Chapter 337 - An Unusual Request and a Sliver of Soul

Chapter 337: Chapter 337 - An Unusual Request and a Sliver of Soul

Back at Clear Cloud Peak, Su Bai had finally regained some peace.

Liu Meng and Yan’er had left not long ago.

Liu Meng had taken the dark three-legged cauldron with her and, judging from the way she had kept glancing at its formations before leaving, Su Bai doubted she would wait very long before trying to refine it.

Yan’er had returned to consolidate her recent breakthrough.

Before she left, Su Bai had also promised that when she eventually reached Foundation Establishment, he would prepare another gift for her.

The promise had worked perhaps a little too well.

Yan’er had left Clear Cloud Peak with enough determination that Su Bai briefly wondered whether he had accidentally encouraged her to lock herself in cultivation for the next several months.

He shook his head and returned his attention to the jade slip and notebook in front of him.

The technique he had promised Liu Meng was almost finished.

The original jade slip described several methods of controlling heavy cauldrons in battle, but much of it was far beyond what Liu Meng could safely use at her current realm. Su Bai had therefore stripped away the unnecessary portions and reorganized the safer foundations into something simpler.

He called it the Mountain-Suppressing Cauldron Art.

The name was straightforward enough.

More importantly, it described what the technique actually did.

Instead of treating a cauldron purely as an alchemical vessel, the method allowed its weight and internal formations to be used for suppression, defense, and direct attacks.

Liu Meng would not be throwing the cauldron around at full strength anytime soon, but the basic control method should already let her awaken a small portion of its combat potential.

Su Bai finished writing the final circulation instruction and carefully checked it once more.

The moment his brush left the page, another presence approached Clear Cloud Peak.

He paused.

The aura was familiar.

A trace of surprise appeared on his face.

"Senior Sister Ji?"

Su Bai opened the restriction around the peak.

Not long afterward, Ji Ruyue entered the courtyard.

She looked exactly as Su Bai remembered her.

Her white robes were immaculate. Her steps were quiet. Her face carried the same cold stillness that seemed capable of making ordinary conversations feel like disciplinary hearings.

Su Bai smiled.

"Senior Sister Ji. How have you been?"

Ji Ruyue stopped several steps away.

She did not answer immediately. Instead, she looked directly at him.

Several breaths passed.

Su Bai’s smile slowly became uncertain.

For some reason, the scene reminded him of meetings from his previous life when wealthy clients would sit across a table and stare without speaking, as if silence itself could establish who held more authority.

Ji Ruyue’s stare felt different.

There was no pressure in it.

If anything, she seemed to be waiting for something.

Su Bai could not tell what.

Her face provided absolutely no assistance.

He could only guess that she wanted to say something and had not decided how to begin.

What Su Bai did not know was that Ji Ruyue had already attempted another solution.

She had quietly used the same mind-reading technique she had employed before.

But nothing happened.

The technique failed to penetrate.

Ji Ruyue withdrew immediately.

Apparently, reading Junior Brother Su’s thoughts was no longer an available shortcut.

She remained silent for another breath before speaking.

"Junior Brother Su. Have you recovered?"

He blinked. That had not been what he expected.

"More or less."

Ji Ruyue nodded.

"I need your help with something. I believe you may be capable of helping."

Su Bai almost smiled.

She was still as direct as ever.

"Tell me."

Ji Ruyue sat across from him.

She did not soften the explanation or hide anything unnecessary.

Her voice remained perfectly even as she explained what had happened since the Heavenly Law descended.

She spoke about the conflict that had appeared in her Heartless Sutra, the question that had refused to disappear, and the conversation she had shared with Shen Youran.

Su Bai’s expression gradually changed.

Ji Ruyue explained the incomplete inheritance.

She repeated the principle of the Heartless Path and Shen Youran’s belief that the missing portion was never meant to deepen emotional severance.

Su Bai listened without interrupting.

By the time Ji Ruyue reached the end, the matter had become far more serious than he expected.

"Master has entered seclusion."

For the first time since she arrived, Ji Ruyue paused before continuing.

"She intends to study the missing portion herself."

Su Bai’s brows rose.

Ji Ruyue looked at him.

"Junior Brother Su, do you have a solution?"

Su Bai remained still.

The woman sitting in front of him had spent years practicing a method designed to suppress attachment and emotional disturbance.

Yet she had come all the way to Clear Cloud Peak because Shen Youran intended to place herself at risk for her.

Su Bai found that unexpectedly interesting.

Apparently, the Heartless Path was doing a poor job of making people truly heartless.

He did not say that aloud.

Instead, he asked, "Why did you think I could help?"

Ji Ruyue was silent for a moment.

"You have survived things that should not have been survivable."

Su Bai’s expression became strange.

That was difficult to argue with.

"You also returned from Fallen-Star Sanctuary with knowledge and methods that did not exist before."

She looked directly at him.

"By my judgment, you are the person most likely to notice a solution others would miss."

Su Bai smiled faintly.

’That was fair.’

More importantly, she was right.

There was something he could try.

He had wanted to test it for some time.

The opportunity had simply never appeared.

Su Bai’s expression became more serious.

"I might have a solution."

Ji Ruyue waited.

"But it requires a small sacrifice from you."

"I agree."

Su Bai stared at her.

He had not even explained the sacrifice.

"Senior Sister Ji, perhaps you should hear what it is first."

Ji Ruyue considered that.

"Then explain."

Su Bai looked directly into her eyes.

"I need a sliver of your soul."

Ji Ruyue moved.

Her sword was not drawn, but her stance changed instantly.

A sharp spiritual sense swept toward Su Bai.

His expression froze.

His cultivation instinctively responded, but Su Bai suppressed the defensive reaction before it could reject her spiritual sense.

Ji Ruyue touched the edge of his Qi.

A breath later, she withdrew.

Her stance relaxed.

"Apologies."

Su Bai stared at her.

Ji Ruyue continued with complete seriousness.

"You sounded like a demonic cultivator. I needed to confirm that you had not been replaced."

Silence filled the courtyard.

Su Bai’s mouth twitched.

A moment later, he laughed.

He could not help it.

Of all the reactions he had expected, Ji Ruyue immediately verifying whether an impostor had replaced him had not been one of them.

Ji Ruyue watched him with faint confusion.

Su Bai finally waved one hand.

"No offense taken. That probably did sound suspicious."

He took a breath and settled himself.

"Yes, I really do need a tiny sliver of your soul."

Ji Ruyue’s expression returned to its usual stillness.

"Will it damage my foundation?"

"If you separate too much, yes."

Su Bai did not hide the risk.

"But I only need a trace. If it feels unstable, stop immediately."

Ji Ruyue nodded. She sat cross-legged at once.

Su Bai expected some hesitation.

There was none.

Her eyes closed, and the courtyard became quiet again.

Separating a fragment of one’s own soul was far more difficult than cutting flesh or drawing blood.

The soul did not naturally want to divide.

Ji Ruyue’s spiritual fluctuations tightened almost immediately.

Her breathing remained controlled, but Su Bai could feel the strain.

The first attempt failed.

The second did as well.

A faint tremor finally passed through Ji Ruyue’s fingers.

Su Bai frowned.

She had not made a sound. That somehow made the process look worse.

"Senior Sister Ji, you can stop."

"I can continue."

Her voice remained steady.

Su Bai sighed quietly.

Several more breaths passed.

At last, a thread of pale spiritual light emerged from Ji Ruyue.

It was so small that an ordinary cultivator might have overlooked it entirely.

Even so, the moment it separated, Ji Ruyue’s face became slightly paler.

Su Bai immediately moved.

His Qi wrapped around the soul sliver, preventing it from dispersing.

"That would be enough."

Ji Ruyue opened her eyes.

The tiny fragment floated between them.

Su Bai examined it once.

It carried exactly what he hoped to find.

The imprint of a cultivation method.

He drew the fragment toward himself.

Ji Ruyue watched.

Su Bai hesitated for the smallest fraction of a breath.

There was no elegant way to do this.

He opened his mouth and swallowed the soul sliver.

Ji Ruyue stared at him.

Su Bai stared back.

Several breaths passed.

For once, Su Bai felt genuinely awkward.

From Ji Ruyue’s perspective, she had just removed part of her soul and watched Junior Brother Su eat it.

Even by cultivation-world standards, that was not particularly normal.

Su Bai cleared his throat.

"This is part of the process."

Ji Ruyue continued looking at him.

"I see."

Her face still showed nothing.

That somehow made it worse.

Su Bai closed his eyes before the situation could become more uncomfortable.

Inside him, the soul fragment had already begun moving.

A familiar pull appeared.

Su Bai’s attention sharpened.

Deep within his foundation, the Dao-Devouring Blank Stele reacted.

The fragment trembled.

A force seized it.

Su Bai’s excitement rose immediately.

’It’s working.’

This was the same reaction he had witnessed when the Stele absorbed cultivation traces from the Soul-Bloom soul fragments.

The sliver of Ji Ruyue’s soul was drawn toward the Stele.

The moment it touched the dark surface, pale light spread across the ancient stone.

The cultivation imprint hidden within the fragment unfolded.

The fragmented structure was pulled apart, purified, reorganized and reconstructed.

Missing circulation routes were restored. Broken connections joined. Principles that had ended halfway extended into something deeper.

Su Bai watched without blinking.

The incomplete Heartless Sutra was changing.

New characters slowly appeared across the Stele.

Heartless Sutra.

Knowledge rushed into Su Bai’s mind.

He immediately entered meditation.

The courtyard disappeared from his awareness.

Ji Ruyue remained seated nearby, waiting.

For the first time since arriving, something faint moved beneath her calm gaze.

Hope was perhaps too strong a word.

She was not certain she remembered that feeling clearly enough to name it.

So she simply waited.