Su Xiaobai darted away from the cursed coffin like his life depended on it—because, let's be real, it did.
The creepy pulse of the Immortal Fetus still echoed faintly in his mind, like an annoying heartbeat he couldn't shake off.
But he shoved it aside, focusing on the task at hand. He'd gotten what he came for, and he wasn't about to die over some ancient love drama.
Not today.
The Fate-Deceiving Coffin and the body inside it haunted his thoughts, though.
The temptation to toss both into his rings nagged at him—stick the body in the Cauldron Ring, the coffin in his spatial ring, easy-peasy, right?
But then reality hit him, and it hit hard.
"What if yanking the body wakes her up?" Su Xiaobai muttered, his face scrunching in pure horror at the thought. "What if it triggers some fucked-up ancient curse? Or worse, what if that Immortal Fetus decides to throw a tantrum?"
The coffin was trouble. It screamed 'touch me and die,' and Su Xiaobai had no desire to end up on the wrong side of history like Tian Yu, the idiot who set up this deathtrap in the first place.
No. Screw that.
He already had the qi from the spiritual pond and the Frostwhisper Lotus sitting pretty in his ring, humming with power.
Why the hell would he risk his life for a corpse and a fetus? Stabilizing his cultivation was a much smarter, and more importantly, survivable plan.
Su Xiaobai sighed heavily, finding a nice, quiet spot in the cave's far reaches. He plopped down into the lotus position, crossing his legs like he was about to have a peaceful meditation session instead of trying not to die.
Pulling out the Frostwhisper Lotus, he held it in his hands. The instant he touched it, the cold seeped into his meridians, like someone poured ice water straight into his soul.
But instead of panicking, he let it flow. It was weirdly comforting, like sticking your head in the snow after running through a battlefield of fiery chaos.
"This is gonna stabilize my spirit and cultivation," Su Xiaobai muttered to himself, feeling the chill work its way through his body. The frost qi flowed in perfect harmony with his own, cooling the wild energies from the spiritual pond. It sharpened his mind, silencing the chaotic noise that had been buzzing ever since his encounter with that cursed coffin.
"Yeah, this is it." He breathed deeply, letting the frigid energy swirl through his core. The qi settled into place, soothing every ragged edge in his dantian. He smiled, a small, satisfied smirk. "Once I'm done with this lotus, I'll use the qi from the pond to break through. No backlash. Smooth sailing."
But as his mind began to relax, some annoying stray thought wormed its way in. 'Did she know I'd end up using this lotus?'
Elder Bai's lazy yet fierce expression flashed through his memory. That woman. Su Xiaobai couldn't shake the feeling she'd known more than she let on.
She'd given him the Frostwhisper Lotus, almost like she knew it would be exactly what he needed at this moment.
Could she have planned it?
"Ha! No way," he snorted, shaking his head. Elder Bai might be a genius, but she can't be farsighted enough for something like that.
She was more likely already dead.
But... what if?
Su Xiaobai shook the thought away. No time to get sentimental.
What mattered now was surviving this cursed cave and getting the hell out of here.
He closed his eyes, allowing the cold energy from the Frostwhisper Lotus to saturate his spirit, freezing any remaining chaos inside him. His breathing slowed, steadying as his mind drifted deeper into cultivation.
The cave was deathly silent, save for the occasional gust of the Silent Winds brushing against the stone. There was a heavy, suffocating feeling in the air, like death itself was lurking just out of sight, waiting for him to slip up. This place wasn't just haunted—it was cursed with the regrets of every poor fool who had stumbled in and never walked out.
"The last chamber was designed to kill anyone who entered it," Su Xiaobai whispered grimly. "No one was ever meant to survive."
Tian Yu, the bastard Emperor who created all of this, made damn sure that once you crossed into the final chamber, you were a goner.
The Immortal Fetus, the Soul Refining Array, the coffin—it was all a well-constructed deathtrap designed to lure in cultivators, strip them of their lives, and feed their souls into some creepy fetus project.
Su Xiaobai's grip on the lotus tightened, and he let out a long breath. "He wanted everyone to die so their souls could fuel that damn thing....."
The cold energy of the Frostwhisper Lotus wrapped around his soul, solidifying his spirit.
As he circulated the qi through his meridians, he could feel the balance within him begin to take hold. The erratic spikes in power from the spiritual pond's qi began to settle, forming into a steady, rhythmic pulse. It wouldn't be long before he broke through.
He had gained much from this place already. The qi from the spiritual pond had been more than he could've hoped for, and the Frostwhisper Lotus would stabilize his core, preventing any backlash from the sudden surge of power.
But as for the cursed coffin and the Immortat freky Fetus?
Su Xiaobai's lips twisted into a faint smirk, tinged with grim amusement. He'd come too far to get wrapped up in some ancient, tragic love story. He wasn't some fool ready to die for a promise made by a long-dead Emperor.
"Let the world deal with whatever calamity that thing becomes," he muttered, eyes still closed. "I've got my own plans."
In the back of his mind, though, there was a nagging thought—the knowledge that one day, he might return here.
He had left the coffin untouched for now, but if there ever came a time when he was powerful enough to face the dangers within, he wouldn't hesitate to take what was rightfully his.
But for now, Su Xiaobai's focus was on the present.
He took a deep breath, the icy Frostwhisper Lotus held firmly in his hands.
Its cold qi started to seep into his skin, a frigid wave cascading through his meridians like a river of frozen starlight. The cave around him seemed to dim, the blue glow of the Immortal Fetus fading into the background as he focused inward.
His world shrank to the sensation of frost spreading through his body, numbing everything except his mind, which remained sharp, like a blade honed against the chill.
The Frostwhisper Lotus was more than just a rare treasure—it was a tool of consolidation, meant to stabilize his cultivation. As the frost coursed through his meridians, Su Xiaobai could feel his spiritual energy aligning, becoming more precise, more controlled.
The wild surges of qi he had gathered from the spiritual pond finally began to settle, forming smooth, steady currents within his dantian.
Whooosh!
His breath escaped in a visible cloud, the cold qi now resonating with his core. His mind began to slip into a state of quiet calm, and for the first time since entering the cave, the oppressive presence of death and shadows seemed distant.
As if the icy lotus was creating a barrier, numbing him to the eerie whispers of the void around him.
His senses dulled, but this was exactly what he needed. This numbing effect allowed him to turn his focus inward, to the deeper, more subtle movements of his own qi.
And now, it was time to enhance his abilities in the Void's Step, the technique he had only scratched the surface of so far.
"Let's start by suppressing Void Qi..." he murmured to himself, recalling the fundamentals of the similar techniques from his memory and mimicking it to match the void.
The dao of emptiness was an art of erasure—of becoming nothing, of dissolving one's presence until even the most sensitive spiritual senses could not detect a trace.
And the Frostwhisper Lotus, with its cold, stabilizing properties, would help him consolidate his foundation and step deeper into the void.
He took another breath, drawing in the icy qi from the lotus as he entered the first phase of the technique.