Chapter 127 - The Young Geniuses and the Great Fissure Stone
Chapter 127: Chapter 127 - The Young Geniuses and the Great Fissure Stone
The banquet resumed.
After Yue Cangyu’s words, the atmosphere inside Azure Hall changed again.
The elders still spoke carefully among themselves, but the younger generation gradually began moving.
Some exchanged names. Some clearly wanted friendship. Some only wanted information.
But no matter the reason, the banquet finally became what Yue Cangyu had intended.
A place where the younger generation could at least remember each other’s faces before entering danger.
At the Radiant Sky Sect and Tang Clan table, the older generation also seemed to understand this.
Li Xuanzong placed down his cup and stood.
Tang Yuyan glanced at him.
Lu Canghai also stood, though his gaze remained on Su Bai for half a breath longer.
"Let the young speak among themselves," Li Xuanzong said calmly.
Tang Yuyan nodded.
"That is what the banquet is for."
Lu Canghai smiled.
"Then we old people should not disturb them."
Tang Yuyan looked at him.
"You are finally aware that you disturb people?"
Lu Canghai laughed.
"Only people I care about."
Tang Yuyan’s eyes turned cold.
Lu Canghai immediately looked toward the corner of the hall.
"Old friends are calling. I shall go drink."
The older cultivators soon moved away.
Li Xuanzong, Tang Yuyan, Lu Canghai, Zhuge Wenqing, and several other elders gathered near one corner of the hall where spiritual wine had been prepared.
From the way the old monsters’ eyes brightened slightly, it was obvious that the wine there was not ordinary.
The younger generation was left at the tables.
For a moment, the atmosphere became strangely free.
Then someone approached first.
Zhuge Jing.
He did not go directly to Su Bai. Instead, he first cupped his hands toward the elders who had not yet gone far, then greeted the younger disciples at the table one by one.
"Brother Su. Miss Tang. Miss Tang Sisi. Fellow Daoists of Tang Clan and Radiant Sky Sect."
His etiquette was flawless.
Zhuge Jing smiled and looked at Su Bai.
"Brother Su, may I ask something?"
Su Bai looked at him.
"If it is not too difficult to answer."
Zhuge Jing’s fan opened with a soft sound.
"Were you possibly the Radiant Sky disciple who recently broke through to the Golden Core Realm?"
The surrounding conversations seemed to slow.
Su Bai sighed inwardly.
He knew Zhuge Jing would notice that detail.
Li Xuanzong’s public explanation had only mentioned that one disciple reached Golden Core Realm. Among the Radiant Sky disciples present, Su Bai was the most suspicious.
Su Bai did not deny it.
He nodded.
"Yes."
Zhuge Jing’s eyes narrowed into thin arcs behind his feather fan.
There was no shock on his face.
Only deep interest.
Su Bai looked at him calmly.
For some reason, he could not understand how this person’s mind worked.
Zhuge Jing looked like someone smiling politely while dismantling a formation in his head.
"Then congratulations, Brother Su," Zhuge Jing said.
"Thank you."
"A Golden Core breakthrough capable of drawing heavenly blessing is rare."
"Perhaps heaven was generous."
"Perhaps," Zhuge Jing said with a smile.
The word sounded harmless.
It also sounded like he did not believe it.
Before the conversation could deepen, more young cultivators approached.
Most of them had not attended the gathering at Thousand Fragrance Pavilion earlier, so this was their first chance to meet the Radiant Sky Sect disciples.
Some greeted Su Bai.
Some greeted Ji Ruyue.
Some greeted Han Yuelin.
Some greeted Tang Ziyan.
Then several of them very naturally changed direction.
Su Bai noticed something.
Many male disciples avoided Tang Ziyan.
They were polite. They bowed. They greeted her.
Then they maintained a very safe distance.
Su Bai glanced at her.
"Why are they avoiding you?"
Tang Ziyan stared at him with a deadpan expression.
"They learned."
Su Bai almost laughed.
That answer explained everything.
He then noticed that many disciples also avoided Ji Ruyue.
The difference was that the male disciples avoided her with caution, while several female disciples looked at her with quiet admiration.
Ji Ruyue sat there calmly, like a snow lotus no one dared touch.
When a female disciple from a smaller sect came over to ask about sword movement, Ji Ruyue actually answered.
The answer was short. The female disciple’s eyes brightened anyway.
As for Liu Meng, her situation was different.
Several male disciples clearly found her gentle and approachable.
Her smile was vibrant, her speech was polite, and her alchemist identity made her even more appealing before the Fallen-Star Sanctuary opening.
One after another, people came to speak to her.
Liu Meng accepted their greetings politely. But when someone invited her to visit another table, she smiled and declined.
"Thank you, but I still have matters to discuss with Senior Brother Su."
Then she turned back to Su Bai naturally.
The rejected disciples could only smile stiffly and retreat.
Su Bai nodded at her.
Just then, an unpleasant feeling approached.
Su Bai’s brows moved slightly. He covered his nose.
To ordinary people, the aura was probably soothing.
To him, it felt like someone had placed freshly polished holy jade directly against his face.
Bai Zhi of the Glass-Lotus Holy See was walking toward their side.
Her white lotus robes glowed faintly beneath the lantern light. Her expression was soft and tranquil. Several young male disciples nearby stared at her as if a goddess had descended into the banquet hall.
Only Su Bai wanted to retreat.
The holy aura was too uncomfortable.
Bai Zhi’s gaze landed on Su Bai.
She seemed to want to approach.
Several male disciples immediately moved toward her first.
"Holy Maiden Bai."
"Miss Bai Zhi, I have long admired the Glass-Lotus Holy See."
"May I ask about purification methods against Ashen-Blood Miasma?"
Their enthusiasm created a human wall.
For the first time that night, Su Bai silently appreciated them.
He stood.
"Let us walk a little and digest."
Tang Ziyan looked at his empty plate.
"You did not eat."
Su Bai’s expression did not change.
"Then I will digest the atmosphere."
Tang Ziyan stared at him.
Liu Meng stood immediately.
"I will go with Senior Brother Su."
Tang Sisi smiled and rose as well.
"A walk sounds good."
Zhuge Jing, who had been observing the entire exchange, smiled slightly.
"Brother Su truly has unique habits."
Su Bai cupped his hands.
"Brother Zhuge overpraises me."
Then he left before Bai Zhi could reach him.
Bai Zhi noticed.
Her steps paused slightly.
She looked past the disciples surrounding her, her gaze falling on Su Bai’s back.
The faint glass-like halo around her became softer.
"He is avoiding me," she murmured.
A young disciple near her immediately said, "Holy Maiden Bai must be mistaken. Who would avoid you?"
Bai Zhi did not answer.
Her eyes remained on Su Bai.
Zhuge Jing also watched Su Bai leave.
His fan slowly closed.
Zhuge Jing’s eyes narrowed slightly.
A hypothesis began forming in his mind. A very unreasonable one.
Unfortunately, unreasonable things around Su Bai had a habit of becoming useful clues.
Zhuge Jing was not the only one watching.
At another table, Lin Weiyang’s bronze mechanism turned quietly near her shoulder.
Her eyes followed Su Bai’s movement.
Step length. Weight distribution. Reaction delay. Breath rhythm. Shoulder tension. Qi leakage.
None.
He moved like someone whose body wasted nothing.
Even when he stood to leave, there was no unnecessary shift of spiritual energy.
Earlier, his needle attack against Yan Lie had carried almost no thermal signature, no obvious aura bloom, and no wasteful pressure release.
Lin Weiyang’s fingers moved slightly.
If such a principle could be integrated into mechanism needles, suppression arrays, or hidden weapon frames...
Her eyes became brighter.
To her, Su Bai no longer looked like a sickly cultivator.
He looked like an unsolved design.
Su Bai walked through the banquet hall with Tang Ziyan, Tang Sisi, and Liu Meng nearby.
Along the way, several young cultivators greeted him.
He gained several new acquaintances.
He also gained several hidden enemies.
That was the strange part.
Some people looked at him with grievance even though he had never offended them.
Some looked as if his existence itself had taken something from them.
Su Bai was silent for a moment.
Then he understood.
He had gained enemies simply by existing.
This was also very cultivation world.
In one corner, Chen Feng’s gaze followed Ji Ruyue.
In another, Yan Lie looked away whenever someone near him mentioned chairs.
Jian Wuchen spoke with Yan Zhaolie in low voices, both wearing polite expressions that did not reach their eyes.
The banquet lights were bright.
The music was gentle.
But beneath the brightness, many small currents were moving.
...
Later that night, when the mingling had grown freer and the elders had begun drinking more openly, Lu Canghai suddenly appeared near Su Bai.
"Disciple."
Su Bai turned.
"Master."
Lu Canghai’s expression was still relaxed, but his eyes had become more serious.
"Come."
Su Bai excused himself from the others and followed Lu Canghai to a quieter side of the hall.
Lu Canghai stopped beside a blue jade pillar.
Then he took out a small object.
It looked like an ordinary gray stone. If thrown onto a mountain path, no one would pick it up twice.
But the moment Su Bai looked at it, something in him stirred. As if something inside him had raised its head.
Lu Canghai noticed his expression.
"This was given by Yue Cangyu."
Su Bai looked at the stone.
"What is it, Master?"
Lu Canghai lowered his voice.
"He called it the Petrified Calamity-Magnet."
Su Bai’s gaze sharpened slightly.
Lu Canghai continued, "Yue Cangyu said he pulled it from the edge of the Great Fissure decades ago. It is not useful to most cultivators. In fact, to most people, holding it is the same as courting death."
"What does it do?"
Lu Canghai looked at him.
"If a person holds it, any poison, curse, miasma, plague Qi, rot Qi, or similar calamity force within twenty feet will violently tear itself away from its source and plunge directly into the holder’s body."
Su Bai fell silent.
For most cultivators, that was not a treasure. That was a death invitation.
If someone held it inside Fallen-Star Sanctuary, the Ashen-Blood Miasma nearby might rush into them like hungry wolves.
But to Su Bai...
His first thought was simple.
Was this not perfect?
Lu Canghai saw his expression and immediately narrowed his eyes.
"Do not look so pleased."
Su Bai looked away.
"This disciple was only evaluating its function."
Lu Canghai sighed.
Then he leaned closer and whispered, "There is more."
Su Bai looked back at him.
"The City Lord said the stone felt similar to you."
Su Bai froze.
Lu Canghai’s voice became lower.
"Not your aura. You do not leak enough aura for that. He said it felt like something with the same origin as part of you."
The sounds of the banquet seemed to fade slightly.
Su Bai looked at the gray stone again.
Same origin.
His fingers slowly curled.
Lu Canghai did not immediately hand the stone over.
"Yue Cangyu is perceptive in strange matters. He has guarded Azure-Jade City for centuries. He has seen many things pulled from places that should have stayed buried."
Su Bai was silent.
His body continued to react to the stone.
Lu Canghai said, "He told me to give it to you only if I judged that you could hold it without dying."
Su Bai looked at his master.
Lu Canghai’s expression became serious.
"Disciple, this thing is not a toy. If it truly attracts calamity forces, then inside the Fallen-Star Sanctuary, it may pull the Ashen-Blood Miasma straight into you."
Su Bai looked at the stone.
"That may also be useful."
"That sentence is exactly why I am hesitating."
Su Bai fell silent.
Lu Canghai sighed again.
Then he finally placed the stone in Su Bai’s palm.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet was cold.
Su Bai stared at the stone.
Lu Canghai watched him closely.
"What did you feel?"
Su Bai was silent for a long moment.
Then he said softly, "It feels familiar."
Lu Canghai’s eyes narrowed.
Su Bai looked at the dull gray stone in his palm.
A question slowly appeared in his heart.
If this thing came from the Great Fissure...
If it shared something with his other origin...
Then what exactly was that other origin?
A being that could eat poison?
A thing that attracted curses?
A race that fed on rot, plague, and miasma?
Or something worse?