Chapter 235 | The Heaven-Sealing Array

Chapter 235: 235 | The Heaven-Sealing Array

Morning mist clung to Alchemy Peak as Lin Tian ascended toward the alchemy halls. Passing smoothly through the array with his token, he stepped into the Private Chamber.

Inside the hall, the bronze cauldron at the center still radiated a residual wave of fragrant heat. Elder Liu, Elder Bai, and Instructor Qing were already waiting.

"You’re right on time," Elder Liu said softly, sealing the heavy profound-ice stone doors behind him with a flick of her sleeve. "Look on the slab—I finished refining the batch an hour before dawn."

Resting on the cold white surface of the profound-ice slab was a translucent jade vial containing two pills. Each pill gleamed with nine concentric rings of emerald and golden patterns, radiating a medicinal fragrance so pure that a single breath made the spiritual Qi inside the room hum in resonance.

"Tier-3 Peak-Grade Nine-Revolution Core Condensing Pills," Instructor Qing murmured, genuine awe flashing through her dark eyes. "Using the thousand-year spirit herbs, the Myriad Herb Secret Realm, Elder Liu actually refined them without a single speck of pill impurity!"

"With my meridians completely clear and my Middle Stage Golden Core stabilized, my control as a Tier-4 Mid-Grade Alchemist is three times smoother than it used to be," Elder Liu said, casting an affectionate, meaningful glance at Lin Tian. "Refining a Peak Tier-3 pill with flame ensured no medicinal loss. With these two pills, neither of you will need those ordinary Three-Leaf Core Herbs that Sect Master Hong handed."

"Speaking of Sect Master Hong’s gift," Lin Tian said calmly, walking up to the profound-ice slab, "that is the exact reason I asked the three of you to gather before Qing-er and I enter the seclusion chamber."

Reaching into his spatial ring, Lin Tian took out the jade box bestowed by Sect Master Hong and revealing the pair of lush, emerald-green Three-Leaf Core Condensing Herbs resting on the red silk lining.

Elder Liu frowned slightly, leaning closer to inspect with her spiritual sense. "I swept this box briefly with my sense yesterday," Elder Liu said, her brow creasing. "The herbs are eight hundred years old and brimming with wood-attributed vitality. Even my spiritual inspection shows nothing wrong with the herb."

"Within the central base of the root, a hair-thin thread of foreign ash is fused directly into the plant’s marrow," Lin Tian explained calmly. "Normal spiritual sense reads it as natural sap."

Hearing the solemn certainty in his voice, Elder Liu did not hesitate. She drew a thin needle carved from Profound-Yin Jade from her alchemy pouch, touched it to the inner sap at the very base of the right herb’s stem, and held it beneath a tiny bead of her emerald-gold Verdant Flame.

Tssss—!

For the first heartbeat, a remarkably soothing aura emerged. Yet a moment later, where the inner sap touched the dark jade needle under the heat of the Core flame, a tiny, unmistakable ring of dull grey-black ash slowly corroded the smooth surface of the jade!

The temperature inside the Private Earth-Fire Furnace Chamber dropped to freezing. With her Alchemy Talent and decades of experience Elder Liu’s face turned snow-white as she stared at the needle.

"Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash?!" Elder Liu’s voice trembled with cold fury. "Someone injected refined marrow-stagnation ash straight into the living root-vein of an eight-hundred-year Core-Condensing Herb!"

Beside the slab, Instructor Qing and Elder Bai both leaned forward sharply, their expressions turning grim.

"Wait... what was that burst of soothing green mist at the start?" Instructor Qing asked, her hand tightening on the hilt of her sword.

"That is what makes Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash impossible to detect without cutting into the raw root," Elder Liu said, her chest heaving as she pointed a trembling finger at the corroded ring on the needle. "When mixed with a high-grade spirit herb, it acts as a gentle catalyst at first—making a Peak Foundation cultivator’s Qi flow smoothly so their Golden Core condenses without setting off any poison warning! The person taking it would even believe the herb helped them succeed!"

"And once the Golden Core is formed?" Elder Bai asked quietly.

"Once it fuses into the new Golden Core, the ash stays dormant at first and then slowly rots the cultivator’s meridians from the inside out over years," Lin Tian answered coldly. "Only the Blood-Bone Demonic Cult refines Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash by burning corpse-beetles inside human marrow."

Dead silence filled the furnace chamber as Lin Tian’s words echoed off the stone walls. Instructor Qing’s breath caught in her throat, her dark eyes widening in shock.

"The Blood-Bone Demonic Cult?!" Qing whispered, a cold chill running down her spine. "The same demonic cult that ambushed our flying ship and colluded with Elder Mo?! You mean—"

"Hong Xuan may have leaked our ship’s route to the cult," Lin Tian said evenly. "He has also been receiving Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash and demonic supplies through that dead-drop for ten full years, starting three months before the Previous Sect Master died of a sudden ’cultivation deviation’ during his closed-door seclusion."

Elder Liu gripped the edge of the profound-ice slab, her mind racing back over the past decade.

"Ten years of hidden demonic toxins, slowly damaging a cultivator’s meridians..." Elder Liu’s face paled. "Wait! My Pill Toxicity has worsened over the past decade. Qing’s Lethal Fire-Poison has never healed, even with Main Peak elixirs. And those defective recovery pills in the supply halls..."

"We cannot know which supplies were tampered with until we check the sealed records," Elder Bai said. "Every batch of special medicine distributed from the Main Peak is recorded in the Inner Sect Resource Hall’s Restricted Vault. But opening the Elder-tier ledgers without triggering the warning formation requires the joint imprint of several Core Formation Elder Seals.".

"Which is why we do not alert Hong Xuan," Lin Tian said calmly.

"While Lady Yun’s shadow scouts watch from outside the sect, our priority inside the mountain gates is to step into the Core Formation Realm. Hong Xuan gave me the key to the Subterranean Earth-Fire Chamber alongside these poisoned herbs because he expects me to walk into that chamber this morning and fuse his Corpse-Marrow Stagnation Ash into my Golden Core."

Lin Tian looked across at Elder Bai and Instructor Qing.

"Qing-er and I will enter in the Chamber right now and use Nine-Revolution Core Condensing Pills," Lin Tian continued.

"Once both of us in the Core Formation Realm, sect law automatically grants us the rank and Elder position of Inner Sect Elders. With our new Elder position and Madam Shen presiding as Deputy Hall Master of the Inner Sect Resource Hall, we will have everything we need to quietly unseal the Restricted Vault."

Elder Bai rose smoothly from her stone stool, the silver formation disk in her palm gleaming with a crisp azure light.

"When you condense your Golden Core, Hong Xuan’s Peak Core Divine Sense on the Main Peak will inevitably sweep down through the mountain to confirm that his plan is successful," Elder Bai said calmly. "And he certainly does not expect Qing to break through alongside you."

She looked directly into Lin Tian’s eyes.

"Using my spiritual power and the chamber’s Earth-Fire vein, I will anchor thirty-six array flags into the magma and deploy a Tier-4 Mid-Grade. Not only will it completely conceal breakthrough and it will project the exact false resonance of an ash-tainted Early Core back up to the Main Peak."

Shortly after, the heavy bronze outer gates of the Subterranean Earth-Fire Chamber rumbled shut.

While Elder Liu and Qing stood watch to block any wandering deacons, Lin Tian and Elder Bai walked side by side down the glowing red-stone inner gallery surrounding the core sanctum.

Because laying a Tier-4 Mid-Grade Heaven-Sealing Array without alerting required anchoring thirty-six Void-Iron Array Flags directly into the scorching magma seams of the stone walls.

Lin Tian drove each Void-Iron flag three inches into the magma-heated stone with his bare hands—while keeping a steady, gentle sphere of his Primordial Yang Aura wrapped around Elder Bai’s shoulders at all times.

At the thirty-sixth and final array flag beside the inner profound-ice stone doors, Elder Bai formed a rapid hand-seal with her Core essence to lock the Tier-4 formation array. A sudden ripple of Earth-Fire feedback bounced off the stone wall, causing Elder Bai’s footing to sway slightly on the slick volcanic tile.

Before her sleeve could brush the hot wall, Lin Tian’s strong right hand caught her gently by the left forearm and steadied her waist with his other palm, sending a warm thread of pure Primordial Yang along her wrist meridian to dissolve the tremor instantly.

Elder Bai froze for a breath inside his steady grip. Standing less than half a foot from his chest in the dim crimson light, she felt the warm pull and the soothing heat of his palm sinking straight through her sleeve into her bones.

Instead of pulling her arm back immediately as her aloof nature usually dictated, her gaze lingered on his calm eyes.

"The thirty-six Tier-4 illusion and sealing nodes are locked," Elder Bai said softly, a rare, delicate warmth coloring her pale cheeks as she slowly stepped back into place. "Even if Hong Xuan presses his full Peak Core Divine Sense today, he will see only the phantom aura I carved into the outer area."

She looked at him quietly as he opened the doors to the inner sanctum where Instructor Qing was already stepping inside.

"Break through safely, Lin Tian," Elder Bai added in a low voice meant only for him. "Once you step out of that door as a Tier-4 Core Elder... the board will no longer belong to the Main Peak alone."

[Ding! Target 6 (Elder Bai) Obsession Level: 30% → 34% (Soothed by Host’s Grounding Presence & Deepening Trust in Shared Conspiracy)]