"Master!" Xiao Lu appeared, cheeks flushed and glowing with vitality. "You've reached the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm! Congratulations!"
Su Xiaobai smirked, his gaze briefly drifting to Xiao Lu's waist. "Not bad. Seems you've climbed a little higher up the mountain, but you're still a few steps behind me. Keep going—maybe one day you'll catch up."
She blinked, startled. "How did you know?"
"I'm your master. I know everything," he replied, smiling before muttering under his breath, "And I've been spying on you, so… yeah."
"!"
Xiao Lu froze, her face rapidly reddening as the words sank in. She had recently broken through to the intermediate stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, thanks to Su Xiaobai's generosity in transferring a portion of the spiritual pond water for her to absorb.
B-but...If he could see the Ring World, that meant… everything.
All the times she adjusted her robes, practiced her poses, even that one time she—
She shook her head furiously, trying to banish the thought. But the damage was done, and her embarrassment burned like a furnace.
Meanwhile, Su Xiaobai's attention had already wandered. He rummaged through his spatial ring, his frown deepening.
"Where the hell did all my spiritual water go?" he muttered, irritation mounting.
Xiao Lu's thoughts snapped back to reality. "Master?" she asked hesitantly, sensing his rising frustration.
The spiritual pond—the entire thing—was gone. Su Xiaobai stared at the now-empty space, disbelief etched across his face.
"There's only Xiao Lu and me here," he growled. "How the hell…?"
"Uhh… Master?" Xiao Lu's hesitant voice broke through his thoughts. She pointed behind him, her face pale. "Is that… supposed to happen?"
"What now?" Su Xiaobai turned, still fuming, but the moment his eyes landed on the scene behind him, he froze.
The immortal fetus hovered in the air like a harbinger of doom. Its once-blue glow had turned blood-red, and its aura pulsed with a sinister rhythm, like the heartbeat of a wicked beast.
The remnants of the spiritual pond swirled in a vortex, sucked into the unholy thing. The blood-red aura writhed like a living entity, exuding a hunger that made Su Xiaobai's skin crawl.
"…"
Su Xiaobai's brows twitched violently. 'This thing ate my core-forming chance....?'
Rage bubbled up inside him. "I'll kill—no, no. Nope. Not worth it. This is way above my pay grade."
WHOOSH!
Without a second thought, he grabbed Xiao Lu by the arm and bolted toward the exit.
"Master?! Why are we running?!" Xiao Lu's voice trembled, her confusion evident.
Su Xiaobai's face twisted into a grimace. "Shut your mouth and run! That demon child's about to hatch, and when it does, it'll eat everything in its path—including us!"
Their footsteps thundered through the chamber as Su Xiaobai's mind shook in disbelief. Damn it. Damn it. Why does this kind of crap always happen to me? Did I piss off someone again? Or is this just their idea of entertainment?!
Breaking through to the first chamber, Su Xiaobai didn't slow. With a burst of Qi, he shattered the exit and bolted into the open air, dragging Xiao Lu along. Only when the oppressive aura of the immortal fetus was far behind them did he finally stop, panting heavily.
_______
One week had passed since Su Xiaobai's great escape from the immortal fetus—a term he would never forget, no matter how grand it sounded.
What a ridiculous, nightmarish chapter that was — filled with near-death experiences.
Still, there was no denying the gains: once a lowly no-talent Qi Refinement scrub, Su Xiaobai now stood at the 'peak of Foundation Establishment', his dantian brimming with refined energy so pure it probably qualified as a noble heirloom.
Xiao Lu, his new loyal servant and occasional source of headaches, had also grown stronger—now at the 'intermediate stage of Foundation Establishment', a vast leap from her earlier mediocrity.
And let's not forget the 'Devouring Thorny Flower', an eldritch plant baby that had evolved into a terrifying predator after munching on the corpses from red flame fortress.
It was quite the power boost. Techniques? Countless. Artifacts? Oh, just the Infernal Flames and the Celestial Inscriber, thank you very much. And knowledge? Su Xiaobai had absorbed the minds of not one but two formation masters, giving him enough intellectual firepower to choke an entire sect of nerds.
But here's the thing: it wasn't enough. It would 'never' be enough.
The "Astral Gate Array," a colossal formation that seemed to bridge the heavens and the earth, demanded materials so rare and treasures so precious that no self-respecting sect would ever leave them unattended, let alone lying around.
So, Su Xiaobai wandered towns, gathering scraps of intel from merchants who didn't realize they were selling out their secrets for a few spirit stones.
That's how he found himself in 'Yunan City,' a vibrant place, nestled hundreds of mountains away from the Thousand Beast Forest.
A bustling hive where even the air smelled like desperation. But while the streets were alive with shouting vendors and bartering fools, Su Xiaobai's attention was locked on the distant horizon.
The 'Serpent Wind Mountains' stood far beyond the city, jagged and ancient, their peaks pierced the sky like the fangs of some celestial wyrm, sheathed in swirling mists.
The moment Su Xiaobai saw them, he felt it: ancient qi rolled off those mountains in waves, a dormant presence so suffocating it felt like a judge waiting to see if you were worth sentencing.
It was in Yunan City that Su Xiaobai learned about the 'Xiantian Sect'.
The tenth-ranked sect of Yue Country.
A merchant's words stuck in his mind:
"Yunan City? It's a dog tied to the Xiantian Sect's leash. They control everything—the people, the trade, even the land. Their power runs through the soil itself."
The thought brought a wry smile to his face. "Xiantian Sect, huh? Weren't you the lot Elder Bai belonged to?" Elder Bai, who, along with his disciples, now served as fertilized compost after an unfortunate encounter with Su Xiaobai in a cave.
"Think their vaults are worth the risk?" Su Xiaobai asked casually as he strolled the streets with Xiao Lu.
She took a bite out of a wild apple, the juice staining her crimson lips like spilled wine. "A sect treasury could provide everything you need for the array," she said between bites, her tone so thoughtful.
Su Xiaobai nodded, "You're not wrong. Let's see if their mountains bite."
____
The foothills greeted him with a stiff breeze that nearly tore the hair from his scalp. Spiritual energy in this place wasn't just dense; it was aggressive, crackling through the air like an angry spirit's breath.
Wind serpents appeared almost immediately, their translucent forms darting through the currents. They weren't physical creatures but manifestations of the mountain's ambient qi, their writhing bodies shimmering like mirages on hot sand.
Sizzzzzz!
One serpent lunged at Su Xiaobai. With a casual flick of his sleeve, it disintegrated, scattering like mist. "Is this it?" he muttered, unimpressed. "If this is the best they've got, even a blind rogue cultivator could waltz in and loot the place."
The serpents grew larger as he climbed higher.
Crackle... Crackle...
Some were veined with arcs of lightning, their movements jerky and unnatural.
"Wait — Lightning Essence?" Su Xiaobai murmured, his brows furrowing. "In a mountain dominated by Wind Qi? That doesn't add up."
He paused, narrowing his eyes at one of the larger serpents. Its translucent body twitched weakly, its mouth hanging open in frozen agony.
The other serpents were no better—flickering like dying flames, as if they had been…
"Assaulted," Su Xiaobai muttered. "By what?"
He didn't have time to investigate. A shrill scream pierced the air.
"AHHHHHH!"
Su Xiaobai's ears twitched at the scream ripping through the forest—high-pitched, desperate, and getting closer.
"Oh, for fuck's sake," he muttered, shoving Xiao Lu into the ring world. "If this is another damsel in distress like that fraud Fairy Lian, I'm leaving them to the fate..."
CRACK!
A tree splintered ahead, and a figure burst into view, weaving through the undergrowth like a headless chicken.
Behind them came the boar—no, not a boar, a walking battering ram of muscle and rage. Its tusks gleamed like molten spears, arcs of lightning crawling across their surface, while red eyes burned with the promise of violence.
"Yup," Su Xiaobai said flatly, "that's not my problem."
The fleeing figure didn't seem to agree. "BROTHER, SAVE ME!"
Su Xiaobai squinted. Long black hair? Check. Flowing blue robes? Check. Porcelain face glistening with tears? Aha.
But something was wrong.
Too slender. Too flat.
His eyes dropped, confirming the truth. Flat. As. A. Jade. Plate.
He sighed, disgusted. "That's… not a woman."
The man stumbled toward him, grabbing at his sleeve with trembling hands. Up close, the illusion shattered further—dirt-streaked robes, cracked lips, and desperation pouring off him like cheap wine. "Brother, help me!"
Su Xiaobai raised an eyebrow. "No."
"Please!" The man dodged left, the boar's tusks gouging a trench into the ground behind him. "Spirit crystals, treasures—whatever you want! Just kill this thing!"
Su Xiaobai's gaze drifted to the boar, then back to the man. "Kill it? Nah. I'll just take the crystals off your corpse after it's done."
"WHAT?!"
CRUNCH!
The boar slammed into a tree, splitting it clean in half. It snorted, hooves pounding the earth as it charged again.
"Think of it this way," Su Xiaobai said. "I'm just respecting the food chain. You get skewered, I loot your stuff, the boar eats what's left—everyone wins."