"I know," Kai said, touching the scratch on his cheek. "I learned that today."
"That is why I helped you," Su Qing said.
"Because you pity me?"
"No," Su Qing shook her head. "Pity is useless to the dead. I helped you because... I believe only you can help me."
She stopped and pointed a translucent finger at his chest, right where his Dantian hummed.
"That attribute of yours," she said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "It is one of a kind in this continent. That was the most shocking part for me. That is why I revealed myself."
Kai frowned, confused. "My Darkness?"
He scratched his head. "Darkness is unique, I guess. The Deacon said it was rare. But... it's not impossible to find, is it? There are billions of people in the Azure Heaven and in other continents also. Surely there are many others who use it and have mastered it."
He sighed, kicking a pebble. "Besides, I also heard the rumors. Dark Cultivators are evil. They lose their sanity the more powerful they become. Their Qi eats their minds until they become monsters and ultimately die. Why would you want help from someone destined to go mad?"
Su Qing let out a soft laugh. It wasn't mocking; it was the laugh of a teacher hearing a student recite a common misconception.
"Madness comes from chaos," she explained. "Most Dark Cultivators fail because they try to control the Shadows or the Evil Spirits. Those things have wills of their own. They whisper."
She floated closer, her face inches from his.
"But your darkness, Kai... it is different. It contains a Decaying speciality that I have never seen before. It is not 'Evil'. It is 'Entropy'. It is the force that returns things to dust."
Kai blinked. "Decaying?"
"Didn't you notice?" Su Qing asked. "The Vale Panther's leg. When you struck it with your Art... it didn't just break. It rotted. The flesh turned grey. The vitality was instantly negated."
Kai thought back to the fight. He remembered the grey sludge. He remembered the foul smell when he applied the herb. He had thought it was just the force of his punch.
"Oh... that," Kai muttered. "But..."
He looked at his hands. They looked normal. But inside, he knew he had absorbed the toxic Grey Qi from the tunnel. Had that mixed with his affinity? Or was this his true power all along?
"I don't know whatever it is," Kai sighed, rubbing his temples. "Decay, Darkness, Entropy... I don't care about the philosophy right now. I just want to survive here with this little one."
He patted Xiao Bai.
"Survival is the first step of cultivation," Su Qing agreed. "We are here."
Kai looked up.
They had stopped in front of a tree.
It was... underwhelming.
It was a medium-sized ash tree, neither tall nor short. Its bark was grey and peeling slightly. It had fewer leaves than its neighbors, looking a bit sickly. There were no glowing runes. No magical aura. No hidden cave entrance. It looked like the kind of tree a dog would mark and ignore.
"Here?" Lin Kai asked, looking around. "Is there a cave behind it?"
Su Qing didn't answer. She simply floated toward the trunk.
She didn't stop.
To Lin Kai's astonishment, she didn't pass through it like a ghost passing through a wall. Instead, the moment her translucent body touched the bark, the bark rippled.
It looked like a stone dropped into a calm pond. The wood distorted, turning into a swirl of grey and brown light, and she was sucked inside.
"She... she went into the tree?" Lin Kai's jaw dropped. "Like, physically?"
He stood stunned at the spot for a few seconds. He poked the tree with his finger. It felt like solid wood.
'An Illusion Array?' he realized. 'But there is no Qi fluctuation. I cannot even sense a disturbance.'
"It is safe, Kai," Su Qing's voice echoed from the tree, though her mouth was nowhere to be seen. "Enter it. It is a Spatial-Fold Array combined with a Wood-Element Camouflage. I placed it here fifty years ago."
Kai swallowed hard.
Fifty years ago? And the array was still active? And it was undetectable?
'She isn't any ordinary powerful cultivator,' he thought, a newfound respect washing over him. 'To maintain a formation this perfect for half a century after death... she must have been a very high grade.'
He looked at Xiao Bai. "Hold on tight."
He stepped forward. He closed his eyes and pushed his face into the rough bark.
He expected to hit his nose.
Instead, he felt a cool, tingling sensation, like walking through a waterfall of mist. The sound of the Bone-Eating Forest—the buzzing insects, the distant roars—cut off instantly.
He opened his eyes.
He gasped.
"This..."
He wasn't inside a hollow tree. He wasn't in a cave.
He was standing on a cobblestone path in a beautiful, sun-drenched valley.
Above him, a false sky painted in soft blues and purples illuminated the space. The air was sweet, smelling of jasmine and high-grade incense. Green grass, far more vibrant than the forest outside, carpeted the ground.
It was a pocket dimension. A world within a wood.
Xiao Bai gazed around, her eyes wide with surprise. She sniffed the air, sneezing at the purity of the Aether Qi here. It was denser than the forest woods.
In the center of this small paradise stood a simple, elegant bamboo cottage. And floating on the porch, waiting for him, was Su Qing.
She signaled him to follow her, her expression solemn.
"Welcome to my grave, Kai," she said softly. "And my final workshop."
Lin Kai stepped onto the narrow path, his heart racing with a mix of fear and excitement. He walked forward, leaving the brutal wilderness behind, ready to uncover the secrets of the genius who had built a heaven inside a dying tree.