Chapter 533: The Tianji Pavilion’s Stake
At these words, Su Ming's pupils abruptly contracted.
The spirit races?
That was a mystical race that only existed in ancient texts and Northern Frontier legends. They were not made of flesh and blood, born from heaven and nurtured by earth, possessing extremely long lifespans and a fierce reclusiveness. He was merely a minor Foundation Establishment cultivator who had just set foot in the Central Continent—how could he possibly be connected to the spirit races? And yet, this Tianji Pavilion Master could assert it with such certainty?
Inside the Xuantian Ring.
Lin Yu, who had been maintaining absolute silence, suddenly trembled, his Soul Body jolting.
The layer of ethereal blue light he had deliberately suppressed rippled violently like water waves.
“This old bastard… can he really see the future from tortoise shell cracks?” Lin Yu’s voice rang out in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea, carrying an unmistakable tremor, then he muttered rapidly, “The spirit races…! Could it be that the *Nurturing Spirit True Explanation* really needs to go to the core territory of the spirit races to obtain the remaining complete cultivation method?”
Su Ming lifted his head, gazing at the Pavilion Master’s back.
“The Tianji Pavilion requires a spirit vein map of the spirit race’s territory.” The Pavilion Master turned around, his eyes, as if capable of seeing through everything, fixed on Su Ming. “Since you’re going anyway, you can conveniently draw it for the Tianji Pavilion. This is the condition for obtaining the Ten-Thousand-Year Sky-Blue Stone Marrow.”
Su Ming took a deep breath, meeting the Pavilion Master’s gaze.
“How can the Pavilion Master be certain that this junior will definitely go?” Su Ming’s tone carried a hint of perfectly measured doubt and probing.
“The hexagram never lies,” the Pavilion Master said indifferently, his tone utterly unshakable. “As for why you go, and when you go, that is your own karma. This old man neither asks nor cares.”
“This junior’s cultivation is meager,” Su Ming spoke again, raising a second question. “When should I go? If I go too early, I might not return, and the Tianji Pavilion’s map would become worthless paper.”
“When the time comes for you to go,” the Pavilion Master said, a glint of approval flashing in his eyes as he looked at Su Ming. “The spirit race’s territory is perilous beyond measure, its laws vastly different from the human race’s. With your current cultivation, going there would only be suicide. You merely need to remember this promise.”
Su Ming nodded slightly. The condition was to go in the “future”—as long as he didn’t go now, this deal was merely an empty check. Living to obtain the Stone Marrow was the most pressing matter at hand.
This was the most brilliant of Yang Schemes; the Tianji Pavilion didn’t even need to set prohibitive runes to coerce him.
“One last question: to what level does the map need to be drawn?”
The Pavilion Master said nothing.
He raised his withered right hand, and as his wide sleeve billowed, a jade slip emitting a faint white light flew from his palm, steadily suspending itself before Su Ming.
“Inside this is all the fragmented intelligence the Tianji Pavilion has gathered over the past thousand years regarding the outer fringes of the spirit race’s territory,” the Pavilion Master explained. “As well as an extremely crude framework of the spirit vein layout. What you need to supplement are the blank core nodes. Just draw them as instructed.”
Su Ming reached out, grasping the jade slip in his palm.
The moment the jade slip entered his hand, an extremely warm sensation spread through him.
Without hesitation, he separated a strand of divine sense, probing into it.
In his Consciousness Sea, a massive yet incomplete map instantly unfurled. Vast expanses of gray mist shrouded the core area, with only a few faint lines of spiritual energy flickering along the edges.
Inside the Xuantian Ring, Lin Yu scanned the entire map in the span of a single breath.
“Not much here, indeed,” Lin Yu muttered.
Su Ming withdrew his divine sense from the jade slip and carefully stowed it into his storage pouch.
“This junior agrees.”
Without any hesitation or dawdling, Su Ming gave his answer.
But he didn’t stop there.
In this Central Continent, where people devoured others without spitting out bones, blindly complying would only make one seem worthless. He had to transform himself from a “tool to be ordered around” into a “partner with bargaining chips.”
“However,” Su Ming shifted his tone, his voice becoming extremely sincere yet carrying an unyielding insistence, “since the Pavilion Master says the spirit race’s territory is so dangerous, this junior fears it will be difficult to complete the map-drawing task alone. To ensure the map can be safely brought back to the Tianji Pavilion, this junior requires some minor assistance.”
Master Xuanming, who had been sitting off to the side, heard these words, and a flicker of unusual brilliance shone in his sunken eye sockets.
“This kid…” Master Xuanming couldn’t help but feel a surge of admiration for Su Ming’s performance. “He actually dares to haggle with the Tianji Pavilion Master.”
The Tianji Pavilion Master looked at Su Ming, showing no sign of anger.
“What do you want?”
Su Ming bowed slightly. “First, the spirit race language is obscure and hard to understand. This junior needs the most complete jade slip on the spirit race language and customs. Second, since I must delve into the core nodes, this junior needs three Fixed-Point Teleportation Talismans specially made by the Tianji Pavilion, capable of ignoring spatial seals. After all, a dead man can’t draw a map.”
Silence fell over the side hall once more.
The demands Su Ming raised were not enormous, but each struck at the heart of the matter.
He wasn’t asking for magic treasures or spirit stones—he was asking for the chance to survive. This pragmatic attitude, instead, made the Tianji Pavilion Master regard him with higher esteem.
“Granted,” the Pavilion Master nodded. “These items will be handed over to you along with the Ten-Thousand-Year Sky-Blue Stone Marrow.”
“Old thing, your skill at going with the flow hasn’t changed a bit in all these thousands of years.”
Master Xuanming, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, suddenly let out a hoarse, contemptuous snort.
He stood up, casually brushed at the nonexistent dust on his gray Daoist robe, and swept his gaze over the Tianji Pavilion Master.
“Using a single drop of Stone Marrow that you’d just leave lying around anyway, plus a few scraps of talisman paper, you’ve bought an infinitely promising junior to wade into the spirit race’s muddy waters. This deal—your Tianji Pavilion has made out like bandits.”
The Tianji Pavilion Master did not refute him; not even a flicker of emotion crossed his face.
“The Heavenly Dao rotates; each takes what they need,” the Pavilion Master said, his tone flat.
With that, he paid no further heed to Master Xuanming’s mockery. Turning around, he pushed aside the curtain behind him and walked toward the inner hall deeper within.
Silence returned to the side hall.
Qingfeng stood to one side, looking at Su Ming with eyes full of shock. He opened his mouth, his lips twitching violently, as if he wanted to ask something. Su Ming had actually managed to pry life-saving items out of that Pavilion Master’s grasp with such ease.
He took half a step forward.
Mingyue immediately reached out, firmly grabbing his sleeve. The young girl shook her head slightly, her eyes signaling him to look at their expressionless Master, subtly indicating that now was absolutely not the time to speak.
Qingfeng closed his mouth in chagrin and retreated back to his spot.
Su Ming stood where he was, his hands still hanging naturally at his sides. He didn’t release his divine sense even a fraction; he simply waited in silence.
Before long.
The curtain rustled slightly as the Tianji Pavilion Master walked out slowly.
In his hands, he held a jade bottle no bigger than a thumb. The bottle was a semi-translucent, creamy white.
But what was most captivating was the sight inside the bottle.
Through that thin layer of jade, one could clearly see a single drop of liquid, brilliant like an emerald, quietly suspended at the bottom of the bottle. That drop of liquid seemed to have a life of its own, rotating extremely slowly, emitting a terrifying life force capable of reviving withered wood.
“The Ten-Thousand-Year Sky-Blue Stone Marrow.”