654: Chapter 654 Compared to this, it's like the woodshed of a nouveau riche in the countryside.

The morning light had not yet fully penetrated the dense canopy of the ten-thousand-year-old Light Banyan when a streak of emerald light broke through the air from the deepest part of the main trunk, hovering steadily before the wooden door of Qingyou Residence.

Su Ming pushed open the door, his gaze landing on that streak of light.

It was a piece of emerald jade shaped like a willow leaf, with a faint ripple of Law of Life flowing across its surface. Between the veins of the leaf, an ancient character for "Guest" vaguely emerged.

"Su Ming! This is the decree personally issued by Elder Muxin." Ye Qing walked over quickly from a nearby passage, the soft antennae on his head vibrating with excitement, his face full of envy. "With this emerald jade leaf, your status in Qingmu Court has completely transformed from a suspicious outsider to a distinguished Guest Elder of the Human Race."

Su Ming raised his right hand, but did not reach out to take it directly. Instead, he secretly circulated the Ruoshui Art, condensing a thin film of water on his fingertips before taking the leaf into his hand.

The leaf felt warm and smooth to the touch, with no sense of resistance or repulsion. On the contrary, when it touched the Life-Essence Cloak on his body, it emitted a crisp hum, as if performing some kind of identity binding.

"This leaf is not only a symbol of status, but also an Advanced pass for the outer defensive Formation." Ye Qing pointed at the patterns on the leaf. "Except for the core root areas and the restricted areas of the Elder Council, you can move unimpeded through the Formation nodes inside and outside this Qingmu Court."

Su Ming nodded slightly and properly stored it in the Storage Pouch at his waist, then looked up at Ye Qing. "Brother Ye, you have come so early; do you have other arrangements?"

"Of course, I am here to show you around!" Ye Qing patted a large rattan bag at his waist and laughed. "Weren't you talking about wanting to see the Scripture Pavilion tree holes last night? I happen to be free today, so I will take you there."

"Then I shall trouble you."

The two followed a thick, spiraling vine passage, walking for a full incense stick's time before arriving at a wide platform located at a very high point on the main trunk of the Light Banyan.

On the platform, there were no pavilions filled with ancient books as imagined, only nine bottomless, enormous tree holes. The edges of every tree hole were covered in lichen emitting a soft, golden light.

"Are these the Scripture Pavilion tree holes?" Su Ming stopped and frowned imperceptibly. He had originally thought the Spirit Race's Scripture Pavilion would also be a stone chamber piled with Jade Slips or bone tablets.

Seeing this, Ye Qing laughed triumphantly. He pointed to the tree hole on the far left and made a gesture of invitation. "Go in and see for yourself."

Su Ming drew his Divine Sense inward and took a step into the seemingly pitch-black tree hole.

Passing through a layer of isolation Array Patterns that rippled like water, the scene before his eyes suddenly opened up.

How could this be a tree hole? This was clearly a vast world folded inside the tree trunk!

Soft green light filled the entire space, and countless leaves of various shapes floated in mid-air like stars in the night sky. Some leaves were as large as cattail fans, showing the withered yellow traces of time; others were as thin as willow leaves, flashing with piercing emerald light. Under the guidance of an invisible Law of Life, they slowly revolved along some strange trajectory.

"Hiss..."

Inside the xuantian ring, Lin Yu gasped. His soul body flickered violently, and his voice was extremely low. "Good heavens, compared to this, the Scripture Pavilion of those top Sects in the Human Realm are simply like the woodsheds of country bumpkins!"

Su Ming's pupils also dilated slightly.

He had originally been calculating in his heart to use his far-superior Divine Sense and computing ability to spend a few months completely draining the knowledge of the Spirit Race in this Qingmu Court. But at this moment, looking at this vast sea of tens of millions of "leaf classics," that arrogant idea instantly vanished.

"This is the books of our Spirit Race." Ye Qing walked to Su Ming's side and casually grabbed at the Void Realm. A palm-sized ginkgo leaf fell into his palm. "We are not good at refining Jade Slips, so we use these psychic leaves shed by the Light Banyan, using the Law of Life as ink, to imprint memories and knowledge within them."

Su Ming looked at Ye Qing and asked calmly, "Brother Ye, how are these nine tree holes classified?"

Ye Qing returned the leaf in his hand to the Void Realm and explained, "The three on the far left record the customs and topography of various places in the Spirit Realm, Spirit Beast compendiums, and some miscellaneous anecdotes. The middle three are about the basic application of the Law of Life and low-level Array Patterns. As for the three on the far right..."

Ye Qing lowered his voice and pointed to the three tree holes in the distance that emitted a faint pressure. "Those are Advanced Formations, ancient secrets, and top-secret files of the Elder Council. Your Guest Elder authority only allows you to enter the first six tree holes. Anyone who enters the last three without Elder Muxin's special permission will be shredded by the Formation."

"The first six are enough for me to study for a long time." Su Ming smiled slightly, his eyes showing no greed, only a just-right thirst for knowledge.

He paced slowly between the first and sixth tree holes, appearing to be browsing casually, but in reality, the Guanwei Technique in his Sea of Consciousness had already been quietly activated. The faint Law fluctuations emitted from those floating leaves formed complex spectrums in his eyes.

"Master, later I will use my Divine Sense to quickly scan the customs and circumstances in the first three tree holes; please help me record them as material for drawing the Tianji Pavilion map." Su Ming transmitted his voice in his Sea of Consciousness.

"Got it." Lin Yu snorted. "This kind of dirty and tiring work of sorting through junk is all left to me."

For the entire morning that followed, Su Ming immersed himself in the fifth tree hole, browsing through hundreds of leaves.

It wasn't until the sun was high in the sky that he rubbed his slightly swollen brow and walked out of the Scripture Pavilion tree hole.

"Brother Ye, let's stop here for today." Su Ming cupped his hands at Ye Qing, who had been waiting outside the tree hole. "I still have some inspection tasks for the outer defensive Formation, and I need to make a trip to the edge of the Youguang Forest to collect some Materials for the Formation."

Ye Qing yawned and waved his hand. "Go ahead. With that emerald jade leaf, the outer guards won't stop you. But remember, don't go too far; the Evil Qi Formations of those madmen from the Dark Current Sect haven't been fully cleared yet."

"I understand."

After bidding farewell to Ye Qing, Su Ming's figure flashed, turning into a greenish-gray afterimage as he sped toward the Youguang Forest on the outermost edge of the Qingmu Court.

Ying poked its head out of his sleeve, its golden pupils scanning the surroundings vigilantly, occasionally letting out a low "chirp."

This Youguang Forest was the edge of the buffer zone of the Qingmu Court, where towering trees and vines emitting a dim blue light intertwined to form a complex natural maze.

Su Ming slowed his pace, ignoring the conspicuous thick tree trunks, and instead focused his attention on the seemingly inconspicuous glowing grasses and moss under his feet.

"Guanwei Technique, activate."

A dim blue light flowed in the depths of Su Ming's eyes.

In this microscopic vision, the forest before him completely changed its appearance.

Those thick trees were no longer mere plants, but had become enormous nodes for exhaling and inhaling Spiritual Energy. And the moss, grasses, and even the tiny fungal hyphae in the soil under his feet transformed into billions of slender, glowing silk threads, tightly connecting all the trees together.

"Wonderful... truly wonderful to the extreme." Lin Yu's soul body poked half its body out of the ring, looking at the microscopic scene before him, and let out a long sigh.

"What does Master see?" Su Ming crouched down and gently poked the moss on the ground with his finger.

"In the Human Realm, Formation Cultivators set up Formations by using Spirit Stones as the Formation eye, or by carving Array Patterns with monster blood, forcibly binding the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into a fixed framework." Lin Yu's voice was low and grave.

He pointed to the seemingly chaotic shrubbery ahead. "But look at this natural network of the Spirit Realm. They did not deliberately carve any Array Patterns. If one tree dies, its life force will flow along those mosses to another tree. When encountering an attack of Evil Qi from the Dark Current Sect, this network does not resist head-on, but ripples like water, distributing the pressure evenly to every blade of grass within a ten-mile radius."

Su Ming's eyes gradually became bright. He stood up, Ruoshui Spiritual Power slowly circulating in his palm.

"So, this is resonance. Not forcing the gain or loss of a single city or pool, but integrating oneself into this vast cycle of Heaven and Earth." Su Ming spread his palm, and the dim blue water flow turned into transparent water lotus flowers at his fingertips. "Master, Human Race Formations are too rigid. Although the Ruoshui Art is soft, my thinking when setting up Formations still remains on blocking and slaughtering."

Ying suddenly flapped its wings and flew up, landing on a glowing vine. It gently pecked at the skin of the vine with its beak, and a faint golden light overflowed from its feathers, actually perfectly fitting with the life-force fluctuation of the vine.

"Ding—"

The vine emitted a crisp trembling sound, and immediately after, the glowing plants within a dozen or so zhang around it adjusted their breathing frequency at the same time, achieving synchronization with Ying's fluctuation.

"Even this little thing can achieve unity of Heaven and man by instinct." Su Ming withdrew his palm, a flash of realization crossing his eyes. "I have polished myself to the extreme at the Golden Core Early Stage; the operation of this natural, vast Formation of Heaven and Earth is like the final layer of window paper."