In the feedback of the divine sense, there was not a single trace of spiritual energy in this cave dwelling, not a shred of blood qi, and absolutely no soul fluctuations.
There was only dry dust, a few dead venomous insects, and a piece of shriveled granite leaning against the stone wall. Weathered for an unknown number of years, its internal structure had already decayed and deteriorated.
The divine sense lingered on the surface of the granite for a full three breaths of time.
During these three breaths, the entire wilderness was dead silent, with only the sails of the flying boats high in the sky fluttering loudly.
In the end, the divine sense found nothing unusual. Somewhat disappointed, it withdrew from the stone cave and swept toward the deeper parts of the desolate marshes.
Only when the divine sense had completely receded and vanished over the horizon did the skin of the “shriveled granite” beside the stone wall weakly relax. Even so, she did not immediately revive.
Su Yueli knew very well that the old monsters in the cultivation world were all as cunning as foxes.
Today's search was merely the beginning.
For the next three, five, or even thirty years, this wilderness would become a meat grinder for the power struggles between the cultivators of both dynasties.
Whoever lost their patience first and moved would become prey to be devoured by everyone else.
“A long-lived martial artist has nothing if not patience.”
“If you are in a hurry to gamble with your lives, I will just stay here and wear you down.”
Su Yueli murmured softly in her heart.
Thump...
Her heart beat once more, dull and slow.
After that, the second beat occurred after an interval of a full two hours.
The third beat occurred after an interval of a year.
Su Yueli slowly closed her eyes, the expression beneath her mask returning completely to tranquility.
Rustle...
The mountain wind howled, and a few withered, yellow leaves were swept by the wind to land at the entrance of the stone cave.
Next came soil and dust.
Within just a few months, the entrance to this nameless stone cave was completely sealed off by thick layers of fallen leaves and dust.
From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary, weed-covered loess slope.
The world was searching for the Masked God of Death who had severed the lineage of the Cangyun Sect.
Yet, in this corner of the barren plains devoid of any spiritual energy, she began another long period of ascetic meditation belonging to a long-lived being.
The wind blew, the grass bent, winter departed, and spring returned.
At this moment, time became utterly meaningless.
A hundred and ten years was but a mere blink of an eye.
For the mortal commoners in the Great Li Imperial City, these hundred and ten years were somewhat difficult to endure.
The people of the mortal world were like revolving lanterns, dying off generation after generation.
The group of low-grade rogue cultivators who had once slammed tables and argued with flushed faces about the “Masked God of Death” in the teahouses of Blackstone City had now rotted away completely in mass graves, leaving not even a splinter of bone.
Time was a very cruel thing.
The destruction of the Cangyun Sect back then was no different from a cataclysmic earthquake in the Great Li cultivation world a century ago.
But by now, that tragic immortal sect fire and the mysterious black-clothed, masked figure who had torn apart an Eleventh Realm array with bare hands had long since changed in flavor through repeated retellings. They had become ancient myths and rumors of dubious truth, discussed over tea and meals.
“Exploding an Eleventh Realm ancestor purely with physical strength? Who are they trying to fool? How could any mortal martial artist who doesn't cultivate immortality live past a hundred years?”
“And even withstand a strike from a Thirteenth Realm grand cultivator?”
When young cultivators of today mentioned this old case, most would only laugh dismissively, treating it as a bedtime story used by sect elders to frighten disobedient disciples.
After all, there had never been a martial artist in this world who could live past a hundred years.
A desolate mountain, a deathly silent, nameless stone cave.
The entrance of the stone cave had long been sealed by loose rocks, mud, and dead leaves. From the outside, it was just a wild slope overgrown with weeds; no one would spare it a second glance.
In the deepest part of the stone cave, Su Yueli still maintained her sitting posture from back then.
Under the erosion of over a hundred years of time, the dirt and accumulated dust pressing down on her had completely weathered and solidified into a grayish-black stone shell over two inches thick.
Her eyes were closed, and she had no breath, no heartbeat, and a freezing body temperature. She looked no different from the rocks in the cave.
Thump.
In the darkness that had been dead silent for over a century, a beating sound suddenly echoed.
It was Su Yueli's heart.
Immediately after, her heartbeat began to gradually accelerate, quickly returning from once an hour to a normal, steady rhythm.
Su Yueli's eyelids trembled slightly, and her body gave a soft shudder.
With this shudder, the two-inch-thick hard stone shell that had completely enveloped her for a hundred and ten years was instantly covered in web-like cracks. It then fractured inch by inch, turning into countless stone fragments that showered onto the ground.
As the stone shell fell away, a blue and white long dress was revealed.
Su Yueli exhaled a long breath of turbid air.
She opened her eyes and examined her hands.
In the dim light, her pair of hands was as fair as warm jade.
Time had carved cuts of varying depths on most people in this world, yet it had spared her alone.
Her face was as exquisite as ever, unchanged from a century ago. Perhaps due to the long years of ascetic meditation, she now possessed a cold, serene beauty that made the mortal world pale in comparison.
“The injuries of the Imperishable Realm have finally been smoothed over.”
Su Yueli examined her internal state and muttered to herself.
The bones inside her body were currently emitting a restrained, lustrous, and warm glow.
The golden bones from when she was in the Thirteenth Realm Imperishable Realm had now completely lost their ostentatious gold color.
They had been replaced by a translucent texture akin to jade.
Cultivation was a highly rigorous matter.
To put it bluntly, the Imperishable Realm was still “leaking.”
Although the physical body's strength was high, the blood qi and energy within would still seep out through the pores and bones.
Her essence, energy, and spirit had completely returned to a state of primal chaos, with not a single trace of blood qi or power leaking from her body.
If Su Yueli did not take the initiative to strike now, even if those Twelfth and Thirteenth Realm immortal ancestors used their divine senses to search her inch by inch, they would only perceive her as a mortal woman with no Bone Aptitude and zero threat.
However, the physical density of this body had reached a terrifying level that would leave cultivators utterly dumbfounded.
No Leakage... meant absolute physical defense.
Currently, even if she stood completely still, any Tenth Realm flying sword hacking at her defenseless neck would not even dream of breaking her physical defense. Instead, it would be shattered to pieces on the spot by the counter-shock force.
This was already a forbidden power that relied purely on the physical body to contend against the laws of heaven and earth.
Su Yueli moved her shoulders, her joints producing very dense, crisp cracking sounds.
She fished out a somewhat worn, broken bronze mirror from her sleeve. Guided by the faint light filtering in from outside, she looked at her stunning face in the mirror, which was identical to how it had looked a century ago.
Feeling a bit helpless, she shook her head.
“Those who cultivate immortality seek longevity, yet they are in a hurry to gamble with their lives every day. I only wanted to sleep, but accidentally lived long enough to become their ancestor.”
Su Yueli put the bronze mirror back into her sleeve.
From a dead corner of the cave, Xiaohei's mass of shadow scrambled up with some excitement, resting obediently on her shoulder.
After a hundred and ten years of recuperation, its dark source and Su Yueli's mutated Martial Soul, which had self-detonated half of its body, had both completely recovered to their most perfect peak state.
Not only that, but after the mutated Martial Soul swallowed the souls of those grand cultivators back then, the dark-gold weapon patterns on the surface of its black-gold armor had become even more profound. When it hid in the shadows, even the laws of space could not detect it.
Su Yueli took out a brand-new white carved mask.
The red patterns on the mask were very vivid, like a smear of wet blood.
She slowly placed the mask over her face.
“A hundred and ten years... I can finally go out.”
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