“But as for the rest of you…” Qi Xia said, “I have a very arduous task to give you.”

After hearing this, everyone looked toward Qi Xia, quietly waiting for his instructions.

“If I’m not mistaken, this cart will be attacked once every eight meters when heading to the finish line, and once every six meters on the way back,” Qi Xia said, then looked at Bai Jiu. “Am I right?”

“Right!” Bai Jiu nodded. “That’s exactly it.”

“So I need your cart to immediately accelerate forward to about nine or ten meters when you reach approximately seven meters,” Qi Xia organized his thoughts, then continued, “This task might be a bit difficult for you, but if the goal is to ‘survive,’ it should still be achievable.”

“Understood!” Everyone nodded simultaneously and said, “Although this task would be very difficult for other participants… we are ‘Cats’ after all. Leave matters requiring teamwork to us.”

Through this interaction, Qi Xia had gained a general understanding of the “Cats.”

It appeared that there weren’t actually many strong and powerful “Echoes” among the “Cats.” Compared to the current “Heaven’s Mouth,” they were slightly inferior. After all, the “Heaven’s Mouth” members who had shown themselves—like Zhang Shan, Tong Chan, Jin Yuanxun, and Yun Yao—were no ordinary people, and their membership was much larger than the “Cats.”

But the “Cats'” advantage was equally obvious. They were more united and fearless, like a steel army. They only followed Qian Wu’s orders and were ready to die without regret.

Everyone had already positioned themselves on both sides of the cart, while Qiao Jiajin blocked the front of the cart.

“Everyone…” Qiao Jiajin said, “The situation this round might be even worse than you all imagine…”

“Brother Qiao, don’t say anymore,” Bai Jiu shook her head. “You have no idea how terrible our original expectations were. If it weren’t for you, someone would definitely be dead by now.”

“But the current situation isn’t much better,” Qiao Jiajin said. “I may need to use all my strength to counter the balls thrown by the big horse woman… As for you all…”

“We’re responsible for our own lives,” Bai Jiu said. “Brother Qi also just gave us countermeasures. I believe as long as we coordinate our efforts… there shouldn’t be any major problems.”

Qiao Jiajin nodded. “Then it’s agreed… I’m entrusting my back to you all…”

Everyone looked at Earth-Horse, then at the three-minute countdown on the wall, and embarked on this journey to hell.

Qiao Jiajin continuously swung the iron bat, keeping his eyes locked on Earth-Horse’s every move, then moved his body forward.

Everyone maintained a distance of several steps from Qiao Jiajin. Just as they were about to reach eight meters, Yun Shijiu hurried to the front, and the rest pushed the cart forward.

The mechanisms on both sides fired all kinds of “balls” at this moment, practically combining all the attribute balls from the previous six rounds together.

Ning Shiba didn’t participate in this cart push. She stood beside everyone with one hand resting on Zhou Liu’s shoulder, watching this scene with an anxious expression.

“The ‘Greedy Wolf’ round… governs ‘fortune and misfortune’…” she murmured slightly. “What awaits us—is it ‘misfortune’ or ‘fortune’?”

“Tch…” Although Zhou Liu’s tone was impatient, her brow was full of worried expression. “What are you doing? Stop talking. Come back with me to find Fifth Brother in a moment.”

“Sixth Sister…” Ning Shiba lowered her head, tears slowly flowing down. “How could we have ‘fortune’ here…? What awaits us must be ‘misfortune’…”

“Stop your damn nonsense!” Zhou Liu reached out and wrapped her arm around Ning Shiba’s waist, letting her stand more steadily, the heartache in her eyes overflowing. “Tch, Little Shiba, are you dizzy from the pain? What nonsense are you talking?”

“Sixth Sister…” Ning Shiba seemed truly confused by pain, almost constantly choking with sobs. “Do you know? I’ve cast countless hexagrams for us… but… how are we supposed to get out…”

“Shut up.” Zhou Liu shouted fiercely, but extended her other hand to pat Ning Shiba’s arm. “It’ll be fine, Little Shiba. We’ll all be fine.”

After she finished speaking, she turned her head and gave Luo Shiyi a look.

Luo Shiyi understood tacitly and raised one hand to lightly touch Ning Shiba’s back. “Little Shiba, Sixth Sister is right. We’ll all be fine.”

A wave of “Forget Worry” passed through her body. Ning Shiba could no longer feel the intense pain coming from all over her body. For a moment, her body recovering to normal made her feel as if she had already ascended to heaven.

“Sixth Sister…” Ning Shiba slowly blinked a few times. “I’ve cast countless hexagrams for us…”

In the distance, Yun Shijiu stopped the cart at about ten meters, letting it stop steadily. All the mechanisms also gradually ceased their attacks.

Although Qi Xia’s strategy this time had some difficulty, for the “Cats” who had executed countless missions together, it wasn’t really a difficult task.

Just as everyone was preparing to breathe a sigh of relief, Earth-Horse slowly turned her body sideways, then raised the stone ball in her hand above her head.

Qiao Jiajin immediately gestured for everyone to hide behind him, then gripped the metal baseball bat with both hands.

When this stone ball was thrown, would everyone live or die?

Earth-Horse raised the stone ball behind her head and threw it forcefully with a very amateurish posture.

Only at this instant did Qiao Jiajin realize how naive he had been.

The moment the ball left her hand, it made a tremendous sound, transforming into a pitch-black line in the air, flying rapidly toward the area behind Qiao Jiajin.

Qiao Jiajin hadn’t even raised his hands yet when the crisp sound from the distance reached his ears.

Everyone’s eyes trembled, then they slowly turned around, looking toward Ning Shiba’s direction in the distance.

Her abdomen had been struck by the rapidly flying stone ball, creating a very regular circular hole, but her expression hadn’t changed at all. She just slowly spat out fresh blood from her mouth.

“I’ve been divining for five years…” Ning Shiba coughed lightly, then turned her head to Zhou Liu and said, “Sixth Sister, I’ve divined for all of us… but not a single hexagram wasn’t ‘inauspicious’… What should we do?”

The fresh blood from her mouth was like an open faucet, continuously spraying crimson red.

Zhou Liu’s expression was obviously furious to the extreme, but she still gently extended her hand, placed it with slight trembling on Ning Shiba’s pale cheek, and said softly, “Little Shiba, no more divining. Let’s not divine anymore. Sleep for a while.”

“I’m so tired, Sixth Sister…” Ning Shiba slowly rested her head on Zhou Liu’s shoulder and said, “We can’t escape…”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, gradually falling silent on Zhou Liu’s shoulder.

The expressions on the faces of all the “Cats” on the field changed. At this moment, they all had the same thought…

If they killed Earth-Horse here, what price would they have to pay?