629: Chapter 629 Life Essence as Clothing

In the narrow rock crevice, deep blue Ruoshui Spiritual Power moved slowly and steadily across Su Ming's body like countless needles finer than strands of hair.

Lin Yu's soul body floated in mid-air, its deep blue luster flickering slightly from time to time.

Su Ming gritted his teeth, cold sweat on his forehead having gathered into bean-sized drops, sliding down his pale cheeks.

"Three inches from the left shoulder, the spiritual power line is off by half a millimeter!" Lin Yu suddenly barked in a low voice.

Su Ming's eyes narrowed, and he immediately fine-tuned the path of his Ruoshui Spiritual Power.

"Hum—"

As the last spiritual power line closed, a faint, pale purple halo suddenly lit up on the surface of Su Ming's body.

The vital energy that had originally been wandering violently outside the rock crevice seemed to have suddenly found a kindred spirit, beginning to spontaneously converge toward Su Ming's body and, following the Array Patterns on his skin, forming an endless external cycle.

Su Ming slowly opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.

On his skin, a luster of vitality exactly identical to that of this Spirit Realm jungle was currently flowing.

If one were to close their eyes and perceive with Divine Sense, he was now no different from a living spiritual plant growing in a rock crevice.

"It's done." Su Ming exhaled a long, turbid breath tainted with the smell of blood.

Lin Yu circled around him, its soul body glowing slightly brighter, its tone carrying a hint of undisguised admiration: "Interesting. With this disguise, as long as you don't use lethal means that cause your aura to leak, even a Golden Core Stage Cultivator from the Dark Current Sect might not be able to see through your true nature from ten zhang away."

"Then let's go outside and test it."

Su Ming did not hesitate. He quickly formed seals with his hands, dispelling the concealment Formation and sound-insulation Formation at the entrance of the rock crevice.

Without the barrier of the Formations, the thick, cloying scent of decay and sweetness from the outside world instantly flooded in.

Su Ming reached out and shielded Ying at his collarbone, wrapping it within the halo of his vital energy garment, and then stepped out of the rock crevice that had sheltered him for several hours.

The sky outside still presented a psychedelic pale purple, with aurora-like bands of light slowly drifting overhead.

The moment Su Ming stepped out of the rock, a glowing liquid vine less than three feet away from him suddenly writhed.

Its tentacles, covered in fine barbs, had originally raised their heads like vipers, preparing to capture this suddenly appearing target.

Su Ming did not retreat; instead, he stood quietly in place, the vital energy garment on his body pulsing rhythmically, simulating the "breathing" frequency of the surrounding plants.

The liquid vine's tentacle hesitated in mid-air. It circled around Su Ming for half a turn, the faint light at its tip flickering uncertainly, as if struggling to discern him.

A moment later, its cruel predatory instinct was deceived by the aura of its own kind emitted by the vital energy garment. The tentacles slowly lowered and re-attached to the rock wall, no longer viewing Su Ming as prey.

"Chirp…" Ying poked half of its little black head out of Su Ming's collar, emitting a very low sound of amazement from its throat.

"It seems this 'garment' is a very good fit." Su Ming said to Lin Yu in his heart.

Lin Yu scoffed: "Don't get happy too soon. Fooling these brainless, low-level plants is nothing to boast about. Keep moving, don't just stand there like a fool."

Su Ming nodded, identifying the coordinates of the Azure Wood Court to the east, and quickened his pace.

As he ventured deeper into the Gloomlight Forest, the surrounding scenery became increasingly bizarre.

There were towering trees flowing with golden liquid light, mushroom houses as large as buildings emitting psychedelic fragrances, and strange roots slithering through the mud like snakes.

Su Ming habitually activated his "Micro-Observation" vision.

When his gaze penetrated the glowing surface of these plants and saw the veins of spiritual power flowing beneath them, his footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"What is it?" Lin Yu noticed Su Ming's anomaly.

Su Ming did not answer immediately. His gaze followed the root system of a light tree downward, seeing it intertwine with the underground mycelium of a nearby patch of purple-spotted mushrooms.

Subsequently, this mycelium, like some kind of conduit, connected to a fluorescent swamp further away.

"Master, look at this forest." Su Ming's voice carried a hint of solemnity. "These plants did not grow naturally in disorder."

"Nonsense, the plants in the Spirit Realm all possess spirituality and naturally know how to seek advantages and avoid harm." Lin Yu replied nonchalantly.

"No, what I mean is…" Su Ming squatted down, pointing vaguely at several glowing veins on the ground. "The light trees are responsible for absorbing the purple extreme light from the sky and converting it into Yang-attribute vital energy; the mushroom houses grow in the shadow of the light trees, absorbing the Impurities discharged by the light trees and converting them into Yin-attribute toxic miasma; while the liquid vines act like the spiritual power circuits of a Formation, neutralizing these two types of Yin and Yang vital energy and transporting them into the underground water veins of the entire forest."

Su Ming raised his head, a fervor and awe unique to a Formation Master flashing in his eyes: "This is not simple ecological symbiosis. This is a Formation. A massive, natural energy-circulating Formation composed of billions of glowing plants, fungi, and water veins! All things are a Formation; so that's how it is."

Lin Yu's soul body hovered in mid-air, silent for a full five breaths, after which its deep blue luster dimmed slightly.

"A natural Formation…" Lin Yu's voice lowered, as if recalling some distant past. "This Spirit Realm has actually turned such a method into an instinct."

Just as Su Ming was about to speak, Ying at his collarbone suddenly had its black feathers bristle, letting out an extremely sharp "Chirp" sound!

At the same time, the ground beneath Su Ming's feet transmitted a violent tremor.

"Underground!" Lin Yu barked sharply.

Su Ming did not look down at all; he pushed off the ground violently with both legs, his entire body retreating three zhang backward.

"Boom!"

Right where he had just been standing, the hard soil was instantly overturned. A dark brown "plant," huge as a giant python and covered with hard barbs, burst out of the earth.

Its front end consisted only of a giant maw split open like an abyss, filled with ghastly white wooden fangs. A nauseating, fishy wind mixed with violent Laws of vitality rushed toward Su Ming's face.

"Foundation Establishment Peak strength!" Lin Yu quickly provided a strength assessment.

The dark brown monster, having missed its strike, twisted its huge body violently in mid-air, its fang-filled maw letting out a piercing hiss.

It did not seem to have seen through Su Ming's vital energy garment, but it sensed that Su Ming, this "strange plant," had intruded upon its territory.

It did not view Su Ming as prey, but rather as a member of its own kind competing for territory.

"Whoosh—"

The monster's massive body, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, slammed down heavily toward Su Ming like a giant battering ram.

"Head-on collision?" Lin Yu asked in the Sea of Consciousness.

"My brain isn't caught in a door." Su Ming's eyes were cold, his footsteps not disordered in the slightest.

In this perilous Spirit Realm, although the Ruoshui Spiritual Power in his body had recovered by seventy percent, every drop had to be calculated carefully.

Going head-to-head with this kind of indigenous plant monster that knew no pain and possessed extremely tenacious vitality was the most foolish choice.

"Go!"

Su Ming tapped his toes on the ground, and the flexible movement technique of the Ruoshui Art was pushed to its limit.

Instead of retreating, he advanced, sliding past the edge of the monster's crashing body while forcing out a trace of weak Ruoshui Spiritual Power from his fingertips, accurately flicking it onto one of the most sensitive barbs on the monster's side.

This strike was not heavy, yet it greatly enraged the opponent.

The monster let out an even more violent hiss, its massive body turning violently, chasing after Su Ming like a maggot on a bone.

Su Ming controlled his speed perfectly, always maintaining a distance of less than one zhang from the monster, as if dancing on the tip of a blade.

Ten zhang. Fifteen zhang. Twenty zhang.

Ahead, a patch of purple-spotted mushrooms as large as houses, emitting a thick, cloying fragrance, appeared in his line of sight.

"Now!" Lin Yu shouted.

Su Ming's eyes grew cold. Less than three feet from the mushroom patch, he stomped his feet violently on the ground.

He did not use any attack Spells, but instead used his Ruoshui Spiritual Power to form an extremely smooth spiritual power film under his feet.

The monster's impact force arrived with a gale. Leveraging this terrifying thrust, Su Ming's body, like a weightless fallen leaf, weirdly turned a ninety-degree angle in mid-air, sliding directly out from the edge of the mushroom patch.

And that monster, in its state of frenzy, was completely unable to change the course of its massive body in that instant.