Chapter 676: Since It’s Bait, Let’s See Who Takes It

Lin Yu’s Soul Body drifted within the Xuantian ring, and a wisp of pure divine sense followed Su Ming’s gaze outward.

Lin Yu fell silent for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was much lower than usual. “Disciple, the person who set up this formation is truly vicious. They weren’t trying to directly destroy the root veins at all.”

“They’re waiting for the Lord of the Nether Abyss to apply pressure from outside,” Su Ming replied, his thoughts exceptionally clear. “Once that external pressure arrives, the root veins will surely mobilize all their Life Essence to resist it. At that very moment, when the tide ebbs, these three plugs will block the returning flow of life-force. The root veins will then generate an irreversible backlash on their own.”

“Exactly.” The light of Lin Yu’s Soul Body dimmed slightly, as though he had recalled some unpleasant memories. “The three pent-up torrents of life-force will collide and shatter one another. Greenwood Court won’t even need to be breached by that madman from the Nether Abyss. The ground a hundred yards below will collapse first. I’ve seen this method used by evil cultivators who specialized in ghost arts.”

Su Ming didn’t hesitate any longer. With a sweep of his sleeve, a pinch of gray-brown Void Condensation Sand slid from his fingertips.

Under the astonished gazes of the two spirit-race elders, Su Ming used a dazzling series of motions to set up a delicate Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation in the Void above the first main root.

This time, however, Su Ming opened the formation’s aperture only half a finger’s width.

“Hiss—”

A tiny spatial crack was torn open. Void spiritual energy surged out, but Su Ming suppressed it with Ruo Shui spiritual energy, compressing it into an extremely fine, taut strand of deep-blue water.

Under Su Ming’s control, this strand of water moved like the most precise surgical blade, passing over the three hidden dark plugs in the nodes of the tide one by one.

Under the wash of Void spiritual energy, the disguises on the plugs’ surfaces were finally torn away, revealing rings of dark purple markings that seemed intensely corrosive. They were the unique insignia of the Nether Abyss faction.

Taking advantage of that brief moment, Lin Yu etched the frequency of the fluctuations into his soul power.

“Disciple.” Lin Yu took a deep breath in the Consciousness Sea, his tone certain. “These things aren’t plugs at all. They’re three venomous leeches, refined from souls and hidden inside the roots! They’re alive!”

Su Ming’s pupils contracted slightly.

The leeches being alive meant that any attempt to forcibly remove them would cause them to inject all their venom into the root marrow before they died.

Su Ming formed hand seals. His Ruo Shui spiritual energy spread slowly over the surface of the first main root like a soft veil.

He didn’t touch the leeches, nor did he try to use a formation to dispel the death energy.

He simply made his Ruo Shui spiritual energy perfectly conform to the rhythm of life pulsing through the root veins. At each ebb of the life-force tide, that thin, gossamer water curtain deftly slipped between the leeches and the root marrow, adding a gentle layer of cushioning.

Elder Panshi watched from the side, his brows furrowed. Though he didn’t understand human formations, he could tell that the water curtain was far too thin, so thin that a gust of wind seemed capable of tearing it apart.

“Guest Official Su,” Elder Panshi couldn’t help saying, his voice rumbling like thunder. “Your formation is certainly ingenious, but this is the Lord of the Nether Abyss we’re talking about! When the might of a manifest saint descends, can this thin water curtain of yours really withstand such a terrifying impact?”

Su Ming kept working without turning around. “Elder Panshi, a technique doesn’t have to be indestructible. If it can make even one part of the opponent’s violent force scatter into ten, then a hundred, streams of gentle power as it passes through these layers of looping patterns, that’s enough.”

Just as Su Ming was setting up the buffer formation,

a rush of hurried footsteps came from outside the passage.

The young spirit, Ye Qing, ran in, drenched in sweat. In his hand, he clutched a roster woven from emerald-green leaves.

When Ye Qing’s gaze fell on the densely packed dark purple deathly markings that Su Ming had forced into view on the root wall, like festering sores, his face turned deathly pale. Even his breathing stopped for a moment.

Ye Qing shuddered and forcefully swallowed the cry of alarm rising in his throat.

Su Ming turned around, took the roster from Ye Qing, and quickly scanned it.

“Please gather the earth- and wood-element spirit folk on this roster who are most skilled at tracing root veins,” Su Ming said, his tone leaving no room for argument. “Divide them into three groups and have them hold their ground at the underground river mouths near these three main roots. Without my order, no one is to touch the formations in the slightest.”

Ye Qing gritted his teeth and nodded firmly.

Just before turning to leave, he looked back at Su Ming’s somewhat slender, gray-green figure. He swallowed and said, “Su Ming, if… if anything happens, just call for me. My cultivation may be weak, but I’m quick on my feet. I can deliver messages faster than anyone.”

The corner of Su Ming’s mouth twitched slightly. He said nothing, only waved his hand.

Elder Qingluo watched Su Ming issue orders to the spirit-race warriors with such authority and instinctively wanted to challenge his right to deploy them. After all, this was Greenwood Court’s heartland. It plainly went against the clan’s rules for a human to give orders here.

But she could only swallow the words that had reached her lips, letting out an almost inaudible snort.

Su Ming heard it, of course.

He turned and looked calmly at Elder Qingluo.

“Elder Qingluo.” Su Ming pointed to a spot on the rubbing, an underground river mouth closest to the first main root, where the current was swiftest and murderous aura most likely to seep in. “Of these three underground river mouths, this one is the most perilous. Ordinary spirit-race warriors, even if they’re skilled at tracing root veins, probably couldn’t withstand three waves of murderous aura.”

Su Ming paused, his tone sincere and solemn. “I’d like to entrust this place to your personal guard. Your vines are best at restraining murderous aura. No one else can hold this position.”

Elder Qingluo paused, slightly taken aback.

She had thought Su Ming would deliberately exclude her from the core defensive perimeter because of their earlier dispute. She hadn’t expected him to entrust her with the most dangerous and important position.

She looked deeply at Su Ming. The hostility that had been present in her dark green eyes from the very beginning finally began to noticeably recede.

“Human.” Elder Qingluo turned and walked toward the most perilous underground river mouth. “If your water curtain can’t protect the main root, I’ll use this vine whip to smash your formation plate to pieces.”

As she turned, Su Ming caught a glimpse of the vines beneath her sleeves. They had silently stiffened, transforming into blades as indestructible as steel.

Half a shichen later,

the buffer formation around the first main root was finally complete. The thin water curtain merged with the life-force of the main root, breathing in unison with it.

Just as Su Ming was preparing to head to the second main root,

“Thud—”

A barely perceptible muffled sound came from the deepest part of the roots.

An ordinary cultivator would certainly have mistaken the sound for a natural tremor of the earth veins. But Su Ming’s Observation of the Minute had never been switched off, and Lin Yu’s divine sense had remained on high alert as well.

Su Ming immediately turned toward the sound.

Far beneath the earth, in the direction of the forbidden area marked “Withered Wood Cliff,” a wisp of intensely concentrated black murderous aura shot swiftly along the edge of the earth veins, like a living thing.

The wisp of blackness was cunning. It perfectly avoided every patrol route of the spirit-race guards currently being deployed. Like a venomous snake hidden in the shadows, it was quietly creeping toward the third main root.

Elder Panshi sensed something amiss too. His eyes widened in fury, and his half-petrified body tensed in an instant as he prepared to act.

Su Ming abruptly raised his hand and pressed it against Elder Panshi’s arm, hard as iron. The Ruo Shui spiritual energy at his fingertips erupted with a bone-chilling cold, forcing Elder Panshi to calm down.

Su Ming said evenly, “Don’t alert it.”

Lin Yu’s Soul Body brightened slightly within the Xuantian ring, and he let out a very soft snort. “That black aura is moving far too deliberately. It’s practically acting as if it’s afraid we won’t notice it. This is bait.”

“Right.” A cold curve formed at the corner of Su Ming’s mouth. “Since it’s bait, let’s see which big fish this Dark Current Sect’s web-spinner is trying to draw into the trap.”