Chapter 673: Master, We’ve Got Work!

For the entire day that followed, Su Ming took Elder Genxu around to visit more than a dozen key points, using the same method as before.

Beside an abandoned ancient tree near the southwestern corner of Greenwood Court, Su Ming used “reinforcing the earth-vein foundation” as a pretext to secretly connect a spatial-guidance formation line to the old entrance of the Four Clans’ Exchange Hall from years ago.

Although that entrance had long since collapsed, its spatial coordinates were exceptionally stable. Once the decisive battle began, Su Ming could forcibly activate that abandoned passage.

This was his second escape route.

At a rise near the spiritual plant cultivation area, however, Su Ming’s methods became unusually crude.

He deliberately set up a “fake formation core” that looked ingenious but had no defensive power whatsoever. The vitality fluctuations it emitted perfectly mimicked the frequency of Greenwood Court’s core root veins.

If members of the Dark Current Sect launched a frontal assault and detected those fluctuations, they would definitely mistake it for Greenwood Court’s vital point and pour a massive amount of their attacks into it.

This would not only ease the pressure on the real defensive formations, but also buy Su Ming the most precious thing of all: time to escape.

It was not until sunset that this massive undertaking, which was really just a matter of “keeping three escape routes,” was finally completed in its initial form.

“Guest Official Su, you’ve worked hard. With you giving this your all, Greenwood Court will surely weather this calamity.” Looking at the nodes that had been reorganized and now shone with a steadier light, Elder Genxu bowed deeply in gratitude.

Su Ming hurriedly stepped aside and reached out as if to support him. “Elder, you’re too kind. It’s only my duty.”

The two were just about to head back to Qingyou Residence together when, at that very moment,

the lifebound formation plate in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea suddenly gave a faint hum, and a dim red light flashed across its surface.

Su Ming abruptly stopped in his tracks. Deep in his pupils, a blue glow instantly gathered.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Yu’s voice sharpened in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea.

“The northeast node…” Su Ming gazed toward the distant Gloomlight Forest, which was gradually sinking into darkness. “The monitoring formation I buried at the outermost edge has been triggered.”

The northeast node lay at the very edge of Greenwood Court’s outer defensive perimeter. The terrain there was rugged, and thick purple baleful mists shrouded it year-round. It was one of the likeliest gaps for the Dark Current Sect to infiltrate.

Su Ming did not immediately tell Elder Genxu what had happened.

If he called in the main force directly, it would inevitably spark a large-scale battle. In that kind of chaos, the formation lines he had set up that day as “escape routes” leading to the underground river might be exposed when the spirit-race elders intervened with their considerable power. That was a risk he absolutely did not want to take.

“Master, we’ve got work,” Su Ming said softly in his Consciousness Sea, his tone as calm as if he were talking about the night’s weather.

“These rats from the Dark Current Sect really can’t hold back, can they?” Lin Yu’s Soul Body halted in midair. His glow brightened slightly, carrying a hint of coldness. “Watch yourself. Don’t get careless and sink in a ditch.”

Su Ming composed himself, then turned to Elder Genxu, his expression changing to one of gravity. “Elder, I’ve just remembered that there may still be a slight flaw in the spiritual-energy connection at a node to the northeast. This is of great importance, so I’d like to go check it alone. You’ve been on the move all day. Why don’t you return to the Court and rest first?”

Elder Genxu had no suspicions. He simply assumed Su Ming was striving for perfection, and nodded repeatedly. “Guest Official Su is indeed meticulous. I’ll head back first, then. Be careful, and send word at once if anything seems amiss.”

After bidding Elder Genxu farewell, Su Ming’s figure instantly melted into the night.

He did not fly directly through the air. Instead, he used an upgraded version of the aura-hiding technique. Like a drop of water dissolving into the air, he moved soundlessly toward the northeast node.

Half a stick of incense later, Su Ming crouched atop the canopy of a massive dead tree, watching a clearing below through its sparse branches.

There, three figures shrouded from head to toe in dark purple robes were moving quickly along the ground like ghosts. Not a trace of fluctuation emanated from them.

Su Ming did not rush to act. He watched coldly as the three approached a seemingly well-guarded defensive formation core.

One of them pulled a foul-smelling black spike from his robes and was about to drive it into the earth veins to disrupt the formation core’s cycle of vitality.

Just as the spike was about to touch the ground,

Su Ming lightly tapped his storage pouch with a fingertip. Three faint threads of Ruo Shui spiritual energy shot down the tree trunk and plunged into the earth.

“Whumm—”

A faint spatial ripple suddenly spread across the ground below. The solid earth beneath the three men instantly turned into a “false vacuum zone” devoid of spiritual-energy fluctuations.

This was a temporary maze trap Su Ming had set up using the principles of the damaged Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation.

“Not good! It’s an ambush!” The black-robed man in the lead finally reacted and let out a hoarse cry, abruptly retreating.

But no matter how fast he reacted, he could not outpace Su Ming’s calculations.

“Trying to leave now is too late.” Su Ming gave a cold snort as the lifebound formation plate spun rapidly in his palm.

He did not use any offensive spells. Instead, he simply severed the vitality-blocking formation lines around the area.

The vast vitality of the earth veins, which had been held back outside, came rushing in the instant its restraints were removed, like floodwaters bursting through a dam. The concentrated vitality pressed furiously against the small “false vacuum zone,” instantly triggering a violent collapse of the earth veins!

“Boom!”

The hard ground cracked inch by inch like a spiderweb, then suddenly caved in, forming a massive pit more than ten zhang deep. A raging torrent of chaotic vitality churned at the bottom, tearing everything apart.

“Retreat!”

Accompanied by two shrill screams, two shadows paid for their escape with grave injuries. They transformed into clouds of dark purple blood mist, forcibly broke through the torrent of vitality, and fled desperately into the depths of Gloomlight Forest like stray dogs.

But the last one had been too close to the formation core. He was pinned to the bottom of the pit by the collapsing earth and the torrent of vitality, unable to move.

Su Ming’s figure flickered, and he appeared at the bottom of the pit like a phantom.

Without wasting a word, he stepped forward and seized the captive’s jaw with one hand. Countless icy needles of blue Ruo Shui spiritual energy instantly pierced beneath the man’s tongue, firmly sealing a deeply concealed black venom sac.

Trying to poison himself in front of a master of the Way of Survival was pure wishful thinking.

Only then did the hurried sound of something slicing through the air come from the distance. Elder Panshi led a squad from the Enforcement Team, crashing down at the edge of the pit like meteorites.

“Guest Official Su! What happened?” Seeing the devastation at the bottom of the pit and the black-robed man under Su Ming’s foot, Elder Panshi looked utterly shocked.

Su Ming dusted off his hands and calmly looked up. “Just a few rats scouting the way. I caught one alive. See if you can get anything out of him, Elder.”

At those words, Elder Panshi leaped into the pit. His thick, half-petrified hand clamped around the captive’s neck, and he forcibly poured his immense earth-type vitality into the man’s body like molten iron.

Under the torture of a soul-searching technique that made death seem preferable, the Dark Current Sect captive could not hold out for long. In less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, he had spilled all the information he knew.

“The Lord of the Nether Abyss… the eighth day… will come in person…” Black blood kept trickling from the captive’s mouth, and his voice came in broken fragments. “His target… isn’t the outer defenses… but… severing the banyan’s… three main roots…”

At the words “three main roots,” Elder Panshi’s face instantly turned deathly pale. He flung the captive to the ground like a broken sack.

“The three main roots… they connect Elder Woodheart to the earth veins! If they’re severed, Greenwood Court will become a dead city with no roots!” Elder Panshi’s voice trembled.

Half an hour later, the atmosphere in Greenwood Court’s elders’ grand hall was so oppressive it felt as though water could drip from the air.

Elder Genxu spread an ancient rubbing across the massive wooden table. It was densely marked with the crisscrossing paths of the ten-thousand-year-old luminous banyan’s roots beneath the ground.

Su Ming stood beside the table, his gaze fixed intently on the lines in the rubbing.

“These three main roots are a hundred zhang underground. The earth veins around them are hard, and ordinary formations simply can’t protect them.” Elder Qingluo’s brows were tightly furrowed, and her voice carried a trace of despair.