Just as everyone was hesitating, they heard chaotic footsteps at the entrance of the basketball court. It seemed someone was coming.

They turned to look. Zhou Liu had arrived at the entrance with Wang Ba, Luo Shiyi, and Qiu Shiliu. Beside them stood an expressionless man—it was Qi Xia, the one Qian Wushi valued highly this time.

“Tsk, I thought it was something serious…” Zhou Liu looked at the “Cat” team members sprawled all over the ground and slowly raised her eyebrows. “Are you playing ball?”

“Playing ball…?” After hearing this, Bai Jiu let out a bitter laugh. “Liu Jie, balls traveling at eighty kilometers per hour—have you ever played with those?”

“Tsk, you’re joking.” Zhou Liu sneered. “Baseballs can reach speeds of one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. There’s only one reason you got injured.”

Qiao Jiajin looked at them. “What reason?”

Zhou Liu suddenly swung her hand and tossed the metal baseball bat she was holding high toward Qiao Jiajin.

“You didn’t have a ‘bat.'”

Qiao Jiajin reached out and caught the bat, then made eye contact with Qi Xia.

Qi Xia didn’t seem to have anything to say. After nodding slightly in acknowledgment, he turned around and quickly surveyed the various equipment in the room.

Now scattered on the huge ice surface were two types of balls—not only iron balls but also stone balls—along with many black and white fragments.

“So that’s how it is…” Qi Xia stroked his chin and mentally reconstructed what had just happened. Although no one had explained the game rules to him, he could roughly guess with about eighty to ninety percent accuracy.

After seeing Qi Xia’s manner, Qiao Jiajin also quickly touched his chin.

The chin really was a magical thing. Qiao Jiajin decided that from now on, if there was nothing important, he should try to touch it less.

The Earth-Horse sitting at the starting point saw so many people swagger into her venue and a trace of anger flashed across her face. “Hey… who let you in?”

“You…” Earth-Horse felt these people had come with ill intentions and was naturally furious. “By what right do you interfere with the game’s progress?”

After hearing this, Zhou Liu was even angrier than Earth-Horse. “Tsk, what’s the problem?! Did we interfere? Did your ‘rules’ ever mention that no one is allowed to provide a ‘bat’?”

Earth-Horse felt the person before her was being unreasonable, but she indeed hadn’t explicitly prohibited this rule, so she could only say through gritted teeth in a low voice: “I won’t hold you accountable for the ‘bat’… but if you dare step into the game area, I absolutely won’t show mercy. I believe Zhu Que will definitely understand…”

Qiao Jiajin swung the baseball bat in his hand, felt it was very comfortable, and nodded. “Fine. You don’t need to take action anymore.”

Ning Shiba and the others slowly looked toward Qiao Jiajin. “Jiu Ge… will it really work?”

“I’m more confident than before.” Qiao Jiajin rotated the bat slightly in his hand. “Previously, I had to think of a countermeasure for every ball, which was quite troublesome. But now I just need to smash them directly with the bat. It’s quite simple.”

Qi Xia moved his feet step by step to one side, looking along the way at those “mechanisms” that were ready to move, feeling he had some clue.

Could the wooden mechanisms really keep aiming at the handcart in the center of the field?

It was hard to believe these things were equipped with infrared tracking… So what was the principle of “tracking”?

Qi Xia quickly sorted out his thoughts and found what appeared to be a very ethereal “path to survival.” However, to verify this path to survival, they would need to endure one more attack.

After familiarizing himself with the bat’s attack range, Qiao Jiajin looked up at everyone. “Little ones, hang in there a bit longer. Now our teammates are all watching our performance over there. If we lose this time, it’ll be embarrassing.”

After hearing this, Ning Shiba also wanted to struggle to get up from the ground, but the stabbing pain from her ribs was exceptionally intense.

“Astrology girl, you don’t need to.” Qiao Jiajin said. “Move away from here and rest so you don’t get hit by flying balls again. The rest of you, move forward with me.”

“Okay… Jiu Ge… I’ll just…”

“No need.” Qi Xia said. “Those who are injured should just lie in place and not move. Fist, you guys continue pushing the cart.”

“Huh?…” After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin showed a slight smile. “Liar boy, this familiar feeling is back again. Having you here is more reassuring.”

Qiao Jiajin almost unconditionally trusted Qi Xia’s decisions. He gave the others a look, and everyone pushed the cart forward a few more steps with difficulty.

Qi Xia also took the opportunity to look at the text on each mechanism.

Three on the left, four on the right. Combined with various texts, it was clearly the “Big Dipper.” But the zodiac might use tricks to conceal its true intentions.

The cart continued to move forward, and all the mechanisms seemed to sense something and turned their angles one after another, making slight sounds as if poised to strike.

“Oh…?” Qi Xia frowned as he looked at the cart in the center of the field, feeling that the path to survival he had found was most likely correct.

After a few more steps, all the mechanisms shot out stone balls once again.

But contrary to what Qi Xia had imagined, these stone balls didn’t attack simultaneously. Instead, there was a clear sequence.

Qiao Jiajin ran forward wielding the bat in his hand, flying busily between the many stone balls.

With the iron rod, he could indeed deal with these stone balls much better. Qiao Jiajin seemed to be using some martial arts routine. With a few dodges, he knocked three stone balls before him to the ground.

The remaining few people also seemed to have gained some experience. They mimicked Qiao Jiajin’s previous method of receiving stone balls from the side. After Zhou Liu mentioned that baseballs could reach speeds of one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, everyone felt these stone balls weren’t so terrifying.

But how many ordinary people would dare to catch a flying baseball with bare hands?

“Everyone try to catch the balls!!” Ning Shiba, lying on the ground, shouted. “These balls have rewards!!”

“Rewards…?” After hearing this, Qi Xia paused slightly and asked Ning Shiba not far away, “What rewards?”

Ning Shiba turned her head with difficulty to look at Qi Xia. “It’s said to be rewards that can help us walk better on the ice surface… as long as we catch those ‘balls’…”

“There’s no need.” Qi Xia said.

“Ah?” Both Bai Jiu in the distance and Ning Shiba before him expressed confusion simultaneously.

“You just need to push the cart.” Qi Xia said. “The so-called rewards you can get from ‘catching balls’ are just a trick. Your victory condition isn’t to ‘catch the balls,’ is it?”

After hearing this, Ning Shiba thought for a moment and nodded with difficulty. “Our victory condition is ‘everyone completes one round trip.'”

“Then don’t do unnecessary things.” Qi Xia said. “If you know the path to victory, absolutely don’t try to take shortcuts.”

“So that’s how it is…?”

Qiao Jiajin in the distance also heard Qi Xia’s words and suddenly felt that what Qi Xia said made perfect sense.

If everyone only tried every means to catch balls this round, casualties would inevitably be heavy. How would they get through the next rounds?

“I was even holding back my strength…” Qiao Jiajin frowned and said. “If that’s the case, then let’s listen to the liar boy and smash all these things!”

“There’s no need to hit them anymore either.” Qi Xia spoke once more. “Everyone follow my commands from now on.”