Chapter 658: This Time, It's Time to Show Yourself, Right?

Su Ming did not alert anyone. He silently marked this discovery into the map jade slip deep within his storage pouch, then returned to Qingyou Residence without betraying any emotion.

He closed the wooden door of the tree hollow and set up soundproofing formation lines.

Su Ming walked to the stone bed and sat down. Lin Yu's Soul Body drifted out, his face ashen.

"This is no longer a simple act of espionage." Lin Yu paced back and forth in midair, the dark-gold lines on the surface of his Soul Body flickering slightly from agitation. "That insider isn't just paving the way for the Dark Current Sect. He's burying a death trap inside the heart of Greenwood Court, one that could explode at any moment! If the spiritual plant cultivation area collapses, our peaceful days of cultivation here will be over."

Su Ming picked up the spirit tea on the table and took a gentle sip. "The elder in charge of the spiritual plant cultivation area is Dry Leaf. No formation change in this region could possibly escape his eyes. For a web this large to be spread across forty zhang underground, there's absolutely no way it could happen without his tacit approval or personal hand in it."

Su Ming shook his head. "I currently have no evidence at all. That web is buried forty zhang underground. Apart from my Observation of the Minute, no other spirit race being could possibly detect it. If I recklessly accuse Elder Dry Leaf and he simply finds an excuse to stall, or turns it around and claims that I, a human race guest official, tampered with things in secret, then every foundation I have in Greenwood Court will instantly crumble."

Lin Yu stopped pacing and fell silent for a moment, then let out a cold snort. "You're right. There's no reasoning with these old foxes who've lived for ten thousand years. So, we need to make him reveal his own tail."

"Exactly." Su Ming set down his teacup. "Not only make him reveal his tail, but also figure out why he betrayed. An elder who has lived for thousands of years wouldn't turn to the Dark Current Sect without reason."

Su Ming sat in still meditation on his cushion for an entire night. Within his Consciousness Sea, millions of formation runes continuously combined and extrapolated.

The next morning, the dawn dew had not yet dried.

Su Ming voluntarily left Qingyou Residence and headed toward the logistics tree platform.

Ye Qing was directing several spirit beasts in transporting a large batch of spiritual soil. Seeing Su Ming approach, he greeted him with a smile. "Guest Official Su, what brings you here today?"

Su Ming stepped forward and let out an intentional sigh. "Brother Ye, yesterday while I was gathering Void Moss on the outskirts of the spiritual plant cultivation area, I noticed some abnormal fluctuations in the earth veins there."

"Abnormal fluctuations?" Ye Qing stopped what he was doing, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Perhaps I was simply overthinking it." Su Ming waved his hand. "But just to be safe, I plan to set up a miniature monitoring formation line at each of the six key outer nodes of the spiritual plant cultivation area tomorrow. Nothing more, just to track the earth vein changes and bring them back for gradual extrapolation. Would it be possible to make arrangements for this?"

Ye Qing had no suspicions. He laughed heartily and patted his chest in agreement. "I thought it was something major! You're now an officially appointed guest Formation Master by the elder council. For a small matter like setting up miniature monitoring formation lines, just go ahead and do it. There's no need to report to the elder council at all. I'll let the patrol guards know in a bit."

"Then I'll thank you, Brother Ye." Su Ming cupped his hands slightly, his gaze as deep as water.

That evening.

The setting sun bled like blood, staining the edges of the fluorescent swamp with an eerie dark red.

Under the pretext of gathering Void Moss, Su Ming came alone to the outskirts of the spiritual plant cultivation area.

He stopped before a thick, withered tree and rapidly traced lines in the void with his fingertips. One tiny basic rune after another took shape silently, wrapped in Ruo Shui spiritual energy.

These formation lines were extremely intricate, and Su Ming had used Ruo Shui spiritual energy to completely lock down any leakage of energy aura. They were like a few ordinary drops of dew clinging to the roots of the withered tree.

Invisible to the naked eye, and utterly undetectable even by ordinary divine sense.

"Six formation lines, corresponding to the six injection source convergence points of the underground mycelium network." Su Ming stood up, his gaze turning toward the dark purple flashes that occasionally streaked through Gloomlight Forest in the distance.

The true purpose of these six formation lines was not to monitor the natural changes of the earth veins at all. They were extremely sensitive locks.

If Elder Dry Leaf truly was the insider and was still controlling the underground mycelium network, then when his spiritual energy or divine sense passed through these six nodes, it would touch these formation lines wrapped in Ruo Shui energy.

Out of an insider's caution, once he discovered the presence of unknown formation lines, he would inevitably move to remove them immediately to avoid leaving traces.

And the moment he acted to remove them, his origin aura, his method of removing the formation lines, and even his emotional fluctuations would, through the shattering of the Ruo Shui spiritual energy, instantly feed back to Su Ming's lifebound formation plate.

When that time came, the mantis stalking the cicada would finally show itself.

.....

Three days later.

Inside Greenwood Court's fifth archive hollow, an ancient and tranquil woody fragrance filled the air.

Su Ming sat before a wide rattan desk, holding in his hands a broad leaf that emitted a faint yellow glow. Recorded on this leaf was a fragment of the "Myriad Wood Condensing Spirit Volume," left behind by a mighty spirit race being from several thousand years ago.

In the spirit realm, there were no jade slips. All knowledge was imprinted upon these spirit-communicating leaves that had endured the baptism of time. As Su Ming read, he simultaneously used the Observation of the Minute from his Consciousness Sea to analyze the unique wood-attribute formation line arrangements on the leaf.

"So that's how it is. By fusing the wood-attribute laws with the steadiness of the earth attribute, one can achieve an ever-renewing defensive effect. Compared to the human race's stacked formation method, this has less artifice and more natural principle." Su Ming silently extrapolated in his heart.

Just as he was immersed in these ancient formation principles, a violent trembling suddenly came from deep within his sleeve.

"Cheep!"

A sharp cry, filled with extreme agony, exploded beside Su Ming's ear without warning.

Su Ming's expression changed. It was Ying!

Since absorbing that trace of Void Source Substance and the extremely dense laws of life three days ago in Qingyou Residence, Ying had been in a semi-comatose dormant state. Su Ming knew it was digesting that immense power, so he had kept it close to his body, placed in a specially made spirit beast pouch for nurturing.

But at this moment, the trembling coming from the spirit beast pouch was like a thunder shock mine about to burst!

Su Ming did not hesitate for even a moment. He placed that fragment of the "Myriad Wood Condensing Spirit Volume" back into the void and strode quickly toward the exit of the archive hollow.

"Guest Official Su, did you find the archives you needed?" the spirit race guide guarding the entrance asked respectfully.

"A sudden inspiration struck. I need to return to my dwelling for closed-door extrapolation. No one is to disturb me." Su Ming tossed out a flawless excuse, his figure already sweeping out of the archive hollow like a green gust of wind.