Cold energy crept along the dark basalt walls of the cultivation chamber, tracing the stone like frozen spiderwebs. Inside, the air was cool and still, sealed off by a heavy stone gate and basic defensive arrays that Elder Xuan had personally established.
At the center of the room, Su Ming sat in absolute silence on a worn straw meditation mat, his breath forming thin, white plumes in the chilled air. Resting before him on the jade table were the final two resources from their expedition: the Nether Ember Pearl and the Death Seed.
He tapped the Nether Ember Pearl with a trace of qi. A thick, freezing mist rolled off the dark violet sphere, pooling on the table like heavy water. Under Essence Sight, it resolved into coiling dark energy threads.
'This pearl contains a distinct, decaying weight,' Su Ming analyzed, tracing the coiling flows.
'The Bone Serpent in Blackwind Canyon was a middle rank beast of earth element, far too weak to condense a pearl of this quality. It must have nested near the Withered Valley's natural death formation. Over decades, its respiration drew in that residual energy, forcing it to bind with its body—a natural mutation of life and death.'
Next was the Death Seed. A quiet, diamond-like crystal, it did not hum or emit mist, but silently absorbed ambient warmth and stray qi, converting it into concentrated death qi.
'In cultivation, death and stillness are the ultimate forms of Yin,' Su Ming realized, tracing the conversion. 'This seed is a clean conversion engine. In wild marshes, Yin herbs grow in feral environments contaminated by swamp gas and beast blood. If I use this Death Seed as a blueprint, I can build an array to convert ambient spiritual energy into clean, unpolluted Yin qi.'
He looked at the dark soil packages Elder Liu had given him for his seed garden project.
'If I establish this clean Yin qi source on White Lotus Peak, the growth of Yin herbs in my garden will be unmatched. Frost-property herbs are simpler, but true Yin herbs are rare and valuable. I could even cultivate an artificial Yin seed using this crystal as a reference, creating a perpetual spring of pure Yin energy.'
To a normal cultivator, death qi was a core-corrupting poison. But to Su Ming, who held the Twilight Nether Lantern and practiced the Nether Flame Art, it was simply another form of Qi.
Invoking the lantern's guidance, he closed his eyes. The white brilliance illuminated the core structures of both items. He did not absorb the raw death qi directly, which would invite physical corruption. Instead, using the lantern's resonance, he drew only the pure, structural insights of Yin and Death into his mind.
Yin was the extreme of shadow and cold; Death was the stillness of ended movement. Where Yin gathered, Death settled.
A deep comprehension bloomed in his dantian. The crimson flames of his core shifted, a portion condensing into a heavy violet shade. The Nether Flame Art began to flow with a viscous density, like cold liquid metal—a quiet, structural reinforcement of his foundation that anchored the cold-fire path firmer into his core.
***
Having consolidated his flame, Su Ming opened his eyes. Frost had thickened on the walls, but his refined qi easily kept the chill at bay.
He retrieved the first volume of the Nine Desolation Sword Technique from Lin Fan's spatial ring. The booklet smelled of dry dust and iron. He flipped to the first page: 'First Desolation: Desolate Earth.'
Under Essence Sight, the diagrams projected a phantom figure executing a heavy, downward strike that withered the earth. It seemed a masterwork of destruction, but Su Ming's brow furrowed as he tracked the flow lines.
'This is wrong,' he noted. 'The technique does not draw power from natural laws. At the transition point, the qi does not loop back to the dantian. Instead, it pulls a thread of the user's marrow and life force, consuming it to catalyze the decay. It is a siphon.'
He turned to the second page: 'Second Desolation: Evaporated Sea.' The diagrams showed sweeping, corrosive loops designed to target the opponent's blood and moisture, boiling their meridians from the inside out. Yet, the same hidden siphon was present. The swift, boiling acceleration of the sword qi required the user to burn their own blood essence to maintain the path.
He turned to the third page: 'Third Desolation: Stifled Wind.' It was a technique designed to arrest all air movement in a localized area, creating an absolute vacuum that allowed for an impossibly fast, frictionless thrust. But to silence the wind, the cultivator's own lungs and thoracic qi had to act as the vacuum's anchor, absorbing the compressed recoil of the air.
'A terrifying manual,' Su Ming thought. 'It offers immense power to fight above one's realm, but it is a poison. Without a special constitution or a heaven-defying cheat, anyone practicing this will wither their foundations within ten years.'
This was Lin Fan's path, paved with cheats that bypassed such "minor" inconveniences.
Su Ming spent hours analyzing the structures. He did not copy the path—it was incompatible with his Cloud Chasing style, which focused on coiling ascension rather than entropic decay.
Since he only had Volume 1, direct practice would be a dead end anyway.
Instead, he extracted the principles of qi acceleration and spatial compression, studying how to suppress footwork and desiccate defenses. The concepts were valuable, even if the future potential of direct application seemed close to zero.
***
Su Ming stood up, drawing his standard iron practice sword. The blade was cold, catching the dim light of the chamber's glowing stones. He stepped into the center of the room and began to move. He did not practice the Nine Desolation technique. Instead, he executed the opening moves of his Tenth Perfection Cloud Chasing Sword Technique. The sword moved in slow, coiling arcs, tracing the rising fog.
*Cloud Step Slash.*
His footwork was light, his body shifting seamlessly as he tested a new way to thread his qi. He attempted to integrate the acceleration principles he had extracted from the Desolation manual—not by burning his life force, but by using the natural coiling curves of the Cloud Chasing form to build kinetic pressure.
Drifting Cloud Thrust.
The blade shot forward, the air before the tip whistling sharply as it briefly compressed. Su Ming adjusted his wrist, testing a second approach that used the vacuum-creation concepts of the Stifled Wind stance to reduce air resistance. The blade moved faster, but he immediately felt a sharp, cold sting in his wrist meridians. He stopped, returning the sword to his side.
'The backlash is too direct,' Su Ming realized, rubbing his wrist. 'The Cloud Chasing style is built on flow and redirection. Trying to force the desolation principle directly into the coiling path is like trying to force dry sand through a water pipe. It creates friction, grinding against the meridians. If I want to use these insights, I cannot simply graft them onto a common style. I need to synthesize something new.'
He sat back down on the stone table, his mind turning over the structural limits of what he had observed. Studying the Nine Desolation manual—even as a three-page fragment—had given him a rare, unfiltered look at the architecture of a high-level inheritance.
'A true Saint Realm technique is defined by two pillars,' he mused. 'First, Law Integration—it must directly draw on a real fragment of the world's laws, not an approximation. Second, Domain Potential—at its peak, it must have the potential to project a Sword Domain that suppresses and overrides all opposing elements in the surrounding space.'
He looked down at his hands, then at his practice blade. A cold, uncomfortable clarity settled into his mind.
'I don't have a single genuine Saint Rank technique.'
The Cloud Chasing Sword Technique was a masterpiece of footwork and flow, but it was still a Mortal Realm technique designed for Foundation level disciples. He had pushed it to its absolute limits, achieving Tenth Perfection, but it remained a mortal-grade tool. His core cultivation, the Refined Crimson Flame Mantra, was similarly a high mortal-grade to low mystic-grade method.
To reach the peak of Core Formation and cross the threshold into the Mystic Realm, he could not rely on these basic ladders. He needed something that integrated higher laws. He needed a technique that could bridge this gap.
Looking at the frost-covered basalt cave, Su Ming swept his hand across the jade table, returning the Nether Ember Pearl, the Death Seed, and the manual to his spatial ring.
The idea of a Yin Seed was planted in his mind. The insights of Desolation were recorded. The coordinates of the secret realm were memorized. He had the raw materials.
Now, he needed the library.
He would visit the Scripture Hall. It was time to find some useful techniques and earn more contribution points.