Chapter 636: Curiosity Kills the Cat, but It Can Also Put Me on Top!

"Withdraw!"

At just a single moment of contact, Su Ming unhesitatingly severed that strand of Ruo Shui spiritual energy, his fingers retracting as if burned. His face turned slightly pale, and a thin layer of cold sweat seeped out across his forehead.

"Pretty bold of you, daring to probe the depths of an existence like this." Lin Yu hovered in mid-air with his illusory arms crossed, his tone carrying a hint of lingering fear mixed with reproach.

"This layer of Ruo Shui disguise of mine might fool the patrolling guards, but pulling tricks inside Elder Woodheart's main body is no different from walking straight into death." Su Ming took a deep breath, steadying his pounding heart, and admonished himself inwardly, "My current identity is a lost, harmless alien formation cultivator, absolutely not a spy here to steal the spirit races' core formation arts. Curiosity kills the cat."

He stepped back two paces, sat upright cross-legged on the vine sleeping couch, and closed his eyes to compose himself, letting the Ruo Shui spiritual energy within his body sink into complete stillness, disguising himself as an obedient prisoner.

Before long.

A light, brisk set of footsteps sounded from outside the door, followed by the thick wooden door being pushed open.

The one who walked in was a rather young-looking spirit race member. He was thin in build, with faint green patterns on his skin, and carried a larger wooden tray piled high with all sorts of brightly colored luminous fruits.

This young spirit race member bore none of the coldness or wariness of the guards outside. The moment he stepped in, he fixed Su Ming with a gaze full of curiosity and scrutiny, unabashedly sizing him up from head to toe.

"Your aura is truly bizarre." The young spirit chattered away in the spirit tongue while setting the fruit tray down on the wooden table. "You look like one of us, and you smell like you've got a bit of leaf to you. But if you feel closely, there's this strange hint of dead-thing energy seeping through. Hey, you oddball from outside, what's your name anyway?"

Su Ming slowly opened his eyes.

He showed no trace of offense or irritation. Instead, he rose to his feet and once again performed a proper spirit race chest salute. Then, in a pure form of the spirit tongue, one carrying a hint of archaic accent, he spoke gently.

"I am Su Ming, a wandering formation cultivator. My apologies for disturbing all of you." Su Ming's tone was so humble that not a single flaw could be found in it. "This young brother has keen eyes. This life essence coat on my person is merely a crude imitation I crafted using formations, simply a means to protect myself in these perilous lands. Naturally, to a discerning eye, it's riddled with flaws."

The young spirit clearly hadn't expected this "oddball" to speak such fluent archaic spirit tongue, and with such a courteous attitude at that. He froze for a moment, then his eyes lit up like a child discovering a new toy.

"You can actually speak our ancient tongue? And what the heck is a formation cultivator?" He excitedly took two steps closer. "My name's Ye Qing. I've been assigned to be your liaison. That formation coat of yours is weird, sure, but the fact that it can fool those guards outside into looking like stunned idiots means there's some real skill behind it. Can you teach me?"

Lin Yu let out a "tsk" in the Consciousness Sea. "This kid has fewer brains than the leaves on his forehead. He's already spilled his own background info."

"This is a golden opportunity." Su Ming's mind turned swiftly, and the smile on his face grew increasingly sincere.

He pulled an ordinary wooden chip from his storage pouch, one completely devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuation. With a slight movement of his fingertip, he quickly carved a set of the most basic human concealment runes onto it, then presented it with both hands.

"A trivial little trick. If young brother Ye Qing is interested, feel free to take it and play with it. What they call formations is simply a means of borrowing the momentum of heaven and earth for one's own use." Su Ming let out a soft sigh, and a hint of bitterness and lingering fear surfaced on his face at just the right moment. "I was studying the path of formations at an ancient ruin when I accidentally triggered a damaged World Gate and got swept into this place by chaotic void currents. If not for sheer luck, I'd probably have died on the spot."

Ye Qing took the wooden chip without the slightest guard, turning it over and over in his hands, his eyes brimming with wonder. Upon hearing Su Ming's words, he immediately wore an expression of sudden realization.

"No wonder the elders were so on edge when they heard about you. So you're an alien race that fell in from outside!" Ye Qing lowered his voice, adopting the manner of someone sharing a secret. "You don't know this, but our Greenwood Court has been sealed off for a long time now. Elder Woodheart ordered that no clan member is allowed to leave without permission."

Su Ming's heart gave a sudden lurch, but he put on a bewildered, clueless look. "Oh? I was on edge the whole way here, but I did vaguely sense that the outskirts of your territory seem rather unsettled. If I may ask, which mighty senior's domain is this Greenwood Court?"

"You don't even know Elder Woodheart?" Ye Qing's eyes went wide as he pointed at the ground beneath his feet. "What we're standing on right now is the elder's main body! The elder is a luminous banyan that lived over ten thousand years before transforming. He's the ruler of our Greenwood Court. If not for the elder's protection, we'd have been devoured alive by those maniacs from the Dark Current Sect long ago!"

At the mention of the Dark Current Sect, a flash of undisguised disgust and fear crossed Ye Qing's face.

"The Dark Current Sect?" Su Ming continued guiding the conversation with that same tone of eager inquiry. "Are they powerful? Why would they resort to such vicious means against their own kind?"

"Those bastards went mad long ago! They want to destroy the ancestral land, they want to drag the outside world into the abyss!" Ye Qing gnashed his teeth in anger. "Lately, they've been sending people to prowl around the forests of our outskirts, setting up those vicious life-draining formations. Several of our patrol squads have already fallen to them. That's why the guards are so jumpy, the moment they saw your disguise, they thought you were a spy sent by the Dark Current Sect."

At this point, Ye Qing suddenly shot Su Ming a suspicious look. "You're not really one of their spies, are you?"

Hearing this, Su Ming let out a helpless bitter laugh. He spread his hands open and met Ye Qing's eyes with complete candor.

"Brother Ye Qing, do you think that if I were the kind of cruel, vicious character from the Dark Current Sect, I'd fail to properly master even the most basic laws of life, wrap myself in such an awkward disguise, and waltz right up to your guards to throw my life away?"

Ye Qing tilted his head in thought, the little green tendril standing upright on his head swaying back and forth.

"True enough." He nodded, seemingly casting aside all lingering doubt. "Those assassins from the Dark Current Sect can conceal themselves so well that even the Grand Elder gets a headache dealing with them. No way one of them would be as clumsy as you. Alright, just stay here and relax, eat some fruit. The elders are discussing your matter upstairs right now. Once they make up their minds, they'll come see you."

With that, Ye Qing waved at Su Ming, clutched the wooden chip carved with runes, and bounded out the door in high spirits.

The wooden door swung shut once more.

The room fell back into silence.

Su Ming walked over to the wooden table, picked up a luminous fruit, and gave it a light toss in his hand. The smile on his lips gradually faded, replaced by a deep, cold glint in his eyes.

"Master, the intel has been extracted." Su Ming began rapidly reviewing everything in his Consciousness Sea.

"Greenwood Court is ruled by Elder Woodheart, the ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan, and is currently not participating in the civil war."

"The Dark Current Sect is active in the outskirts, setting up linked life-draining formations in succession. Greenwood Court has already suffered casualties and is in a passive position of defense, if not outright blockade."

Su Ming placed the luminous fruit back on the tray and clasped his hands behind his back, a calculating gleam flickering in his eyes. "The most crucial thing is that my current identity is that of a lost formation cultivator with no background whatsoever. In this civil war among the spirit races, Greenwood Court needs someone who understands formations to counter the Dark Current Sect's baleful formations. And I, I hold the most core formation knowledge of the human race..."

"This, this is our biggest bargaining chip to stand on."

Lin Yu's soul body clapped his illusory hands together and burst into laughter in mid-air. "Brilliant! Those tree spirits shut away behind closed doors, all they know is defense. They have no idea what the Dark Current Sect's trump card really is. But you, you just happen to hold that lethal Information Gap. As long as you can demonstrate your value in solving their pressing crisis, this Greenwood Court will become the most solid fortress for you in this godforsaken world!"

Su Ming sat back down on the sleeping couch and began to regulate his breathing, adjusting his condition to its optimal state.

He knew that the true test was about to come.

Roughly the time it takes to burn one stick of incense passed.

Footsteps sounded from outside the door once again. This time, they were heavy and rhythmic, accompanied by the pressure of a Soul Nurturing stage aura that enveloped Su Ming's entire body.