Lin Chuan stood on the spot, his eyes scanning back and forth between the entrance of the canyon and the mountains on both sides several times.
He went through the analysis of several people in his mind again. The Jueling area, the length of the passage was two miles, the detour would take two to three days longer, and the situation on both sides was unknown. The risks were clear, and so were the costs.
He was silent for a while.
"Is there going to be an ambush here?" he asked.
Liu Suifeng thought for a while, "I can't rule it out. But even if there is an ambush, the opponent's formations, Law Artifact, talismans and martial arts will not be able to be used. In this Jueling Zone, no matter who they are, they are ordinary people. Of course, except for physical training, physical training relies on physical strength and is less dependent on Spiritual Qi."
Lin Chuan thought for a while and suddenly asked, "Do you have a longer and Sturdiness rope in your storage ring?"
Everyone was stunned.
Liu Suifeng was the first to react and pulled out a coil of rope from Storage Bag. The rope was dark silver in color and was only as thick as a little finger. When coiled up, it was only about the size of a washbasin, but when pulled away it was extremely long.
"This is the base lead I use to lay out a large array. The material is Thousand-Fathom Heavenly Silk. Sturdiness is not bad. Foundation Establishment Middle Stage may not be broken if you pull it with all your strength. Long. Well, it's about a little over two miles." He turned the end of the rope out, and there was a very fine scale Spirit Rune engraved on it. "This is the standard array baseline of the Thousand Mechanisms Array Sect. I have confirmed the length."
"Not enough." Lin Chuan shook his head and looked at the others, "Is there more?"
Xu Ying also took out a disk of rope from the storage bracelet. It was half a circle thicker than the one of Liu Suifeng. It was light yellow in color and had very fine animal tendon woven patterns on the surface.
"I have one here too. It was prepared for me at home to explore the secret realm. The material is woven from the back tendons of Foundation Establishment Late Stage Demon Beast. It is a little worse than Thousand-Fathom Heavenly Silk but it is longer than it is. The length is about three miles, is it enough?"
"That's enough." Lin Chuan took the two coils of rope, neatly tied a double knot, pulled hard twice to test the firmness, then raised his head and looked at the crowd, "I have a way."
He placed the rope on the rock next to him and turned his eyes to Qin Tiexin.
"Senior Brother Ming, you are monk Body Refining, how powerful are you? You can pull four of us, is that okay?"
Qin Tiexin looked at the four people and then looked at the direction of the canyon. He probably knew what Lin Chuan wanted to do.
"No problem."
"Okay." Lin Chuan spread out Liu Suifeng's array map on the rock and drew a line along the passage with his finger, "The plan is like this. We go forward to the edge where the concentration of Spiritual Qi is enough to support the operation of spiritual power, and fix the rope there. Senior Brother Ming tied the rope and walked forward, and the four of us were pulling behind. This area is not far away, and you can hear it if you shout loudly. Once Senior Brother Ming encountered danger in the passage, the four of us immediately activated our spiritual power and pulled Senior Brother Ming back as soon as possible."
"If Senior Brother Ming successfully passes the canyon and confirms that there is no danger ahead, pull the rope three times. Then Xu Ying and I will tie the rope again and walk forward along the route of Senior Brother Ming. After we pass it, we will end up with Du Heng and Suifeng."
Lin Chuan raised his head and looked at Qin Tiexin. "Senior Brother Ming, you are a physical practitioner. Even if you have no spiritual power, your physical strength and reaction speed are the strongest among us. If there is an ambush ahead, your combat effectiveness is stronger than any monk in the Jueling Zone. I can only ask you to come to this outpost."
No one hesitated, this was the best solution they could think of under the current situation.
"Understood." Qin Tiexin didn't say much. He took the end of the rope, wrapped it twice around his waist, and tugged hard to make sure the knot was tight. The knot was close to the monk's robe and was tight.
"Let's go."
The five people continued to move forward along the direction of the canyon entrance.
Not far away, the spiritual light scale on the array plate fell down at a speed visible to the naked eye. The concentration of Spiritual Qi declined faster than Liu Suifeng expected.
When we walked about one mile from the entrance of the canyon, the concentration of Spiritual Qi had dropped to about 50% of the normal level. The warm touch of spiritual power in the air was quickly fading, replaced by a dry and thin texture.
"Stop." Lin Chuan raised his right hand, "Take out all the things you need. The further you go, the thinner the Spiritual Qi will be. If you wait any longer, Storage Bag won't be able to open it."
Everyone stopped and took out things from the storage Law Artifact.
Qin Tiexin took out the iron rod from the storage ring. There was nothing else to take.
Du Heng took out the broad sword and dug out a set of dark cyan armor from the mezzanine. The armor was made of whole Demon Beast bone plates. The simple defense Spirit Rune was engraved on the bone plates. He quickly put the armor on the outside of his clothes and took out a spare arm shield and buckled it on his right arm.
Lin Chuan hung the long sword at the most convenient position on his waist, and dug out a neatly stacked piece of light cyan inner armor from the depths of the storage ring. It was a complete set of armor. The texture was extremely thin. When stacked, it was only as big as a fist. When unfolded, it covered everything from the neck to the knees.
Xu Ying took out several small jade bottles from the storage bracelet and distributed them to everyone one by one. The jade bottles were only about the size of a thumb and had handwritten labels on them.
"Two things. The one with the red cork is [Bone-Mending and Flesh-Growing Pill], a second-level top quality product that can heal wounds quickly. The white cork one is [Heart-Clearing and Spirit-Awakening Pill], also a second-level top quality one, which keeps Divine Sense clear and resists illusions and Divine Sense attacks. Each person has two bottles, four of each, and put them in a convenient place. The elixir does not require spiritual activation, and it will take effect once swallowed."
Qin Tiexin took the elixir, stuffed the two jade bottles into the pockets on the inside of the monk's robe, and checked the positions with his fingers.
Everyone walked forward for a while. The Spiritual Qi concentration continued to decrease. After crossing the 30% mark, the dryness was no longer a vague discomfort, but a real burden.
Liu Suifeng's breathing rate has obviously accelerated, a layer of sweat has appeared on his forehead, and the finger joints holding the array disk are slightly white. Although the array disk itself can still operate, his consumption of maintaining pathfinding Spirit Rune in this environment is nearly twice that of usual.
Xu Ying's lips were pursed tightly, her face was a bit paler than usual, and her steps were heavier than before. Her cultivation level was not the lowest among the five, but as Alchemist, she was used to the feeling of abundant spiritual energy in her body, and this state of being drained of spiritual energy was particularly uncomfortable for her.
The situation of Du Heng and Qin Tiexin is slightly better. Du Heng has been running around in the mountains and fields with the demon hunting team all year round. His body is much stronger than that of ordinary monks, but his breathing is a little heavier. Qin Tiexin has almost no change. Although Fire of Life has begun to shrink, the power in the blood is still there, but the warm spiritual power in Dantian is fading little by little.
"Stop." Lin Chuan raised his hand again.
At this time, the aura scale on the array plate has dropped below half a percent. If you go further, the array plate will completely stop functioning, and Storage Bag and the storage ring Spirit Rune will also be completely ineffective. This is less than 300 steps away from the entrance of Sky-Splitting Cliff, and you can clearly see the steep cliffs on both sides of the canyon entrance, as well as the passage that becomes narrower as you go inward.