Chapter 212 - The Flesh Harvest and the Ancient Dread
Several surviving Returnees rushed toward the storage area, but Su Bai was already there.
The first flesh fragment twitched as he approached.
Su Bai’s spiritual sense passed through it.
Ashen-Frost Blight Flame gathered around his fingers.
Su Bai pressed the cold fire into the first convergence point.
The fragment convulsed.
A sound entered his bones. He ignored it and burned deeper.
The flame froze the active miasma channels while destroying the strange vitality supporting them. The pulsing veins slowed before becoming completely still.
Su Bai checked carefully.
Dead.
Or at least inert enough that it was no longer actively responding to the sealed source.
A jade box appeared from his system inventory.
Su Bai placed the fragment inside and sealed it.
The entire altar reacted.
The voices that entered his bones changed from commands into something far less controlled.
"THIEF. YOU TEAR FLESH FROM THAT WHICH CANNOT DIE."
The words did not become louder. They became closer.
Su Bai felt them behind his teeth.
"SPIT IT OUT, LITTLE WRONG BLOOM, BEFORE WE TEACH YOUR BODY HOW IT FEELS TO BE EATEN WHILE STILL LIVING."
Another fragment died beneath his Ashen-Frost Blight Flame.
Su Bai stored it.
The ancient formations beneath his feet shuddered.
"WE WILL OPEN YOUR BONES AND TAKE BACK EVERY DROP THAT LEARNED TO CALL YOU MASTER."
A third fragment went into another jade box.
"EVERY PIECE OF US YOU SWALLOW WILL REMEMBER WHAT YOU ARE WHEN WE COME TO COLLECT IT."
Su Bai’s hand paused for only the time needed to check the next fragment’s flaw.
The curse continued moving through his skeleton.
"KEEP FEEDING, LITTLE THIEF. WHEN WE TEAR YOU APART, WE WILL KNOW EXACTLY WHICH PIECES BELONG TO US."
Su Bai burned the flaw. The flesh became still. He stored it.
Several sealed sources writhed beneath their weapons strongly enough that ancient sealing light flared around them.
One voice entered through his ribs and seemed to whisper directly beside his heart.
"WE WILL GROW MOUTHS INSIDE YOUR DESCENDANTS."
Su Bai’s expression finally changed.
"That seems unnecessarily personal."
The response came from several sealed sources at once.
"OUR FLESH CLINGS TO YOU."
Another voice pushed through his bones.
"YOU CARRY WHAT WAS CUT FROM US."
Su Bai’s expression became slightly strange.
That was close enough to the truth that he decided not to answer.
Su Bai confirmed once again that even with his aura completely suppressed, these things could still sense anything inside his body that was connected to their own origin.
He continued.
His silence seemed to anger them even more.
Curses poured through the altar in languages Su Bai had never heard and somehow understood anyway.
Some promised that his bones would remember drowning after his flesh died.
Others described his soul being separated into pieces too small for reincarnation to recognize.
One voice calmly informed him that it would teach his blood how to crawl backward through his veins.
Another promised that every wound he ever suffered would eventually open into an eye belonging to them.
Su Bai listened while killing another fragment.
The horror of the words would probably have affected him more if he had not been busy calculating how many jade boxes remained available.
The work became increasingly efficient.
Ashen-Frost Blight Flame entered the convergence points keeping each fragment active. Once the movement and foreign awareness disappeared, the inert flesh went directly into a sealed jade container and then into the system inventory.
Su Bai did not attempt to eat anything here.
He was reckless, not completely without standards.
Eating while several ancient abominations screamed inside his bones felt like poor dining etiquette.
Besides, the fragments could be prepared after he escaped.
His stomach growled again.
Su Bai worked faster.
The last active flesh fragment convulsed beneath the cold flame before its veins finally stopped moving.
Su Bai sealed it inside another jade box.
The sorted storage area was finally empty.
He looked around.
The spatial distortion around the altar was strengthening.
The Void-Shattering Returnees were returning.
Su Bai should leave.
His instincts agreed.
His experience agreed.
Every reasonable lesson he had learned over the last several days agreed.
Su Bai turned toward the exit.
He took one step.
But then, something bothered him.
His gaze moved back toward the enormous sealed masses beneath the immortal weapons.
During the entire massacre, none of them had physically attacked him.
They had commanded. They had cursed. They had distorted the altar enough to call their creations.
Yet the main bodies had remained pinned exactly where they were.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.
Even the fragments had not moved themselves across the Sanctuary.
Returnees carried them.
The sealed sources could extend their influence through severed flesh, but those pieces still needed bodies and servants to transport them beyond the altar.
A realization slowly settled into place.
The seals were working.
Damaged, ancient, and compromised as they might be, they were still working.
These creatures could reach far beyond the altar through what they created.
Their actual bodies could not leave.
Su Bai looked toward the nearest one.
An immense mass of black-red flesh lay beneath an ancient sword.
The weapon had entered through the center of the abomination and continued into the altar below. Faded light still covered the blade, and every time the sealed flesh shifted too strongly, the sword released a faint pressure that forced it down again.
Su Bai’s expression gradually changed.
The voices noticed.
For the first time since he had begun stealing the flesh fragments, several of them stopped cursing.
That silence was far more noticeable than their threats had been.
Su Bai turned completely toward the sealed source.
Something beneath the sword contracted.
The slit facing him narrowed.
A strange sensation spread through the altar.
Su Bai had felt that sensation from enemies before.
Premonition.
The creature beneath the sword had sensed something.
For thousands of years, these beings had endured sealing.
Immortal-like figures had failed to destroy them completely.
Ancient formations had weakened while they remained.
Civilizations had vanished.
The battlefield had decayed.
Their fragments had spread, their creations had grown, and they had slowly worked toward freedom while everything around them died first.
They were accustomed to being the thing others feared.
Su Bai began walking toward the nearest one.
Finally, the silence broke.
"STOP."
He continued.
The word entered his bones with enough force to make his marrow feel cold.
"WRONG BLOOM. DO NOT APPROACH."
Another sealed source spoke from across the altar.
"FORCE THE DEEP-STEP ONES TO RETURN. FASTER."
A third voice entered beneath Su Bai’s skin.
"TEAR ITS LEGS BEFORE IT REACHES THE ROOT."
No one came.
Su Bai continued gliding forward until he reached the edge of the platform beneath the ancient sword.
For the first time, the slits across the sealed flesh did not look like mouths preparing to consume something.
They looked as though they were trying to close.
Su Bai stopped several steps away.
His gaze passed over the immense body.
The Ashen-Frost Blight Flame had hurt one of these sealed sources before, but he had already learned that hurting them and killing them were entirely different problems.
Immortals had apparently chosen sealing.
Su Bai was not arrogant enough to believe ordinary Qi needles could accomplish what they could not.
Fortunately, killing the entire thing was not currently his objective.
He only needed material. Preferably good material.
Su Bai examined the place where the ancient sword entered the flesh.
The sealed source shuddered beneath the weapon.
Su Bai rubbed his chin.
He looked at one portion of relatively intact flesh, then at another.
The voices became increasingly agitated.
"DO NOT TOUCH THE ROOT."
"THE FALSE THING HUNGERS."
"WHERE ARE THE DEEP-STEP ONES?"
Su Bai listened for a moment before raising his head.
His tone remained perfectly polite.
"Umm, can I ask something?"
The overlapping voices suddenly stopped.
Su Bai pointed toward the sealed body’s side.
"How should I cut your body properly?"
The flesh beneath the sword became completely still.
Su Bai continued studying it with genuine concentration.
"I would prefer to retain as much of the essence as possible."
His stomach tightened faintly at the thought.
Su Bai nodded to himself.
"It’s more delicious that way."
For the first time since he had seen them, the sealed sources shuddered beneath their ancient seals.