Chapter 639: You Blind Fools Only See Three Feet Deep!

Su Ming crouched by the spiritual spring, using the withered light tree branch in his hand to complete the final stroke on the damp, muddy ground—an extraordinarily complex miniature three-dimensional structural diagram, exuding a certain stern orderliness, now lay clearly presented.

The several spirit race formation masters who had gathered around all furrowed their brows, exchanging puzzled glances with one another. They were accustomed to reading natural formation lines that followed the instinctive growth of vegetation, but this kind of underground structural diagram filled with the human race's logic of "artificial segmentation and fine nesting" was like reading scripture from heaven to them.

"Putting on airs..." A young spirit race formation master let out a cold snort, just about to voice his mockery.

Su Ming paid them no attention whatsoever. He didn't even rush to stand up and explain.

"First calculation, the risk—if I engage in verbal debate, I'll only fall into a self-justification trap; the other side has numbers on their side and will never be easily convinced. Second calculation, the reward—using absolute facts to shatter their perceptions can instantly establish dominance in the path of formations. Third calculation, my ace—as long as I control the output of my Ruo Shui spiritual energy and don't touch the killing formation core of those fungal filaments, I can retreat unscathed." Su Ming completed his triple calculation in the blink of an eye.

He extended the index finger of his right hand, and his gaze instantly turned as cold and sharp as an abyss of ice.

His fingertip trembled slightly, forcing out an extremely thin, extremely pure strand of Ruo Shui spiritual energy. This deep blue spiritual energy didn't radiate any pressure outward; instead, like a transparent probe refined under extreme heat, it silently pressed downward.

"Drip—"

The deep blue glow touched the surface of the murky, yellowed spring water.

The water surface trembled slightly, not even a single ripple forming. But that water spiritual energy, compressed to its absolute limit, sank silently into the depths like a blade cleaving through deadwood, following the cracks in the earth veins and piercing straight down thirty zhang into the ground!

The next breath—

The several spirit race formation masters who had been sneering moments before all changed expression drastically!

Although they couldn't understand the human race's structural diagram, as Soul Nurturing stage spirit races who had spent years dealing with the laws of life, their perception of earth vein fluctuations was extremely acute. In that very instant just now, they had clearly sensed it—deep in the earth below, something seemed to have been stepped on like a viper's tail, frantically trembling and convulsing!

That was a bizarre fluctuation filled with coldness, greed, and a deathly, suffocating stillness!

"Thirty zhang underground... there's something alive?!" The older formation master with the root-whisker beard, Genxu, sharply constricted his amber-colored pupils, even crying out in shock.

Only then did Su Ming slowly withdraw his finger and rise to his feet. In that extremely fluent ancient spirit race language, he calmly spoke: "Honored seniors, the root cause of the spiritual spring's depletion isn't the so-called blockage of life force within three feet of the water's surface—that's merely the surface manifestation. The true cancer lies at the core of the spring's eye, thirty zhang underground."

He pointed to the complex structural diagram on the muddy ground, and the withered branch in his hand precisely tapped on the six dark purple nodes marked on it.

"The Dark Current Sect's life-devouring fungal filaments have already infiltrated the six critical nodes of the spring's eye without anyone noticing." Su Ming's voice wasn't loud, but every word landed like a hammer upon each spirit race member's heart. "Like bloodthirsty parasites, they've firmly blocked the source where life force surges forth, forcibly siphoning the vast majority of primordial energy that rightfully belongs to this spiritual spring, and then—along the shadows of the earth veins, transporting it outward!"

All around was dead silent, save for the rustling sound of withered leaves falling from the light trees.

Su Ming paused briefly, his right hand brushing lightly over his storage pouch.

An object tightly wrapped in a deep blue water membrane appeared in his palm. It was the fungal filament sample he had intercepted earlier at the swamp's edge using the method of "borrowing force to deflect force."

Inside the water membrane, a section of dark purple fungal filament was weakly struggling, and on its surface, a fragmentary yet infinitely malicious "Devour" character rune mark could be faintly seen.

"Honored seniors, please look." Su Ming extended the membrane-wrapped sample forward, his gaze sweeping across those pale-faced formation masters. "This is a rune fragment that broke off from the Dark Current Sect's core grand formation. The extraction laws lingering on it should be unmistakable to you all."

Elder Genxu's hands were trembling as he all but snatched the membrane-wrapped fungal filament.

He used the tip of the wooden staff that symbolized his status, carefully touching the edge of the water membrane.

"Hum..."

A wave of cold, vicious murderous aura instantly traveled up through the staff.

Elder Genxu's aged face, covered in weathered wood grain, began to tremble violently. He had guarded this spiritual spring for a full three hundred years, and yet he'd allowed the enemy's venomous fangs to reach right beneath his very eyelids!

"Impossible!" The young formation master who had mocked Su Ming earlier went pale as death, unwilling to accept it as he muttered defensively, "We use root-seeking techniques to inspect the spring every week. Three feet underground, there's clearly only normal life force blockage, not the Dark Current Sect's murderous aura..."

"You fool—!"

Elder Genxu whirled around, his bloodshot, glass-colored pupils blazing at him, and slammed his staff heavily against the ground, sending mud flying.

"You blind fools only see things three feet deep! If the Dark Current Sect's hand is going to reach out, of course it'll reach to a place you useless lot can't possibly see!" Genxu roared, his voice laced with extreme lingering fear and fury.

After the reprimand, he abruptly turned to Su Ming, his amber eyes churning with shock, wariness, shame, and an extremely complex sense of awe.

Standing at the outskirts, Ye Qing gripped the hem of his clothes tightly with both hands, the green tendrils atop his head stiff with tension. Though he didn't understand those profound formation theories, he had never seen Elder Genxu, always as steady as Mount Tai, lose his composure like this.

That alone was enough to show just how dangerous Greenwood Court's situation had become!

Elder Panshi had somehow already taken his place at the very back of the crowd. His rock-hard, cold expression still revealed nothing, but when he crossed his arms over his chest, his thick knuckles were turning faintly white from excessive force.

That was a physiological reaction of spirit races when they were suppressing their killing intent to the extreme.

And standing beside Panshi, Qingluo was staring fixedly at Su Ming. The piercing scrutiny in her gaze that seemed to bore straight through a person was still heavy, but the pure hostility and contempt from before had largely dissipated. Replaced by it was a tremor she herself didn't want to admit.

"A human formation cultivator..." Qingluo murmured under her breath, her hoarse voice mostly swallowed by the wind.

Information gap. This was the true dimensional reduction strike!

Su Ming took in everyone's reactions at a glance. He knew well the first principle of the Way of Survival—after displaying one's irreplaceability, one must immediately convert that value into tangible benefits, leaving the other party no room for regret or deliberation.

"Honored seniors, the cause is now clear." Su Ming didn't give them any time to process their emotions. He stepped forward directly, his tone carrying an unyielding authority. "What's most urgent now isn't assigning blame, but immediately eliminating these fungal filaments. If we delay half a day more, those six critical nodes will completely necrotize, and this spiritual spring will truly be beyond saving."

With that said, Su Ming walked to the flattest greenstone at the very edge of the spring and sat down cross-legged, his hands naturally forming an ancient, simple hand seal.

He raised his head slightly and, facing Panshi and Qingluo standing at the rear, gave a solemn bow of request.

"This junior requires half an hour." Su Ming's gaze was clear and resolute. "During this time, I ask that all honored seniors present refrain from probing the spring's eye area with divine sense. Human formations are extremely delicate, and Ruo Shui spiritual energy intensely rejects interference from foreign laws. If even the slightest mistake occurs, it could trigger a backlash from the fungal filaments."

Elder Panshi silently regarded this human who was only at the early Soul Nurturing stage.

He pondered for a full three breaths.

Then Panshi gave a slight nod. A flicker of decisiveness crossed his rock-like face, and he raised his right hand, waving it backward.