Qi Xu and his group surrounded The Third in the middle, talking for nearly fifteen minutes until they felt it was enough, then let him leave to go back and find his two teammates.
From the earlier conversation, Threeking had roughly gauged Shi Yu's role in the team—basically a brawler, often clashing with Jin Songshan, and now being forced to come looking for allies, he was certainly holding a grudge.
So he only walked back a short distance before shouting, "Get over here."
Jin Songshan's brows furrowed and she was about to curse, but the man beside her pulled her back. "Don't make a fuss."
Then... she suddenly broke into a small run, scampering up to Qi Xu and the others with an almost fawning demeanor.
"Hello, my nickname is Moonlight Lover, just call me Moonlight."
"Jin Songshan."
Qi Xu nodded slightly but said nothing.
Moonlight Lover spoke up again: "We sincerely want to cooperate. Striking first was our mistake, and we've been taught a lesson—lost one teammate. That's why we're leaning toward the most correct answer. With our coordination, I'm sure we can get what we want from this treasure map secret realm."
Qi Xu then turned his gaze to Jin Songshan, clearly skeptical of her dissatisfied and indignant attitude.
Jin Songshan wasn't the most even-tempered person, but she could read the situation well enough. She dropped her sullen expression and gave a slight bow. "I'll do my best to cooperate too."
After saying that, feeling it sounded a bit thin, she added, "I can sense the positions of the other two groups. That's my skill."
Only then did Qi Xu's eyes light up. Jin Songshan might seem hard to get along with and quick to anger, but at least she was genuine—once she decided to cooperate, she revealed her skill outright.
On the other hand, that groveling Moonlight Lover, with his oily, ingratiating manner, rubbed Qi Xu the wrong way; a bunch of empty pleasantries, utterly useless.
"What do you two think we should do?"
Jin Songshan looked at Moonlight Lover first, and "Shi Yu" followed suit half a second later.
Moonlight Lover hesitated for a moment before speaking. "I think the biggest threat to us right now is that fully intact five-man team from Northern Europe. But with our injuries, even if we have numbers on our side, a head-on clash might not pay off.
Instead, the team we initially surrounded—we've already made enemies of them, and they're down to just three people. Why not go swallow up that 3000 points cleanly?"
Qi Xu was thinking the same thing. That woman from the Northern European team... too mysterious. High mental fortitude—can counter psychic attacks and restrict space, which heavily counters his own teleportation. Not a good target to attack proactively.
Better to wait passively for them to come. A powerful person's weakness is wanting too much.
That woman definitely couldn't give up so many easy points. Maybe she'd already realized his team was a hard bone to chew, and had likewise locked onto those three men as her primary target.
"Alright, let's move out. During the fight, everyone goes all out—otherwise the cooperation is over, and don't blame me for turning on you on the spot."
Qi Xu's words lacked any diplomacy, but they were honest. After all, he was the ruthless player who dared to take on all teams from the very start. If he started being polite now, there'd be something wrong.
Moonlight Lover nodded and gave his assurances, then Jin Songshan closed her eyes and activated her skill.
Whether it was because the distance was far or her injuries hadn't recovered, it took nearly five to six minutes, her face turning so pale she almost matched Endless Longevity's complexion, before she stopped.
"Far... very far."
Qi Xu made a quick decision: "Move out now. Moonlight, carry her on your back. Move fast, don't waste time."
Moonlight Lover was momentarily stunned, opened his mouth to protest, but held back. Jin Songshan didn't stand on ceremony either—she hopped straight onto Moonlight Lover's back.
In a place like this, the faster you recover, the higher your odds of survival, so refusing Invincible Black Cyclone's proposal wasn't an option.
As for those three men—when they first entered the treasure map secret realm, they'd already lost two teammates and been ganged up on by the other three groups. They didn't dare entertain any second thoughts. After escaping, they'd just kept running far away.
Along the way, Wang Buyu had been constantly relaying their thoughts, and Qi Xu felt the thrill of an open-book exam...
When Jin Songshan probed the three big men's locations, she found something interesting: the Northern European five-man team was also moving toward their direction, about the same distance as their own group.
That was quite intriguing—maybe she could engineer a three-way brawl later... so she didn't share that bit of intel.
She was just a little surprised that they too had someone with a "tracking and locating" skill.
Qi Xu was also mulling over how to maximize the benefits.
As for Wang Buyu—patiently relaying, reporting positions at every turn, more reliable than a GPS. Moonlight Lover didn't know half as much about the details as Qi Xu did. He was even starting to consider changing his nickname from "Wang Buyu" to "Wang the Chatterbox"...
Jin Songshan hadn't told anyone about her latest probe. She was ambitious—if there was going to be a winner, she wanted it to be her alone.
Teammates, allies—none of that mattered. This secret realm treasure map had no monsters, so the way to win was to make everyone else fight each other until the numbers dwindled.
Then pick up the scraps—or if looting wasn't possible, hide fast. With her skill, she could avoid everyone entirely.
The group marched for over half a day, each lost in their own schemes. If Qi Xu hadn't known Jin Songshan's true thoughts from Wang Buyu, he'd have suspected she was deliberately leading them astray.
As they were about to arrive, the Northern European team was roughly half an hour's travel away from their position.
Along the way, Jin Songshan had probed and confirmed one thing: the Northern European team's detection ability wasn't as thorough as hers.
The Northern European team didn't know his group was also heading this way. Jin Songshan started deliberately veering off the shortest path, trying to delay just enough so that everyone would meet head-on simultaneously. And as she moved closer to Qi Xu under the guise of adjusting their route...
She intended to attempt a sneak attack the moment they encountered the others!
This team was the Chinese team, and she was the leader—likely the Invincible Black Cyclone who'd swept most of the server-wide announcements!
If she could kill her, that would be a record on her resume.
Qi Xu, meanwhile, acted as if he'd let his guard down—letting her get close—but he was the one who struck first. By the time Jin Songshan realized what was happening, Qi Xu's hand was already on her neck.
Even in death, Jin Songshan couldn't understand where she'd slipped up...
At the same moment Qi Xu made his move, The Third, who had been walking beside Moonlight Lover, acted too.
...........
