Chapter 250 - Immortal Ashes and the Final Cleansing
The silence left behind by the Immortals did not last for long.
The ancient formation lines covering the altar continued to dim. Their light faded section by section now that the spirituality sustaining them had disappeared. Su Bai watched several inscriptions go dark before a deep cracking sound suddenly echoed through the altar.
His gaze immediately lifted.
A fracture had appeared across the chest of one of the enormous petrified Immortals.
More followed.
The cracks spread rapidly across its body, branching over the stone-like flesh until the colossal figure could no longer hold together. What had endured for countless years began collapsing without resistance, enormous pieces breaking apart only to crumble into fine ash before they struck the altar.
The same thing happened to the others.
One after another, the petrified Immortal bodies disintegrated.
Su Bai remained where he was as a gray cloud rolled across the altar. There was no blood or remaining vitality within those bodies anymore. Whatever had once made them Immortals had been consumed long ago to maintain the seal, and with their lingering souls finally gone, even the shells they left behind had reached their end.
He watched the ashes settle and let out a quiet sigh.
’Immortality really is a scam.’
Reach the highest realm, live for countless years, and somehow there was still no guarantee that one would avoid being turned into part of a formation.
Su Bai was still considering whether immortality needed a better reputation when the ancient weapons embedded in the seal suddenly reacted.
Light erupted from them all at once.
His attention immediately shifted.
The enormous weapons had once been large enough to pierce through the sealed creatures and pin their Root Organs in place. As the surrounding formations collapsed, however, the inscriptions covering the weapons awakened one final time.
Their massive forms began shrinking.
A sword that had towered like a stone pillar contracted rapidly, while several other sealing weapons decreased in size until they were no larger than weapons an ordinary cultivator could carry.
Su Bai waited until their fluctuations settled before approaching.
He picked up the nearest one carefully.
Even after shrinking, the weapon felt extraordinarily heavy. Its surface was covered in ancient damage, but the material itself had survived countless years of corrosion and prolonged contact with creatures that even Immortals had been unable to destroy directly.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened slightly.
Whatever else these weapons had once been, the materials alone were priceless.
They had pierced Root Organs.
They had endured the Ashen-Blood Miasma essence.
They had remained functional inside an Immortal sealing formation for an absurd amount of time.
Even if some could no longer be restored as weapons, Su Bai could think of many reasons not to leave them behind.
He stored them one after another.
Only after confirming that none remained on the altar did Su Bai turn toward the mountains of ash left by the Immortals.
There was something else he had been promised.
His spiritual sense swept through the gray piles.
A moment later, Su Bai smiled.
Several rings lay quietly among the ashes.
Their surfaces differed from one another, but none had been damaged when the Immortal bodies collapsed. Even after countless years, faint and extremely complicated restrictions remained hidden within each one.
Su Bai collected them carefully.
The Immortals had already given everything to him, so there was no reason to pretend modesty now.
He chose one ring and cautiously sent a thread of spiritual sense toward it.
The result immediately erased some of his good mood.
Layer after layer of restrictions blocked him.
Su Bai studied them for several moments before withdrawing his spiritual sense.
He had expected something difficult, but an Immortal’s storage ring was apparently determined to preserve its dignity even after its owner had reincarnated.
Forcing his way inside would be foolish.
These restrictions had survived for countless years, and if he damaged the internal spatial structure while breaking them, everything stored inside could disappear together with the ring.
Su Bai stared at it for another moment before putting it away.
There was no need to rush.
The rings were already his.
Whatever treasures had waited inside for countless years could wait a little longer while he studied the restrictions properly.
His attention shifted toward something he could actually inspect.
Su Bai took out one of the jade slips the Immortals had completed before leaving.
A thin strand of spiritual sense entered it.
His expression changed almost immediately.
The inheritance inside was far more orderly than he had expected.
Memories and explanations had been carefully separated. Important concepts were arranged from simple to difficult, while cultivation insights that could easily confuse someone without the proper foundation were accompanied by warnings and explanations.
Even traces of the Immortal’s Intent remained within the jade slip, allowing Su Bai to understand not only the words but part of the reasoning behind them.
He continued reading for a short while before withdrawing his spiritual sense.
A satisfied smile appeared on his face.
His decision had been correct.
If he had simply allowed the Immortals to pour everything directly into his consciousness, there was no telling how they would have arranged it. They might have assumed that something obvious to an Immortal was equally obvious to him.
Preparing an inheritance for their own future reincarnations was different.
They had been careful.
The jade slip had been organized as though its creator expected the next person reading it to be young, inexperienced, and completely unfamiliar with many of the concepts inside.
Which, considering who it was ultimately meant for, made perfect sense.
Su Bai returned the jade slip to storage.
He would inspect every inheritance properly later.
Before giving anything back to the Immortals’ reincarnations, he naturally intended to understand what he was handing over. Finding them was already uncertain enough. Blindly returning something capable of ruining their new foundations would be even more ridiculous.
Of course, all of that depended on meeting them again.
Su Bai raised his head.
The artifact spirits had remained unusually quiet throughout the Immortals’ departure. Only now did some of the tension surrounding them finally ease.
The ancient saber floated closer.
"So what are your plans now?"
Su Bai looked around the ruined altar.
Most of the ancient formation lines had already gone dark. The enormous Immortal bodies were gone, the sealing weapons were safely stored, and nothing remained here that required him to stay.
"Leaving."
The saber gave a pleased hum.
Su Bai continued before it could celebrate.
"But not yet."
Before the remaining Boundary Pillars could be removed, Su Bai needed to make sure the corruption accumulated throughout the Sanctuary would not spill into the outside world.
All of it had to disappear.
Su Bai glanced toward the passage leading away from the altar.
The nearest place containing an enormous concentration of Ashen-Blood Miasma was obvious.
The solidified barrier separating Layer Two from Layer Three.
This time, he intended to make sure there was nothing left to cross.
Su Bai started walking.
As he left the altar behind, his attention briefly turned inward.
The nine Root Seeds remained dormant inside his Gateway Dantians.
Creating them had cost the Crystalline Tree Spirit Root an enormous amount of Qi. Even now, the emptiness left by that consumption had not completely disappeared.
The familiar hunger had been unbearable.
Su Bai pressed a hand against his stomach.
His body wanted energy.
Fortunately, the Fallen-Star Sanctuary still contained more than enough.
By the time he reached the edge of Layer Three, the familiar dark-red obstruction filled his vision.
Su Bai stopped in front of it, then he took out the Petrified Calamity-Magnet.
The old object rested heavily in his palm.
His lips slowly curved upward.
The surrounding Ashen-Blood Miasma trembled.
Dark-red currents peeled away from it and surged toward Su Bai in enormous streams, drawn by the Petrified Calamity-Magnet before pouring into his body.
The Immortals had asked him to remove everything before reopening the Sanctuary.
Su Bai intended to do exactly that.
After more than seven months trapped inside this place, he was finally cleaning the road home.
And fortunately for him, the cleanup happened to be edible.