Chapter 553: Taking the Heaven-Mending Pill

Su Ming’s spine was ramrod straight as he nodded calmly.

“I’m ready.”

Lin Yu’s Soul Body drifted slowly twice in midair, its glow contracting slightly.

“As long as you know what you’re doing. In ancient times, even core disciples of those major sects would rather scatter their cultivation and start over than dare to directly swallow such a violent medicine when their foundation was damaged,” Lin Yu mentioned, as if offhandedly. “Because ‘break through to rebuild’ sounds nice, but when the breaking actually happens, fewer than one in a hundred can keep their Spiritual Platform clear and not go mad.”

“This disciple understands.”

Su Ming stood up from the cold jade bed and waved his hand, signaling Shadow to fly into the corner first.

For the next half hour, Su Ming began an elaborate setup within the cave dwelling.

He took out exactly one hundred and eight mid-grade spirit stones from his storage pouch, along with fifteen Formation Flags of various materials. This wasn’t to defend against enemies, but to create an absolutely undisturbed environment with a perfectly stable spiritual energy cycle for his upcoming secluded meditation.

“The Concealment Formation will be embedded in the outer layer, while the isolation formations will run through the middle three paths,” Su Ming murmured to himself as he precisely wedged spirit stones into the crevices of the stone walls. “The Minor Heavenly Cycle Water Rhythm Formation will serve as the core, harmonizing the spiritual energy fluctuations. Plus two Vajra Formations to prevent the medicinal power from leaking out and collapsing the cave dwelling.”

Lin Yu hovered in midair, watching Su Ming’s meticulous movements that resembled a mortal craftsman laying bricks, and his Soul Body flickered a few times.

“You’ve twisted those dogmatic teachings from the Cloud Hidden Sect into something completely unrecognizable with this formation integration,” Lin Yu said in a seemingly disdainful tone. “But aren’t you pulling the spiritual energy nodes of those three-path isolation formations too tight? When the medicinal force explodes later and spiritual energy backflows, the formation core will probably be the first thing that can’t withstand it.”

Su Ming’s hand, which was arranging the Formation Flag, paused slightly.

“Master means to leave an outlet?” Su Ming asked, turning his head.

“Blocking is not as good as guiding—it’s a principle you yourself taught me, so how could you forget it when it comes to your own situation?” Lin Yu drifted slowly above a core Formation Flag and pointed at a stalagmite below. “Move this flag three inches to the left. If the medicinal force truly goes berserk, the excess spiritual energy will follow this three-inch deviation and be channeled into the earth veins instead of rebounding back into your meridians.”

Su Ming closed his eyes and quickly simulated the modification Lin Yu had pointed out in his Consciousness Sea.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, a flash of understanding in them.

“Thank you for your guidance, Master.” Su Ming immediately pulled out the Formation Flag and precisely moved it three inches to the left.

The five layers of protective formations were finally fully completed.

The moment the last spirit stone was embedded into the formation core, the air within the entire cave dwelling seemed to instantly solidify. The sound of the wind outside and the faint rustling of the rolling sea of clouds were completely stripped away. This place had become an island of absolute silence.

The next morning.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion at the very center of the formation.

Before him lay a clean piece of white silk. On the silk, two exquisite Jade Boxes were placed side by side.

He slowly reached out and opened the Jade Box on the left.

A pill, barely the size of a dragon’s eye and entirely emerald green, lay quietly within. On the pill’s surface, incredibly fine golden law patterns moved slowly and rhythmically over the green base like living creatures, exuding an awe-inspiring, vast vitality.

This was the Heaven-Mending Pill he had traded for with half his life.

Shadow crouched on a stone pillar at the very edge of the stone chamber, her double-ringed golden eyes fixed unblinkingly on Su Ming, a faint gurgling sound rising from her throat.

Lin Yu’s Soul Body remained silent, only retreating to the edge of the formation, his gaze locked firmly onto Su Ming.

Su Ming took a deep breath, expelling the last trace of distracting thoughts from his chest.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he pinched the Heaven-Mending Pill between two fingers and sent it directly into his mouth.

The moment the pill slid down his throat, the originally warm and smooth sensation abruptly vanished.

Replacing it was a torrent of heat, like magma erupting from the core of an ancient volcano, that exploded from the deepest part of his Dantian!

“Ngh—!”

Su Ming’s body arched violently upward, a stifled grunt escaping from deep within his throat.

The power was too immense, far exceeding the limit that a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s meridians could bear. It gave Su Ming no time to adapt, instantly flooding his limbs and bones with a brutal, domineering force.

Su Ming felt as if all the blood in his body had begun to boil. In the blink of an eye, countless fine beads of blood seeped from his skin, staining his purple True Disciple robe a dark red.

“Guard your Spiritual Platform!”

Lin Yu’s roar exploded in the silent cave dwelling, his Soul Body flickering violently in midair as if it might ignite at any moment.

Su Ming clenched his teeth so hard that the taste of thick blood immediately filled his mouth.

Enduring the pain of feeling like his very soul was being torn apart, he mustered all his remaining strength to mobilize the only remaining trace of his deep blue spiritual energy within his Dantian.

The operation route of the *Like Water Art* flashed frantically in his Consciousness Sea.

He didn’t dare to directly resist that torrent of medicinal force. Instead, he transformed his water-attributed spiritual energy into countless extremely fine threads, pressing them against the inner walls of his meridians, attempting to guide and divert the violent, warm power.

In his “Perceiving the Minutest Detail” vision, the scene within his Dantian was horrifyingly tragic.

The Dao Foundation that held his entire cultivation base was originally covered in cracks resembling tree roots. These cracks had previously been forcibly repaired by Su Ming using the force of the stars through the Kintsugi method, now appearing as dark golden scars.

But at this moment, under the cleansing power of the Heaven-Mending Pill—representing the ultimate vitality and the law of reconstruction—those dark golden Kintsugi patterns were beginning to melt!

It was like molten iron poured over ice. The cracks on the Dao Foundation’s surface were being brutally ripped open again.

“Pain…”

That was Su Ming’s sole sensation.

This pain was ten times more intense than when he had been crushed by the Pill Fiend at Iron Wall Pass. The Pill Fiend had been an external force, but this pain stemmed from the inch-by-inch collapse of his own foundation.

Time stretched infinitely under the weight of extreme agony. Every single breath felt like tumbling through a mountain of blades and a sea of fire.

Su Ming’s clothes were completely soaked through with sweat and oozing blood, clinging tightly to his body. His once elegant features were now twisted to their limit, and his lower lip had been bitten through, leaving a row of deep, bloody holes.

His consciousness began to waver between clarity and blur.

Sometimes, he felt as if he had returned to that cold Qingshi Town, bound to the torture rack. Other times, he felt himself floating in the Void, surrounded by nothing but gray-white mist.

But the hands clenched on his knees never released their hand-seal pose, not even by an inch.

Those threads of *Like Water Art* spiritual energy, tasked with guiding the medicinal force, teetered on the brink of collapse under the flood’s assault, yet they stubbornly clung to the inner walls of his meridians, desperately maintaining the final semblance of order.