514: Chapter 514 Backstabbing

The morning mist of the Purple Bamboo Sea had not yet fully dispersed. Crystal-clear dewdrops hung from the bamboo leaves surrounding the pavilion, sliding down the purple bamboo segments and dripping silently into the soil.

Su Ming held the somewhat coarse tea cup, quietly watching the tea leaves floating and sinking within.

"Su Ming." Qingfeng sat opposite him, rubbing his hands together. The expression on his Face was somewhat unnatural, his gaze shifting back and forth between the hundred flower spirit honey on the stone table and Su Ming's Face. He hesitated for a long while before speaking, "You... do you really want to see my Master?"

Su Ming raised his eyes, his gaze passing through the curling steam of the tea to land on Qingfeng's Face. He nodded.

"Revered Master instructed that to seek medicine at the Tianji Pavilion in the Central Province, it is essential to have a recommendation from Perfected Xuan Ming." Su Ming's voice was steady, revealing no details, only pointing out the necessity of this trip.

The corner of Qingfeng's mouth twitched violently. He subconsciously turned to look at Mingyue, seemingly seeking help.

Feeling her Senior Brother's gaze, Mingyue placed her hands on her knees and leaned forward slightly, answering in a low voice, "Su Ming, actually... our Master, the old man, isn't really a bad person, it's just..."

Mingyue got stuck.

Her Face was currently filled with an awkwardness that was hard to put into words. She desperately searched her mind for vocabulary, trying to find a relatively decent way to describe her own Revered Master.

Qingfeng sighed and simply threw caution to the wind, adding in a lowered voice, "Sneak attacks, drugging, staking people out, taking advantage of others' peril. Any tactic that can resolve trouble without bloodshed, the old man has used them all."

Su Ming's fingers holding the tea cup paused slightly.

"In the Cultivation World, if the name Perfected Xuan Ming is mentioned..." Qingfeng looked around as if fearing walls had ears, "the first reaction from outsiders is usually 'that guy who stabs people in the back.'"

A dead silence fell over the pavilion.

For a moment, Su Ming actually didn't know how to respond.

Inside the xuantian ring, however, Lin Yu's soul body underwent a period of violent fluctuations.

"Sneak attacks? Drugging? Staking people out? Taking advantage of peril?"

Lin Yu's voice rang out in Su Ming's Sea of Consciousness, carrying an uncontrollable wild joy and excitement, his speaking speed even increasing.

"This old schemer... ah, no, this Fellow Daoist Xuan Ming is simply a role model for our generation!" Lin Yu stood in the Void Realm, the luster of his soul body flickering unsteadily. "The Cultivation World is full of reckless fools who only know how to fight and kill, throwing their lives away for a bit of Face. Rare, so rare! A person of The Way of Cautious Survival—to think I'd encounter a kindred spirit here!"

Su Ming sighed in his heart. He did not respond to Lin Yu's revelry, merely placing the tea cup back onto the stone table with a very light clinking sound.

"Master is actually very good to us." Seeing Su Ming remain silent, Qingfeng thought he had been scared off and quickly tried to mend things. "He gives us all the best stuff. It's just his style of doing things... it's truly too difficult to guard against. When we were young and went down the mountain for experience, as soon as we announced his name, people would either turn tail and run or go straight for the kill. We felt it was disgraceful back then, but now that we're older, we can understand it."

They understood that in this dog-eat-dog Cultivation World, survival was more important than any Face.

Su Ming didn't ask more, nor did he offer an evaluation. Regarding The Way of Cautious Survival, he understood it more thoroughly than these two Outer Sect Disciples.

"Lead the way." Su Ming stood up and straightened his purple true disciple daoist robe.

Qingfeng and Mingyue looked at each other. Both saw a hint of helplessness in the other's eyes.

The two nodded in unison, carefully stowing the jar of hundred flower spirit honey into a Storage Pouch before standing up and walking out of the pavilion.

Shadow was perched on Su Ming's shoulder, its golden pupils darting around. It seemed to have sensed the tense atmosphere in the air; its black feathers tightened slightly, and its small claws inconspicuously hooked into the fabric of Su Ming's shoulder.

The three left the Purple Bamboo Sea and followed a secluded mountain path toward the back of Formation Peak.

The mountain path became increasingly remote, the stone steps beneath their feet gradually disappearing, replaced by a dirt path covered in a thick layer of fallen leaves. The trees on both sides became tall and lush, slicing the sunlight into fragmented spots of light.

"Let me ask one more thing on the way." Su Ming walked behind the two, speaking at a leisurely pace. "How is Senior Xuan Ming's temperament, exactly?"

Qingfeng walked at the very front, using a bamboo pole to beat back the thorns blocking the way. After thinking for a moment, he looked back and said, "Hard to say. When he's in his own Immortal Cave, he speaks to us quite gently. But as for outsiders..."

"It all depends on his mood." Mingyue added from the side. "Sometimes he'll say a few words to you with a smile, then turn around and pit you into a ditch. But don't worry, Su Ming, he has one bottom line."

"What bottom line?" Su Ming asked.

"He never makes things difficult for juniors." Mingyue said seriously. "He says bullying juniors is boring and he can't squeeze any profit out of them anyway. What he loves most is pitting those self-righteous orthodox Elders of the same Realm."

Su Ming nodded slightly. That was good news. As long as he wasn't the type of Devil Head who was moody and bloodthirsty, there was room for negotiation.

Inside the ring, Lin Yu straightened the robes of his soul body, smoothing out the originally wrinkled hem, and placed his hands behind his back, striking an unfathomable pose.

"This old fox—Master must take a good look today." Lin Yu's voice deepened, revealing a rare trace of focus. "Someone who can live for hundreds of years and turn 'stabbing in the back' into a trademark is definitely no ordinary character."

Qingfeng and Mingyue led Su Ming through a dense bamboo forest behind the Purple Bamboo Sea.

The concentration of Spiritual Qi here was much thinner than at Star Gazing Cliff, and the air was permeated with the smell of damp earth that hadn't seen sunlight for years. Ahead was a steep mountain ridge overgrown with thorns, without even a wild animal trail for one to set foot on.

If not for these two leading the way, an ordinary person reaching this point would only think it was a dead end and turn back.

Qingfeng walked to a clump of shrubs covered in barbs, reached out, and very carefully pushed the shrubs two feet to the left.

Beneath the shrubs, a small path completely buried by weeds was revealed.

The path was extremely narrow, only allowing one person to pass sideways. On both sides were steep stone walls covered in moss, and the top was completely sealed off by interlacing branches and vines, letting not even a sliver of light through.

"Senior Brother, follow us closely, and whatever you do, don't step on the moss on either side." Qingfeng lowered his voice, his tone carrying twelve parts of solemnity.

Su Ming nodded and followed behind the two, stepping into this hidden path.

Just as he stepped in, Su Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

His Divine Sense at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage allowed his perception of the surrounding environment to be acute to the extreme. He did not release any spiritual power, yet relying on instinct alone, he sensed the scalp-numbing killing intent hidden within those seemingly ordinary stone walls on both sides of the path.

He stopped his pace, his gaze falling on a slightly darker stone on the right wall that was covered in coin-sized patches of moss.

That stone seemed to be embedded in the dirt at random, but if one considered it in conjunction with a vine hanging from above and a tiny crack on the left wall...

"A Composite Formation." Su Ming said silently in his heart.

And not just an ordinary Composite Formation.