565: Chapter 565 The Star Pivot's Discourse on the Dao, Part Four

Master Xuan Heng sat on an obsidian chair, his gaze falling upon the two fireballs that were tightly locked by restraint Array Patterns and were slowly extinguishing due to the loss of subsequent spiritual energy support.

His gaze lingered for a full two breaths longer than when he had looked at Eldest Senior Sister Ling Shuang and Second Senior Brother Qin Yi.

"You have glimpsed the threshold."

Master Xuan Heng's voice echoed in the main hall, carrying a rare sense of solemnity.

"You finally understand that an imperfect control is always much stronger than a perfect failure."

Master Xuan Heng's gaze moved away from the platform, looking directly into Luo Feng's reddened eyes.

"But your Formation still has a fatal flaw. You rely too much on your own on-the-spot reaction speed." Master Xuan Heng's voice became stern. "In an absolute life-or-death moment, the changes on the battlefield are instantaneous; it will never give you even half a breath of time to judge when to activate the Restraint Ring. Once a situation exceeds your expectations and your reaction is slow by even an instant, your Formation will still blow you into fragments."

Master Xuan Heng's finger tapped heavily on the armrest.

Luo Feng did not say another word, merely bowing his head: "Yes, Revered Master."

As the sound of Luo Feng's footsteps stopped at his original position, the atmosphere in the main hall became subtle.

Eldest Senior Sister Ling Shuang's habitually cold gaze, Second Senior Brother Qin Yi's expectant look, and Luo Feng's stare all naturally and unreservedly converged on one person at this moment.

Everyone's eyes fell upon Su Ming.

Su Ming stood calmly in place, the hem of his broad purple robe showing not a single unnecessary movement.

He knew it was his turn.

Without any hesitation, Su Ming took a steady step out of the line and walked toward the center of the obsidian platform that had been left somewhat warm by Luo Feng's explosion.

Every step he took was as precise as if measured by a ruler, and the fluctuations of his spiritual energy were perfectly restrained within an inch of his body, not causing even the slightest ripple in the air.

"Eldest Senior Sister walks the Sword Dao, ending killing with killing."

Su Ming stood firm in the center of the platform, not looking at anyone but staring straight ahead into the Void Realm, his voice steady without a single tremor. "Second Senior Brother walks the Beast Taming Dao, nourishing all things with vitality. Third Senior Brother walks the Formation Dao, seeking to break the situation with ultimate destruction."

His hands slowly emerged from his sleeves.

"But I am different from them."

Su Ming raised his right hand, his index finger gently tapping the air. "The path I walk is the pure Path of Defense."

"Buzz."

As his fingertip tapped down, a deep, pure blue water-attribute spiritual energy flowed silently from his finger.

That was not a violent current, but a line of light as solid as substance, emitting an aura of extreme toughness.

"Gu."

Su Ming's lips moved slightly.

Within one breath, a square-structured "Gu" character without any redundant edges instantly took shape in the Void Realm.

Immediately following, his finger did not pause in the slightest as he sketched four complex arcs at each of the four corners of the "Gu" character.

"Yu."

"Yin."

"Hua."

"Shen."

Five runes emitting a deep blue light hovered at precise coordinate points in front of Su Ming in less than three breaths. The spacing between them was not off by a hair, as if they were under the absolute control of some terrifying calculation power in the dark.

"This kid's Void Talisman Drawing has almost drained this old man's set of basic theories." Lin Yu watched those five runes from inside the ring; though his tone was still dismissive, the luster on his soul body was blindingly bright.

Su Ming's wrist turned sharply.

The five runes hovering in the Void Realm simultaneously erupted with piercing blue light in an instant. Five streaks of spiritual light interlaced, connected, and interspersed in mid-air.

There was no hard sensation of metal clashing, nor the barrier-like feeling of a light shield forming.

When the light subsided, what hovered in front of Su Ming was a palm-sized, completely transparent, and soft-looking miniature Formation.

Its edges crawled slowly in the air, and ripples of fine spiritual energy constantly undulated on its surface.

It did not look at all like a shield used to resist attacks, but rather like a fragile, transparent jellyfish that had left the deep sea and was hovering in mid-air, breathing slowly.

Su Ming flipped his left hand and steadily took out an Impact Formation Plate used for testing the strength of low-grade Magical Artifacts from his Storage Pouch.

He looked at no one, only calmly pointing the emitter of the Impact Formation Plate directly at that floating "transparent jellyfish."

Then, he decisively pressed the activation groove.

"Boom!"

A pure spiritual energy shockwave erupted violently from the testing Formation Plate, turning into a visible wave of wild Qi that slammed fiercely into the "transparent jellyfish" hovering in mid-air.

Eldest Senior Sister Ling Shuang's eyes narrowed rarely, and her fingers behind her back subconsciously closed together.

Luo Feng even held his breath in tension, staring fixedly at that fragile-looking Formation that seemed like it would break with a single poke.

The wave of Qi slammed hard against the surface of the Formation.

There was no deafening sound of collision, nor any blinding halo produced when two spiritual energies clashed.

At the moment the shockwave contacted the surface of the Formation, that "jellyfish" weirdly dented deeply inward.

The "Shen" rune operated frantically at this moment; the sharp spiritual energy at the forefront of the shockwave was like falling into a bottomless sponge, instantly absorbed into the interior of the Formation without even splashing a single drop.

Immediately after, the "Yin" rune glowed faintly in the depths of the depression.

That originally solid impact force, sufficient to smash a giant block of refined steel to pieces, was unreasonably and forcibly twisted in direction after entering the Formation, instantly diverted into four fine undercurrents that slid toward the surroundings along the crawling edges of the "jellyfish."

The "Hua" rune followed closely behind.

During the process of sliding, those four diverted impact forces encountered layers upon layers of flexible resistance that undulated like water waves. Their violent attributes were dismantled and stripped away bit by bit in this constant friction and cancellation.

When this impact force finally penetrated this layer of a mere palm-sized Formation, it had completely lost all of its destructive power.

Only a gentle breeze remained, mixed with bits of harmless deep blue spiritual light, silently dissipating from the other side of the Formation and softly brushing past the hem of Su Ming's purple Daoist robe.

During this brief yet incredibly complex process, Su Ming stood in place as if his feet had taken root, without even an extra sway of his clothes.

He steadily put away the Impact Formation Plate that had already exhausted its spiritual energy, and his gaze passed over the "jellyfish" that had returned to its original state and continued to crawl slowly in mid-air, calmly looking at Master Xuan Heng sitting in the main seat.

"The general principles of the Ruoshui Art say that The highest good is like water."

"This Disciple does not have Eldest Senior Sister's sharpness that cuts through everything, nor Third Senior Brother's violence that destroys everything. This Disciple's Dao does not seek to kill enemies, but only to be Impervious to all methods."