Chapter 649: Before This Pot of Water Boils, We Have to Jump Out

As the wooden door closed once more, silence descended upon the tree hollow again.

Night quietly fell within the ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan. The glowing vines gradually adjusted their brightness, radiating a gentle, dusky blue light as soft as starlight.

Su Ming did not light any magical implement for illumination. He stood alone before the half-open window at the deepest part of the tree hollow.

Ying had eaten its fill of Primal Spirit Fruits and was curled up in the corner of the windowsill, dozing. Every so often, it let out one or two contented murmurs in its dreams.

In Su Ming's eyes, the dusky blue light flowed like ripples on water.

"Observation of the Minute, activate."

Su Ming's gaze pierced through layer upon layer of glowing leaves and looked toward the endless darkness beyond the outskirts of Greenwood Court.

Shadow had eaten its fill of Primal Spirit Fruits and was curled up in the corner of the windowsill, dozing. Every so often, it let out one or two contented murmurs in its dreams.

But Su Ming knew very well that it was the Dark Current Sect's continuous life-draining baleful formation, undergoing high-intensity formation resets and energy transfers.

A little closer, enormous shadows would occasionally sweep across the sky above the fluorescent swamp. They were large spirit beasts unique to the spirit realm. They seemed to have sensed some kind of unease and were restlessly circling the edge of the swamp.

Su Ming slowly lowered his gaze and looked toward the depths of the earth.

Within the extreme field of vision granted by Observation of the Minute, the dark-purple patterns belonging to the life-devouring fungal filaments were appearing and disappearing between the cracks in the earth veins. They were like a vast invisible net, tightening little by little at a suffocatingly slow pace.

"The peace on the surface is merely an illusion that this old tree is forcibly holding together." Lin Yu's Soul Body floated beside Su Ming's shoulder, his voice low and ruthless.

"The Dark Current Sect's encirclement is almost complete." Su Ming stared at the purple patterns, his gaze icy cold. "They are like someone stewing a pot of frog-meat soup over gentle heat. By the time the water boils, Greenwood Court will not even have the strength left to struggle."

"Then, before this pot of water boils, we have to find the crack in the lid and jump out." Lin Yu let out a cold laugh.

At that moment, in the dead of night in this foreign realm, the master and disciple formally began their ultimate plan to establish a foothold and break out of their predicament through spiritual sense.

"Our priorities must be clear." Su Ming raised one finger within his Consciousness Sea.

"First, I will make use of the protective cloak granted by Elder Woodheart, along with the unreasonable extraction speed of the Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation. I must charge into the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm in the shortest possible time, regardless of the cost! Only after my cultivation rises will the Like Water Art be able to deduce more methods for concealing my aura."

Lin Yu nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Without strength, you do not even have the qualifications to look up information. What is the second point?"

"Second." Su Ming raised a second finger. "I will use my position assisting with the maintenance of the Root Vein Defense Formation to continuously acquire the spirit races' formation knowledge, bit by bit, like ants moving their home. I will map out the enormous earth-vein network beneath Greenwood Court. I want to know exactly how many secrets this ten-thousand-year-old tree has hidden underground."

Lin Yu's Soul Body glowed faintly. "That is called knowing yourself and your enemy. As long as you master the earth veins, even if the Dark Current Sect truly attacks, this old man can take you away through the earth veins. The third point is the most important one, right?"

"Yes." Su Ming drew a deep breath, and his gaze became profound. "Third, cautiously investigate the conditions required to activate the coordinates within the Qiming jade token, and find the gate that leads out of this realm."

Su Ming recalled the details he had noticed while organizing the jade slips during the day. He spoke each word slowly and clearly: "According to Qingyan's memories, activating the coordinates of the World Gate requires the human race's spiritual energy and the spirit races' Life Essence to resonate at the same node. This means..."

"It means that in this vast spirit realm, you must find a special location where the laws of both races intersect!" Lin Yu took over, his voice carrying a trace of excitement and trembling. "A place like that absolutely could not have formed naturally. It must either be an ancient battlefield, or..."

"Or the true ruins left behind in the spirit realm by the Star River Shen family back then!" Two bursts of sharp light erupted from Su Ming's eyes as he directly revealed the guess Lin Yu had left unspoken.

The two of them exchanged a glance within the Consciousness Sea. In each other's eyes, they saw the madness of people who followed the Way of Survival, desperately searching for a chance at life in an absolute predicament.

"The road must be traveled one step at a time, and food must be eaten one bite at a time." Lin Yu yawned, the golden patterns on his Soul Body flickering once. "This old man is full. I am going back into the ring to refine that Source Substance. You can handle things yourself."

With a flash of dusky light, Lin Yu returned to the Xuantian ring.

Inside the tree hollow, only Su Ming and a snoring crow remained.

Su Ming slowly closed his eyes.

He sat cross-legged before the window with his hands forming seals. The dusky blue spiritual energy of the Like Water Art flowed steadily through his body.

On one side was the faint Void spiritual energy remaining within his body. On the other was the Life Essence of the Primal Spirit Fruit slowly being converted in his stomach.

Su Ming's breathing gradually became long and deep. It reached a strange resonance with the rhythm of the ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan.

......

The next morning.

The ghostly green radiance within the luminous banyan gradually brightened, dispelling the lingering chill of night from the tree-hollow passageways and heralding the arrival of a new day in the spirit realm.

Su Ming rose from the stone bed. He removed his old clothes, which had been stained with a little swamp mud, and changed into a clean blue-gray robe. Ye Qing had delivered the robe the previous night. Su Ming did not know what kind of vine fibers had been woven into its fabric, but it felt cool to the touch and was extraordinarily tough. He carefully folded and tightened the robe's wide sleeves. Only after confirming that he had no unnecessary ornaments that might hinder the delicate manipulation of formations did he slowly push open the wooden door.

Ye Qing had been waiting outside for quite some time.

"Su Ming, did you rest well?" The green soft tendrils atop Ye Qing's head twisted cheerfully. He was clearly in an excellent mood because of Elder Genxu's decision the previous night.

"Well enough." Su Ming gave a slight nod, his expression calm and composed. "I will trouble Brother Ye to show me the way."

The two of them walked outward along the intricate corridors formed by the tree's branches. The outskirts of Greenwood Court were a relatively open buffer zone, scattered with numerous spiritual springs and defensive formation nodes of various sizes.

Along the way, they passed several light trees radiating a gentle golden light. These light trees were the most common lighting fixtures and life-force regulation hubs within Greenwood Court.

Just as they passed one of the thickest light trees, the left sleeve of Su Ming's robe suddenly moved slightly.

"Cheep..."

An extremely soft cry rang out. Shadow's fist-sized body obediently poked a tiny head out of his sleeve. Its golden pupils were fixed on the light tree, and its sharp beak was slightly open.

In the next instant, Su Ming clearly sensed the laws of life drifting through the surrounding air being drawn in by a weak yet domineering suction force. They transformed into a thin, pale-golden stream that was almost impossible to see with the naked eye and drilled directly into Shadow's mouth.

Shadow shuddered in satisfaction, then withdrew its head back into his sleeve.