Chapter 231: Chapter 229: Breaking Falsehood and Illuminating Truth

[Trait]: Shattering Illusion, Seeing Truth. The mind is a bright mirror stand, to be wiped and polished at all times. The Spirit Platform is clear and bright, impervious to all evils, unstained by dust. All illusions, spiritual pressure, and illusory moves have nowhere to hide before this bright mirror.

Su Yu looked at the ink-wash text that appeared on the panel, savoring the description.

This Trait was incredibly strong, borderline overpowered even.

This showed that the ’Reading’ skill had a very high ceiling. ’I wonder if this world has the power of the Scholarly Way.’

"All illusions, spiritual pressure..."

Su Yu was no stranger to these two points.

When a Martial Artist cultivated to the Muscle Forging Realm, the strong would often comprehend their own Stance. Some exceptionally brilliant geniuses could even touch this threshold in the Flesh Refining Realm.

For example, his own Demon-Slaying Saber Stance and the Ape-Demon’s baleful aura, once released, could lock onto and suppress an opponent on a spiritual level.

The stunning Cold Star Army-Breaker Spear he had faced from Dai Xing was the same kind of technique.

But now, with Shattering Illusion, Seeing Truth, it was as if a bright mirror was suspended above his Spirit Platform.

Su Yu was confident that if he faced Dai Xing again, his opponent’s brutal battlefield Spear Stance would have no effect on him. Even if he encountered the pressure of a Muscle Forging Realm expert in the future, he would never again be paralyzed by intimidation like he was with Cui Wanhe that day.

As for the third point—seeing through illusory moves—Su Yu immediately felt the urge to test it out.

"Zhen’Er, come spar a few rounds with me."

Su Yu called over Yang Zhen, and the two strolled over to the Iron Pagoda Tree in the backyard.

The Iron Pagoda Tree had long since sprouted new branches, full of vibrant life.

"Zhen’Er, use moves that mix feints with real attacks. Come at me with your full strength." Su Yu stood with his hands behind his back, a relaxed look on his face.

Yang Zhen nodded obediently, a hint of seriousness in her beautiful eyes. With a soft cry, she instantly mobilized the Qi and Blood of her Skin Tempering Realm cultivation, her figure darting toward Su Yu like a young swallow returning to its nest.

The moment Yang Zhen made her move, Su Yu felt a change.

Under the effect of Shattering Illusion, Seeing Truth, the clear mirror of his mind’s lake seemed to clearly reflect the flow of every strand of Qi and Blood inside Yang Zhen’s body!

He saw her right fist clench, whistling through the air as it aimed straight for his face. It looked powerful and heavy, but the Qi and Blood at the point of her fist was extremely thin. In contrast, a thick surge of Qi and Blood was silently gathering from her waist and hips into her right leg, ready to be unleashed.

’So that’s how it is. The mirror reflects the shadow; by observing the flow of Qi and Blood, I can discern truth from falsehood. All the complex feints and fake moves in the world are useless before the flow of Qi and Blood!’

A smile touched the corners of Su Yu’s lips. He pretended to fall for the feint, leaning his upper body back slightly to dodge her fist, but his right hand, as if prophetic, had already reached down below.

"Ah!"

Yang Zhen was greatly surprised.

She had just swept out her right leg, filled with Qi and Blood, like a long whip, only to find Su Yu’s large, warm hand already waiting there. It was as if she had obediently delivered her own leg right into his grasp.

Her move was fully committed; it was too late to change it.

Su Yu grabbed her slender, well-formed leg, using its momentum to pull her into his embrace as he closed the distance. He then wrapped an arm around her slim waist and lifted her completely off the ground.

Yang Zhen had never expected their spar to turn into such an embarrassing position. Suspended in the air, her long, slender legs instinctively wrapped tightly around Su Yu’s sturdy waist. By the time she realized what she’d done, her pretty face flushed crimson all the way to her ears, and she could only bury her face shyly in Su Yu’s broad chest.

"Brother Su..." The young woman’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, filled with an undeniable shyness.

Seeing her coy and vulnerable, as if waiting for him to do as he pleased, Su Yu’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t resist the urge to tease her.

Supporting her pert bottom, he strode to the green stone table in the courtyard and made a show of laying her down on it.

"Ah... Brother Su, no, we’re still in the courtyard..."

Yang Zhen’s face paled. She clutched tightly to Su Yu’s collar, her voice a mere thread, her heart pounding like a frightened fawn.

’She thought Brother Su was finally going to devour her. Although she had long anticipated it, doing it here in broad daylight... it was just too shameless.’

Su Yu gave a mischievous smile and gently set her down on the stone stool, tucking a stray strand of her black hair back in place. "Silly girl, I was just carrying you over to a seat. What’s going on in that little head of yours all day?"

Hearing his teasing words, how could Yang Zhen not know she’d been played?

"Brother Su, you’re so mean!" She shot Su Yu an indignant glare, her cheeks burning. She felt like she could die of embarrassment.

"Come on, let’s go check the storehouse."

Seeing Su Yu turn and walk away with his hands behind his back, Yang Zhen quickly straightened her clothes and hurried after him.

...

Inside the storehouse.

Su Yu stood before the simple, black iron ring and took a deep breath.

After his second Breaking Limit, he could clearly feel the extremely abundant Spiritual Power in his mind, like a deep, full pool.

"Mind’s intent guards the heart, Spirit Platform Embracing One... Seize!"

Su Yu’s hands rapidly formed a series of seals. This time, there wasn’t the slightest bit of sluggishness or stinging pain.

As the final word of the incantation fell, he keenly sensed that a strand of formless, intangible spiritual sense seemed to split off from his mind and pass through his body.

Although his first attempt at controlling his spiritual sense was clumsy, this power had genuinely transcended the cage of his physical body.

Like a thin thread, his spiritual sense reached straight for the black ring.

The instant it made contact, Su Yu felt an invisible spiritual barrier protecting the inside of the ring. However, this restriction, which might have once been indestructible, had long since become like weathered, rotted wood after the relentless erosion of thousands, or even tens of thousands, of years. It was on the verge of collapse.

"Break for me!"

Su Yu urged the strand of spiritual sense to ram forward.

CRACK—

An extremely crisp cracking sound echoed in his mind. The spiritual barrier shattered like a fragile eggshell, and the obstruction before him cleared away.

"This is a mustard seed space?"

Su Yu was ecstatic. Through the perception of his spiritual sense, he "saw" the scene inside the ring. It was a vast space, over a hundred feet in length, width, and height, as empty as an underground palace.

There seemed to be no gravity within the space. Hundreds of large and small orbs of light floated silently in mid-air.

Su Yu suppressed his excitement, manipulated his spiritual sense, and immediately enveloped the nearest orb of light.

With a single thought—SHWISH!

A flash appeared before Su Yu’s eyes, and a neatly folded piece of clothing materialized in his palm.

"It came out!"

Yang Zhen, her face full of pleasant surprise, leaned in for a closer look.

Su Yu looked closely.

It was a Daoist robe, woven from silver threads spun by some unknown spirit silkworm, feeling as light as nothing in his hand. The surface of the robe was embroidered with complex, ancient totems of flowing clouds and immortal cranes in gold thread. Faintly glowing array patterns even flowed at the cuffs. Just looking at its simple, ancient style, one could feel the distinct air of an ancient cultivator.

’A robe left behind by an ancient mighty figure! It must be a supreme treasure!’

Excited, Su Yu was just about to shake it open when, at the very instant his fingers applied a little force...

WHOOSH...

The cloud-patterned robe, once brimming with an immortal aura, disintegrated the moment it touched the outside air. Like a weathered, dried leaf, it crumbled into a pile of fine, silver-gray dust that scattered in the wind.

"Ah!" Yang Zhen couldn’t help but gasp, clearly not expecting such a scene.

Su Yu looked at his empty hands and said with a wry smile, "Who knows how many years this robe was sealed away. Even a mustard seed space can’t completely ward off the erosion of time."

Unresigned, he sent his spiritual sense back inside.

However, what followed was a series of heart-wrenching torments.

He pulled out one orb of light after another.

There was a White Jade Porcelain Bottle containing three pills with flowing cloud patterns, clearly sacred immortal medicines. There was a jade box holding a centuries-old spirit herb whose roots were as lively as horned dragons...

But without exception, as soon as these priceless treasures—treasures that would make Martial Artists in the outside world fight to the death—left the mustard seed space, they were all mercilessly annihilated by the laws of time, turning into piles of lifeless ash.

Just as disappointment flickered in Su Yu’s eyes, his spiritual sense pulled a heavy object from the depths of the space.

CLANG.

A short, emerald-green sword fell heavily to the ground, letting out a crisp clang of metal.

Su Yu’s eyes suddenly lit up.

It was a sheathless short sword, less than a foot and a half long. The body was neither gold nor jade, forged entirely from an extremely rare, emerald-green wondrous metal.

The spine of the blade had natural, fine patterns like dragon scales. Near the hilt, two words were engraved in ancient seal script: "Green Abyss."

Despite the erosion of millions of years, this ancient short sword showed no hint of rust. Instead, a cold, sinister light flowed over it like autumn water. Just looking at it made one’s skin crawl and one’s eyes sting.

Su Yu bent down and gripped the hilt.

’So heavy!’

The short sword was only half the length of a normal sword, but it weighed a full hundred pounds, feeling solid and heavy in his grasp.

He casually flipped his wrist, pointed the sword down, and released his grip.

PFFT!

With no external force, relying solely on its own weight and sharpness, the emerald-green blade sank into the hard ground as if slicing through hot tofu, with no resistance at all, until it was buried up to the hilt!

"What terrifying sharpness!" Yang Zhen gasped. "Brother Su, a divine weapon like this, even if it has no other abilities, should be ranked at least Profound Tier based on its material and sharpness alone!"

Su Yu pulled it out of the stone slab, the joy in his eyes deepening.

’If I throw this Green Abyss short sword using the Coin Toss Technique... even a Muscle Forging Realm expert would be pierced through if they were careless!’

’This is definitely a trump card that can turn the tables with a single strike at a critical moment!’

After placing the Green Abyss short sword carefully on the top shelf of the curio cabinet, Su Yu continued to send his spiritual sense in to open more "blind boxes."

Before long, a pile of bamboo slips, shimmering with a moist luster, was stacked on the table.

These bamboo slips were made from some kind of strange spirit bamboo, which hadn’t decayed even after ten thousand years.

Yang Zhen curiously picked up a bamboo slip. After unrolling it and reading, she said in pleasant surprise, "Brother Su, the writing system passed down here isn’t from a lost era! We can read it directly!"

"Let me see..." Yang Zhen softly read the contents of the bamboo slip aloud. "’Annals of Green Lotus City’... Sword Immortal Li Baiyi, rode a white dragon into Green Lotus City, slew three gods with a single sword strike, and was worshipped by all the people..."

Su Yu listened quietly, his heart surging with waves. ’As expected, in ancient times, this world’s cultivation system was astonishing.’

’I just don’t know how it declined later on.’

Su Yu continued to pull things out from inside, but the items kept disintegrating. Just as the storage ring was about to be completely emptied and disappointment began to creep into his heart...

The next moment, with a CLINK, a strange object landed on the ground and did not dissipate.

An intense, fiery light instantly erupted in Su Yu’s eyes.