“Disgusting.” Earth-Horse furrowed her brow and spat out two words, then raised the ice ball in her hand above her head and threw it fiercely toward Qiao Jiajin.

Qiao Jiajin still used the same strategy. Based on the motion Earth-Horse made, he roughly estimated where the ice ball would land, then swung the bat horizontally to meet the ice ball flying straight at him.

“Brother Qiao…” Bai Jiu blinked her eyes watching this scene, her heart anxious beyond words.

This time, Qiao Jiajin not only walked three steps forward, but also swung the bat earlier.

Even now… was he still growing?

Could he really adapt to “Earth-level” attacks?

CRACK!!

A tremendous crisp sound rang out. The bat in Qiao Jiajin’s hand actually hit the ice ball completely. This time, the ice ball didn’t fly wildly but just exploded into countless white fragments on the bat.

What should have been something to make everyone cheer and celebrate, they instead saw Qiao Jiajin’s hand holding the iron rod beginning to tremble slightly.

Seeing this scene, Qi Xia cried out that things were bad. He wanted to go forward to check on Qiao Jiajin’s condition, but then remembered that Earth-Horse had once said “anyone is forbidden from entering the game venue.”

“Terrible…” Qi Xia slowly widened his eyes. “Need to think of something… need to think of something immediately…”

Zhou Liu saw the worried look on Qi Xia’s face beside her. Before she could ask anything, Qiao Jiajin in the distance swayed a few times and knelt on the ground.

His hands were bleeding, his forearms were bleeding, and his bare upper body was also bleeding as if full of sharp needles.

“At this distance, ice exploding into fragments…” Qi Xia gritted his teeth. “What should…”

Qiao Jiajin supported himself on the ground with the bat. After remaining still for several seconds, he slowly stood up, then wielded the iron rod again and placed it on his shoulder.

Before he could finish speaking, Qiao Jiajin coughed lightly twice.

He felt those shattered ice fragments were like small bullets shot into his body. Now he didn’t know where he was injured. He only felt pain—his entire upper body was in stinging pain.

“Hey!” At this moment, someone in the distance suddenly shouted.

Qiao Jiajin turned his head with difficulty to look over. That person was actually Luo Shiyi, who had earlier been pained to death by him.

“No way?” Luo Shiyi shrugged and said, “An ice ball is essentially just a water ball, right? You knelt down from getting splashed with a bit of water? How could that bit of water possibly make you feel pain?”

Qiao Jiajin looked at Luo Shiyi somewhat puzzled, his lips murmuring, “Aren’t you the one who ‘doesn’t know pain’? If you’ve got what it takes, come try…”

Before he could finish, Qiao Jiajin felt the pain in his body suddenly disappear completely, and his hands gripping the bat became more powerful.

“What ‘doesn’t know pain’?” Luo Shiyi furrowed his brow and said, “I’m ‘Forget Worry’ Luo Shiyi. Last time you didn’t make me submit, but this time you can. Take my ‘conviction’ and smash everything she throws.”

“Ha, ‘Forget Worry.'” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “I’ll remember you.”

Seeing Qiao Jiajin, covered in serious injuries, actually recover his spirit again, Earth-Horse felt slightly puzzled.

What exactly was this situation? How many “Echo users” were still on the field?

Had their mastery of “Echoes” reached the point where they didn’t need to touch, but could instead use only words to cast them remotely?

Qiao Jiajin forcefully swung the bat in his hand a few times, feeling his current condition was excellent. He not only couldn’t feel pain, but couldn’t feel cold either.

However, after vigorously swinging the bat a few times, the bleeding on his body obviously increased.

“Let’s finish this quickly.” Qiao Jiajin waved to the people behind him, having their cart advance a few more meters forward.

At this moment, Qiao Jiajin also advanced three more steps, getting even closer to Earth-Horse. He could almost clearly see every mane on Earth-Horse’s face.

But strangely, Earth-Horse didn’t continue taking balls from the bamboo tube at this time. She just quietly waited in place as time passed minute by minute.

Qiao Jiajin turned to look at the countdown on the wall and slowly furrowed his brow. “Damn… you’re stalling for time?”

The rules of this game from the very beginning were “all people complete one round trip within fifteen minutes.” If Earth-Horse kept standing still, did everyone have to wait with her?

At this moment, Qi Xia decisively discovered something and spoke to everyone. “Continue forward. The first round of attacks has ended.”

“Ended?”

After hearing this, everyone nodded and pushed the cart step by step closer to Earth-Horse. As Qi Xia predicted, Earth-Horse made no moves even as everyone reached the finish line.

When the cart started its return journey, Earth-Horse finally pulled out from the bamboo tube a black ball of indeterminate material, but it wasn’t just one—it was two connected by a rope.

Because everyone was really too close to Earth-Horse, Qiao Jiajin simply stood directly in front of Earth-Horse, raised his head, and stared directly into her eyes.

“So your attacks are also divided into stages?” Qiao Jiajin said. “What vicious trick are you preparing to use this time?”

“This time…” Earth-Horse stared at Qiao Jiajin with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Guess?”

“I solemnly apologize to you—I can’t guess despicable methods.” Although his tone was calm, Qiao Jiajin had been intently watching Earth-Horse’s every move. At this moment, if he let her throw a ball toward the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,” all of everyone’s efforts would be wasted.

“Since you can’t guess… then that’s too bad.” Earth-Horse tossed the black ball in her hand a few times. Only then did Qiao Jiajin get a general view of its material.

These two black balls were incredibly smooth. Their material looked neither like coal nor iron, and the size of the two balls also appeared larger than the other balls.

After everyone turned the cart around and retreated a few steps, Earth-Horse slowly shifted her feet and swung the black balls in her hand.

Seeing this scene, the two men in the team actually wanted to forcefully push the cart toward the starting point, but Qiao Jiajin felt something wasn’t right. Bai Jiu also stopped the two at this moment.

“Stop!” He turned back and said. “If we advance quickly, I won’t be able to protect the person in the cart!”

Based on the length of the bamboo tube, besides these two balls in Earth-Horse’s hand, she had at least one more. She controlled three balls and had two attack opportunities.

Given her ball-throwing flight speed, the person in the cart would certainly be struck dead before naturally gliding to the finish line.

Earth-Horse grabbed the rope between the two balls and slowly raised them above her head. Qiao Jiajin also hurriedly swung the bat in his hand.

But this time, Earth-Horse’s angle was very tricky. Within a single second, Qiao Jiajin continuously adjusted his direction.

Very low—the angle of these two balls was very low, but Qiao Jiajin still struck one of them with the top of his bat.

Qiao Jiajin thought they were aimed at his feet, but never expected that Earth-Horse directly threw these two balls on the ground between his legs. After the black balls hit the ground, they made an extremely crisp sound, immediately shattering into pieces, then spreading thick black liquid that instantly covered the ground beneath everyone’s feet.