358: Chapter 359 After traveling fifty kilometers underground, Lin Qi: I've got this high priest for the taking!

The fourth day.

Shi Gu was called to the headquarters by Instructor Su Qing.

When he entered, he saw Lin Qi sitting in a rocking chair, Instructor Su Qing standing beside him, and Zhang Wei in the corner calculating accounts.

The light in the headquarters wasn't bright; the dark gold walls pressed the daylight coming in from outside into a dull undertone.

Beside Zhang Wei's hand were three stacks of handwritten drafts, densely packed with numbers, with the occasional faint sound of his pen tip tapping the desk.

"Sit." Lin Qi pointed to the chair opposite him.

Shi Gu sat down. The chair creaked again; he had already broken two, and Zhang Wei was considering whether to weld him an iron one.

The last chair's leg had snapped on the third day he sat on it; the sound of the break was like a gunshot, scaring Rift, who was dozing at the door, into bolting twenty meters away.

At that time, Zhang Wei had held the wreckage of that chair with an expression on his face as if he were seeing off an old comrade-in-arms.

"Tell me about the other two High Priests."

Shi Gu rubbed his hands together, his two palm-sized hands making a rustling sound: "I'm not familiar with them. There's very little communication between the church's three strongholds; the High Priests each mind their own business. What I know is just bits and pieces of information."

"Bits and pieces are fine."

"Alright." Shi Gu thought for a moment; the purple mud stains on his bald head had been washed clean, but that head still shone with a bright reflection in the dim light of the headquarters.

"The High Priest of the western Rotten Wood Forest is called 'Ku Ye'. He's the oldest of the three High Priests, said to be over a hundred years old. His faith channel has undergone some kind of Fusion with the decay Law of the Rotten Wood Forest. I'm not clear on the specific principles, but there's a rumor that he can make an entire forest wither and die within seconds."

"What direction does his Law type lean towards?"

"Decay and corrosion. Unlike our High Priest, who leaned towards faith control and Soul binding, Ku Ye leans towards destruction on a material level. Things that touch him will age faster, and living people will grow old if they get close to him."

Speaking to this point, Shi Gu subconsciously touched his bald head, as if confirming that his scalp hadn't wrinkled yet.

"What about the inner deacons?"

"The inner deacons under Ku Ye—I'm not sure. His stronghold is the most secluded of the three, with basically no contact with the outside. I only know he has deacons, but I don't know how many or what their abilities are."

"What about the northern Ice Rift Valley?"

"The High Priest of the Ice Rift Valley is called 'Eternal Frost'. He's the youngest of the three, maybe around forty years old. But his strength is the greatest among the three."

"The strongest?" Lin Qi's attention sharpened. The rocking of his chair unconsciously slowed by half an inch.

"Yes. Eternal Frost's faith channel has fused with the extreme cold mineral veins of the Ice Rift Valley. He can control temperatures down to absolute zero, theoretically. The area for a hundred miles around the Ice Rift Valley is frozen year-round; the images captured by the Federation's monitoring satellites are just a solid block of white, showing nothing."

"His inner deacons, do you know them?"

"I know one. Called 'Frost Thorn'. A master of the Ice Law and a Disciple of Eternal Frost. Strength—probably similar to Abyssal Fang, half-step Law-level."

In the corner, Zhang Wei's pen paused for a moment. He didn't look up, but his ears clearly perked up.

Half-step Law-level; in his business mind, this level of combat power automatically converted into a number: worth at least the monthly rent of five Law Creatures.

Lin Qi pieced this information together with what he had previously acquired.

Three High Priests—the one from the Eastern Continent mining area is dead, leaving Ku Ye and Eternal Frost.

Ku Ye is old, excels in decay and corrosion, has a secluded stronghold, and the least intelligence on him.

Eternal Frost is the youngest and strongest, with a half-step Law-level Disciple.

"Personally, who do you think—is easier to fight?" Lin Qi asked Shi Gu.

Shi Gu didn't hesitate: "Ku Ye."

"Reason?"

"Although Ku Ye is old and experienced, his Law type is useless against you. You have a Tongshen Realm Physical Body; decay and corrosion to you..."

"...have no effect on me," Lin Qi added.

"Right. Your Dao Source can isolate incoming Law intrusions, meaning Ku Ye's core combat power is effectively halved. Eternal Frost is different; absolute zero is a physical-level attack. Your Dao Source can isolate Law attributes, but whether it can isolate pure low temperatures—I'm not sure."

This analysis wasn't bad. Although Shi Gu looked rough, after fighting for so many years, he had his own way of evaluating combat power.

"There's one more reason," Shi Gu added, leaning forward slightly. The chair let out an ominous creak, and Zhang Wei's gaze immediately drifted over, staring intently at the chair's four legs.

"Ku Ye's stronghold is in the western Rotten Wood Forest, two thousand kilometers from Tianhai City. Eternal Frost's stronghold is in the northern Ice Rift Valley, four thousand kilometers away. If you fight Eternal Frost first, the round trip would take at least six or seven days. If D-3 is empty for six or seven days, it might be too late if something happens. If you fight Ku Ye first, you can make the round trip in three or four days."

Lin Qi glanced at Shi Gu.

"You're smarter than you look."

"I wasn't stupid to begin with. I'm just too lazy to use my brain." Shi Gu shook his head. "In the church, the High Priest used to think for me; I just had to smash people. Now that the High Priest is gone—"

He paused.

"Now I've changed bosses."

He said this very naturally, without hesitation or resistance.

It was like a worker changing companies; the previous one had poor benefits and terrible food. Although the new company's boss was young and cold-tempered, at least the chairs were good—though he was about to break this one too.

Lin Qi didn't take up that line of conversation. He turned toward Ji Mie. At some point, Ji Mie had also appeared at the headquarters' entrance.

She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, her aura cold and sharp like an icicle standing in a corner.

"Do you have anything to add?"

Ji Mie walked in, her footsteps nearly silent, and thought for a moment:

"Ku Ye has a special defensive measure. His faith channel is deeply bound to the vegetation System of the Rotten Wood Forest."

"The entire forest is his sensory network. He'll know the moment any creature enters the forest."

"What's the range?"

"The entire Rotten Wood Forest. About fifty kilometers in radius."

A fifty-kilometer sensory network.

Lin Qi tapped his finger lightly on the armrest.

This meant it was impossible for him to drop directly in front of the stronghold's entrance like he did with the Eastern Continent's High Priest. He would be discovered the moment he entered the forest.

"Then how did you all get in and out of Ku Ye's territory back then?" Lin Qi asked.

"Abyssal Fang opened a spatial channel. We jumped straight in, bypassing the forest," Shi Gu said.

Lin Qi tapped the armrest.

Without Abyssal Fang's spatial channel, he would have to force his way through the fifty-kilometer sensory network to enter the Rotten Wood Forest. He would be watched by Ku Ye the whole way while dealing with the Law attacks of the entire forest.

It wasn't that he couldn't fight. It was just troublesome.

"Is there a way to avoid being sensed?" Zhang Wei poked his head out from the corner.

He rarely chimed in on tactical issues, probably because forcing a way through fifty kilometers sounded like it would take too much time. In his cognitive System, time was money, and taking a fifty-kilometer detour was like wasting a chunk of travel expenses.

"There is," Ji Mie gave an answer no one expected, "Underground."

"Underground?"

"Ku Ye's sensory network is bound to the vegetation System. Tree roots go at most thirty meters deep. Below thirty meters is his sensory blind spot. If we can dig through underground—"

"Dig a fifty-kilometer tunnel?" Zhang Wei's eyes widened. "How long would that take?"

"No need to dig," Lin Qi said.

He looked down at the dark gold ground beneath his feet.

The Leyline network of D-3—it was something he had reconstructed using his Dao Source. His ability to manipulate underground structures far exceeded ordinary imagination.

If he used this ability in the Rotten Wood Forest's underground—not to dig a tunnel, but to travel directly through the ground using his Dao Source, like a fish swimming in water.

Below thirty meters, Ku Ye's sensory blind spot.

Shi Gu froze for two seconds, an image surfacing in his mind—Lin Qi drilling through two thousand kilometers of earth like a mole, then popping up under Ku Ye's feet and swatting him to death with a shovel.

How to describe this image?

Outrageous, yet logical.

"This approach is viable." Lin Qi stood up. "But I need to get the geological data for the Rotten Wood Forest first. Chen Shu should have the Federation's geological survey records."

Instructor Su Qing was already sending a message to Chen Shu on her terminal.

Lin Qi walked to the window, watching the patrol of Law Creature squads outside.

Rotten Wood Forest. Ku Ye. Fifty-kilometer sensory network. Underground travel.

Three or four days.

Enough.