Chapter 664: Disciple, If We Do Not Take Advantage of the Spirit Realm, We Will Be Wasting the Opportunity

Outside, Greenwood Court had already descended into complete chaos, boiling like a pot of porridge.  

Inside the elder council hall, the uproar was almost enough to overturn the crown of the Banyan tree.  

“We cannot surrender! Handing over the root-vein core would be the same as placing our lifeline completely in the hands of those lunatics from the Dark Current Sect! Once they fully control the earth veins, they will definitely drain away every bit of vitality to fill that bottomless pit!” Elder Panshi slammed his fist heavily onto the vine table, his ochre eyes filled with fury and defiance.  

“That is still better than being slowly drained dry as sacrifices! I would rather die in battle than become a withered piece of deadwood!”  

“You are acting out of emotion! As long as the green hills remain, there will be no shortage of firewood. Perhaps if we surrender control, they might leave us a place to live for the sake of belonging to the same spirit race...”  

“Foolish! Do you really think they care whether we live or die?”

Elder Genxu sat in a corner, gazing at the ceaselessly bickering hall, and let out a deep sigh. He raised his head and looked toward the emerald-green orb of light that had remained silent at the very depths of the hall.

Ever since that strike, Elder Woodheart had not sent out another thought. It was as though he had fallen into a deep sleep, or perhaps was silently gathering the last of his strength.

Panic spread through the lower ranks of the spirit race like a plague. The patrolling guards were distracted, the work of repairing the formations on the outskirts had nearly ground to a halt, and even a few extreme members of the spirit race had already begun secretly packing their belongings, trying to flee this forest before the ten-day deadline arrived.

Amid this extreme chaos, three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside Qingyou Residence.

At the instant the final grain of Void Condensation Sand crumbled into powder, the spatial crack let out an unwilling hum before closing completely and cutting off the waterfall of spiritual energy.

Su Ming slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of foul air.

At that moment, the air inside the meditation room seemed to grow somewhat viscous because of that exhalation. A faint ghostly-blue glow flashed through his eyes and vanished. After three days of unrestricted, force-fed absorption, his mid-stage Golden Core cultivation had finally been thoroughly consolidated, and he had even faintly touched the threshold of the late stage.

Lin Yu’s Soul Body drifted down. He still appeared to be the same illusory old man, but upon closer inspection, the dark-gold lines within his Soul Body had become exceptionally clear, and had even begun interweaving into some profound pattern.

“My cultivation has stabilized, but I am still short of a natural opportunity to reach the late stage.” Su Ming sensed the surging power within his body. He did not become complacent, but instead grew even more clear-headed.

At that moment, hurried footsteps came from outside the tree hollow, followed by Ye Qing’s deliberately lowered voice:  

“Guest Official Su! Guest Official Su, are you there?”

Su Ming waved away the soundproofing array lines and pushed open the wooden door.

Ye Qing stood outside with an anxious expression. After not seeing him for several days, the green soft tendrils atop his head had already turned somewhat yellow and withered, and his entire body exuded a haggard air.

“Guest Official Su, the elder council requests your presence.” Ye Qing’s voice was thick with urgency. “The other day, although Elder Woodheart blocked that strike against the outer defenses, the spiritual energy circuits at several core nodes were still completely melted through by the murderous aura. Our Formation Masters have tried repairing them for three days, but the more they repair, the worse things become... Elder Panshi said that we can only ask you to go take a look now.”

Su Ming narrowed his eyes slightly.

Go help repair them? That would inevitably bring him into contact with Greenwood Court’s most core defensive diagrams. Under the pressure of the ten-day ultimatum, the spirit race could no longer afford to keep secrets. This was an excellent opportunity for him to obtain information about Greenwood Court’s deeper earth veins, search for the law convergence point, and plan an escape route for himself.

But the danger was that, if he went now to repair the nodes damaged by the murderous aura of the Lord of the Nether Abyss, he might very well suffer a backlash from the aura that remained. He might even draw the attention of spies from the Dark Current Sect lurking in the shadows, such as Elder Dry Leaf.

What if he did not go? Should he use secluded cultivation as an excuse to refuse?

Then his “value” in Greenwood Court would instantly drop to zero. At a time when everyone was terrified, an alien guest official who had lost his value could be taken at any moment and offered as a pledge of allegiance to the Dark Current Sect.

He had to go. Moreover, he had to seize this opportunity to extort a hefty price and take what he needed most at present.

That was the advantage of the Information Gap. The spirit race did not know that he had a way out. They believed he was a grasshopper tied to Greenwood Court by the same rope, with no choice but to fight to the death.

“Brother Ye, do not be anxious.” Su Ming straightened his clothes. His tone remained so calm that it held not the slightest ripple. “Since the elder council has summoned me, and this concerns Greenwood Court’s survival, I naturally cannot shirk my responsibility. However...”

His tone shifted, and his eyes fixed brightly on Ye Qing. “Since those nodes were melted through by the murderous aura of an existence of that level, ordinary materials cannot possibly withstand the clash of spiritual energy during repairs. The materials I require may not be stocked in the warehouse.”

“What do you need? As long as Greenwood Court possesses it, even if it is a treasure stored at the bottom of the warehouse, the elder council will approve it!” Ye Qing said anxiously.

“Good.” Su Ming smiled faintly. To Ye Qing, that smile looked like the confidence of a master, but in Lin Yu’s eyes, it looked exactly like a butcher staring at a fat sheep.

“First, I need every earth-vein flow diagram in Greenwood Court’s core region. Remember, every single one. There can be no concealment whatsoever. Otherwise, I will be unable to calculate the pressure limit of the spiritual energy circuits. If they collapse halfway through, no one will be able to bear the consequences.”

Ye Qing gritted his teeth. The core diagrams had always been forbidden from being passed to outsiders of the spirit race, but now... “All right. I will apply to the elder council.”

“Second.” Su Ming held up two fingers, his tone growing heavier. “I want Void Condensation Sand. The more, the better.”

Ye Qing froze. “Void Condensation Sand? That waste material?”

“Waste material? In your hands, it is waste material. In the hands of this human Formation Master, it is an unparalleled treasure capable of forcibly stitching together spatial cracks.” Su Ming lied without changing his expression. “Without enough Void Condensation Sand to serve as a spatial buffer, whoever repairs that broken formation core will die.”

“Fine! I will immediately send people to dig near the Void Rift!” Ye Qing did not harbor the slightest suspicion. He turned and ran, afraid of delaying even a breath.

Inside Qingyou Residence, the silence was so complete that only the faint sound of spiritual energy circulating could be heard.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the stone bed in the center of the meditation room, his expression as still as an ancient well. Between his fingertips rested a small pinch of sand emitting a dim gray luster. It was precisely the Void Condensation Sand he had obtained from the spirit race through a mixture of deception and cajolery.

His lifebound formation plate lay flat between his knees, its ghostly-blue formation lines slowly flowing like living things.

“This is the last batch.” Su Ming muttered under his breath.

He flicked a finger. The small pinch of Void Condensation Sand scattered through the air and embedded itself with perfect precision into the thirty-six outermost miniature formation cores around the edge of the formation plate. Immediately afterward, he bit through the tip of his tongue and forced out three drops of Like Water essence blood containing pure origin power. With a point of his finger, the essence blood transformed into a blood mist and instantly merged into the formation plate.

“Crack!”

The spatial crack, which had originally been no more than a thin slit, emitted a teeth-grating tearing sound under the dual activation of the essence blood and Void Condensation Sand. An invisible, violent force brutally ripped the crack open in both directions, and in the blink of an eye, it expanded to more than the height of half a person.

Su Ming did not retreat in the slightest. Facing the waterfall of spiritual energy that seemed almost tangible, he rapidly formed hand seals with both hands. The Like Water Art within his body was pushed to its absolute limit, and a roar like a great river surging through his meridians rang out.

He intended to use this violent thrust to forcibly break through the barrier to the late stage of the Golden Core realm.

The Golden Core spun wildly within his Dantian. Under the Like Water Art’s quality of “the highest good is like water, embracing all things,” the Void spiritual energy pouring into his body had its violent edges forcibly smoothed away. It transformed into wisps of pure, ghostly-blue spiritual energy that flowed bit by bit into the Golden Core.

In midair not far away, Lin Yu’s Soul Body was stretching himself with unrestrained pleasure.

He lowered his head and glanced at Su Ming, who was gritting his teeth with sweat covering his forehead, then let out a disdainful snort. “Disciple, suck harder. If we do not take advantage of the spirit realm, we will be wasting the opportunity. When we pat our backsides and leave, even if we suck this place dry and turn it into a vacuum, that will still be the fortune of those wooden stakes.”

Su Ming kept his eyes tightly closed and did not respond. At that moment, all his mind was focused on the barrier to the late stage of the Golden Core realm within his body. It appeared as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet was actually indestructible.

Time passed bit by bit amid this monotonous and extremely dangerous cultivation.

Half a shichen later.

Su Ming slowly reined in his aura and reduced the circulation speed of the Like Water Art. Although he had not yet completely broken through the barrier, the spiritual energy within his body had already reached an extreme fullness. Forcing another breakthrough would only have the opposite effect.

Taking advantage of this rare moment to catch his breath, Su Ming reached into his storage pouch and took out an emerald-green jade slip.

This was precisely the earth-vein flow diagram of Greenwood Court’s core region that he had extorted from Ye Qing two days earlier under the pretext of going to repair the outer defensive nodes.