Chapter 611: This Gate Will Not Be Opening Today

Su Ming extended his left hand and handed over a notebook he had prepared long ago.

It was a "Formation Line Structure Notes for the Realm Gate Bureau's Outer Perimeter" that he had casually compiled while deducing the missing portions of the World Gate moments ago.

Of course, only three-tenths of the content in these notes was genuine. The remaining seven-tenths were a "maze formation" he had pieced together using a jumble of plausible-looking but deceptive complex circuits.

"What is this?" Luo Feng instinctively took the notebook.

"The formation base of this stargazing platform seems to be completely connected to the Great Yan earth vein map above." Su Ming looked at Luo Feng with sincere eyes. "My deductions have hit a bottleneck here. Senior Brother, your timing is perfect. I need you to use the experience from unlocking the seventh-layer circuit earlier to help me reverse-engineer this outer formation base."

This move of "knowledge management" could be said to have Luo Feng's psyche completely under control.

Luo Feng merely lowered his head and glanced at the notes, and in an instant, it was as if a binding spell had been cast on him. He was rooted firmly to the spot.

"Brilliant..."

Luo Feng's eyes went glassy instantly, and he began muttering unconsciously, "This energy backflow design... diverting the excess violent spiritual pressure directly deep into the earth veins to disperse? Wait..."

His brow suddenly furrowed as he pointed at a circuit in the notes. "Why is there a nested flow-diversion variant here? This technique looks awfully familiar. Little Junior Brother, where did you learn this?"

Su Ming's expression didn't change, and his heart didn't skip a beat. He replied calmly, "I saw it earlier in the upper Hall of Return to Ruins, in the scorched manuscript fragments left by Yan Wuji. I thought it could be adapted for use here."

Inside the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu couldn't hold it in and burst into a violent fit of muffled laughter.

"Kid, your talent for spinning lies is truly becoming more refined by the day." Lin Yu clicked his tongue in admiration. "Face as calm as still water, heart beating steady as a drum, pinning your own deduction results on a dead man's head. If Yan Wuji knew about this in the afterlife, he'd probably rise from his grave in a fury to come settle the score with you."

Luo Feng harbored no suspicions whatsoever. He immediately hugged the notebook, plopped himself down on the edge of the stargazing platform, pulled out a charcoal pencil, and began furiously calculating and deducing.

"Leave it to me! You do your thing, and I'll have this outer formation base torn apart to its very foundations within half an hour!" Luo Feng shouted without lifting his head.

Su Ming gave a slight nod and turned to walk back beside the "Spirit Court Boundary Route" stone carving.

With Luo Feng drawing the firepower and cracking the outer formation base on the side, Su Ming could finally devote his full attention to secretly sorting out the missing core portions of the World Gate. The two of them, one on the outside and one on the inside, began their respective formation analyses in this ancient ruin buried who-knew-how-deep beneath the earth.

Time trickled away, drop by drop.

Su Ming's expression grew increasingly heavy. As his deductions deepened, he finally calculated clearly just how great a price would be required to completely restore this gate to the spirit races.

"Three hundred and twelve rune gaps." Su Ming tallied the numbers silently in his mind. "Moreover, every single one of these gaps corresponds to the most top-tier domains of formation mastery."

He would need to master at least three categories of high-order rune practical application.

The first category was the "Void" rune. Only by mastering spatial folding and anchor point stabilization could one guarantee that the World Gate wouldn't collapse when it opened.

The second category was the "Law Filter" rune. The foundational laws of the spirit realm and the human realm were bound to be different. Without this layer of filtering, the moment a human cultivator stepped through, their physical body and spiritual energy would be instantly assimilated and dissolved by the alien laws.

The third category, and the most difficult one of all, was the "Living Soul Protection" rune. When crossing the World Gate, the physical body could rely on treasures to withstand the strain, but what about the soul? Amidst the violent spatial turbulence, only a living soul protection formation could ensure that the soul wouldn't be torn apart.

"Of the one thousand and eighty basic runes I currently master, the theoretical foundations of these three categories are included..." Su Ming sighed and said to Lin Yu in his mind, "But I have never truly practiced them. Not to mention having to inscribe them using the logic of the spirit realm's laws."

Between theory and practice lay a chasm named "life and death."

Just as Su Ming sank into deep contemplation and his deductions ground to a standstill—

"Cheep—"

A sharp, warning-filled shriek suddenly rang out from the edge of the stargazing platform!

It was Shadow's cry!

Su Ming whipped his head around. He saw that Shadow had somehow already leaped to the edge of the platform, before a patch of empty space. Her body was pressed extremely low, every black feather standing on end like steel needles. Her pair of golden pupils were fixed dead on the empty void before her, and a low, threatening growl rumbled from her throat as if facing a natural enemy.

Su Ming immediately activated his "observation micro state" vision.

In the void that Shadow was facing, there existed an extremely fine spatial crack! The crack was a hundred times finer than a strand of hair. If not for Shadow's innate keen instincts, Su Ming would never have detected it.

And at this very moment, wisps of faint aura were seeping out from that crack.

"So cold..."

Su Ming felt a sharp stabbing pain in his divine sense. The aura was icy, deathly still, carrying a bone-chilling sense of despair.

"This aura... it's similar to the yin energy in the ghost domain." Su Ming's brow furrowed deeply. "But the purity is far too high, and it's more ancient and desolate than the ghost domain's yin energy."

"Don't go near it!"

Lin Yu's voice suddenly exploded within Su Ming's Consciousness Sea, carrying unprecedented severity.

"That's the air leakage phenomenon caused by the incomplete formation when the World Gate hasn't been activated yet." Lin Yu's Soul Body churned violently inside the ring. "Do you know what this means? It means the laws of the spirit realm and the laws of heaven and earth on our side are generating absolutely terrifying repulsion! The two realms' laws are like fire and water that cannot coexist, currently colliding with insane ferocity behind that crack!"

Lin Yu took a deep breath and delivered his conclusion in an icy tone: "Listen carefully, boy. With this World Gate's current incomplete state, if you dare to forcibly open it using the three-in-one method, that violent law collision will tear you apart, bones and soul alike, into fragments finer than motes of dust in an instant!"

Su Ming fell silent.

He stood before that tiny spatial crack, letting the icy aura brush against his cheeks. He didn't make an immediate decision. Instead, he closed his eyes and forcibly pressed all the restlessness and unwillingness deep into his heart. After a moment, he opened his eyes, his gaze already restored to its usual calm.

The worst-case scenario: forcibly opening the World Gate, and under the law collision, death and dao dissolution. Even if he was lucky enough to step into the spirit realm, those who enter shall never return. Being shattered to pieces or captured alive was an extremely high probability.

And what cards did he have to play? The damaged Border Defense True Seal, which required consuming half of his origin to activate. Lin Yu in the Xuantian ring. A Profound Shadow Crow that had just awakened. And his formation mastery.

Not enough. Far from enough. These cards were far too thin in the face of the grand gamble of crossing two realms and facing unknown dangers head-on.

"Hoo..."

Su Ming let out a long breath of turbid air. The tension that had gripped his body because of the jade token and the formation slowly relaxed. He turned his head and looked at Luo Feng, who was still sitting on the ground not far away, clutching that half-truth, half-false notebook, scratching his head and ears, utterly consumed by fanatical deduction.

"This Senior Brother Luo Feng is a pure formation maniac." Su Ming said to Lin Yu in his heart, his tone calm. "He knows nothing about the spirit races, and has zero concept of the danger behind the World Gate. He only sees the beauty of the formations, not the abyss behind those chains."

Su Ming withdrew his gaze, and his eyes once again became cold and sharp as water.

The opportunity was right before him, but he chose to retreat. The essence of the Way of Survival was never about escaping, but about knowing when to give up temptations that one simply couldn't swallow.

"Master, I've memorized the World Gate coordinates, and the jade token is in my hand." Su Ming made his decision within his Consciousness Sea. "This gate will not be opening today. Once I find a way to complete the Void and Law Filter runes, once my cards are thick enough, I'll come back."

He strode toward Luo Feng, moving swiftly, his tone restored to its usual gentleness.

"Senior Brother, this outer formation base is far too intricate. I think the space here seems a bit unstable." Su Ming patted Luo Feng on the shoulder, speaking in a tone that brooked no argument. "Today's gains are already sufficient. We must withdraw from the Lantai Secret Garden immediately."

Luo Feng looked up in a daze, still clutching the charcoal pencil tightly in his hand, his face full of reluctance. But under Su Ming's calm yet unrefusable gaze, he ultimately let out a dejected sigh.

"Fine, let's go. Back to the sect." Su Ming turned and strode toward the dark-gold staircase.