'One day,...'
Su Xiaobai vowed silently, a flicker of past-life villainy sneaking into his grin.
'One day, I'll surpass even you. And when I do… well, maybe I'll show you a few techniques myself.'
For now, though, her indifference was his golden ticket. With Elder Bai preoccupied by her 'noble' disciples, Su Xiaobai could fade into the background, focusing on something far more intimate—a breakthrough that had been holding its way to the surface since he'd absorbed the 'thick', potent yin qi from the demon beast corpses he'd left strewn across the dark corridor.
Settling into a cross-legged position, Su Xiaobai closed his eyes, shutting out the noise of his surroundings. The unrefined yin qi churned within him, cold and insistent, like the whisper of old, buried secrets echoing in his veins.
'Not yet' he thought, coaxing it into line.
He forced the qi through his meridians, each pulse tearing into him like frozen shards, pain that sharpened to a blade's edge.
And yet, he drank it in.
This wasn't about comfort—it was about power.
"Not enough," he muttered to himself, his lips twisting into a hungry smirk.
Harder. Take me to the peak or break me.
Bit by bit, he tempered the wild yin qi, refining it until it became True Qi, the threads of energy pooling within his dantian. There, his elemental seed pulsed like a smoldering ember, a nexus of potential he'd been feeding ever since he'd reached the Late Qi Condensation stage.
But to claim the peak, he'd need far more.
Pouring the refined True Qi into his nexus, Su Xiaobai pushed it to the breaking point. His dantian shuddered, swelling and stretching to contain the power as it hungrily devoured the energy he fed it, until it seemed he could push no more.
KACHA—
A hour later, a sharp crack sounded from within him, as though his very core was tearing itself apart, but in that instant, the nexus shattered and reformed, the fragments weaving into a new, pulsing constellation—a radiant map of stars rooted deep within his dantian, burning with fresh power.
With a slow, wicked grin, he opened his eyes and raised a hand, calling forth a gust of wind that spiraled around his fingers, lightning crackling alongside it.
The strength felt electric, hot as sin and sharp enough to cut through stone.
'So this is the true peak of the Qi Condensation Realm,' he whispered, the satisfaction thrumming through him like the heady afterglow of a lover's touch.
Across the lake, the Xiantian sect disciples floundered, each locked in combat with their own shadow, exhausted and running on fumes. His gaze sharpened on Xiao Yu, forced into desperate hand-to-hand combat, his qi reduced to the dregs.
'Poor rooster,' Su Xiaobai smiling wryly, 'he's got all the bluster of a dragon, yet flails like a fish out of water.'
"Did he figure it out?" Across the lake, as Su Xiaobai studied the still pond with a calculating look, Elder Bai cast him a glance, her cool detachment momentarily giving way to a flicker of surprise.
Cultivators typically took time to consolidate their foundation after a breakthrough—but this one? No, he was already up, eyes narrowed, probing his surroundings as if his breakthrough had only sharpened his instincts.
She watched him closely. He seemed focused on her disciples, scrutinizing them with an almost suspicious intensity.
'Did he really uncover the flaw in the formation already?' she wondered, 'What sort of devilish intuition does he have?'
The cave, she knew, was no ordinary tomb but a series of trials, each chamber sealed with a unique array. Her disciples had triggered the formation in the first chamber, setting off a chain reaction.
The door had slammed shut behind them, the ceiling collapsing as if punishing their reckless entry.
And then the true danger had activated: the dreaded Hellgate Array. The formation had summoned wave upon wave of demonic beasts, and while her disciples had cowered, she'd stepped in, swiftly dispatching the horde.
But some of the beasts had slipped past—and it seemed Su Xiaobai had been unlucky enough to encounter those survivors, mistaking them as part of his own trial.
In truth, Su Xiaobai had followed the correct path. However, thanks to her disciples' carelessness, the remaining beasts from the array had flooded his corridor. And here he was, somehow surviving despite the odds, observing this chamber like he knew its secrets.
Elder Bai's gaze softened as she considered the pond. She knew it was no ordinary body of water; spiritual energy pulsed beneath its serene surface. This was a spiritual pond, and somewhere at its depths lay a hidden formation producing the shadow puppets that plagued her disciples.
If I'm correct, this is following a pattern—an inheritance trial, she thought, piecing together the clues. From the layered formations through each chamber, it was becoming clear: this wasn't just a treasure cave.
This was a tomb of a powerful cultivator of the past, one who had left behind an inheritance meant to test and refine the worthy.
As her disciples floundered, Elder Bai's attention remained on Su Xiaobai. This chamber was array-driven, and she knew every array had its weakness.
She was curious, wondering if this 'rogue cultivator'—who seemed so at odds with her disciples and yet strangely adept—had already sensed it.
"He's moving already..."
Elder Bai's eyes narrowed as Su Xiaobai strode boldly to the lake's edge, exuding a quiet arrogance that made her disciples shift uneasily. His eyes gleamed with a sharp, knowing glint, a faint smirk suggesting he already knew the outcome.
"Watch closely," he called.
SWOOSH!
The moment his foot grazed the lake's surface, the water rippled violently, and dark qi surged upward, coalescing into a twisted reflection of himself—a shadow puppet with hollow eyes that gazed back mockingly.
Su Xiaobai didn't hesitate. In an instant, a surge of qi erupted from him, lightning sparking from his fingertips with a fierce crackle, wind swirling at his feet, flames flickering around him like a storm given flesh.
The disciples froze, eyes widening in shock. "Is he… using everything at once?" Xiao Yu muttered.
"Madness," Fatty Zhou stammered, struggling to fend off his own shadow puppet as it lunged at him.
Unfazed, Su Xiaobai drove a bolt of lightning into his shadow's chest—CRACK!—sending it staggering back, smoke curling from the charred mark.
BAM!
His fist encircled in flames as he struck his shadow, sending it skidding across the lake's surface in a searing trail of steam.
Lan Meiyu gasped, momentarily distracted and taking a blow from her own shadow.
Su Xiaobai's smiled, he raised his hand, summoning a vortex of fire and wind that spiraled forward, tearing across the lake.
His shadow wavered, struggling to match his qi, but it couldn't keep up.
BOOM!
The cyclone struck, shattering the puppets into trails of steam that drifted across the water.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
A stunned silence fell over the chamber as the disciples stared, disbelieving. Just moments before, they'd dismissed him as some drifter, barely worth a second glance. Now, he tore through a trial that had pushed each of them to their limits.
"Who… is this guy?" Liu Zhenhai whispered as Su Xiaobai stepped onto the altar.
The altar, carved from ancient stone, glowed faintly with veins of light pulsing like a heartbeat. The air filled with the scent of damp stone and old qi, as though the chamber itself was alive.
Su Xiaobai ran his fingers over the intricate carvings, his eyes narrowing with a rare focus. Among the markings, he spotted it—a large, silver key nestled into the stone.
Without a second thought, he slipped it into his spatial ring.
Only then did he grip the altar's lever, his smirk shifting into a look of satisfaction.
THUD!
The grinding of stone echoed as a massive door on the far side of the lake creaked open, revealing a dark passage stretching into the unknown.
Whoosh!
Without a glance back, Su Xiaobai strode through, disappearing into the shadows.
"Wait!" Wang Fei's voice broke the silence, panic flashing across his face as he turned to Elder Bai. "He'll take all the treasures!"
Elder Bai's gaze flicked toward him, her voice cool and sharp. "If you want them, then keep up. Only strength will earn you rewards here."
"..."
"..."
Her words left no room for any arguments, and the disciples fell silent, realizing they were each on their own.
Watching the lake's rippling surface, Elder Bai found herself recalling Su Xiaobai's precise, brutal strikes. She had seen powerful cultivators before, but his control over the formation's weaknesses had been exact—striking just as the puppet's qi dipped, exploiting each brief pause with uncanny timing.
"Did he sense the formation's nature?" she murmured, a trace of surprise in her eyes. "Or is he simply touched by fortune?"
The array was a basic spiritual pond by ancient standards, yet had accumulated energy over centuries to animate the puppets. Each puppet cycled through bursts of strength with a split-second rest between, nearly undetectable. Su Xiaobai had seized that opening, something most wouldn't catch without knowing the array intimately.
Elder Bai's gaze stayed on the door where he had disappeared, her expression thoughtful.
She'd dismissed him initially, thinking him too weak for these trials.
But here he was...
—or was it instinct?
"Well," she murmured, a faint smile flickering across her lips. "Let's see just how far this one's devil's luck carries him."
The disciples exchanged glances, frustration rose beneath the surface as they prepared to continue.