Chapter 253 - The Returning Sanctuary and the Waiting Demons
The collapse of the crimson sky did not end quickly.
For several breaths, Su Bai could only watch as the boundary of the Fallen-Star Sanctuary continued breaking apart above him.
Cracks of pale light spread farther across the heavens, widening until the red that had covered this world for countless years began peeling away in enormous sections.
Fresh spiritual energy seeped through first.
Su Bai felt it immediately.
The Qi outside was different from the stagnant atmosphere he had grown accustomed to inside the Sanctuary. Even the wind carried a familiarity he had almost forgotten after being trapped for more than eight months.
The ground shook again.
The ancient ruins surrounding him blurred for an instant as the spatial separation holding the Sanctuary apart from the cultivation world finally gave way.
There was no violent collision.
The two spaces simply began fitting together again.
Mountains that had once existed behind a sealed boundary settled naturally against the distant landscape. The fractured red sky faded into the blue above, while the ancient land beneath Su Bai’s feet became part of the world it had been separated from for countless years.
When the final distortion disappeared, Su Bai stood silently for a moment.
He drew in a long breath.
’Ah! Outside air.’
He had almost forgotten how satisfying something so ordinary could feel.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he slowly exhaled.
He was finally out.
The breath had barely left his mouth when Su Bai’s expression changed.
Something was wrong.
His spiritual sense had already spread outward before he consciously turned around.
Su Bai looked behind him.
Thousands of cultivators were staring back.
He stopped.
The thousands of cultivators stopped as well.
For a strange moment, neither side moved.
Su Bai had imagined this return more than once during the months he had been trapped inside.
His master might have been waiting.
Perhaps Sect Master Li Xuanzong would be there too.
If Lu Canghai had shown up first, Su Bai had even prepared himself for the possibility of being shouted at before receiving anything resembling a proper welcome.
But...
He had not expected several thousand unfamiliar cultivators surrounding the place where the Fallen-Star Sanctuary had just returned.
More importantly, the Qi circulating through them carried unmistakable demonic characteristics.
Su Bai’s faint smile disappeared.
’Demonic cultivators?’
There were too many of them for this to be some wandering group that had happened to pass nearby.
Their formation was organized.
Foundation Establishment cultivators occupied the outer ranks in coordinated groups, while Golden Core cultivators formed the stronger core of the force. Several presences among them were considerably heavier, each belonging to a Nascent Soul cultivator overseeing a different section.
Su Bai’s gaze moved across them.
Something had happened outside while he was away. There was no other reasonable explanation.
Thousands of demonic cultivators did not gather near Azure-Jade City simply because they enjoyed the scenery.
The people opposite him were equally confused.
They had spent weeks watching the boundary of the Fallen-Star Sanctuary grow thinner.
They had expected to see ruins. Perhaps surviving monsters. At best, they had hoped for treasures exposed when the ancient boundary collapsed.
Instead, a pale young man with the appearance of a sickly scholar walked out, and not a trace of cultivation could be sensed from him.
Several demonic cultivators instinctively extended their spiritual senses before the people beside them stopped them.
"Wait."
A Nascent Soul cultivator near the front narrowed his eyes.
"Do not touch him carelessly."
The warning spread quickly.
Nobody with enough experience to reach Golden Core or Nascent Soul was foolish enough to believe the scene in front of them made sense.
A mortal could not have survived inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary.
A mortal certainly could not have appeared at the exact moment the ancient realm returned to the world.
And behind this supposed mortal floated more than a dozen ancient weapons, several of which radiated unmistakable spirituality.
Artifact spirits.
The implications were enough to suppress several impulsive thoughts.
Behind Su Bai, the ancient saber gave a low laugh.
"They think you are harmless."
The hammer’s voice followed.
"No. Some of them are wondering whether he is something they should run from."
The saber paused.
"That is also reasonable."
Su Bai ignored them.
His spiritual sense had already swept across the enemy formation without drawing attention.
After the repeated refinement of his soul, controlling it at this level had become almost instinctive. Thin strands slipped between the demonic cultivators without touching their defenses directly, reading their cultivation and positions while leaving almost no disturbance behind.
That was when Su Bai noticed something interesting.
Not all of these demonic cultivators resembled the crude demon he had encountered before.
Many possessed proper Spirit Roots.
Their Qi circulated through established cultivation methods, their foundations were stable, and their formations showed discipline rather than the chaotic savagery of people who strengthened themselves by swallowing human essence or refining living victims into pills.
Ning Shuang had mentioned cultivators like these before.
True demonic sects.
Their methods could be ruthless, forbidden, or fundamentally opposed to orthodox cultivation, but they were still cultivators with complete inheritances.
That made the situation more troublesome, not less.
These people were organized.
Before Su Bai could study them further, several spiritual senses finally approached him.
The cautious ones did not force their way inside.
They merely circled his body, searching for fluctuations beneath whatever concealment method they assumed he was using.
Su Bai allowed them.
More spiritual senses followed, and when nothing happened, a few became bolder.
One pushed directly into his body, while several others followed until one of them reached toward his Dantian.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he still did not stop them.
The result came almost immediately.
Several groans erupted from the demonic ranks.
One Golden Core cultivator staggered backward and grabbed his forehead. Another paled as blood leaked from his nose, while farther away a man dropped to one knee with both hands pressed against his temples.
Two cultivators simply collapsed.
Confusion spread through the formation.
"What happened?"
"My spiritual sense—"
"Do not probe him!"
The warning came too late for several others.
Su Bai remained standing exactly where he had been.
Inside his foundation, the intruding spiritual senses had encountered something far less defenseless than they expected.
Needle-like spiritual force moved with terrifying precision.
Su Bai’s own spiritual sense reacted alongside it, striking only the foreign strands that had forced their way too deeply inside. The attacks were small, but spiritual sense was directly connected to consciousness.
Damaging the invading portion produced an immediate backlash.
Su Bai watched the injured cultivators with a faintly amused expression.
’You entered on your own.’
He had not even moved.
That realization spread through the demonic cultivators almost as quickly as the injuries themselves.
The atmosphere changed.
Weapons were drawn.
Defensive treasures quietly activated.
The Nascent Soul cultivators who had been watching from behind the formation moved forward rather than allowing their people to act recklessly.
One of them stared at Su Bai for several breaths.
"No cultivation aura. Spiritual sense strong enough to injure Golden Core cultivators without revealing itself. Ancient artifact spirits willingly following him."
Another Nascent Soul cultivator spoke quietly.
"Do not assume his age from his appearance."
The first man’s expression became heavier.
That was when something far greater descended.
Su Bai’s amusement vanished.
A spiritual sense unlike anything around him swept across the region.
The pressure arrived before the sense itself touched him.
Su Bai’s soul tightened instinctively.
The difference was enormous.
This was not Nascent Soul. It was not even close.
The spiritual sense carried a depth and weight that made the thousands of cultivators surrounding him feel insignificant by comparison.
Su Bai knew that realm.
He had encountered things claiming to possess it before.
Void-Shattering.
His expression became serious.
’So this is what a real one feels like.’
The Returnees he had fought were laughable by comparison.
Their bodies and strength had imitated the realm through incomplete means, but the spiritual quality descending upon him now belonged to someone who had genuinely walked to that level.
The difference was not simply greater power.
It was completeness.
The spiritual sense carried an oppressive stability that the Returnees had never possessed.
It swept across Su Bai once, then paused.
The owner had clearly encountered the same problem as everyone else.
There was nothing to sense.
The Void Ring kept Su Bai’s cultivation hidden so thoroughly that even this probing spiritual sense failed to immediately expose his foundation.
That seemed to make the distant expert more interested.
The pressure intensified.
The spiritual sense pushed inward.
Su Bai’s eyes sharpened.
At almost the same moment, another vast spiritual sense arrived from a different direction.
Su Bai recognized it.
His expression changed.
’City Lord Yue?’
The second spiritual sense did not descend upon him.
Instead, it crossed directly against the first.
The pressure surrounding Su Bai immediately weakened.
Far away, beyond the range he would ordinarily have attempted to inspect directly, two immense presences were confronting one another.
Su Bai did not recklessly stretch his spiritual sense toward them.
He did something simpler.
The Void-Shattering cultivator had already created a path by touching his foundation.
Su Bai caught that connection.
His spiritual sense followed the invading strand backward.
Distance unfolded rapidly along the spiritual link.
A battlefield appeared within his perception.
Two figures faced each other several miles away, separated from the larger forces surrounding the Sanctuary.
One carried demonic Qi dense enough to distort the air around him.
Opposite him stood Yue Cangyu.
The City Lord’s attention had already shifted.
The moment Su Bai’s spiritual sense reached the area, Yue Cangyu noticed it.
For the first time since Su Bai had seen him, genuine surprise crossed the older man’s face.
His gaze turned toward the distant Sanctuary.
Several miles separated them.
A Golden Core cultivator’s spiritual sense should never have reached this battlefield so cleanly.
Yue Cangyu stared for a moment.
His surprise slowly became a smile. He gave the faintest nod in Su Bai’s direction.
Su Bai felt something in his chest loosen.
At least one familiar person was still here.
He withdrew his spiritual sense.
There would be time to ask Yue Cangyu what had happened during the past eight months.
First, he had another problem.
The demonic Void-Shattering cultivator’s spiritual sense had not completely withdrawn.
A portion still pressed against Su Bai’s concealment, probing for a weakness.
Su Bai frowned.
The other Golden Core cultivators had learned their lesson after losing pieces of their spiritual senses.
Apparently, higher cultivation did not automatically grant better manners.
He condensed his spiritual sense.
The refined strand narrowed until it became almost needle-thin.
Rather than trying to oppose the enormous spiritual pressure head-on, Su Bai focused entirely on the small portion attempting to invade him.
His Needle Intent Seed stirred.
The flaw was obvious.
The invading sense was powerful, but only a narrow extension of the cultivator’s full consciousness had reached this distance.
Su Bai struck that extension.
A concentrated spiritual needle pierced into it.
At the same instant, the defensive forces within his foundation converged on the foreign strand.
The result was immediate.
The tip of the Void-Shattering spiritual sense distorted.
Su Bai struck again before it could stabilize.
A sharp tearing sensation passed through the connection.
Far away, the demonic cultivator’s expression changed.
The spiritual sense withdrew instantly.
Su Bai did not pursue it.
He was not stupid enough to mistake damaging the distant edge of someone’s spiritual sense for defeating a Void-Shattering cultivator.
If that person stood directly in front of him, the difference in cultivation would still be terrifying.
But the result told Su Bai something else.
His soul had changed far more than he realized.
Several miles away, the demonic Void-Shattering cultivator raised a hand toward his temple.
Yue Cangyu noticed.
A strange expression appeared on the City Lord’s face.
"What happened?"
The demonic cultivator did not answer.
His attention had returned entirely to the young man standing before the Sanctuary.
A mortal-looking youth.
More than a dozen ancient artifact spirits following him.
Spiritual sense capable of damaging cultivators who attempted to inspect him.
And somehow capable of biting back against even a distant Void-Shattering probe.
Whatever that young man was, leaving him alone was no longer an acceptable option.
The demonic cultivator’s voice rolled across the distance.
"Kill him."
The order reached the thousands gathered around Su Bai.
This time, nobody misunderstood it.
The Nascent Soul cultivators moved first.
Formation lines ignited through the demonic ranks as Golden Core cultivators took their assigned positions and Foundation Establishment cultivators withdrew into supporting formations rather than charging blindly.
Su Bai watched them reorganize.
His expression became calm.
Behind him, ancient weapons began humming.
The saber floated forward, its earlier amusement replaced by a sharp killing intent.
"This great one has only just escaped one prison."
The hammer rose beside it.
"I would rather not enter another."
More artifact spirits spread around Su Bai.
Across from them, thousands of demonic cultivators completed their formations.
Su Bai slowly raised his hand.
He had been outside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary for less than a quarter of an hour.
Apparently, the cultivation world had missed him too.