388: Chapter 388: Outwardly calm as a rock, inwardly panicking: How to break the seven-day agreement!

Zhao Tian found a place to rest.

It was behind a small hill on the north side of the wasteland, where the rock wall formed a natural depression that could just block the Evil Qi and sandstorms from above. The depression was not deep, but it was enough for three people to sit and rest. Zhao Tian cleared the area inside, used Spiritual Qi to dry the ground, and set up a simple perception Formation at the entrance.

Su Changge sat down, leaned against the rock wall, took out the Jade Slip given by Tu Lie, and turned it over in his hands a couple of times.

Ye Qingyao sat down on his right, while Zhao Tian sat cross-legged at the entrance, closed his eyes, and entered a state of meditation. However, his Divine Sense was not completely withdrawn; a thin layer was spread outside to serve as a warning.

Su Changge pressed the Jade Slip against his forehead and probed it with his Divine Sense.

The amount of information in the Jade Slip was not small. Tu Lie was indeed methodical; the location of the Seal was marked very precisely, deep underground in the middle section of the Dragon Spine Mountain Range. The surface entrance was in a valley called "Dragon-Breaking Hollow," about three days' journey from their current position.

The form of the Seal was a sphere with a diameter of about two hundred zhang. The surface was covered with ancient Formation patterns. The arrangement of the Formation patterns was briefly recorded in the Jade Slip. Tu Lie had marked the confirmed crack locations, seventeen in total, five of which had appeared in the last month.

The three-month vibration record was also inside, and the frequency was indeed accelerating, which matched what Tu Lie said at the banquet.

Su Changge finished reading this information and went over it in his mind.

Then he put down the Jade Slip, maintained his calm expression for two breaths, and after confirming that Zhao Tian was meditating and not looking his way, he exploded on the inside.

"It's over, it's over, it's over."

"Why did I say to meet at the Seal in seven days?"

"What was I thinking at the time? I wasn't thinking at all! I'm just used to acting. I walked past that spy, felt the atmosphere was right, my mouth just moved, and the words just came out!"

"Meet at the Seal in seven days? Meet for what? Do what? That Seal is a relic from the ancient times, something that even a Late Stage Undergoing Tribulation cultivator like Tu Lie couldn't probe into. What can a high school student at the Qi Refining First Layer like me do when I get there?"

"Stand there and act cool?"

"Once the people from the four forces arrive, everyone will look at me, waiting for me to perform. Then I won't be able to do anything, I'll be exposed on the spot, and then I'll die."

He kept his expression completely motionless, leaning against the rock wall with his eyes half-closed, looking like a Master contemplating the profound mysteries of the Dao.

His heart had already run eighteen laps.

"System? Can the System give me a hint?"

The System did not respond. He remembered that the 3.0 version of the System had no active interaction function; it wouldn't talk to him, only making a determination on whether a skill could be released when he thought about using it.

"So I have to rely on myself."

"Rely on myself? What do I have? I have a face, acting skills, Ye Qingyao, and Zhao Tian..."

He listed the resources on hand in his mind.

The memories of the Old Ancestor Xuantian.

This thing suddenly surfaced from the depths of his mind, like a book opened to a certain page.

The Great Dao Scripture Pavilion.

The Old Ancestor Xuantian's one hundred thousand years of Cultivation insights, all Cultivation Techniques, all knowledge of Formations, and all insights regarding ancient Seals were stored there. Although he couldn't use them—he only had the cultivation of the Qi Refining First Layer, so he could only look at any high-level Cultivation Techniques but couldn't use them—the knowledge itself was real.

He could understand the Formation patterns of the Seal.

He could analyze the structure of the Seal.

He could stand there, speak those incredibly profound technical terms, and make those seemingly brilliant judgments, because he had the entire knowledge reserve of a ten-thousand-year-old Dao Ancestor in his mind, and every word he said would be correct.

It was just that he couldn't do it himself.

But did he need to do it himself?

He had Ye Qingyao.

Mahayana Stage.

He would look at it, and she would do it.

He was responsible for standing on the side, responsible for acting cool, responsible for saying a few words at the critical moment that no one could understand but felt were suffocatingly profound, and then Ye Qingyao would understand the intent and do the actual work.

Su Changge ran this logic through his mind and found that it actually made sense.

"Isn't this just like being the client? I stand and direct, she does the work, and after it's done, the credit goes to me."

"Do I have a talent for being a boss?"

He steadied his mindset, suppressed most of that panic, picked up the Jade Slip again, pressed it to his forehead, brought up the record of the Seal's Formation patterns, and simultaneously opened the Great Dao Scripture Pavilion in his mind to compare the information on both sides.

The knowledge in the Great Dao Scripture Pavilion was as vast as the sea, but regarding the records of ancient Seals, after he consciously searched, the corresponding information automatically surfaced.

Regarding the arrangement of the Formation patterns, in the memories of Old Ancestor Xuantian, there was a structure that was extremely similar, called the "Nine-Lock Dragon Suppressing Formation." It was a specialized Formation used in the ancient times to Seal and suppress some kind of existence gestating within a Dragon vein. The characteristic of this Formation was that it relied on the Dragon vein's own Spiritual Qi circulation to maintain the power of the Seal, requiring no external energy supply.

But conversely, if there were a problem with the Dragon vein's Spiritual Qi circulation, the Seal would decay on its own.

The acceleration of the crack expansion that Tu Lie mentioned, if it were the Nine-Lock Dragon Suppressing Formation, would mean that the Spiritual Qi of the Dragon vein itself had changed in these past few months.

Su Changge noted down this judgment, while simultaneously pushing forward his plan for seven days later, bit by bit, in his mind.

He needed a stage.

A stage where everyone was looking at him.

Then he would stand on it and perform what he was best at.

Acting.