Chapter 647: This Place Is Practically This Old Man's Paradise!

Two spirit-race guards clad in heavy armor led the way ahead, their thick armor plates scraping against the rough bark passageway of the ancient banyan, producing a dull rustling sound. Su Ming followed behind, his expression calm as a deep pool, yet those pitch-black and crystal-clear eyes were imperceptibly carving the terrain and formation line nodes along the way into his Consciousness Sea.

After turning three corners, the passage suddenly opened up.

"We're here." The guard on the left stopped and stepped aside to make way.

Su Ming looked up and saw that this was a massive tree hollow located at a branch point of the trunk's main vein. It was more than three times as spacious as the "guest room" he had occupied before. Through the half-closed wooden door, he could see not only an independent stone couch resting area, but deeper inside, a meditation room had even been carved out, with a formation workbench carved from a single piece of ironwood at its center.

What was even more crucial was that the other guard who had been following behind had already stopped at a fork in the road ten zhang away and turned to leave. At this moment, only one guard remained outside the door of this new residence.

Su Ming cupped his fists in a subtle gesture of thanks. "Much obliged for the accommodation."

The guard's face remained expressionless. He merely tapped the wooden staff in his hand heavily against the ground. "Elder Woodheart has decreed that within thirty zhang of this area, you may move about freely and gather the herbal materials you need. But if you dare cross that boundary by even half a step, you will be killed without mercy. My name is Mu Yan. I will be stationed outside this door ordinarily. If you have any needs, just speak up."

This wasn't a guard at all—it was clearly a "guide" for leading the way and surveillance in one.

Su Ming gave a slight nod without saying much, walked straight into the tree hollow, and reached back to slowly close the heavy wooden door.

As the wooden door emitted a dull "click," the pervasive sense of being watched from the outside world was finally blocked off by a small margin.

"Hmm—"

A faint blue light flashed across the surface of the Xuantian ring, and Lin Yu's soul body eagerly drilled out from the depths of the ring. He floated two circles around the spacious tree hollow, his illusory fingers pointing vaguely at the air as he let out a light snort.

"That wooden post outside the door has his aura suppressed by seventy percent. In name, he's a guardian, but in reality, he's just an errand runner." Lin Yu hovered above the formation workbench, looking down at Su Ming from a high vantage point. "That old tree spirit certainly knows how to play the carrot-and-stick game. He gives you, an outsider, a little sweetener, and at the same time slips an invisible chain around your neck."

Su Ming walked to the ironwood workbench and reached out to stroke the ancient wood grain upon it. A thread of Ruo Shui spiritual energy extended imperceptibly from his fingertip. Only after confirming that no eavesdropping formation lines were hidden within the workbench did he slowly speak. "He needs this blade of mine to cut away the rotten flesh on his root veins. Naturally, he'd wrap a few layers of soft cloth around the handle so it doesn't chafe his hand."

Ying crawled out from Su Ming's wide sleeve, let out a "cheep," and fluttered her black wings before landing on the edge of the windowsill. Her golden pupils warily scanned the glowing vines outside the window, her feathers slightly bristling. Clearly, she wasn't quite accustomed to this place brimming with foreign race aura.

Su Ming walked to the corner of the meditation room at the deepest part of the tree hollow. This was a natural blind spot.

He tapped the storage pouch at his waist, and four pieces of gray gravel fell into his palm.

Pale blue Ruo Shui spiritual energy surged forth from his fingertips like countless strands of ultra-fine hair, instantly wrapping tightly around the four fragments.

"Plop."

A drop of black water tinged with gray impurities fell from midair, splashing onto the stone slab.

Ying stood on the windowsill, tilting her little head as she curiously watched her master, occasionally letting out a soft grumble.

"Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation, activate!"

Su Ming let out a low shout. A drop of essence blood was forced from his fingertip, mixed with pale blue Ruo Shui spiritual energy, and he viciously pressed his finger onto the void at the very center of the formation.

The spatial crack had just taken shape.

"Rumble—"

A surge of pure Void spiritual energy more than ten times denser than before erupted forth like a physical entity!

But under Su Ming's exquisite formation control, this spiritual energy was locked tightly within the three-chi radius of the meditation room, not a single wisp leaking out.

"Holy crap!"

Lin Yu let out an exclamation completely unbefitting a master.

His illusory old eyes stared fixedly at that grayish-white misty sea of spiritual energy. In his microscopic vision, not only were dense threads of silver-grade Source Substance swimming about, but... every few breaths, a dazzling "golden-gleam Source Substance" would flash past like a swimming dragon!

"This place is practically this old man's paradise!"

Lin Yu could no longer maintain any pretense of dignity. His soul body plunged straight into the misty sea, opened his mouth wide, and entered a frenzied "gluttonous devouring" mode.

Visibly, Lin Yu's originally somewhat transparent soul body began to condense at a terrifying speed after frenziedly devouring the golden-gleam Source Substance.

"Burp—"

By evening, Lin Yu finally stopped devouring. He hovered in midair, let out a long, contented burp, patted his nonexistent belly, and sighed with satisfaction.

"Delicious... If I could stay peacefully in this godforsaken place for ten years, this old man might even be able to break through this shackle and head straight for the Ghost King realm!"

Su Ming, meanwhile, sat cross-legged at the edge of the formation, greedily absorbing the pure Void spiritual energy. His Golden Core spun at incredible speed within his Dantian. His previously damaged meridians had already completely healed under the nourishment of this extremely pure spiritual energy.

Lin Yu let out a cold snort and rolled his eyes dismissively, but his soul body, now suffused with golden patterns, honestly sat back down. While continuing to furiously absorb Source Substance, he pulled a blank jade slip from his bosom.

"Enough. This old man is eating meat, but that doesn't mean I'll forget the important matters." Lin Yu's voice slowed down, carrying a solemn weight of organizing complex information. "Since my soul is clear-headed right now, I'll sort through the residual memories of that old ghost Qingyan and lay them out for you."

Su Ming didn't open his eyes, merely giving a slight nod. "I'm all ears."

Lin Yu's illusory fingers rapidly carved upon the jade slip as strands of spiritual sense were driven into it.

"First, the spirit races' current social structure and distribution of power." Lin Yu hovered motionless, his tone grave. "You already know that the core stronghold of those radical maniacs in the Dark Current Sect is called the Nether Abyss."

Lin Yu paused, his voice dropping even lower. "It's said that place is a dead zone created when some mighty being fell from Beyond the Heavens during the ancient war of the four races. It's shrouded year-round in a murderous aura that can corrode even the laws of life. The fact that they chose a desperate place like that for their headquarters is absolutely not merely for concealment—they must be plotting some kind of terrifying power."

Su Ming silently committed the words "Nether Abyss" and "fallen mighty being" to memory, then countered, "And what about the Neutralists and the Qiming Sect?"

"The Neutralists are this very Greenwood Court we're in now, led by that ten-thousand-year-old tree. Their whole deal is playing ostrich, sealing off the territory and not coming out." Lin Yu let out a derisive laugh. "As for the Qiming Sect where Qingyan belonged... Although their core high-ranking members were slaughtered to the last, based on a trace of obsession deep within Qingyan's memories, the Qiming Sect still has a group of remnants hiding in the Windscar Wastes of the far western lands. That place has fierce winds that can tear apart divine sense blowing year-round, so the Dark Current Sect's reach hasn't extended there yet."

Su Ming's heart stirred slightly. The remnants of the Qiming Sect—this might be a hidden card that could be utilized in the future.

"And second?" Su Ming continued asking.

Lin Yu paused his carving. The luster on his soul body dimmed slightly, revealing the weight he carried within. "Second is the Dark Current Sect's action plan—so vast it's enough to make one's hair stand on end."

"That life-devouring fungal filament network you saw beneath the spiritual spring yesterday is merely the most insignificant link in their plan." Lin Yu spoke each word deliberately. "The Dark Current Sect's ultimate strategic goal is to break the seal of the so-called Abandoned Lands. And this seal has a total of three barriers."

"The first barrier... is very likely this ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan's Root Vein Defense Formation!"