Dancing on the Edge of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Taboo at the Moment of Life and Death

Ling Shuang spread the beast-hide map flat across the cold rock, pressing her fingertip hard against a scarlet ink dot.

"Spirit-Eating Ancient Vine."

Su Chen bent over, his gaze locking onto the mark.

Beside it were the old man's messy notes: plant-type fiend, roots feed on marrow.

"This thing is extremely rare among Ten-Thousand-Year soul beasts."

Ling Shuang traced the lines on the map with her fingertip, her tone as calm as if she were ordering an everyday dish.

"Its main root is buried deep beneath the underground river. Within three miles, every tree and every patch of moss is one of its tentacles."

Chu Yao frowned. "You want to forcibly fuse with a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring of the same type?"

"Paired with the Heavenly Net Immortal Vine, my control radius can cover several miles."

Ling Shuang swung her feet, a flash of obsession passing through her eyes.

"As long as I'm standing on the ground, everything within that range is my hunting ground."

Mo Qianye, who had remained silent all along, suddenly spoke, his voice cold.

"How far is this place from the Titan Giant Ape's territory?"

Ling Shuang raised two pale fingers.

"Two miles."

The rocks fell utterly silent.

The dry rations in Jiang Tieyi's mouth caught in his throat.

Yan Wuji's hand froze halfway through stuffing his waterskin away.

Ye Linglong's crimson pupils narrowed slightly as she stared fixedly at that number.

Two miles.

To a hundred-thousand-year soul beast's senses, that was no different from provoking it right under its nose.

Su Chen said nothing. He took the map and slowly traced the contour lines with his fingertip.

The underground river's flow, the riverbed's gradient, the density of the vegetation.

Those dry numbers rapidly rearranged themselves in his mind.

"What's the diameter of the ancient vine's main root?"

"The old man wrote that it's as thick as a roof beam and embedded deep in the riverbed."

Su Chen drew the short blade at his waist.

He carved the first mark into the rock: underground river.

Then came the second: ancient vine root system.

The final horizontal line fell like a guillotine across the boundary two miles away.

"For this operation, Jiang Tieyi and Mo Qianye are removed from the combat roster."

Jiang Tieyi froze. "Big Brother?"

"The Wild Gravity Field will trigger faint tremors in the earth's crust, and the soul power fluctuations from the Nether Phoenix Heavenly Flame are too conspicuous."

Without looking up, Su Chen used his blade tip to draw ten points of light across the stone.

"The Shadow Leopard will move first. It'll sever the outer root tendrils and cripple its sensory network."

"The Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bear will seal off the east, cutting off its escape route back to the underground river."

"The Thunder Eagle will fly low, using Thunderfeather Blades to precisely sever the root nodes."

Su Chen looked at Chu Yao.

"You'll be upstream. Pour the toxins from the Myriad Poisons Domain into the underground river with the current."

Chu Yao nodded, her expression solemn.

"Yan Wuji, you'll decide whether we win or lose."

"The instant the ancient vine regenerates its roots, the main root's temperature will rise. That's when its defenses are at their weakest."

"At that moment, you must freeze the entire underground river and cut off its energy source."

Yan Wuji looked at the coordinate point less than two hundred feet from the main root.

"I have to release it at close range?"

"Ling Shuang will use the Heavenly Net Immortal Vine to clear a path for you."

Su Chen's blade tip finally stopped at the edge of the map.

"The entire battle must be kept within fifteen minutes."

He swept his gaze over the group, his eyes cold to the bone.

"The clock starts the moment the first Shadow Leopard strikes."

"If we can't take it down in fifteen minutes, everyone retreats."

"No looking back. No rescuing anyone."

Jiang Tieyi swallowed as he looked at the dense tactical lines carved into the stone.

"Su Chen, is your brain made of iron?"

"I mined for ten years and never saw work this precise."

Chu Yao crouched down and traced her route with her fingertip.

Poison at the seventh minute, infusion at the ninth.

Every step was a tightrope walk.

"What if the roots are longer than estimated?"

"The Shadow Leopard expands its range by two hundred feet, the Thunder Eagle fills the gap, and all node timings are pushed back two minutes."

Su Chen answered instantly, as if he had rehearsed these plans in his mind countless times.

"The price is that Ling Shuang will have only three minutes left to absorb the Spirit Ring."

Ling Shuang gave a low laugh, and there was a hint of madness in it.

"Three minutes to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring? You really think highly of me."

Su Chen looked back at her coldly.

"If you don't have what it takes, get out of the team now."

Ling Shuang's smile faded. She rolled up the map and tucked it into her clothes.

"I've never backed down."

Night deepened.

The mist in the forest carried a damp, rotten smell.

Chu Yao toyed with three pitch-black medicine bottles between her fingers. The fierce poison inside was enough to paralyze a Ten-Thousand-Year soul beast.

Yan Wuji immersed both hands in the icy stream, sensing the rhythm of the current in advance.

Mo Qianye leaned against a tree trunk with his sword in his arms, like a stone statue.

Jiang Tieyi sidled up to Su Chen and lowered his voice.

"Honestly, are you nervous?"

Su Chen sheathed his short blade, his fingers rubbing the patterns on its hilt.

"I am."

Jiang Tieyi was stunned.

"At a distance of two miles, if the Titan Giant Ape so much as turns over, we're all dead."

Su Chen raised his head toward the depths of the forest, where darkness lay like an ancient colossal beast with its jaws wide open.

"That's why I left the retreat route to you and Mo Qianye."

"If something goes wrong, you use the gravity field to slow them down, and Mo Qianye uses a wall of fire to cover the retreat."

Jiang Tieyi was silent for a long while before heavily slapping his knee.

"Understood."

Ling Shuang was the last to walk over. She looked at the deep marks carved into the rock by Su Chen's blade.

"Su Chen."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

Su Chen turned and walked into the darkness, his voice drifting back on the wind.

"Survive first. Then thank me."

Moonlight pierced the canopy and fell over the tactical lines, casting a ghastly pale glow.

Tomorrow.

Fifteen minutes.

A wager with their lives.