Jiang Ruoxue, who had been smiling just moments ago, instantly withdrew her smile. After all, there was a fundamental difference between “accidentally touching” and “deliberately caressing.”

This man gave her a very strange feeling.

Qi Xia keenly noticed the strange atmosphere between Doctor Zhao and Jiang Ruoxue. He exchanged a glance with Doctor Zhao, then nodded slightly and walked toward Old Sun before him.

“Buddy, I really don’t want to get physical with you. Won’t you reconsider?”

“No.” Qi Xia said coldly. “Since talking doesn’t work, we might as well fight.”

As soon as his words fell, before Old Sun could react, Qi Xia had already taken a fierce step forward and thrown a spinning punch.

Old Sun was stunned for an instant, then instinctively swung the stone club in his hand toward Qi Xia’s head.

Logically speaking, anyone in this situation should hurry to protect their head, otherwise even if they hit their opponent, they would certainly be injured themselves.

But Qi Xia didn’t dodge at all, taking the blow directly with the crown of his head.

Strangely enough, the stone club in Old Sun’s hand seemed to be made of sand. The instant it made contact with the crown of Qi Xia’s head, it scattered into countless fragments like foam.

“Huh?”

Before Old Sun could be shocked, his jaw took a solid punch.

This punch was both heavy and accurate. He only felt his eyes go dark as he instantly lost his balance.

He slowly fell backward, actually landing seated on a stone.

The stone was like a seat, catching Old Sun perfectly.

Qi Xia frowned, feeling like that large stone had been placed there from the start, but thinking carefully, that was impossible.

This was the middle of the road—how could there be a large stone that he hadn’t seen?

The next moment, the stone suddenly changed, slowly crumbling into sand as if eroded by termites, and Old Sun finally fell.

But just as he was about to hit the ground, the sand congealed into stone again, then immediately turned back into sand.

Seeing him finally fall to the ground, Doctor Zhao let out a long sigh of relief.

Qi Xia felt like he might not be thinking clearly.

What was all this…?

An Echo battle?

Seeing Old Sun knocked down by Qi Xia’s single punch, Xiao Xiao’s expression also changed.

“Interesting…” She slowly walked forward, the muscles on her body glowing like gems beneath the dark red sky. “Qi Xia, looks like you’ve had some training.”

“I’m learning as I go—your friend just underestimated me.” Qi Xia shook his right hand, but a bead of cold sweat had already appeared on his forehead.

He knew the woman before him was far too terrifying.

She had extremely formidable physical strength, and even more so, an Echo called “Shifting Blame.”

Damage inflicted on her could very likely transfer to someone else.

With a single punch, even if he could injure Xiao Xiao, the one who fell might be Qi Xia himself.

If that was the case… how should he fight?

But Xiao Xiao looked completely unconcerned. She clenched both fists and suddenly charged forward.

Qi Xia’s expression tightened. He hurriedly tried the same trick again, readying his punching stance and swinging a fist toward her face.

But Qi Xia’s punching speed was far slower than Xiao Xiao’s. In just the time it took to cross paths, she struck his chest.

This punch was as hard as iron.

“Ugh!”

Qi Xia was knocked to the ground. He felt like he couldn’t breathe for a full ten seconds, an extremely uncomfortable sensation.

Facing this kind of bare-handed enemy, Doctor Zhao’s Echo of destroying the surrounding environment couldn’t activate either.

“Old Sun, tie him up.” Xiao Xiao said. “He must become ‘Extreme Path.'”

“Cough, cough… okay…” Old Sun slowly stood up, looking uninjured. “I really didn’t expect this kid’s offense to be so skillful. I’ll have to be more careful next time.”

Just as Old Sun was slowly approaching Qi Xia with vines in hand, a low voice sounded not far away.

“Damn, how arrogant…”

Everyone froze and looked toward where the voice came from. They saw a tall man about six foot three slowly walking toward them, with two women following behind.

Qi Xia, lying on the ground, also turned his head with difficulty and instantly felt much more at ease.

“Zhang Shan, Aunt Tong… Yun Yao?”

“Damn, what are you three doing? Want to kidnap someone from our ‘Heaven’s Mouth’?” Zhang Shan slowly came before Xiao Xiao, his expression extremely cold.

He had quite a bit of blood on him—he must have just participated in some game.

Xiao Xiao felt things weren’t good.

The last time she’d seen this man, he hadn’t had an “Echo,” but he’d beaten a bear to death with his bare hands.

Zhang Shan looked Xiao Xiao up and down, couldn’t help but reveal a trace of a smile. “Beautiful muscles—you use them to do these dirty things?”

Under Zhang Shan’s imposing presence, Xiao Xiao actually couldn’t say a single word.

Meanwhile, Yun Yao also saw a familiar face, but to be honest, this was a face she didn’t want to see.

“Hi, Yun Yao.” Jiang Ruoxue smiled and waved her hand.

“Stop with the ‘hi’—I don’t want to talk with my ex.” Yun Yao rather coldly averted her gaze. “What exactly are you trying to do? Snatching people isn’t the ‘Extreme Path’ style.”

Doctor Zhao helped Qi Xia up, and the two slowly moved toward Zhang Shan’s group.

“Child, are you alright?” Aunt Tong came forward to support Qi Xia.

“I’m fine.” Qi Xia waved his hand.

Jiang Ruoxue continued to smile at Yun Yao. “‘Snatching people’ isn’t the ‘Extreme Path’ style? Then tell me, what is our style?”

“I’m not saying.” Yun Yao looked at Jiang Ruoxue with slight displeasure. “You emotion-deceiving scumbag… I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Haha!” Jiang Ruoxue was amused by Yun Yao. “Little Yun, you’re still so cute. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have dumped you.”

“Please get it straight—I dumped you after I found out your identity.” Yun Yao looked coldly at the three people before her. “I advise you to back off quickly. If the six of us really fight, you should know the consequences.”

Old Sun tugged at Xiao Xiao from behind and whispered, “Who’s that big guy? Have we fought him before?”

“Yes…” Xiao Xiao replied quietly. “If he’s obtained an ‘Echo’ this time, we’ll probably die here…”

“All three are Echo wielders?” Old Sun asked again.

“Yes, all top-tier experts.” Xiao Xiao slowly took a step back. Although the current situation was somewhat thorny, she really didn’t want to give up on Qi Xia.

Aunt Tong smiled and said, “Children, you’ve clearly received the ‘Mother Goddess’s’ favor—why use it to do wrong things?”

“Wrong things?” Xiao Xiao snorted coldly. “Why is what you do the right thing, while what we do is wrong?”

“Get lost quickly.” Zhang Shan waved his hand. “I won’t hold today’s events against you, but if you dare to kidnap people again in the future, I really won’t be polite.”

Seeing Zhang Shan’s attitude, Xiao Xiao hesitated.

If this person had already obtained an “Echo,” why would he be so polite?

Could he be bluffing?

But bluffing was sometimes also a tactic—she absolutely couldn’t let her guard down.

“Zhang Shan…” Xiao Xiao called out. “How about we make a wager?”

Zhang Shan and Yun Yao exchanged glances. “What do you want to do?”

“We’re ‘Extreme Path’—naturally we can’t just give up like this.” Xiao Xiao said. “But we really want to recruit Qi Xia. How about we make a bet?”

“A bet?”

“I know of an ‘Earth’-level game where we can fight to the death. How about we settle it in the game?”