Chapter 682: This Master Has a Clear Conscience, So Stop Shaking, Disciple!

Beneath Withered Wood Cliff, the green radiance grew brighter and brighter, gradually illuminating the murky vapor a hundred yards underground until it resembled a crystal paradise.

It was no longer merely a light of vitality. It carried an ancient pressure that made one want to prostrate oneself in worship. Each time the phantom images of leaf-shaped soul cocoons floating across the rock walls trembled, a deep pulse sounded, as though dozens of hearts were awakening at once deep beneath the earth.

Just as everyone was growing increasingly uneasy, a boundless yet utterly feeble thought suddenly pressed without warning into the Consciousness Sea of everyone present.

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“Panshi, Qingluo, guard the main root... Do not retreat a single step.”

It was Elder Woodheart’s voice. He was locked in a life-and-death clash of laws with the Lord of the Nether Abyss above, yet he had still spared a strand of spiritual sense to keep watch underground.

“Young friend of the human race... You, come into the cliff.”

At these words, Elder Panshi and Elder Genxu both looked astonished. Withered Wood Cliff was Greenwood Court’s greatest forbidden ground. Even they, the core elders, had never set foot there in a thousand years. And now, at this critical juncture, Elder Woodheart was actually telling a human formation cultivator to enter?

Elder Qingluo furrowed her brows even more deeply. She looked at the fissure radiating ancient pressure, then at Su Ming, standing calmly on the black rock. She bit her lower lip, seemingly locked in a fierce internal struggle.

At last, she stepped forward, reached into her sleeve, and abruptly snapped off a piece of something that gleamed a rich, inky green.

“Take it.” Elder Qingluo opened her hand. A vine core the size of a thumb lay quietly in her palm. It seemed almost alive, its surface suffused with pure origin laws of the wood element.

Su Ming did not immediately take it. He could feel the weight contained within the vine core.

Accepting it meant owing Elder Qingluo an enormous debt of gratitude, entangling his karma with Greenwood Court ever more deeply in the future. Moreover, the fact that she was giving him such a life-saving item clearly showed how unknown the dangers inside Withered Wood Cliff were. Even she doubted he would make it out in one piece.

“Giving this up will cost me thirty percent of my origin.” Seeing Su Ming hesitate, Elder Qingluo’s expression grew colder, but her tone was much gentler than during their earlier confrontation. “Don’t die in there. I don’t want our court saddled with more trouble.”

Su Ming looked deeply at Qingluo. Without wasting words on empty thanks, he reached out, took the vine core, and carefully tucked it into his sleeve.

“Thank you, Elder. This junior will do his best.”

With that, Su Ming turned around and strode without hesitation across the black rock, straight into the fissure at the bottom of the cliff, which blazed with dazzling green light.

The instant he entered the fissure, the rumble and rush of water outside were completely cut off.

It was a world of absolute silence. There was no wind in the cliff, and he could not even sense the passage of time.

Su Ming proceeded cautiously, using Observation of the Minute to examine his surroundings. The rock walls here bore no natural patterns. Instead, they were covered in spirit race totems so ancient they were almost impossible to recognize.

Among the totems were scenes of humanoid beings dancing with grass and trees, and of ceremonies that summoned the force of the stars to nourish the land. There were even some incomplete murals that seemed to depict a brutal battle, with winged outsiders fighting shoulder to shoulder with the spirit races.

“This place may be older than several of the ancient sects in the human realm combined.” Lin Yu studied the murals in the Consciousness Sea, his voice carrying a rare trace of solemnity.

Su Ming did not respond. His attention had been completely seized by the scene ahead.

The winding passage ended, and the view suddenly opened up.

It was an enormous underground space beyond the power of words to describe. Layer upon layer of ten-thousand-year-old roots intertwined here, weaving, against all odds, a wooden ancient hall suspended upside down in the void!

The hall had no doors or windows. Light shone through the gaps between its roots. In the center of the inverted hall, thirty-six enormous leaf-shaped soul cocoons were arranged in neat rows.

Every cocoon was covered in obscure, profound, ancient formation lines. Countless fine green threads, as thin as silk, wound around the outside of the cocoons. Like blood vessels, these threads connected to nothingness in the void above.

Su Ming narrowed his eyes, water spiritual energy swirling in them.

Through his observation micro vision, he saw the true nature of those green threads.

“This isn’t a seal.” Su Ming inwardly drew a sharp breath. “They’re chains of vitality. Elder Woodheart has been using his own origin vitality to keep the final strand of soul alive in all thirty-six of them. No wonder he’s aged so quickly.”

Those thirty-six people were not meditating in seclusion. They were a group of souls who should have died ten thousand years ago, forcibly kept in the human world.

“Drip.”

A drop of golden tree sap fell from the inverted roots and landed on the smooth wooden floor below, making a crisp sound.

In this absolute silence, the sound seemed to strike Su Ming’s heart.

He raised his eyes and looked toward the deepest part of the hall.

There, the largest soul cocoon floated, its surface marked by the most cracks. The ancient formation lines on it flickered violently, as though someone were slowly opening their eyes after ten thousand years of slumber.

“Human...”

An old, hoarse voice, like two pieces of dry bark scraping together, exploded directly in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea. It carried no pressure, but held the vicissitudes of one who had seen through life and death, and the cycles of reincarnation.

“Why... does the aura of the Spirit Nourishing True Explanation cling to you?”

There was no hostility in the voice, but its questioning left no room for evasion.

Su Ming’s heart tightened. He knew that before these old monsters who had lived for ten thousand years, any lie would be as fragile as thin paper.

He straightened up, let his hands hang naturally at his sides, and looked at the cracked soul cocoon without either arrogance or servility.

“This junior is Su Ming. Greetings, senior.” Su Ming’s voice was calm and frank. “There is an elder in my family who resides in a magical implement. His soul is severely damaged and could dissipate at any moment. This junior happened upon a fragment of a method and used it to prolong his life. I entered this realm by mistake today, seeking only to survive. I would never presume to claim an old connection to the spirit races, nor do I intend to steal their inheritance.”

Seven parts truth, three parts falsehood. The elder was real, and so was the life-prolonging effort, but he had neatly glossed over the origin of the Spirit Nourishing True Explanation.

Silence fell within the soul cocoon for a long time.

The aged thought did not use divine sense to forcibly search Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea. In the cultivation world, that kind of restraint and respect was extraordinary.

After a long while,

a faintly glowing green leaf drifted down from the roots above the ancient hall and settled lightly on Su Ming’s head. The instant it touched his hair, it transformed into a cool breath and flowed into his meridians.

Deep within the Xuantian ring,

Lin Yu’s Soul Body had gone rigid as a block of stone. He was forcefully suppressing every fluctuation within himself related to the Spirit Nourishing True Explanation. He had even compressed his soul power into a tiny speck of light and cowered in a corner of the ring.

“Don’t panic, disciple.” Lin Yu’s voice rang out in Su Ming’s Consciousness Sea as he put on the airs of a composed elder. “Your master has a clear conscience and stands upright. Why would I fear a mere remnant soul in this state? I simply can’t be bothered to deal with these old fossils.”

Su Ming silently repeated the words in his heart, but the corner of his mouth twitched despite himself.

Just a moment ago, the instant his master sensed that thought, he had bolted like a mouse seeing a cat, diving straight into the deepest shadows at the bottom of the ring. Su Ming really did have a lot to learn from his master’s talent for dressing up “knowing when to fold” as noble righteousness.

“Crack...”

At that moment, a crisp snapping sound broke the silence of the ancient hall.

The deepest crack on the central soul cocoon finally split all the way through.