Chapter 215 - The Miasma Body and the Natal Needle
Su Bai’s eyes had been shining for quite some time.
He had not expected the essence-rich flesh to be this good.
Another piece disappeared into his mouth, and Su Bai slowly chewed while the Ashen-Frost Blight Flame continued roasting the remaining skewers in front of him.
The surface had developed a faint char beneath the cold flame, giving it a thin crispness before his teeth sank into the softer flesh underneath.
Instead of the metallic taste of blood, a rich savory flavor spread across his tongue, followed by a strange sweetness hidden beneath it. The dense Ashen-Blood essence trapped inside the meat burst out with every bite like warm juice. It deepened the flavor rather than ruining it.
There was even a faint lingering richness after he swallowed.
Su Bai chewed more slowly.
This was almost offensive.
An ancient abomination sealed beneath an immortal weapon somehow tasted better than most things he remembered eating.
His only regret was his own ability in the kitchen.
He knew how to grill something until it was edible and how to avoid burning it beyond recognition. That was roughly where his expertise ended.
If someone who actually knew how to cook handled this flesh properly, controlled the heat, and prepared a proper sauce...
Su Bai looked at the remaining skewers with genuine regret.
"What a waste."
He took another bite anyway.
Bad cooking had never stopped hunger before.
By now, he had already eaten most of the essence-rich flesh he had prepared, and the flavor was only the most obvious benefit.
The real changes were happening inside him.
Every mouthful released an enormous amount of strange vitality and Ashen-Blood essence. The harmful nature of the essence changed the moment it entered him.
The corruption became nourishment, while the violent spiritual residue lost its hostility and spread through his body as a strangely clean force.
Su Bai could feel the difference clearly.
His thoughts had become sharper.
His soul felt lighter without becoming weaker, as though layers of invisible dust had been washed away from it. Even his spiritual sense seemed steadier than before, and the strange structures within him felt more firmly connected to his body.
His attention briefly entered his sea of consciousness.
The tiny Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed remained there.
The hairline crack across it had not disappeared, but it was closing much faster now.
A continuous stream of Qi still flowed toward the damaged Intent Seed, yet the consumption no longer bothered Su Bai nearly as much as before.
That was because the greatest change was happening throughout his body.
His flesh, bones, meridians, and organs had already undergone four major transformations.
The fifth finally arrived while he was eating.
There had been no explosive display.
Instead, the accumulated essence seeped into every part of him until his body crossed the threshold naturally.
His bones became denser without becoming heavier in movement. His muscles tightened around a deeper strength, while his meridians became tougher and more receptive to the enormous amount of energy circulating through them. Even his blood seemed to carry a heavier vitality than before.
The fifth major body transformation had been completed.
Su Bai felt it carefully.
The improvement was enormous, but surprisingly, that was not what held his attention.
Something else had changed.
He opened his eyes and looked at the Ashen-Blood Miasma filling the crevice around him.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet rested on his head.
Dense black-red miasma continuously gathered toward him under its attraction, creating a slow current around the small hiding place.
Before, Su Bai could absorb and refine Ashen-Blood Miasma because his constitution reversed its harmful effects and his compatibility had gradually improved.
Now, refinement was no longer necessary just to make the miasma usable.
The moment Ashen-Blood Miasma entered his body, it stopped feeling foreign.
It passed through his flesh and meridians naturally before settling into his internal reserves as energy he could already use.
Su Bai stopped chewing for a moment.
He deliberately drew in more. The surrounding miasma poured toward him.
There was no rejection, no corruption needed to be stripped away first, and no long process was required to separate usable energy from the hostile parts of the miasma.
His body simply accepted it.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened.
The energy immediately spread toward his infinite Dantian and nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs.
At the same time, a portion flowed toward the damaged Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed, replacing what it continued consuming for its repair.
The crack kept closing.
Su Bai looked at the endless Ashen-Blood Miasma outside the crevice and slowly understood what had happened.
His body had adapted to it completely.
What had once been a dangerous foreign energy had become another source of nourishment.
There was still an important distinction.
Su Bai raised one hand.
Black Qi gathered above his palm and slowly condensed into the familiar shape of a needle.
The process remained smooth, but he could feel himself refining the absorbed miasma as he transformed it into his own condensed Needle Qi.
Ashen-Blood Miasma could now enter his body and become usable energy immediately, but usable energy was not the same as fully refined Qi carrying his own characteristics.
If he wanted solid Needle Qi, he still needed to refine and shape it.
The same was true of his cultivation realm.
Simply swallowing endless miasma would not push him from one Golden Core stage to another.
The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method still had to circulate. The absorbed energy still had to be refined into his own Qi before being compressed into the Black-Ice Golden Core.
Golden Core advancement required the Core itself to become denser and more refined.
Su Bai could not simply pour another energy into it and expect another stage to appear.
Fortunately, that problem was considerably smaller than it sounded.
His body had already done the hardest part.
The miasma no longer needed to be refined for nearly as long as before.
Running it through the Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method now felt almost effortless compared with before.
Su Bai took another bite while the miasma continued entering his body.
His expression became increasingly satisfied.
He could eat while recovering Qi.
He could recover Qi while repairing his Intent Seed.
And if he decided to cultivate properly, the entire Fallen-Star Sanctuary had just become an enormous source of energy.
Su Bai swallowed.
That thought pleased him so much that he almost missed the movement inside his body.
Something trembled.
Su Bai’s chewing slowed.
The sensation came again, stronger this time.
His attention immediately moved inward.
On one of the crystalline branches of his Crystalline Tree Spirit Root, the Soul-Bloom Bud had been stirring ever since he began eating the essence-rich flesh.
Until now, the movements had been small.
This time, the entire bud trembled.
Su Bai lowered the skewer slightly.
A dense pulse of spiritual essence passed through the crystalline branch.
The closed black-red bud grew larger.
The tiny crack that had existed across its surface shone faintly, but instead of spreading, the surrounding crystalline structure began changing around it.
Su Bai stared inward. Something was happening.
Whatever had been developing inside the Soul-Bloom Bud had finally reached its limit.
His gaze dropped to the remaining cooked flesh.
Su Bai made a quick decision.
He ate it.
The remaining pieces disappeared one after another while dense essence rushed through his body.
The Crystalline Tree Spirit Root absorbed part of it.
His soul absorbed another portion.
More flowed toward the trembling bud.
Its surface began unfolding.
Black-red crystalline petals emerged slowly from the structure that had once looked like a sealed bud. One layer opened, followed by another, until a dark lotus rested upon the crystalline branch.
The flower was beautiful in a way that felt slightly wrong.
Its petals looked almost transparent near the edges, while deeper within them flowed thin black-red veins of spiritual light. Every movement carried a faint pressure that Su Bai could feel directly in his soul.
He watched as the final inner petals separated.
Something rested at the center.
Su Bai froze.
A needle.
It was not made of Qi.
The slender weapon was dark enough to seem almost black, yet faint red crystalline lines ran through its surface whenever the lotus pulsed. It was longer than an ordinary acupuncture needle, perfectly straight, and so thin that its point almost vanished from Su Bai’s spiritual sense.
For several breaths, Su Bai simply stared at it.
A realization slowly surfaced.
"A natal weapon?"
His surprise was genuine.
Natal weapons were fundamentally different from ordinary artifacts.
A normal spiritual weapon was forged outside the body and later refined by its owner.
A natal weapon was born from the cultivator’s own spiritual foundation.
It grew together with its master, remained connected directly to the soul, and could be nurtured continuously instead of being replaced whenever the cultivator became stronger.
Because of that connection, natal weapons were exceptionally compatible with their owners.
They were also extremely difficult to obtain.
Most cultivators who wanted one had to spend enormous resources nurturing a suitable artifact before slowly establishing a deep enough spiritual bond for it to become truly natal.
Su Bai had done none of that.
Apparently, feeding a Soul-Bloom Seed enough ancient flesh could eventually make it grow a weapon.
Before he could examine that thought further, the needle at the center of the lotus moved.
Su Bai’s attention sharpened.
The dark needle rose slowly from between the petals.
He did not control it.
He had not even established how to control it yet.
The newly born natal weapon simply floated upward as though it already knew where it wanted to go.
The Soul-Bloom Lotus trembled beneath it.
A thin connection of black-red spiritual light remained between the flower and the needle for a moment before fading from sight.
The needle moved again.
Instead of leaving his body, it traveled inward.
Su Bai watched with growing confusion as the natal needle passed through his internal spiritual structures without harming anything. It did not physically pierce his organs or meridians. Rather, it moved through the invisible connections linking his body, soul, and spiritual foundations.
It continued upward.
Su Bai’s expression gradually changed. The destination became obvious.
His sea of consciousness.
The natal needle entered.
The tiny Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed immediately trembled.
Su Bai froze.
The dark natal needle stopped beside it.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
The two needles floated side by side inside his sea of consciousness, one an illusory representation of his developing Intent, the other a genuine natal weapon born from the newly bloomed Soul-Bloom Lotus.
A faint vibration passed through both.
Su Bai’s eyes widened.
The Flaw-Piercing Needle Intent Seed had reacted to it.
More importantly, the natal needle had come here entirely on its own.
Su Bai stared at the two needles in silence.
Something very strange was about to happen.