Su Kang was going towards the Qingyun sect. Qingyun sect is just 100 kilometers away from Qingyun city. As he passed towards the market, he suddenly got a mysterious feeling.
He stopped in his tracks and started looking around with his spiritual consciousness.
He is searching for the source of that mysterious feeling. His soul is reacting right now to this familiar yet unknown feeling.
A subtle pull, a resonant hum deep within his soul, guided him through the bustling streets. He followed the invisible thread of energy, his senses heightened, until he emerged into a vibrant marketplace. Stalls overflowed with a kaleidoscope of treasures—gleaming jade talismans, ancient scrolls bound in faded silk, vials filled with shimmering elixirs.
The air buzzed with the energy of countless cultivators, their voices a symphony of bartering and spirited debate. This monthly trade fair, a sanctioned haven for casual cultivators, thrummed with an energy Su Kang had never experienced firsthand.
The Qingyun Sect, in its aloof wisdom, allowed these gatherings to flourish, a controlled chaos at the fringes of their ordered world. For Su Kang, it was a first. A first taste of a world he had only known through Su Kang's memories before.
Across the crowded square, a glint of gold caught his eye. A middle-aged man, his face creased with a satisfied smile, held the object aloft, turning it over in his hands. Su Kang's breath hitched.
His blood ran cold. Time seemed to warp, the bustling marketplace fading into a muted hum as his gaze locked onto the triangular shard of golden metal. It pulsed with a faint inner light, resonating with the strange energy that had drawn him here.
His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the sudden stillness within him. He fought to maintain a neutral expression, his cultivated composure barely masking the shock that rippled through him. It couldn't be…
The middle-aged man is observing a golden-colored metallic object. Looking at that object, it feels like a broken fragment of a spiritual artifact.
That object is shaped triangularly.
By looking at this fragment and its edges, we can guess that the original artifact was a rectangular or square-shaped plate.
There are some inexplicable but intricate carvings on that fragment. It feels mysterious just by glancing at it.
This is the same object that he got on Earth and in his previous life.
On Earth, he was not able to look at this object properly, but he saw 2 inches of it. This carving is exactly similar to his memory.
Soon he saw a shopkeeper and a middle-aged man observing him.
He smiled and said, "I want this."
pointing his finger at the object.
Su Kang was not in any mood to entertain them. He was shocked to see this object appear here instead of appearing in the secret realm.
The shopkeeper is nervous to see Su Kang. Meanwhile, a middle-aged man is alert. They can see his status by his sect robe. That man said, "I have already bought this."
The shopkeeper was silent about this. The transaction was done, and he had already sold that fragment. He is hesitating whether he will offend Su Kang now.
When Su Kang heard this, he started releasing his pressure. A middle-aged man was panicked to see this.
He thought this young man had extraordinary status in the Qingyun sect, and he was already giving proper respect to him, but it turned out that young man is a Core formation expert.
This young man is already a top expert in the Qingyun region.
He was lamenting his fate. If a core/pill formation expert is interested in this treasure fragment, then its value is a lot greater than he thought.
The shopkeeper was standing there and looking at them. He didn't feel any pressure. Su Kang was controlling and focusing his spiritual pressure on the man; that's why nobody around them felt anything weird.
He is using force to do this, but compared to wasting time searching for this artifact, losing some face is a much better choice.
Su Kang bought that mysterious fragment from the man. He paid the man a hundred thousand spiritual stones.
That man bought that fragment for fifty thousand spiritual stones, but now he suddenly got twice the amount.
Su Kang saw a blue space ring on his left index finger.
He remembered something and changed his direction to the Su family.
...
Su Kang is deep in thought about this whole situation. After returning to family, he came to his room.
In his previous timeline this fragment was found by Su Kang inside a secret realm.
Near this fragment was a dead body of a foundation building cultivator with a broken blue-colored space ring in the index finger of his left hand.
Su Kang was sure that the dead person was the same middle-aged man whom he met today.
He most likely ended up going into that secret realm way before him and died there.
That secret realm was recently discovered at that time. When Su Kang went inside, it was already 2 months since it was discovered. Many people were already gone into that realm.
He took out the fragment and started looking for any clue. But the fragment is not showing any sign. If not for his connection and throbbing in his soul, even he would not have expected to have such mysterious, powerful abilities.
Even with his consciousness, he is not able to find anything odd about this.
"I should probably use my blood," he thought. But he is slightly afraid of this method.
He hesitated a little bit and then decided to do it.
He put the fragment on the table and cut his finger. He is ready to run away as his blood drops will be in the air.
He decided to stay away as his blood will be falling down on the fragment.
He dropped his blood and ran away towards the gate of the room.
As his blood was dropped on the fragment, it reacted soon.
It is emitting golden light, and some unknown runes were appearing and disappearing on its surface.
The fragment is vibrating, and that mysterious throbbing in his soul has gotten stronger.
Su Kang is alert and ready to take any action if he senses any danger.
Soon everything became normal.
The lights and runes were gone, and the artifact was on the table, back to its previous state.
Su Kang did not drop his guard and again use his blood. He did not go near the fragment but used his power to carry the blood, and then he dropped his blood again.
This time he dropped more blood.
Soon the same reaction came from the fragment. Then it calmed down.
Su Kang once again is ready to drop blood on the fragment.
"You are wasting your destiny by doing this."
Su Kang heard this sentence out of nowhere. He suddenly became alert and looked around extremely fast. But no one was around him.
He looked towards the table and thought something.
His facial expression shifted to shock and horror.
He had already used his spiritual consciousness to pry into the fragment, but he did not find anything.
Now there is someone talking from that same fragment.
"It must be someone whose cultivation is many stages higher than mine," Su Kang thought.
Su Kang asked again for the confirmation, "Who said that? Who is speaking?".
"I am speaking to you."
Again that voice sounded. This time more clearly compared to before. This voice is giving a feeling that someone is speaking with metallic vocal cords.
This is an extremely horrible and unpleasant sound.
"It was my power that allowed you to see your most probable future and ending."
That unpleasant voice said that.
After hearing this, Su Kang was stunned.
"Allowed me to see the future... not travelling back to the past," Su Kang murmured to himself.
He asked, "But senior, why did you do this?"
That voice replied,
"To compensate you for killing you, I was gathering enough energy to leave that previous world, but I was lacking a little more energy."
"I went to sleep because that world was losing its spiritual energy."
"It was my primary instinct that absorbed your destiny; I didn't do it consciously. After absorbing your destiny, that missing energy was enough to open space cracks for me."
"Absorbing destiny... Can show future events... What type of cultivation techniques can give you such powers?" Su Kang thought to himself.
"So it was senior who brought me into this world," Su Kang confirmed his theory and got some answers.
But he is still confused about many things like voice of the mysterious cultivator is very different from others.
He said, "Senior, you can come out of the fragment. Let this junior express his sincerity for your kindness in showing to me."
But the next words made him petrified, and his mind went blank for a few seconds.
"I am already before you. Such formalities are unnecessary." The voice, cold and resonant, emanated not from some hidden entity, but from the fragment itself.
Each word vibrated with a metallic timbre, a dissonant echo that sent shivers down Su Kang's spine. The golden shard, seemingly inanimate moments before, now pulsed with an unnerving sentience.