Key to Breaking the Deadlock

Whoosh!

Amid the sound of tearing air, a grayish-white streak of light flew swiftly from the left side of the migration convoy toward the right.

Standing on the Bone Shield as he flew, Li Qi looked toward the right side of the convoy. "I hope I'm wrong."

A few seconds later, he arrived.

Looking around, he saw battles everywhere. The warriors of the migration convoy were fighting ferocious beasts.

However, he saw no sign of a planetary-level beast.

Generally speaking, planetary-level beasts were easy to identify, because they were several times larger than beasts of the same species and could be recognized at a glance.

Boom!

Amid a violent crash, dirt and grass clippings sprayed into the air.

Li Qi looked over and saw a beast more than ten meters in diameter, with grayish-brown skin resembling an earthworm, burrow out of the ground with its maw wide open and bite toward a figure.

The figure was very fast and avoided the beast's bite by a narrow margin.

The next moment, the beast spat out a mass of unknown blackish-gray substance, directly engulfing the figure.

The blackish-gray substance wrapped around the figure and carried him away, while the beast lowered its head and burrowed back underground.

Seeing this, Li Qi controlled the Bone Shield and gave chase in the direction the blackish-gray substance was flying.

"Grayish-brown like an earthworm, skilled at moving underground, and with such a massive body... It should be a planetary-level Drill Beast!"

Having identified the grayish-brown beast as a Drill Beast, the sixteen Bone Spikes guarding Li Qi shot out one after another. Their target was the raised grassland—the planetary-level Drill Beast's route underground!

The Bone Spikes were incredibly fast and arrived in the blink of an eye.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...

Boom boom boom...

The Bone Spikes tore through the air as they bombarded the grassland one after another, explosions ringing out without pause!

Like red-hot iron skewers plunging into butter, the Bone Spikes easily drilled into the ground and slammed fiercely into the Drill Beast's enormous body.

Controlled by spiritual power more than ten times stronger than that of a ninth-stage apprentice, the Bone Spikes possessed attack power comparable to the planetary level!

The tremendous force of the impacts pinned the Drill Beast firmly beneath the dirt, making it temporarily unable to burrow and move.

However, the Drill Beast's wrinkled grayish-brown skin was extremely tough!

Even Bone Spikes made from the teeth of planetary-level beasts could not pierce it. The dents punched into its wrinkled skin recovered in the blink of an eye.

After attacking, the Bone Spikes drilled back into the ground, then curved around and bombarded it again.

Boom boom boom...

Explosions rang out continuously. Dirt and grass clippings flew everywhere, while a small amount of dust rose into the air and obscured the view.

The assault continued for ten seconds before Li Qi stopped. He stared coldly at the ground, now filled with countless craters beneath the dust.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...

The sixteen Bone Spikes returned to his side, circling around him like loyal guards.

Roar!

Two seconds later, the planetary-level Drill Beast burst from the ground elsewhere and roared furiously with its mouth wide open!

It was enraged!

The relentless attacks just now had suppressed it, leaving it in a miserable state where it could only take the beating.

Although the attacks had not caused it much damage, they hurt!

Seeing that the planetary-level Drill Beast was still full of vigor, Li Qi shook his head slightly. "As expected, dealing with a planetary-level beast without a psychic weapon is too difficult. I can suppress it briefly, but I can't kill it!"

He had no good solution to the current situation. He could only call for help.

He tapped his right wrist and activated his communicator, sending out the pre-set distress signal along with his current location.

"The distress signal has been sent. Now I just need to keep suppressing that planetary-level Drill Beast. If I can drive it away, that would be even better!"

Li Qi narrowed his eyes as he pondered. The Drill Beast has degraded vision and relies on hearing and perception to find prey and enemies. As long as I stay still in the air, it should have a hard time detecting me.

With that thought, the sixteen Bone Spikes scattered, shooting toward the Drill Beast from every direction at varying speeds.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...

The Drill Beast's body shifted slightly, as though it were sensing the direction of the incoming attacks. But there were too many to distinguish, and even getting hit would not matter much, so it did not dodge.

Thud thud thud...

The Bone Spikes struck the Drill Beast one after another, producing muffled impacts.

They bent and shook the Drill Beast's boneless body, but the damage they inflicted was truly limited.

In the distance, the mass of unknown blackish-gray substance wriggled continuously as a man crawled out of it on all fours.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

After crawling out of the blackish-gray substance, Yakesi spat several times before finally clearing the foul-smelling matter from his mouth.

After taking several breaths of fresh air, he looked down at his empty right hand, then hurriedly crawled back into the blackish-gray substance and pulled out his ancestral spear.

When he had been struck by the unknown substance spat out by the Drill Beast, Yakesi had thought he was doomed and would be swallowed whole.

But after more than ten seconds had passed, he realized he had not changed locations. Only then did he dare crawl out.

Looking into the distance, he was stunned by what he saw!

"This! This! This!

"A ninth-stage apprentice psychic master can suppress a planetary-level beast? This is insane!

"And he doesn't even have a psychic weapon! How can he still suppress it?

"Is he too strong, or am I too weak?"

Yakesi's worldview suffered a massive blow. Since when had ninth-stage apprentices become this powerful?

After observing more carefully, he noticed the key. His worldview recovered, but he began to worry instead.

"Li Qi's Bone Spikes are very sharp, but they can't penetrate the Drill Beast's tough skin. Even if they could, the Drill Beast's muscles would restrict them, preventing them from causing much damage.

"At most, he can temporarily suppress the Drill Beast. He can't seriously injure or kill it.

"More importantly, no one knows how long his spiritual power can last!"

Yakesi pondered, but for the moment, he could not think of any way to help.

Meanwhile, Li Qi, hovering in the air, was also thinking. The Bone Spikes' attack frequency had dropped significantly.

He had to change the situation!

His spiritual power was already below one-third. It could not sustain a prolonged battle, and whether he could hold out until a planetary-level patrol came to rescue them was also uncertain.

Looking around, Li Qi's gaze landed on the person who had previously been engulfed by the blackish-gray substance spat out by the Drill Beast. The man was holding a spear.

"A spear!"

Li Qi's eyes lit up.

If he remembered correctly, among the ninth-stage apprentices in the migration convoy, only Yakesi used a spear.

He controlled the Bone Shield and flew toward Yakesi. His Bone Spike attacks stopped, giving the Drill Beast a moment to recover.

Li Qi shouted, "Yakesi! The spear!"

The Drill Beast came to its senses. Hearing the shout, it immediately lowered its head and burrowed underground, moving toward the source of the sound.

Yakesi saw Li Qi flying toward him while shouting something, but he was confused for a moment.

Only when he heard "the spear" did realization dawn on him. "That's right! The spear!"

His spear was an ancestral heirloom, forged from a fragment of a weapon once used by a stellar-level powerhouse. Wouldn't dealing with a planetary-level beast be effortless?

Understanding Li Qi's intentions, he directly threw out his ancestral spear.

Li Qi caught the spear with his spiritual power. When he turned around, he saw raised grass rushing toward him.

"Go!"

He shouted first, then fired four Bone Spikes into the ground.

Yakesi knew his own strength. The moment he threw out the spear, he turned and ran.

Boom boom...

The Bone Spikes drilled underground and struck the Drill Beast's body, slowing its movement for a moment.

But soon after, it recovered, burst from the ground with its maw wide open, and lunged to bite Li Qi in the air.

Li Qi had already rapidly risen higher the moment the Bone Spikes were fired.

No matter how fast the Drill Beast lunged, it was still twenty to thirty meters away from him.

Looking at the maw that could easily swallow ten of him, Li Qi's gaze turned cold.

"Die!"