Chapter 535: Upgrading the Spiderweb Formation
The airship glided smoothly through the stone forest, as if the ambush that had just taken place was nothing more than an insignificant draft passing through the hallway.
Qingfeng and Mingyue stood rooted to the spot, their mouths slightly agape.
This was the first time they had witnessed their master truly take action.
That kind of effortless dominance and arrogance, treating a Peak Golden Core cultivator like an ant, had been deeply engraved into the hearts of these two young disciples.
Qingfeng swallowed hard, turned his head to look at Mingyue, and his eyes were filled with barely concealed curiosity and shock.
"Spirit Transformation stage..." Lin Yu murmured softly within the ring, the light of his soul body flickering faintly, "Effortless handling of weight, laws following in his wake. This old cunning bastard's cultivation is even more unfathomable than I imagined."
The airship continued its swift flight.
Several hours later, a magnificent bronze pass appeared on the horizon.
As the airship passed through the passage guarded by the Green Nether Sword Sect, its speed slowed slightly.
Su Ming turned his head, his gaze once again falling upon that stone wall covered in inscribed names.
Those names, carved with sword qi, finger strength, and even fresh blood, still whispered the cruel essence of the cultivation world in the wind.
Qingfeng also stood by the airship’s edge, looking at those names, saying nothing. The slight restlessness that had emerged within him from witnessing his master’s power began to settle once more.
After passing through the pass, the airship officially entered the territory of the Northern Frontier.
Crossing that invisible dividing line, the suffocating dryness in the air instantly vanished without a trace.
Rich, moist heaven and earth spiritual energy surged forth like spring rain transforming into wind, seeping into their bodies through thousands of pores.
Qingfeng and Mingyue simultaneously let out a long breath, their faces showing expressions of relief as if they had narrowly escaped death.
"We're finally back." Qingfeng took a deep breath of spiritual energy and patted his chest. "After spending a few days in the Central Continent, I felt like I was being wrung dry."
The "Like Water Art" within Su Ming’s body also emitted a joyful hum, and the azure-blue spiritual energy lake in his Dantian revived with vibrant vitality.
But he didn’t allow himself to indulge in this comfort. Instead, he withdrew his divine sense, maintaining his usual vigilance.
Night gradually descended.
The deep blue dome of the sky was dotted with stars. The airship flew steadily above the clouds, surrounded by utter silence, broken only by the soft sound of wind passing by his ears.
Su Ming sat cross-legged on the deck at the stern, taking out the jade slip he had obtained from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion from his storage pouch.
As his divine sense probed into it, the rubbing diagram of the formation plate from the jade slip instantly spread out within his mind.
He set the jade slip down and spread a piece of blank silk cloth across his knee.
Shadow crawled out from his collar, shook her metallic-glossy black feathers, and skillfully perched on his right shoulder. She tilted her little head, her golden eyes curiously fixed on the movements of Su Ming’s fingers, occasionally letting out a faint "cheep."
Within the Xuantian Ring, Lin Yu’s soul body slowly materialized.
He sat cross-legged in the air across from Su Ming, his azure glow exceptionally clear in the night. His gaze lingered on the jade slip for a moment, the light of his soul body flickering faintly before settling into calm.
"This formation diagram... is quite interesting," Lin Yu said flatly.
Su Ming nodded, condensing an extremely fine thread of water-attribute spiritual energy on the tip of his right index finger, and slowly began to trace on the deck.
"Ninety percent of it is conventional defensive nesting. The tricky part is that last set of variant Lead runes," Su Ming communicated with Lin Yu in his mind as he drew. "It not only has to withstand an instantaneous impact but also needs to reverse-flow the excess spiritual energy back into the earth veins. I feel like this conversion process is missing a node."
Lin Yu’s soul body leaned forward slightly, his gaze falling on the nested loop Su Ming had just drawn.
"That set of variant Lead runes—the core lies in the nesting order of the three loops." Lin Yu’s tone was unhurried, as if he were stating a conclusion he had verified long ago. "The way you’re drawing it now, the inner ring expands outward. That direction won’t work—under high pressure, the spiritual energy will directly burst through the outer ring’s seal."
Su Ming furrowed his brow slightly.
He wiped his finger across the deck, erasing the formation lines he had drawn, and began to trace anew.
"What about having the outer ring contract inward?" Su Ming asked.
Lin Yu shook his head almost without thinking. The shake was too fast, as if he had personally tried that dead end years ago.
"Spiritual energy deadlock. The formation plate would self-destruct instantly."
Su Ming stopped his finger.
A thin layer of fine sweat gradually formed on his forehead. Deduction of this set of formation lines consumed an immense amount of divine sense, and even with his foundation of seven hundred and fifty formation runes, he found it somewhat taxing.
He stared at the half-formed formation diagram on the deck, lost in thought.
Not outward, and not inward.
Lin Yu didn’t say another word. He simply sat quietly in the void within the ring, like an old man who already knew the answer, patiently waiting for the younger generation to find the key themselves.
"Master," Su Ming suddenly spoke up, "you said this is somewhat similar to the formation lines in the Ancient Path secret realm."
Lin Yu was silent for a moment, the light of his soul body flickering faintly. Instead of answering the question, he countered, "You want to use the ‘planting’ approach to solve it?"
"No, I want to use water."
Su Ming closed his eyes, and the "Like Water Art" within his body began to accelerate its circulation.
In that moment, Lin Yu’s soul body grew exceptionally still. He didn’t press further, didn’t interrupt, simply watched Su Ming quietly—a faint, barely discernible glimmer of anticipation flashing deep within those azure eyes.
Water has no fixed form; it acts according to the momentum.
In his mind, Su Ming simulated the state of water encountering a vortex. Not a simple inward or outward flow, but a dynamic balance forming at the confluence point.
After a moment, Su Ming opened his eyes and touched his finger to the deck once more.
This time, his speed was extremely fast.
The first loop landed, followed by the second loop cutting in at an incredibly odd angle. Not only did it fail to disrupt the structure of the first loop, but it instead formed an endless closed loop where head and tail connected.
The third loop embedded itself in, locking the three together into a stable, cyclical whole.
"Hum—!"
The spiritual energy formation lines on the deck emitted a faint glow before slowly sinking into the wood, forming an extremely small yet perfect defensive barrier.
Inside the ring, Lin Yu watched this scene in prolonged silence.
It wasn’t until Su Ming wiped the sweat from his forehead that Lin Yu let out a soft sigh, his tone filled with undisguised satisfaction.
"Dynamic nesting." His voice was calm as still water, without a hint of surprise, as if he had known this answer long before Su Ming made his first stroke. "You brat, being able to reach this point on your own... your comprehension is almost catching up to mine."
Su Ming wasn’t arrogant. He just smiled calmly. "Thanks to Master’s guidance. If you hadn’t pointed out the direction, I’d still be taking at least half a month of detours."
"Stop flattering me." Lin Yu snorted coldly, but his soul body appeared noticeably more solid. "All I did was not tell you which roads were dead ends. Remember this feeling. Formations aren’t lifeless objects. When you deduce them as if they were living things, that’s when you’ve truly touched the threshold of the Great Path."
Just then, the sound of light footsteps interrupted the exchange between master and disciple.
Qingfeng crept over, craning his neck to look at the deck in front of Su Ming.
"Su Ming, what are you drawing?" Qingfeng asked curiously, his eyes sweeping back and forth across the deck but seeing nothing.
Without lifting his head, Su Ming solidified the deduction in his mind and casually replied, "A formation."