49: Chapter 49 Cutting off a bite of the life-saving essence

Dark red blood droplets trickled down the third Broken Stele fragment, landing on the fissure of the broken Spiritual Vein.

With a hiss, thin black smoke emerged from the fissure. The roots of the resentment Qi, which had previously retreated, probed back half an inch, like a swarm of insects smelling blood, crawling along the stele patterns toward the depths of the residue core.

Sect Master Di Kun still clutched the first two fragments in his palm. The flesh of his fingertips had been sliced open, and the Sect seal on the back of his right hand flickered intermittently. He stared at the marks left by the blood, his brows furrowed.

"Don't touch that one." Life-Skill Player pressed down on a damp cloth, his palm reddened by the scorching gray Qi. The scent of medicinal powder mixed with the smell of blood assaulted his nostrils. "It's feeding back into the broken vein."

Speedrunner bit down on his charcoal pencil and bent over to observe the flow of the black roots on the ground. The light from the miner's lamp flickered in his eyes, reflecting a web of fine, dark lines.

"It's not feeding back; it's locking the final one." He pointed toward the rear right side of the residue core. "That skeleton hasn't fully awakened yet, and its roots are all connected beneath the third fragment. If we sever the two roots on its right first, then pull the stele, we can dismantle the corpse puppet's resurrection mechanism entirely."

The Sect Protection Elder kept his sword tip pointed toward the ground; the notch in the blade had widened to the size of a grain of rice. Gray-black Death Qi crawled up the blade. He flicked his finger against the sword, causing it to ring clearly. The Death Qi was dispersed for a moment, only to immediately coil back.

"Any longer, and the sword will be ruined." The Sect Protection Elder looked at Sect Master Di Kun. "Sect Master, I can sever the roots, but I can only suppress one more counterattack."

Sect Master Di Kun stuffed the two Broken Stele fragments into the cloth pouch at his waist. As soon as the pouch was closed, a faint scratching sound came from within, as if someone were clawing at stone with fingernails. He ignored it and stepped into the circle of retreating cyan-white light outside the residue core.

A chill bit into the soles of his boots.

Blood continued to seep from the surface of the third fragment. With every drop that fell, the broken vein trembled slightly. The vibration traveled to the stone walls, causing loose sand to rain down from above, pelting everyone's shoulders.

"Follow Speedrunner's points." Sect Master Di Kun raised his right hand, pressing the Sect seal above the fragment. "Dark Souls Player, hold off the last two that can move. Elder, sever the second and third roots on the right. Life-Skill Player, seal the edges—don't be stingy with the medicinal liquid."

Dark Souls Player shook the black sludge off his short sword and grinned, waving at the corpse puppets. "Hey bone buddies, it's phase two—let's see some new moves."

The gray flames of the corpse puppets flared, and both skeletons lunged out simultaneously. They no longer charged in a straight line but instead circled the broken stone from the left and right, their bone claws lowered, aiming straight for Dark Souls Player's ankles.

Dark Souls Player slid backward, his heels bracing against the rubble. He didn't retreat blindly; instead, he backhanded his short sword into a stone crevice, using the leverage to flip his body and graze past between the two bone claws. The claws collided, and the ten white bone knuckles cracked against each other.

"They learned how to flank!" Dark Souls Player landed and rolled away, his shoulder hitting the stone wall, causing him to grimace in pain. "The developers buffed the mobs on the sly, didn't they?"

"Enough talk, lead them to the left." Sect Master Di Kun's voice cut through the humming of the broken vein.

The Sect Protection Elder moved.

The sword edge swept across the ground, severing the first root at its base. Instead of spraying gray Qi, the stump oozed viscous black water. Upon hitting the ground, the black water immediately burrowed into the stone crevices, retreating along the broken vein toward the residue core.

Life-Skill Player lunged forward, using her teeth to uncork a porcelain bottle, and poured the entire contents of blue-brown medicinal liquid over it. The liquid bubbled white upon contact with the black water, and the edges of the stone crevices were corroded into a shallow pit. The black water retreated half a foot, like a snake that had been scalded.

"The second one!" Speedrunner tapped the stone wall with his charcoal pencil. "The gray flames have dimmed—three-breath window!"

The Sect Protection Elder didn't withdraw his sword momentum; he flipped his wrist and slashed the second sword at the third root on the right. The moment the blade struck the root, a crisp sound like breaking bones echoed from within it, and two more shards of iron chipped off the sword's notch.

Sect Master Di Kun clamped his five fingers onto the third Broken Stele fragment.

The fragment was scorching hot.

The first two had been icy cold, but this one was as hot as an iron sheet buried in a fire. As soon as Sect Master Di Kun's fingertips pressed onto it, his blood was immediately sucked into the stele patterns. Beneath the half-character "Open," a fuzzy, half-length vertical mark emerged.

"Sect Master, don't pull it all the way out at once." Life-Skill Player stared at the edge of the fragment. "The blood beads haven't stopped yet; the resentment Qi inside will explode."

The veins on the back of Sect Master Di Kun's hand bulged, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. He didn't yank it; he only pried the fragment outward by a sliver.

The broken vein rebounded violently.

The ground surged upward, and the miner's lamp jumped half a foot, smashing against the edge of the broken stone and cracking its cover. The light slanted, and the cyan-white light outside the residue core stretched, casting a layer of cold frost over everyone's faces.

Beneath the third fragment, the final corpse puppet finally lifted its head.

Its skeleton was more complete than the other corpse puppets, with a tiny piece of stele sand embedded in the center of its sternum. The gray flames didn't burn in its eye sockets but instead rotated slowly deep within its throat bones. It didn't lunge at Dark Souls Player; its skull turned directly toward Sect Master Di Kun, its bone palms pressing into the ground, its finger bones digging bit by bit into the black rock.

Five deep grooves were gouged into the black rock.

"It's targeting the Sect Master!" Dark Souls Player cursed and immediately turned back.

The corpse puppet sprang up.

Its speed was much faster than the previous two rounds. The roots beneath its feet pulled taut, launching its entire skeleton like a crossbow bolt. The Sect Protection Elder intercepted with his sword held horizontally. When the blade collided with the bone palms, the metallic screech made everyone's eardrums ache. The stone slab beneath the Sect Protection Elder cracked, the fissures spreading from the soles of his boots to the stone wall behind him.

Sect Master Di Kun seized this pause and twisted his wrist outward.

The fragment was pulled out by an inch.

"Seal!" He shouted in a low voice.

Life-Skill Player pressed the last half-bottle of medicinal liquid onto the edge of the stele crevice, and the liquid seeped into the fissure. The black roots twitched, and the fine threads wrapped around the fragment snapped one by one.

Speedrunner stared at the gray flames, spinning the charcoal pencil in his palm. "One more breath, Sect Master, pull!"

Sect Master Di Kun exerted force with his arm, and the third Broken Stele fragment was forcibly pulled away from the residue core.

The sound within the fissure cavity instantly went empty.

Immediately afterward, the gray flames of all the corpse puppets extinguished simultaneously. The final corpse puppet, blocked by the Sect Protection Elder, remained in a forward-lunging posture, its bone palms only half an inch from the sword edge. The gray flames in its throat bones, having rotated halfway, popped and shattered into a pile of ash.

The sound of roots snapping echoed one after another.

The skeletons of the six corpse puppets collapsed as if their strings had been pulled; first the knee bones buckled, then the spines collapsed, and finally, the skulls rolled to the ground. Bone powder sprayed out from the joints, covering the edge of the broken vein in a layer of gray-white, as if scattering cold ash over the black rock.

Dark Souls Player poked the nearest skull with his short sword. The skull crumbled into powder, and he immediately retreated half a step.

"No resurrection countdown anymore."

Speedrunner drew a third horizontal line on the stone wall and circled the previous two. "Mechanism dismantled, the perimeter is under control."

Sect Master Di Kun released the third fragment. As it dropped into the cloth pouch, the three Broken Stele fragments collided, making a dull sound. The noise made the back of his ears tingle, as if an old door had been pushed open a crack far underground.

The resentment Qi roots outside the residue core had largely dissipated, and the cyan-white light cluster was revealed in its entirety for the first time. It wasn't large, only the size of a fist, suspended in the center of the broken Spiritual Vein. Its surface was wrapped in a layer of gray mist, with fine cyan-white lines occasionally flashing within it.

Yet beneath it, the broken Spiritual Vein was still connected by dense threads of light. One end of these light threads was embedded in the residue core, and the other delved deep into the underground vein, contracting with the pulsing of the residue core.

Life-Skill Player crouched down to examine it, dipping her fingertips in some medicinal liquid and smearing it on the edge of the light threads. The liquid didn't turn black; it was merely shaken into mist.

"The resentment Qi roots have weakened," she said, looking up. "But the residue core hasn't detached from the vein. Forcing a pull will drag the entire broken vein with it."

When the Sect Protection Elder sheathed his sword, the notch in the blade scraped against the scabbard, making a harsh sound. He stared at that cluster of cyan-white light, an uncontrollable greed rising in his eyes.

"An old Spiritual Vein residue core—even if it's damaged, it's enough to raise an extra generation of Disciples for the Taichu Sect. If we can take it away intact, the Sect protection formation can be replenished by at least thirty percent."

Sect Master Di Kun didn't reply.

Cold white text floated at the edge of his vision. The text was devoid of temperature, yet it sliced the current situation into two paths.

One path was to strip the residue core completely: high yield, but an extremely high probability of a Spiritual Vein backlash, and an extremely high probability of damaging the foundation of the Founders Hall.

The other was to carve out the essence of the residue core: enough to purify the Spiritual Pool's contamination and replenish the Origin, while leaving the main body of the residue core in the vein for future development.

The Sect Protection Elder couldn't see the words either, but he could smell the choice in Sect Master Di Kun's pause. He took half a step forward, his sleeves sweeping over the bone ash.

"Sect Master, no matter how strong Han Lishan is, he is only the Vice Sect Leader of the Red Snake Sect. An intact residue core is rare and hard to come by. If we let it go today, we may not have another chance in the future."

Sect Master Di Kun reached for the sect leader token at his waist. The token had been soaked in blood, and its edges were still hot. He tapped his fingertip against the face of the token, the crisp sound swallowed halfway by the broken vein.

"Han Lishan will arrive in person within three days." Sect Master Di Kun raised his eyes. "What the Taichu Sect lacks right now isn't a mineral vein we can feed off for years to come, but people who can stand before the mountain gate tomorrow."

The Sect Protection Elder's hand, gripping the sword, tightened.

Sect Master Di Kun took out the sect leader token and pressed its face against the outer layer of the cyan-white light of the residue core.

"Carve out the essence."

Dark Souls Player whistled, only to be immediately glared back by Life-Skill Player. Speedrunner was already close to the ground, drawing lines with his charcoal pencil along the flow of the spiritual light. He didn't touch the residue core; he only marked three intersection points on the adjacent stone surface, finally firmly circling the narrowest section.

"Here." Speedrunner's fingertip stopped at the lower left side of the cyan-white light. "The flow is most stable here; cutting it won't cause the main vein to collapse immediately. If you deviate by three points, the entire residue core will twist."

Life-Skill Player smeared the medicinal liquid along the outside of the circled line, forming a pale cyan seal on the stone surface. The Sect Protection Elder walked to the other side of the broken vein, inserted his sword scabbard into a stone crevice, and pressed both palms onto the hilt, channeling spiritual power through the scabbard into the ground.

The vibration of the broken vein was dampened by half.

Sect Master Di Kun crouched down, using the sect leader token in his left hand to press down on the top of the residue core, while pulling out a short blade from his waist with his right. The blade had previously pinned a corpse puppet, and its edge was still stained with gray-black mucus. He wiped the stains off on his hem and aimed the tip of the blade at the cutting point marked by Speedrunner.

The residue core pulsed gently like a living thing.

The first slash fell. The cyan-white light didn't crack; it only rippled with a circle of fine lines at the point of the blade. Sect Master Di Kun's wrist went numb from the vibration, and an old wound tore open, blood sliding down the back of his hand to the edge of the sect leader token.

As he pressed deeper for the second slash, a sound like muffled thunder echoed within the broken vein.

The ground began to heave, and bone ash was shaken into the air, coating everyone's faces. The veins on the Sect Protection Elder's forehead bulged, and the black rock around the scabbard cracked inch by inch. Life-Skill Player pressed down on the medicinal seal, her palms burned red by the cyan-white light.

"The upper level is shaking!" A Disciple poked his head in from the passage entrance, his voice tight. "Dust is falling over at the Founders Hall!"

Sect Master Di Kun didn't look up.

The short blade continued to press downward.

The moment the backlash from the broken vein surged up, a fragmented scene suddenly flashed before his eyes.

It was an underground sealed door. Carved on the door were old Taichu Sect patterns, and several figures stood before it. One of them had the Han Family snake pattern on his sleeve, and another was wearing the robes of a Taichu Sect Elder. Blood flowed out along the cracks of the door, and someone was carrying a larger Broken Stele fragment out from behind the door; the stele face also bore the character "Open."

The scene shattered extremely quickly.

But Sect Master Di Kun had seen the hand pressing against the sealed door, had seen the blood of a Taichu Sect Disciple staining the area next to the Han Family snake pattern, and had also seen that when the traitor turned back, his face was obscured by black mist, revealing only a cracked jade buckle.

The short blade clicked as it cut deep into the residue core.

A corner of the cyan-white essence was carved off, like a living spring gouged out of cold jade. The backlash of the broken vein surged sharply; large chunks of black rock fell from the top of the passage, smashing the remains of a corpse puppet. Bone fragments and rock chunks mixed together, shaken into powder.

"We can't suppress it for much longer!" The Sect Protection Elder gritted his teeth, the cracks around the scabbard spreading to half a zhang.

Sect Master Di Kun pressed down with the sect leader token in his left hand, and the pale silver light patterns on the token spread out, forcibly pressing the main body of the residue core back into place. He flicked his right hand, using the short blade to scoop the piece of cyan-white essence into the prepared cloth bag.

Once the essence entered the bag, it immediately emitted a soft, bright cyan-white light.

The surrounding resentment Qi seemed to have been robbed of its food; it surged out again from the edges of the residue core's main body, layers of thin mist covering it back up and concealing the remaining residue core. Those unprocessed light threads retracted deep into the broken vein, leaving behind a few tiny black marks.

Sect Master Di Kun tied the cloth bag shut. As he stood up, his shoulders swayed, and the soles of his boots left deep imprints in the bone ash.

"Withdraw."

No one looked at the residue core a second time.

The Sect Protection Elder pulled out his sword scabbard, and gray mist immediately sprayed from the stone crevice. Life-Skill Player picked up the medicine chest, Speedrunner grabbed back the miner's lamp, and Dark Souls Player kicked aside the bone fragments blocking the way. The squad quickly retreated along the passage; behind them, the cyan-white residue core was swallowed bit by bit by the thin mist of resentment Qi, with only a wisp of light still pulsing at the bottom of the mist.

By the time they returned to the underground Spiritual Pool, the pool water was still rippling with black veins.

The stone bricks around the Spiritual Pool had been gnawed by the contamination, leaving circles of dark marks, and the air held a fishy, sweet smell. Sect Master Di Kun stood by the pool and took out the cloth bag; the cyan-white essence inside was bumping against the fabric, like a restless heart.

He raised his hand and tossed the essence into the pool.

The cyan-white light plunged into the pool water.

The black veins paused for a moment, then, like a swarm of insects singed by fire, retreated frantically in all directions. A gurgling sound came from the bottom of the pool, and the entire underground stone chamber lit up with soft light. The old patterns on the pool walls awakened one by one, the Spiritual Vein patterns that had been obscured by the contamination were revealed again, and tiny specks of light gathered along the water's surface.

Sect Master Di Kun stood by the pool, his sleeves pressed against his wrists by the wind from the pool. The cold white text floating at the edge of his vision unfolded line by line. The text "Conditions for summoning the second batch of Disciples met" paused in the very center. The cyan-white light of the Spiritual Pool reflected in his eyes; the black veins in the pool water were still churning at the edges, but they could no longer suppress the brightness rising from the bottom of the pool.