Chapter 189 - The Deeper Road and the Soul-Bloom Seed
Su Bai did not lead the smaller group deeper immediately.
Before that, he brought those who had chosen to stop back to Outpost No. 3.
Since they had already sworn kinship through blood and soul, Su Bai naturally could not leave them in an old storage hall near Outpost No. 1 and pretend that was safe enough.
The storage hall had walls and a roof, but in the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, a roof was only comforting until something started whispering through it.
The young shield cultivator who had been first to say he would not go deeper cupped his fists toward Su Bai.
"Brother Su, we will wait here until the portal opens again."
Another cultivator said, "If anyone returns injured, we will help receive them."
A formation disciple raised his cracked array plate and forced a smile. "I cannot go deeper, but I can still repair plates, set warnings, and make this place harder to break."
Su Bai nodded.
"That is enough."
The shield cultivator’s eyes reddened slightly.
For many of them, those three words were better than comfort.
Those who stopped were not useless. They were no longer part of the deeper procession, but they could still guard the retreat path, protect the injured, organize supplies, and wait for the portal to open.
After a short rest and a few final arrangements, Su Bai left Outpost No. 3 again.
This time, the procession was much smaller.
Ji Ruyue. Liu Meng. Han Yuelin. Qin Baoshan. Tang Ziyan. Zhuge Jing. Bai Zhi. Lin Weiyang. Qiao Wen. Mu Qing. Zhao Heng. Chen Feng. Yan Lie. And Su Bai.
Fourteen in total.
Su Bai did not let the four Blood Iron Sect cultivators follow him. He wanted them to guard the retreat path and protect the people staying behind.
Compared to the large procession from before, this group looked almost lonely. But when they moved, there was no confusion. No one who needed to be constantly protected from every direction. Everyone here could fight, support, heal, command, restrain, or endure.
The group was smaller. But the eyes were steadier.
By the time they returned to Outpost No. 1, it was already the fifteenth day inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
The ruined outpost was quieter than before.
They crossed the outpost carefully and stopped before the boundary leading farther in.
Beyond that line, the mist changed.
The outer region’s red mist spread like poison and corrosion. It crept, surrounded, and gnawed. The mist beyond Outpost No. 1 felt different. It did not move as much. It hung there like something ancient had exhaled once and the world had never dared to breathe it away.
Su Bai looked into it quietly.
He had seen fragments of the inner area before.
A road crowded with soldiers rushing toward the front. Banners still standing in the wind. Formations burning with spiritual light. Chains stretched across the battlefield like lines drawn to hold something back. Cultivators shouting orders as they reinforced the deeper defensive line.
The inner area was the true battlefield.
Su Bai looked back at the group.
"Check your pills and get ready."
No one argued.
Storage rings opened. Pill bottles appeared. The Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pills were counted again. The supply was no longer as generous as before, but it could last several more days if they used it carefully.
Tang Ziyan adjusted the hidden weapons in her sleeves. Ji Ruyue checked the frost around her sword. Qin Baoshan tightened his grip on his shield. Han Yuelin looked as if he wanted to sleep standing up, which probably meant he was ready. Chen Feng’s hand rested on his sword hilt. Yan Lie stood not far from Liu Meng and pretended that was coincidence.
Lin Weiyang released two small bronze mechanisms onto the ground. They crawled forward, reached the boundary, and immediately stopped.
Lin Weiyang’s expression turned serious.
"The mechanisms do not like the mist ahead."
Chen Feng glanced at her. "Do mechanisms usually like things?"
"If they are well made, they have preferences."
"That sounds like your preference."
"It is inherited through design."
Chen Feng decided not to ask further.
Su Bai looked at them.
"Ready?"
One by one, they nodded.
Before stepping past the boundary, Su Bai took out a pill. Faint lines twisted through its surface like reversed lotus veins.
Ji Ruyue’s gaze moved slightly. She recognized it.
The Reversed Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pill.
She had created it before, but even she had not expected Su Bai to save it until now.
Su Bai swallowed it.
A lotus barrier appeared around him. But unlike the barrier created by ordinary Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pills, this one did not bloom outward to resist the miasma.
It turned inward.
The lotus petals were dim and inverted, folding toward Su Bai instead of away from him. The moment they formed, the surrounding red mist stirred.
Instead of being blocked, it was drawn in.
Thin streams of Ashen-Blood Miasma flowed toward Su Bai’s body from every direction, evenly entering through the inverted lotus barrier like rain sinking into dry soil.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened slightly.
The normal Immaculate Lotus-Heart Pill created a lotus barrier that protected cultivators from Ashen-Blood Miasma. The reversed version did the opposite. It formed an inverted lotus barrier that gathered miasma and guided it inward.
For ordinary cultivators, that would be courting death.
For Su Bai, it was convenient.
The flow was smooth and even. It did not surge wildly like the Petrified Calamity-Magnet. It did not twist battlefield techniques out of shape or drag nearby spells away from their owners. It simply fed the miasma into him in a steady layer.
If he combined it with the Petrified Calamity-Magnet later, the magnet could pull the mist while the inverted lotus barrier distributed it evenly across his body.
That would be very useful for body cultivation.
Su Bai nodded in satisfaction.
The others stared.
No one spoke for a while.
Finally, Zhuge Jing opened his fan and hid half his face.
"Brother Su, if I did not know better, I might think you were a false body."
Su Bai almost laughed.
"We are lucky that I am not, then."
A few people chuckled.
The tension eased by a small amount.
Finally, Su Bai stepped across the boundary.
The others followed.
The Fallen-Star Sanctuary’s inner area accepted them without sound.
They walked along a broken road half-buried beneath ash-gray dust. Ancient stones lined the path, but many had split open.
Su Bai walked at the front.
The inverted lotus barrier continued drawing miasma into him. The sensation was smooth enough that he almost forgot it was supposed to be dangerous.
His Dantian received it calmly, and the nine Qi reservoirs accepted their share without difficulty. The miasma pressure reversed as it entered, becoming something that could be stored and refined later.
Su Bai paid attention to the faint traces inside the mist.
There were whispers.
They were not words. More like fragments of intent brushing past his perception.
He did not answer them.
After walking for some time, Su Bai remembered something.
Since they had crossed into the inner area, the sign-in location should have changed.
He silently called out in his mind.
’System, sign in.’
The familiar cold sound appeared.
[Ding! Signed in at Fallen-Star Sanctuary (Inner Area)]
[Reward: Soul-Bloom Seed.]
Su Bai’s steps slowed.
He checked its description.
[Description: A corrupted seed condensed from broken soul fragments and Ashen-Blood Miasma. In dense miasma, it reconstructs a hollow body around the strongest soul fragment within it, creating a Soul-Bloom Returnee if successful.]
[Warning: If absorbed by a living cultivator, it roots in the sea of consciousness, splits the soul, stains identity, and forces an artificial bloom, resulting in soul collapse, mutation, abomination, or forced Returnee transformation.]
Su Bai was silent.
This time, even his past-life experience could not immediately find the right complaint.
The first sign-in reward in the outer region had been the Vanguard’s Entropy-Detonator.
That thing had belonged to the defender side.
Now, the first sign-in reward in the inner area was from the enemy side.
A Soul-Bloom Seed. Something that could reconstruct a Soul-Bloom Returnee in dense miasma. Something that could split a living cultivator’s soul if absorbed.
Su Bai looked ahead at the silent inner battlefield.
Then he looked inward at his system inventory.
A small red object sat there quietly. It resembled a marble.
Inside it, faint sparks drifted like trapped fireflies. But Su Bai knew they were not flames. They were probably broken soul fragments, or at least traces of them. Around the sparks, red-black threads curled and loosened slowly, as if the seed were breathing.
Su Bai’s expression became calm.
This reward was dangerous.
But because it was dangerous, it might also be useful to him.
His system had always been like this.
It handed him things that would kill ordinary cultivators, then waited silently as if pretending innocence.
Su Bai stared at the Soul-Bloom Seed for a few more breaths.
Could it become a Returnee inside his inventory?
Probably not immediately.
But did he want to test whether a seed that could reconstruct a hollow body in dense miasma would remain obedient just because it was inside the system inventory?
Absolutely not.
Some experiments did not need courage. They needed a lack of survival instinct.
Su Bai had survived this long because he usually still had one.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
If the seed entered an ordinary cultivator, it would root in the sea of consciousness, split the soul, stain identity, and force an artificial bloom.
For him, the result might be different.
Most things that tried to harm him did not end well.
The question was not whether it would hurt him. The question was what it would become after failing.
Su Bai looked at the others.
They were still walking carefully, watching the mist, the broken road, and the silence around them. No one noticed his strange pause except Zhuge Jing, whose fan tilted slightly.
Su Bai continued walking as if nothing had happened.
Inside the system inventory, he took out the Soul-Bloom Seed.
A red marble appeared between his fingers.
The moment it touched the air, the surrounding mist stirred.
Tang Ziyan’s eyes snapped toward it.
Bai Zhi’s lotus light trembled faintly.
Zhuge Jing’s fan stopped.
Chen Feng’s hand tightened around his sword.
"What is that?" Zhuge Jing asked.
Su Bai looked at the red marble, then he answered innocently.
"A candy."
Before anyone could react, he placed it into his mouth and swallowed.
The group froze.
Even the mist seemed to pause.
Su Bai waited.
For one breath, nothing happened.
For the second breath, something cold entered his sea of consciousness.
For the third breath, the Soul-Bloom Seed opened.