Lin Yue dug her nails into her palm, the smell of blood spreading between her teeth. The mirror of the pocket watch on the black-robed man's wrist suddenly reflected her pupils. The broken dial was spinning strangely, twisting her face into countless overlapping phantoms. Ah Fu's sword tip suddenly trembled, and the oracle bone script glowed an ominous scarlet: "Be careful! He's reading our memories!"
Before she could finish her words, the star map on the ground suddenly shrank into a vortex. Lin Yue felt a piercing chill on the back of her neck, and she was dragged into an undercurrent of memory. Yellowed files flitted before her eyes. She saw the scene of herself, at the age of seven, picking up a pocket watch in an antique shop. The cloud-thunder pattern engraved on the inside of the watch cover was identical to the bronze key. She also saw the faded star map on the stone wall suddenly illuminated when she sneaked into the underground palace late at night three months ago. Twelve bloodstains snaked along the grooves to form a lock.
"So you are the last guardian." The black-robed man's voice echoed from deep within his memory. His mask cracked further, revealing half a face covered in star tattoos. "Back then, the Twelve Immortals disassembled the astronomical device into seven keys, but forgot to hide the most important 'Tianshu' within the bloodline inheritance." He raised his hand, and the glass on the second floor of the archives shattered. Countless memory-devouring beasts transformed into inky birds and swooped down. "But it doesn't matter. Now I have both your memories and your life."
Xia Zichen's star pattern exploded into a protective shield, but it emitted a burning sizzling sound the moment it came into contact with the flying bird. Lin Yue felt something being forcibly pulled out of her body. The fragments of her pocket watch vibrated wildly in her palm, and the countdown stopped at 6 minutes and 59 seconds. She suddenly remembered a detail from the underground palace murals—the twelve immortals used their hearts to activate the astronomical device during their sacrifice.
"Ahfu! Xia Zichen!" She suddenly ripped open her collar, and a pattern identical to the bronze key appeared on her chest. "Take the key and go to the basement! The true star map is hidden beneath the masonry in the southeast corner of the ancient book library!" Before either of them could react, Lin Yue had already bitten her wrist, and blood flowed along the key's pattern into the fragments of the armillary sphere. The splattered blood suddenly hovered in the air, forming a swirling blood-red star trail.
The black-robed figure roared, his mask shattering completely. His body began to fade, revealing the densely packed pages of ancient texts within, each filled with distorted history. Lin Yue felt his consciousness fading, but he still clutched the fragments of his pocket watch tightly, pouring his final strength into it: "Memories should not be erased... but should be made visible to everyone..."
When morning light finally pierced the dark fog, the bronze door of the archives burst open. Ah Fu and Xia Zichen rushed out of the basement, clutching the bronze key, only to see Lin Yue's figure merging with the fragments of the pocket watch, transforming into countless golden points of light that sank into the base of the armillary sphere. Those points of light outlined a complete star map in the void, freezing all the memory-devouring beasts into suspended specimens.
The black-robed figure let out a final shriek, then transformed into a cloud of pages. Ah Fu caught a half-fallen, yellowed page. Written in cinnabar on it was the following: "Astrological Ceremony of the 23rd Year of the Republic of China. The Seventh Key Guardian—the Lin Bloodline—awakens."
Xia Zichen stared at the key in his hand, the star pattern suddenly gleaming brilliantly. He finally understood that the so-called "Tianshu" was never a physical key, but rather the guardian's willingness to sacrifice. As the first rays of sunlight illuminated the dome of the archives, the grooves on the base of the armillary sphere automatically closed, and seven rays of light shot up into the sky, drawing a timeless star map in the clouds.
And in File 404 of the archives, a yellowed old photo suddenly appeared. In it, a young Lin Yue stood at the counter of an antique shop, the pocket watch chain in his hand reflecting a rainbow of light. The star map on the background wall perfectly matched the star paths in the sky at that moment.
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