Chapter 631: This Formation, I'll Take It Without Ceremony

Su Ming crouched deep within the shadow of a thick light tree, his figure seeming to merge completely with the surrounding darkness. The faint layer of life essence coat covering his skin undulated gently in rhythm with the slow "breathing" of the light tree.

At this moment, in the void above the fluorescent swamp beyond the Gloomlight Forest, the twelve originally concealed spatial anchors had erupted in full force. Pale purple light tore through the mist, and the blinding radiance scattered every shadow for miles around.

Su Ming did not close his eyes, nor did he shrink back from the intense light. Deep within his pupils, obscure blue formation lines spun at terrifying speed, pushing the perception precision of "Observation of the Minute" to the absolute limit he could currently achieve.

"Master, this isn't a simple hunting formation." Su Ming's left hand unconsciously stroked the edge of his storage pouch as his voice dropped to barely a whisper, as if even the vibration of his vocal cords might be detected by the formation a hundred zhang away.

Lin Yu's soul body flickered faintly within the Xuantian ring, his illusory eyes also locked unblinkingly on the anomaly above. "What have you figured out?"

"Twelve spatial anchors, but they're not acting independently." Su Ming stared intently at the chains dancing wildly through the void, his consciousness sea already frantically dismantling and reconstructing. "This is an ancient dragon-sealing arrangement. Look at those pale purple murderous auras serving as chains—they're not simply strangling. They're constructing an absolutely sealed extraction circuit."

Su Ming's finger tapped lightly against the rough bark. "Once the trapped victim's life force is stripped away, not a single shred escapes into the air. Instead, it follows the roots of these twelve anchors, forcibly channeled directly into the earth veins, transported to somewhere far away."

Lin Yu's soul body drifted slightly above the ring's surface. His gaze, which had been merely assessing, suddenly flickered violently as he swept over the trapped light-winged bird, like a candle guttering in the wind.

"This bird's owner... is a problem." Lin Yu's voice turned abruptly cold, carrying an undeniable chill.

Su Ming's heart tightened. He immediately asked, "What do you mean?"

"At the base of the bird's wings, there's an extremely faint trace of white flame." Lin Yu extended his illusory finger and pointed into the distance. "That's the residual mark of Bright Light Imprint. This kind of imprint can only be left on a companion spirit beast by core members of the Qiming Sect—those who have utterly ignited their own life force."

Su Ming's breath caught for a brief instant.

"Those bastards of the Dark Current Sect aren't just hunting. They're systematically purging the last few Qiming remnants that slipped through their net." Lin Yu's speech quickened, his tone carrying a deep menace.

Su Ming's right hand instinctively pressed against the front of his robe, where the "Qiming" jade token he'd brought from the Hall of Return to Ruins lay hidden against his skin.

"Master, the coordinates indicated by this jade token I hold point directly to the Qiming Sect's secret ground." Su Ming's gaze turned unfathomably deep as countless thoughts collided at lightning speed. "If the Dark Current Sect completes this purge and wipes that entire region clean, then this lead—the path back to the human realm, and even the way to uncover the truth of the spirit realm—will be severed completely."

Ying nestled in the hollow of Su Ming's neck, seeming to sense her master's tension. She let out a low "cheep," her golden pupils locked dead on the light-winged bird shrieking miserably above, while the edges of her wings had already begun to gleam with a sharp, metallic coldness.

"Don't move." Su Ming pressed Ying back down with one hand.

His mind had entered a state of absolute cold calculation.

First, the risk. If he acted now, he could certainly save this light-winged bird—but it also meant exposing himself directly to the Dark Current Sect's attention. He had no idea whether deeper tracking imprints lay hidden behind those twelve anchors, or even Dark Current Sect experts at Golden Core or higher realms.

Second, the gain. This light-winged bird had already had most of its life force drained. Even if he forcibly severed the chains and rescued it, its foundation would be utterly destroyed—a cripple that could never fly again, completely useless for providing any intelligence about the Qiming Sect.

Third, his trump cards. His Ruo Shui spiritual energy had only recovered to seventy percent. In this law-rejecting spirit realm, every single drop of spiritual energy was precious beyond measure. To squander his life-saving trump cards for something already on the verge of death would be the height of stupidity.

"Not saving." Su Ming's eyes returned to their still, ancient-well calm as he coldly spat out two words.

"At least your head is still screwed on straight." Lin Yu snorted lightly, his soul body's glow gradually settling. "But then, are we just going to sit here and watch?"

"Since they dare to set up a formation here, might as well treat it as them giving me a live demonstration of this grand formation's complete structure." A faint, cold smile curled at the corner of Su Ming's mouth as the observation formation lines in his eyes spun to their utmost limit.

He no longer paid any attention to the wailing light-winged bird. Instead, he poured all his focus into the operation of the massive formation.

"Twelve earthly branches, with dragon-sealing as the skeleton." Su Ming frantically carved mental diagrams in his consciousness sea. "Murderous aura chain transmission frequency, one grand cycle every three breaths. The extraction circuit's earth vein path, following the dark river vein to the northeast..."

This was the core formation blueprint the Dark Current Sect used to draw life essence—an absolute secret that could stir rivers of blood if leaked to the outside world. Yet now, Su Ming, without moving a single soldier, relying purely on his heaven-defying formation comprehension and absolute patience, was engraving this formation's complete three-dimensional structure into his mind without missing a single detail.

Just as Su Ming was greedily recording the formation's intricacies, the twelve spatial anchors suddenly erupted with an even more blinding dark light.

Then, Su Ming noticed that deep within the muck beneath the formation—where the earth veins flowed—faint rings of eerie dark red ripples were beginning to appear.

Su Ming's heart leaped. His eyes narrowed to slits.

"Master..." Su Ming's voice carried a gravity tinged with disbelief. "Can you sense it? Those dark red ripples transmitting along the earth veins."

Lin Yu's soul body halted abruptly in midair, then drifted to float before Su Ming, his expression as dark as if water might drip from it. "This fluctuation... carries the stench of despair rotten to the very core."

"This ripple's frequency—I know it far too well." Su Ming drew a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart. "In the Hall of Return to Ruins, when I grasped the Qiming jade token, in the star chart that surfaced in my consciousness sea, that dead, silent star called the Abandoned Lands was wrapped in countless dark golden chains. This red fluctuation's frequency matches the vibration of those chains perfectly!"

Lin Yu's illusory beard twitched. He ground his teeth and confirmed in a cold voice: "These lunatics... they're actually carrying out this kind of offspring-damning, lineage-severing scheme!"

"They're not just draining the life force of spirit race compatriots." Lin Yu's voice carried deep apprehension. "They're genuinely channeling that pure extracted life force through the earth veins to the Abandoned Lands' seal, using it as fuel to burn through those ancient chains!"

Su Ming clenched his fist, his knuckles whitening. "Every bit the seal weakens, the sealed calamity comes one step closer to awakening. If the World Gate falls completely under their control..."

"Then it truly becomes a catastrophe for the human race." Lin Yu let out a cold laugh. "But when the sky falls, the tall ones hold it up. Right now you can't even beat a Foundation Establishment wooden dummy, so worry about yourself first."

The light-winged bird in midair finally let out its most piercing, hoarse, despairing cry.

The light on its wings—once resplendent as the aurora—vanished without a trace, like a candle instantly snuffed out by a fierce wind.

Its once-majestic body had now shriveled like a skeleton air-dried for a hundred years. It plummeted straight down from the sky and landed with a wet splat, crashing heavily into the foul-smelling mud at the swamp's edge, splashing up a small spray of faintly glowing droplets.

And in the instant the light-winged bird's life force was utterly severed, the massive murderous formation ceased its operation as well.

There was no violent explosion, no residual murderous aura escaping. The twelve hidden spatial anchors, like death-men who had fulfilled their duty, silently turned to wisps of ash in the void, scattering completely in the wind—not even the faintest trace of formation residue remaining.

Su Ming did not move immediately. Instead, he calmly committed to memory the formation's dissipation sequence and the final path of energy reflux, searing every detail into his mind.

Just as he was about to withdraw his gaze, his peripheral vision suddenly caught a faint anomaly in the mud below.