After Escaping From Death, He Went Even Crazier By Criticizing Black Lotus Chapter 28

The sun hung high, and the vast grassland stretched endlessly. A gentle breeze swept across the pale green expanse, dotted with flowers of pink, white, and blue.

When the wind was calm, it felt like a peaceful and tranquil place.

Su Huan instinctively felt something was strange and couldn’t help but look at the Black Lotus.

Xiao Jianming, however, did not look back at him. Instead, he looked at the pair of same-sex Dao companions. “Aren’t you leaving yet?”

The two were startled. The taller man looked unwilling, but the slightly shorter youth tugged at his sleeve and shook his head slightly. The tall man paused, then grudgingly followed the youth away to another spot.

From a distance, some fragmented voices could still be heard:

“A’Chao, he’s just a Nascent Soul cultivator, why bother…”

“Then are you going to listen to me?”

“O-of course, but…”

“Then stop talking.”

…

Su Huan found it somewhat amusing that the imposing, large man turned out to be “henpecked.”

Xiao Jianming sheathed his sword and walked off.

Su Huan’s round eyes were slightly stunned, and he quickly followed. However, after walking for a long time, all he saw were ordinary flowers and grass; he couldn’t find a single sprout containing spiritual energy.

Xiao Jianming stopped.

Su Huan glanced at his face, which was as black as mud.

Su Huan struggled to suppress his laughter, but suddenly met the Black Lotus’s gaze, which was sharp as an ice blade, and couldn’t help but shrink his neck.

Xiao Jianming gave a forced, humorless smile. “…I remember Senior Brother excels at array formations. Even if your Dantian is crippled, you should still remember how to break an array, right?”

Su Huan looked bewildered. When did he learn how to break arrays?

However, as soon as the thought began, countless memories of array formations surged into his mind like a collapsing mountain, along with a few flashes of him and the Black Lotus practicing swordsmanship in the snow. He was momentarily stunned.

Ah, can things learned in an illusion be considered real?

Su Huan skeptically extended his spiritual sense to probe the surroundings. He found that his spiritual sense was isolated outside a space of about a hundred miles, as if it had hit an invisible glass bottle. It closely resembled a formation used in his memory to trap and kill demonic cultivators.

If a regular cultivator accidentally entered it, they wouldn’t trigger the formation; instead, they would be repelled by it. Conversely, a demonic cultivator would trigger layers of karmic fire until the last trace of demonic energy within the formation was completely extinguished.

If that were all, they wouldn’t be experiencing the current “ghost-hitting-the-wall” situation. There must be other formations involved…

At the same time, two figures appeared at the edge of the boundless grassland. Seeing them, they were startled and instinctively turned to leave, nearly bumping into the woman who had left earlier.

The woman narrowly avoided them, glaring angrily. “Don’t you have eyes!”

The tall youth snorted through his nose, ignoring her. He turned and whispered to the youth beside him, “What’s going on? We circled back to where we started. It seems we can’t get out…”

He deliberately didn’t use sound transmission, occasionally glancing at Su Huan and Xiao Jianming out of the corner of his eye. Clearly, he was speaking for them to hear, intending to tell the two demonic overlords: Look, it’s not that they don’t want to leave, it’s that they can’t.

Su Huan was deep in thought with his head lowered and didn’t notice this scene. Xiao Jianming, however, squinted at the two of them, silently scoffing: Useless.

The tall man immediately grew angry and wanted to step forward to argue with him, but the youth beside him restrained him, shaking his head gently.

The shorter youth looked at Su Huan, who was frowning and squatting on the ground. He watched as Su Huan tentatively reached his hand toward the ground, his fingertip trembling as he squeezed out a trace of spiritual power and sank it underground.

The spiritual power fluctuation was so faint it was almost inaudible, like that of someone who had just begun cultivating. The youth couldn’t help but be startled.

The tall man also sensed the weak spiritual power and exchanged a puzzled look with the youth.

The woman sneered and mocked, “What is this? Such low cultivation. Did he come to the secret realm just to die?”

Su Huan heard her but hadn’t spoken yet when the shorter youth said with some annoyance, “Tao Shouyue, if you can’t speak properly, then don’t speak at all. This isn’t Wangyue Sect. If you accidentally provoke someone, the Sect Master won’t be here to protect you.”

The woman named Tao Shouyue immediately became furious and started arguing with the youth. If she hadn’t been wary of Xiao Jianming beside Su Huan, she would have drawn her sword and killed him already.

Su Huan smiled at the youth to express his thanks.

Then, multitasking, he recalled information about Wangyue Sect while manipulating his spiritual power to probe deep underground. He truly sensed the array patterns buried beneath the earth. After mapping them out, they actually matched a formation in his memory.

The formation was called Solid Shadow, a type of illusion array taught by the Myriad Manifestation Sect. If the array core couldn’t be found, one would be trapped and slowly perish within the fixed, unchanging illusion.

Su Huan wasn’t surprised, but the surprise was dampened by the fact that the people from the illusion had also appeared in reality. He felt that this was actually normal. Thinking about how these two formations were layered together, he had a rough conclusion.

He stood up and approached Xiao Jianming, reaching out to hold one of his hands and writing on the back of it: “There might be a spiritual treasure hidden here.”

Xiao Jianming subconsciously wanted to shake off the soft warmth clinging to his hand, but after realizing Su Huan’s meaning, he forcibly endured it. However, Su Huan’s action stirred up a tingling sensation that drilled straight into his heart, and he abruptly pulled his hand away.

Su Huan looked at him in confusion.

Xiao Jianming’s Adam’s apple bobbed. He lowered his eyes to conceal the gloom within them and replied, “Got it.”

Annoying pest, always trying to seduce him.

Su Huan didn’t know what he was thinking. Seeing that he understood his meaning, his eyes curved into crescents. He swallowed a Spirit Recovery Pill, then squatted down again to look for the array core.

He was completely unaware that Xiao Jianming’s expression darkened behind him. He thought to himself that feelings of affection were truly troublesome.

Perhaps he should find an opportunity to make Su Huan give up on him.

But Su Huan was the first person to… Forget it, Brother is more important.

He had to deal with the fools coveting him behind Su Huan before he found his brother. Otherwise, if Brother Buhuan misunderstood that he genuinely liked this idiot, that wouldn’t be good.

*

Su Huan closed his eyes and meticulously scanned the formation. Following the location of the array core shown in his memory, he channeled a large amount of spiritual power to destroy it.

As the spiritual patterns dissipated, he felt a sudden clarity throughout his body, and a light breeze brushed across his forehead.

Su Huan opened his eyes, only to see the surrounding scenery slowly dissolving. The blue sky and green grass turned into a dim, starry night, and a few animal cries came from somewhere unknown.

He let out a sigh of relief.

Just then, he suddenly felt an extremely powerful surge of spiritual energy rushing toward him!

Su Huan had lost his Golden Core, and his reaction speed was slower than before. Before he could react, the short youth rushed toward him, looking anxious. “Be careful!”

A strong beam of spiritual light pierced the darkness and shot straight into the youth’s body, knocking out a mouthful of fresh blood with a muffled sound. The youth stumbled and fell forward.

Su Huan instinctively reached out to catch him, but the youth ignored the severe pain in his body, anxiously pushing him away and looking around. Only after confirming that Su Huan was fine did he smile contentedly and pass out.

The tall man rushed over anxiously. “A’Chao!”

Su Huan’s heart jolted. “…What did you call him?”

The tall man frantically held the youth. Hearing the question, he looked at Su Huan strangely and frowned. “Don’t you remember?”

Su Huan looked bewildered. What was he supposed to remember?

He only remembered that the original owner and he were both only children… right?

Tao Shouyue watched from the side. She glanced at the youth covered in blood. Because she was wary of Xiao Jianming, she didn’t dare approach. She lifted her chin and asked the tall man, “Ning Zhou, what was that just now? What happened to Su Chao?”

Su Huan heard the familiar name and was surprised. He couldn’t help but look at the unconscious youth, filled with doubts. Could it be that the original owner really had an unknown younger brother?

Xiao Jianming also looked over.

The tall man named Ning Zhou immediately grew angry when he heard the question. “How should I know!”

He then roared at Su Huan, “This is all your fault! If anything happens to A’Chao, even if you are…” He stumbled over his words, skipping the unspeakable title, and shouted, “I won’t let you off!”

Xiao Jianming’s eyes suddenly deepened. He looked at the pair of same-sex Dao companions, deep in thought.

Su Huan awkwardly rubbed his nose. Who knew the spiritual treasure released would be so fierce?

Perhaps the bloodstains on the youth were too shocking. Su Huan unconsciously shivered, thinking, a spiritual treasure… it shouldn’t be lethal, right?

As if seeking confirmation from someone else, Su Huan instinctively looked toward Xiao Jianming.

Xiao Jianming lowered his gaze. “Since you understand medical arts, wouldn’t you know if you just checked him?”

Only then did Su Huan remember his omnipotence in the illusion. He clicked his tongue, secretly marveling at how awesome he was. He swallowed a Spirit Recovery Pill and reached out to feel the youth’s pulse.

Spiritual power entered the youth’s body, but he found that the youth’s spiritual power was so abundant it seemed about to overflow. Not only were there no signs of injury, but old internal injuries were healing and disappearing. There were even faint signs of an impending breakthrough.

He sighed inwardly, marveling at the effect. It was comparable to the ultimate restorative elixirs in Wuxia novels.

Su Huan withdrew his hand. Ning Zhou anxiously asked, “How is A’Chao?”

Su Huan calmly replied with an “Oh.” “He’s fine. He just got too much of a boost and is a bit overheated. He’ll be fine after a good sleep.”

Hearing this, Tao Shouyue’s eyes darted around, and she quickly asked, “Hey, what exactly was that spiritual light?”

Su Huan actually knew this. Although it was only a fleeting glance, Su Huan had clearly seen the appearance of the spiritual treasure. It was an arm-length white bone, radiating purple light from its snowy whiteness. It matched something called the Immortal Mortal Bone in the encyclopedia transmitted to him by the Black Lotus.

He said, “It was an Immortal Mortal Bone.”

Tao Shouyue’s eyes widened in shock. “What?! It was actually an Immortal Mortal Bone! This is a legendary remnant bone left behind by an ancient half-immortal! Just obtaining a piece allows one to inherit all the cultivation techniques practiced by that half-immortal in life, and it can even cause the host to grow an immortal bone, greatly increasing their cultivation!”

She couldn’t help but look enviously at the unconscious Su Chao. “Such a rare item should only appear in major secret realms. How could it appear here?” And to be obtained by such a disgusting person!

Although the Immortal Mortal Bone was formed from the remnant bones of a half-immortal, it required the right time and place.

Generally speaking, only a major secret realm with extremely abundant spiritual energy could nurture one piece, and even a piece the size of a fingernail was rare. Yet, the Moon Cinder Secret Realm was only a small secret realm opened in recent years, far from the scale needed to produce an Immortal Mortal Bone.

Su Huan looked at her with the expression one reserves for an idiot. “Of course, it’s because a half-immortal perished here many years ago.”

Tao Shouyue: “…” That was such a useless statement, yet she couldn’t refute it.

Ning Zhou finally relaxed after learning that Su Chao was not in mortal danger. He even had the presence of mind to think. “That’s strange. The scale of the Moon Cinder Secret Realm isn’t high. How could it nurture such a top-tier spiritual treasure?”

Su Huan didn’t find it strange. As the saying goes, the world is vast and full of wonders. It was understandable for a secret realm to occasionally have a “genetic mutation.”

Right now, he was more curious about the relationship between himself and this youth named Su Chao.

He remembered very clearly that the original owner had no siblings.