Chapter 97: Chapter 97 - Su Qingshan’s Prophecy and the Sealed Immortal Path

The black jade casket slowly sealed itself. The portal within disappeared.

For a while, none of the ancestors spoke.

They remained standing around the casket, their aged faces pale from the cost of opening the Ancestral Sanctum.

Li Xuanzong stood respectfully to the side.

After a long silence, one elderly matriarch turned her faint gaze toward him.

"Xuanzong."

Li Xuanzong bowed.

"This disciple is here."

The matriarch’s eyes were only half-open, but her gaze carried the weight of many years.

"That child just now. Is he the one Su Qingshan brought back?"

Li Xuanzong’s expression became solemn.

"Yes, Ancestor."

Several ancestors fell silent again.

One old patriarch slowly stroked his white beard.

"So he is the child."

His voice was hoarse, but there was a faint smile in it.

"At first, I did not believe Su Qingshan’s words. That boy always looked as if he was smiling at the world while hiding a blade behind his back. But when his child absorbed the Twilight Qi from our coffins, this old man’s heart stirred again."

Another ancestor frowned slightly.

"Su Qingshan’s words?" He looked at the others. "What words?"

A nearby matriarch glanced at him.

"You were sleeping that day, old fossil. Naturally, you did not hear."

The old patriarch’s brows twitched.

"We are all old fossils here."

"That is true," the matriarch said calmly. "But some fossils sleep through important matters."

The old patriarch was silent.

Li Xuanzong lowered his gaze and pretended not to hear.

It was better not to comment when ancestors insulted each other.

The matriarch then looked back at him.

"Xuanzong, six years ago, when Su Qingshan handed that child to you, you came here and reported his words to us. Can you repeat what he said for this old fossil?"

Li Xuanzong’s brows moved slightly.

He remembered that day when he met Su Qingshan again.

How could he not remember?

That meeting had been too sudden.

At the time, he had been traveling outside the sect. He had not told many people his route. Even within the sect, only a few elders knew his schedule.

Yet Su Qingshan had been waiting there... as if he had known exactly when Li Xuanzong would pass.

At first, Li Xuanzong had almost thought he had seen a ghost. After all, Su Qingshan had disappeared for decades.

Many people believed he had died in the Great Fissure.

But that day, Su Qingshan stood beneath an old tree, carrying a child beside him.

The child was twelve years old. His eyes looked somewhat dull, as if he had not fully awakened.

That child was Su Bai.

Li Xuanzong remembered Su Qingshan’s face clearly.

He had looked tired, but his eyes were bright. The kind of brightness that made people uneasy.

Before handing Su Bai to him, Su Qingshan revealed something to him.

The reason he had entered the Great Fissure was not merely self-sacrifice. There had been something deeper.

Su Qingshan had entered to search for a clue. A clue about why the path to immortality had been sealed.

The path to immortality.

Those words alone were enough to make Li Xuanzong silent for a long time.

In the cultivation world, the realms were clear.

Body Forging.

Qi Refining.

Foundation Establishment.

Golden Core.

Nascent Soul.

Void Shattering.

Void Shattering was the peak. Above it should have been the path beyond the mortal world.

But for countless years, no one had received that answer.

Even those who reached the peak of Void Shattering could only stand before an unresponsive door.

The path was there. Yet sealed.

The immortal gate remained unresponsive.

That was why the ancestors of Radiant Sky Sect were still here.

They were not mediocre people.

Every ancestor sleeping in the ice coffins had once shaken an era. In their own generations, they had been the pride of the sect, the hope of their age, and figures who should have continued forward.

But the road ended.

So they could only linger like this, using ancient methods to preserve their remaining lives while waiting for an answer that never came.

Li Xuanzong closed his eyes for a moment.

Then he repeated the words he had heard six years ago.

"Su Qingshan said..."

The ancestors became quiet.

Li Xuanzong’s voice was low.

"The path to immortality remains sealed. I cannot help you. But this child of mine might be able to."

The mausoleum fell into complete silence.

The old patriarch who had been sleeping that day froze.

For a long time, no one spoke.

Those words were too heavy.

If another person had said them, the ancestors might have dismissed them as madness.

But Su Qingshan was different.

When it came to serious matters, he almost never spoke empty words.

The previously clueless patriarch’s expression changed several times.

Then he asked, "Where is Su Qingshan now?"

Li Xuanzong opened his eyes.

"He did not return to the sect."

The ancestors looked at him.

Li Xuanzong continued, "After handing Disciple Su Bai to me, he said he had a different path to tread."

His voice became slightly heavier.

"He said he had glimpsed the Great Dao."

The moment those words fell, the ancestors’ expressions changed.

Even their faint spirit senses stirred.

"Glimpsed the Great Dao?"

"Then he may already know something."

Li Xuanzong nodded slowly.

"His final words were that if the path does not exist, he would force his way through."

The mausoleum trembled faintly.

For old cultivators who had reached the end of the road, those words were both arrogant and painful.

If the path does not exist, force a way through.

Only someone like Su Qingshan would dare say such a thing.

One matriarch’s eyes became complicated.

"If he glimpsed the Great Dao, then perhaps he learned why the immortal gate does not respond."

Another ancestor said softly, "But if he could not tell us, then the matter is not simple."

Li Xuanzong remained silent.

The ancestors understood.

Some truths could not be spoken. Some secrets could not be passed down directly.

If Su Qingshan had truly found something, yet still chose not to tell them plainly, then either he was unable to say it, or saying it would bring disaster.

In the end, the key he left behind was Su Bai.

The matriarch looked toward the sealed black jade casket.

"That child’s body is strange."

One ancestor nodded.

"He absorbed Twilight Qi without injury."

"Not only without injury," another said. "His Qi signature became steadier afterward."

The old patriarch who had spoken first slowly smiled.

"Then let us wait."

His voice was old, but the hope within it was no longer completely dead.

"We have waited for many years. Waiting a little longer is nothing."

The matriarch nodded.

"Return to sleep. The Sanctum has opened. Their fate inside will depend on themselves."

The ancestors slowly turned back toward their ice coffins.

One by one, the lids closed again.

Then, their auras sank into silence.

Li Xuanzong bowed deeply.

"Disciple will guard the sect."

No one answered.

The ancestors had already returned to sleep.

Only the black jade casket remained in the depths of the mausoleum, silent and still.