Chapter 230 - Ancient Resolve and Retreat
Su Bai’s hand pressed against the wound beneath his ribs.
Macro-Taiji Circulation was already moving. This time, however, the damage was too severe to disappear quickly.
Several ribs had broken. His organs had taken the force directly, and the wound through his side continued spilling blood even as his body tried to repair it.
Su Bai coughed.
Blood struck the stone in front of him.
The ancient spear flew back into his hand.
For once, it did not immediately complain.
"You had that inside you?"
Su Bai wiped the blood from his mouth.
"I was saving it."
The spear seemed to have several questions.
The surviving Returnees gave it no opportunity to ask them.
One of them looked at the fallen body for only a moment before turning its gaze toward Su Bai.
"HE CAN REACH THE CORE STRUCTURE."
Another Returnee’s expression hardened as its miasma surged.
"THEN STOP TREATING HIM AS A JUNIOR."
The third stepped forward, killing intent rising sharply around it.
"NO MORE TESTING. BREAK HIM."
Their miasma erupted almost simultaneously.
Another death among their ranks had changed the battle completely.
One Returnee slammed both palms forward, filling nearly half the ruined chamber with a violent torrent.
The ancient saber met part of it with a cutting arc, while the hammer smashed apart another section before the attack could reach Su Bai.
Neither artifact came away from the clash unscathed.
A fresh crack spread along the saber’s already corroded edge, while the hammer’s spiritual fluctuation wavered after taking the impact head-on.
Su Bai immediately sent more of his needle-shaped Qi toward them. The saber absorbed one stream, the hammer another, and several of the nearby artifact spirits drew in the rest as they continued fighting.
The bow soon received another share as well. Its weakened fluctuation steadied almost at once.
Only after seeing Su Bai repeat this several times did the spear finally seem to realize something was wrong.
"You... how much Qi do you actually have?"
Su Bai slipped past another Returnee’s attack before answering.
"Enough."
For once, none of the artifact spirits had an immediate response.
They had all followed powerful cultivators before, but even they had never seen a Golden Core cultivator keep feeding this many ancient artifacts while still fighting as though his reserves meant nothing.
Su Bai had been doing it for the entire battle. And his Qi showed no sign of drying up.
What was failing first was everything else.
The weapons themselves.
Thousands of years had passed since anyone had properly maintained them.
Their artifact spirits had survived, but survival was not restoration.
Ancient patterns had faded. Tiny fractures had accumulated through centuries of exposure to the Sanctuary.
Su Bai could give them Qi.
He could not repair thousands of years of damage in the middle of a battle.
The saber’s next strike was still powerful, but its blade trembled afterward.
The bow’s string took longer to reform.
The hammer rose from another collision with additional cracks spreading across its ancient surface.
Even the spear in Su Bai’s hand felt different.
The spear had already used its spatial shift several times, and the faded patterns along its shaft were beginning to show the strain.
Su Bai could keep supplying it with Qi, but the weapon itself was no longer in a condition to withstand that power for long.
The Returnees noticed the worsening cracks.
Their attacks immediately became more aggressive.
Su Bai forced himself upright despite the pain tearing through his abdomen.
The ancient weapons gradually pulled closer around Su Bai as the remaining Returnees pressed forward.
No one needed to say anything.
They had managed to kill one, but the cost was already obvious from Su Bai’s injuries and the worsening condition of the weapons around him.
Trying to force another kill would only leave them trapped here.
"We’re leaving," Su Bai said.
This time, none of the artifact spirits argued.
The bow immediately turned toward one of the passages leading away from the ruined hall. The hammer smashed aside collapsing stone while the remaining weapons moved to cover the retreat.
The remaining Returnees surged forward.
The spear stayed in Su Bai’s hand for only a moment longer before pulling itself free.
He looked at it.
The spear turned toward the approaching Returnees.
"You know we won’t get far like this."
Su Bai said nothing.
That was the problem. He knew.
Even if they broke away from the chamber, the Returnees would continue pursuing them. Su Bai was injured, several artifact spirits were already strained, and their enemies had finally stopped treating him like an ordinary Golden Core cultivator.
The spear’s conclusion was reasonable.
Su Bai disliked that more than he wanted to admit.
Behind the approaching group, one of the Returnees glanced toward the passage the others were preparing to use.
"THEY’RE RETREATING."
Another immediately shifted to cut off the route.
"DO NOT LET THEM LEAVE."
The spear moved between them and Su Bai.
"Take him and go."
The saber slowed nearby, while the hammer turned back toward the spear.
Su Bai finally spoke.
"You won’t stop all of them."
"I don’t need to. I only need to stop them long enough."
Su Bai stared at it for a moment.
His eyes moved across the cracks on the shaft before returning to the approaching Returnees.
"How long?"
The spear gave a faint vibration.
"Long enough, if you stop wasting time."
Su Bai’s mouth tightened.
He could probably still force himself to fight. Macro-Taiji Circulation was already repairing his injuries, and his Qi reserves were nowhere near empty.
But that was not the real problem.
The weapons around him could no longer continue at the same pace.
Neither could his damaged body endure another exchange like the one that had nearly torn open his side.
If they remained here, the most likely result was obvious.
The spear had simply reached it first.
Another Returnee stepped forward as black-red miasma gathered around both arms.
"BREAK THE SPEAR FIRST."
The spear laughed.
"At least one of you still remembers this old one."
The faded patterns along its shaft suddenly began to glow.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
The fluctuation was different from the Qi he had been feeding it throughout the battle.
This was coming from deeper within the weapon.
It was burning its foundation.
Ancient weapon essence surged through the cracked shaft, and the dim patterns brightened one after another. The corrosion remained, but for a brief moment the pressure released by the weapon made it easy to imagine what it had once been.
The other artifact spirits fell silent. Su Bai understood their reaction.
Qi could be replenished. Artifact foundation could not.
Once the spear began burning it, there was no simple way to undo the damage.
Su Bai looked at the spear for a moment, his gaze settling briefly on the cracks spreading across its shaft.
"Don’t die too easily."
The spear gave a low laugh.
"Brat, worry about yourself."
Su Bai did not answer.
The ancient weapons began withdrawing with him, while the spear remained behind to face the approaching Returnees alone.
After a moment, its voice came from behind him.
"Brat, you really are terrible at farewells."
Su Bai paused for only the slightest instant.
"I wasn’t saying farewell."
The spear laughed again.
"Good."
Its point turned fully toward the Returnees.
"Neither was I."
The bow’s spiritual force pulled Su Bai farther into the passage as the saber and the remaining weapons closed around the retreat. Ahead of them, the hammer smashed apart the rubble blocking their path.
Su Bai let them carry him.
Behind them, the Returnees moved.
The first rushed forward, but the spear vanished before it could pass.
A flash of piercing light erupted directly in its path and forced it backward. Another Returnee immediately tried to slip past from the side, only for the ancient weapon to flicker across the chamber and block it as well.
Its spatial-shifting power activated repeatedly.
Each use made the cracks along its shaft spread farther.
One of the Returnees noticed.
"IT’S BURNING THROUGH ITS FOUNDATION."
Another ignored the spear and looked toward the retreating group.
"THE HUMAN IS THE TARGET. GET PAST IT."
The spear laughed.
"Try."
Its spiritual pressure suddenly surged.
The weapon blurred across the ruined hall, leaving overlapping afterimages whenever it shifted. Every time one of the Returnees tried to advance, the spear appeared in front of it again.
When brute force failed, one of them changed methods.
A dark spatial rift opened beneath its feet.
The Returnee stepped into it without hesitation, its figure beginning to sink into the distorted space as another tear appeared farther down the passage, much closer to Su Bai.
The spear reacted immediately.
Its point struck empty air.
The surrounding space trembled.
The newly opened passage twisted violently before collapsing in on itself, forcing the Returnee back out of the rift before it could cross through.
Another tried from a different direction.
The spear shifted again.
This time, it did not attack the Returnee at all. Its piercing force drove directly into the unstable spatial connection, disrupting the passage before the enemy could complete the transfer.
The Returnees finally understood.
As long as the spear remained here, even space itself could not be used to bypass it safely.
For several breaths, none of them managed to pass.
Su Bai continued deeper into the passage, but his attention remained behind him.
One of the faded patterns along the spear’s shaft went dark.
Another followed soon after.
A fracture spread almost halfway through the weapon.
Still, it held its position.
Su Bai’s face showed little, but his hand slowly tightened around nothing.
The passage curved ahead.
Just before the spear disappeared from view, he looked back one last time.
The ancient weapon was still there, alone before the remaining Returnees, its cracked point aimed steadily forward.