156: Chapter 156 Paving the Way (Part 2)

As soon as these words were spoken, the wind in the courtyard seemed to stop moving instantly.

Mu Qingxue's cool, clear eyes contracted suddenly, her pupils shrinking to the size of needlepoints.

The hand that Su Yu was holding lost all its warmth in an instant, and she backhanded him, gripping his wrist tightly like an iron pincer.

The force was immense. It was so great that even her protective true essence from the Early Spirit Transformation Stage leaked out uncontrollably, pressing a pale, bluish mark onto Su Yu's wrist bone.

"This sentence of yours..." For the first time ever, there was a trace of an imperceptible tremor in Mu Qingxue's voice.

She understood. This was a final instruction. It was a cruelly explicit declaration of some impending separation.

She stepped forward abruptly, pressing her other hand against the edge of the stone table, her knuckles turning a deathly, ashen pale from the force.

She wanted to press him, to fully understand the fear and despair surging from the depths of her heart like a tidal wave.

But Su Yu did not give her that chance at all.

He extracted his wrist from Mu Qingxue's palm bit by bit, with extreme firmness yet without losing his gentleness.

Su Yu reached back, picked up the ancient array map on the table, and shifted his gaze with extreme naturalness.

"For the array core of this Nine Nether Forbidden Array, I am still missing one main ingredient to attract lightning."

Su Yu shook the array map, his tone having completely returned to its usual nonchalance.

"If you have nothing to do tomorrow, accompany me to the Myriad Treasures Pavilion in the marketplace. This item is not easy to find; I have to try my Luck."

The conversation was abruptly cut off.

Mu Qingxue stared fixedly at Su Yu's profile, watching his composed demeanor as if nothing had ever happened.

The lingering echo of the words "Even without me" was like a rusted, dull blade, slicing back and forth in her Sea of Consciousness.

"Okay." Mu Qingxue lowered her eyes, her voice barely audible. "Tomorrow, I will accompany you."

The night wind rose again, blowing the array map on the stone table until it rattled.

The back view of Mu Qingxue as she turned to leave revealed a stiffness and loneliness that she was struggling to suppress.

Meanwhile, Su Yu sat on the stone stool, watching her walk into the darkness of the corridor, never once lifting his head again.

Zizhu Peak, Sword Collection Pavilion.

This building, located halfway up the mountain, was shrouded year-round in a layer of extremely restrained yet sharp Sword Intent.

Even the edges of the leaves of the Purple Scale Bamboo growing around it carried an extremely cold and hard metallic luster.

Su Yu stepped onto the last bluestone step. He did not trigger the warning array outside the door and pushed open the heavy wooden door that was left ajar.

Inside the spacious martial arts pavilion, there were no unnecessary furnishings. Shen Ruyue, dressed in a plain white sword robe, was holding a three-foot green sword, standing in the center of the arena with her eyes closed.

She did not swing her sword. But in the surrounding air, heart-palpitating sounds of tearing constantly emerged.

That was the sound of a Sword Cultivator compressing Sword Intent to the extreme, resonating and rubbing against the Law of Heaven and Earth.

Her cultivation of the Early Spirit Transformation Stage, combined with her one-in-ten-million "Seven-Orifice Exquisite Sword Heart," made this former number one female sword immortal of the Northern Region terrifying to Cultivators of the same rank, based on her aura alone.

"Your sword is sharper than it was a hundred years ago." Su Yu stood by the door, speaking in a flat tone.

The green sword in Shen Ruyue's hand instantly returned to its sheath, and the sky-filling Sword Qi dissipated completely within a single breath.

She turned around, a faint trace of gentleness appearing in her cool, clear eyes. "Husband."

Shen Ruyue walked up quickly. She did not ask why Su Yu had come here so suddenly; she just reached out naturally and smoothed out a slight wrinkle on the collar of his green robe.

Su Yu looked at this stunningly beautiful face close at hand, remaining silent. He flipped his wrist. An ancient Jade Slip, gray in color and covered in fine cracks, appeared in his palm.

This Jade Slip had weathered countless tens of thousands of years of erosion, exuding an extremely desolate and murderous ancient charm.

"Take it." Su Yu handed the Jade Slip to Shen Ruyue.

Shen Ruyue was stunned for a moment, her gaze falling. Just one glance. The Seven-Orifice Exquisite Sword Heart within her began to beat violently and uncontrollably!

Even her Flying Sword behind her let out an extremely high-pitched cry from within its sheath.

This was by no means an ordinary Cultivation Technique. This was a supreme Sword Dao Legacy that could directly touch the Origin of a Sword Cultivator!

Shen Ruyue extended two fair fingers and pinched the broken Jade Slip with extreme care. A trace of Divine Sense probed into it with extreme caution.

"Boom!" A terrifying Sword Intent, grand, tragic, and permeating with endless Void Realm Law, exploded directly in her Sea of Consciousness.

Shen Ruyue's face turned deathly pale instantly. She shut her eyes tight, taking a full ten breaths to forcibly suppress the dizziness brought on by this impact.

"Th-this is?" Shen Ruyue opened her eyes, her breathing becoming extremely rapid. She gripped the Jade Slip tightly, her fingers trembling.

What was recorded inside was not some sword move at all, but a set of extremely profound "Seven-Orifice Sword Heart" advancement methods that even touched upon the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth!

This method was enough to allow her to bypass countless detours. It could even allow her to touch the ethereal threshold of the Void Refining Stage within a thousand years!

If such a Legacy were placed in the outside Hunyuan Heavenly Domain, it would be enough to make the Grand Elders of those first-class sword Sects fight until their heads were broken and bleeding, and their Sects were destroyed.

"When I was fleeing in my early years, I fell into a Void Realm crack." Su Yu's expression was normal, his tone as casual as if he were discussing a piece of junk.

"I happened to land on the skeleton of an ancient Sword Cultivator and just casually pried it out from between the bones."

If outsiders heard this, they would likely vomit blood on the spot. Dying in a Void Realm crack is a common occurrence, but to land on a peerless Legacy—what kind of hellish Luck is this?

Shen Ruyue ignored this absurd Origin. She knew her husband's unreasonable destiny too well. She just gripped the Jade Slip tightly, her cool, clear gaze fixed intently on Su Yu's eyes.

"Why did Husband suddenly give this to me?"

Shen Ruyue's mind was extremely clear. Usually, when Su Yu gave resources, he gave them as needed. This kind of top-secret foundation, which could serve as a Sect-protecting treasure and point directly to the Great Dao, being thrown out suddenly at this juncture, seemed extremely abrupt.

Su Yu met her gaze without flinching. "You are the only Sword Cultivator in our Su Family."

Su Yu's knuckles tapped lightly on the sword rack beside him, his voice steady. "Although Revered Master added three Void Refining-level killing arrays into this Sect-protecting array of Zizhu Peak."

"But without anyone to preside over the killing arrays, they are ultimately dead objects."

Su Yu turned his head, looking at Shen Ruyue, his tone carrying an unquestionable, heavy entrustment. "The array core of this array needs a sword sharp enough. It needs a peerless Sword Cultivator at the Void Refining Stage to sit and guard it."

Shen Ruyue's heart sank abruptly. She understood. On the surface, these words were an expectation, but in reality, they carried the heaviness of entrusting affairs after one's death.

Why did she have to be the one to guard it? Isn't Old Ancestor Tian Shu there? Isn't Su Yu himself there? Shen Ruyue's fingers were almost crushing the Jade Slip, her knuckles turning bloodlessly pale. Her lips moved slightly, wanting to ask for the truth.

"Don't overthink it." Su Yu interrupted her extremely keenly, raising his hand to pat her shoulder. "The waters in The Great World are deep; I just want you to have an extra bit of ability to protect yourself."

"Go into seclusion. This Legacy is not easy to digest; the sooner you Revered Master it, the sooner I can be at ease."

After saying this, Su Yu did not give her any chance to speak, turning and walking out of the Sword Collection Pavilion. The wooden door made a soft "creak" sound behind him, closing once more.

Shen Ruyue stood in the center of the empty martial arts arena, all alone. She looked at the gray Jade Slip in her hand, and a clear tear fell, landing abruptly on the sword hilt.

A Sword Cultivator's intuition told her that something extremely terrifying was approaching Zizhu Peak. And that man in the green robe was planning to shoulder it all alone.

... To the right of Zizhu Peak, Pill Fragrance Valley. Here, the Spiritual Vein of Earth Fire was the most active, and it was filled year-round with a thick, lingering Medicinal Pill fragrance.

The former Saintess of the Hundred Herbs Immortal Sect, Yun Zhilan, was standing before a huge Purple Gold Red Flame Furnace at this moment. She was concentrating fully on controlling the pill fire.

Her Nascent Soul Peak mana was outputting extremely steadily, purifying and fusing the medicinal liquid inside the furnace. With the final incantation cast.

The furnace lid shot into the sky, and nine flawless, round high-grade Spirit Pill, radiating five-colored pill halos, fell into a jade bottle.

"Good technique." Su Yu's voice came from the entrance of the valley.

Yun Zhilan put away the pill bottle and turned around, a smile of extreme gentleness immediately blooming on her face. "Why has Husband come? Ling'er and Xin'er went to the back mountain to catch snow rabbits; they are not in the valley."

Yun Zhilan walked to the stone table and poured a cup of refreshing tea for Su Yu. Su Yu sat down on the stone stool but did not drink the tea. He opened his right hand. A flash of green light. The palm-sized wanxiang creation furnace hovered steadily above his palm.

As soon as this mystic heaven spirit treasure appeared, the Earth Fire in the entire Pill Fragrance Valley shrank back instinctively, and the firelight dimmed instantly.

Yun Zhilan was stunned. Of course, she recognized this supreme divine object. This was the trump card Su Yu had brought out from the Wanxiang Secret Realm back then, and it was also an extremely important part of his cultivation journey.

"Husband, this is..." Before she could finish asking. Su Yu's left hand formed a blade with his fingers with extreme decisiveness. The majestic true essence of the Early Spirit Transformation Stage, mixed with those ten thousand points of unreasonable Heavenly Dao Luck, stabbed fiercely into the green artifact spirit halo of the wanxiang creation furnace!

"Sss—!" An extremely sharp humming sound, as if tearing the Soul, exploded in the valley. The Creation Furnace vibrated violently, and the artifact spirit let out a burst of painful, instinctive struggle.

How proud the artifact spirit of a mystic heaven spirit treasure was; it would never allow anyone to cut its Origin. But the Luck on Su Yu's body was too overbearing. That Heavenly Dao Law descended directly, casting an invisible shackle, forcibly suppressing the main body of the Creation Furnace on the spot.

Su Yu's face was deathly pale. A layer of fine cold sweat oozed from his forehead instantly. Cutting the artifact spirit caused a backlash not only to the Magic Treasure but also to the host's Primordial Spirit. He gritted his teeth and flipped his wrist violently. He forcibly tore a wisp of extremely weak, yet pure-to-the-extreme, Origin Fire Seed from that green halo!

"Husband!" Yun Zhilan was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she rushed forward. She was proficient in medical principles and could naturally see how much damage such an act of splitting the Origin would cause to a Cultivator's Meridians and Primordial Spirit.

"It's fine." A muffled, low groan came from Su Yu's throat. He pushed away the hand Yun Zhilan reached out, forcibly suppressing the intense pain in his Sea of Consciousness. He threw his right hand, putting the wanxiang creation furnace back into his storage ring. His left hand pinched that wisp of green fire seed which was beating wildly.

Immediately after, he took out a jet-black, top-grade Pill Furnace embryo from his sleeve, engraved with Spirit Gathering Array patterns. This was a blank Spiritual Artifact he had specially asked Old Ancestor Tian Shu to help refine using a large amount of Ore.

Su Yu did not hesitate and struck that wisp of green fire seed fiercely into the deep array core of the black furnace! "Hum!" Countless complex cyan-gold patterns lit up on the surface of the black furnace instantly.

An aura of Creation, which, although far inferior to the main body of the Creation Furnace, was absolutely superior to the vast majority of Pill Furnace in the world, erupted from this newly born auxiliary furnace.

Su Yu pushed the auxiliary furnace to Yun Zhilan, his chest rising and falling slightly. "This auxiliary furnace, I leave it to you." Su Yu's breathing was somewhat heavy, but his tone was extremely resolute.

Yun Zhilan looked at the Pill Furnace on the table emitting the aura of Creation, and tears instantly blurred her vision. She shook her head repeatedly, not daring to reach out to touch it. "I don't want it! Husband, you damaged your Origin to forcibly split the artifact spirit; what if you hurt your Dao Foundation?!"

Yun Zhilan's heart ached beyond measure, and she reached out to check Su Yu's pulse. Su Yu countered, gripping her wrist with extreme firmness, and pulled her in front of him.

"I am fine." Su Yu looked straight into her eyes, his voice low but allowing no rebuttal. "You are the best Alchemy Grandmaster in our Su Family, and in the Northern Region."

"The Medicinal Pill lifeline of the Family for the next few hundred years rests entirely on you alone." "Without the assistance of the aura of Creation, you cannot refine those few peerless Spirit Pill needed to break through to the Body Integration Stage."

Su Yu let go of her hand and pointed to the auxiliary furnace. "Take it. For me, refine the foundation of the Su Family."

Yun Zhilan bit her lower lip tightly, tears streaming from her eyes. She understood medical principles and also understood the human heart. Su Yu paving the way for her in such a near-self-mutilating manner was not a normal distribution of resources. It was like arranging affairs after death.

But she looked at Su Yu's cold, unrefusable gaze. In the end, she could only tremble with her hands and hug the auxiliary furnace tightly in her arms. "This concubine... accepts the order."

... Zizhu Peak, the deepest Shadow Pavilion. There was no sunlight here, and the surrounding walls were embedded with Nether Sea Black Stone that absorbed light.

Ji Wushuang, in a dress as red as fire, was leaning lazily on a wide Grandmaster chair. The Demonic Path true essence of the Late Stage Nascent Soul was circulating at her fingertips. On the jade table in front of her, urgent secret reports gathered from all over were piled up.

The wooden door was pushed open extremely casually. Su Yu stepped into this darkness. Ji Wushuang did not even lift her eyelids, still flipping through the blood-colored Jade Slip in her hand.

"Have those little foxes outside all been pacified by you?" Ji Wushuang's voice carried a laziness and sharpness unique to a demoness. "You've spent most of the day running to the Sword Collection Pavilion and then to Pill Fragrance Valley. What, is it my turn now?"

She put down the Jade Slip and looked up. In those Soul-stealing fox eyes, there was not a hint of tenderness, only an extremely sharp scrutiny. Ji Wushuang was the most deep-thinking and shrewd among Su Yu's several confidantes. She had spent years wandering in dark calculations and intelligence, and no movement could escape her eyes.

"You are quite leisurely." Su Yu walked to the jade table without picking up her topic. He flipped his wrist, and a strange Jade Talisman, dark gold all over and covered with countless tiny holes on the surface, was thrown in front of Ji Wushuang.

"Click." The sound of the Jade Talisman hitting the ground seemed extremely crisp in the quiet dark pavilion. Ji Wushuang glanced at the Jade Talisman. Her originally lazy expression instantly stiffened. In an extremely brief moment, her pupils contracted into extremely dangerous needlepoints.

She sat up straight abruptly, grabbed the dark gold Jade Talisman, and her Divine Sense pierced into it without hesitation. The next breath. This Nine Nether demoness, who had seen countless storms and waves, had her breathing completely thrown into chaos.