Chapter 58 Strategy

Lu Qingyu fell into a prolonged silence. Qin Changsheng looked somewhat puzzled and asked, "What are you doing? Why aren't you speaking? Have you lost your mind?"

"H H H H..." Lu Qingyu finally failed to hold back and burst into hearty laughter in his heart.

Admittedly, he had underestimated Qin Changsheng to some extent. This comical man possessed his own unique set of logic and principles, which were entirely different from his own.

In the past, Lu Qingyu would have eliminated such an unstable factor without a second thought. But this time, he had changed his mind.

Whether it was something specific Qin Changsheng said that touched him or not, Lu Qingyu suddenly grew quite curious. He wanted to see just how far this person could go.

Seeing Lu Qingyu reveal a genuine, heartfelt smile for the first time, Qin Changsheng let out a light, mocking hum. "Are you really out of your mind? Save the madness for later; we're still not out of danger yet."

"I know." Lu Qingyu收起 his smile, returning to his usual demeanor as his eyes vigilantly scanned the surroundings.

As long as they didn't move around carelessly, the person who had just attacked them wouldn't be able to pinpoint their exact location. However, they were not the only two people in this lake; other ability users harboring the powers of beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas were also lurking in the shadows, scouting the area.

Fighting multiple ability users simultaneously was extremely disadvantageous because none of them knew the exact nature of the others' abilities. The more combatants arrived, the more variables would be introduced.

Lu Qingyu's combat experience far surpassed Qin Changsheng's. He knew he could not drag out the fight for too long and give opponents extra time to figure out his abilities. It was best to resolve the battle in a single instant; the longer it dragged on, the lower his chances of winning would become.

Without further ado, Lu Qingyu gave Qin Changsheng a meaningful look. Qin Changsheng nodded, and the released Momo swiftly swept across the entire surrounding water surface.

"Hmm..."

At this moment, Qin Changsheng quietly closed his eyes. Amidst the pitch darkness, a marvelous blueprint slowly unfolded before him.

Momo's sensory feedback poured in from all directions, mapping out the terrain of every nook and cranny around the lake, right down to the rocks and algae at the lakebed, and projecting it all clearly in his mind.

A massive influx of data rushed in all at once. Feeling his brain operating at hyper-speed under the enhancement of Momo's power, Qin Changsheng filtered out countless pieces of redundant, useless information one by one until only a single glowing point remained.

There it is!

Qin Changsheng snapped his eyes open, instantly transmitting the thought in his mind directly to Lu Qingyu. Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Qingyu used his palm as the starting point and fired a barrage of ice spears in the direction indicated by Qin Changsheng.

Lu Qingyu counted silently in his heart. The ice spears hit their mark, every single one of them!

Surely that must be enough to kill them now, right?

Just as Lu Qingyu felt a brief moment of relaxation, Qin Changsheng, standing directly opposite him, sensed that something was terribly wrong and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Watch out!"

Before Qin Changsheng's voice had even faded, a hand had already grabbed Lu Qingyu, yanking him forcefully toward his side. The very next second, several bone spikes whizzed past the space they had just occupied, leaving turbulent wakes in the water.

How is this possible!?

Lu Qingyu found it utterly incredible. If the first time could be attributed to him missing his target, this time he had specifically targeted multiple lethal areas of the human body in rapid succession with several ice spears. Surely they couldn't have all missed?

Furthermore, he was certain that his ice spears had hit home. Under normal circumstances, a person shouldn't have had any remaining stamina left to launch a counterattack against him.

Unless...

Having tested the waters with these two attacks, Lu Qingyu had already constructed countless possibilities in his mind, eliminating them one by one. His attacks had clearly struck the opponent yet failed to kill them, leaving only a single possibility at the end of the elimination process.

"This is the trickiest situation possible," Lu Qingyu said, gritting his teeth. "That bastard's mountain-and-sea beast can launch attacks while simultaneously protecting itself."

"What's so impressive about that? I can do that too, you know."

Facing Qin Changsheng's disdainful remark, Lu Qingyu shook his head. "No. Most of the mountain-and-sea beasts I've encountered, including yours, can at best achieve one or the other—either protect themselves or attack the enemy, but only choose one. Your Momo, due to its limited volume, has to briefly abandon defense when it goes on the offensive."

"My Night-Roaming Monkey is the same; it only lets the beast defend when it perceives an incoming enemy attack."

"However," Lu Qingyu emphasized, his voice growing heavier, "the fellow we're dealing with right now is no half-baked amateur. You saw it yourself—before I launched my attack, he showed no prior reaction to the timing of my strike, yet he was able to immediately counterattack the very next second after blocking it. That kind of time difference is definitely something we are incapable of achieving."

"There is only one possibility: his defense has never once lapsed, and while maintaining absolute defense, he is still fully capable of attacking."

Lu Qingyu gritted his teeth in frustration, an expression of mental breakdown that Qin Changsheng had rarely ever seen on him. "Are you kidding me? This guy is basically cheating! There's no reason why one person should get all the advantages!"

"By your logic, is he invincible then? Should we just run away right now?"

"It's useless; we've already been targeted by him," Lu Qingyu sighed. "The moment we move, he will discover our location and launch an attack on us, while we have zero means of retaliating against him."

"He can block all my attacks. Once he knows our coordinates, we won't have a shred of a chance to win."

"How could this be..." Qin Changsheng detected a hint of helplessness in Lu Qingyu's words. "Then what should we do next?"

"We'll just have to gamble on a long shot," Lu Qingyu said. "This fellow has completely disrupted my plans. From now on, we can only stay completely motionless and wait until the number of survivors drops below twenty, at which point the game ends."

"This..." Qin Changsheng felt deeply unconvinced. What Lu Qingyu suggested sounded like the only viable option, but deep down, he felt that something was profoundly wrong.

What on earth was going on here? Where exactly did this vague, lingering sense of incongruity stem from?

According to Lu Qingyu's assertion, was the opponent they were facing right now truly invincible? Did he really not have a single weakness?

If that were truly the case, then things didn't add up...

"No, that's not right!" A sudden flash of insight lit up Qin Changsheng's eyes. "That guy can't possibly be without any weaknesses! Otherwise, the situation would never have evolved into what it is now!"

Lu Qingyu furrowed his brows. "What are you trying to say?"

"Think about it. If he were truly as invincible as you claim, without a single flaw, capable of launching attacks while fully nullifying incoming ones, why is he still just sitting there motionless right now?"

Qin Changsheng's words caused Lu Qingyu's furrowed brows to tighten even further as he seemed to realize something as well.

"Let me spell it out even more plainly. If your attacks were truly completely useless against him, why on earth would he still bother to hide his position?" Qin Changsheng stated bluntly. "There is only one answer: that guy definitely has a fatal weakness. He is not invincible at all."

"We still have a chance!"