Qi Xia slowly stood up and looked toward the wooden door.
Creak—
With the faint sound of the door being pushed open, Qiao Jiajin and Li Xiangling emerged.
“Damn…?” Qiao Jiajin laughed carelessly. “What a coincidence, The Liar, and… that someone.”
Seeing Li Xiangling’s injuries, Qi Xia’s expression darkened. He hurried forward: “How are you?”
“I’m fine…” Li Xiangling smiled. “Right now I should be fine.”
Qi Xia examined Li Xiangling’s injuries. That wooden stick had pierced through her arm, but hadn’t injured the bone.
Logically speaking, this wasn’t any kind of fatal injury, but in this “Land of the End”… she would probably spend the next few days in great pain.
“When I used to practice spear techniques, I got stabbed too. I’ll recover quickly…” Li Xiangling smiled with a relaxed expression.
Jiang Ruoxue crossed her arms and slowly stood up. After a moment, she touched her chin.
Clang!!
A bell sound rang out in the distance, startling Qi Xia and the other two.
Qi Xia turned his head back, staring at Jiang Ruoxue cautiously: “What are you doing?”
“What’s it to you?” Jiang Ruoxue smiled, stepped forward to grasp Li Xiangling’s arm, and spoke softly, “Little sister, you need to sort out the logical relationships in this matter.”
“Log… logic?”
“This piece of wood didn’t injure your bone, only your flesh. Moreover, you’ve suffered similar injuries before, and this time is the same—you’ll recover quickly.” After Jiang Ruoxue finished speaking, she patted Li Xiangling’s head. “So don’t worry, just take good care of your wound.”
“Huh?” Li Xiangling’s eyes slowly widened. She felt her right arm suddenly didn’t hurt as much.
Jiang Ruoxue took the opportunity to place her hand on the wooden stick and swiftly pulled it out.
Traces of blood flowed down from Li Xiangling’s arm, but the wound wasn’t large. It looked like just a surface injury that should heal in a few days.
“You… aren’t you ‘Extreme Path’?” Li Xiangling asked in confusion.
“That’s right.” Jiang Ruoxue nodded.
“I don’t understand…” Li Xiangling looked at Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin, then said to Jiang Ruoxue, “Aren’t we enemies? Why would you help me?”
“You don’t need to understand.” Jiang Ruoxue tossed the wooden stick aside and said with a light laugh, “When have we of ‘Extreme Path’ ever needed your understanding to do things?”
At this moment, Qiao Jiajin also checked Li Xiangling’s arm and discovered the injury had indeed mostly healed.
“That someone, you’re pretty fierce.” Qiao Jiajin said happily.
Jiang Ruoxue sighed helplessly and said, “Alright then. Now I definitely can’t pick up those three. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving first.”
She stretched lazily again and turned to leave.
“Wait…” Qiao Jiajin said. “That big woman and leather jacket man probably can’t be saved, but stone man withdrew midway. You should still be able to find him.”
“Stone man?” Jiang Ruoxue nodded. “Alright, I got it.”
She turned her back and waved to everyone, then disappeared onto the street.
Qi Xia came back to his senses and looked again at Qiao Jiajin and Li Xiangling. Both of them were covered in blood and should have suffered quite a few surface wounds.
“How is it? Did we win?” Qi Xia asked.
“Ah!” Qiao Jiajin suddenly exclaimed. “If you hadn’t said something, I would’ve almost forgotten! We haven’t won yet!”
He hurriedly took Li Xiangling back to press the elevator button: “The big guy is still up there stupidly waiting for us. Kung Fu Girl, come up with me quickly.”
…
Zhang Shan was sitting beside the blue flag waiting, looking very worried.
“Big guy!” After getting off the elevator, Qiao Jiajin called out happily. “I brought Kung Fu Girl!”
After hearing this, Zhang Shan quickly stood up: “Excellent!”
Qi Xia also followed out of the elevator. The game was about to end, and he still had questions he wanted to ask Earth-Tiger.
Following the rules, Qiao Jiajin and Li Xiangling crossed the single-log bridge one after another, then touched the flag together with Zhang Shan.
The game ended.
Earth-Tiger, who had been standing to the side for quite some time, finally moved.
“Red team has all touched the blue team’s flag. Game over.” He pulled out a cloth bundle from his chest and tossed it to the three. “Take that person who didn’t pay admission and get lost.”
“What an unpleasant attitude.” Zhang Shan shook his head helplessly, then turned back to look at Li Xiangling. “Little Li, you’re injured?”
“Yes… but not seriously.” Li Xiangling smiled. “Speaking of which, it’s really incredible—someone from ‘Extreme Path’ helped us.”
“Oh?”
Li Xiangling recounted the encounter with Jiang Ruoxue to Zhang Shan in full detail.
Meanwhile, Qi Xia slowly approached Earth-Tiger.
“What do you want?” Earth-Tiger asked irritably.
“How can I meet her?”
“Who?”
“‘Heavenly-Sheep.'”
“How would I know?!” Earth-Tiger pushed Qi Xia aside and walked straight toward the elevator.
“Hey!” Qi Xia grabbed Earth-Tiger’s thick arm, feeling like he had grabbed a block of stone. “This is really important to me… I’m willing to exchange anything…”
Hearing this, Earth-Tiger slowly stopped in his tracks.
He stared carefully at Qi Xia’s eyes, wanting to curse, but the words Qi Xia had once said floated into his ears again.
There are many paths in this world, and everyone can find the one that belongs to them.
After a long silence, Earth-Tiger spoke: “I heard that Zodiacs who become ‘Heavenly’ rank can freely enter and exit the ‘Land of the End,’ so I don’t know where ‘Heavenly-Sheep’ is.”
Qi Xia’s eyes slowly dimmed.
“So it’s true after all… so… she really deceived me…?”
“Hmph.” Earth-Tiger snorted coldly. “Haven’t I been deceived as well?!”
His tiger claws slowly clenched into fists as he muttered to himself: “Things that were clearly agreed upon beforehand… yet not a single one was fulfilled… I’m really stupid to have believed a ‘Sheep’…”
“What…?” Qi Xia was startled. “She deceived you too?”
“Hmph.” Earth-Tiger snorted coldly again. “Being deceived is my own business. What does it have to do with you?”
After hearing this, Qi Xia frowned, then suddenly had an idea.
“Look… since you were deceived and I was deceived, why don’t the two of us stand on a united front?” Qi Xia felt like he had gone crazy—he was trying to ally with a tiger-headed person.
After hearing this, Earth-Tiger grabbed Qi Xia by the collar.
“Who do you think you are?” He looked Qi Xia up and down from above. “An ordinary person without ‘Echo’ presumes to stand on a united front with an ‘Earth-level’ Zodiac?! What qualifies you?!”
Tremendous killing intent burst forth. Earth-Tiger’s eyes seemed ready to devour Qi Xia.
“Alright…” Qi Xia slowly extended his hand, trying to stabilize Earth-Tiger’s emotions. “Calm down, it was my wild fantasy…”
Earth-Tiger looked at Qi Xia’s eyes, which suddenly became dejected. He released his grip, slowly turned around, and his low voice rang out again: “Get lost.”