402: Chapter 402 Drinking Tea and Watching the Show! Su Changge's indifference threw Liu Can's Dao Heart into turmoil.

"You... should not have peered."

These five words did not echo in the underground space.

The space was too vast; the sound simply dissipated as it spread.

But falling upon Liu Can's ears, they felt heavier than any echo.

In that instant, his complexion turned ashen and defeated.

It wasn't because Su Changge's tone was particularly harsh—in fact, Su Changge's tone was very flat, as if he were speaking of something trivial.

But it was precisely this flatness that made Liu Can's heart feel colder than ice.

If Su Changge had been angry, it would mean that his action at least warranted the other's attention.

He was not angry.

He merely said, with casual indifference, "You should not have peered."

This meant that—whether he peered or not—it simply didn't matter in Su Changge's eyes.

Because even if he peered and saw the result, so what?

He saw the "Qi Refining First Layer," and then? What could he do with that information?

He could do nothing.

In the face of the level of Return to Simplicity, the "Qi Refining First Layer" detected by Bone-Eroding Truth-Peering was not a weakness, but proof.

Liu Can swallowed his words.

He bowed his head slightly.

"This old man... was in the wrong."

Su Changge glanced at him and then looked away.

The movement of looking away was crisp and decisive, as if saying, "This matter is already in the past; it is not worth another breath of my time."

As Liu Can stood where he was, a tiny crack appeared in his grey pupils.

It wasn't a crack in his eyeball.

It was a crack in his Dao Heart.

He had lived for six hundred years, Cultivating to the Late Stage of Undergoing Tribulation, and was only a step away from Mahayana. His Dao Heart was as solid as cast iron; no person or event should have been able to shake him.

Su Changge didn't need to shake it.

He only needed to exist.

His existence itself was a nail, driven into the coffin lid of Liu Can's perception that "he himself was a top-tier powerhouse."

Su Changge turned around and walked toward the edge of the rift.

From his Storage Pouch—actually, he pulled it from the System space—he took out a cushion, laid it on the stone slab at the edge of the rift, and sat down cross-legged.

Then he produced a teapot from his robes.

It was Ye Qingyao's.

When they had rested in the rock hollow last night, Ye Qingyao had brewed tea. Su Changge had casually set the teapot aside afterward and hadn't returned it.

He took it out now.

He poured himself a cup of tea.

He lifted it.

He took a sip.

The effect of this scene as it played out in the underground space—

In the core area of an ancient Seal, at the physical location of the Nine-Lock Dragon Suppressing Array, at a moment when everyone was tense and facing a formidable enemy—

Su Changge sat at the edge of the rift, drinking tea.

Tu Lie watched this scene, his mouth twitching.

He wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't come.

Halberd Demon Elder watched this scene, his grip on his cane tightening and then loosening.

The White-Robed Old Woman and her Disciples looked at each other in bewilderment.

Liu Can—

Looking at the back of Su Changge sitting there drinking tea, Liu Can felt an emotion called "insignificance" for the first time in six hundred years.

It wasn't an insignificance brought about by a difference in cultivation.

It was a difference in mindset.

He was facing a mortal threat.

Su Changge was drinking tea.

His Dao Heart had cracked.

Su Changge was drinking tea.

He had peered at the other's cultivation, sacrificed three hundred years of his lifespan, and obtained a result that left him terrified for a full fifteen minutes.

Su Changge was drinking tea.

Liu Can moved his gaze away from Su Changge.

He didn't dare look anymore.

If he kept looking, his Dao Heart wouldn't just crack; it would shatter.

Ye Qingyao walked over to Su Changge, stood by his side for a moment, and then sat down.

She still sat very close. There was less than two inches between their shoulders.

Su Changge, holding her teapot, was about to pour another cup.

Ye Qingyao reached out and took the teapot from him.

She poured a cup for him.

Then she poured one for herself.

The two of them sat at the edge of the ancient Seal's rift, drinking tea.

Ye Qingyao held her teacup and spoke via voice transmission.

"Revered Master used your Disciple's teapot."

Su Changge was momentarily stunned in his mind.

[Right, this is her teapot. I forgot to return it.]

He sent a voice transmission back.

"Yes, I forgot to return it."

Ye Qingyao looked down at the surface of the tea in her cup and transmitted.

"There is no need to return it."

Su Changge didn't respond.

Ye Qingyao sent another message.

"If Revered Master likes this tea, your Disciple has more."

Su Changge mentally parsed the meaning behind these words.

[Is she being polite? Or is she...]

He didn't think too deeply on it.

He replied via transmission.

"The tea is good."

Ye Qingyao held her teacup, her finger gently stroking the rim.

The corners of her mouth curved up in a tiny arc.

The time it took to drink a cup of tea passed.

Su Changge sat at the edge of the rift, drank three cups of tea, and then set the cup down.

He began to get down to business.

Because he was about to do something in front of everyone—assess the state of the Seal.

This was the core reason he had been invited.

He closed his eyes and let his consciousness sink into the Great Dao Scripture Pavilion.

Xuantian Old Ancestor's hundred thousand years of accumulation provided a massive information database. Regarding every detail of the Nine-Lock Dragon Suppressing Array, he needed to find the specific current state of the Seal, its degree of decay, and the solution.

He searched through the Scripture Pavilion for about fifteen minutes.

To the people outside, Su Changge sat at the edge of the rift with his eyes closed.

Fifteen minutes.

Motionless.

As if sensing something.

Tu Lie and the others waited quietly.

Liu Can stood in the distance, his gaze fixed on Su Changge, no longer looking away.

He was waiting for the result.

Su Changge opened his eyes.

He stood up and brushed the dust off his clothes.

Ye Qingyao stood up with him.

Su Changge looked into the depths of the rift and remained silent for three breaths.

Then he spoke.

"The Seal has decayed by seventy percent."

After those words were spoken, everyone's expressions changed.

Seventy percent.

The Seal had already decayed by seventy percent.