Chapter 215 — The Stone Guardian

My Dao to Eternity

Chapter 215 — The Stone Guardian

The construct had not pursued him beyond its boundary. That alone gave him useful information. Whatever bound it to the clearing enforced that boundary absolutely, without exception or accidental weakness. Its stone body had endured the force of his sword without suffering meaningful damage. Trading blows would gain him nothing. Its recovery also came from the same current that ran beneath its feet. He had felt that current surge when the wall of rock erupted beneath his retreat. The construct's strength and recovery both answered to the same source, and that source passed through a fixed point beneath the clearing's center, close enough to the surface for the construct to draw upon it instantly.

A weapon that drew its recovery from the ground itself might cease healing if that source were disrupted. He considered the possibility carefully rather than accepting it as fact. He did not know whether the current beneath the clearing could be severed or interrupted, or whether the construct's binding extended deeper than a simple dependence on the current. The idea was sound enough to remember. It was not yet sound enough to act upon.

He rested two more days in the hollow before trusting his strength enough to move. He ate sparingly from the provisions in his storage ring and allowed his circulation to settle completely before returning to the forest. When he finally crawled free of the roots on the sixth day, the surrounding forest remained undisturbed. Nothing had searched the hollow while he recovered.

He turned along the forest's edge instead of returning toward the clearing, tracing the current from a wide distance and searching for a branch that might carry him around the guardian's territory. The problem of the clearing remained unresolved, and he stored it for later consideration.

Finding a route around the guardian's clearing took longer than Li Fan expected. He traced the forest's edge for nearly three weeks, keeping a deliberate distance from the boundary he had already tested and mapping the construct's territory through careful passes of his divine sense.

After completing the mapping, he found that the territory formed an almost perfect circle roughly a hundred paces across, centered precisely on the clearing where the stone figure had remained dormant for centuries. The current passed directly through the center, thick and undiminished, with the same strength on both sides of the guardian's territory.

He confirmed the boundary three times before accepting his measurements. Each approach came from a different direction. He marked the edge of the construct's reach with small piles of stone placed at even intervals. The circle remained consistent from every direction, showing that the boundary had been established deliberately.

After several failed attempts, he found a route that allowed him to rejoin the current roughly two miles beyond the clearing. The detour through denser brush added nearly a week to his journey, but it kept him well outside the guardian's territory. A path that cost a week and preserved his life was worth taking.

The forest beyond the guardian's circle changed gradually as he traveled deeper. The trees grew taller and farther apart, while the undergrowth thinned until bare earth appeared beneath his boots, crossed by pale exposed roots. The spiritual density of the air increased with the change in terrain. Each breath carried more spiritual qi than it had a month earlier, and his circulation adjusted gradually to the increased density.

The roots beneath his feet ran in long, straight lines rather than the tangled growth of the lower forest. Each was thick as his forearm and pale enough to catch the weak light beneath the thinning canopy. He crouched once to examine a cluster more closely. They had no bark. Their smooth, bone-colored surfaces yielded slightly beneath his fingers before returning to their original shape.

He noticed the change in the artificial sky before he fully understood its cause. The transition between day and night, which had maintained precise cycles throughout the Realm, began revealing more of the formation structure behind it. Earlier, he had needed to press his divine sense directly against the false moon to perceive the formation script beneath its surface. Here, on a clear evening, faint traces of the same script became visible overhead, thin lines of pale light forming patterns that ordinary sight could not have detected from farther away.

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He stopped on a low rise one evening and observed the entire transition. The artificial sun descended behind the western peaks while the moon rose to replace it. From his position, he could faintly perceive the seams where one layer of formation script handed control to another. The sun's descent formation yielded to the moon's ascent formation with precise synchronization. The two systems were probably controlled by a single governing structure rather than operating independently.

The scale of what he was observing became clearer gradually.

He was not tracing a remnant current toward an ordinary formation node. The waystones, guardian, sunken village's central hall, and artificial sky all displayed coordinated construction. Their functions depended on the same underlying formation principles. Sun, moon, seasons, guardians, and currents were all connected through one system.

He thought of the character he had copied from the library's oldest jade slips, the same mark appearing on the direwolf's hide and the waystones he had followed since the ridge. He still could not read it. He did not know whether it represented a person's name, a sect, a principle, or something absent from every language he had studied. Sitting on the low rise beneath the ascending false moon, he understood that the mark belonged to the construction itself. It appeared across multiple parts of the Realm's system with deliberate consistency.

A cold wind rose from the ridge below, carrying the mineral scent that had accompanied the changing forest. Small stones shifted somewhere beneath the slope, their movement carrying clearly through the night.

He rose after the moon settled into its fixed arc overhead. He checked the current against the terrain ahead and found it running steadily toward a distant break in the trees where the ground descended into darker terrain.

He adjusted the weight of his storage ring and rotated his healed left forearm once. The muscles moved freely without stiffness. He continued forward, watching both the sky and the ground throughout the rest of the night.

On the ninth day beyond the guardian's circular territory, the ground descended into a sunken basin. Li Fan sensed the change in the air before reaching the bottom. A deep green radiance filled the basin, produced by dense wood-attribute qi saturating the surrounding air. Each breath carried a faint sweetness against the back of his throat and strengthened the circulation of his vitality.

At the basin's center stood a bamboo grove unlike any he had encountered across the provinces he had traveled. Dozens of ancient culms rose close together, their surfaces translucent and faintly emerald. Each carried a stable structure that responded to the Realm's formation current rather than merely existing beside it. He counted the visible culms and passed fifty before stopping, certain that more stood beyond the angle of his sight.

He had studied material grading beneath Wei Baishan's old shelves and later through guild-hall texts across many provinces. He recognized the value of the grove. Bamboo of this age would contain dense vitality and powerful structural properties, making it suitable for high-level forging. If his estimate was correct, the material could surpass the value of everything he had gathered since entering the Realm.

A violent crash from the grove interrupted his examination.

The Ancient Jade Ape dropped from the canopy and landed between him and the bamboo. It stood three times the height of a man. Its body reflected the basin's green light, its surface smooth and pale beneath the translucent skin. Centuries of exposure to the grove's concentrated qi had hardened its body until its flesh possessed the density of mineral.

It roared. The sound spread through the grove, shaking the surrounding bamboo. Li Fan's divine sense swept across its body and confirmed Mid-Stage Core Shattering cultivation, approaching the threshold of Infant Formation. Its physical body was extremely dense, and ordinary sword strikes would have difficulty penetrating it.

The ape slammed both fists into the earth. The grove responded immediately. Thick thorn-covered vines erupted from the soil and surged toward Li Fan's legs and torso. The surrounding bamboo bent sharply before releasing hardened, pointed shafts toward him.

Li Fan shifted his footing and moved through the closing vines and bamboo shafts. His body became a green streak before he reappeared twenty feet above the ape's shoulders, his sword already leaving its sheath.

The strike descended in one continuous motion, silver sword light striking the back of the ape's neck.

The impact produced a sharp metallic ring. Silver and green sparks scattered across the basin. A thin mark remained on the jade-dense hide.

The ape's body had resisted the strike completely.