381: Chapter 381 Passive Effect, The Great Dao Returns to One

When that giant Dragon of Evil Qi swooped down, the entire canyon trembled along with it.

The Evil Qi in the ground fissures was stirred up, surging upward, and the blood-colored runes on the cliff walls lit up. That thick, dragon-shaped form carried the full-force Aura of a Middle Stage Undergoing Tribulation expert. With its dragon claws outstretched and blood-red light condensing at the tips, it pressed down toward Su Changge. It gathered speed, and the air pressure at the bottom of the canyon sank at that moment, sinking to such a degree that one's eardrums felt as if they were being squeezed.

Zhao Tian's back was pressed against the cliff wall, his feet planted firmly, but his face was pale and his palms were damp. His Divine Sense swept over that dragon of Evil Qi, and its Aura caused his Divine Soul to instantly recoil. That was not a conscious action on his part; it was the instinctive reaction of his Divine Soul.

"Junior Martial Uncle..." He squeezed these two words out from his throat, unable to force out the rest of the sentence.

Ye Qingyao stood up, her mana already circulating at her fingertips. She did not strike, but the trajectory of that mana was clear and could be deployed at any moment. Her gaze swept along the path of the Evil Qi Dragon; her profile was calm, but something was rapidly churning within her eyes.

Su Changge stood there, motionless.

[It's here, it's here, it's here.]

[This Dragon is about to come down. My body is that of a Mortal, I don't have any protective mana. If this actually hits me...]

[System! Do your job!]

He shouted in his heart, his face unchanging. He stood straight, his gaze fixed on the swooping giant Dragon of Evil Qi, without wavering or shifting.

The Dragon's claws were only three feet away from the top of his head.

Then, that surging Evil Qi stopped the instant it neared Su Changge's body.

It was not dispersed by any external force, nor was it blocked by any Magic Treasure. It was simply that the dense Evil Qi vanished on its own after entering the three-foot radius around him.

It vanished completely and cleanly, without even creating a single ripple.

From Tu Lie's perspective, the scene looked like this: the Evil Qi Dragon form, into which he had poured over a decade of effort, dove headfirst into the area around Su Changge and never came out. The Evil Qi at the Dragon's claws dissipated first, followed by the dragon body's middle section, and then the tail. The Dragon form disintegrated layer by layer starting from the direction closest to Su Changge. The disintegration was not fast, but it was steady. Every bit of vanishing Evil Qi left no residue, just like dropping something into a pool of still water—the object went in, and the surface did not stir a single ripple.

The hand Tu Lie used to control the Evil Qi was yanked by a reverse pull, and a slight vibration emanated from within his Divine Soul. It was not the vibration of being attacked, but rather the result of the power he had injected undergoing some kind of inexplicable dissipation upon touching the barrier around Su Changge, after which that power was simply gone.

His breathing stopped for two breaths at that moment.

His Divine Sense subconsciously probed Su Changge again.

It was still the same.

Unfathomable, Dao returning to one.

No boundaries, no bottom. Probing inside, he could perceive no substance, only a boundless, bottomless depth. He searched his mind for adjectives but found none that were appropriate. That sensation was something he had never encountered in his decades of Cultivating; it could not be accurately described by any vocabulary in his cognitive System. In the end, only one word remained: deep.

He withdrew his Divine Sense and stood there, motionless.

The blood-colored oppressive feeling in the canyon receded by more than half after the Evil Qi Dragon form dissipated.

Zhao Tian slowly straightened his body from the cliff wall. He stared at the direction of Su Changge for a long time. There was nothing in that Void Realm, it was completely clean; the giant Dragon of Evil Qi from just moments ago had left no trace at all.

He moved his mouth, suppressed those words, and did not let them out.

Ye Qingyao slowly withdrew her circulating mana, steady and silent. Her gaze shifted away from that Void Realm and landed on Tu Lie's face, carefully observing the subtle change on it.

Su Changge was still standing there, his back to the others, facing the cliff wall inscribed with blood-patterned runes. He stood for two breaths, then slowly exhaled.

[Thanks, System, thanks for this time.]

[That Evil Qi was absorbed by your passive special effect, absorbed completely clean, to the point that even Tu Lie himself couldn't sense any feedback. The quality of this special effect is much stronger than I thought.]

[But I can't rely entirely on this. What if I encounter someone stronger than a Middle Stage Undergoing Tribulation expert later on... Never mind, I won't think about that for now. Let's get through this current situation first.]

He suppressed this thought in his heart, let no change show on his face, turned around, and walked back to the stone table. He sat down on the chair with steady, unhurried movements, as if that scene just now was not worth any special reaction in his eyes.

Tu Lie's gaze followed him the whole way, not missing a single step.

Su Changge sat down, picked up the cup of wine placed on the table, turned it twice in his hand, and set it down. He raised his head, his gaze landing on Tu Lie's face—calm, without judgment, and without sharp edges. It just landed there, waiting for him to speak first.

Tu Lie was silent for a moment. He sized up Su Changge's posture—the way he had sat down completely disregarding what had just happened—from beginning to end. The arrogance that had fueled him had now dropped by more than a notch.

He took a deep breath, composed his expression, walked two steps toward the stone table, and sat down. When he spoke, his voice was a notch lower, possessing a layer of restraint that he himself might not have even noticed, replacing the thick, commanding tone he was accustomed to using when ordering people around.

"Senior, it was Tu Mou who was rude."

Zhao Tian, standing to the side, turned these few words over in his mind. After reacting for two breaths and confirming he hadn't misheard, he suppressed the words that had almost slipped out and sat up straight.

Tu Lie's fingers rested on the tabletop, motionless, as he watched Su Changge.

"Tu Mou considers that the arrangements within this canyon are not worth mentioning to Senior. That Evil Qi—how did Senior neutralize it?"

Su Changge took the question, paused for two breaths as if considering whether it was worth a special explanation, and gave three words.

"It dissipated naturally."

Tu Lie's knuckles tightened slightly on the tabletop.

It dissipated naturally.

His Evil Qi Dragon form, driven with the full force of a Middle Stage Undergoing Tribulation expert, had dissipated naturally after nearing that person.

He turned those three words over and over in his mind, but could not find a single explanation that fit. In the end, he suppressed his doubt, picked up his wine cup, drank the wine, and set the cup back on the table.

"Since Senior says it dissipated naturally, then it dissipated naturally."

After he finished speaking, the canyon was silent for a moment. The blood-colored oppressive feeling that had permeated the air had now dropped to a relatively mild level. Only the Evil Qi seeping from the ground fissures continued to churn thinly, creeping along the sandy ground; when stepped on, a slight heat could be felt through the soles of one's boots.

Zhao Tian sat at the other end of the stone table, stuffing every detail of this conversation into his mind.

Tu Lie's giant Dragon of Evil Qi, a full-force strike from a Middle Stage Undergoing Tribulation expert, fell upon Junior Martial Uncle and dissipated naturally.

Then Tu Lie said: It dissipated naturally, so it dissipated naturally.

He placed these two sentences together and turned them over in his mind. In the end, only one thought remained:

I don't understand it at all, but it feels very powerful.