Qi Xia had been walking on the road for a long time, then looked up at the bead above his head.

If he didn’t hurry and find Earth-Ox, the bead would likely disappear soon, after all, the so-called “Heavenly-Snake Moment” would only last two hours at most.

Now without a watch or clock, there was no way to know the time, but Qi Xia always felt that the Si Hour was about to pass.

He shook his head and absorbed the memories transmitted from his brain.

“Although it’s risky… it also confirms this method has no problems.” Qi Xia looked at the bead above his head again. “Using ‘Endless Life’ to ‘reverse time,’ Qinglong, did you see? ‘Time’ doesn’t exist. We can only see traces of ‘time’ on each person. As long as we can reverse a ‘person,’ theoretically we’ve reversed ‘time.'”

He looked down at his hands again, becoming even more convinced of the underlying logic of the entire “Land of the End.”

This was a strange place that operated through the overwhelming power of “Endless Life.” People constantly reversed in place, yet time surged forward on this land—a strange paradox that had been born many years ago.

Was it people who were left in place, or was it the world that was left in place?

Following the map in his hand, Qi Xia walked for about another ten minutes or so and finally saw that “Zodiac’s” game venue.

This game venue was considerably larger than Qi Xia had imagined, actually appearing to be an open-air football field that had been abandoned for a long time.

The only thing that made Qi Xia feel puzzled was that this football field was truly too dilapidated. If it weren’t for the map clearly marking the location, even Qi Xia wouldn’t dare confirm this was Earth-Ox’s game venue.

He had visited “Zodiacs” many times before, and the football field before his eyes was clearly the most dilapidated one, dilapidated to an abnormal degree.

Was it because it was open-air? Or was it that the “Zodiac” working here never maintained their venue?

Qi Xia arrived at the front of the venue and found there was no “Zodiac” here, but he could faintly hear several distant shouts coming from inside the venue. So he put away the map and walked directly through the main entrance into the open-air football field.

Due to the open view, Qi Xia’s first glance fell upon the field that had completely turned into yellow earth where not even a blade of grass grew. Then what came into his view were the people in the center of the grounds.

This seemed to be a tug-of-war competition that appeared fair on the surface but wasn’t reasonable upon closer consideration.

Those six men grasped the rope with veins bulging on both hands, their bodies all leaning backward. Each of them gritted their teeth, exerting strength as if they wanted to kill someone. They appeared to have clear division of labor—some were responsible for chanting slogans while others were responsible for tying the rope around their waists.

Meanwhile, that thin Earth-Ox stood there straight, both hands steadily pulling the rope. The pitch-black rope was stretched taut in mid-air but never moved an inch.

Qi Xia stood in the distance quietly watching this suspense-free game, and a question quickly arose in his mind.

Earth-Ox appeared to still have strength to spare and could clearly end this game instantly, yet she never let the “Participants” lose. She merely held the rope without fully exerting her strength, as if toying with these people.

What did this mean?

Looking at the six participants in the distance, their expressions gradually became painful, and the hands gripping the rope began to turn bright red. Just as their entire bodies started trembling, Earth-Ox planted her feet on the ground and suddenly exerted force. The rope instantly tightened, causing all the “Participants” to collapse onto the ground.

Seeing this scene, Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly. This game seemed somewhat too strange.

Although the format of each Earth-level game was different, they necessarily had one core element, and that was “killing people.”

No matter how he thought about it, this tug-of-war game before his eyes couldn’t possibly lead to the death of “Participants,” so what was the purpose of Earth-Ox’s game?

Qi Xia recalled how Earth-Ox had been holding the rope just now, consuming all the “Participants'” stamina, and instantly understood something. “No… the game hasn’t ended.”

Sure enough, just as all the “Participants” collapsed on the ground gasping for breath, Earth-Ox slowly walked forward and spoke to the crowd. “The first round is over. Below, you can choose whether to proceed with the second round.”

It wasn’t until this person spoke that Qi Xia discovered the thin Earth-Ox before him was a woman.

“The second… round?” A man who appeared burly and robust lay on the ground looking up at Earth-Ox. “What second round?”

Earth-Ox reached to touch the pocket on her chest, then pulled out a dagger and tossed it out.

The dagger left her palm, spun once in the air, and then stuck into the ground.

“One human life for one of my limbs.” Earth-Ox said, “You can choose which teammate to sacrifice yourselves. For each person you contribute, I’ll use one fewer limb, up to four people. If you can win the tug-of-war with fewer people, the reward doubles for each person lost. Or you can also choose to leave now, entirely voluntary.”

“What does ‘use one fewer limb’ mean?” A tall, thin man asked.

“Isn’t this easy to understand?” Earth-Ox put one hand behind her back and said to everyone, “I can hold the rope with only one hand, or I can use neither hand and tie the rope around my waist, or I can lift one foot off the ground. In short, which limb I don’t use is for you to choose. Can you understand when I put it this way?”

At this moment, Qi Xia’s lips curved up slightly. The situation was about what he expected, the only thing he hadn’t anticipated was “the reward doubles for each person lost.” Next, the participants would need to make a difficult trade-off.

Should they give up all the “tickets” and leave now, or should they invest a greater cost to obtain excessive returns?

Perhaps anywhere else, everyone could make a rational judgment—that exchanging lives for anything is a loss—but in the “Land of the End,” it wasn’t quite like that.

“I suggest having Brother Wang contribute.” A man said, “Brother Wang has ‘echoed.’ After we earn the ‘Dao,’ we can share it with him next time. Otherwise, leaving now would be too much of a loss.”

“What…?” A man’s eyes widened immediately. He appeared to be the Brother Wang the man was talking about. “What the hell kind of talk is that? What if I die and we still can’t win? I’d have died for fucking nothing!”

“I have a suggestion…!” A fat man wearing glasses said.

“What suggestion? Tell us quickly!” The man called Brother Wang said anxiously, as if he had seen a lifeline.

The fat man pushed up his glasses and said with a serious expression, “Humans only have four limbs in total. That ‘Zodiac’ said one human life for one limb! As long as we contribute four human lives, that’s a guaranteed win.”