Chapter 164: Chapter 164 - The Structures Beneath the Mist
The team continued deeper into the outer region.
The red mist shifted around them.
Sometimes it thinned.
Sometimes it grew thick enough that the lotus barriers around the outer cultivators glowed visibly.
But Su Bai did not hesitate.
He moved as if he had walked this route before.
The memory fragments in his mind overlapped one another.
Then, halfway through a stretch of red mist, he finally noticed something.
His Spatial Return Thread was gone.
Completely gone.
Su Bai’s steps did not pause.
His expression did not change.
But inwardly, he looked at the place where the thread should have been.
Nothing.
It had vanished.
Perhaps it had weakened earlier without him noticing.
Or perhaps the moment he used the Petrified Calamity-Magnet to absorb the mist in the underground chamber, the thread had already dissolved.
Su Bai considered this calmly.
Then accepted it.
To others, losing the Spatial Return Thread would be disastrous.
To him, it was simply inconvenient.
His only concern was outside.
His master might worry.
Su Bai sighed inwardly.
Lu Canghai would probably stare at the vanished thread, laugh once, then terrify half of Azure-Jade City by smiling too calmly.
That was troublesome.
But Su Bai could not fix it now.
He continued forward.
The more memory fragments he organized, the clearer the outer region became.
Around Outer Outpost No. 9, there should have been several surrounding structures. Not all of them were safe houses.
Actually, the outposts had not originally been built as safe zones for young cultivators.
In the oldest memories, there had been no miasma boundary here yet.
Before the red mist reached the outer area, these places had served other purposes.
Supply points.
Signal stations.
Treatment routes.
Storage chambers.
Later, after time buried everything and the miasma spread, the places that contained boundary pillars became safe zones. And current cultivators called them outposts.
Su Bai looked ahead.
This time, their destination was not the outposts.
It was the structures surrounding them.
...
The next few hours became a miracle to the group.
At first, some people still thought Su Bai was only choosing paths with unusually good intuition.
Then he led them through a broken slope, avoided two mist-heavy gullies, walked around what looked like an ordinary dead tree, and stopped before a half-collapsed wall buried under red dust.
Everyone stared at the wall.
Chen Feng frowned.
"This is a wall."
Su Bai nodded.
"Yes."
Chen Feng waited.
Su Bai did not explain.
Lin Weiyang’s mechanisms flew forward.
A few breaths later, she inhaled softly.
"There is a hollow chamber behind it."
Chen Feng felt tired.
The wall was opened carefully.
Inside the chamber, they found sealed stone boxes.
Not many. But most had survived.
When the first box opened, everyone expected pills.
Instead, they saw seeds.
Round, dry, sealed in thin crystal membranes.
A few cultivators looked disappointed.
Then Mu Qing’s expression changed.
"These seeds are still alive."
The disappointment vanished.
Alive ancient seeds were not ordinary.
Lin Weiyang found preserved jade slips in a side cabinet.
After copying and reading part of them, the group finally understood what the place had been.
A seed research room.
The ancient cultivators here had been creating hybrid spiritual seeds that could resist corruption.
Some were meant to grow in thin miasma.
Some were designed to purify small areas of soil.
Some were meant to feed wounded cultivators whose bodies could no longer digest ordinary spiritual grain.
Some had failed.
Some had dangerous notes written beside them.
Tang Ziyan looked at one seed labeled with three warning marks.
"What does this one do?"
Mu Qing read the note.
Then her expression became strange.
"It grows by absorbing corpse Qi and produces bitter fruit that stabilizes meridians."
Tang Ziyan’s eyes moved slightly.
Su Bai looked at her.
She looked back.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"You looked interested."
"I appreciate hardworking plants."
No one knew how to answer that.
The seeds were carefully divided.
Su Bai memorized the research notes.
And soon after, the group moved again.
...
Their lotus barriers suffered whenever the miasma thickened.
But soon, everyone discovered a strange rule.
If the road became more dangerous, Su Bai usually found something valuable afterward.
This was not always true.
Sometimes thicker miasma only meant thicker miasma.
But cultivators were naturally selective when remembering good news.
After the third major gain, someone whispered, "The miasma is getting heavier."
Another whispered back, "Maybe that means treasure."
A third said nervously, "Or death."
The first person thought about it.
"Treasure first, then death?"
"That is not better."
Su Bai heard them and pretended not to.
Their next discovery was not treasure in the usual sense.
It was a circular ruin half-buried beneath broken stone pillars.
At first, it looked empty.
Then Ji Ruyue stopped.
Her eyes moved to one wall.
A sword mark had been carved there.
When she looked at it, frost gathered faintly at her fingertips.
Chen Feng noticed another wall.
His sword trembled slightly.
Lin Weiyang’s mechanisms detected old formation scratches, while Tang Ziyan found several thin marks that resembled needle tracks.
Soon, everyone realized the truth.
This place was a technique comparison ground.
The ancient cultivators had not written full techniques on the walls.
They had etched intent.
Some marks were shallow.
Some were almost gone.
Some still carried faint pressure after countless years.
The whole group fell silent.
Then the silence became heavy with regret.
This was a treasure.
Not one that could be placed in a pouch.
Not one that could be divided with a scale.
But a treasure nonetheless.
A sword cultivator stood before one slash mark with trembling hands.
"If I could stay here for three days..."
A spear cultivator muttered, "Three days? I would stay three months."
Chen Feng stared at the sword marks, his eyes burning.
Even Ji Ruyue looked at the frost patterns for a few breaths longer than usual.
Lin Weiyang nearly pressed her face against a formation scratch before remembering dignity.
Tang Ziyan looked at several carvings and became quiet.
Su Bai also looked around.
Then his forehead warmed faintly.
Dao-Shattering Jade activated.
His mind became clear.
His Photographic Memory sharpened.
Every mark on the walls entered his mind.
From another skeleton memory he had absorbed earlier, Su Bai knew a little about this place.
The ancient cultivators had used it to compare methods effective against the enemy.
Techniques were tested, refined, rejected, and improved here.
The marks on the walls were not ordinary inheritance.
They were combat conclusions.
Methods that had hurt the enemy.
Methods that had failed to hurt the enemy.
Methods that had worked once and then stopped working after adaptation.
Su Bai felt very good.
This kind of place suited him.
Unfortunately, they could not stay in this place for too long.
There were simply too many places left to visit.
After Su Bai memorized everything, he searched the area for more skeletons.
Unfortunately, there were no usable skull runes here.
So he let the others study the carvings for a while longer.
Only after some time did he call out to them again.
"We leave."
Several cultivators looked pained.
A sword cultivator almost looked as if Su Bai had asked him to abandon his future wife.
Chen Feng’s face was stiff.
"Now?"
"Yes."
Chen Feng opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
He looked at the sword marks again.
His fingers tightened around his sword.
Then he turned away.
If he stayed alone, he might gain insight.
He might also die while gaining it.
That was not worth it.
The others followed reluctantly.
No one wanted to leave.
But no one wanted to stay without Su Bai either.
They had already realized something.
Following Brother Su meant finding more things.
Staying behind meant becoming one of the warnings future people failed to understand.
The group left.
No one knew that Su Bai had already memorized everything.
He walked away calmly.
Behind him, several cultivators looked back every few steps, like children being dragged away from a sweet shop.
Tang Ziyan saw Su Bai’s calm expression and narrowed her eyes.
"You gained something."
Su Bai looked ahead.
"You should say that to Sister Lin," Su Bai said calmly. "She recorded everything."
Lin Weiyang coughed, looking as if she had been caught doing something improper.
The others immediately turned to her with pleading eyes.
After a moment, Lin Weiyang had no choice but to say, "I can show it to you later. But recordings cannot preserve intent."
The others still rejoiced.
Even without intent, they could at least familiarize themselves with the techniques and styles.
Su Bai had successfully diverted their attention.
Tang Ziyan still looked at him suspiciously anyway.
...
The next structure washed away everyone’s regret.
It was a shattered storage trench hidden beneath two fallen stone beams.
The entrance was blocked by red dust and old rubble.
Su Bai stopped before it.
This time, Chen Feng did not ask if it was only a wall.
He simply waited.
Lin Weiyang sent mechanisms forward.
Moments later, the rubble shifted.
Cold silver-blue light appeared beneath the dust.
The group held their breath.
More star-metal!
The regret from the technique comparison ground disappeared completely.
A cultivator who had nearly cried earlier now smiled.
"Techniques are good."
Another nodded solemnly.
"But treasures are also good."
A third added, "With enough treasure, one can buy techniques."
Someone else said, "But can you buy ancient intent?"
The group fell silent.
Then looked at the star-metal again.
The silence ended.
Apparently, the answer could wait.
The treasures were collected, checked, and divided.
After the division, someone finally could not hold back.
"Brother Su," a cultivator asked carefully, "how are you always finding these places?"
The group quieted.
Actually, everyone had wanted to ask.
Su Bai had not failed once.
Not every ruin contained treasure, but every place he led them to was special.
This was beyond intuition.
This was not luck.
Even Chen Feng looked at Su Bai.
Lin Weiyang’s eyes were bright with curiosity.
Tang Ziyan waited with faint amusement.
Ji Ruyue remained silent, but her gaze also shifted.
Su Bai thought about it.
Then he settled on an explanation.
"The dead told me."
The group became silent.
Everyone stared at him.
A cold wind seemed to pass through the group.
The dead told him.
They remembered Su Bai sitting before skeletons again and again.
Understanding dawned.
And then immediately went in the wrong direction.
A young cultivator’s eyes widened.
"So that was it..."
Another murmured, "Brother Su’s sincerity reached the fallen seniors?"
"Radiant Sky Sect is truly frightening."
"Their magnanimity can even move the dead."
Qiao Wen looked deeply moved.
"Brother Su must have been listening to their remaining regrets."
Mu Qing nodded softly.
"That is why the dead were willing to guide him."
Su Bai looked at them.
For once, he had told the truth.
Somehow, the misunderstanding still became worse.
He opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Correcting them would require more explanation.
More explanation would create more questions.
So Su Bai silently accepted becoming a compassionate listener of the dead.
Chen Feng frowned.
"Is that really possible?"
Ji Ruyue said calmly, "You have seen many impossible things today."
Chen Feng thought about it.
Then became quiet.
Lin Weiyang looked at Su Bai with even more curiosity.
"Brother Su, can the dead truly point the way?"
Su Bai answered after a pause.
"Sometimes."
The group became even more respectful.
Su Bai gave up.
The treasure hunting had only just begun.
And now, apparently, the dead were part of the team.
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