Chapter 3256: Death Obscuring Chandelier

The frame of the chandelier gleamed with an oily dark luster.

It was made of Black Yin Vein Bronze, a rare and incredibly resilient alloy infused with veins of pure Yin energy. Procuring the material had not been easy. Even Lin Mu’s extensive resources were insufficient for the task.

He had needed help from the Imperial Court of the Darkhan Dynasty to gather enough, and thankfully, the Court had been more than willing to provide assistance when they learned of the purpose.

After all, they too would be joining the final battle, and safety was of utter importance. As such, there was no way they would hold back and skimp out. Even if they wished, there was no way they could do with not one, not two, but three Transcendents pressuring them.

They were lucky that the Ice Drake Elder didn’t join them. He already had enough frustration to bring along a hundred ice drakes with him and freeze their gardens to see if they were still unwilling.

Thankfully, Lin Mu and Monk Hushu’s persuasion was enough to make the Ice Drakes rest and focus on preparing for the battle ahead.

Lin Mu ran his hand along the metal’s surface of the chandelier, feeling the faint pulse of energy beneath his fingers.

Thousands of intricate runes had been engraved along every branch and arm, each one drawn with absolute precision. He had spent countless hours inscribing the runes personally, while Daoist Chu and other formation masters handled the structural and stabilization arrays.

Together, they had worked day and night, combining their efforts to ensure the artifact would perform as intended.

Suspended at the core and branches of the chandelier were eighteen circular glass chambers, each held in place by a lattice of bronze arms. Inside each chamber were six Death Obscuring Torches, arranged in a perfect hexagram.

When activated, the torches would burn in unison, their gray flames merging and feeding into the central array. The eighteen chambers together formed the grand formation that Lin Mu had named The Death Obscuring Chandelier.

This was no ordinary protective tool.

Each Death Obscuring Torch, when used alone, could conceal a single person within a small radius from the perception of Baleful Energies. A simple yet effective method of disguise. But when arranged in the formation that Lin Mu had developed, their effects resonated and amplified each other. The result was exponential protection.

Where one torch could shield one person, the chandelier, with its one hundred and eight torches, could safeguard not just hundred and eight but over a thousand... precisely one thousand and eighty individuals.

It was a ten times amplification.

Lin Mu stared at the structure with a mix of satisfaction and fatigue. The design was beautiful in its complexity. Thousands of runes flowed into one another like veins of light, connecting every chamber and torch.

The air around it shimmered faintly, even while dormant, indicating the enormous potential stored within.

Of course, even with such a powerful artifact, it would not be enough to protect the entire army that was preparing for the final campaign against the Ephemera Sect. The forces of the Xian Sword Sect, the Silent Lotus Temple, the Ice Drakes, and the Imperial Court together numbered over a hundred thousand.

Each of them would require some measure of protection once they entered the Marshes of Silent Skies.

That was why Lin Mu had been working alongside others to create more of these chandeliers. Daoist Chu and hundreds of formation masters had taken up the task of constructing the frames, inscribing the runes, and performing stabilizing enchantments.

Lin Mu, on the other hand, had the most critical role; producing the Death Obscuring Torches themselves, the very core of the formation.

The twins’ tar served as the lifeblood of the torches, while the dark wood from the marshes and the death-tainted cloth completed their structure. Once arranged within the chandelier, the torches became living nodes of power, forming a vast formation that would hide their entire group from the gaze of the Baleful Marsh.

It had been almost two months since the project began. Two long months of experimentation, failures, and refinement.

They had learned that each torch’s stability depended on the purity of the Baleful Corpse Tar, which in turn depended on how precisely the twins balanced their Yin and Yang energies. Early batches had been unstable, prone to flickering out or burning too fast.

But as Xiao Yin and Xiao Yang grew more experienced, their control improved. They could now refine each batch with near perfection, ensuring the tar burned with steady strength.

Still, the work was exhausting.

After every twenty or thirty batches, the twins would need rest, sometimes for an entire day. Their recovery periods were long not because their bodies were weak, but because the refinement process demanded harmony between two opposing forces.

Too much of either Yin or Yang, and the result would destabilize violently.

Despite the delay this caused, no one complained. Every jar they produced brought them one step closer to the goal.

Lin Mu glanced toward the twins again. The latest batch was nearing completion. The thick, bubbling tar was slowly solidifying within a containment array, and faint trails of black vapor curled upward. He could feel the density of the baleful energy, pure and refined.

"Alright," Xiao Yang finally said after several minutes, his tone weary but proud. "This batch is ready."

Lin Mu rose to his feet and approached them.

He activated Meld and carefully lifted the newly refined tar into porcelain jars, sealing each one with a talisman of containment. Once done, he stored them neatly alongside the others, which now numbered in the hundreds.

"Well done," he said quietly. "You can rest after this. You’ve earned it."

The twins smiled faintly, too tired to argue this time.

Lin Mu turned back to the chandelier and placed his hands on its frame.

A soft hum spread through the hall as he activated the first layer of formations, watching as the runes came to life one by one. The air shimmered with faint gray light, and the torches within the glass chambers flickered as if responding to his presence.

Soon, when all of them were assembled, this light would become their shield.

Lin Mu stood there for a moment, letting the energy ripple through him, his expression steady but determined. They were close... so very close to the day when they would finally march into the Marshes of Silent Skies and face the Ephemera Sect’s true heart.

And when that day came, the Death Obscuring Chandelier would be their first shield.

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