Chapter 623: They Don't Cultivate Spiritual Energy?

Su Ming leaned against the cold rock wall, his eyes like two ancient wells too deep to see the bottom, staring fixedly at the Xuantian ring. His left thumb and index finger unconsciously rubbed the wooden handle of a discarded formation flag—a small habit he only exhibited when under extreme tension.

Time trickled away drop by drop. One incense stick. Two incense sticks.

Within the Xuantian ring, the last wisp of cyan light vanished completely in the dark blue soul flame, like ice dissolving into boiling water, not so much as a ripple left behind.

Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes.

His soul body, which had been somewhat illusory and translucent, now displayed a texture nearly corporeal. The deep blue luster flowing across the surface of his soul body was several shades deeper than before the refinement. That glow was no longer a light, floating shimmer—it was more like some kind of ultra-condensed deep blue crystal.

The tension that had gripped Su Ming's spine for over two hours finally eased by a fraction the moment he witnessed this.

"Master." Su Ming called out softly in his Consciousness Sea, his voice kept low.

Lin Yu's soul body stretched its illusory arms in midair, a glint passing through his eyes that even he hadn't anticipated. He looked down at Su Ming, covered in dust and grime at the bottom of the crack, and curled the corner of his mouth, letting out a light scoff.

"Disciple, didn't get to sleep after all." Lin Yu's voice carried an unmistakable note of relief. "This Qingyan looks intimidating, but he's really just a thin layer of skin. The stuffing inside isn't even as tough to chew as that resentful woman in that broken lantern back in the day."

Hearing this, Ying, who had been lying on alert at the edge of the formation, immediately turned her head and let out a "cheep." Her black feathers, which had been standing on end, smoothed back against her body, and a flash of human-like delight crossed her golden pupils.

Su Ming didn't laugh, but his fingers, which had been gripping the formation flag handle tightly, silently relaxed.

"You didn't fall into slumber—that's the best news of the day." Su Ming gave a slight nod, then pressed a blank jade slip against his forehead. "Master, since you've already digested that material, tell me—what secrets were hidden inside?"

Lin Yu sat cross-legged within the Xuantian ring, his soul body's luster flickering briefly as his tone turned grave.

"This material wasn't hard to chew, but the intelligence it left behind is quite the punch." Lin Yu let out a cold snort. "Which one do you want to hear first? How the Dark Current Sect slaughtered the Qiming Sect to the last person, or how they plan to funnel this calamity of the Abandoned Lands straight into the human realm, intact?"

Su Ming's fingers holding the jade slip paused slightly, his brow instantly locking tight.

"Into the human realm?" Su Ming's voice was cold as ice. "Master, per your usual habit, start with the most critical one and lay it all out from the beginning. What exactly is the situation with these spirit races?"

Lin Yu crossed his arms over his chest, his illusory fingers tapping lightly against his arm.

"These spirit races—they're not as united as you might think. Their internal affairs have long since gone to complete rot." Lin Yu slowed his speech, as if organizing the memories he had just stripped away. "Currently, the spirit races are divided into three major factions. In power is the Dark Current Sect—a bunch of utter lunatics who advocate for breaking the seal on the Abandoned Lands above our heads, using the power within to reshape the laws of the spirit realm."

"The second faction is the Neutralists, mostly old beings who transformed from plants and spirits. They hold their ground in a tree city deep underground, sealing themselves off from the world, turning a blind eye to the Dark Current Sect's actions."

As Lin Yu spoke to this point, the luster of his soul body dimmed sharply for an instant, and a trace of barely perceptible mockery crept into his voice.

"As for the third faction—the so-called Qiming Sect that Qingyan mentioned. These idealists who advocated peaceful coexistence with humanity were already slaughtered by the Dark Current Sect until only a scattered few remained. They're completely extinct now."

Su Ming's eyes shifted slightly, immediately seizing the key point: "And what about Qingyan? If he was the last elder of the Qiming Sect, how could he know so many core secrets of the Dark Current Sect?"

"That's the most ironic part." Lin Yu let out a sneering laugh. "Qingyan himself was never some die-hard loyalist of the Qiming Sect. He was the highest-level spy the Dark Current Sect planted within the Qiming Sect since childhood."

Su Ming's pupils abruptly contracted.

Lin Yu continued: "His job was to win the trust of the Qiming Sect's high-ranking members and dismantle them from within. Later, when the Qiming Sect was slaughtered to near extinction, the Dark Current Sect decided he still had value as a pawn, so they sent him to make contact with Yan Wuji, the Last Emperor of Great Yan."

"He disguised himself as a surviving elder of the Qiming Sect, using that whole 'peaceful coexistence, mutual exchange' spiel, plus a set of incomplete formation inheritance, to lure Yan Wuji into expending the nation's destiny to build the World Gate."

Ying seemed to understand something from the conversation, restlessly scratching at the gravel on the ground with her claws, producing faint scraping sounds.

"Then what was the Dark Current Sect's real purpose in building the World Gate?" Su Ming lowered the jade slip from his forehead, the uneasy premonition in his heart growing stronger by the second.

Lin Yu's soul body suddenly leaned forward in the void, his deep blue gaze seemingly piercing through the surface of the ring.

"This is the second life-or-death matter I need to tell you about." Lin Yu's voice was cold enough to freeze bone. "The Dark Current Sect is destroying the three seals left by ancient mighty beings at any cost. Right now, only the last one remains."

"Once that final seal is completely destroyed, the calamity that has been suppressed in these Abandoned Lands for countless ages will fully awaken."

Su Ming drew a deep breath: "They want to use the calamity's power to deal with whom? Humanity?"

"Deal with humanity?" Lin Yu laughed coldly, his soul body's luster flickering violently with the surge of emotion. "You're underestimating these bastards' schemes. They can't control the calamity at all! They want to use the World Gate's coordinates at the moment the seal breaks, treating the calamity like garbage, and simply dump it straight into the human realm!"

Su Ming clenched his fist hard, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

"They don't want to dirty their own territory, so they want humanity to clean up their mess and take the brunt of this catastrophe." Su Ming's voice was completely flat, but every word seemed squeezed out through clenched teeth.

"Exactly." Lin Yu sat back, a grim tone seeping through his words. "Yan Wuji sensed these spirit races' conspiracy at the final moment, so rather than let it happen, he chose to destroy his own nation's destiny and desperately smashed the formation core of the World Gate. Qingyan's mission had failed, and fearing his Dark Current Sect masters would silence him, he fled in panic into the remnants of the Hall of Return to Ruins' formation, clinging to life until now."

Su Ming fell silent.

His mind was racing at full speed, beginning a silent deduction.

Currently, the Dark Current Sect had no idea that the World Gate had already been "regrafted" and reopened by him, nor did they know that a human named Su Ming had come to the spirit realm. This was his advantage—him in the shadows, the enemy in the light.

Since the Dark Current Sect was still working on destroying the last seal, it meant the calamity had not yet descended. But if the spirit realm's seals were to completely shatter, and the World Gate's coordinates had already been activated once, would this calamity follow the residual spatial fluctuations and find its way to the human realm?

He was currently severely injured, his spiritual energy depleted. Forget stopping the Dark Current Sect—even just getting out of this mushroom forest was nearly impossible.

"Master." Su Ming raised his head, his gaze returning to absolute calm. "The Dark Current Sect's conspiracy isn't something we can worry about right now. When the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. I'm not even tall enough to count—I'm just an ant trapped in a crack between stones."

Lin Yu's soul body paused briefly, then let out a satisfied "mm."

"The fact that you can think this way puts this old man's mind at ease." Lin Yu nodded approvingly. "The thing the cultivation world fears most is a self-righteous savior who doesn't know when to quit. You, with this attitude of yours, might look pathetic, but you'll live long."

"So, what's the third piece of intelligence?" Su Ming carved his final notes onto the jade slip and continued asking.

Lin Yu raised one illusory finger.

"The third one concerns the spirit races' power system. This is also the root of the fatal predicament you're facing right now." Lin Yu's pace slowed, each word weighted heavily. "The spirit races don't cultivate spiritual energy at all."

Su Ming was momentarily stunned: "They don't cultivate spiritual energy? Then what do they use to cast their techniques?"