Chapter 562: Star Pivot Dao Discussion

The next day, at the very start of the Chen hour.

When the first ray of sunlight pierced the morning mist that forever clung to Gazing Star Cliff, Su Ming stepped out of his cave dwelling right on time.

By the time Su Ming arrived at Star Pivot Hall, three people were already standing inside.

Eldest Senior Sister Ling Shuang, dressed in snow-white robes, stood with her arms folded before a stone wall. Her back was rigidly straight, like a longsword about to be drawn. Her gaze was fixed on an ancient formation line on the stone wall, her expression so cold it was near absolute indifference, as if everything around her meant nothing.

Second Senior Brother Qin Yi, by contrast, looked far more relaxed. He lounged on a meditation cushion built into the edge of the obsidian platform, leisurely pulling a strip of dried meat from his storage pouch, tearing it into small pieces and feeding them bit by bit to the white-furred spirit marten perched on his shoulder.

Third Senior Brother Luo Feng, however, was the most restless of the lot.

He still wore that Dao robe with several scorch marks, pacing impatiently around the obsidian platform. His hands kept rubbing at the wide sleeve cuffs; the poor sleeves had already been tugged into several ugly creases by his nervous fingers.

When Luo Feng saw Su Ming enter the hall, his eyes lit up like he had found a lifeline. He hurried over in three quick steps and slapped Su Ming on the shoulder.

"Little junior brother, you finally came!" Luo Feng lowered his voice and leaned close to Su Ming's ear, anxiety plain in his tone. "Are you nervous?"

Su Ming glanced at Luo Feng's sleeve, nearly torn apart, and nodded calmly. "A Dao discussion is a major event for Formation Peak. Naturally, I'm a bit nervous."

"You're not allowed to be nervous!" Luo Feng shot Su Ming a glare, then irritation made him scratch his nest-like hair. "Your defensive formation may be boring, but at least it's safe. My case is different! Master saw my improved burst array last time and said I was wasting the sect's resources. If I go onstage and accidentally blow up this obsidian platform, he'll skin me alive and throw me to Punishment Peak for sure!"

Su Ming couldn't help a half-smile, half-sigh, but he still soothed him with utmost seriousness. "Third senior brother, your talent with formations is extraordinary. If you control the spiritual energy output threshold, Master will definitely look at you with new eyes."

Luo Feng sighed, wanting to complain more, but Su Ming had already passed him and approached the other two.

"Eldest Senior Sister, Second Senior Brother." Su Ming stopped three feet from Ling Shuang and respectfully cupped his hands in salute.

Ling Shuang did not turn. She only tilted her head a hair, her cold gaze lingering on Su Ming for less than half a breath, then returned to the stone wall.

That was her way of saying, heard, you're alive — acceptable. Su Ming had long learned this killing-cold sister's temperament, so he felt no slight.

Qin Yi paused feeding and brushed the meat crumbs from his hand, smiling as he engaged Su Ming.

"Little junior brother, you look well. It seems your Golden Core realm has truly stabilized." Qin Yi's smile was warm, lending a comforting breeziness. "How is your Profound Shadow Crow? Last time it couldn't even fly steadily."

"Thank you for your concern, Second Senior Brother. Shadow can already go to the rear mountain to catch rock rats herself." Su Ming answered with a smile.

"That's good." Qin Yi nodded and reached to ruffle the spirit marten on his shoulder. "Spirit beasts are beasts; you can't keep them like greenhouse plants. Regaining hunting instincts means its bloodline is adapting to the external laws of heaven and earth."

As they spoke, the little white marten kept poking its head out, its jet-black eyes brimming with curiosity, staring at Su Ming. Its tiny nose twitched in the air, greedily sniffing the intensely compressed, pure water-attributed spiritual energy contained in Su Ming's body.

Just as the hall's atmosphere sank back into quiet after this brief exchange—

"Vvv—"

From the deep interior of the hall, the heavy star-patterned stone gate slid open soundlessly to both sides, with no visible mechanism.

Xuanheng Zhenren emerged, wearing a loose deep-blue Dao robe, hands clasped behind his back as he walked out slowly.

As he moved, the formation lines on the four surrounding stone walls—left by past peak masters—seemed to awaken, flashing faint yet reverent spiritual light in sequence. It felt as if countless sleeping ancient wills were giving this contemporary master of Formation Peak a solemn, age-old salute.

The four true disciples immediately stilled, each stepping back and bowing respectfully.

"Greetings, Master."

Xuanheng walked to the main seat at the head of the hall and took his place with deliberate slowness.

His eyes, as deep as an abyss, swept over Ling Shuang, Qin Yi, Luo Feng, and finally Su Ming.

"No need for formalities."

Xuanheng's voice was so even it betrayed no emotion. "Today is a Dao discussion. There are no outsiders here, and you don't need to worry about winning or losing. Just tell me what you have realized over the years, and the path you believe is right."

He leaned back slightly, raised his right hand, and made a casual inviting gesture.

"Begin."

Those three short words carried no spiritual pressure, yet they caused the hall's air to stall for an instant.

Ling Shuang was the first to move.

She did not look toward the three junior brothers nor perform any elaborate bows toward Xuanheng. She simply stepped forward with composed motions, heading straight to the platform's center.

Her footsteps were whisper-light, so faint that when her soles touched the shattered star stone slab, there was no sound of spiritual friction. The snow-white robe, bathed in the cold glimmer of the ancient formation lines, seemed to condense a thin layer of frost upon her.

Su Ming stood below the platform, his hands naturally hanging at his sides, the wide sleeve covering his fingers.

At this moment, he pushed his Perceiving the Minutest Detail vision to its limit. His Golden Core divine sense did not expand outward drastically; instead, it reined itself in, focused tightly on his sight.

Through Su Ming's eyes, the air Ling Shuang passed through warped in a strange way. It wasn't a vortex of formation-activated spiritual energy, but a pure, hard force that forcibly expelled the surrounding loose spiritual energy.

"Sword cultivators really pack simple, straightforward iron lumps inside their heads."

Lin Yu's voice echoed faintly in Su Ming's Consciousness Sea. The azure soul body turned over inside the Xuantian ring, tone full of undisguised disdain. "They ignore the abundant ambient spiritual energy and insist on using their own soul to crash a path through. This kind of extreme route will sooner or later shatter their Dao foundation."

Ling Shuang stopped at the platform's center.

Her right hand hung naturally at her side; she did not touch her storage pouch nor draw any magic treasures, but the tips of her index and middle fingers already glowed with a bone-piercing ice-blue light.