Chapter 150 - The Underground Chamber and the Calamity-Magnet
Chapter 150: Chapter 150 - The Underground Chamber and the Calamity-Magnet
The group searched several more chambers.
One room looked like an infirmary.
Rows of stone beds lined the walls, though most had cracked or collapsed. Rusted metal frames and broken jade trays lay scattered across the floor. Several skeletons remained on the beds, some still covered by decayed cloth.
The group became quiet when they saw them.
Another chamber contained weapons.
That discovery excited everyone for exactly three breaths.
Then the first spear shaft crumbled.
Then a sword snapped when lifted.
Then a bowstring dissolved before anyone touched it.
The entire room became a lesson in disappointment.
One young cultivator stared at a rusted blade that had broken into three pieces.
"Could this still be refined?"
Chen Feng looked at it.
"Into regret, perhaps."
This time, a few people failed to hold back their laughter.
Even the young cultivator smiled bitterly.
Most of the weapons were too low in grade to survive the passage of time. The few better ones had lost their spirituality completely.
Still, Su Bai recorded the room.
Even ruined weapons could reveal what kind of people had once used this hall.
Finally, the group reached the rear section of the structure.
There, behind a collapsed screen wall, they found a descending corridor.
Formation lines ran along both sides of the stairway.
Unlike the dim lines in the hall, these pulsed faintly with red and pale light.
Su Bai’s eyes narrowed slightly.
This ruined hall was not only a shelter.
It had an underground section.
And judging from the direction of the formation lines, that underground section was connected to the cracked altar outside.
Qiao Wen looked down the stairs.
His voice became tense.
"Brother Su... this seems to lead below the altar where we saw the cocoons."
The others fell silent.
They had all realized it too.
The greenhouse had made them happy.
The alchemy hall had made them greedy.
The infirmary had made them quiet.
But this corridor made them cautious again.
Su Bai looked at the formation lines.
"The underground area may contain the formation root connected to the altar."
The smiles on the young cultivators’ faces slowly faded.
Chen Feng’s hand rested on his sword hilt.
"Are we going down?"
Su Bai looked at the group.
"You can stay here if you want."
No one answered.
Staying in a mysterious hall with unconscious cultivators, a whispering altar outside, and unknown things below was not necessarily safer.
Moving together was better.
Su Bai said, "Prepare your pills and talismans. Check your lotus barriers. No one speaks unless necessary."
The group obeyed.
Jade bottles were checked.
Talismans were held.
Weapons were raised.
Su Bai stood at the front.
Chen Feng moved beside him.
Zhao Heng took the rear.
Mu Qing and Qiao Wen stayed in the middle with the others.
They descended.
The stairway was long.
The deeper they went, the colder the air became.
The formation lines along the walls pulsed softly.
The corridor ended at a stone door.
The door was not sealed.
It stood slightly open.
Red mist leaked through the crack like breath from a sleeping beast.
It was heavy enough that everyone’s lotus barriers began to react again.
Hiss.
Hiss.
Hiss.
The group’s expressions changed.
"There’s miasma inside..."
No one moved for a moment.
Su Bai stepped forward.
He placed his hand against the door and pushed.
The door opened easily.
But the moment it opened, dense Ashen-Blood Miasma surged outward.
It was not mist anymore.
It was almost liquid.
Red-black fog rolled toward them in a heavy wave.
Everyone’s lotus barriers screamed.
The white light around their bodies dimmed visibly.
Su Bai’s eyes sharpened.
"Back off."
His voice was calm, but it carried command.
The group retreated immediately.
Several people nearly stumbled over the stairs behind them.
The miasma was too dense.
The moment it touched their lotus barriers, the pill energy burned away at a frightening speed. If they stayed there for even a little longer, the barriers might collapse.
But what shocked them even more was that Su Bai stepped forward instead.
The dense Ashen-Blood Miasma struck him head-on.
"Brother Su!"
"Do not!"
A few cultivators moved toward him by instinct.
Then they froze in place.
Su Bai’s voice came from inside the red-black fog.
"Do not come. I am fine."
Fine?
The word sounded extremely unreasonable.
The miasma in front of them looked as if it could peel flesh from bone and scrape the soul clean.
But Su Bai’s voice remained steady.
At that moment, his hand moved.
From his system inventory, he drew out the Petrified Calamity-Magnet.
The instant it appeared, the surrounding miasma changed.
Within twenty feet, the Ashen-Blood Miasma twisted violently.
The red-black fog that had been surging toward the corridor suddenly stopped spreading.
Then it turned.
All of it turned.
Like countless starving snakes finding one source of heat, the miasma rushed toward Su Bai.
Even the fog that had almost invaded the upper corridor was forcibly pulled back.
It clung to his robes, his skin, and his mask.
His robes began to thin at once.
His exposed skin tingled sharply, then started to sizzle.
Su Bai stepped fully into the underground chamber.
But he did not forget to warn the others.
"Do not enter. I will contain the miasma."
The group froze.
No one knew what to say.
Everything had happened too quickly.
The door opened.
The miasma surged.
Their barriers nearly collapsed.
Then Su Bai stepped into the danger alone and pulled the miasma onto himself.
For a moment, all they could see was his back disappearing into red-black fog.
A few cultivators’ eyes reddened.
They had always been thinking of treasures.
Yet Su Bai had been thinking of how to prevent the miasma from invading the hall.
He had not even hesitated.
The miasma here was far denser than outside.
Even their lotus barriers could barely withstand it.
But Su Bai was using himself to contain it.
Qiao Wen clenched his fist and punched the stone wall beside him.
A dull sound echoed through the corridor.
His eyes were red.
Once again, he felt powerless.
Mu Qing covered her mouth with both hands.
Tears gathered in her eyes before she realized it.
Zhao Heng’s jaw tightened.
The other cultivators lowered their heads.
Even Chen Feng closed his eyes for a moment.
His expression was complicated.
He had seen many cultivators fight for advantage even inside Myriad Swords Sect.
He had seen people retreat when danger came.
He had seen allies hesitate.
But Su Bai had moved forward before anyone else understood what was happening.
Chen Feng opened his eyes again.
His hand tightened around his sword hilt.
"If Brother Su comes back safely," one young cultivator said hoarsely, "I will remember this debt for the rest of my life."
Another nodded.
"I as well."
Qiao Wen stared into the red-black fog.
"If Brother Su returns safely, Blue River Pavilion will not forget this."
Chen Feng snorted softly.
This time, there was no mockery in it.
"Let him return safely first."
No one heard Su Bai’s answer.
Because inside the underground chamber, Su Bai was extremely busy.
Busy being delighted.
The red-black miasma spiraled toward him from every direction.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet pulled everything within twenty feet into his body.
The chamber floor gradually cleared wherever he stood.
It was violent.
It was dangerous.
It was exactly the kind of disaster any normal cultivator should avoid even in dreams.
Su Bai’s eyes, however, were bright.
This was the perfect place to use the magnet.
The miasma outside had been thick.
But scattered.
Here, the Ashen-Blood Miasma was dense, deep, and trapped within the underground chamber. The magnet could pull it without worrying that it would spread into every direction.
As long as he stood here, the corridor behind him remained safe.
The only downside was his clothing.
His robes had finally met an opponent they could not overcome.
The outer layer vanished first.
Then the sleeves.
Then the hem.
Then the remaining fabric began to fail at an alarming speed.
Su Bai looked down.
His expression stiffened slightly behind the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask.
This was troublesome.
At this rate, his robes might die with more dignity than some cultivators.
But there was nothing he could do about it for now.
His skin was sizzling.
Red-black mist tried to eat through his flesh, Qi, and spirit.
Then his Reversal Body twisted the damage.
The corrosion reversed.
His Macro-Taiji circulation activated.
The damaged skin healed almost as soon as it was harmed.
The repeated cycle of corrosion and recovery hammered his body like a brutal tempering method.
His meridians loosened.
His bones hummed faintly.
His spirit trembled once, then steadied.
The cold, heavy force poured into him with every breath.
Su Bai sat down cross-legged.
Since the miasma had already gathered around him, standing there dramatically was wasteful.
Cultivation was more important.
The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method began circulating.
Void State.
Sun State.
The two forces moved within him like two extremes pulling against each other, then harmonizing under the Macro-Taiji circulation.
The Ashen-Blood Miasma entered.
Corrosion became nourishment.
Pressure became tempering.
Spiritual scraping became polishing.
The dense miasma that should have destroyed his flesh instead became a whetstone.
His body cultivation rose steadily.
His Qi became heavier.
His spirit became clearer.
Even the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask helped every breath become smoother and colder, filtering the inhalation just enough for him to pull more without losing control.
Su Bai almost sighed.
The miasma near the outpost had felt like harsh medicinal rain.
The miasma near the altar had felt like a storm.
This underground chamber was a flood.
A very generous flood.
If only his robes could endure it, the experience would have been nearly perfect.
...
Outside the chamber, the group waited in silence.
The red-black fog continued rushing inward.
The corridor gradually cleared.
The lotus barriers around everyone stopped screaming.
A young cultivator stared at the fog being pulled away.
"Brother Su is still alive, right?"
No one answered immediately.
Qiao Wen’s expression changed.
"Do not say such unlucky things."
The young cultivator immediately shut his mouth.
Mu Qing stared into the underground chamber.
"He said he is fine."
Chen Feng looked at the spiraling miasma.
"That depends on what he calls fine."
Everyone fell silent.
After traveling with Su Bai for only a short time, they had already realized something.
Brother Su’s understanding of "fine" might not match ordinary people’s understanding.
...
Inside the chamber, Su Bai continued cultivating.
The Petrified Calamity-Magnet grew heavier in his palm.
The miasma pulled toward him became denser, then more orderly.
His body absorbed and reversed part of it.
The rest was drawn along his flesh and bones.
The underground chamber slowly became visible.
Shapes appeared.
The miasma had thinned enough to reveal the structure beneath.