Chapter 219 - The False Inheritance and the Hidden Intent
"How can your body absorb the Ashen-Blood Miasma without being corrupted?"
Su Bai did not answer immediately.
The old man waited.
Neither expression changed.
The question sounded straightforward, but both of them understood that it was not.
Su Bai could easily claim that his cultivation method allowed it.
That would encourage questions about the Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method.
He could blame his bloodline, but an ancient cultivator might know enough about ancient bloodlines to recognize nonsense.
A treasure was safer.
The cultivation world contained far too many strange treasures for anyone to know all of them.
Su Bai smiled respectfully.
"Senior, this junior once encountered a treasure that transformed my body after I consumed it. I nearly died at the time, but afterward my body gradually became capable of adapting to hostile environments."
The old man’s gaze sharpened.
"Adapting?"
Su Bai nodded.
"The stronger the environment tried to corrode me, the more my body changed to endure it. After remaining here long enough, the miasma eventually stopped harming me. Now I can even absorb part of it as energy."
There was enough truth inside the lie to make it comfortable.
The old man studied him for several breaths.
Su Bai allowed him to.
He had deliberately described the result without explaining the actual mechanism.
If the old man wanted to believe some miraculous body-transforming treasure had produced everything, Su Bai would happily let him.
Eventually, the remnant soul laughed.
"Good. Your fortune is greater than I expected."
His eyes carried unmistakable satisfaction now.
The more he learned, the more suitable Su Bai became.
Su Bai observed the change without showing anything.
The old man had asked about his sect, age, body, and cultivation circumstances.
He had not yet asked anything that mattered to Su Bai personally.
There had been no question about whether he had family outside.
No curiosity about why an eighteen-year-old supposedly from a sword sect cultivated Needle Intent.
The old man was learning everything necessary to evaluate something.
Su Bai had a reasonable guess about what that something was.
He decided to probe in return.
"Senior, may this junior ask something?"
The old man nodded generously.
"Speak."
"How long has Senior remained inside this sword?"
The smile on the old man’s face weakened.
For the first time, something genuinely old entered his eyes.
"I do not know."
Su Bai remained silent.
The old man looked toward the bleak horizon.
"At first, I counted the years. Later, I counted the periods between awakenings. Eventually, even those became meaningless."
His translucent fingers tightened slightly.
"When my soul weakened too far, I entered dormancy. There were occasions when decades seemed to pass between one thought and the next."
The old man’s expression became distant.
"The formations outside changed. The voices disappeared. The battlefield grew quiet. Even the weapons that once shook heaven and earth gradually became nothing more than rust buried beneath this cursed mist."
Su Bai watched him carefully.
That part did not feel fabricated.
The grief was too quiet.
Perhaps the old man had lied countless times in his life, but the realization that his era was gone seemed genuine.
Su Bai asked, "Senior fought the beings beneath the altar?"
The remnant soul’s gaze snapped back toward him.
A fraction too quickly.
Su Bai noticed.
"So you reached that place."
"I saw enough."
"How much?"
Su Bai smiled.
"Enough to know I should not stay too close."
The old man stared at him for a moment before laughing softly.
"Your caution has kept you alive."
He had answered without answering.
Su Bai appreciated the effort.
Apparently, they were both enjoying the same game.
The old man finally said, "Those creatures were already difficult to destroy during my era. If they remain sealed even now, you should not approach them without sufficient strength."
"Senior knows what they are?"
"I know enough."
"What are they?"
The old man’s smile remained.
"If you inherit what I possess, you will eventually learn everything you need to know."
Su Bai’s own smile did not change.
’So that information was being withheld deliberately. Interesting.’
The remnant soul had revealed that the creatures already existed in his era, that their False Bodies received strength from a source, and that he had fought them extensively.
Yet the moment Su Bai asked what the sealed sources actually were, the old man hid behind the promise of inheritance.
Either the knowledge was dangerous, or the old man wanted Su Bai to commit before giving him anything valuable.
Su Bai was leaning toward the second possibility.
"Senior is considerate."
"As I should be."
The old man floated closer.
His faded robes stirred even though there was no wind inside the sea of consciousness.
"You possess talent, fortune, and enough caution to survive where many stronger cultivators would have died. More importantly, you have reached this place while still young enough to reshape your path."
His eyes briefly passed over the Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed.
"A needle is unconventional, but your comprehension is impressive. With proper guidance, you may yet accomplish far more than you imagine."
Su Bai noticed the wording.
The old man still disliked the needle.
He simply disliked Su Bai’s talent going to waste even more.
That made Su Bai strangely amused.
"Senior’s inheritance uses the sword?"
"Naturally."
Su Bai looked toward the Intent Seed.
The old man followed his gaze.
"You need not abandon what you have already learned."
That answer came smoothly.
"A cultivator may comprehend more than one Intent. Your Needle Intent can remain, while my inheritance opens another road before you."
Su Bai nodded slowly. That was a useful information.
The old man interpreted the movement as growing interest.
His expression softened further.
"I had believed my lineage would disappear with me. Perhaps heaven has finally taken pity on this old man."
Su Bai nearly felt guilty.
"Senior, what inheritance did you leave behind?"
The old man’s eyes became profound.
"A path that once allowed me to stand among those who fought at the heart of this battlefield."
Su Bai waited.
Nothing more came.
He almost admired the technique.
Promise greatness, avoid measurable details, appeal to destiny, and ask for trust before revealing the actual terms.
Su Bai had attended meetings in his previous life that followed roughly the same structure.
At least this old man had the excuse of being dead.
The remnant soul raised one hand.
"My remaining time is limited. There are things that cannot be explained through words alone, and my inheritance cannot be carried by ordinary jade slips anymore."
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
Here it came.
The old man continued, "I will etch what remains of my inheritance directly into your soul. You will receive my cultivation insights, my sword comprehension, and what knowledge I preserved from the ancient war."
That offer was genuinely tempting, especially the last part.
Su Bai looked toward him.
"What must Junior do?"
The old man’s smile became gentle.
"Nothing difficult."
His translucent figure drifted closer.
"You only need to open your spiritual defenses and refrain from resisting. My soul power is already weak. If you struggle while I imprint the inheritance, both of us may suffer unnecessary damage."
Su Bai lowered his gaze.
Inside him, the defensive response he had suppressed earlier was still waiting.
The old man mistook Su Bai’s pause for hesitation.
"Young man, opportunities of this kind cannot be demanded."
His voice grew heavier, carrying the faint authority of someone who had once commanded others.
"You have seen what exists deeper inside this realm. With your current cultivation, you cannot defeat those things. Even the creatures serving them already surpass you."
That was true.
"Take my inheritance, and you will have another path. You may even become the one who finally completes what my generation failed to finish."
That was the nicest part of the sales pitch.
Su Bai raised his head.
"Senior wishes me to kill those sealed creatures?"
A flash of hatred appeared in the old man’s eyes.
This time, it was real.
"If you someday possess the strength."
’Interesting.’
The hatred was genuine.
That still did not mean the inheritance was.
Su Bai smiled.
"Senior has waited for countless years. If Junior can truly inherit what you left behind, refusing would be disrespectful."
Relief appeared in the old man’s expression.
It vanished quickly enough that an ordinary eighteen-year-old might not have noticed.
Su Bai did.
The remnant soul moved closer.
"Very good."
His form became less transparent as the remaining soul power gathered toward him.
The benevolent expression remained unchanged, but something colder appeared deep within his eyes.
Su Bai pretended not to notice.
"Remember what I told you."
The old man’s voice became solemn.
"Whatever you feel, do not resist."
Su Bai nodded obediently.
"This junior understands."
The remnant soul raised two fingers and pressed them against Su Bai’s soul between the brows.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
The old man’s expression remained calm.
His spiritual power flowed forward gently, exactly as though he intended to transmit memories.
Su Bai felt it enter the outer layer of his consciousness. The first strand carried fragments of sword comprehension.
They were real.
Su Bai almost laughed.
The old man had even prepared genuine bait.
Several ancient sword forms flashed briefly through his mind before disappearing.
Only after that harmless spiritual current established a connection did something hidden behind it begin to move.
A thin strand of foreign soul power slipped through the same passage, avoiding the regions where Su Bai’s spiritual resistance should have been strongest.
The old man had clearly prepared this method long ago.
Once the strand successfully entered, his expression changed.
The warmth did not disappear completely, but guilt and resolve replaced the earlier gentleness.
His fingers remained against Su Bai’s soul as more soul power followed through the connection.
Su Bai looked at him quietly.
The old man closed his eyes for a brief moment before opening them again.
"Forgive me."
His voice was low, but there was no hesitation left in it.
"If there were another path, I would not choose this one."
Su Bai looked at him calmly.
"Senior?"
The old man’s expression became complicated.
"You truly are talented. Perhaps in another time, I would have taken you as my disciple."
His spiritual form began flowing toward Su Bai.
"But I have carried this hatred for too long. If taking your body is the price of finishing that battle, then this old man will bear the sin."
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed slightly.
’So that was his real intention.’
The remnant soul surged forward.
His remaining consciousness spread across the bleak sea of consciousness and pressed toward Su Bai’s soul, no longer hiding the possession attempt behind the inheritance.
The old man’s expression was heavy, but his resolve did not waver.
"There is no need for further excuses."
His soul power continued advancing.
"I chose this path long ago. I will see it through."
Su Bai watched him approach and finally stopped suppressing his body’s reaction.
The response was immediate.
The entire sea of consciousness groaned as the darkness beneath them began to shift.
The old man’s advance faltered.