648: Chapter 648 That's the perfect camouflage for Taoist practitioners.

Su Ming's breath hitched slightly.

"If they were only draining life force, that would be one thing," Lin Yu sneered repeatedly. "These lunatics are still frantically searching for a way to utilize the Realm Gate coordinates. Back then, Qing Yan tricked Emperor Yan Wuji into repairing the Realm Gate just to leave himself a way out. They want to find a method to leave this realm while unleashing the disaster, and dump this mess—and even the disaster itself—directly onto the Human Realm!"

In his Sea of Consciousness, Su Ming was rapidly conducting a wargame simulation of red versus blue forces.

"The Dark Current Sect is the Red Team, and we are the Blue Team," Su Ming analyzed calmly. "The Red Team thinks they have control over the whole situation, but they don't know that the Qiming Jade Tablet, which records the most precise return coordinates, is in my Storage Pouch right now. They are still blindly draining life force to find clues, while we have already grasped the final destination."

"This is a fatal information gap. As long as I don't expose the jade tablet, they will continue to bump around blindly on the periphery like headless flies. This is our winning move." Su Ming concluded decisively.

Lin Yu gave him an appreciative look and tapped the Jade Slip again: "Finally, the third type of information: the location and structure of the Abandoned Land Seal."

"According to the vague images remaining from Qing Yan, these three Seals are arranged in the Heaven, Earth, and Human Sancai Formation. The Formation type of each Seal is completely different. As for the nature of the disaster... in Qing Yan's memory, there is only endless darkness; even one glance makes one feel as if their Divine Soul is about to be sucked in." Lin Yu tossed the inscribed Jade Slip to Su Ming and instructed, "Keep this safe. This is our trump card for surviving in the Spirit Realm."

Su Ming caught the Jade Slip and tucked it away close to his body.

Just at this moment.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Three extremely light knocks on the door broke the silence inside the tree hole.

Su Ming's gaze turned cold. He pressed his fingers together like a sword with his right hand and slashed downwards fiercely.

"Crack!"

The four void meditation stones, already covered in cracks, instantly shattered into powder. The fissure surging with Void Realm Spiritual Qi closed silently under the soothing influence of a gentle Ruoshui Spiritual Power. The remaining Spiritual Qi fluctuations were tightly wrapped by Su Ming using several water curtains and pressed into the ground.

Lin Yu skillfully transformed into a wisp of faint light and slipped back into the xuantian ring, completely concealing his aura.

Three breaths later, there was no abnormality left in the tree hole, save for a lingering trace of faint water vapor.

Ying preened its feathers with its beak on the windowsill, pretending that nothing had happened.

Su Ming stood up, walked to the door, and pulled it open.

Standing outside the door was an excited-looking Ye Qing. In his hand, he held a tray woven from unknown vines, upon which sat two fist-sized fruits that emitted a soft white light throughout.

"Su Ming! I didn't disturb your Cultivate, did I?" Ye Qing peered inside, the green soft whiskers on his head twitching happily.

"Brother Ye, you are too kind. Please, come in." Su Ming stepped aside, a gentle smile appearing on his face—the perfect protective color for a practitioner of The Way of Cautious Survival.

Ye Qing strode in and placed the tray on the ironwood table: "Elder Muxin specifically ordered logistics to allocate this to you. It's called a Yuanling Fruit, and it's said that the Human Race can absorb Spiritual Qi from it. Why don't you try it?"

Ying had long been unable to restrain itself on the windowsill. Seeing the glowing fruit, it flapped its wings and flew over, landing on the ironwood table, lowering its head to peck at it.

"No manners." Su Ming scolded, though in reality, he allowed Ying's sharp beak to peck open the skin of one of the fruits.

A sweet, juicy aroma instantly filled the air.

Su Ming picked up the other Yuanling Fruit. He did not put it into his mouth immediately, but instead used the Guanwei Technique to carefully scan its internal veins. After confirming that there were no hidden tracking Laws of Life Force, he took a gentle bite.

The flesh melted in his mouth, tasting sweet and juicy.

Su Ming closed his eyes and circulated the Ruoshui Art. In the vision of "Penetrating Darkness and Illuminating Minutiae," he clearly saw that after the gentle essence of life force contained in the fruit flesh entered his stomach, it was not rejected by the Spirit Realm Laws as it usually was. On the contrary, it underwent a slow process of "digestive conversion" and was actually converted, bit by bit, into faint, pure Spiritual Power!

"This thing..." Su Ming was secretly surprised in his heart.

"It's like the fasting pill chewed by cultivators in the Human Realm," Lin Yu said from inside the ring. "The replenishment rate is agonizingly slow; eating ten wouldn't compare to the Void Realm Spiritual Qi we just absorbed. But it has the advantage of being stable and long-lasting, and it won't cause Spiritual Power backlash. The Spirit Race has actually found you a good ration."

Su Ming slowly opened his eyes and cupped his hands toward Ye Qing: "Please thank the Elder for his kindness on my behalf. This fruit is full of vitality and is of great benefit to this Junior."

Ye Qing waved his hand, his face wearing an expression that said, "You can rest assured with me handling things." Afterward, he lowered his voice, and his tone became mysterious.

"Actually, I only brought the fruit while I was at it." Ye Qing leaned in two steps closer, staring at Su Ming with burning eyes. "Elder Genxu asked me to bring you a message."

Su Ming understood in his heart, but kept his expression calm: "Oh? What instruction does Elder Genxu have?"

"He... has officially made a proposal to the Elder Council!" Ye Qing lowered his voice excitedly, fearing that Muyan outside the door might hear. "He proposed hiring you as a Guest Elder Array Master for our Qingmu Court!"

Su Ming's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Brother Ye." Su Ming looked at Ye Qing, his tone becoming serious. "I am honored by Elder Genxu's misplaced affection. However, what exactly would this Guest Elder Array Master be responsible for? And what kind of authority would I have within the Court?"

This was a confrontation where the details had to be finalized on the table.

Ye Qing had clearly received instructions from Elder Genxu before coming, and he answered fluently: "Don't worry! The Elder Council has basically already acquiesced. Your main responsibility is to be specifically in charge of the daily maintenance and troubleshooting of those root defense Formations on the periphery. You don't need to go into battle to kill enemies!"

"As for authority..." Ye Qing looked at Su Ming with some envy. "As long as it involves Materials for Formation repair, you can directly go to the Muxin Pavilion's storehouse to requisition them. Moreover, except for the core area, over ninety percent of the book-storing tree holes in Qingmu Court are open to you!"

Su Ming felt settled.

This was the result he wanted most. Borrowing the chicken to lay eggs—using the Spirit Race's resources to make up for his own cognitive shortcomings regarding the Laws of this different realm. Furthermore, there was now a chance to repay the favor he owed to the Tianji Pavilion.

"Since the Elder Council trusts me so much, if I were to decline again, it would be unappreciative of me." Su Ming smiled slightly, cupped his hands, and bowed from a distance toward the direction of the door. "I accept this position as Guest Elder."

Ye Qing was overjoyed and patted Su Ming's shoulder hard: "Good! I knew you were a straightforward person! You rest for now. Tomorrow morning, Elder Genxu will personally take you to familiarize yourself with the peripheral Formation nodes."

After saying this, Ye Qing hopped and skipped out of the tree hole.