Qiao Jiajin swallowed and reached out to touch his own forearm.

It really was an iron ball, and the launch timing was exactly as Ning Shiba had said.

That ice-cold iron ball had only rolled along his arm for a moment, but it felt as if it had scraped away all his skin, leaving behind a burning pain.

But after carefully feeling it, it had only been rubbed—it didn’t count as an injury.

“It’s not that difficult…” Qiao Jiajin moved his wrist and resumed his stance. “It seems that as long as you treat the opponent as a person who could throw a punch at any time, everything becomes much easier.”

Although he said this, a trace of cold sweat still flowed down Qiao Jiajin’s forehead.

Being able to deflect this pure black iron ball was partly due to skill, but luck was even more important.

If the angle just now had been even slightly off, the iron ball could have struck his chest directly—death or crippling would be certain.

Comparing a high-speed flying iron ball to a “fist” wasn’t inappropriate—it was just that this punch was too heavy.

“Lord Guan Er… is it because I admire you so much that you also didn’t strike to kill?” Qiao Jiajin stood up, put his hands together at his brow, then respectfully bowed. “Following the rules, please forgive me.”

The several people pushing the cart also hurriedly came back to their senses and took this opportunity to advance quickly forward.

“Wait…” Ning Shiba, sitting on the chair, suddenly spoke. “Jiu Jie, not too fast.”

“What?” Bai Jiu waved her hand, having everyone slow down and asked.

Ning Shiba thought for a second and spoke, “Just as I guessed earlier, the launch timing of the ‘balls’ depends on the distance we advance. Give Qiao Ge some more time to prepare again.”

“Good!”

“Qiao Ge! Watch out!” Ning Shiba once again called out.

“Bang!”

The wooden box in front once again shot out a black iron ball. Qiao Jiajin wanted to use the same trick, reaching toward the bottom of the black iron ball, but this time the iron ball clearly deviated from its direction, flying out toward the left side.

Seeing that his right hand could no longer reach the iron ball, Qiao Jiajin shifted his feet and directly bent his left elbow upward to block it.

Although he didn’t know which teammate the iron ball flying to the left was aiming at, he had to make it deviate from its trajectory.

“Thud!”

The collision between his elbow and the iron ball produced a very muffled sound. Although Qiao Jiajin had tried his best to offset the point of impact, choosing to push the iron ball from bottom to top, he still felt his elbow transmit a severe pain as if it were about to break.

“Swoosh!”

Because Qiao Jiajin was really too close to the iron ball, the force was difficult to control. He almost used brute force to change the iron ball’s trajectory. The iron ball leaped high into the air, but looking at its path it was still quite dangerous—it seemed it would still land on the track.

“Hey!” Qiao Jiajin turned back and shouted. “Watch out!”

The people pushing the cart naturally didn’t dare to be careless. They had been watching the attacking iron ball from the start. After seeing it fly toward the sky, they all slowed their pace. When they saw the iron ball begin to fall, everyone’s hearts were suspended.

But fortunately, the iron ball’s landing point wasn’t the cart—just an open area of the track.

“Ershi.” Bai Jiu suddenly frowned and said. “The track can’t be damaged. Take action.”

Everyone understood Bai Jiu’s meaning almost instantly. If this iron ball dropped straight down, it would inevitably smash a pit in the track full of ice surface. At that time, whether the iron ball was there or not, their movement would be restricted.

“Understood!” Qiu Ershi nodded, reached out to pull down the zipper of his leather jacket, then slowly closed his eyes. “I want a gust of wind…”

“Steady the cart!” Bai Jiu said. “Ning Shiba, bend down. You’re sitting too high—you’ll be blown by the wind.”

After these words, a breeze gradually began to blow around everyone. Even Qiao Jiajin in the distance was attracted by this scene.

In just a few seconds, the breeze turned into a gale. The nearby people all found it difficult to open their eyes. They were all lowering their heads, using their other hand to grip the cart.

Ning Shiba, sitting on the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,” bent down even further and hugged her legs.

Bai Jiu felt something was wrong and hurriedly called out, “Pay attention to your conviction!!”

Qiu Ershi kept his eyes tightly closed, imagining in his heart the scene of using a gust of wind to intercept the iron ball, but unfortunately this image was really too abstract.

When a gust of wind blew past, trees would sway, leaves would tremble, grass would shake, flowers would wobble.

But what about an iron ball falling at extreme speed?

“Give it more force…” Qiu Ershi furrowed his brow and bit his teeth. “I’m ‘Strong Wind’ Qiu Ershi…”

As Qiu Ershi muttered silently, everyone felt the strong wind around them seemed to withdraw and was gathering toward a single point.

Qiu Ershi felt he had found the loophole in this matter. If he couldn’t make it stop, then he’d make it chaotic.

Under the assault of the strong wind, the iron ball’s path changed again. After thinking for a second, Qiao Jiajin moved toward the direction where the iron ball would fall.

“Damn, I almost forgot…” He muttered. “Our team has a ‘Terminator’…”

Qiu Ershi continued to control this not-too-large, not-too-small strong wind, making the iron ball subject to various forces in the air. Although he slowed its speed and changed its route, it still looked like it would land on the track.

“I can’t anymore… Jiu Jie, I did my best…” Qiu Ershi slowly opened his eyes and discovered that the iron ball was indeed as he thought. Although its speed had decreased, the route hadn’t changed because of it.

But he didn’t know that this slight reduction in speed was already enough. Just at this moment, an agile figure directly stood below the iron ball, raising his right hand high to meet its landing point.

The moment the iron ball touched Qiao Jiajin’s fingers, Qiao Jiajin once again relaxed his limbs, letting the iron ball roll from his fingers to his palm. Then, following the iron ball’s falling speed, he crouched down, guiding the iron ball to spin. The movement was so beautiful that everyone felt they had been appreciating an action movie from beginning to end.

After spinning continuously for three circles, the iron ball finally had all its force dissipated and stopped steadily in Qiao Jiajin’s hand.

“Ah?!”

Everyone really couldn’t understand Qiao Jiajin anymore.

From the beginning until now, they increasingly felt this man was very different from what they had imagined. Originally they thought that not defeating him last time was because he could continuously revive, but thinking about it now… even if he didn’t have any “Echo,” could ordinary people bring him down?

Qiao Jiajin didn’t have time to look at the iron ball. He just steadily placed it on the ground to one side and turned back to say to everyone, “Push the cart quickly, watch the time.”

Before everyone could come back to their senses, Qiao Jiajin returned in front of “Military Music” and once again raised both hands in a Taiji stance.