68: Chapter 68 This kid is just inhuman!

The moment that figure appeared, everyone's movements came to a complete halt.

If the thing appearing before them had been a Jiangshi, no one would have felt too surprised.

After all, given how eerie this place was, such a thing was within the realm of possibility.

But as it happened, when that strange figure appeared, it was accompanied by heavy, labored breathing.

This undoubtedly indicated that the monster was a human-like existence.

When humans see a creature that looks somewhat like a person, they experience a sense of revulsion and fear known as the uncanny valley effect.

Lin Tianyi frowned deeply, not daring to step forward rashly.

According to their original plan, since they held the map, their understanding of the various strange monsters here should have been much higher.

But the reality was quite the opposite.

He didn't dare to jump to conclusions; instead, he looked back at Song Yiqing, waiting for the other man to make a decision.

Wu Ren, from the other team, had the same idea.

At this moment, he also cast his gaze toward the even more mysterious and unfathomable Song Yiqing.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the latter slowly crouched down, picked up a stone, and threw it at the figure.

Clack!

After the stone hit the figure, it bounced off and fell to the ground.

Seeing this, no one could understand what he was trying to do.

Some even guessed that this might be some application of Thunder Listening and Acupuncture Point Fixing.

But in the next second,

Song Yiqing spoke up.

"This thing is quite strange. Lin Tianyi, do you know what it is?"

???

Lin Tianyi was stunned on the spot. He felt a whole essay of complaints wanting to burst out of his heart, but he forced himself to swallow them back down.

He then shook his head and said honestly,

"I'm not sure."

"I see!"

Song Yiqing rubbed his chin, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Then you, and Wu Ren's group of three, take the lead."

???

???

???

For a moment, everyone present looked at Song Yiqing with faces full of question marks.

It was as if they all wanted to say, 'You really aren't human!'

However, hindered by Song Yiqing's mysterious methods, they all held back.

At this point, Song Yiqing offered an explanation for his behavior.

"Look, when we were breaking through the Gate-Keeping Beast's encirclement earlier, I was at the very front, facing the most danger.

So now, it's about time it was your turn!

Right? I'm right, aren't I, Xiao Ge?"

As he spoke, he looked at Zhang Qilin beside him.

The latter simply turned his head away, acting as if they weren't acquainted.

The corners of everyone's mouths twitched wildly. Fatty, in particular, was frantically poking Lin Tianyi's waist, his eyes screaming,

'Old Lin!! What did Lord Pang tell you? This kid is simply not human!'

"..."

Lin Tianyi shook his head helplessly and then spoke up.

"If we have to lead, we'll lead. It's no big deal."

As he spoke, he waved his hand, signaling the start.

Wu Ren and his two companions followed suit. However, the six of them simultaneously slowed their pace and gripped their firearms with high alert.

Song Yiqing, walking behind them, was leisurely drinking wine, his vibe completely different from theirs.

Watching him, Fatty felt increasingly dissatisfied.

'Where did this drunkard come from!! Drinking at a dangerous time like this, I'm truly speechless!'

The others had similar thoughts.

However, as Wang Shan watched Song Yiqing constantly drinking, a possibility inexplicably occurred to her.

'Wine Sword Technique? Could he actually know such a technique?'

She carefully recalled the scene she had seen earlier of Song Yiqing forcefully striking the Flood Dragon Python.

At that time, it was as if Song Yiqing had released some kind of restraint and suddenly exerted immense power.

But she quickly dismissed the thought.

'I'm overthinking it. I've really overthought it. He already knows Sword Kinesis, how could he possibly know the Wine Sword Technique too? He must just be a pure drunkard.'

The group moved closer and closer.

Meanwhile, the viewers in the livestream couldn't hold back and were spamming comments like crazy.

[Oh my god! This is exactly the kind of thing Song Yiqing would do!]

[Good heavens, he didn't even blush when he said that!!]

[What do you mean you were at the front during the breakout? You clearly wanted to be the first to run away! To describe running away in such a refined and unconventional way, he's truly one of a kind!]

[Too abstract, this is just too abstract! See that? Even Xiao Ge doesn't want to acknowledge him!]

Above the Six-Pillar Temple,

Guo Xueyan sneered after seeing Song Yiqing's actions in the livestream.

"Heh, he really is a despicable person. Someone like him doesn't deserve to live in this world."

She spoke coldly, while also noticing that quite a few figures in the distance had already begun heading toward the Six-Pillar Temple.

Liang Jincheng, standing beside her, said worriedly,

"Captain Guo, we've now observed no fewer than ten teams heading this way. If we don't go down now, we'll be stuck on the same starting line as them."

"You're right."

Guo Xueyan nodded slightly and then gave a grand wave of her hand.

"Go down!"

...

Meanwhile, on the livestream screen,

It wasn't until Song Yiqing and the others got close that they realized the thing standing at the corner wasn't a living creature. It was simply the corpse of a murdered explorer.

The strange part was that it looked as if it had been sucked dry. All the flesh was gone, leaving only withered skin stretched over bone. The facial features had collapsed, making it look extremely gruesome.

This eerie sight made everyone's mood even more somber.

At this point, Lin Tianyi spoke up.

"Judging by the state of this person's death, they must have been poisoned by some kind of toxin that caused their flesh to disappear."

His assessment was met with agreement from several people.

However, Song Yiqing shook his head slightly.

"No, no, no, that's not it. It was swallowed!"

"Swallowed?"

Lin Tianyi looked at him in confusion and then guessed,

"The Mother Body?"

"It should be the Mother Body,"

Song Yiqing nodded.

"The Mother Body is quite different from the offspring Gate-Keeping Beasts. The Mother Body prefers to eat human flesh rather than just heads.

It likely contains a special liquid inside that can decompose and digest its prey.

It looks like there's still skin on this corpse, but in reality, it's a membrane formed by that liquid."

As he spoke, he took Zhang Qilin's black gold ancient blade and made a small cut in it.

When he handed the blade back, he noticed the other man's slightly resentful gaze, which seemed to ask why he hadn't used his own.

To this, Song Yiqing only smiled. He couldn't exactly say it was because he didn't want to get his own sword dirty.

When the cut was revealed to everyone, they saw clearly that it was indeed a membrane-like cross-section, not skin.

But then, Fatty pointed to a tiny insect on top of it.

"Lord Song, what is this?"

...