before. That talisman didn't even touch the person's body before it was burned into a handful of black ashes by the suddenly appearing black flames, scattering on the ground.

He frowned and looked at the person who came in, his eyes filled with deep wariness.

It was a tall man wearing a well-tailored black suit. His black hair was neatly pulled back, revealing a full forehead and slanted sword-like eyebrows. His eyes were as deep as an abyss, unfathomable. He swept a glance at him with an indifferent expression, as if he was looking at a lifeless dead object rather than a living person.

Just this one glance made the hairs on Fu Chenhua's body stand on end.