——Rest.

In the fifth round, everyone burrowed into their snail shells, and the muddy ground became quiet and peaceful.

The golden ball’s crashing sounds stopped, and no one came out.

Soon after, a frog emerged from the mud, croaking twice. With no bugs to eat, it sprawled in the mud, utterly bored.

Shen Mo used the shell’s cover to observe the frog, discovering that its eyeballs had recovered somewhat, though scars remained.

This meant his attack had been effective.

As long as the injury was severe enough, it would be difficult to heal completely. Perhaps next time he could try targeting other body parts…

…

Time passed second by second.

No one came out to find the ball, and the frog didn’t actively attack. The situation had reached a stalemate.

Someone started it—who knows who—and people began chatting through the snail shells:

“The mud collapses too quickly. If only the ball would bounce fewer times, there’d be fewer holes and it’d be easier to find.”

“How could it be that easy? There are so many snails here. Unless we could push them aside, um…” The speaker seemed to be exerting effort, then said after a moment, “Too heavy! But they can be moved.”

“Don’t waste your energy. There are at least a hundred snails in this pit. Even if you could push them, could you push every single one aside? The ball will either hit this one or that one. This method won’t work.”

“Then what do we do? Every time the frog rolls in the mud, its wounds heal by more than half. How can we possibly kill it…”

“Let’s just wait it out and see what we can do in the next round…”

Everyone discussed in low voices, mostly Tan Xiao talking, with Hui Ge and Houzi occasionally chiming in.

The fifth round passed without incident.

When the sixth round’s countdown began, Teacher Cheng woke up.

Though he had awakened, his spirit was quite muddled. Seeing half his body soaked in mud, he sighed in a daze: “Where does death lead? The body joins the mountain ridges. Alas, it seems my life has reached its end here…”

Tan Xiao didn’t understand and simply picked out a large snail, patting the shell and calling to Teacher Cheng: “Old man, come over here quickly! This one’s spacious!”

Cheng Weicai looked over at the sound, seeing that although Tan Xiao was completely bedraggled, his face still showed vigorous spirit, and his heart immediately filled with mixed feelings.

“I’m old, so old. When trouble comes, I’m not as optimistic and positive as you young people. I need to learn from you in this regard.”

He shook his head and sighed, supporting himself on his legs as he slowly stood up, wading through the muddy water.

Tan Xiao was impatient by nature. He waded over in a few steps, hoisted the old man onto his shoulder, his mouth full of disdain: “You’re not seventy or eighty years old—stop dawdling like some old master! Hurry up! The countdown’s almost over!”

Teacher Cheng bounced on his shoulder, humming with discomfort.

The snail Tan Xiao found was large, so even with two people inside, there was still room to spare. They’d barely steadied their positions when the golden ball outside began crashing with a bang bang bang.

One hit happened to strike the snail they were in, and the entire shell sank down with a rumble!

Muddy water suddenly flooded into the shell, nearly choking Tan Xiao. He quickly crawled deeper into the shell, cursing: “Damn it!”

Teacher Cheng’s position was higher up. Although he didn’t sink into the mud, he wasn’t much better off—the震荡 from that impact left him dizzy and with ringing ears.

After the sludge surged in, the air inside the shell immediately became turbid. Fortunately, it didn’t last long. After about 20 seconds, the surroundings began to tremble, and a force surged from bottom to top, flipping the shell to the surface of the mud…

Tan Xiao had been suffocating terribly and quickly stuck his head out.

He saw the frog already squatting leisurely in the mud. With a belly full of frustration and nowhere to vent it, he said, “That toad monster is back, damn it, and the wounds on its eyeballs have healed too!”

Teacher Cheng also stuck his head out to look. “…Huh?”

“Huh what huh? Stop crowding here to look! Be careful it doesn’t chew you up!” Tan Xiao pulled him back inside.

Teacher Cheng seemed to realize something: “Little Tan, I think our position is the same as before.”

“So what if it’s the same?” Tan Xiao replied impatiently. “That broken ball keeps crashing the snails down every time, and the frog keeps pushing them back up every time. Anyway, I think all the positions look about the same!”

Teacher Cheng’s face immediately became serious: “If the positions don’t change, as long as we know the starting point, theoretically we should be able to calculate the landing spot!”