The night was as thick as ink, dense and impenetrable.

In the rear hall of the External Affairs Hall on Guiding Peak, a place usually bustling with people and the noisy clamor of task handovers, it was now eerily quiet.

Only a solitary lamp flickered at the end of the corridor, stretching Su Ming’s shadow into a long, thin, and twisted shape.

Su Ming stood before that heavy purple sandalwood door, took a deep breath, and tried to calm the slightly rapid heartbeat in his chest. Just half an hour ago, an emergency message talisman had directly breached the defensive formation of Bing Character Seven Courtyard and landed in his hand.

There was no official format, no bureaucratic prose, only Elder Ma’s familiar, somewhat weary voice: “Come quickly.”

“Disciple, this atmosphere doesn’t seem right,” Lin Yu’s soul thought within the Xuantian ring, unusually dropping his usual playful demeanor, his tone carrying a hint of gravity. “In the dead of night, a lone young man and an old man, in this kind of meditation room… based on my extensive experience, this usually only means two things: either entrusting an orphan or a soul seizure attempt.”

The corner of Su Ming’s eye twitched slightly as he responded in his mind, “Master, can you wish me something good?”

“Ahem, your teacher is just conducting the worst-case risk assessment,” Lin Yu said.

Su Ming’s heart tightened. Death aura?

Su Ming hesitated for a moment, straightened his robes, and gently knocked on the door.

“Enter.”

Su Ming pushed the door open and entered.

No lamps were lit inside the room. Only the cold moonlight from outside the window poured in like quicksilver, outlining the gaunt silhouette by the window.

Elder Ma stood with his back to the door, hands clasped behind him, gazing at the churning sea of clouds outside the window.

The incense in the burner had long since burned out. The air was filled with a desolation that came after a task was accomplished and the dust had settled, along with a faint, almost imperceptible… sense of finality.

Su Ming did not speak, merely bowed respectfully and then stood to the side with his hands hanging down.

After a long while, Elder Ma slowly turned around.

By the moonlight, Su Ming saw his face clearly and couldn’t help but feel his heart skip a beat.

Old.

Too old.

If Elder Ma before had looked like a vigorous old scholar, now he resembled a piece of withered wood about to burn out completely. The wrinkles on his face were as deep as ravines, his eye sockets were sunken, and only those eyes shone startlingly bright in the darkness, like the final flare of a dying flame.

“Sit,” Elder Ma pointed to the meditation cushion opposite.

Su Ming complied and sat down, his back ramrod straight.

“In three days, this old man will enter secluded cultivation for a life-or-death breakthrough.”

Elder Ma’s first sentence was like a massive rock hurled into the deathly still air.

Su Ming’s head snapped up. Even though he had some premonition, the news still came too suddenly.

“Success means shattering the core to form an infant, extending my lifespan by another five hundred years;
failure means the Dao dissipates, the body perishes, and the soul returns to heaven and earth,” Elder Ma’s tone was as calm as if discussing some trivial matter unrelated to himself. “This is fate, a hurdle this old man must cross in this lifetime. You need not worry, and certainly don’t adopt that childish, sentimental attitude.”

Su Ming opened his mouth, but a thousand words ultimately condensed into a single dry phrase: “Elder… a fortunate man under a lucky star is sure to…”

“Spare me such platitudes,” Elder Ma waved his hand, a faint trace of mockery tugging at the corner of his mouth. “What ‘fortunate man under a lucky star’ exists in the cultivation world? It’s merely fighting fate. This old man has been stuck at Golden Core Perfection for over one hundred and sixty years. My great limit approaches. If I don’t take this gamble, I’d just be prolonging my feeble existence for a few more years, ultimately turning into a handful of yellow earth.”

His gaze was like a deep, ancient well, quietly fixed on Su Ming. “Before entering seclusion, there is one matter I must settle to establish your foundation. This is my final responsibility as your guide.”

Su Ming’s heart shook. He sat up even straighter. “Please instruct me, Elder.”

Elder Ma did not speak immediately. Instead, he withdrew an ancient bronze mirror from his sleeve.

The mirror was no larger than a palm, its back carved with intricate cloud patterns. The mirror surface, however, was not smooth bronze but a chaotic, grey vortex, as if capable of devouring all light.

Su Ming’s heart tightened, but his expression remained unchanged.

“Extend your hand, press it against the mirror,” Elder Ma’s voice brooked no argument. “This old man will personally test your spiritual roots again.”

Su Ming hesitated for an instant.

What if something abnormal is detected…

“Afraid of what?” Lin Yu’s voice chimed in at the perfect moment, carrying a hint of disdain. “We cultivate the orthodox Great Dao, not demonic arts. Besides, with the concealment of the ‘Formless Pattern,’ unless a Spirit Transformation old monster arrives in person, he won’t detect anything odd about the ring. As for your body… heh, that’s a good thing. Let him see it!”

With his master’s assurance, Su Ming hesitated no longer. He extended his right hand and slowly pressed it against the cold mirror surface.

“Hummm—”

A faint humming sound resonated within the quiet room.

The grey vortex on the mirror surface began to spin wildly. A faint yet pure suction force emanated from the palm of his hand.

Immediately after, a vast, brilliant light erupted violently from the mirror!

It was an azure blue.

Pure, profound, boundless, like an endless emerald sea, instantly illuminating the entire dim meditation room, even overpowering the moonlight outside the window.

Water Spiritual Root!

And an exceptionally pure, superior Water Spiritual Root at that!

The originally turbid light in Elder Ma’s eyes instantly erupted into two beams of intense brilliance, fixed unwaveringly on that sea of blue light.

However, a sudden change occurred.

Just as the vast expanse of water light was stabilizing, a ripple stirred from deep within the emerald sea.

A wisp of green spiritual essence, brimming with vibrant vitality, like tenacious seaweed on the ocean floor, slowly sprouted and swayed. It was not powerful, yet it was extraordinarily resilient. It stretched its leaves within the vast water light, merging with the water radiance yet not being devoured. Instead, it drew upon the water’s momentum, becoming increasingly verdant and lush.

Water gives birth to Wood!

“Indeed! Just as I thought!”

Elder Ma abruptly stood up, his movement so forceful he even knocked over the incense burner behind him. He seemed completely unaware, his gaze fixed solely on that swaying green spiritual essence within the mirror, an expression of sudden, profound understanding dawning on his face.

“A Water-Generates-Wood phase spiritual root! No wonder… no wonder!”

He turned his head, looking at Su Ming, his eyes blazing as if gazing upon an uncut jade.

“Su Ming, your previous success in cultivating that crude wood-element cultivation method was no mere fluke, nor was it some lucky accident! It’s because your spiritual root’s inherent nature contains this latent Wood phase! It usually lies dormant and unseen, nurtured and born by the Water Spiritual Root. Once guided by a wood-element cultivation method, it’s like withered wood meeting spring!”

Elder Ma let out a long sigh, as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart.

“You told me before that your cultivation method was an incomplete longevity art. This old man always harbored doubts. How could there be so many coincidences in this world? Now it seems it was because your special physique spontaneously compensated for the shortcomings of the method!”

Pausing here, his tone became serious. “Your Dao path lies in ‘the highest good is like water.’ Use water as the root, wood as the support. Water and Wood mutually generating each other—that is the correct path. Previously, you only cultivated the wood element. While it caused no major harm, it was a deviation, a waste of this innate talent of yours!”

Su Ming was stunned.

He instinctively asked in his mind, “Master, is this… true?”

Within the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu’s soul thought also fell silent for a moment before erupting into a burst of awkward coughs.

“Ahem… that, disciple, this old man’s eyes are truly sharp! But well, he’s right! Ours was, after all, ‘theory first,’ and in practice, we slightly… hmm… took a bit of a detour. I was only focused on having you practice the ‘Greenwood Longevity Art’ for survival, overlooking your body’s original attributes.”

A bitter laugh rose in Su Ming’s heart, but on the surface, he put on an expression of sudden enlightenment mixed with sincere trepidation. He bowed deeply towards Elder Ma.

“This disciple is dull-witted. If not for Elder’s illumination today, clearing the clouds to reveal the sun, this disciple would likely still be groping in the dark on the wrong path. Thank you, Elder, for pointing out the right direction!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep