Chapter 224 - The Breakthrough and Those Who Wait
Time passed slowly inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
By Su Bai’s estimate, sixty days had passed since he first entered the sealed battlefield. More importantly, an entire month had passed since the portal closed.
Su Bai sat cross-legged within the hollow remains of an ancient stone structure, surrounded by thick black-red mist.
Several dozen meters away, the ancient spear stood embedded in the ground.
It had followed him here unwillingly.
Or, according to the artifact spirit, it had merely chosen to accompany him so that it could personally witness his eventual death and recover its dignity afterward.
Su Bai had accepted that explanation without argument.
The spear had spent the next twelve days reminding him of it whenever he came within reach.
At the moment, however, even the artifact spirit was quiet.
Su Bai’s cultivation had reached a critical point.
The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method circulated through his body without pause.
Ashen-Blood Miasma poured inward, passed naturally through his transformed flesh and meridians, and gathered within the Infinite Dantian and nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs before being refined into his own Qi.
Layer after layer of refined Qi pressed toward the Black-Ice Golden Core.
The Core rotated steadily. It had already become far denser than when Su Bai first reached Golden Core.
Each advancement now required more than the last.
As he approached the next threshold, Su Bai finally understood how quickly that requirement was growing.
The increase was not simple. Every stage demanded substantially more refined Qi to force the Core into a denser state.
Fallen-Star Sanctuary had once seemed to contain an endless supply of Ashen-Blood Miasma.
Su Bai had stopped believing that several days ago.
This was already the third cultivation site he had used since leaving the ancient spear’s original location.
The first had lasted four days before the surrounding miasma noticeably thinned.
The second lasted slightly longer.
This one was already showing the same signs.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet floated above Su Bai and continuously drew black-red mist from the surrounding ruins.
Yet the currents feeding it had become weaker.
The miasma was still present in enormous quantities across Layer Two, but Su Bai was absorbing it faster than the nearby environment could replace it.
For the first time since his body became completely compatible with Ashen-Blood Miasma, he felt the scale of what his cultivation was consuming.
His brows tightened slightly.
Another wave of refined Qi entered the Black-Ice Golden Core. The Core trembled.
Su Bai immediately focused.
The resistance had changed.
Its internal crystalline structure had reached the limit of what the Sixth Stage could contain.
Su Bai maintained the Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method and continued compressing.
The pressure increased.
The surrounding Ashen-Blood Miasma accelerated toward him as the Petrified Calamity-Magnet pulled harder.
The ancient spear finally stirred.
"Brat, if you drain this entire region dry, do not expect this one to carry you somewhere else."
Su Bai ignored it.
The artifact spirit grumbled but wisely stopped speaking.
A deeper vibration passed through Su Bai’s body.
The Black-Ice Golden Core contracted. Its size decreased by another almost imperceptible amount, while the pressure contained within it rose sharply.
Qi surged through the greater Golden Core structure formed by Su Bai’s entire body. His Macro-Taiji Circulation accelerated along with it.
Su Bai opened his eyes.
Golden Core Seventh Stage.
A smile appeared naturally on his face.
He had barely begun examining the breakthrough when another change spread through his body.
The Blood-Rot Pills he had consumed throughout the past several days had already been working beneath the surface.
Now the breakthrough in his Golden Core pushed the balance over the final threshold.
The change traveled through his entire body. Su Bai could feel every part of himself crossing another boundary.
The sixth major body transformation completed.
Su Bai slowly clenched one hand.
Power gathered through his arm with a density that had not existed before.
His physical strength had increased again, but that was only the most obvious improvement.
The transformed flesh felt harder to damage. His meridians could tolerate greater surges of Qi.
Even the Macro-Taiji Circulation seemed more comfortable moving through the strengthened body.
Su Bai examined himself for several breaths before releasing a satisfied breath.
Golden Core Seventh Stage. Sixth body transformation.
Thirty days after becoming trapped inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary, he had at least made the imprisonment productive.
The ancient spear finally spoke.
"You are smiling too much for someone who still cannot leave."
Su Bai looked toward it.
"Senior Spear, jealousy is unbecoming."
The spear trembled.
"This one has watched cultivators break through realms that you cannot even comprehend!"
"Yet you’re still stuck with me."
A long silence followed.
Su Bai smiled and returned his attention to the surroundings before the spear could invent another curse involving his ancestors.
The smile gradually faded.
The miasma had become thin.
His spiritual sense spread through the nearby ruins.
The black-red mist that once filled the area densely now drifted in weak streams.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet was still attracting more, but the amount flowing toward it was much lower than before.
Su Bai frowned.
This had happened at all three cultivation locations.
The amount of energy required for each Golden Core stage was increasing rapidly, while the surrounding resource was clearly finite on a local scale.
Su Bai looked at the Petrified Calamity-Magnet.
"You’ve become too good at your job."
The artifact remained silent.
The spear, unfortunately, did not.
"Perhaps the problem is the glutton sitting beneath it."
Su Bai looked over.
The ancient spear stood perfectly still.
Apparently, artifact spirits could also learn when pretending innocence was useful.
Su Bai ignored it and considered the larger problem.
The miasma was replenishing more slowly than it had before.
He had already suspected that the sealed flesh masses might have something to do with it.
Either way, Su Bai could not keep sitting in one place and draining everything around him.
If the Returnees were capable of recognizing changes in the miasma, Su Bai was practically leaving footprints behind.
His gaze moved toward the ancient spear.
The artifact spirit immediately became wary.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Do not look at this one while saying nothing."
Su Bai smiled.
"I was thinking about the other weapons."
The spear became quiet.
That was enough to confirm Su Bai’s interest.
Throughout Layer Two and the deeper regions, they had discovered more than one ancient weapon carrying unusual spiritual traces.
If the spear had already helped deepen his Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent, what could other ancient weapons teach him?
A saber might show him something about cutting flaws rather than piercing them.
A heavy weapon might reveal how force traveled through structures.
A bow might offer another perspective on trajectory and distance.
Su Bai had no intention of collecting their Intents.
But understanding how different weapons approached battle could still refine the path he had already chosen.
His smile grew.
He needed another cultivation location eventually.
Before that, visiting some of the marked ancient artifacts sounded much more interesting.
For the first time in several days, his mood improved considerably.
...
Outside Fallen-Star Sanctuary, the cultivation world remained strangely peaceful.
At least, peaceful was the word people used when they did not know what else to call the silence.
The expedition had returned with a staggering amount of treasure.
Several sects possessed enough resources from the expedition to support their disciples for generations.
Normally, such an event would have shaken the cultivation world with celebration.
Instead, one absence lingered over everything.
Su Bai had not returned.
At Radiant Sky Sect, the atmosphere remained particularly subdued.
Clear Cloud Peak had always been quiet.
Recently, that quiet had become uncomfortable.
Yan’er climbed the familiar path again. Several younger disciples followed behind her.
Nobody spoke much. They already knew what they would find.
The hut remained there. The surrounding mountain remained untouched. The place looked exactly as it had the previous time they visited.
Only its owner was missing.
Yan’er stopped outside the hut.
For several moments, she simply stared at the closed entrance.
One of the junior sisters behind her whispered, "Senior Brother still hasn’t returned?"
Yan’er shook her head.
She did not say anything else. There was nothing useful to say.
They stayed for a little while before eventually leaving.
None of them noticed that someone from another peak had arrived halfway up the mountain, looked toward the empty hut from a distance, and quietly turned around without approaching.
These visits had become common.
...
Verdant Peak had developed a different problem.
Elder Qin paced outside Liu Meng’s residence with his hands behind his back.
He had already walked the same stretch of ground enough times to flatten the grass.
His expression grew worse every time he heard movement inside.
When Liu Meng first returned from Fallen-Star Sanctuary, everyone had expected her to rest.
She had survived something that killed cultivators far stronger than her.
The Liu Family Auction House had even sent medicinal materials and several strange resources after hearing what happened.
Liu Meng accepted all of them.
She barely touched the medicinal materials.
She had not properly used an alchemy cauldron in weeks.
That was what frightened Elder Qin most.
Liu Meng abandoning alchemy voluntarily was already enough to make him wonder whether the Ashen-Blood Miasma had damaged her mind.
Inside the residence, mountains of cloth occupied nearly every available surface.
Robes hung from wooden frames.
Failed sleeves covered one table.
Several half-finished garments rested beside needles, thread, cutting tools, and materials Liu Meng had specifically asked the auction house to acquire.
Liu Meng sat in the middle of it all.
Her fingertips were covered in tiny wounds. Several fresh needle marks dotted her hands.
She stared intensely at a robe laid across her knees. The stitching was slightly crooked.
Liu Meng frowned.
She pulled the entire section apart.
Outside, Elder Qin heard something tear and nearly knocked on the door.
His hand stopped before touching it.
He sighed.
Liu Meng had become obsessed.
She was apparently determined to become a tailor.
After seeing Su Bai destroy clothing through corrosion, combat, miasma, and increasingly unreasonable situations, Liu Meng had reached a simple conclusion.
If Su Bai returned, he needed better robes.
So she would make them.
At first, she had known almost nothing about tailoring, but that had not stopped her.
The pile of failed robes continued growing.
Liu Meng picked up another needle.
There was no despair in her expression. She believed Su Bai would return.
That belief had never changed.
When she first arrived at Radiant Sky Sect, Su Bai had been one of the reasons her path changed so quickly.
He had helped her when there was no reason to expect anything in return.
Now he was trapped somewhere beyond everyone’s reach. Liu Meng could not enter Fallen-Star Sanctuary to pull him out.
She could at least make sure he never had to complain about destroyed robes again.
Her fingers resumed moving.
"Senior Brother, I’ll wait for you."
The needle passed through the cloth.
"If you take a hundred years, I’ll make enough to last a hundred years."
Outside the door, Elder Qin slowly lowered the hand he had been about to use to knock.
He looked toward the sky.
For the first time in several days, he decided not to interfere.
...
The effects of the Fallen-Star Sanctuary expedition had spread far beyond Radiant Sky Sect.
Sects that had once struggled over minor resources suddenly possessed ancient materials they could barely evaluate.
Disciples who might have spent decades competing for a single opportunity now had access to resources their elders had never expected to see.
Some forces had gained enough from the expedition to support generations of future disciples.
Much of that wealth could be traced back, directly or indirectly, to Su Bai.
The cultivators who had formed the Sworn Kin Covenant with him remembered that particularly well.
Some refused to believe he was dead. Others quietly prepared for the possibility that he would never return.
Either way, their attitude toward Radiant Sky Sect changed.
Visitors arrived repeatedly.
Some came to express gratitude. Others came seeking alliances. A few sects that had once barely acknowledged Radiant Sky Sect now sent elders personally.
The reputation the sect had lost over the years was beginning to return.
Nobody at Radiant Sky Sect felt like celebrating it.
...
At the Tang Clan, the atmosphere was considerably less quiet.
Metal struck metal inside one of the training grounds.
Tang Ziyan twisted through the air and landed lightly.
Several needles flashed from between her fingers.
Three wooden targets were struck almost simultaneously.
A fourth needle missed.
Tang Ziyan frowned.
"Again."
Tang Sisi stood nearby with her arms folded.
"You have already been training since sunrise."
Tang Ziyan retrieved the needles.
"Again."
Tang Sisi’s expression tightened.
Before Fallen-Star Sanctuary, the clan elders had reached a quiet agreement regarding Tang Ziyan.
She would grow properly. She would see the better parts of the world.
The elders could handle the dirtier work themselves.
Tang Ziyan’s poison already made her life complicated enough. There had been no reason to push her toward assassination.
That agreement had lasted until she returned from Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
Now Tang Ziyan wanted to learn everything the Tang Clan knew.
Concealment. Hidden Weapon. Movement. Killing techniques.
Most importantly, control over her own poison.
She no longer wanted other people deciding that she needed to be protected from the uglier parts of cultivation.
Tang Sisi understood why. That did not mean she liked watching it.
Tang Ziyan threw again. This time, the fourth needle struck.
She finally stopped.
Tang Sisi expected her to rest.
Instead, Tang Ziyan walked toward a small table beside the training ground.
A clean bottle waited there.
Tang Sisi’s gaze moved toward a wooden box beside it.
Thirty bottles already rested inside.
Each contained Tang Ziyan’s blood.
One for every day since Fallen-Star Sanctuary closed.
Tang Ziyan opened a small wound on her fingertip and allowed several drops to fall into the empty bottle.
Tang Sisi watched silently.
She knew exactly why the bottles existed.
Su Bai had found uses for Tang Ziyan’s poisonous blood before.
If he returned injured, if he needed poison, if he needed another experiment, Tang Ziyan wanted to have enough waiting.
Thirty days. Thirty bottles.
Tang Sisi finally sighed.
"You know he might ask why you’ve been collecting that much."
Tang Ziyan sealed the bottle carefully.
"Then I’ll tell him."
"And if he calls you strange?"
Tang Ziyan paused.
After considering the possibility, she placed the bottle beside the others.
"He’s stranger."
Tang Sisi could not argue with that.
...
Far away, Azure-Jade City remained crowded.
Lu Canghai had stayed much longer than originally planned.
Every day, he visited the place connected to Fallen-Star Sanctuary with Yue Cangyu.
Every day, they found the same answer.
Nothing.
Lu Canghai’s expression remained as unpleasant as usual.
"Brat."
His voice was quiet enough that Yue Cangyu almost pretended not to hear.
"You’d better come back alive."
Lu Canghai stared at the place where Fallen-Star Sanctuary had vanished.
"Don’t disappear like your damn father and leave this old man behind again."
Yue Cangyu turned toward him.
Lu Canghai said nothing more.
Far beyond either man’s perception, separated from the cultivation world by ancient sealing formations and a boundary that had endured for countless years, Su Bai was standing beside a furious artifact spirit and wondering which ancient weapon he should bother next.