Chapter 699: The Iron Law of the Way of Survival: Never Take a Risk You Aren't Sure You Can Handle!

Several spirit race formation cultivators who had been waiting nearby immediately followed Su Ming's instructions. They transformed their own faint traces of vitality into thin streams and slowly poured them along the edges of the water curtains Su Ming had laid out.

The exceptionally stubborn dark-purple baleful tide was isolated by the water curtains and lured by the trickling vitality. It actually followed the abandoned root chamber that had been excavated in advance, flowing like poisonous water down into the deep, lifeless cracks in the stone.

Once freed from the toxins, the root marrow corroded by death energy began to glow faintly green again. The deathly baleful energy drawn into the abandoned root chamber, meanwhile, was gradually ground down by the surrounding vegetation vitality formations until it was finally reduced to harmless dregs.

The post-battle cleanup lasted a full day.

Late that night, Su Ming declined the lavish fruit wine Ye Qing had brought him and returned alone to the meditation room in Qingyou Residence.

As soon as he closed the wooden door, a phantom thought silently descended above the meditation room.

It was Elder Woodheart's spiritual sense. After the day's battle and severing his own origin, the old tree spirit's thought seemed incredibly weak, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.

“Young friend of the human race...”

Elder Woodheart's voice sounded directly in Su Ming's Consciousness Sea. “Thank you for your help with the earth veins today.”

“You flatter me, Senior. I merely acted according to the momentum.” Su Ming replied respectfully in his heart.

“This old tree is gravely injured and must enter seclusion and sleep for a long, long time,” Elder Woodheart said slowly. “Greenwood Court managed to survive this calamity, but its foundations have suffered great damage. There is much to rebuild after the battle, and I no longer have the strength to protect your cultivation.”

Su Ming's expression turned solemn. “I understand, Senior.”

“There is one more thing I must warn you about.” Woodheart's voice grew especially grave. “Your energy aura is complete, and you are on the verge of breaking through at any moment. But human cultivation is already strongly rejected by the laws of heaven and earth in the spirit realm. Though a great deal of pure, residual vitality remains in the world after this battle, you must not seek a quick breakthrough by relying on this external force to force your way into the Nascent Soul realm!”

“If you force your breakthrough by using the spirit realm's vitality, the human race's Dao foundation will inevitably be assimilated by its laws. At best, you will form a mutated Nascent Soul and have your cultivation crippled for life. At worst, the Heavenly Dao of the human realm will regard you as an aberration and smite you with thunder to erase you! Remember this, remember...”

His voice gradually faded, and Elder Woodheart's spiritual sense withdrew completely to the deepest part of the Banyan.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on his meditation cushion and let out a long breath.

Elder Woodheart's warning matched what Lin Yu had said before. The greatest taboo in the cultivation world was to let the prospect of an imminent breakthrough cloud one's judgment.

Su Ming closed his eyes and looked inward at his Dantian.

Deep within it, the Golden Core refined through three rotations of the Like Water Art radiated a dazzling, deep-blue light. Its core energy was exceptionally abundant, and the spiritual energy accumulated throughout his body had long since reached the very peak of the late stage of the Golden Core realm.

“The old tree spirit certainly knows what he's talking about.”

Within the Xuantian ring, Lin Yu's Soul Body floated out and hovered in midair. “Disciple, don't rush your breakthrough. Take out the good things we've been saving. Today, let's make your foundation completely solid!”

Su Ming nodded.

He brushed his storage pouch, and a special leaf radiating a gentle green glow appeared in his palm. It was the Jianmu Divine Leaf Elder Woodheart had given him earlier!

The moment the Jianmu Divine Leaf appeared in the meditation room, the oppressive air around them seemed to awaken.

A gentle, mild green radiance slowly seeped from the veins of the leaf. Under its light, tender green shoots began to sprout one after another from the wooden walls of the entire Qingyou Residence.

It was a trace of the most fundamental vitality left behind by the ancient Jianmu.

“Chirp!”

The Profound Shadow Crow perched on Su Ming's shoulder suddenly straightened up. Its ink-black eyes stared fixedly at the Jianmu Divine Leaf, and drool nearly dripped from the edge of its short beak. The purple-gold patterns inside its body flashed wildly, revealing just how desperately it craved the leaf.

“Don't rush. There's some for you, too.”

Su Ming patted Shadow's head, then turned to look at Lin Yu, who was hovering in midair. “Master, how should we use this divine leaf?”

Lin Yu floated in a circle around the Jianmu Divine Leaf. Dark-gold light swirled in his soul-eyes as he examined it closely for a long while.

“This is a treasure,” Lin Yu said gravely. “Jianmu was the great tree that connected heaven and earth in ancient times, and the laws contained in its divine leaf are exceptionally balanced and peaceful. It can mend damaged meridians, stabilize the Golden Core's formation patterns, and soothe old injuries in the five organs. But remember, under no circumstances should you use it as a breakthrough aid to force the formation of a Nascent Soul!”

Su Ming understood.

A breakthrough required a violent surge of power, while the greatest value of the Jianmu Divine Leaf lay in “repair” and “stabilization.” Using it to force his way through a bottleneck would be a complete waste.

Su Ming didn't hesitate any longer.

He sat cross-legged and formed the Like Water hand seal, then gently inhaled.

The Jianmu Divine Leaf trembled slightly in the air. Su Ming did not swallow the leaf whole. Instead, under the slicing force of his Ruo Shui spiritual energy, it split into five or six wisps of pale green radiance, each as fine as a silken thread.

Taking care to use only a single wisp, Su Ming drew it into his mouth. He used spiritual energy to suspend the remaining wisps in front of him. At the same time, he flicked a thread of green light, fine as a hair, into Shadow's mouth.

“Gulp.”

Shadow swallowed it in one go and narrowed her eyes in satisfaction. Then she curled up by Su Ming's feet into a fluffy ball.

The moment that wisp of divine leaf's radiance entered Su Ming's body, the meridians throughout him rumbled and shook!

There was none of the violent spiritual energy surge he had imagined. Instead, it felt like the gentlest, warmest spring water, slowly flowing through his limbs and bones.

The hidden meridians Su Ming had injured while passing through the World Gate, and later in the Void passage, when that dreadful spatial chill cut into him, began to knit and mend themselves inch by inch at a visible pace, nourished by this vitality.

The tiny scars and blockages left behind by those injuries vanished without a trace beneath the Jianmu radiance's gentle caress.

Su Ming guided this power straight down into his Dantian.

The deep-blue Golden Core rotated slowly within it. As the Jianmu vitality seeped in, the tiny formation patterns on the Golden Core's surface, which had previously seemed faint and a little insubstantial, began to greedily absorb the pure origin of the Jianmu.

“Bzzzz...”

The green radiance filled the last gap between the formation patterns.

The deep-blue light, which had seemed somewhat glaring, gradually drew inward. In its place came a profound steadiness, like water returning to the depths of an abyss.

Although Su Ming's spiritual energy had already reached the fullness of the late Golden Core stage, his foundation had been injured, and he had not truly attained the state of utmost perfection acknowledged by the Heavenly Dao.

Now, as the divine leaf's medicinal power slowly blended into him, his core energy settled completely. Not a single flaw remained on the Golden Core's surface. It formed a vast momentum, perfectly round, flawless, and seamless!

Golden Core Perfection!

True perfection!

Boom!

The instant this flawless momentum took shape, a raging tempest suddenly surged within Su Ming's Dantian.

A force of immense proportions erupted from the Golden Core's core. In the unseen depths, a hard barrier of the Heavenly Dao seemed to stand in his way. The Golden Core rapidly contracted, and in a blur, the faint outline of a light-blue infant seemed about to coalesce inside it!

The sensation of breaking through the barrier!

This was the Nascent Soul opportunity countless Golden Core cultivators dreamed of! If he simply followed the medicinal power and made one fierce push forward, he could try to form a Nascent Soul and step across the threshold into the ranks of the mighty beings of this world!

An ordinary cultivator would probably be ecstatic at this moment, willing to stake everything they owned on a fierce attempt to break through.

Yet Su Ming's deep eyes snapped open!

There was not a trace of greed or feverish excitement in his gaze, only absolute calm and restraint.

“The iron law of the Way of Survival: Never take a risk you aren't sure you can handle!”

Su Ming gave a low cry in his heart.

Without the slightest hesitation, he abruptly changed his hand seals and drew in reverse the Like Water Art, which had been circulating through his body at its utmost limit!