Free Web NovelSu Ming rose from the stone chair. He carefully lifted the Profound Shadow Egg and placed it directly under the beam of light, at the formation core.
The silver beam precisely covered the eggshell.
A wondrous scene unfolded.
The dark-gold veins on the shell shone brilliantly under the starlight.
It was no longer the lifeless shell from before. The golden veins began to pulse rhythmically, inhaling and exhaling, as if a sleeping infant had finally drunk sweet milk.
Su Ming stared at the faintly glowing shell. A weary smile appeared on his face.
“With this, even if the disciple isn’t here, it can keep peacefully absorbing starlight.”
Lin Yu’s divine sense swept over the formation. He hummed in satisfaction.
“Not bad. The formation’s structure is very stable. The conversion rate of starlight is extremely high. And there’s no trace of spiritual energy leakage.”
Lin Yu evaluated briefly.
“This formation, as long as the stars in the sky don’t fall, will hold for at least half a year. If you still haven’t returned after six months, we’ll come up with another plan.”
Su Ming nodded.
With his biggest worry resolved, he could finally prepare to descend the mountain with peace of mind.
He sat cross-legged on the stone bed, swallowed a Qi Recovery Pill, and began to replenish his expended spiritual energy.
A great battle was imminent, every ounce of strength needed to be kept at peak condition. Those who follow the Way of Survival must never set out while tired.
.......
Time flew.
Over the next three days,
Su Ming shut his door and did not leave.
He refined the last batches of ore slag delivered by the Repair Hall.
They became hundreds of water-refined core-steel needles.
He tempered these needles with the venom of Earth Fire Scorpions.
They were hidden in the wide sleeves of his purple robe, his belt, even the edges of his boots.
He also used the mutated spirit herbs cultivated in Clear Stream Valley to brew large amounts of antidote pills and powders that masked scent. He sorted everything into dozens of identical jade bottles.
Never put all your eggs in one basket.
That iron rule had been taught to him by Lin Yu.
......
On the fourth morning,
thick fog rolled outside Gazing Star Cliff.
The rising sun had not yet pierced the heavy clouds. The entire cliff lay in a gray-white stillness.
Su Ming sat in his cave dwelling with his eyes closed in meditation. The liquid spiritual energy of the Like Water Art surged through his meridians like a great river.
Suddenly,
“Zheng—”
The warning formation plate around the dwelling emitted a short, sharp chime.
Someone had triggered the outermost detection formation! frёewebnoѵēl.com
Su Ming’s eyes snapped open. A fierce gleam flashed across his pupils.
He didn’t stand up. Instead, he flicked his fingers.
Seven venom-coated steel needles slid from his sleeve into his palm in an instant.
At the same time, his left hand pressed on the formation master control at the bed’s edge, ready to activate the earth-vein dual-cycle Concealment Formation’s defensive mode at a moment’s notice.
Way of Survival rule: Don’t see the person, first prepare for the worst.
“Don’t panic.”
Lin Yu’s voice sounded inside the Consciousness Sea, unusually grave.
“The visitor’s cultivation… I can’t fully perceive it. But he bears no hostility. He avoided all the killing arrays and deliberately stepped on the outermost warning formation lines. He’s announcing himself.”
Su Ming was slightly startled.
Unable to perceive?
He put the needles away, stood, and smoothed the slightly creased purple robe.
He strode to the stone door of the cave.
He pressed the activation mechanism.
The heavy stone door ground open with a dull friction and slowly rose.
A cold morning breeze mixed with thick fog poured into the cave.
Su Ming stepped out.
His gaze was like lightning, sweeping the formation’s perimeter.
A gray figure stood silently on the bluestone slab of Gazing Star Cliff.
It was a steward wearing the sect’s lowest-grade gray robe.
His face was utterly ordinary, the kind you would never spot in a crowd.
There was no fluctuation of spiritual energy about him.
His aura was reined in to the extreme,
like a stone covered in moss,
perfectly blended with the surrounding fog.
If Su Ming hadn’t seen him with his own eyes, his divine sense might not have locked onto this person’s presence at all.
Terrifying control.
The gray-robed steward saw Su Ming emerge. He did not bow, nor did he show any extra expression.
He walked slowly to the stone table outside the cave.
A dry hand slipped from his sleeve.
With a soft slap,
a dull black storage ring was casually placed on the stone table.
Then, without even glancing at Su Ming, he turned and walked deeper into the fog.
His movements were fluid and unhurried, with not a trace of lingering.
Su Ming stood frozen for a moment. He instinctively took a step forward.
“Sir—”
He opened his mouth to ask.
The gray-robed steward did not look back. His steps did not pause.
A hoarse, emotionless voice drifted from the fog.
“The item has been delivered. Keep it safe.”
Before the words finished, the gray figure had completely merged into the white morning mist.
No trace remained. It was as if he had never appeared.
Su Ming stood where he was, brow furrowed.
He released his divine sense.
He probed five hundred zhang around.
Empty.
The man had truly vanished into thin air.
“Don’t search.” Lin Yu’s tone carried a hint of admiration.
“He’s long gone. That’s real shrinking the distance to inches—miniature teleportation. That gray-robed man is at least late Nascent Soul, possibly with one foot into Spirit Transformation.”
Su Ming sucked in a cold breath.
Late Nascent Soul? Running errands in a gray robe?
“It’s from him.” Lin Yu confirmed.
Aside from Grand Elder Hao Yuan, who else could command such a level of secrecy?
Su Ming approached the stone table.
He didn’t reach for the black storage ring recklessly.
First, he forced out a drop of liquid spiritual energy with his fingertip and hovered it three inches above the ring, carefully sensing for poison or tracking marks.
After confirming it was safe, he cautiously picked up the ring.
The ring felt cold. Its material was neither metal nor wood.
Su Ming drew a deep breath and sent his divine sense into it.
“Boom!”
The moment his divine sense entered the ring space, a roaring sound filled his head.
The ring’s interior space was small, ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
only about a zhang square,
but the contents made Su Ming — a True Disciple who prided himself on having seen much of the world — lose half a beat of his heartbeat.
Spirit stones piled into a small mountain, the spiritual energy dense enough to almost spill over.
Beside the pile lay two palm-sized jade gourds. Su Ming recognized the jade as the sealing spirit jade used to store rare materials.
Next to the gourds was a pale-gold wooden core the size of an adult’s fist.
In a corner sat several bottles of elixirs, a stack of high-grade talismans, and a neatly folded piece of body-soft armor.
Su Ming withdrew his divine sense. The hand holding the ring trembled slightly.
That True Lord’s expenditures were far more lavish than he had imagined.
