421: Chapter 431 The Truth in the Cave

Black Wind Mountain, halfway up the mountainside.

In Su Ming's eyes, the area shrouded by the evil Formation was no longer an impregnable iron wall.

A deep blue water line, like a living spirit snake, slid silently through the gaps of the dark red blood-evil Array Patterns. With a slight nudge of Su Ming's will, the water line precisely coiled around an extremely hidden energy reflux node of the Formation, its spiritual power frequency completing hundreds of subtle synchronous vibrations in an instant.

"Buzz..."

A soft sound, nearly imperceptible.

The seemingly normal space ahead rippled like a calm lake surface into which a stone had been tossed, sending out a ring of invisible ripples. Immediately following, a narrow gap just wide enough for a person to pass through sideways opened soundlessly beneath the dense shadows of the trees.

Beyond the gap lay another world.

A bloody stench so thick it had almost turned physical, mixed with the putrid smell of rotting earth, rushed toward him, making Su Ming's stomach churn.

But he did not enter immediately.

The first tenet of "The Way of Cautious Survival" was to never place oneself in a dangerous position of information asymmetry at any time. For a Cultivator capable of laying such a sinister and evil killing Formation, the Immortal Cave would surely be filled with lethal traps at every step.

Outside the Formation gap, which was only as wide as a strand of hair, Su Ming slowly sat down cross-legged.

The night wind blew across his slightly thin shoulders, making his robes rustle, yet he seemed not to hear it, his mind as calm as a thousand-year-old well.

From the Storage Pouch at his waist, he unhurriedly took out three blank Formation Plates, each the size of a walnut and with a surface as smooth as a mirror. These were pieces he had personally polished from scrap materials during his time at the Repair Hall; they were small and inconspicuous, yet extremely easy to carry.

The liquid spiritual power of the Foundation Establishment Stage surged from the Shaochong point at his fingertip, transforming into a deep blue carving knife finer than an embroidery needle.

His eyes were slightly closed, but his Divine Sense was highly concentrated. Within his mind, the two hundred and seventeen runes from the "True Meaning of Basic Rune Deconstruction," which he already knew by heart, lit up one by one like stars in the night sky.

He did not choose any offensive runes, but instead selected three of the most basic auxiliary runes that were also the most easily overlooked by high-level Cultivators—"Probe," "Return," and "Minute."

"Probe" was used to sense spiritual power fluctuations; "Return" was used to transmit the sensed information back; and "Minute" was a variant he had created himself, with only one purpose—to compress the spiritual power fluctuations generated by the first two runes to the extreme, making them as weak as fireflies on a summer night, utterly inconspicuous before the grand, sun-like Divine Sense of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The spiritual power carving knife moved across the smooth Formation Plates with a fluid motion, without the slightest hesitation. Under his hand, the complex rune structures seemed to become the simplest strokes, as deep blue lines were precisely branded into the interior of the plates, eventually weaving into a microscopic, exquisite, yet perfectly closed-loop detection Formation.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the three "Miniature Detection Formations" were complete.

Su Ming opened his eyes, a glint of satisfaction flashing within them. He was in no hurry to throw the Formation Plates inside; instead, he fumbled in his Storage Pouch for a moment and took out three ordinary mountain stones of varying sizes and shapes.

He used a trace of extremely faint spiritual power to adhere the three Formation Plates to the bottoms of the three stones like glue. Then, he stood up and walked to the gap in the Formation.

Taking a deep breath, he gave his wrist a light flick.

The first stone with an attached Formation Plate was thrown by him with a clever force, following an arc and landing softly on the left side of the cave entrance. The landing was silent, just like a withered leaf blown down by the wind.

The second one flew to the right side.

The third one was flicked by him at an extremely tricky angle toward a rock crevice directly above the cave entrance.

After completing all this, Su Ming sat down cross-legged once more. He closed his eyes and formed a strange hand seal, instantly establishing an invisible link between his Divine Sense and the three distant Formation Plates.

In the next moment, a silent "map" composed of pure spiritual power slowly unfolded in his mind.

It was a massive cave located within the heart of the mountain.

The three detection Formation Plates acted like three loyal scouts, continuously feeding back every spiritual power reaction within the cave from three different angles.

In his "spiritual power map," the spiritual power fluctuations at the cave entrance were steady and weak, no different from the mountain rocks outside.

But as his Divine Sense delved deeper, in the left area, about thirty zhang into the cave, he "saw" an extremely cold source of spiritual power carrying heavy Death Qi. There... at least a hundred stiffened corpses were piled up!

On the right side was a churning pool of blood. Above the blood pool hovered a head-sized black gas cloud composed of countless entangled vengeful souls, emitting heart-palpitating evil fluctuations.

Su Ming's heart sank bit by bit.

And what made his skin crawl the most was the information fed back by the Formation Plate he had flicked into the rock crevice at the very depths.

At the deepest part of the cave, there was a massive, violent, and extremely unstable source of spiritual power fluctuating wildly. The intensity of that power far exceeded his own as a newly established Foundation Establishment Cultivator; without a doubt, it was at least the Peak of the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment, or even... possibly the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment!

Surrounding that massive spiritual power source were hundreds of extremely weak yet rhythmically pulsating spiritual power fluctuation points.

Su Ming instantly understood what those were.

Those... were the Formation Flags being simultaneously refined by the Black-Robed Man! Hundreds of Formation Flags! Every single one was connected to his Divine Sense and spiritual power.

Su Ming's pupils snapped into dangerous needle-like points in the darkness.

"The Black-Robed Man is at the Peak of the Early Stage of Foundation Establishment... In a direct confrontation, I... should still prioritize caution."

He instantly made the most level-headed judgment.

But to retreat just like that?

In Su Ming's mind flashed Xu Qing's face, isolated and without help in the imperial court, and the wanted poster from the Marquis Yongchangs Estate that had been hanging for five years without being taken down.

No!

This was his only chance, and it was also Xu Qing's only chance.