502: Chapter 502 January

The days by the lake of Spiritual Qi passed both faster and slower than Su Ming had imagined.

The lake of spiritual power within his Dantian had nearly doubled in size compared to when he first entered the Secret Realm. The color of the liquid spiritual power had shifted from a light blue to a deep navy—not due to an increase in Impurities, but because its density had increased after being repeatedly compressed and purified. The faint traces of the patterns at the bottom of the lake, which he had comprehended from the Spirit Gathering Array in the depression, were also gradually becoming clearer.

Su Ming opened his eyes.

Morning light filtered through the canopy, falling onto the surface of the water in the depression, making the edges of the deep blue pool shimmer with silver.

The Array Patterns beneath the water were still slowly rotating, flickering on and off in a rhythmic rise and fall that was almost perfectly synchronized with the lake of spiritual power in his Dantian.

This synchronization wasn't the result of a conscious effort. Rather, after sitting for long enough, his body had naturally aligned itself with the depression.

Ying was perched on his right knee, its head tucked under its wing, breathing steadily. It had been sleeping more and more lately. Su Ming was initially a bit worried, but after sensing it through the Blood Bond, he found that Ying's vitality was more robust than ever, and the three Law brands within its body were glowing brighter than when they had entered the Secret Realm.

Lin Yu said this was called "storing power."

Su Ming stopped worrying about it.

He stood up and brushed the dew from his robes. It had been nearly two months since he entered the Secret Realm. The color of the leaves on the canopy had changed from deep green to a dark green tinged with yellow—it seemed there were seasons even within this Ancient Path, though they moved much slower than in the outside world.

During this month, he had accomplished three things.

First, he had Cultivated. With the concentration of Spiritual Qi by the lake and the enhancement from the Spirit Gathering Array, the efficiency of the Ruoshui Art had increased by nearly thirty percent. His Foundation Establishment Middle Stage cultivation was as solid as a rock, and he was beginning to touch the edge of the Middle Stage Peak.

Second, he had been comprehending Array Talismans. The Spirit Gathering Array at the bottom of the lake was like an open textbook, operating before him every day. Those concentric circles of Array Patterns and the processes of Spiritual Qi gathering, compressing, and releasing were repeated day after day. After seeing them so many times, they began to resonate with the knowledge of runes he already possessed—he had read a description of the seventh variant of the "Gather" Character in "three thousand questions on the dao of formations," but he had never been able to fully understand it. However, the third ring of the array at the bottom of the lake demonstrated this very concept in an extremely ancient way. After watching it for five days, he suddenly understood.

It wasn't a sudden Epiphany, but a more quiet understanding—like a seed that had stayed in the soil for a long time and finally grew its first leaf one day. You couldn't say exactly when it sprouted, but it had indeed grown.

The vague insights he had gathered on the road—the flow of spiritual power beneath the stone path, the living Array Patterns on the ancient trees—these had originally been scattered pieces of material. But here by the lake, they suddenly began to converge on their own.

As of today, the number of Array Talismans he had completely mastered had grown from just over three hundred when he entered the Secret Realm to about three hundred and fifty. Furthermore, for every newly mastered rune, he understood exactly why it functioned the way it did.

The third thing was unrelated to his cultivation. Every day, he would spend some time squatting on the mud at the edge of the depression to draw—sketching the Array Patterns from the ancient trees he had seen on the road. From the very first tree to every patterned tree he encountered later, he recorded them all, lining them up one by one to see if there were any commonalities between them.

He discovered three: the Array Patterns on all the trees grew from the inside out; although the structure of each tree's patterns was different, their breathing rhythm was the same; and third—the most puzzling part—there seemed to be some kind of connection he couldn't yet explain between those Array Patterns and the spiritual power fluctuations of the stone path beneath his feet.

He set this third point aside for now. Master Xuan Heng had said that not understanding was also part of the path.

He bent down and scooped up a handful of water to wash his face. The moment the liquid Spiritual Qi touched his skin, it was bone-chillingly cold. Ying was startled awake by his movements; it hopped up from his knee and let out a disgruntled cry.

Then, it looked down seriously at its own claws.

Ying lifted its right claw, made a few gestures in the air, and then lowered it. It gestured again, then lowered it again.

Su Ming squatted nearby and watched in silence. Ying's movements were strange, as if it were trying to grasp something invisible. The three faint runes on its forehead—Sharp, Hidden, and Extinguish—were flickering in the morning light.

"It seems to be trying to invoke a Law," Lin Yu's voice came from his Sea of Consciousness.

"Which one?" Su Ming asked.

"I can't tell," Lin Yu's tone carried a rare hint of curiosity. "It probably doesn't know itself. The Law Awakening of a Spirit Beast cub isn't a step-by-step process—it's like when you were a child learning to walk; you stumble and fall, and then one day, you suddenly know how."

Ying gestured a few more times, but still nothing happened. It lowered its head in frustration, shook its feathers, and hopped over to the water's edge to catch the "fish" formed from condensed Spiritual Qi.

Su Ming shook his head, returned to the rock to sit down, and continued to Cultivate.

Spiritual power flowed through his Meridians, and the lake in his Dantian rose and fell slowly. One cycle every hundred breaths.

During the first fifteen minutes of his cultivation—

Su Ming sensed Ying's state through the Blood Bond.

Ying's heart was racing. It wasn't fear, but an intense excitement, like the feeling of being about to break out of a shell. The vitality within its body was surging, and the three Law brands glowed simultaneously—

Su Ming snapped his eyes open.

Ying was standing by the water. It was no longer pouncing on fish. Its entire body was frozen there, its golden eyes wide, its pupils shrunk to two needle-sized golden points.

Then, the three runes on its forehead lit up at the same time.

Sharp. Hidden. Extinguish.

The three lights burst forth simultaneously, so briefly it felt like an illusion.

In the next instant, Ying vanished. It didn't fly away or run off; it vanished into thin air. Su Ming's Divine Sense immediately spread out, covering a fifty-foot radius around the depression—there was nothing. Ying's presence had disappeared as cleanly as a candle flame being snuffed out by a hand.

The Blood Bond was still there. He could sense that Ying was still alive and full of vitality. But he simply couldn't find it.

"Ying?"

There was no response. The area around the depression was so quiet that only the flickering light on the water's surface remained.

One breath. Two. Three. Four. Five. Su Ming's right hand had already gripped the life-saving Formation Plate in his sleeve.

On the sixth breath—his left shoulder suddenly felt a weight.

A black puffball appeared out of thin air on his shoulder.

"Chirp—!"

Ying let out a triumphant cry, its pride exactly the same as when it used to tease the White Cranes at Spirit Beast Peak.

Su Ming was stunned for two full breaths before reaching out to flick its forehead. "You gave me a fright."

Ying was indignant. It spread its wings and flew up, hovering in mid-air for a moment—and vanished again.

This time, Su Ming stared intently at the spot where Ying had disappeared. He saw nothing, his Divine Sense felt nothing, and there wasn't even a ripple of spiritual power. Seven breaths later, Ying reappeared on his right shoulder.

In his Sea of Consciousness, Su Ming could hear a slight tremor in Lin Yu's voice: "The 'Hidden' character—it has actively activated it."

Su Ming slowly exhaled. Ying wasn't just "invisible"—it had truly vanished on a perceptual level. This wasn't a common invisibility spell. An invisibility spell is a concealment, but Ying's state just now was something even his Divine Sense as its master couldn't detect.

Lin Yu floated out and looked down at Ying with a complex expression—relief, surprise, and a hint of pride he hadn't even realized himself. The three Laws he had risked exhausting his Soul Power to carve when it first hatched were finally beginning to bear fruit.

"Not bad," Lin Yu said, suppressing his emotions. "This bird can now actively use the Hidden Art. It's qualified to be used as a Scout from now on."

Ying didn't understand what a "Scout" was, but it clearly understood the praise, and it lifted its little head high once more.