Chapter 98: Chapter 98 - The Ancestral Sanctum and the Dao-Shattering Jade

At the same time, Su Bai felt that he had stepped into another world.

The moment he crossed the portal, ancient Qi swallowed his body.

His vision blurred for a breath, then the world opened.

The Ancestral Sanctum was vast. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

There was no ordinary horizon. In the far distance, towering monolithic cliffs rose like walls supporting heaven. They were made of pure white jade, smooth in some places and violently scarred in others.

Above them, there was no sun or moon. The sky was a vast interlocking dome of golden gears and rotating arrays.

Golden mist floated everywhere.

It was not ordinary mist. It was ancient Qi so dense that it had taken physical form. Each wisp glowed softly, drifting through the air like countless fireflies caught inside a sacred dream.

The five disciples stood in silence.

The pressure here was different from the outside world.

Every breath felt as if the body was drinking cold, pure spring water.

The Qi entered their lungs, passed into their meridians, and spread through their limbs before they even circulated their techniques.

Liu Meng’s face flushed slightly.

"This Qi..."

Before she finished speaking, Han Yuelin had already sat down.

He crossed his legs and began circulating his cultivation method.

Qin Baoshan followed soon after.

Then Liu Meng.

Then Ji Ruyue.

No one needed to tell them what to do.

In a place like this, the first instinct of every normal cultivator was to cultivate.

Su Bai watched them sit down, then he inhaled.

The ancient Qi entered his body.

His expression changed.

His chest tightened.

The dense, beneficial, pure Qi that made the others feel refreshed entered his lungs and immediately became uncomfortable.

It was like someone had poured an entire bowl of perfectly nourishing medicine down his throat without asking whether his body accepted kindness.

Su Bai inhaled again.

His breathing became heavier.

The ancient Qi pressed into him from all directions.

His Reversal Body stirred faintly.

The more beneficial the Qi was to normal cultivators, the more awkward it felt to him.

Su Bai’s face became strange.

’This was unreasonable.’

Su Bai silently looked at the golden mist.

This place was a blessed land to others.

To him, it was almost too healthy.

After a moment, Su Bai reached into his system inventory.

He took his Glacier-Lung Bone Mask.

To ordinary people, this thing was an execution device. The moment the wearer exhaled, it would crystallize moisture in the breath and force razor-sharp ice shards back down the windpipe.

Su Bai looked at it for a breath, then he put it on.

Su Bai exhaled.

The device activated. Then his Reversal Body moved.

His breathing opened.

The ancient Qi that had been too pure and suffocating was filtered through the mask’s reversed effect, becoming something his body could accept.

Su Bai inhaled again.

This time, the golden mist entered smoothly.

His lungs cooled. His meridians stirred. The nine Gateway Qi Reservoirs slowly opened like nine deep wells receiving rain.

Su Bai’s eyes relaxed.

Around him, the other four disciples were still cultivating.

No one noticed his brief struggle.

After stabilizing himself, Su Bai looked around again.

The Ancestral Sanctum stretched before him.

Su Bai’s gaze slowly became focused.

Before choosing a direction, Su Bai decided to sign in first.

[Ding! Signed in at Ancestral Sanctum.]

[Reward: Dao-Shattering Jade.]

Su Bai’s eyes moved slightly. The name sounded overbearing.

He immediately checked the description.

[Description: A forbidden trial jade used to test a disciple’s Dao Heart by forcefully injecting pure mental torment, illusions of absolute failure, and killing intent directly into the mind. 99% of people who touch it suffer permanent spiritual damage, Qi deviation, and madness.]

Su Bai stared at the description, then he became quiet.

’The first reward from the Ancestral Sanctum was already this good?’

Su Bai felt deeply moved.

He had signed in at Clear Cloud Peak too many times recently. Although Obscuring Mind-Fog Tea Leaves and Slumbering-Lotus Fog Talismans were useful, receiving them too often made even useful things feel familiar.

Su Bai observed the jade from his system inventory.

The Dao-Shattering Jade was roughly the size of a human palm.

The jade itself was deep obsidian black, but thin spiderweb-like veins of sickly purple light pulsed across its surface. It did not emit pleasant Qi. Instead, it seemed to pull the nearby light inward.

Su Bai looked at it carefully.

Then he finally took it out.

The moment his skin met the cold surface, the purple veins flashed violently.

Su Bai’s expression changed.

His fingers tightened. No. It was not that his fingers tightened. He could not let go.

The Dao-Shattering Jade melted.

Its solid surface collapsed into thick black smoke that poured into his palm, rushed up his arm, and entered his head before he could react.

The smoke gathered behind his forehead.

At the center between his brows, a faint pressure appeared.

Su Bai’s body stiffened.

A small mark emerged between his eyebrows.

It was shaped like a thin vertical crack, dark purple and almost invisible unless one looked closely.

Then the mark faded.

Su Bai stood silently.

The Dao-Shattering Jade had integrated with his body.

This was unexpected.

He carefully sensed it.

The jade had not disappeared. It had become something like a hidden seal lodged near his upper spiritual aperture.

He could control it.

At least, he felt that he could.

Su Bai hesitated for a moment, then he activated it slightly.

The mark between his eyebrows appeared again.

A dim purple glow pulsed. In the next instant, a large amount of his Qi was devoured.

Su Bai’s eyelids twitched.

Before he could think further, the Dao-Shattering Jade erupted.

A torrent of mental torment surged toward his consciousness.

It was as if a thousand years of accumulated collapse had been condensed into one breath and forced directly into his soul.

For an ordinary disciple, this would have been a disaster.

But Su Bai’s Reversal Body moved faster.

The moment the torment touched his consciousness, the effect changed.

The mental attack that should have shattered his mind instead became absolute clarity.

The illusion of failure became comprehension.

The pressure of killing intent became focus.

The fragments of chaos arranged themselves into perfect memory.

Su Bai’s eyes widened slightly.

The golden mist around him seemed to slow.

The rotating gears above seemed clearer.

Even his own breathing through the Glacier-Lung Bone Mask became more distinct.

In that brief moment, Su Bai felt as if his mind had been washed clean with ice water and sharpened with a blade.

Then the effect slowly faded.

The purple mark disappeared again.

Su Bai stood there for a long time.

This thing...

Was very useful.

The Qi consumption was large, but inside the Ancestral Sanctum, where ancient Qi filled the air and founder inheritances covered the walls, this ability was almost perfect.

If his Reversal Body could turn the Dao-Shattering Jade’s mental torment into clarity, then he could use it to study techniques, comprehend carvings, and analyze dangerous environments with far greater efficiency.

Su Bai slowly looked toward the distant jade cliffs.

The founder marks were there.

A faint excitement rose in his chest.

He silently turned toward the nearest white jade cliff.

Since he did not know where to go yet, he might as well start with the thing in front of him.