25: Chapter 25 The Data Trap and Ancient Martial Arts Observational Skills (Part 1)

The light was growing dimmer.

The canopy was layered and intertwined, like a massive lid, blocking the sunlight completely.

The surrounding chirping of insects was loud, not the melodious rhythm of nature, but a grinding sound with a metallic texture that made one's eardrums itch.

"Ah—"

A scream came from ahead.

A student wearing light armor was rolling on the ground clutching his foot, his ankle swollen like a bun.

His wristband was still flashing red, signaling a deduction of academic credits.

"What kind of broken radar is this!"

His companion nearby was so angry he slammed the detector in his hand onto the ground.

"It clearly showed it was safe, so how did one step lead to a gravity pit?"

The detector's screen cracked, sizzling with sparks.

The atmosphere of the team became very oppressive.

They had originally thought this was just a simple field trip, but now it seemed the school was playing for real.

The Rank of this "Data-Invisible Trap" had clearly been increased, specifically targeting the low-level detection equipment circulating on the market.

Li Shaobai walked at the very front, his face slightly pale.

His forehead was covered in sweat.

"Eagle Eye" was a skill that consumed Mental Energy continuously, and keeping it active for a long time placed a huge burden on his Mental Energy.

To save mana, he had to intermittently deactivate the skill to recover it.

Just in those few seconds when he turned off the skill, he had almost stepped on a delayed explosion rune.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the charging sound of that rune was slightly loud, he would have already been blown away.

"Everyone stop."

Li Shaobai raised his hand, panting heavily.

There was no road ahead.

A muddy zone about twenty meters wide lay before the group.

The black mud surged with a foul odor, and a layer of greasy green light floated on top.

Wang Gang looked at the military radar in his hand, his expression ugly.

"Squad leader, it's all red alerts."

Wang Gang turned the radar screen for Li Shaobai to see.

The entire muddy area was a glaring scarlet on the screen.

"A group of gravity traps."

Li Shaobai gritted his teeth as he judged.

"The density is too high; it's impossible to dismantle. Instructor Su wants to force us to take a detour."

He pointed to the impenetrable thorny forest on the left.

"We can only go that way. Although it's further, at least there are no disgusting traps like this."

The students looked at the thorn-covered forest, each one showing a look of difficulty.

Taking a detour from there would take at least another half hour, and those thorns could even pierce through ordinary protective suits.

"Let's go, don't dawdle."

Li Shaobai didn't want to waste time and turned to head toward the thorny forest.

Plop.

A soft sound.

Someone had stepped into the mud.

Li Shaobai turned his head sharply.

He saw Lin Qi with his hands in his pockets, leisurely stepping onto that patch of mud that was "all red alerts."

"Lin Qi! Are you crazy?"

Wang Gang screamed, his voice changing pitch.

"That's a gravity trap group! If you want to die, don't drag us into losing credits!"

The surrounding students all widened their eyes, waiting to see the tragic sight of Lin Qi being crushed into a meat patty by gravity.

However, nothing happened.

Lin Qi walked very steadily.

He stepped into the mud with every step, not even sinking too deep, just like he was taking a walk on flat ground.

One step, two steps, three steps.

He had already reached the center of the mud pit.

"This..."

Zhang Wei hugged his backpack, stomping his feet on the shore in anxiety.

"Brother Qi, if you get crushed to death, who am I supposed to go to for the money you owe me!"

Lin Qi ignored the commotion behind him.

He squatted down, extended two fingers, and pinched a bit of black mud.

He put it under his nose and smelled it.

The smell of sulfur, and a faint burnt scent.

This was the smell of energy conduction media after being heated.

He looked again at the color distribution on the surface of the mud.

Some places were black and shiny, while others presented a dry, grayish-white color.

In this humid forest, the appearance of dry soil was the biggest flaw in itself.

The operation of an energy field would evaporate moisture.

Therefore, those dry places were the true cores of the traps.

And that black mud that looked wet and soft was, on the contrary, a safe "insulation layer."

Lin Qi stood up, patted the dirt off his hands, and continued walking forward.

He specifically chose the places that looked the dirtiest and muddiest to step on.

"No reaction?"

Li Shaobai looked at Lin Qi's back, his expression somewhat stiff.

"Could it be that the traps failed?"

A bold male student saw that Lin Qi was fine, and his heart felt itchy too.

After all, no one wanted to crawl through a thorny forest.

"I'll go try."

That male student picked up a fist-sized rock and threw it hard toward a piece of dry ground that Lin Qi hadn't stepped on.

The rock traced an arc in the air.

Snap.

The moment it landed.

Boom!

That seemingly ordinary piece of ground suddenly collapsed.

A terrifying gravity ripple exploded, and mud splattered everywhere.

The hard granite didn't even make a sound before it was crushed into fine powder and mixed into the mud.

Everyone was stunned.

The male student who had wanted to follow Lin Qi felt his legs go soft and sat directly on the ground.

With this power, if one stepped on it, the foot bones would definitely be crushed into slag.

"Since it didn't fail, why is he fine?"

Wang Gang stared at the radar in his hand, doubting his life.

"Is my radar broken? Or is he cheating?"

Lin Qi had already reached the opposite bank by this time.

His shoe soles didn't even have much mud on them.

"Energy traps require media for conduction."

Lin Qi turned his head and looked at the group of rookies still dazed on the shore.

"Those protruding dry soils are energy nodes and also circuit-breaking points. As long as you avoid them and walk in the wet low-lying areas, you won't trigger the closed loop."

His voice wasn't loud, very plain.

"Physical rules and energy rules have conflicts. Instructor Su was lazy when setting up the array and didn't do any heat insulation treatment."

These words were like a heavenly book.

What media conduction, what closed loop, what heat insulation treatment.

In this world that only looked at panels and skills, no one went to study these basic physics concepts.

Li Shaobai's face flushed to the color of a pig's liver.

He had just been about to lead people to crawl through the thorny forest, but Lin Qi had managed to find a shortcut with just his naked eyes.

This wasn't just a slap in the face; it was practically rubbing his intelligence into the dirt.

"Fo... follow!"

Li Shaobai gritted his teeth and shouted, biting the bullet.

"Step in his footprints! Don't step off!"

With Lin Qi opening the way, the rest was much simpler.

The students lined up in a long single-file formation, like a group of well-behaved ducks, carefully stepping into the footprints left by Lin Qi to cross the river.

When each person passed by Lin Qi, their eyes changed.

The contempt of looking at a loser was gone, replaced by a kind of incomprehensible awe.

Zhang Wei was the last to climb onto the shore, running to Lin Qi's side panting.

"Brother Qi, awesome! You could even see this?"

The fatty gave a thumbs up.

"I was already preparing to collect your corpse just now."

Lin Qi didn't respond.

He stood at the edge of the mud pit and didn't continue walking forward.

His originally lazy standing posture suddenly changed.

His spine arched slightly, like a fully drawn bow.

He tilted his head toward the dense shrubbery on the right, his ears twitching.

"What's wrong?"

Li Shaobai walked over, his tone very annoyed.

"Since we're over, let's keep moving; don't pretend to be deep here."

Lin Qi raised his hand and made a gesture for silence.

"Shut up."

His voice turned cold.

That casual feeling disappeared, replaced by a focus that made people's scalps tingle.

There was a stinging sensation on his skin like needle pricks.

It wasn't the rigid energy fluctuation of a trap.

It was a living thing.

A living thing with a bloody stench and murderous intent.

And there wasn't just one.

"Something is coming."

Lin Qi stared at the motionless shrubbery, his hand slowly moving toward the dagger at his waist.

"It's not a trap, it's here to eat meat."