Su Bai followed one of the deeper paths of the Ancestral Sanctum.
The further Su Bai walked, the heavier the atmosphere beca.
This was no longer the inheritance area. This was the training area.
Soon, he arrived before a massive stone stele.
The stele was black, and its surface was covered in glowing red characters. Each character looked as if it had been carved with blood and sealed with lightning.
Su Bai stopped, then he read.
[Halt, disciple. Beyond this point lie the Bios of the Mortal Purge.]
[To the left, the Nine-Suns Lava Chambers will incinerate your flesh, and the Black-Ice Regions will shatter your frozen blood.]
[To the right, the Astral Wind Corridors will flay your skin, and the Ancestors’ Sword-Scar Cliffs will shred your spirit.]
[Above, the Heaven-Strike Lightning Zones will obliterate your soul.]
[Below, the Mountain-Crushing Caverns will grind your bones to dust, while the Lotus-Rot Poison Marshes will lt your mind.]
[Step forward only if you are prepared to die for the Dao.]
Su Bai stood silently.
The warning was very sincere. Every direction seed to have been designed by soone who looked at ordinary training grounds and felt they were too gentle.
’This was not a training area. This was a polite nu of suffering.’
Su Bai looked at the stele for a long mont.
Then his eyes slowly brightened behind the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask.
This was a good place.
For body-refining cultivators, the Mountain-Crushing Caverns would be excellent. The Nine-Suns Lava Chambers and Black-Ice Regions could also temper flesh and ridians under extre conditions.
But Su Bai had not co here only to refine his body.
What he truly needed now was sothing that suited his own cultivation path.
Su Bai’s gaze stopped on one line.
[Lotus-Rot Poison Marshes will lt your mind.]
He did not hesitate. He stepped toward the path below.
The ground descended.
At first, it was only a slope of dark stone, then the air began to change.
The golden mist of ancient Qi remained, but it was no longer pure. It gradually beca thicker, heavier, and greener at the edges. Thin strands of black vapor crawled through the air like living threads.
The deeper Su Bai walked, the quieter everything beca.
The path narrowed, then split into two.
On one side, Su Bai felt a deep, crushing pressure rising from below. The stone path there was cracked, and each crack seed to have been pressed open by invisible mountains.
Mountain-Crushing Caverns.
On the other side, the ground softened into black-green soil. Pale lotus flowers grew from pools of dark water. Their petals looked beautiful, but their edges were rotted and translucent, as if they had blood from decay itself.
Lotus-Rot Poison Marshes.
Su Bai turned toward the marsh without the slightest hesitation.
The mont he entered, the poisonous air pressed against him. Even through the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask, he could sll it.
Su Bai inhaled, then, his eyes imdiately relaxed.
’Comfortable.’
Su Bai looked around.
The Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh stretched into the distance.
Black-green water shimred beneath pale green mist. Rotten lotuses floated on the surface, their stems twisting like old fingers.
So pools bubbled softly. Each bubble released a strand of poison vapor that curled upward before dissolving into the air.
The soil was soft, but not muddy in a simple way.
It looked as if the ground itself had been soaked in poison for countless years until even the stone below had learned decay.
Su Bai stood at the edge of the marsh and felt his mind grow clearer.
The poison that was supposed to lt consciousness instead made his thoughts sharper. The rot that should have corroded his body instead seeped into his ridians like nourishnt.
Su Bai’s gaze lowered toward the black-green marsh water.
For a mont, he had an inappropriate thought.
He wanted to drink it.
Su Bai swallowed, then he shook his head.
Finally, he took a deep breath. Then he sat cross-legged at the place where the poisonous mist was thickest.
He began circulating the Void-Sunflower Supre thod.
The mont his cultivation thod moved, the surrounding poison mist surged toward him.
The poisonous ancient Qi entered his body, passed through his lungs, flowed into his ridians, and sank toward his Dantian.
His Infinite Void Dantian opened.
The nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs stirred at the sa ti.
The poison mist around him began to swirl.
Su Bai’s expression beca peaceful.
’This was much better than the entrance area.’
After a while, Su Bai sighed inwardly.
He should have asked Liu ng for more Shattered-Soul Oblivion Pills before entering the Ancestral Sanctum.
If he had so of those pills and this marsh together, the effect might have been even better.
Su Bai reflected on it deeply for about three breaths. Then he continued absorbing poison.
...
Ti stretched.
The Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh was quiet, but Su Bai’s body was not.
At so point, Su Bai opened his eyes and looked at the marsh water again.
The temptation returned.
Su Bai stared at it, then looked around.
No one was here.
Su Bai calmly took out an empty bottle.
He scooped up a small amount of marsh water.
Su Bai looked at it for a breath.
Then... he took a sip.
The taste was difficult to describe.
It was bitter but has a sweet aftertaste. It was also cold enough to make the teeth feel imaginary.
Su Bai’s eyes brightened.
The marsh water entered his body.
The poison erupted, then reversed.
A dense stream of refined energy surged through his ridians.
His nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs opened wider.
The Infinite Void Dantian drew the energy in.
His Dao Pedestal trembled. The Yin-Crystal Asteroid spun slowly, absorbing the reversed poison as if it had found a rare mineral.
Su Bai imdiately sat straighter.
The bottleneck loosened.
Su Bai’s aura rose.
Foundation Establishnt Eighth Stage.
Su Bai exhaled.
He had broken through and his cultivation was still rising.
The Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh was not simply poison. It was poison refined by the Ancestral Sanctum and mixed with ancient Qi for countless years. To ordinary disciples, it was a mind-lting disaster.
To Su Bai, it was a cultivation resource almost tailored for him.
Su Bai looked at the marsh water again.
This ti, his gaze was even more serious.
He should not drink too quickly. Even good things had to be processed properly. Especially good things that were supposed to kill people.
At that mont, the system automatically signed him in.
Su Bai opened his eyes.
He opened his inventory to check the new item.
[Heart-Seed of the Rot-Lotus.]
Su Bai paused.
The dark green seed’s surface looked like a lotus seed, but tiny red veins pulsed within it like a living heart.
Su Bai checked the description.
[Description: A desperate cultivator may swallow this seed and allow it to take root in their heart. The parasite violently drains lifespan and blood, converting them into an explosive aura of lethal necrotic poison. The user will die a horrific rotting death within days.]
Su Bai stared at the description. Then he imdiately took the item out and swallowed it.
The Heart-Seed slid down his throat and entered his body. The mont it reached his chest, it dissolved into a dark green light and rushed toward his heart.
A normal cultivator’s fate would have ended there.
But the mont the Heart-Seed tried to drain Su Bai’s lifespan, the effect reversed.
Instead of pulling life out of him, it began pulling poison from the surroundings.
The Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh trembled.
A wide circle of poisonous mist collapsed inward.
The marsh water rippled.
Black-green vapor surged toward Su Bai’s body and poured into his chest.
The seed rooted itself near his heart.
But it did not feed on him. It fed for him.
The ambient poison was sucked in, refined, condensed, and transford into pure vitality.
Warmth spread through Su Bai’s chest.
His heart beat once.
Thump.
The sound was low, but full of life.
Su Bai’s eyes widened.
Then his heart beat again.
Thump.
A wave of vitality spread through his limbs.
His blood beca warr. His flesh tightened. His exhausted mind cleared.
Even his soul seed to feel a faint spring breeze blowing over a graveyard.
Su Bai sat there, stunned.
’This feeling... was too good.’
The poison marsh continued pouring toxic energy into him, and the Heart-Seed continued transforming it into lifespan and vitality.
A faint green glow appeared around his chest before slowly fading.
Su Bai touched his heart.
His lifespan had increased.
"Oof."
He did not know what else to say.
’The cultivation world was truly wonderful.’
Su Bai continued cultivating in the Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh.
His Foundation Establishnt Eighth Stage gradually stabilized. His cultivation continued rising slowly.
It’s now the seventh day inside the Ancestral Sanctum.
Su Bai stopped cultivating.
He looked at the marsh. Then he looked toward the direction of the other bios.
A thought slowly appeared.
The Lotus-Rot Poison Marsh had already given him this much.
What about the other places?
Each bio was different. And if each bio could produce a different sign-in reward...
Su Bai’s eyes slowly brightened.
He stood up.
Su Bai looked at the poison marsh one last ti.
Then he clasped his hands toward it sincerely.
"Many thanks."
After saying that, he turned and walked back toward the branching path.
There were still many places left to visit.
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