Chapter 310 - Old Gossip and an Unknown Principle

Chapter 310: Chapter 310 - Old Gossip and an Unknown Principle

The clouds surrounding Clear Cloud Peak had still not dispersed.

Lu Canghai sat across from Su Bai inside the small courtyard outside the hut, occasionally glancing toward his disciple as though checking that he had not suddenly started bleeding again.

Su Bai noticed the fifth glance.

"Master, I’m fine."

Lu Canghai sighed.

His earlier suspicion had indeed been correct.

The unfamiliar energy that had appeared inside the hut was indeed Immortal Qi, as Su Bai had confirmed.

What surprised him more was what happened afterward.

Su Bai had explained that he drew only a tiny thread of energy from the stone. Its density and pressure had immediately become dangerous inside his meridians, but the harmful part of that pressure had been reversed into nourishment.

The Reversal Body had already done enough unreasonable things.

Apparently, unreasonable things could still become more unreasonable.

"Your own Qi didn’t change?"

"No."

Su Bai shook his head.

"The energy became something I could process, but my normal Qi is still normal Qi."

Lu Canghai nodded.

That was important.

If a single thread from an Immortal Stone could somehow transform an entire Golden Core cultivator’s Qi into true Immortal Qi, the cultivation world would have become much stranger than it already was.

The old man stroked his beard.

"So why were you asking me about Yang fire again?"

Su Bai’s attention shifted slightly inward.

One of the tiny leaves inside his Gateway Dantians still carried two unequal colors.

The ash-gray side remained noticeably stronger than the red.

"I need something with a stronger Yang fire property. Preferably something I can control without burning myself from the inside."

"That eliminates several entertaining suggestions."

Su Bai looked at him.

"Master."

"I was joking."

The fact that Lu Canghai had needed to clarify that did not inspire confidence.

He was about to continue when his expression changed.

Someone had reached the outer barrier of Clear Cloud Peak.

Lu Canghai glanced toward the thick clouds still covering the mountain before waving his sleeve.

The cloud layer parted.

A clear passage opened through the mist, revealing a familiar figure waiting outside.

"Old Huo?"

The barrier loosened.

Huo Yan entered soon afterward and followed the mountain path toward the courtyard.

He had clearly come directly from Radiant Zenith Peak. Several sealed containers floated behind him under his spiritual control.

"Old Lu, Martial Nephew."

Lu Canghai glanced at the containers.

"The banquet just ended and you came here instead of resting?"

Huo Yan looked at him as though the question itself were unreasonable.

"I have things worth studying. The guests have already left. Sect Master Li asked me to continue examining what we recovered from the battlefield, but there are several parts I cannot understand."

He opened the first sealed container.

A dark metallic fragment floated out.

Another container released pieces of a shattered bell. Fragments of the cracked bronze mirror followed, along with damaged remains from the escape discs and several talismans whose formation structures had survived the battle.

The final container opened more slowly.

The Formation-Eating Nail appeared above it.

Unlike the other artifacts, it remained whole.

Its surface was quiet now. The dark patterns that had once crawled across it during the battle had completely faded.

Huo Yan looked toward Su Bai.

"What do you think, Martial Nephew? Do you have any way to help me understand the formations behind these things?"

Su Bai did not answer immediately.

His spiritual sense passed across the fragments.

Huo Yan had already identified similarities between their underlying construction principles despite the artifacts clearly being made by different hands.

Trying to decode everything manually would take time.

Su Bai’s thoughts moved through several possibilities before stopping on one that had nothing to do with formation comprehension.

His eyes brightened.

’Right. I still have my Wikipedia.’

He reached into his system inventory.

A small iron basin appeared on the ground.

It looked unimpressive enough that Huo Yan stared at it for several moments without recognizing what made it special.

Dark liquid rested inside the trough, its surface carrying a faint shimmer even though nothing had disturbed it.

Lu Canghai looked from the basin to his disciple.

"What is that?"

"A quenching trough?" Huo Yan’s expression became even more confused.

Su Bai looked toward the fragments.

"Martial Uncle, may I borrow one of the bell pieces?"

Huo Yan waved his hand.

"Take it."

A broken piece of the metal flew toward Su Bai.

He caught it and examined it briefly before dropping it directly into the dark liquid.

The reaction was immediate.

Brilliant light erupted from the basin.

Huo Yan’s eyes widened.

Lu Canghai had already risen halfway from his seat when the sound began.

Thousands of voices exploded through the courtyard.

They overlapped without rhythm or order. Some whispered. Others screamed. Several seemed to speak directly beside the ear while countless more echoed from impossible distances.

Huo Yan’s expression changed.

The noise did not simply hurt his ears. It scraped against concentration itself.

For a brief moment, even his Dao heart trembled beneath the weight of countless voices trying to speak at once.

Lu Canghai frowned and immediately wrapped Qi around his hearing.

Huo Yan did the same.

The courtyard became silent for both old men.

They stared at Su Bai.

Su Bai remained seated comfortably before the basin.

There was no pain on his face and no confusion.

He was listening.

The unbearable torrent reached him as a single pleasant voice.

"Item: Fragment of Blood-Resonance Distortion Bell."

Su Bai’s expression changed slightly.

The voice continued.

"Origin: Forged eleven months ago by a demonic artificer using a blood-tempered bronze alloy and locally refined spirit metal."

"Quality: High-grade battlefield disruption artifact."

"Current Condition: Destroyed. Remaining fragment retains portions of the outer resonance array and minor traces of the original blood-binding structure."

Su Bai leaned forward.

The dark liquid rippled.

"Primary Function: Distorts spiritual-sense targeting and interferes with precise perception through blood-fed resonance."

"Usage History: Forged by a demonic cultivator for use within his own faction. Formation structure was modified twice before completion. Core design was copied from a pre-existing formation pattern not created by the artificer."

Su Bai’s eyes narrowed.

The pleasant voice continued without pause.

"Final Usage: Activated during the assault on Radiant Sky Sect. Sustained through blood essence. Artifact destroyed after its holder lost control of the battlefield."

The liquid shimmered again.

"Known Flaws: Excessive blood consumption. Resonance becomes unstable under sufficiently broad attacks. Poor compatibility with users whose spiritual sense greatly exceeds the artifact’s intended range."

That sounded exactly like the troublesome trough Su Bai remembered.

Finally, the last words came.

"Core Formation Principle: Unidentified."

Su Bai froze.

The light faded.

The thousands of voices vanished with it.

For several breaths, the courtyard remained completely still.

Lu Canghai and Huo Yan cautiously removed the Qi protecting their ears.

Su Bai continued staring into the basin.

Huo Yan frowned.

"Martial Nephew?"

Su Bai finally looked up.

"Blood-Resonance Distortion Bell."

Both old men stared at him.

Lu Canghai was the first to speak.

"My disciple, what are you talking about?"

"That was the name of the bell."

Huo Yan’s gaze immediately shifted toward the iron basin.

His confusion lasted only a moment.

Something connected behind his eyes.

"Martial Nephew."

Su Bai looked toward him.

"When that thing activated, Old Lu and I heard nothing except thousands of overlapping voices. You didn’t react at all."

Huo Yan leaned closer to the trough.

"Were those voices actually saying something?"

Su Bai smiled.

Huo Yan really did become frighteningly sharp whenever artifacts were involved.

He nodded.

The old man’s eyes lit up.

The exhaustion left his face almost instantly.

He moved closer to the trough with such intensity that Su Bai instinctively pulled it half an inch farther away.

Huo Yan noticed.

"I’m only looking."

Lu Canghai shook his head, although the corner of his mouth had already lifted.

Huo Yan spent several breaths examining the basin from different angles before finally seeming to remember why he had come.

He straightened with a faint trace of embarrassment.

"So what did it tell you?"

The amusement on Su Bai’s face disappeared.

Huo Yan noticed immediately.

Lu Canghai did as well.

Su Bai looked down at the fragment resting beneath the dark liquid.

"It knew the artifact’s name."

Huo Yan waited.

"It knew what it was made from, when it was forged, what it did, how it was used, and even some of its flaws."

The light in Huo Yan’s eyes became sharper.

"That much?"

Su Bai nodded.

"It also knew that the artificer who made it copied the core design from an existing formation pattern."

Huo Yan’s expression hardened.

That matched what he had already suspected.

"What was the original pattern?" he asked.

Su Bai remained silent for a moment.

"That is the problem."

He looked toward the dark liquid again.

"This trough has identified everything I’ve put inside it before."

Lu Canghai slowly stopped stroking his beard.

Su Bai remembered cheap iron ore whose greatest recommended use had been forging horseshoes or throwing it at enemies.

He remembered an Inner Sect sword whose unfortunate creator’s emotional state had somehow survived inside its history.

He remembered two broken pieces of a black-market key revealing an entire bribery arrangement in humiliating detail.

The trough gossiped about everything.

Sometimes far more than anyone wanted to know.

Yet this time, there had been a blank.

Su Bai raised his eyes.

"It couldn’t identify the core formation principle."

Huo Yan did not speak.

The breeze passing through Clear Cloud Peak seemed suddenly louder.

Su Bai glanced toward the other fragments resting beside the Formation-Eating Nail.

If the bell was the only one, perhaps it meant nothing.

If the others gave the same answer, it would mean something very different.

Huo Yan followed his gaze.

Neither man needed to explain what came next.

The old man’s eyes slowly brightened again, although there was considerably less amusement in them now.

"Try another one."