“Ning Shiba, have you discovered something?” Bai Jiu asked while sitting on the handcart.

“Jiu Jie, I can’t say for sure.” Ning Shiba shook her head. “I just have a general guess. We need to race against time now.”

“Race against time?” Qiao Jiajin didn’t quite understand. “Isn’t our time evenly distributed for each round?”

“I also hope it’s like that.” Ning Shiba shook her head and closed her eyes, muttering to herself. “But this Earth-Horse is more vicious than we imagined.”

“Vicious?” Bai Jiu frowned.

“She’s misleading us.” Ning Shiba answered. “Jiu Jie, her game should not only include Zhuge Liang’s ‘Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,’ but also another of Zhuge Liang’s specialties.”

“What is it?”

Ning Shiba took a deep breath. “Observing the stars.”

Seeing that everyone didn’t understand, Ning Shiba spoke again. “The ‘Army Breaker Star’ belongs to water, the seventh star of the Big Dipper, its energy transforms into consumption, governing spouse, children, and servants. It is the suicide squad and vanguard of an army, charging into battle to achieve victory, but its own danger is also great—casualties and losses are inevitable. Belonging to water and being easily broken, this is precisely the ‘ice ball’ that shatters at a touch.”

Only then did everyone suddenly remember that Ning Shiba had mentioned she had studied ‘Ziwei Doushu.’ However, in the ‘Land of Finality,’ whether at night or during the day, no one could possibly see any stars in the sky above.

Probably even Ning Shiba herself hadn’t anticipated that the star observation techniques she had learned in her leisure time would come in handy in an Earth-Horse’s game.

Qiao Jiajin grabbed the cart again and moved forward together with everyone, then turned back with a very serious expression and asked, “Then what you just said about ‘racing against time’ means…?”

Ning Shiba took a deep breath and answered, “If we follow the order of the Big Dipper from ‘seven’ to ‘one,’ then the next round we’ll face is the sixth star, the ‘Military Music Star.'”

“Is there something wrong with the ‘Military Music Star?'” Qiu Ershi asked from the other side.

“Of course there’s something wrong. The ‘Military Music Star’ governs all martial fortunes under heaven. Among the Five Elements, it belongs to ‘Yin Metal.'”

“Very likely!” Ning Shiba said. “So we need to seize time in this round, because the next round might be our death date. Qiao Ge, you can shatter high-speed flying ice balls with your bare hands, but if what flies over is an iron ball…”

“It’s fine, I’ll figure something out…” Qiao Jiajin nodded with a heavy expression and bent down again to lead everyone forward.

Supporting an extremely smooth handcart on the ice surface was really too difficult for everyone.

There were three people on each side of the handcart. As long as one person’s strength fluctuated slightly, the entire ‘Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse’ would slide to the side, requiring the others to use even greater strength to move it back.

In just over ten meters, everyone already felt drenched in sweat, finding every step arduous.

“Swoosh!”

The “Army Breaker” wooden box made a muffled sound and once again fired an ice ball toward everyone. Qiao Jiajin’s eyes had been constantly watching the direction of the opening, making an instinctive movement almost the instant the ice ball was shot out.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this time the target was still Bai Jiu.

Qiao Jiajin released the cart he was gripping, took a large step forward with his entire body, and once again leaped into the air. Everyone felt that the height he leaped this time was even higher than the last.

This cart also changed direction due to Qiao Jiajin’s sudden release.

“Qiao Ge, you…”

Bai Jiu was somewhat stunned, because from his angle, Qiao Jiajin wasn’t jumping up from his original position at all, but rather pouncing toward that ice ball like a hungry tiger pouncing on food.

His eyes stared intently at the high-speed flying ice ball. His entire body extended his hand in mid-air and forcefully grabbed at the ice ball.

“Bang!!”

A muffled sound came. The ice ball, just like last time, still exploded into fragments in mid-air.

Although there was no problem with the angle of catching the ball, the texture of the ice ball was ultimately too fragile, shattering itself to pieces the instant it made contact with his hands.

Qiao Jiajin also stumbled and landed on the ground. Everyone discovered that this time he didn’t slip, as if in just two attempts he had already found the trick to jumping on the ice surface.

“Damn it… I still can’t catch it. Do I still need to dissipate the force…?”

This was truly no easy task.

All of this happened in an extremely short time. Qiao Jiajin once again firmly grasped the cart just before it was about to derail.

Although this game had a group of smart people assisting, Qiao Jiajin felt that if he caught the balls he couldn’t push the cart, and if he pushed the cart he couldn’t concentrate on catching balls.

Otherwise, the intermittent force would make this ‘Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse’ even more difficult to stabilize.

“This can’t continue…” Qiao Jiajin looked at these people, his gaze finally stopping on Qiu Ershi. “Hey, annoying kid.”

“Ah? An-annoying kid?” Qiu Ershi was startled. “Me?”

“Yes, didn’t you just anger that big horse woman half to death?” Qiao Jiajin waved his hand. “You don’t need to push the cart anymore, come here.”

Qiu Ershi thought for a while and slowly released his hands, while Qiao Jiajin also released his own hands at the same instant.

Now there were only two men and two women pushing the cart. Although the speed decreased, the cart was still stable.

“Come with me.”

Qiao Jiajin gestured to Qiu Ershi with his eyes, then together they came to one side of the track, facing the wooden box with “Army Breaker” written on it.

“Annoying kid, the two of us will block the ice balls here. Our purpose is to protect the cart behind us and let it advance safely.”

“This…” Qiu Ershi hesitated somewhat. “My skills aren’t as good as yours, Qiao Ge… I’m afraid…”

“It’s fine.” Qiao Jiajin shook his head. “Have you ever played badminton with someone else?”

“Badminton?”

“Mm.” Qiao Jiajin said. “I once played badminton with my best brother. What I can’t catch, you catch. What you can’t catch, I catch. It’s that simple.”

Hearing Qiao Jiajin’s understated description, Qiu Ershi gained a bit of confidence, but when he thought about the ice ball from just now that was almost too fast to see clearly, his heart still felt somewhat uneasy.

“Swoosh!!”

Before Qiu Ershi could even stand firm, an ice ball immediately flew toward their direction. Qiao Jiajin focused his eyes and felt that the landing point should be right at Qiu Ershi.

“Annoying kid…”

In just the time it took to say three words, the ice ball had already arrived in front of Qiu Ershi.

His eyes turned cold. He directly crossed both hands and blocked them in front of his face. The ice ball directly exploded into a flower on his forearms.

Although the force of this strike wasn’t dominating, due to his unstable footing, Qiu Ershi’s body fell toward the direction of the small cart.