Earth-Pig seemed to have anticipated being grabbed by the throat.

He saw him tilt his head back dramatically, crashing into Zhu Que’s chin. Although his reaction was already extremely fast, several faint bloody marks were still left on his throat where he’d been grabbed.

Immediately after, Earth-Pig turned around without stopping and clawed at Zhu Que. Their attack methods seemed largely similar—both primarily relying on powerful finger strength and hard nails to leave wounds on their opponent’s body.

Zhu Que raised his arm to block, and several shallow cuts were also carved on his forearm. Then he counterattacked with his hand, once again tearing Earth-Pig’s chest into a bloody mess.

In just a few seconds of combat, Earth-Pig had already lost large patches of flesh and blood. The strength and lethality of both sides were not even in the same league.

Seeing this scene, Zhoumo finally believed that killing Zhu Que this time might be completely different from killing Xuanwu.

Although she didn’t know exactly how the battle at Xuanwu’s location was going, just as Zhu Que himself had said—precisely because he didn’t have “Immortality,” he would fear death even more than Xuanwu.

He would never give the “Participants” a chance to kill him. Whether it was the “signal flare” or the “Spirit Touch” that Earth-Pig mentioned, as long as Zhu Que felt threatened, he would take the initiative to strike first.

Under Zhu Que’s fierce attacks, Earth-Pig retreated again and again. After all, this was something predetermined from the start.

He was merely an “Earth-level”—how could he resist Zhu Que, who specialized in dealing with “Zodiac rule violations,” by his own strength alone?

“You can barely hold on before I’ve even used my ‘Divine Law,'” Zhu Que said. “Little Pig, won’t you consider standing on my side? As long as you don’t speak the name of my ‘Divine Law,’ I’ll spare your life here. I’ll explain the situation to Qinglong and act as if nothing happened.”

“Thank you, but I won’t consider it,” Earth-Pig said. “It’s rare to have a chance to fight passionately for my comrades—this is the battlefield I’ve been waiting for.”

“Why pretend to be passionate?” Zhu Que shook his head. “Once you reveal my trump card, everyone here will die. Right now, bow your head and call me ‘Lord Zhu Que,’ and I’ll pretend nothing happened.”

At this moment, Zhoumo blinked, discovering that Zhu Que and Earth-Pig seemed to share a common trait… they were both a bit chuunibyou.

How could anyone like having others call them “Lord”?

“Shut your mouth,” Earth-Pig said coldly. “Don’t interfere with my posing.”

Zhu Que didn’t get angry after being rejected. Instead, he clapped his hands with a smile and said, “As expected of someone I took notice of—you have backbone.”

He turned to look at Zhoumo, just about to speak, when he found that his mouth seemed cemented shut and completely unable to open.

“Why won’t you listen…?” Zhu Que sighed. “Good children are becoming rarer these days. Is it because I’ve killed too many?”

Zhoumo saw Earth-Pig’s mouth opening and closing along with Zhu Que’s, and even his expression became contemptuous.

He had clearly been hit by the extremely insane “Soul Seizure.”

Then Zhu Que slowly reached out his hand and stroked his own chest.

Seeing this, Zhoumo hurriedly opened her mouth and said, “Don’t—”

But it was already too late.

The powerful “Soul Seizure” activated. Earth-Pig also slowly reached out and stroked the blooming wound on his chest. Zhoumo stepped forward to grab Earth-Pig, but she had no way to move his body even the slightest bit.

She saw Earth-Pig, with a face full of terror, insert his fingers into the wound, then wiggle his fingers slightly, tearing and ripping open the entire wound across his chest. A large amount of fresh blood dyed his abdomen completely red like flowing water.

“This wound isn’t deep enough,” Zhu Que said with a light laugh. “Good children should learn to torture themselves—it’ll save me a lot of trouble.”

With those words, he changed his hand to a palm, making Earth-Pig forcefully tear open his own wound. Earth-Pig was already drenched in sweat from the torture of pain, but his mouth couldn’t open, so he could only let out muffled groans.

“Don’t be afraid… don’t be afraid…” Zhu Que said slowly. “With this amount of blood loss, you’ll die very quickly. Once you’re dead, there’s nothing to fear anymore.”

“You lunatic…” Zhoumo’s lips moved slightly, but she truly couldn’t help in the slightest.

Although she moved between various “Organizations,” the roles she played were basically liaison officers. Even though she had some martial arts skills, there was no way she could fight against a “Divine Beast” with an iron rod.

The feeling Zhu Que gave was completely different from Xuanwu and Baihu.

He was perhaps more like Qinglong—both representing the embodiment of “despair.”

“Not a single person here today will be able to leave,” Zhu Que surveyed everyone. At this moment, Earth-Pig also slowly turned around, making the exact same movements as him. “I’ve thought of an interesting game. As a ‘Zodiac’… you must be drained of every last bit of value.”

He slowly floated forward, staring at the sweat-drenched Earth-Pig and said, “Good child, I’ll take away your reason. You can kill these people yourself until you collapse from excessive blood loss. Consider it a small punishment for you. How about it?”

Earth-Pig’s eyes revealed an irrepressible terror. His battle with Zhu Que couldn’t even be called a hard fight. After all, once Zhu Que activated “Soul Seizure,” he had completely lost any room to fight back.

He knew he could die, but he couldn’t die so worthlessly.

Zhu Que slowly extended his hand, floating it before Earth-Pig’s eyes. “Living forever… and dying forever—which do you choose?”

Earth-Pig couldn’t open his mouth, only glaring at Zhu Que with wide eyes.

“Oh, I forgot…” Zhu Que slapped his forehead as if suddenly realizing. “You’re so severely injured, you can never live forever.”

Just as Zhu Que was laughing and activating “Soul Seizure,” Zhoumo finally couldn’t bear it anymore. From behind, she swung the iron rod she had picked up and struck hard at the back of Zhu Que’s head.

When the dust settled, Zhoumo only felt like she was using the rod to strike a wall. Zhu Que remained completely unmoved, while her own hands were shaken painfully.

Although Zhu Que wasn’t harmed, he was clearly enraged by Zhoumo’s action.

He turned his head back. His smiling face now had bulging veins, and he immediately released Earth-Pig and swung his hand toward Zhoumo.

“Not good…”

In the next second, a bizarre giant tree suddenly sprouted from between the two of them out of nowhere, forcibly separating their positions.

Before Zhu Que could react to what was happening, a hand holding a dagger suddenly grew from the center of the giant tree, stabbing toward his lower abdomen.

Unfortunately, Zhu Que’s body was extremely hard. After being stabbed, it only left a tiny scratch.

That hand immediately retracted into the tree before Zhu Que could react, as if nothing had happened.

“Sixth Sister!”

A man and a woman quickly walked over from the distance—they were “Shuttle” Cui Fourteen and “Lush Forest” Liu Twenty-One.

Although Zhoumo relaxed slightly, with just the three of them and their “Echoes,” they still couldn’t shake Zhu Que.

“We two were closest, so we rushed over quickly,” Cui Fourteen said, looking at the situation on scene and feeling it was even worse than expected.

Theoretically, no matter which “Door” encountered Zhu Que, there should be at least one “Earth-level” fighting alongside them. But right now, Earth-Pig seemed to have completely lost his combat ability—that alarming amount of blood loss absolutely couldn’t support him continuing to fight.

“I’ll hold back Zhu Que,” Liu Twenty-One said coldly. “You two take Earth-Pig and leave.”

“Twenty-One…” Cui Fourteen said with an ugly expression. “Your ‘Echo’… can it really hold him back?”

“It’s not about whether it can, but whether it must,” Liu Twenty-One replied.