532: Chapter 532 The Heavenly Dao Leaves Blank Space

In less than half a cup of tea's time, a Tianji Pavilion Disciple dressed in plain white Daoist robes walked into the hall, steadily carrying an old wooden box with both hands.

The wooden box was pitch black, with no carvings or Array Patterns on its surface.

But the moment it appeared, Su Ming keenly sensed that the surrounding Spiritual Qi, which was already extremely thin, seemed to have encountered some kind of natural enemy, retreating in a visibly traceable path. The wooden box emitted a fluctuation that was extremely ancient, carrying even a hint of an eerily decaying aura.

The Master of Tianji Pavilion slowly stood up from the prayer mat.

He did not use Spiritual Qi to retrieve it, but instead, with great solemnity, reached out his hands and took the wooden box from the Disciple.

"Click."

The wooden box was gently opened.

There was no blinding treasure light, nor any shocking pressure. What the Master took out from inside was a tortoise shell no larger than a palm.

The color of the tortoise shell was a golden-brown, a hue born from the accumulation of countless years, and its surface was covered in dense, hair-thin cracks.

"This is the divination tortoise shell left behind by the Ancestral Master who founded Tianji Pavilion." The Master held the unassuming tortoise shell in both hands, his eyes, deep as a galaxy, revealing a near-fanatical reverence. "Every crack on it bears the backlash of a Heavenly Dao deduction. It has witnessed too many lives, deaths, rises, and falls."

Su Ming felt a chill in his heart.

His gaze was fixed tightly on the tortoise shell. The moment his eyes touched it, the seven hundred and fifty Array Talismans in his Sea of Consciousness let out a restless tremor.

He noticed that the hands of this top-tier existence in the Central Plains, holding the tortoise shell, were actually slightly tense.

This tortoise shell was by no means an ordinary Magical Artifact; it was, in itself, a vessel for the rules.

The Master did not look at Su Ming again, nor did he look at the Immortal Master Xuanming sitting opposite him. He slowly closed his eyes.

"Whoosh—"

The mountain breeze flowing through the side hall ceased instantly.

The air seemed to be tightly gripped by an invisible giant hand. That absolute silence caused the faces of Qingfeng and Mingyue, standing in the corner, to turn deathly pale instantly. Even their intentionally hushed breathing became clearly audible, sounding like thunder.

Three breaths later.

The Master's tightly closed eyes snapped open.

He flipped his hands in front of his chest, and the golden-brown tortoise shell left his grasp, floating quietly in mid-air.

There was no sound of shattering, nor any dazzling light. The tortoise shell just hung there, as if it had originally grown within the Void Realm.

The Master's withered hands began to form hand seals.

His ten fingers moved like butterflies flitting through flowers, so fast that even Su Ming's keen eyesight could only capture a blur. An extremely obscure, invisible ripple emanated from his fingertips and struck the tortoise shell.

The tortoise shell began to rotate.

At first, it was very slow, like an old millstone.

But immediately after, the speed of rotation suddenly accelerated.

The Spiritual Qi in the side hall, already thin, was frantically drained in an instant. Su Ming felt a spasm in his Dantian, and the azure Spiritual Qi he had painstakingly accumulated began to dissipate uncontrollably along his Meridians, as if it had been sucked into a terrifying vortex.

Su Ming bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and clenched his fists tightly. He followed the suction force with the Ruoshui Art, transforming it into a water-like circulation, barely managing to steady his stance.

Ying was perched on his right shoulder, its black feathers completely flared out. Its two small claws were digging fiercely into Su Ming's clothes, and its tiny body was shivering under the pressure.

The rotation speed of the tortoise shell reached its limit.

The blue stone floor tiles of the entire side hall began to creak under the unbearable strain. Qingfeng and Mingyue were already swaying unsteadily, and they could only stay upright by supporting each other, preventing them from kneeling to the ground.

"Snap!"

An extremely crisp cracking sound suddenly burst forth.

The high-speed rotating tortoise shell suddenly stopped in mid-air.

A brand new, thin, long crack extended straight from the right edge of the tortoise shell to the very center.

The Master of Tianji Pavilion stared fixedly at the newly formed hexagram, his once calm pupils suddenly constricting to the extreme.

His face, originally as ruddy as an infant's, drained of all color at a visible speed, becoming as pale as paper.

The entire hall was deathly silent.

The sound of the wind had not yet returned, and even the fingers of Immortal Master Xuanming, which had been tapping on his knee, froze in mid-air.

The Master stared at that hexagram for a full ten breaths.

Finally, the Master slowly raised his head, his complex gaze passing straight over the jade table and landing on Su Ming.

"Your fate..." The Master's voice became somewhat hoarse, as if that last hexagram had drained most of his energy, "...has been obscured."

Su Ming's heart gave a sudden squeeze.

His right thumb subconsciously tightened around the xuantian ring on his index finger.

Lin Yu's soul body inside the ring went completely still. That layer of deep blue luster completely receded, as if it had turned into a lifeless object.

Su Ming did not speak; he simply stood quietly in place, meeting the Master's gaze, his expression as calm as stagnant water.

The Master stared at him for a moment but did not continue to probe deeper.

He just sighed meaningfully.

"The Heavenly Dao leaves blank space; it is not necessarily a misfortune."

The Master did not continue. He waved his large sleeve, and the tortoise shell in mid-air emitted a soft chime, steadily falling back into the pitch-black wooden box.

His movement to close the lid was even more solemn than when he had taken it out, and it even carried a hint of imperceptible urgency.

Just at the moment the wooden box closed.

"What else did the hexagram say?"

The previously silent Immortal Master Xuanming suddenly spoke. In his deep-set eye sockets, an extremely sharp light flickered.

The Master's movements paused slightly.

He turned his head and glanced at Immortal Master Xuanming.

The two looked at each other for a moment.

"Are you sure you want me to say it here?" The Master's voice was very soft, as if it would scatter with a gust of wind, but everyone in the side hall heard it clearly.

The withered fingers of Immortal Master Xuanming, resting on his knee, twitched slightly.

He looked at Qingfeng and Mingyue standing behind him, then looked at Su Ming.

In the end, Immortal Master Xuanming did not reply but instead cast his gaze back toward the rolling sea of clouds outside the hall.

Seeing this, the Master did not pay any more attention to him.

He pushed the wooden box aside and turned his gaze back to Su Ming.

"The ten-thousand-year void azure stone marrow, I can give it to you." The Master's voice returned to calm, "But, Tianji Pavilion has one condition."

The atmosphere in the side hall became extremely subtle once again because of the word "condition."

Su Ming lowered his hands and bowed slightly.

"Please, Master, give your instructions." His voice was so steady that not a ripple of emotion could be heard.

The Master of Tianji Pavilion did not answer immediately. He stood up from behind the jade table, his hands behind his back, and walked slowly to the edge of the side hall, gazing deeply into the thick fog torn by the wind outside the cliff.

"I just saw from the hexagram," the Master said without turning back, his voice sounding somewhat ethereal in the mountain wind, "that in the future, you will set foot on the territory of the Spirit Clan."