Chapter 660: This Blame Falls on You Whether You Like It or Not!

Inside the meditation room, the spatial crack slowly sealed shut as the last bit of Void Condensation Sand was exhausted.

Su Ming sat on the meditation cushion, his gaze locked firmly on Shadow atop the stone bed.

The Profound Shadow Crow, sprawled limply on the stone bed, was undergoing a visible transformation at this very moment.

Its body, originally only the size of an adult's fist, had swollen an entire size larger in just half an incense stick's time. Those black feathers that had bristled upright in agony were not only smooth and supple once more, but a faint metallic luster now surfaced on the surface of every single feather.

Most striking of all were the edges of its wings.

Those few nascent wing feathers, previously bearing only a few threads of purple-gold veining, had now fully transformed into pure purple-gold. The edges of those feathers were no longer soft down, but rather like peerless sword blades polished countless times by a supreme sword cultivator, refracting a chilling, cold-edged gleam in the dim tree hollow.

"This... this is the complete awakening of the Edge Rune." Lin Yu's Soul Body drifted over, looking at the quietly slumbering Shadow, and for once a hint of solemnity and envy surfaced on his face.

Lin Yu fell silent for a moment, as if concealing the shock in his heart, then let out a cold snort, his Soul Body's luster flickering briefly: "You're one lucky brat, daring to forcibly tear the Void for a supply run when your spiritual energy was drained. The star bloodline inside this little thing isn't just domineering, its purity is absurdly high. Those few feathers on the edges of its wings right now could probably slice through even an ordinary lower-grade magical treasure with ease."

Su Ming smiled faintly, raising his uninjured left hand to gently stroke Shadow's back feathers, which had grown considerably harder.

"Effort always pays off. In this perilous spirit realm, having one more trump card is always good." Su Ming's voice carried deep exhaustion, but he did not linger on this topic, because during that extreme exertion earlier, he had faintly sensed that his Like Water Art was circulating with greater smoothness and ease.

Su Ming swallowed two Qi Restoring Elixirs, closed his eyes, and began slowly regulating his breathing, sorting out the chaotic qi within his body.

Time trickled by.

About two shichen later, the sky outside the tree hollow had grown completely dark, and Greenwood Court welcomed its unique azure night, adorned by countless bioluminescent plants.

Just when Su Ming's spiritual energy had recovered to about thirty percent.

"Buzz..."

From the lifebound formation plate placed on the other side of the stone bed, a faint yet exceptionally clear tremor suddenly rang out!

Su Ming's eyes snapped open, and deep within his pupils, a wisp of azure-blue brilliance streaked like lightning.

"The fish has taken the bait." Su Ming's voice was extremely soft, yet carried a bone-chilling coldness.

Lin Yu's Soul Body instantly drifted above the lifebound formation plate, lowering his head to carefully examine the six miniature light points on the plate's surface that represented the monitoring nodes of the spiritual plant cultivation area.

Among them, a light point located at the extreme depths of the southwest corner was currently flickering with urgent, faint pulses.

Su Ming did not rise. He merely pressed his palm against the edge of the lifebound formation plate, and that faint tremor traveled along the plate directly into his Consciousness Sea.

That was the miniature monitoring formation line he had carefully wrapped in Ruo Shui spiritual energy and laid at the roots of the withered tree yesterday evening.

Now, through the shattering feedback of that layer of Ruo Shui spiritual energy, Su Ming's Consciousness Sea clearly reflected a scene unfolding deep underground, several li away.

Someone had touched that formation line.

More precisely, an extremely covert wood-attribute spiritual energy, like a venomous serpent, had silently coiled around the roots of that withered tree. That spiritual energy was attempting a sophisticated "assimilation" technique to soundlessly dissolve any foreign object attached there.

"What a brilliant technique." Lin Yu commented in the Consciousness Sea. "If it were an ordinary formation line, under the assimilation of this wood-attribute spiritual energy, it would be wiped out without even a single warning. Unfortunately for him, he ran into you."

A cold arc curled at the corner of Su Ming's mouth.

In the instant the opponent's spiritual energy touched the Ruo Shui wrapping layer and forcibly crushed it, the wisp of divine sense imprint Su Ming had deliberately stored within it, like a bone-etching curse, firmly seared the origin aura of that spiritual energy into memory.

"Withered, decrepit, yet hiding deep within it an almost mad desire for the reshaping of vitality." Su Ming rapidly analyzed this energy aura in his Consciousness Sea. "This kind of spiritual energy characteristic is absolutely not something an ordinary spirit-race guard could possess. This is the aura of an old monster whose lifespan is nearing its end, whose body has begun to wither, yet who vainly attempts to defy heaven and change his fate."

"Elder Dry Leaf?" Lin Yu asked.

"It can only be him." Su Ming withdrew his palm, severing the connection to the formation plate lest the opponent detect being reverse-tracked. "Elder Dry Leaf's true body is a Heavenly Serenity Wood that has lived for nearly eight thousand years. Though the Heavenly Serenity Wood is tenacious, its lifespan limit is only ten thousand years at most. The decayed aura on him matches perfectly with this spiritual energy fluctuation attempting to erase my formation line."

A brief silence fell over the room.

Su Ming watched the light points on the formation plate return to calm.

At this moment, Elder Dry Leaf must surely believe he had stealthily eliminated any potential hidden dangers around the spiritual plant cultivation area, and the safety of the injection-type mycelium network underground was secured. What he did not know was that the very act of clearing that formation line was equivalent to personally signing a confession before Su Ming, and exposing the precise coordinates of his injection source.

"What do you plan to do?" Lin Yu looked at Su Ming's eyes, calm to the point of sending a chill to the heart, his Soul Body drifting slightly. "Take the evidence directly to Elder Woodheart or Elder Qingluo? But this is only an energy aura imprint. If the opponent stubbornly denies it, or claims you tampered with the formation plate to frame him, what then?"

"Direct accusation is the crudest method." Su Ming stood up and walked to the window, gazing toward the distant Gloomlight Forest.

If he directly accused Dry Leaf, and Elder Qingluo forcibly suppressed the matter to protect faction interests or stabilize morale, he would not only become a thorn in Dry Leaf's side but also lose the trust of Greenwood Court's leadership.

Even if the accusation succeeded and Dry Leaf was rooted out, thwarting the Dark Current Sect's plans, Elder Woodheart would at most reward him with some wealth. He would still be unable to access Greenwood Court's core secrets and the World Gate clues.

He already grasped the mycelium network's injection source, as well as Elder Dry Leaf's spiritual energy signature. This was the perfect fulcrum to pry open the entire situation of Greenwood Court.

"Master." Su Ming turned around, a calculating gleam flickering in the depths of his eyes. "Since Dry Leaf's lifespan is nearly spent, what the Dark Current Sect used to move him must be some kind of heretical art of nirvanic rebirth. He is not simply a bad person. He is a madman who, to survive, would drag all of Greenwood Court down with him."

"To deal with a madman, you cannot be direct." Su Ming walked to the workbench, took out a blank jade slip, spiritual energy surging at his fingertips as he began inscribing upon it. "What we must do is not become the accuser. Rather, we must become the person who, at exactly the right time and the right place, happens to accidentally expose this secret in an undeniable manner before all of Greenwood Court's elders."

Su Ming held the inscribed jade slip in his hand and smiled faintly. "Since Elder Dry Leaf has already cleared the outer obstacles, tonight, or tomorrow night, he will inevitably increase the intensity of his law injection to accelerate the contamination process."

"And my guest official token gives me the authority to regulate the spiritual energy flow of the outer defensive formations. So long as I make a tiny misstep at the critical moment of his injection, letting the backlash force of the defensive formation travel along the earth veins and slam directly into his underground mycelium network..."

Su Ming's gaze became exceedingly deep.

"When that happens, the earth veins will tremble and vitality will backfire. This blame, he will shoulder whether he likes it or not. And I will merely be a dutiful human guest official who was powerless due to aging formations."

Inside the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu observed Su Ming's methodical scheming, his Soul Body's luster flickering silently. He said nothing, merely offering a silent stick of incense in his heart for Elder Dry Leaf, who remained blissfully unaware.