Xiaonian had no time to react and hastily covered his ears and shut his eyes.

The next instant, a sound even more powerful than before resonated outward. The withered trees surrounding the plaza all trembled several times from this shockwave.

Xu Liunian squeezed his eyes shut, feeling dizzy and disoriented. Even though the sound had already begun to dissipate, that sensation of vertigo still lingered and wouldn’t fade.

Chu Tianqiu couldn’t care about anything else—he actually opened his eyes wide and slowly stood up.

“What the hell is this thing…?” He walked forward step by step, staring intently at the words on the screen. “I need to find this person…”

Xu Liunian looked up in confusion, only to discover in shock that another line of glowing text had appeared on the screen.

“I heard the echo of ‘Breaking Ten Thousand Laws’!”

Chu Tianqiu approached the screen step by step, continuously muttering: “Breaking Ten Thousand Laws… wonderful… how wonderful… if only I had this person’s ability… then I could… but just who are you?”

Xiaonian, standing to the side, felt there was an indescribable quality to Chu Tianqiu.

He seemed a bit frightening.

…

A breeze swept across the rooftop.

Zhang Shan’s body made cracking sounds. Supporting himself with both hands, he actually stood up while bearing the enormous stone.

The stone that appeared to weigh several hundred pounds separated easily from Zhang Shan’s body like a morning blanket being thrown off, tumbling into the void.

The boulder severed part of the hemp rope and dropped brutally to the bottom, producing an extraordinarily loud crash.

Qiao Jiajin’s body trembled slightly. The stones covering him scattered like dandelion seeds, blown by the wind into countless sparkling points of starlight.

The two stood up simultaneously, standing shoulder to shoulder together.

An incredibly dangerous aura emanated from their bodies.

Seeing this, Xiaoxiao slowly retreated a step.

What did those two bell sounds just now mean?

Had the two people before her achieved “Echo”?

These two already possessed extremely strong combat abilities—if they now had “Echo” as well…

“Old Sun!” Xiaoxiao turned back and gave Old Sun a slap. “Snap out of it!”

This slap was quite heavy. Old Sun’s dazed eyes seemed to regain some clarity.

“Ah? What, what happened?” Old Sun asked in confusion.

“We’ve got trouble! Get ready to fight!”

Old Sun came to his senses and discovered that the two who had been under control just moments ago were now standing perfectly fine before them.

“How come they’re okay?” Old Sun shook his head. “Don’t worry… leave it to me…”

His eyes fixed firmly on Qiao Jiajin, trying to give himself psychological suggestion.

“This man can’t move… he’s a monster growing in stone… he can’t move…” After repeating this over and over, something strange began to appear around Qiao Jiajin.

Qiao Jiajin paid it no mind. He simply extended his hand slowly and said coldly, “Hey, don’t cheat. Come have an honest showdown with me.”

As soon as he finished speaking, glowing spots continuously appeared around him. The spots seemed to want to gather between his hands and feet, but just when they were about to succeed in coalescing, they would fly away like dandelion seeds again.

“What’s going on…” Old Sun looked at Qiao Jiajin in disbelief. “Why haven’t stones grown on you yet…”

“I said it—let’s have an honest duel.”

“You can ignore ‘Echo’…?” Xiaoxiao froze slightly, feeling the situation before her seemed somewhat familiar.

In the previous round, when she personally went to “persuade” Qi Xia, she had killed the Flower-Arm Man before her.

She had added a large amount of metronidazole to her soup bowl, temporarily immobilizing Qi Xia and the other two.

But when she inserted the nail-studded plank into Flower-Arm Man’s skull, Qi Xia was inexplicably able to move.

At the time, Xiaoxiao thought Qi Xia was strong enough to ignore “Echo,” but now it seemed the strong one wasn’t Qi Xia—it was this hoodlum.

At his dying moment, he seemed to have released a trace of “Echo’s” power, but he died before he could hear the “bell sound,” so he couldn’t retain his memory.

“So you’re the most dangerous one…” Xiaoxiao’s gaze turned cold. “How terrifying…”

Zhang Shan slowly walked forward at this moment, circling around Qiao Jiajin to stand before Xiaoxiao.

Qiao Jiajin felt as though wind was blowing from Zhang Shan’s body, and his aura had become very strange.

“No need to waste words with this woman…” Zhang Shan stepped forward and swung his fist viciously toward Xiaoxiao.

Seeing this, Xiaoxiao quickly steadied her breath and mobilized all her conviction to use “Frame.”

Thud!!

A tremendous muffled sound rang out. Xiaoxiao remained in place without moving, but Zhang Shan flew far away.

This flight trajectory was quite horrifying—he flew a full seven or eight meters before crashing heavily to the ground.

Everyone had only seen such exaggerated flight in movies.

A bead of cold sweat slowly formed on Xiaoxiao’s forehead.

What kind of force was that?

If that “Frame” just now hadn’t succeeded, she would be dead for certain.

“Ha, hahahaha!” Xiaoxiao came to her senses, pointed at the distant Zhang Shan, and laughed with a twisted expression: “Lifting a rock only to drop it on your own foot!!”

She knew that even someone like Zhang Shan, after being struck back by an attack of such force, would surely die.

“Serves you right, you…”

Before she could finish, Zhang Shan patted the dust off himself and stood up.

His chest had been caved in, but was now rapidly recovering at a visible rate.

“If one punch doesn’t work, then two.” Zhang Shan walked forward again as if nothing had happened. “Let’s see how many punches you can withstand.”

“Damn…” Qiao Jiajin couldn’t help but curse. “Big guy, this is…”

“Be careful, don’t get caught in the crossfire.” Zhang Shan waved his hand at Qiao Jiajin.

Qiao Jiajin naturally retreated to the side.

With that, Zhang Shan swung his fist again. This fist flew through the air at extreme speed, actually producing the sound of thunder.

“The one who dies from this punch won’t be me…!” Xiaoxiao shouted loudly. “It’ll be that hoodlum!!”

Bang!!

Qiao Jiajin didn’t move at all. But when Zhang Shan’s fist landed on Xiaoxiao’s body, countless glowing white spots erupted from Qiao Jiajin’s body.

Xiaoxiao was stunned again.

She clearly felt she had framed the hoodlum, yet he was fine again.

“If two punches don’t work, then three.” Zhang Shan said. “Go ahead and frame others all you want. Let’s see who ends up unlucky.”

Xiaoxiao quickly looked around. There were only four people on the bridge in total—who could she frame with this punch?!

Frame Old Sun?!

If he died, wouldn’t she be in even more danger?

“Old Sun! Materialize!!” Xiaoxiao shouted.

“Okay, okay!”

Seeing Zhang Shan approach again, Xiaoxiao was so frightened she kept retreating.

Old Sun quickly extended both hands, waving them at Zhang Shan. He closed his eyes, muttering under his breath.

“Crush you to death… crush you to death… the sky is filled with stones flying everywhere… crush you into meat paste…”

“Hey!” Qiao Jiajin shouted loudly. “Didn’t I tell you not to cheat?!”

After those words, countless glowing white flashes fell from the sky like heavy rain, rendering the entire area into a brilliant galaxy.

Although the momentum was tremendous, not a single stone fell from those flashes.

“Ah… good heavens…” Old Sun opened his eyes in disbelief. He had thought the sky would be filled with falling stones, but never expected what met his eyes would all be white points of light. “What is all this?!”

“Old Sun!!!” Xiaoxiao shouted again, her voice already hoarse.

Old Sun immediately turned his head and extended his hand toward Xiaoxiao again.

He muttered a few words, and in moments Xiaoxiao’s body was covered in stone armor.

Zhang Shan paid no attention to Old Sun. Instead, he arched his entire upper body, then swung out a punch with all his strength.

Xiaoxiao squeezed her eyes shut, mobilizing her conviction again.

But Zhang Shan’s fist wind whooshed loudly, making it impossible for her to calm her mind.

Who should take this punch?!

The muffled sound rang out again. This time, the one who flew away was none other than Xiaoxiao.