Chapter 317 - The Nascent Reflection and the Shared Balance

Chapter 317: Chapter 317 - The Nascent Reflection and the Shared Balance

Outside the isolated formation, the people watching Su Bai had gradually fallen quiet.

At first, there had been very little for them to see.

The formation concealed most of what was happening inside his body, and the changes taking place within his cultivation could only be sensed through the fluctuations that occasionally passed through the barrier.

That changed without warning.

Something flickered around Su Bai.

Yao Ding narrowed his eyes.

For a moment, he thought the light from the formation had distorted his vision.

The flicker appeared again.

This time, it followed the exact outline of Su Bai’s seated body.

Yao Ding stopped breathing for half a beat.

Beside him, Mo Shanyue leaned forward.

"That..."

The indistinct figure sharpened for an instant before fading again.

Mo Shanyue’s expression changed completely.

"Is that his Nascent Soul?"

Nobody answered him immediately.

Huo Yan had forgotten about the formation readings in front of him.

Several of the Ancestors were staring just as openly.

They had seen countless Golden Core cultivators attempt this breakthrough over the years. They knew what the formation of a Nascent Soul looked like.

What they were seeing did not belong anywhere near that experience.

The spiritual figure overlapping Su Bai was the size of his actual body.

One of the Ancestors slowly rubbed his eyes before looking again.

The figure remained.

Another Ancestor noticed his action and sighed.

"Do not bother. I already tried."

A few of the older cultivators glanced at him.

The Ancestor continued staring toward Su Bai.

"The world really has changed while we were sleeping away."

Another old man gave a quiet laugh.

"At this rate, we may need to stop calling ourselves Ancestors before the younger generation embarrasses us further."

The amusement around them remained restrained.

Nobody was relaxed enough to truly laugh.

Li Xuanzong had not taken his eyes off the breakthrough ground.

"Keep the formation stable."

His voice immediately brought everyone’s attention back.

"The internal transformation has already exceeded the normal Nascent Soul process. Do not assume the tribulation will remain normal either."

The Peak Masters acknowledged him and maintained their positions.

Qi continued flowing into the formation.

Lu Canghai had stopped stroking his beard entirely.

A faint trace of sweat had appeared along his forehead.

His disciple had not even attracted the heavens yet, and the breakthrough was already producing something he had never seen before.

He stared at the spiritual figure surrounding Su Bai.

’Can something like that even survive the tribulation meant for it?’

He decided he did not want the answer too quickly.

...

Within the formation, Su Bai had no attention left for anyone outside.

The Macro-Taiji continued widening.

The same flow of Yin and Yang that had once remained entirely within his Greater Golden Core was now passing between his physical foundation and the spiritual figure surrounding it.

The resistance gradually disappeared.

For the first time, Su Bai felt the two structures settle into the same rhythm.

His physical body breathed.

The Nascent Soul followed.

Qi moved through his ten Dantians.

The ten spiritual points inside the Nascent Soul responded almost at the same moment.

The Myriad-Path Meridian Web connected his physical cultivation centers, while its newly formed reflection linked those within the spiritual body.

Neither structure was independent.

Neither was merely copying the other.

They were beginning to function together.

The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method shuddered once more.

Its circulation changed along with the expanding Macro-Taiji, accepting the spiritual body into a system that had previously ended at Su Bai’s physical foundation.

The pressure that had been building inside him began to ease.

Su Bai’s awareness sharpened.

A moment later, the spiritual figure separated from his physical body.

It did not fly far.

It simply moved forward until there was enough distance between them for Su Bai to see it clearly through his spiritual perception.

The figure sat cross-legged before him.

A broad Taiji manifestation appeared between the two bodies.

Yang flowed from Su Bai’s physical foundation.

Yin answered through the spiritual body.

The currents exchanged places before returning, never breaking the larger circulation that connected them.

...

Outside the barrier, several elders visibly stiffened.

This time, there was no possibility of mistaking what they were seeing.

The Nascent Soul had separated from Su Bai’s physical body.

And it was the same size as him.

Someone among the elders muttered before thinking.

"It’s so big..."

The surrounding silence became awkward for exactly one breath.

Had Su Bai heard the comment, he probably would have accepted it as praise.

Fortunately, he was far too occupied to appreciate it.

The spiritual figure was stable enough to exist outside him, but Su Bai could immediately tell that the breakthrough was still incomplete.

Something was missing.

The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method had guided him this far, and his own understanding had filled the gaps, yet the Nascent Soul still felt as though it were floating beside his foundation rather than truly belonging to it.

His attention turned inward.

Inside the Infinite Dantian, the transformed remnant of his Black-Ice Core remained perfectly still.

The change had condensed what had once been his central Golden Core into something smaller and deeper.

The Crystalline Tree Spirit Root remained rooted there.

Su Bai observed it carefully.

That was when the final step became obvious.

The Nascent Soul needed somewhere to return.

More importantly, it needed somewhere from which it could cultivate even when it was not manifested outside his body.

The transformed Black-Ice foundation was that place.

Su Bai did not force the connection immediately.

His attention first settled on its surface.

The nine Tribulation Marks were still there.

They had not vanished when the Black Ice Core changed.

Each remained etched into the transformed foundation exactly as before.

Outside those nine marks, the tenth still circled silently.

The Void Ring remained a thin, colorless-black ring, absence given shape around the transformed center.

Su Bai relaxed slightly.

At least that part of his foundation had survived unchanged.

His attention returned to the Nascent Soul sitting before him.

The spiritual figure suddenly opened its eyes.

Su Bai’s breath caught.

He was staring at himself.

The Nascent Soul carried his features perfectly now, although its entire body remained spiritual and slightly translucent.

His physical eyes were still closed.

The Nascent Soul’s were not.

Through them, Su Bai could see his own physical body sitting across from it.

For several moments, he experienced the bizarre sensation of perceiving the same place from two different positions.

’So this is what it feels like...’

He suppressed the distraction.

The breakthrough was not finished.

Su Bai guided his awareness toward the transformed central seat within his Infinite Dantian.

The Nascent Soul responded before he consciously commanded it.

Its eyes closed.

The spiritual figure entered meditation.

Su Bai felt something reach back toward him.

The connection began forming from both sides.

A faint spiritual thread extended from the Nascent Soul and entered his body, following the balance maintained by the Macro-Taiji until it reached the transformed Black-Ice foundation.

The moment the two touched, Su Bai felt his entire cultivation tremble.

The connection did not feel foreign.

It felt like something that should have existed from the beginning.

The ten physical Dantians resonated.

Their ten spiritual counterparts answered.

The Myriad-Path Meridian Web brightened in both bodies.

The Crystalline Tree Spirit Root trembled.

Even the solid Qi needles circulating through his foundation seemed to become more responsive.

Su Bai remained completely still while the bond deepened.

Little by little, the Nascent Soul stopped feeling like something he had created.

It became part of him.

A spiritual body that could return to the transformed central seat, cultivate from within it, or emerge again when he needed it.

The Binary Void-Sun Supreme Method settled into its new circulation.

The connection was almost complete.

That was when Su Bai remembered something else.

The heavens had still not reacted.

His Nascent Soul was already sitting outside his body.

His Golden Core foundation had transformed.

His cultivation method was changing.

Yet the sky remained silent.

Su Bai’s awareness immediately moved toward the Void Ring.

The colorless-black mark continued circling around the transformed central seat without disturbance.

Even now, the tenth Tribulation Mark was concealing him.

If he allowed it to continue, there was a genuine possibility that he could complete the breakthrough without the heavens ever properly sensing what had happened.

Su Bai was quiet for a moment.

That would certainly be safer.

His attention moved toward his Myriad-Calamity Vajra Body, then toward the nine Root Sprouts.

His decision had already been made long before reaching this point.

He had no intention of hiding.

Su Bai suppressed the Void Ring.

The change was immediate.

For the first time since the breakthrough began, his true aura escaped the concealment that had wrapped around his foundation.

It surged outward.

And the world noticed.