361: Chapter 362 Top-Tier Sixth Brother, Withered Leaf Meditates to Become Seventh Brother

The next morning, before dawn.

Lin Qi put on his backpack, shouldered his entrenching tool, and walked out of the headquarters.

Zhang Wei was already waiting in the courtyard, holding a thermal lunch box.

"Brother Qi, I made those meat buns you like. Have some on the road if you get hungry."

"I can't eat while traveling underground."

"Then eat them when you come out. Don't turn them down; I got up at four to knead the dough."

Lin Qi took the lunch box and stuffed it into his backpack.

Shi Gu stood in the distance with his arms crossed, not wearing his armor.

"Bo—er, Brother Qi." He changed how he addressed him—Instructor Su Qing had told him yesterday that in D-3, you don't call him "Boss," you call him "Brother Qi" or "Boss."

"Hm?"

"That old geezer Ku Ye has a habit—he meditates next to the faith channel for an hour every day at sunrise. During that time, his full attention is focused on channel maintenance, and his perception of the outside world decreases."

"How do you know that?"

"Abyssal Fang took me to the Rotten Wood Forest once to deliver something. We waited outside for half a day, and Abyssal Fang told me."

Lin Qi made a note of it.

Nirvana didn't show up. She wasn't the type to see someone off.

Rift, however, ran over and circled Lin Qi's feet twice, letting out a low purr.

"Watch the house." Lin Qi patted its head.

Rift sat down and stopped moving.

Instructor Su Qing stood at the barrier's exit.

She didn't say anything like 'good luck'; she just whispered as Lin Qi passed: "Four days."

"Four days," Lin Qi replied.

A crack opened in the barrier, and he stepped out.

Once outside the range of D-3, Lin Qi didn't walk forward. He crouched down and thrust his entrenching tool into the ground, pouring Dao Source through the blade and into the earth.

A dark-gold light spread rapidly beneath the surface, sensing the structure of the geological layers.

Beneath Tianhai City—below thirty meters—was a continuous layer of granite, hard but uniform in structure. Heading west, the layers would gradually become more complex, with karst formations and fault zones appearing.

Lin Qi closed his eyes and used his Dao Source to construct a rough model of an underground path in his mind.

Then—his entire body sank into the ground.

He wasn't digging a hole. His Dao Source enveloped his body, and he simply "melted" into the rock layers.

To him, in the Tongshen Realm, the rocks below thirty meters were not obstacles but a medium that could be penetrated and manipulated by Dao Source. Like a fish swimming in water—he traveled through the earth.

His speed wasn't fast, about eighty kilometers per hour. It was much slower than running on the surface, but it had the advantage of concealment—below thirty meters underground, no means of perception could track him.

Two thousand kilometers. At this speed, it would take about twenty-five hours.

Lin Qi pushed forward steadily underground. His Dao Source output was constant, sensing the geological structures ahead—bypassing underground rivers, passing through caves, and slightly adjusting his route when encountering particularly hard mineral veins.

Dull, but effective.

Twelve hours later.

He had already crossed the administrative boundaries of Tianhai City and entered the Wilderness of the Federation's western region. The geological structures began to change—granite was replaced by shale and sandstone, the underground temperature was rising, and he could occasionally sense geothermal activity in the distance.

Eighteen hours later.

A strange component began to appear in the underground rock layers—decayed organic matter. Massive amounts of ancient plant root fossils were embedded in the rock, densely packed.

He was not far from the Rotten Wood Forest.

These fossils were not ordinary plant remains. Lin Qi scanned them with his Dao Source—weak Law fluctuations remained within the fossils. They were consistent with the signature of the Church of Calamity.

Ku Ye's faith channel roots weren't just anchored in the surface vegetation—they also extended downwards, penetrating into the fossil layers deep underground.

The fifty-kilometer perception network—it wasn't just fifty kilometers on the surface.

It existed underground as well.

Lin Qi stopped.

He was suspended forty meters deep underground, surrounded by fossil layers filled with Law fluctuations.

Below thirty meters was Ku Ye's blind spot—this judgment came from Nirvana, based on her understanding of vegetation Systems. But Nirvana had never been beneath the Rotten Wood Forest; she didn't know that Ku Ye's roots had extended into the fossil layers.

In other words—the blind spot might not exist.

Lin Qi stayed underground for a minute and made a decision.

He didn't continue pushing forward.

Instead, he began using his Dao Source, with himself as the center, to perform a small-scale 'formatting' of the surrounding fossil layers.

Not clearing them—but overwriting them. He used the frequency of his Dao Source to cover the Law fluctuations in the fossils, making them 'silent'.

The coverage area wasn't large, only a twenty-meter radius centered on him. Just enough for him to pass through.

Carrying this twenty-meter 'Silence Bubble,' he continued to push toward the Rotten Wood Forest.

His speed dropped by half—only forty kilometers per hour. But his safety was significantly increased.

Twenty-four hours later.

Lin Qi stopped.

Above his head, he could sense it—the Rotten Wood Forest had arrived.

Massive, living, breathing plant roots reached from the surface down to over ten meters deep. Every rootlet carried Law fluctuations with a consistent frequency—all connected to the same core node.

Ku Ye's faith channel.

It was directly above him.

About five hundred meters underground—no, it was above the ground.

Lin Qi kept his eyes closed, sensing everything above from deep underground.

The entire Rotten Wood Forest—a forest with a fifty-kilometer radius—was one giant, living perception network. Every tree, every blade of grass, every fallen leaf was a tentacle of this network.

And the center of the network—was at the very heart of the Rotten Wood Forest. Beneath a massive ancient tree that was half-dead but still half-alive.

The roots of that ancient tree were directly connected to the core of the faith channel.

Lin Qi stayed deep underground for ten minutes, running all the information he could perceive through his mind.

Then he checked the time.

4:30 AM.

Shi Gu said Ku Ye meditates for an hour every day at sunrise.

The sunrise time in the western region during this season—was approximately 6:15 AM.

One hour and forty-five minutes left.

Lin Qi found a natural cave formed by an underground river, 'floated' his body out of the rock layer, and leaned against the cave wall.

He opened his backpack and took out the meat buns Zhang Wei had made.

They were cold, but the taste was alright.

After eating the buns, he closed his eyes and rested for an hour.

5:45 AM.

He opened his eyes.

Time to get to work.