Chapter 217 - The Boundary and the Ancient Sword
Su Bai stared into the darkness beyond the enormous barrier and slowly sighed.
He had expected Layer One to continue deeper.
After discovering the altar, it had seemed reasonable to assume that something even more important was hidden farther inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
Instead, the path simply ended.
An enormous translucent barrier stretched before him, rising beyond the reach of his spiritual sense and disappearing into the darkness on both sides. Its surface appeared almost solid despite being formed from countless layers of ancient formations. Faint lines occasionally flickered within it before vanishing again.
Su Bai had already followed it for some distance.
There was no passage. Only darkness existed on the other side.
Su Bai looked at the barrier for a while before turning his gaze back toward the direction of the altar.
Thinking about it carefully, perhaps he had been expecting too much.
If more Soul-Bloom Seeds existed somewhere inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary, why would they be hidden farther away from the beings that created them?
The sealed sources were near the altar.
The Returnees gathered around the altar.
If Soul-Bloom Seeds were part of that same system, the altar was the most reasonable place to search.
Unfortunately, returning there now would be an excellent way to test how many Void-Shattering Returnees were necessary to beat him to death.
Su Bai was curious, but he was not curious enough to volunteer for that experiment.
He looked toward the barrier again.
None of the memories he had obtained from the dead soldiers contained anything about this place.
His spiritual sense spread along its surface as far as he could safely reach.
The formation structure was completely different from the barriers and temporary defenses scattered throughout Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
This one felt more fundamental.
It did not separate one section of the battlefield from another. It separated the entire battlefield from whatever lay outside.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
"So this really is the edge."
The darkness beyond the barrier suddenly felt different.
It was not another unexplored region. There simply was no Fallen-Star Sanctuary beyond it.
That realization connected several things he had already seen.
The enormous battlefield. The ancient armies. The sealed sources pinned beneath weapons powerful enough to survive countless years. The Boundary Pillars in the Outer Area. The formations that continued functioning even after the people who created them had turned to dust.
Fallen-Star Sanctuary had probably never been a naturally formed Mystic Realm.
Su Bai slowly looked back across Layer One.
This place had been part of somewhere else.
After the battle ended, the ancients had somehow separated the entire region from the cultivation world and sealed it away.
Later generations had discovered its "entrance" and treated it as a Mystic Realm.
The name had survived. The reason had not.
Su Bai’s expression became more serious.
The sealed sources were probably the reason.
Those things remained dangerous even while pinned beneath ancient weapons. Their flesh could create Returnees. Their influence could travel through fragments. Their Ashen-Blood Miasma had already consumed nearly everything around them.
If the ancients had realized that ordinary sealing was not enough, removing the entire battlefield from the outside world suddenly made much more sense.
They had not merely built a prison around the sealed sources.
They had turned the battlefield itself into the prison.
Su Bai rubbed his chin.
"That’s a rather expensive way to deal with prisoners."
He glanced back toward the distant altar.
Considering what was imprisoned there, he could understand the decision.
The problem was that understanding the Sanctuary’s purpose did nothing to help him obtain another Soul-Bloom Seed.
For now, the altar remained inaccessible.
The Void-Shattering Returnees had already returned, and although several of them were injured, Su Bai had no intention of challenging all of them again with his current strength.
His previous encounter had already taught him enough.
Being capable of surviving against something was very different from being capable of killing it.
Su Bai turned away from the boundary.
He needed to become stronger first.
There was no point wandering along the deepest edge when he already knew what waited there.
He began following the massive barrier sideways, circling around Layer One rather than traveling back through the route closest to the altar.
This path was longer, but it also kept him away from the Returning forces.
More importantly, hiding had become easier.
Su Bai’s attention shifted inward.
The black-red Soul-Bloom Lotus remained open upon the Crystalline Tree Spirit Root, with the Natal Needle resting quietly between its petals.
Earlier, Su Bai had noticed something while experimenting with the Lotus.
Its presence could be controlled.
When the petals remained fully open, the peculiar structure of the Soul-Bloom became much easier to sense. The Returnees were especially sensitive to that aura, and the sealed sources could almost certainly detect it from much farther away.
However, when Su Bai caused the Lotus to close, the aura contracted with it.
The strange spiritual structure folded inward, allowing the Void Ring to conceal him much more effectively.
That was extremely useful inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
He had already attracted enough attention.
Su Bai closed the Soul-Bloom Lotus completely and continued moving along the boundary.
With the Void Ring suppressing his aura and the Lotus no longer openly radiating its presence, he traveled much faster than before.
Several times, distant movements appeared within his spiritual sense.
Su Bai simply changed direction and avoided them.
There was no need to fight everything he encountered.
At least not while naked.
...
Several hours later, the solid miasma barrier separating the deeper regions appeared once again.
Su Bai did not slow.
He stepped into it.
The Ashen-Blood Miasma pressed against his body from every direction, but the sensation was completely different from when he had first entered.
There was no resistance.
The miasma entered naturally, gathering through his flesh and meridians before flowing toward the infinite Dantian and nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs.
Su Bai crossed the barrier as though walking through unusually thick fog.
When he emerged on the other side, Layer Two spread before him.
He stopped for a moment and looked around.
He searched for a suitable place to cultivate.
After moving through several ruined areas, he eventually found a deep recess hidden between two enormous slabs of ancient stone. The surrounding miasma was dense, the terrain blocked most direct lines of sight, and there were no powerful presences nearby.
Su Bai arranged a simple Nether Thread warning network around the area before settling inside.
Only after confirming that nothing was approaching did he finally turn his attention toward something he had neglected for several days.
His sign-in rewards.
Su Bai opened the system inventory and examined the newest entries.
Five additional automatic sign-ins had accumulated since the last time he checked.
"...Five days?"
He had spent far longer inside Layer One than he realized.
Between hiding, studying the Soul-Bloom Lotus, repairing the Intent Seed, experimenting with the Natal Needle, harvesting the sealed sources, and traveling along the boundary, the days had quietly disappeared.
That meant it was already the fortieth day inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
Su Bai sighed.
Time truly became strange when every day involved ancient monsters trying to kill him.
Soon, he took out the Blood-Rot Pills and placed them beside him.
The pills were useful, but the real treasure was already surrounding him.
Su Bai closed his eyes.
The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method began circulating.
Ashen-Blood Miasma poured into him.
The transformed body accepted it immediately, and the incoming energy entered his internal reserves almost without resistance.
Only after that did Su Bai guide it through the cultivation method, converting and refining it into his own Qi.
The difference in speed was absurd.
Even High-Grade Spirit Stones could not compare.
Spirit Stones provided neutral and stable Qi, but Su Bai still needed to draw the energy out and circulate it through his cultivation method.
Here, the entire environment was already forcing energy into him.
For most cultivators, that would have been a problem.
For Su Bai, it was free delivery.
A smile gradually appeared on his face.
Refined Qi flowed toward the Black-Ice Golden Core.
The Core became denser. The black ice deepened in color. The golden Yang within remained stable.
Su Bai continued compressing.
Hours passed.
The Blood-Rot Pills beside him gradually disappeared, but the overwhelming majority of his energy still came from the surrounding Ashen-Blood Miasma.
The more he cultivated, the happier he became.
He had spent so long treating Fallen-Star Sanctuary as a dangerous battlefield that he had nearly forgotten one important fact.
This place was now an enormous cultivation ground made almost entirely for him.
...
Three days passed.
The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method continued circulating as another wave of refined Qi pressed inward.
The Black-Ice Golden Core trembled. Its internal crystalline structure suddenly contracted.
A deep vibration passed through Su Bai’s body.
The Core compressed inward. Its size decreased almost imperceptibly, but the pressure contained inside increased sharply.
The surrounding Qi circulation changed with it.
Su Bai opened his eyes.
A grin spread across his face.
Golden Core Fifth Stage.
That speed was ridiculous even by his standards.
Su Bai immediately examined the changes.
The Black-Ice Golden Core was noticeably denser than before, but Su Bai’s breakthrough was not limited to the Core alone.
His entire body was part of the greater Golden Core structure, and the Macro-Taiji Circulation had strengthened along with his advancement. Qi now moved through that larger whole with greater stability and efficiency.
The stronger circulation meant that when his body was injured, Macro-Taiji would be able to repair the damage faster than before.
Su Bai’s grin became wider.
Cultivating here was wonderful.
The food was questionable, the neighbors were murderous, and clothing had become increasingly optional, but the cultivation environment itself was excellent.
Su Bai was still appreciating his breakthrough when a voice suddenly drifted through the recess.
"Young lad over there."
His smile disappeared.
Su Bai’s eyes opened completely.
He did not move.
He let his spiritual sense spread outward.
Nothing had crossed his Nether Threads. No Returnee had approached. No unfamiliar aura had entered the area.
Yet the voice had been unmistakably clear.
"Do you want strength?"
Su Bai slowly turned his head.
Near the edge of the recess, half buried between cracked stones, stood an ancient sword.
He had noticed it when he first arrived.
The weapon looked old and damaged. Most of its surface was covered in dark stains, and several cracks ran through the blade. Compared with the terrifying ancient weapons deeper inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary, it had seemed completely ordinary.
Su Bai had ignored it.
Apparently, the sword had not ignored him.
"Come and take me," the voice continued. "I can help you become stronger."
Su Bai stared at the ancient sword.
His first reaction should probably have been suspicion.
His second reaction should have been caution.
Instead, interest immediately appeared in his eyes.
It’s not because the sword promised strength. It’s because he had heard this sort of invitation before.
Something ancient calling out from inside an artifact, offering power to a passing cultivator in exchange for contact.
That pattern was far too familiar.
Su Bai slowly stood.
His spiritual sense focused on the sword.
The consciousness inside was weak, but it was unmistakably there.
This was not the natural spirit of the weapon.
This was more like something that had once belonged to a living cultivator and had somehow remained trapped inside the blade.
A remnant soul.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened.
That changed everything.
The last time foreign soul fragments had entered his spiritual world, his Dao-Devouring Blank Stele had been extremely enthusiastic about dealing with them.
Su Bai looked at the sword again.
The voice apparently interpreted his silence as hesitation.
"You need not fear. I have waited countless years for someone capable of inheriting—"
Su Bai was already walking toward it.
The voice stopped. Perhaps it had expected more persuasion.
Su Bai stopped directly in front of the ancient sword.
He was still completely naked.
For some reason, that made the entire scene feel much less dignified than the remnant soul probably intended.
The ancient sword remained silent for several breaths.
Su Bai reached toward the hilt.
"If you’re going to offer something, don’t regret it afterward."
The remnant soul did not seem to understand why those words sounded threatening.
The moment Su Bai’s fingers closed around the sword, the world around him froze.