Melting Furnace had really not deceived him; he had shown him the way without holding anything back. Unfortunately, a lousy wall cannot be propped up with mud.

No wonder Zhi Fu looked down on him.

After they finished exchanging information, Mr. Lou, with his notes filled to the brim, went off to ponder on his own, occasionally asking a question. But it did not take long before he had thoroughly digested the theories, which made Ji Jue look at him with new respect.

Oh no, the speed and efficiency with which Mr. Lou was rolling up his sleeves were rather exaggerated.

A sense of urgency suddenly scratched and surged upward.

Unable to sleep, he simply propped himself up on a Mercury chaise lounge and started furiously continuing to write the unfinished paper, occasionally using Mr. Lou's Melting Furnace and Non-attack to conduct tests on the spot.

Time passed by, second by second.

Amidst the miscellaneous noises, a crisp sound suddenly rose.

In the rhythm-filled knocking, a gap slowly emerged on the wall, but no figure appeared. Two seconds later, the figure of Tong Shan abruptly reappeared.

Still dressed in the same thick clothes as before, he removed his respirator and blew out the vigorously burning candle on the candlestick in his hand. The moment the flame extinguished, a figure, previously undetectable and untraceable, appeared before everyone.

If you looked closely, the half-remaining candle on the candlestick strikingly resembled half a human finger.

Using a finger bone as a wick, flesh and fat as wax.

Seeing this, Ji Jue envied him, sour as a lemon.

It was the Tong family after all, filthy rich, possessing a plethora of such consumable blessed creations in their pockets.

—Hand of Arrogance.

Just as the shape and appearance suggested, it was a candle made from a human finger. Although a consumable, it had fused the blessings of the Mirror system, "Dazzling and Deceiving."

Lit by the Spiritual Fire, once ignited, it could not be blown out by the wind, and the igniter, as long as within the range of the candlelight, could not be observed, whether by sight, sound, or even the disturbances caused being entirely masked.

When burning, the blessing of "Dazzling and Deceiving" would activate, forcibly distorting all related perceptions, referred to as "Hand of Arrogance." And the more the distortion was used, the more frequent it became, the faster it consumed.

From Ji Jue's visual observation, it might last for half an hour, but for a Heavenly Person from the Taiyi System, even a mere glance would cause the object to burst instantly, revealing its true form.

Tong Shan had been out for so long; he surely consumed more than one.

And on that perpetually stiff-faced figure, a rare trace of gloom and worry emerged.

"The situation is very bad," he said bluntly, "The Evil Cult has already engaged in open combat with the Security Bureau, and both sides are still probing each other, but there has already been quite a bit of fighting.

But unlike the scattered situations before, the cooperation between these groups this time is unexpectedly tight.

The entire Spring City has accumulated Mutated Pollution over such a long period, and all of it has been stimulated, heavily guarded at every layer, almost like an iron bucket. I took a risk by moving forward a bit, nearly got discovered, and had to take a long detour to come back.

If we continue to hide like this, it's probably only a matter of time before we're discovered..."

At that moment, everyone's expressions turned serious.

Especially when Tong Shan unfolded the ether record book he had with him, and the automatically recorded map still had large dark areas, but all the explored areas were patches of overlapping crimson, abundant residual Mutated Pollution and Secret Ritual sealings. Various danger signs were as dense as rainfall, covering all the blanks.

It was simply a minefield everywhere!

And their current location was long outside the range of the outpost—no, rather, they were practically under the Evil Cult's behind!

For a moment, everyone glanced around, all feeling an absurd sense of "what the hell have you brought us into?"

Is this still Hai Province anymore?

"It might not be as bad as it seems."

After a brief pause and having read the records, Xu Guan coughed twice, trying to boost the morale, "The enemy is known and we are hidden, there is still room to maneuver.

No matter how tight the blockade, it is mainly outward; it might not be so strong inward.

Look, no matter how closely they cooperate, they can't possibly be one big family. If we can pretend to be part of them, maybe we can slip out without causing chaos? Just don't head towards the outpost; we could go out and circle back."

As soon as these words were spoken, in the silence, everyone's eyes moved slightly, but they all subconsciously looked up at Tong Shan.

At this moment, the prestige of the captain and the trust among members became evident.

In this critical moment of life and death, everyone instinctively placed their trust in him.

Tong Shan nodded slightly noncommittally, "Let's have a team meeting. Everyone express their opinions, speak for themselves, be responsible for themselves, be responsible for the team.

Who wants to start?"

Everyone hesitated for a moment.

Meanwhile, in the outer circle, sitting in the Mercury high chair and eavesdropping, Ji Jue couldn't help but look up at him. The fingers hanging over his knees subconsciously tapped twice.

Thinking.

Hadn't Tong Shan voiced his stance first? Right, no matter what, his prestige was enough to sway the majority of the team's decisions. If he really wanted to collect opinions, it would naturally be necessary to wait for others to speak first.

But...collecting opinions?

Was that really necessary?

If the plan was to retreat, just making a decisive move would suffice, the direction was already chosen, and the remaining details could be adjusted and refined thereafter. Why make it so complicated?

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