In Doctor Zhao’s room, he was currently drenched in sweat as he examined Chen Junnan’s wounds.

He felt the situation was somewhat tricky.

This man’s injuries weren’t entirely lacerations—they were mixed with contusions, as if what had left him covered in wounds wasn’t a blade but sharp spikes. These spikes had pierced into his body and then dragged vertically, creating wounds while tearing apart large amounts of skin at the same time.

An ordinary person couldn’t possibly remain conscious under this kind of pain, yet this man was still awake.

Could it be that he had suffered injuries like this many times before?

“Hey… brother.” Doctor Zhao patted Chen Junnan’s face. “You can’t fall asleep now. We don’t have anesthesia, only some simple equipment to treat the wounds… You need to keep talking to me constantly, understand?”

“Damn it… this young master doesn’t know a thing…” Chen Junnan stared at the ceiling with vacant eyes and cursed under his breath, as if pondering something.

Doctor Zhao rummaged through what “Heaven’s Gate” had prepared. There were plenty of scissors and knives and such, but they didn’t quite meet medical standards—they should all be school supplies. There were no needles and thread here. The only thing that could possibly be used would be…

Doctor Zhao pulled out a stapler from among the various tools, then opened it to look at the staples inside. Since conditions were already this crude, the stapler might actually be the best choice right now.

Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Doctor Zhao, his expression extremely complex as he swallowed. “Wait a minute… can you let this young master say a few words?”

“Go ahead, we need to keep talking anyway.” After loading the stapler, Doctor Zhao separated the base from the body, then lowered his head to examine Chen Junnan’s wounds. “We need to keep chatting while I treat your wounds. You absolutely cannot fall asleep.”

“You…” Chen Junnan looked at Doctor Zhao helplessly. “I’m saying… every time you treat someone, it’s like you become a different person…”

“Is that so?” Without lifting his head, Doctor Zhao grabbed the wound on Chen Junnan’s lower abdomen and stapled it together with a “click” from the stapler’s body, then used scissors to bend the protruding staple heads inward.

He discovered this method could indeed temporarily close the wound, and his anxious heart finally settled down.

After all, blood would gradually coagulate. The only thing he could do now was try to minimize the wound area to prevent massive blood loss.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep.” Doctor Zhao wiped his sweat and said again, “Tell me what you’re thinking about right now?”

“I want to die.” Chen Junnan said coldly.

“Ah? This is bad, this is bad…” Doctor Zhao said somewhat frantically, “This guy’s already started talking nonsense. Unfortunately, there are no conditions for blood transfusion here. Just hang in there for now…”

Xu Qian and Yan Zhichun sat in the corner of the room watching Doctor Zhao treat Chen Junnan, but didn’t know how to help.

Yun Yao had left in a hurry shortly after entering the room, her whereabouts unknown. Now only Han Yimo remained in the room, along with Old Lu and Little Glasses who had brought Chen Junnan here.

“Doctor, can he survive?” Xu Qian asked timidly.

“I can’t say for sure…” Doctor Zhao shook his head. “I wasn’t skilled with this kind of injury to begin with. Whether he lives or dies depends on his fortune.”

“My fortune isn’t good… just let me die…” Chen Junnan reached out wanting to push Doctor Zhao away but found he had no strength left at all.

“He’s already confused to this extent…” Xu Qian said worriedly. “If we save him, will he become stupid?”

“Sister Qian…” Chen Junnan looked at Xu Qian with a bitter smile. “Why won’t you all just believe me… Can someone come over and kill this young master?”

Before long, Yun Yao pushed open the door from outside and entered. She looked at Chen Junnan’s injuries and, finding he wasn’t dead, breathed a sigh of relief.

Several people followed behind her. One was a dark-skinned, delicate-looking girl—Li Xiangling.

There was also an elegant-looking woman in her forties or fifties—Aunt Tong.

The third was a girl wearing very little—it was Tiantian, who hadn’t shown her face these past two days.

Seeing Aunt Tong enter, Old Lu immediately stood up, rubbing his hands together respectfully, and said, “Xiao Chan, why did you come?”

Aunt Tong frowned. “Don’t call me Xiao Chan… there are so many kids here.”

“Hai! Yes, yes, yes!” Old Lu nodded, then turned to everyone and said, “Teacher Tong has entered. You all better show some respect.”

Everyone present ignored him.

“Sister Yun Yao…” Li Xiangling asked in confusion. “You called me here to…?”

Yun Yao thought for a moment and said, “Xiangling, Aunt Tong, Little Glasses—you were among the few ‘Echoers’ last time. I want you to witness something here.”

“Witness something…?”

Yun Yao pulled out the aged and withered human head of the Earth-Snake from under the table and placed it on the table surface.

Everyone’s expressions changed after seeing it.

This thing was neither a mask nor a human head, but a genuinely enormous snake head.

This was the skull of an Earth-level “Zodiac.”

“What is this you…?” Aunt Tong asked somewhat excitedly.

“Aunt Tong, you’re a veteran member of ‘Heaven’s Gate.'” Yun Yao said. “Please speak a fair word in a moment.”

Before Yun Yao could think it through, Chu Tianqiu had already pushed open the door and walked in. Jin Yuanxun, who had previously been inseparable from him, didn’t appear this time.

After Chu Tianqiu entered, he looked around and smiled faintly. “What’s going on? Quite the setup.”

Yun Yao looked at Chu Tianqiu somewhat warily and asked, “Where are Zhang Shan and Xu Liunian?”

“Zhang Shan took Xiao Nian to carry out a mission.” Chu Tianqiu found a chair and slowly sat down, positioning himself right across from the Earth-Snake’s skull, yet he asked Yun Yao as if he hadn’t seen anything at all, “What did you want to say to us?”

“Since you asked, I’ll speak frankly.” Yun Yao reached out to straighten the Earth-Snake’s skull, pointing those dead snake eyes at Chu Tianqiu. “Today, a man gambled his life and killed a ‘Zodiac’ to death. In other words, what you, Chu Tianqiu, haven’t managed to accomplish for us in all these years—he’s done it.”

“Oh?” Chu Tianqiu raised an eyebrow. “That’s truly impressive. Where is he? I want to meet him.”

Yun Yao paused. This classroom wasn’t very large to begin with. Doctor Zhao had been treating Chen Junnan’s wounds from start to finish—could Chu Tianqiu really be pretending not to see?

“That person is Chen Junnan.” Yun Yao said. “His existence proves that gambling one’s life against an Earth-level ‘Zodiac’ isn’t a certain loss. As long as we have complete tactics, extraordinary courage, and ‘Echoes’ that can barely be put to use, anyone can challenge the ‘Zodiacs.'”

Aunt Tong and Li Xiangling turned their heads to look at Chen Junnan’s injuries. They felt Yun Yao seemed somewhat obsessed. Although this man hadn’t died directly, he was no different from being dead.

“So it’s him?!” Chu Tianqiu stood up excitedly. “That’s wonderful! It looks like he’s more suitable than me to be the leader of ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ right?”