54: Chapter 54 Seeking a Tiger's Skin, The Sword to Break the Formation

"His ruthlessness and decisiveness are definitely not something an honest person like you, Old Lin, can compare to!"

Fatty said with concern,

"You're just too kind-hearted. If you saw people from another expedition team in danger, you'd definitely save them.

But what about Song Yiqing? He'd definitely turn a blind eye and pretend he didn't see anything.

I believe we can all see that.

The reason he's still bringing Wu Ren and the others along is, firstly, because I think Wu Ren has something he needs.

Maybe a secret, maybe an item. At the very least, those three are excellent 'tails' to have.

In other words, if they had no utility value, he'd definitely ignore them.

Can't you see that?"

He grew more agitated as he spoke, but realizing there were Desert Ground Sloths outside, he quickly lowered his voice.

"Old Lin, we are simply not the same kind of people as Song Yiqing. Cooperating with him is like dealing with the devil! It's too dangerous.

Who's to say we won't end up as the 'tail' he cuts off to save himself?"

...

Lin Tianyi fell silent and didn't speak again. It was only after several minutes that he spoke.

"But you should also understand that if we can't get deep inside,

and can't retrieve the tuo luo flower, then our clansmen will die.

The stock within the clan is running low. You should know that very well."

"Old Lin..."

Fatty looked troubled, appearing very conflicted.

At this moment, Wang Shan, who hadn't said much, spoke up.

"Actually, our relationship with Song Yiqing should be more of a mutual cooperation.

Since he values profit more, as long as we show enough value, we can exchange it for safety to a certain extent."

"Chief of Staff Wang..."

Fatty listened to her words, still showing hesitation, but finally threw up his hands.

"Fine, Lord Pang is too lazy to care anymore. Anyway, you guys decide.

Do whatever you want."

"Alright,"

Lin Tianyi consoled him,

"Let's leave it at that. We hold the map and route to the Jingjue Tomb; that's our absolute value.

He must have heard news from some channel that there are treasures hidden below.

In other words, he needs us alive; otherwise, he can't hope to find the items on his own."

"Old Lin..."

Fatty hesitated, then stopped talking and picked up his gun, staying alert for the Desert Ground Sloths outside.

Meanwhile, Lin Tianyi looked solemnly at the 'physically weak' Song Yiqing on the livestream screen.

"You must break through this situation!"

...

On the livestream screen, the people at the scene were moving like ants on a hot pan under Song Yiqing's command, jumping back and forth constantly.

Every precise command allowed them to narrowly dodge the repeated salvos of spikes.

However, there were exceptions. Long periods of high mental tension would cause the body to fall into extreme fatigue.

While dodging, Gong Chen was half a beat slow, which directly led to a large gash being sliced into his left leg.

But at this critical moment, he couldn't stop to bandage it and could only let the blood keep flowing.

[This Mechanism Path is indeed quite dangerous! I originally thought they could escape,]

[but it seems physical stamina is indeed the biggest problem.]

[This is the Mechanism Path! Master She Xuan said earlier that the best way to deal with the Mechanism Path is to escape at high speed,]

[because the further you go, the speed of the spikes in the Mechanism Path will start to surge, and the number of spikes will also indirectly increase,]

[unless you can directly exhaust the supply of spikes in the Mechanism Path!]

[Exhausting them requires stamina to keep up.]

[In the current situation, I guess only Brother Zhang can do it.]

[But later on, I suspect even he will get tired carrying someone, and finally...]

[Is there really no way to break the situation? Song Yiqing has broken many situations before!]

[What is the person above thinking? Song Yiqing breaks Feng Shui formations, while this is a mechanism. Ultimately, there's quite a difference; you can't generalize.]

The bullet comments from the viewers in the livestream were still scrolling.

However, everyone watching Song Yiqing's livestream had different thoughts.

Some viewers were worried because they were trapped.

There were also acquaintances like Bai Yao who were worried for Song Yiqing.

Someone like Fei Erfeng was worried because he feared a genius of the archaeology world was about to perish.

Even someone like Guo Xueyan was afraid Song Yiqing would die in the Mechanism Path before she could kill him with her own hands.

But there were also people like Xue Xingye who were afraid Song Yiqing would be able to break the situation.

The attention on this livestream was constantly rising, easily breaking one million concurrent viewers.

In the blink of an eye, it was pushing toward two million.

And this momentum showed no signs of slowing down.

On the livestream screen,

Song Yiqing could already feel his bodily functions slowly recovering.

At the same time, his perception was also gradually returning, and his judgment of the spikes' appearance became increasingly precise.

[Challenge Mission: Break the Mechanism Path. Reward: A-rank!]

This wasn't a particularly dangerous place, and with only an A-rank danger rating, leaving obviously just required cutting off Wu Ren's three 'tails'.

But Song Yiqing had other considerations.

First was naturally the secret Wu Ren was hiding; second was that there were too many corpses on the ground. The characteristic of the Taotie Bloodline was that it could devour Spirits to replenish the void of Qi in his body.

Later on, he couldn't guarantee there would be so many corpses, so he had to seize every opportunity.

Plus, he could snag an A-rank reward, which wasn't a bad deal.

As time slowly passed, Wu Ren and the others showed clear signs of fatigue.

At the same time, he also noticed that the speed at which the Taotie Bloodline devoured Spirits had slowed down, likely because the corpses here had been mostly drained.

He simply shouted out,

"Brother Zhang! Qian Position to the East, Wu Ren, Kan Position to the West!"

Following that, he suddenly jumped off Zhang Qilin's back and set up a Feng Shui formation again. In that instant,

he pulled out a Subsidiary Sword, Blue Frost, from the peerless sword casket hidden in his backpack!

When he obtained the peerless sword casket, he had already mastered Sword Kinesis.

The consumption of using it was naturally immense.

So Song Yiqing decisively used only one sword to destroy the Array Eye of the Mechanism Path with minimal consumption.

"Break!!!"

Accompanied by his sharp cry,

the qingshuang sword was released from his hand and shot out, its clear and elegant blade instantly disappearing into the sand.

But for a moment, there was no movement.

In that instant, the hearts of Wu Ren and the other two leaped into their throats.

Until three seconds later, when a muffled explosion sounded from beneath the desert, and the qingshuang sword returned to Song Yiqing's palm.

"Phew—"

Song Yiqing exhaled a deep breath of turbid air. His effortless Sword Control Technique left Wu Ren and the others stunned.

"Lord Song, you..."

"Was that... Sword Kinesis?"

"You even know this move?"

A second later, Zhang Qilin walked up to him and held out his hand.

"Give me back my Meteoric Iron Short Blade."

"?"