Chapter 642: The Spatial Barrier in This Godforsaken Place Is Actually This Fragile!

Night quietly descended. The branches and leaves of the Banyan within Greenwood Court emitted a gentle, dusky radiance, illuminating the entire enormous three-dimensional city as though it were part of a grand dream.

“Creak...”

The wooden door was pushed open, and Ye Qing’s slender figure slipped inside. He casually formed a hand seal, sealing away the faint sound of wind coming through the gap beneath the door, then strode over to the vine bed.

When Ye Qing returned after opening the door again to deliver his message, his expression was strange to the extreme, as though he were looking at a monster.

“Su Ming, you’re practically a rare treasure in our Greenwood Court now.” Ye Qing dropped heavily into a wooden chair, grabbed a luminous fruit from the table, and bit into it. Juice burst in all directions.

Su Ming was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed. Upon hearing this, he slowly opened his eyes, took a wooden teacup from his sleeve, poured in a cup of clear water, and handed it over. “Oh? What happened outside this time?”

“There wasn’t exactly any incident, but there was plenty of excitement.” Ye Qing accepted the teacup and drained it in one gulp. “Those commoners at the bottom heard that you repaired the spiritual spring in one move and immediately identified the hidden danger behind the root-vein formation’s decline. They now treat you like a divine being with three heads and six arms. This evening, several groups of little brats whose tender leaves had only just grown from their heads sneaked over to peek around outside your tree hollow. Those heavily armored guards drove them away like ducks several times.”

Su Ming smiled faintly and reached out to straighten his blue-gray Daoist robe. His tone remained calm. “Children are children. They are always curious about things they do not understand. But what is the situation with the Council of Elders?”

Ye Qing lowered his voice, a flicker of excitement flashing through his eyes. “Elder Panshi personally brought several trusted aides to investigate the outskirts of the root veins. When he returned, his face was as dark as a piece of pig iron. Although he did not say so directly, he immediately ordered the three hidden tunnel entrances in the northeast corner sealed shut. As for Elder Qingluo...”

At this point, Ye Qing could not help chuckling. “Her supple face was so gloomy it looked ready to drip water, and she could not even force out half a sentence of objection in the council hall. This time, you completely and utterly shut her mouth.”

Su Ming lightly tapped his fingers against his knee, his expression still as unreadable as an ancient well. “Taking precautions before disaster strikes. Elder Panshi is indeed a decisive man. The methods of the Dark Current Sect are sinister. If they are not stopped in time, the consequences will be endless.”

Ye Qing leaned closer, curiosity filling his gaze. “But can you really repair that root-vein formation? That is the protective formation of the entire spirit race, the very one even Elder Woodheart could only watch helplessly as it declined.”

Su Ming did not answer directly. Instead, he lifted the clear water before him and took a small sip, diverting the conversation with another question. “Brother Ye Qing, the root veins of this ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan are incomparably vast. Where exactly do they extend? Why is even a mighty being like Elder Woodheart unable to protect them completely?”

Ye Qing scratched the green, soft tendrils atop his head, his brows drawing together slightly. “I don’t know much about that either. I have only occasionally heard the older members of the tribe mention that the deepest parts of Greenwood Court’s root veins continue downward until they seem to reach the edge of the Nether Abyss. That place is a forbidden land where life force and death energy intertwine. Normally, even the most ferocious spirit beasts would not dare approach it, much less investigate it.”

Su Ming’s heart stirred slightly, and he silently engraved the words “Nether Abyss” deep within his Consciousness Sea.

“I see.” Su Ming nodded. “The creation of heaven and earth follows the mutual generation and restraint of all things. The formation’s decline was not caused by a single day’s neglect.”

Ye Qing stood up and patted the scraps from his body. “All right, I only came to give you a heads-up. Although the Council of Elders has temporarily suppressed its hostility toward you, Elder Genxu told me to inform you that tomorrow, during the Chen hour, you must be prepared.”

“Prepared for what?” A flicker passed through Su Ming’s eyes.

“I don’t know.” Ye Qing shrugged. “I wouldn’t dare ask too many questions about the elders’ affairs. Get a good rest tonight. The four guards outside will not even let a flying insect in.”

Having said that, Ye Qing waved his hand and pushed open the door to leave.

The wooden door closed again, and the surroundings fell into extreme silence.

Su Ming sat motionless for the time it took half an incense stick to burn. Only after confirming that the four pressures outside, each at the peak of the Soul Nurturing stage, had shown no intention of probing did he slowly stand up.

He took the three remaining Void Stones and a small pinch of Soul Stabilizing Sand from his storage pouch.

“Shadow, go stand guard behind the door,” Su Ming instructed softly.

The Profound Shadow Crow lying in the darkness gave a soft cheep, then flapped its wings and flew to the top of the doorframe. Its golden pupils vigilantly fixed on the crack in the door.

Su Ming walked to the deepest corner of the tree hollow, where both his hands rapidly moved like butterflies darting through flowers.

This was a miniature formation less than a foot across, even smaller than the one he had set up within the crack in Gloomlight Forest. Its sole purpose was to achieve the utmost concealment.

“Activate.”

Su Ming forced out a strand of Ruo Shui spiritual energy and tapped it onto the formation core.

“Buzz...”

A faint ring of transparent ripples spread through the air.

The space that had originally been indestructible now seemed to turn into a thin veil soaked through with water. A pitch-black crack no larger than a grain of rice silently tore open in the center of the formation.

In the next instant, an extremely pure stream of attribute-less Void spiritual energy surged into this tiny area like a fine current bursting through a breached dam.

A dusky light flashed from the Xuantian ring, and Lin Yu’s Soul Body impatiently floated out.

His illusory eyes locked onto the rice-grain-sized crack, and the radiance on the surface of his Soul Body instantly brightened until it was as dazzling as daylight.

“The spatial barrier of this wretched place is actually this weak!” Lin Yu’s voice trembled slightly from extreme excitement. “In human territory, materials of this quality would barely tear open a thin slit. Here, it is practically a wide-open gateway!”

Su Ming sat down cross-legged and formed hand seals, circulating the Like Water Art to its absolute limit.

The Void spiritual energy pouring inside contained no impurities whatsoever. It frantically flooded into him through his seven apertures and every part of his body. His meridians, which had been nearly thirty percent drained after repairing the spiritual spring, rapidly filled in the short span of half an incense stick, as though long-drought-stricken fields had finally received sweet rain.

His spiritual energy recovered to more than eighty percent at a terrifying speed visible to the naked eye.

The commotion on Lin Yu’s side was even more exaggerated than Su Ming’s.

Within the microscopic formation’s field of vision, Su Ming clearly saw dense silver threads mixed into the gray-white sea of spiritual energy mist that poured out. There were even several rare golden lights that glittered like stars.

Lin Yu opened his illusory mouth and suddenly inhaled.

Those few golden lights entered his Soul Body like fledgling swallows returning to the forest.

“Boom!”

A ring of substantial-looking, deep-blue ripples spread across the surface of Lin Yu’s Soul Body. His lower half, which had still been somewhat transparent, had now solidified until it resembled a genuine body of flesh and blood.

“Refreshing! Absolutely refreshing!” Lin Yu closed his eyes, even his whiskers trembling slightly. “These few golden lights are worth three years of Source Substance absorbed in human territory!”

While guiding his spiritual energy back into his Golden Core, Su Ming replied in a low voice, “Master, although the spatial barrier here is weak, will the commotion caused by the influx of spiritual energy alert the guards outside?”

“Relax.” Lin Yu let out a belch and lazily floated in midair. “I used the soul power I just recovered to place another Isolation barrier over your aura-hiding array. Unless a mighty being at the Spirit Transformation stage presses against the door and listens, those wooden stakes outside will absolutely not detect the slightest thing.”