Severing Ties: The Sect Regrets My Departure

Chapter 262: Supreme Source, Wooden Top

“Not good!”

The moment Guan Xuelan’s figure faded into the void, Sang Shoudao’s expression underwent a drastic shift. With a single stride, he crossed the alleyway and arrived directly in front of Gu Xiu, two fingers coated in purple soul energy thrusting toward the younger man’s Dantian.

He intended to intercept Guan Xuelan’s parting gift before it could take root.

Unfortunately… he was a fraction of a second too late.

The moment his fingers extended, Sang Shoudao’s face darkened with grim realization. He watched as the concentrated wisp of Supreme Source made contact with Gu Xiu’s Dantian Qi Sea. Instead of remaining a solid mass, it instantaneously shattered into thousands of microscopic motes of azure light, completely and irreversibly drilling into Gu Xiu’s core.

Even with an Ascended Immortal Divine Soul capable of threatening a Mahayana Supreme, there was absolutely nothing Sang Shoudao could do to extract it now.

“Teacher!” Little Ping’an shrieked, her voice cracking with pure terror.

She watched in horror as the azure light vanished into Gu Xiu’s body. The very next instant, her teacher’s entire body went rigid. He froze in place like an ancient monk who had suddenly slipped into a deep meditative trance. He was completely, unnervingly motionless.

She screamed for him several times, but Gu Xiu offered no response. His eyes were open, but they were entirely vacant.

Panicking, she lunged forward, reaching out to shake him awake.

“Stop! Do not touch him!”

A sharp, urgent voice erupted from the small jade pendant hanging around Little Ping’an’s neck, accompanied by a blinding flash of cyan light.

The sudden shout startled the little girl, halting her in her tracks. Although she was usually quite dismissive of the old spirit residing in her pendant, the sheer panic in his voice made her freeze. She obediently pulled her hands back.

The jade pendant flared, its cyan light expanding to form a protective, semi-translucent dome that completely isolated Gu Xiu from the outside world. Only then did the voice of Tantai Shi echo from within the jade.

“The Supreme Source has already breached his Dantian Qi Sea. It will rapidly flow through his meridians, spreading to his limbs and bones. This energy is incredibly dense, nearly solidified; it will temporarily turn his physical body as brittle as stone. If you touch him carelessly right now, you could shatter him!”

Hearing this, Little Ping’an’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. Terrified she had almost killed her teacher, she whipped around, looking pleadingly at the old City Lord. “Grandpa Sang…!”

“Divine Doctor Tantai is correct,” Sang Shoudao agreed, his brow furrowed in deep concern. “We must not disturb his physical vessel. I will transport him back to the City Lord’s Manor immediately.”

With a sweep of his voluminous sleeve, a cloud of gentle, accommodating Spiritual Qi materialized, carefully lifting Gu Xiu’s rigid body off the cobblestones. Without wasting another breath, Sang Shoudao soared into the sky, rushing straight for his heavily fortified estate.

The moment they breached the gates of the City Lord’s Manor, Sang Shoudao’s hands blurred through a rapid series of incantations. He activated every single defensive grand formation and restriction within Cloud Firmament City, pushing the localized barriers around the Manor to their absolute, groaning limits.

He would not allow a single outside variable to interrupt what was to come!

Once the area was secure, Sang Shoudao carefully lowered Gu Xiu onto a pristine jade bed. Gu Xiu remained locked in his petrified state, entirely unresponsive to the outside world.

A wisp of spiritual energy drifted from Little Ping’an’s pendant, coalescing into the translucent figure of Tantai Shi. The ancient healer immediately hovered over Gu Xiu, his ethereal eyes scanning the young man’s condition.

“Senior Sang, how… how bad is it for Immortal Feng?” Little He asked, her voice trembling as she clutched Little Ping’an’s hand.

Sang Shoudao frowned, his gaze heavy. “The path of Origin Dao Rhyme and Source Arts is notoriously esoteric; my understanding of it is limited. However, it is common knowledge that the gap between a mortal cultivator and a true Immortal is absolute. For a Supreme Venerable to survive the heavenly tribulations and successfully ascend to Immortality—to truly shed their mortal shell—they must first condense their own ‘Source’.”

“A handful of exceptionally powerful Supremes, after comprehending the deepest mysteries of the Source Arts, manage to manifest this energy within themselves. This is known as a Supreme Source. And make no mistake, the disparity in power between a Mahayana Supreme who possesses a Supreme Source and one who does not is the difference between the heavens and the mud.”

“Guan Xuelan was not lying. This is, by all definitions, a heaven-defying Fated Chance.”

Sang Shoudao let out a long, heavy sigh. “A Supreme Source is an object of unimaginable value, even to other Mahayana or Void Refining cultivators. It is the physical manifestation of a Supreme’s lifetime of comprehension regarding the Source Arts, representing an accumulation of power that transcends normal cultivation boundaries.”

“If a high-level cultivator could comprehend it, or even absorb a fraction of it, the benefits would be astronomical. A Supreme of the same rank could theoretically use it as a catalyst to immediately condense their own Supreme Source.”

“But…” Sang Shoudao’s frown deepened into a scowl. “For any cultivator beneath that threshold, encountering a Supreme Source is not a Fated Chance. It is an unmitigated, apocalyptic disaster.”

“The energy density of a Supreme Source is simply too overwhelming. Even a cultivator who actively practices Source Arts would be ripped apart from the inside if their foundational strength was insufficient to refine and absorb it. It will violently backlash against them.”

“It is like a worker bee collecting nectar. The bee feeds on the nectar to survive. But if you take that same bee and drop it directly into a massive vat of honey…”

“Not only will the bee be completely unable to absorb it…”

“It will drown, eventually becoming perfectly assimilated into the honey itself. For a low-level cultivator, this Supreme Source offers no benefits. Instead… he will simply be digested and become a part of the Supreme Source!”

The blood completely drained from Little He and Little Ping’an’s faces.

“Is there no other way?” Little He pleaded.

“How do we save Teacher?!” Little Ping’an cried.

Sang Shoudao slowly shook his head, a look of profound helplessness on his weathered face. “Based on everything I know, in a situation like this, the cultivator can only rely on themselves to endure the refinement process. But… his cultivation level is simply too low…”

“That venomous, twisted bitch!” The Ink-Black Ruler, Suixing, suddenly materialized, vibrating with sheer, unadulterated fury. “Spouting all that garbage about giving him a ‘Fated Chance’! She clearly just wanted to brutally murder him! As a Mahayana Supreme, killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator should require nothing more than a stray thought, yet she intentionally chose the most agonizing, torturous method possible! Even the most depraved Demonic Cultivators don’t operate with this level of psychotic hypocrisy!”

Suixing’s furious outburst caused Sang Shoudao’s frown to deepen. He harbored the exact same suspicion.

This wasn’t an isolated incident. Back at the entrance to Falling Rain Valley, when Guan Xuelan had ruthlessly massacred a small army of powerful cultivators, she had also framed it as bestowing a “Fated Chance” upon them.

At the time, Sang Shoudao had chalked it up to manipulative rhetoric; she was deceiving them to secure her own escape from the valley’s array. But analyzing it in hindsight, with Guan Xuelan’s overwhelming might, such elaborate deception was completely unnecessary. She could have simply slaughtered them all outright.

That incident had left Sang Shoudao mildly puzzled. But this time…

This time, the pattern was glaringly obvious. It felt as though Guan Xuelan was bound by some bizarre, twisted compulsion. It was as if she couldn’t simply commit an act of murder; she needed to fabricate a self-righteous justification for it. She needed to follow a strict, internal procedure, convincing herself—or perhaps some higher law—that her slaughter was actually a benevolent act.

It was a deeply unsettling realization.

However, Sang Shoudao quickly forced the thoughts aside. Whether this “Fated Chance” rhetoric was the product of Guan Xuelan’s deranged psychology or something more profound, it was irrelevant right now. The only thing that mattered was Gu Xiu’s survival!

At that moment, the spectral form of Tantai Shi slowly drifted back from the jade bed. The ancient healer’s ethereal brow was heavily furrowed, his expression radiating profound confusion. He remained completely silent, staring at Gu Xiu as if trying to decipher an impossible riddle.

“Divine Doctor Tantai, how is his condition?” Sang Shoudao asked urgently. “Is there anything we can do?”

Tantai Shi slowly shook his head. “His condition is… incredibly strange.”

“Strange?”

“According to all established medical and cultivation logic, an external Supreme Source should be an apocalyptic cataclysm for a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s internal landscape. Given the time that has passed, that azure energy should have violently forcefully expanded, surging through Gu Xiu’s limbs, shattering his bones, and rupturing his extraordinary meridians and eight vessels.”

“Yet…”

“It hasn’t. The Supreme Source that entered his Dantian Qi Sea hasn’t spread outward at all. In fact, it’s doing the exact opposite. The entire mass of energy is remaining perfectly localized, peacefully huddled within the absolute center of Gu Xiu’s Dantian.”

Tantai Shi looked genuinely baffled.

Sang Shoudao was equally stunned. “Do you have any idea why it’s behaving this way?”

“I cannot peer directly into his Dantian Qi Sea. Some powerful obscuring force is blocking my senses, so I cannot see the exact mechanism,” Tantai Shi admitted, shaking his head.

Five hundred years ago, he was revered across the continent as the peerless Divine Doctor Tantai, possessing encyclopedic knowledge of cultivation afflictions. Yet, this situation was entirely unprecedented. It defied every known law of spiritual physics.

Sang Shoudao frowned. A brilliant purple light ignited in his eyes as he unleashed the full, unbridled scanning power of his Ascended Immortal Divine Soul, attempting to force his way into Gu Xiu’s core to diagnose the anomaly.

However… he met the same impenetrable barrier as Tantai Shi. He couldn’t discern the internal mechanics of Gu Xiu’s Dantian. But his vastly superior soul power did allow him to sense the general “mood” of the foreign energy.

And that single discovery caused all the grave worry on Sang Shoudao’s face to dissolve into an expression of sheer, unadulterated bewilderment.

“Why do I get the distinct impression…” Sang Shoudao muttered slowly, “…that this wisp of Supreme Source has simply decided to comfortably set up camp inside Gu Xiu’s Dantian, and has absolutely zero intention of causing any trouble?”

While Sang Shoudao and Tantai Shi stood outside his body, utterly confounded by the situation, Gu Xiu’s consciousness was fully submerged within his own Dantian Qi Sea.

And his internal expression mirrored their bewilderment perfectly.

He had always struggled to grasp even the most basic entry-level concepts of the Source Arts. The profound esoteric theories consistently eluded him. However, he was highly educated regarding the existence and apocalyptic danger of a Supreme Source.

Therefore, the exact microsecond Guan Xuelan’s attack breached his defenses, Gu Xiu’s vigilance spiked to its absolute zenith. He instantly withdrew his entire consciousness into his Dantian Qi Sea, preparing for a brutal, desperate war of attrition.

His immediate strategy had been to forcefully mobilize the power of his eight Supreme Dao Platforms to construct an impenetrable defensive perimeter. The Supreme Source was undeniably devastating, but his eight Dao Platforms possessed heaven-defying foundational strength. On his home turf, within his own Dantian, Gu Xiu was prepared to fight it to a bitter stalemate.

But… reality vastly defied his expectations.

Upon entering his Dantian Qi Sea, the Supreme Source did not act like the world-ending cataclysm the legends described. It didn’t violently expand to rupture his meridians, nor did it attempt to aggressively assimilate his existing spiritual energy.

Quite the opposite.

The wisp of Supreme Source behaved with impeccable manners. It slowly, almost politely, drifted through the vast expanse of Gu Xiu’s Dantian Qi Sea, completely devoid of any malice, aggression, or destructive intent.

It was an incredibly bizarre sensation.

It felt as though a highly respectful, rule-abiding tourist was leisurely strolling through a grand, historical museum. The tourist would wander over to inspect a Dao Platform, admire the architecture, and then politely move on to the next exhibit. It didn’t touch anything. It didn’t break anything. It didn’t leave any trash. From start to finish, the energy simply radiated a sense of quiet awe and reverence for its surroundings.

It was utterly surreal.

However, since the Supreme Source was actively refusing to incinerate him from the inside out, Gu Xiu allowed himself to relax marginally. Capitalizing on this unprecedented stroke of luck, he immediately focused his divine sense, intent on carefully dissecting the docile energy.

He hoped to use this firsthand, risk-free exposure to a Supreme Source to finally pierce the veil of the Source Arts that had baffled him for so long.

Yet, the moment he initiated his deep scan…

Gu Xiu’s consciousness completely froze. His divine sense locked onto a specific object suspended in the absolute dead center of the swirling azure Supreme Source.

Nested within the heart of the terrifying Mahayana energy was… a wooden dule.

More commonly known as a spinning top.

At first glance, there was absolutely nothing remarkable about it. It looked exactly like the cheap, mundane wooden toys carved by mortal peasants for their children. The wood was common, and its surface was marred by numerous dents and scratches—the undeniable wear and tear of being repeatedly whipped and spun across stone courtyards.

If one were to be critical, the craftsmanship was actually quite atrocious. The body wasn’t perfectly symmetrical, the tip wasn’t entirely straight, and the overall shape was incredibly crude. It was undeniably the clumsy handiwork of a young child.

Yet, Gu Xiu couldn’t tear his ‘eyes’ away from it. His focus was entirely consumed by a single, crooked, deeply gouged character carved into the flat upper surface of the toy.

Xiu!

“This…”

“This is the toy the old Sect Leader taught me how to carve when I was a child!”

“That character… I carved that myself the very first week I started learning how to read and write!” Gu Xiu murmured, his mind reeling with sheer disbelief.

He didn’t possess a deep theoretical understanding of how a Supreme Source was forged, but he had read ancient texts detailing the process. He knew that for a Supreme to condense their nebulous comprehension into a tangible Source, they often required a physical anchor—a ‘source-gathering item’—to serve as the structural core of the energy.

He had briefly wondered what kind of heaven-defying, mythical artifact Guan Xuelan would have used as the anchor for her Supreme Source.

He never, in his wildest dreams, imagined that the core of her supreme power would be his own discarded childhood toy.

Gu Xiu remembered the day he made it vividly. He was roughly the same age Little Ping’an was now. He had been wandering near the base of Qingxuan Mountain and saw a group of mortal children laughing and playing with a wooden spinning top.

He had been intensely envious. He ran back up the mountain and found the old Sect Leader, begging the kind old man to make one for him.

But the old Sect Leader hadn’t simply handed him a toy. Instead, he had offered Gu Xiu a profound lesson: “If your heart holds a thought, if it harbors a yearning, if it possesses a desire… then your hands must take action. Since you desire a top, you must figure out how to create one yourself.”

Those words had etched themselves deeply into Gu Xiu’s soul.

Following his master’s advice, the young Gu Xiu had scoured the sect’s carpentry sheds, meticulously picking through the scrap piles until he found a suitable block of thousand-year jujube wood. He had spent days painstakingly whittling and carving, pouring all his childish determination into the crude toy.

The day he finally finished it, he was ecstatic. He had proudly gouged the character ‘Xiu’ into the top as a mark of his triumph. For months afterward, he carried that top everywhere, happily playing with it alongside his various Senior Sisters in the sect courtyards.

But…

“If memory serves, I packed this top away in a small wooden chest the day the old Sect Leader passed away. I never played with it again,” Gu Xiu recalled, his thoughts racing. “Over the decades, I completely lost track of it. I honestly assumed it had rotted away or been thrown out by a servant.”

“So why…”

“Why is it here? How did it become the source-gathering core of Guan Xuelan’s Supreme Source?!”

Gu Xiu muttered to himself, a sharp, calculating light flashing in his mind’s eye.

His instincts were screaming at him. There was a massive, underlying secret hidden here!

Unfortunately, there was no one present within his Dantian to answer his questions. However, the revelation did solve one immediate mystery.

He finally understood why Guan Xuelan’s Supreme Source hadn’t detonated within his Dantian Qi Sea. It had absolutely nothing to do with his foundations being uniquely resilient.

It was simply because the wooden top—the absolute core commanding the Supreme Source—was an object he had personally, lovingly crafted. It was deeply imbued with the aura of his childhood.

Entering Gu Xiu’s Dantian was like a long-lost childhood friend returning home after decades away. Aside from a polite, curious inspection of how much the ‘house’ had changed, the energy harbored nothing but infinite, nostalgic goodwill toward its creator!

As if validating his theory, the cluster of Supreme Source finally completed its leisurely, comprehensive tour of Gu Xiu’s Dantian Qi Sea.

Suddenly, the crude wooden top suspended in the center of the azure light began to spin.

At first, the rotation was incredibly sluggish, wobbling precariously as if it might lose momentum and topple over at any second. But as the seconds ticked by, the top didn’t stop. Instead, it steadily gathered speed, spinning faster and faster until it was a blur of motion. As its velocity increased, the azure light of the surrounding Supreme Source flared with blinding, transcendent brilliance.

When the wooden top’s rotational speed reached a critical, harmonic frequency, it abruptly leaped upward from the center of the energy cluster.

Like a bird returning to its nest, it flew directly toward Gu Xiu’s towering eighth Dao Platform…

And gently settled perfectly upon its apex!