Chapter 663: Within Ten Days, Hand Over the Root Veins, Or Greenwood Court Will Be Erased from This World!

The clash in the sky was brutal and brief, as if even heaven and earth could not bear such a level of confrontation for long.

It lasted only ten breaths.

After ten breaths, that humanoid black shadow suspended atop the clouds, formed from condensed dark-purple murderous aura, suddenly swayed slightly.

Immediately after, a low chuckle descended from the high heavens.

The Lord of the Nether Abyss slowly withdrew his raised right hand.

With his movement, the dark-purple murderous aura that had roiled across the sky, pressing down on Greenwood Court until it could barely breathe, rapidly receded toward the northwest like an ebbing tide.

The sky brightened once more. Sunlight pierced through the clouds and scattered across the devastated ground, yet it could not dispel the dead silence congealed above Greenwood Court.

However, before the Lord of the Nether Abyss fully withdrew, his "voice," directly branded onto every soul, reverberated like rolling thunder throughout all of Greenwood Court, even on every single leaf and every single root tendril:

"Within ten days, surrender control of the root vein core."

"Otherwise, Greenwood Court will be erased from this world."

As the final word fell, that terrifying black shadow transformed into a wisp of thin dark smoke, completely dissipating into the horizon, as if it had never appeared at all.

The entirety of Greenwood Court fell into a deathly silence.

A one-sided display of force, and an ultimatum that could not be refused.

Countless spirit race beings collapsed to the ground, staring at the shattered defensive formation with eyes full of bewilderment and despair. Their ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan, which they had relied on for survival, could no longer fully protect them.

Su Ming released the tree root he had been holding and patted the dust off his gray-green robe.

He stood amid a scene of utter devastation, surrounded by wailing spirit-race guards and toppled light trees.

When the boot landed, panic was meaningless. Only executing the plan was the sole path to survival.

He did not join the frantic rescue efforts of the surrounding spirit race beings, nor did he listen to the furious yet helpless roars of the elders.

He simply took advantage of the moment when everyone's attention was still fixed on the spatial crack in the sky that had not yet fully closed, silently turned, and following the shadows, quickly made his way back to his dwelling.

Returning to Qingyou Residence.

Su Ming latched the wooden door shut behind him, not only activating the original defensive formation lines, but even using Ruo Shui spiritual energy to silently overlay three layers of miniature arrays for soundproofing and sensory shielding at the gaps around the door and windows, ensuring that not even a mosquito could fly in.

Having done all this, he walked to the stone bed at the center of the meditation room.

Lin Yu's Soul Body drifted out from the Xuantian ring, its luster appearing somewhat dim. The pressure of that level of intimidation just now, even while hiding inside the ring, had caused his Soul Body extreme discomfort.

"This old monster's strength is even more exaggerated than we anticipated." Lin Yu drifted restlessly in midair, the dark-gold lines on the surface of his Soul Body flickering erratically. "Ten days. He didn't even leave room for negotiation. This is a blade pressed against that old tree Woodheart's neck, and incidentally slipped around our necks too."

Su Ming ignored Lin Yu's lamentation. From the deepest part of his storage pouch, he retrieved a jade box covered entirely in sealing runes.

The jade box opened, revealing a small pinch of gray sand lying quietly inside: the Void Condensation Sand he had gone to great lengths to swindle out of Ye Qing, the material the spirit race considered waste.

As Su Ming evenly arranged the Void Condensation Sand at eight positions around the stone bed, he rapidly communicated with Lin Yu through his Consciousness Sea. "If Greenwood Court compromises and hands over control of the core, the Dark Current Sect will march straight in. As a human, there would be absolutely no way to survive. If Greenwood Court doesn't compromise, in ten days the Lord of the Nether Abyss will certainly launch a full-force assault in his true body. With Elder Woodheart's lifespan and current condition, the collapse of the defense line is only a matter of time, and we will likewise be ground to dust as cannon fodder."

Lin Yu halted in midair and gave a cold sneer. "To put it plainly, it's a dead end either way. The best outcome would be if Elder Woodheart is hiding some kind of trump card that can drag the enemy down with him or temporarily force the Lord of the Nether Abyss back. If such a situation arises, Greenwood Court will inevitably fall into chaos, and the Dark Current Sect's attention will be completely drawn away. That will be our only chance to seize the chaos and search for the World Gate coordinates to leave this godforsaken place. This kind of chaos is our greatest gain."

Su Ming straightened his body, his gaze deep as a quiet pool. "I must forcibly raise my cultivation to its highest level within these ten days. And beyond that, I need to prepare physical protection against spatial tearing. No matter what happens, wanting to flee requires sufficient spiritual energy to drive the formation."

"Activate the formation," Lin Yu's tone also turned unprecedentedly serious. He knew that these ten days were their final preparation time.

If they could not find a way out before exhausting the Void Condensation Sand, they could only wait for death in the spirit realm.

Three drops of Ruo Shui essence blood were forced out from Su Ming's fingertip, landing precisely at the core of the formation.

"Rip-"

Inside the meditation room of Qingyou Residence, a pitch-black spatial crack was roughly torn open. Because Su Ming was driving it this time without holding anything back, the crack was wider than ever before, almost reaching half a person's height.

Violent Void spiritual energy, like a long-suppressed waterfall, wildly poured backward into the tree hollow.

Su Ming sat cross-legged and instantly entered meditation.

The Golden Core spun within his dantian at a nearly maddening speed, the deep-blue formation lines on the Golden Core's surface emitting a piercing light. He pushed the Like Water Art to its absolute limit. Those purified-to-the-extreme Void spiritual energy streams were assimilated the instant they entered his meridians, transforming into his own cultivation.

Lin Yu, meanwhile, drifted directly to the edge of the crack, gulping down the occasionally flickering golden Source Substance in great mouthfuls. Under this life-or-death pressure, he even skipped careful refinement, directly stuffing it into the depths of his Soul Body in the most barbaric way possible, forcibly strengthening his origin.

Even Shadow, who had been lying in the corner all along, felt an unusual sense of urgency.

Time trickled away, drop by drop, in this dull yet frenzied cultivation. Outside the window, Greenwood Court had already fallen into a completely sleepless panic.