Chapter 313 - A Reason to Grow Stronger

Chapter 313: Chapter 313 - A Reason to Grow Stronger

Long after Huo Yan left Clear Cloud Peak, Su Bai remained seated in the courtyard.

The night had settled completely over Radiant Sky Sect. Beyond the clouds surrounding the mountain, the sect had grown quiet enough that even the distant movements of patrolling disciples were difficult to hear.

Lu Canghai had not spoken again about the Great Fissure.

Su Bai did not press him.

What they had discovered tonight was still only a possibility.

If their guess was wrong, Huo Yan and the others would eventually discover that.

If it was right, however, waiting comfortably for someone else to solve the problem did not sit well with Su Bai.

That realization made him pause.

His expression became strange.

Several years ago, his first instinct toward something this dangerous would have been considerably simpler.

Stay away from it. Preferably very far away.

If ancient enemies from another realm wanted to crawl out of whatever hole they had found, Su Bai’s former self would have considered it an excellent opportunity to become extremely inconspicuous.

He leaned back slightly and stared at the night sky.

Eight months trapped inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary had apparently done more to him than improve his cultivation.

There had been a time when helping Radiant Sky Sect had been partly practical. The sect gave him a place to stay, protection, and a master respectable enough to keep most unreasonable people away from him.

Becoming useful meant nobody would have a reason to throw him out.

That reasoning had not disappeared completely. He simply no longer needed it.

Somewhere along the way, Radiant Sky Sect had become his sect rather than merely the place he happened to belong to.

If something dangerous was moving behind the demonic factions, Su Bai wanted to become strong enough to help deal with it.

The thought settled surprisingly comfortably.

He smiled faintly.

’Uncle Ben really was right. With great power comes great responsibility.’

Unfortunately, that thought immediately reminded him of another thing he had been postponing.

Ning Shuang.

Su Bai’s smile disappeared.

The strange movements of demonic cultivators had never been completely explained.

If several demonic factions had somehow obtained formation principles from the same unknown source, their wider movements might not be unrelated after all.

Ning Shuang was still embedded among them.

If anyone could hear something from inside the demonic side that Radiant Sky Sect could not obtain through ordinary investigation, it was her.

Su Bai eventually looked toward Lu Canghai.

"Master."

Lu Canghai opened his eyes.

"I want to leave the sect once things here settle down."

The response came immediately.

"No."

Su Bai had expected that.

Lu Canghai’s expression remained calm, but there was nothing casual about his refusal.

"You returned only recently, eight Void-Shattering demonic cultivators have already come looking for trouble, and we have just discovered that some of their artifacts may involve something beyond this world. This is not the time for you to wander outside."

"I understand."

Su Bai did not argue with him immediately.

"There is someone I can contact who may be able to give us information from inside the demonic factions."

Lu Canghai’s eyes narrowed.

Su Bai had deliberately kept the explanation limited.

"That person is already among them," Su Bai continued. "If those strange movements are connected to whatever is supplying these formation principles, that person may have heard something."

Lu Canghai remained silent.

That changed the matter, but he still disliked the idea.

Su Bai could see it clearly.

Eventually, the old man released a long breath.

"You are determined to go?"

"Yes."

Lu Canghai studied him for several moments before leaning back.

"Then reach Nascent Soul first."

Su Bai blinked.

Lu Canghai’s expression hardened before his disciple could become too pleased.

"I am already compromising. Do not make me regret it."

Su Bai immediately nodded.

"That is reasonable, Master."

Lu Canghai had expected at least some complaint.

Seeing his disciple accept the condition so easily somehow made him more suspicious.

Su Bai, meanwhile, had already turned his attention inward.

’Nascent Soul.’

He was already close to the peak of the Ninth Stage.

The remaining distance was no longer large.

Su Bai rose from his seat and moved toward the familiar flat stone in the courtyard.

Lu Canghai watched him sit down.

"You are starting tonight?"

"There’s still time before morning."

Lu Canghai stared at him for a moment.

His disciple had apparently interpreted the condition as something that should be completed as quickly as physically possible.

Su Bai had already entered meditation.

His awareness sank into his body.

The Black-Ice Golden Core remained stable within his Infinite Dantian. Around it, the Greater Golden Core maintained its familiar Macro-Taiji circulation, with Yin and Yang moving through the whole-body structure in balance.

Separately, the Myriad-Path Meridian Web linked the Infinite Dantian to the nine Gateway Dantians.

The nine sprouts remained quietly rooted within them.

They could wait.

Su Bai had already learned enough to know that forcing their development without suitable materials would accomplish little.

His immediate problem was simpler.

He needed to push his cultivation from the Ninth Stage to its true peak.

Su Bai opened his eyes again.

The Immortal storage ring appeared in his hand.

Across the courtyard, Lu Canghai’s eyelid twitched.

The moment Su Bai retrieved one of the sealed Immortal Stones, clouds spread across Clear Cloud Peak without needing to be asked.

The old man wiped an imaginary trace of sweat from his forehead.

"You really have become comfortable taking those things out."

"I only need a little, Master."

Su Bai smiled before carefully drawing out the smallest possible thread of Immortal Qi.

The reaction was immediate.

The moment it entered his meridians, the familiar danger returned, dense enough that an ordinary Golden Core cultivator might have suffered serious damage from the attempt.

Reversal responded.

The harmful pressure changed.

What should have torn through his meridians became nourishment, and the strange clarity Su Bai remembered from his previous attempt spread through his mind.

His thoughts became extraordinarily clean.

The movements of Qi inside his body seemed easier to perceive, while concepts that would normally require careful contemplation appeared closer and more distinct.

Su Bai did not waste the opportunity.

The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method began circulating.

The Macro-Taiji turned.

Qi flowed through all ten cultivation centers as the transformed trace of Immortal energy moved with it, strengthening the circulation without replacing the Qi already inside him.

Su Bai remained cautious.

He did not draw another thread.

One was enough.

Across the courtyard, Lu Canghai watched for a while before eventually sitting down himself.

His disciple had already reached a point where merely watching him improve was becoming strangely stressful.

The old man closed his eyes.

If Su Bai insisted on growing at this speed, Lu Canghai had no intention of standing still while his disciple casually overtook him.

He had once stood in the Void-Shattering Realm.

Recovering what he had lost was hardly an unreasonable goal.

Master and disciple cultivated beneath the same quiet clouds as the night passed over Clear Cloud Peak.

Su Bai’s accumulation climbed steadily.

His foundation had already been prepared through months of repeated tempering, the expansion of his Greater Golden Core, and the formation of the Myriad-Path Meridian Web. What remained was not another structural transformation.

It was simply the last stretch of refinement.

Near dawn, the circulation inside Su Bai’s body changed.

The Black-Ice Golden Core gave a faint pulse.

All nine Gateway Dantians answered.

The Macro-Taiji completed one final circulation before settling into a rhythm that felt subtly fuller than before.

Su Bai opened his eyes as the first morning light reached Clear Cloud Peak.

Peak Ninth Stage Golden Core Realm.

He exhaled slowly.

The first requirement was complete.

The next one was going to be considerably more troublesome.