488: Chapter 488 Entering the Hidden Realm

"Noticed it?" Lin Yu's voice lowered slightly.

"Yeah," Su Ming said softly. "There is Spiritual Essence in this mist, and it is not leaking out; it is being pulled along by something."

Lin Yu was silent for two breaths before saying, "We are likely eighty percent of the way there. Be careful, do not use your Divine Sense to probe recklessly. In a place that has existed for ten thousand years, if you stare at certain things, they will look back at you."

Su Ming slowed his breathing even more, and the Ruoshui Art within him also withdrew, maintaining only the most basic layer of circulation, letting his own Qi signature flow along with the surrounding Spiritual Essence.

After walking for about another half-hour, the mountain path suddenly came to an end.

The space ahead suddenly opened up.

Su Ming stepped out of the forest shade, and the scene before him abruptly widened, making his breath hitch for a moment.

It was a cliff.

Beyond the cliff, a sea of clouds churned, a vast expanse of white. Distant mountains only showed some dark outlines, like reefs submerged in waves. Sky light shone down from between the clouds, illuminating the entire world brightly, yet it failed to penetrate the gate before the cliff face.

The stone gate was embedded in the mountain wall opposite the cliff.

It was about ten zhang high and nearly four zhang wide, its body pitch black, though the corners had been worn gray by time. The door frame was covered in extremely fine Array Patterns, layered upon each other like countless rivers compressed to the extreme, embedded into the stone in ring after ring. Many parts were blurred, some broken, some missing, and some were even just faint traces.

But even so, it remained so heavy that one dared not look at it for long.

What was truly striking was not those complex Array Patterns.

But rather, the two characters above the lintel.

Ancient Path.

The characters were not large, but they were extremely deep.

It was as if someone had stood here back then, lifted their wrist and set pen to paper, finishing it in one go, then left it to endure the dust and frost of ten thousand years of wind and rain, yet its character remained unmarred.

Su Ming stood by the edge of the cliff, silent for a long time.

Wind swirled up from beneath the cliff, blowing his sleeves and the fine black feathers on Ying's neck. The little fellow looked at the stone gate and did not make a sound either, just staring unblinkingly at those two characters.

"This place..."

In the Sea of Consciousness, it was rare for Lin Yu to drop his joking tone, his voice softening. "It really does have something to it."

Su Ming slowly exhaled.

It was not that he had not seen great arrays before.

He had seen them at Iron Wall Pass, at Lantai Secret Garden, and he had seen the methods of Master Xuan Heng and Qingquan.

But this gate before him was different.

It did not feel like some pressure bearing down on him, nor like a roar of spiritual power trying to force him to his knees. It just stood there, quiet, ancient, even somewhat dilapidated, yet it naturally made one feel—that inside the gate was a very, very long stretch of time.

Long enough to wear a person down.

And long enough to reveal a person's true self.

Su Ming stood for a good while before raising his hand and taking out that Purple Token from his sleeve.

As soon as the token appeared, the mist around the stone gate seemed to move slightly.

Su Ming walked to the front of the gate, not rushing to activate it, but instead slowly walking around the stone gate once. Every step was extremely careful, his gaze sweeping over the breaks in the Array Patterns, the wear on the corners, and the layer of moss at the base of the stone gate that had almost grown into the rock wall.

His instincts as an Formation Cultivator made him unable to resist wanting to look, to calculate, to find a bit of a framework from these remnants.

But Master Xuan Heng's words rang in his heart again at this moment.

Do not seek speed, do not seek the end, do not seek to forcibly break the situation.

Su Ming ultimately suppressed that impulse, only silently noting the distribution of those patterns in his mind without reaching out to touch them.

"What, not going to dismantle it?" Lin Yu asked intentionally.

"Enduring it."

"Good for you."

The corner of Su Ming's lip twitched slightly, and he ignored him.

A moment later, he stood back in the center, raised the token, and gently pressed it against the stone gate.

As soon as the token drew near, the purple light brightened suddenly.

It was not a piercing brightness, but a steady, layered glow that seeped out. Like someone lighting a lamp in deep water, the light floated up from within layer by layer.

In the next instant, the Array Patterns on the stone gate lit up one by one.

The outermost ring lit up first, followed by the second, third, fourth... those traces that had slept for unknown ages were slowly awakened as if by some long-awaited key. Purple light flowed along the patterns; wherever it passed, stone chips rustled down, as if countless dusty memories were opening their eyes together at this moment.

Boom—

A dull sound, almost coming from deep underground, echoed from within the gate.

The stone gate began to move.

Not inward, nor outward, but slowly parting to both sides, sliding open bit by bit along some extremely ancient trajectory. The stone gate moved very slowly, and with every inch it shifted, the cliff wall and the ground beneath his feet shook slightly.

Ying suddenly gripped the fabric of Su Ming's shoulder.

Su Ming also unconsciously held his breath.

When the gate opened wide enough for one person to pass, it stopped.

Behind the gate, there were no palaces, no valleys, no world brightly lit by spiritual light as seen in common Secret Realms.

Only mist.

A mist so thick it was nearly milky white.

That mist did not churn, did not surge, did not dissipate; it just hung there quietly, as if there were no world behind the gate at all, only a bottomless Void Realm.

Standing before the gate, Su Ming could clearly feel that there was still wind outside, still sunlight, and the scent of the cliff's sea of clouds. But inside the gate, there was nothing, even sound seemed to be swallowed up.

Su Ming looked back behind him.

The cliff, the sea of clouds, the sky light, and the mountain forest were all still there. The sun was leaning west, its golden light falling on the ancient trees by the cliff, the edges of the leaves glowing, like any ordinary afternoon in the mortal world.

He suddenly understood why Master Xuan Heng said the Ancient Path was a road.

Because at the moment you stand before the gate, even though you haven't entered yet, you already feel as if you are standing at the intersection of two different lives.

On one side were the familiar Sect, master's lineage, Immortal Cave, spirit fields, and the annoying trivialities of Sect Head White Crane; on the other side was a road within the mist, its length unknown, its scenery unknown, and where it would lead a person unknown.

Ying gave a soft cry.

As if urging him.

Lin Yu also said indifferently from within the ring, "Let's go. The gate is open; are you going to stand here and strike a pose for half the day?"

Su Ming smiled.

"True."

He withdrew his gaze, no longer hesitating, and stepped forward.

One foot stepped into the mist.

In an instant, the sound of the wind, the sunlight, and the mountain air behind him were all wiped away as if by an invisible giant hand. White mist drifted in from all directions, brushing against his face, sleeves, and shoulders, completely swallowing him whole.

Ying also darted in after him, landing back on his shoulder.

Immediately after, a very slow, very heavy sound of the stone gate closing came from behind.