This round of unexpected development left everyone somewhat at a loss. A ball that could clearly kill everyone at this moment—she actually threw it fiercely on the ground.

Was Earth-Horse also tired?

“What a pity…” Earth-Horse said. “Originally, all the mechanisms should have thrown this ball together with me. That way, your survival probability would have been greatly reduced… But now…”

Qiao Jiajin picked up his bat and looked at the black liquid on the tip, feeling something wasn’t quite right.

Just now, when shattering one of the balls, a large amount of black liquid had fallen on his bat and clothes.

This seemed to be some kind of oil.

Looking at the distant ground again, everyone’s bodies were more or less stained with some black oil.

Those two small black balls had actually sprayed out a large amount of strange liquid.

At this moment, Earth-Horse rummaged in her bamboo tube again. Only the last ball remained inside.

“Now only I’m left to throw…” Earth-Horse gritted her teeth. “I have to say your strange technique greatly reduced your death probability and forced me to change tactics. These two balls should have killed you directly, but I thought of a more interesting way to play.”

Qiao Jiajin reached out to wipe the bat and found these black oils were extraordinarily sticky. Wiping with his left hand would stain the left hand, wiping with the right hand would stain the right hand. There was simply no way to deal with it.

He hurriedly raised his head to deal with Earth-Horse first. After all, Earth-Horse still had her last attack to complete.

Under everyone’s gaze, Earth-Horse slowly pulled out a rough iron ball.

This would be her last attack, and also the most powerful one.

Seeing this iron ball, even the slow-thinking Qiao Jiajin felt something was wrong.

Should he catch this ball or not?

Qi Xia immediately understood Qiao Jiajin’s concern, so he spoke not far away. “Fist, you already know the method to victory. Don’t hesitate.”

Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia, thought for two seconds, then turned to the people pushing the cart. “Little ones, the moment the big horse woman makes her move, push the cart fiercely toward the finish line.”

“Will it work, Brother Qiao?”

“I’m not sure,” Qiao Jiajin said. “After this throw, either we all die together or we all live together.”

Although Qiao Jiajin’s short sentence didn’t reveal any good news, everyone still gained some sense of security.

Qi Xia also slowly nodded at this moment. From his perspective, Qiao Jiajin had clearly gained an “Echo.” This Earth-Horse game wasn’t a loss. Thinking from the worst angle, even if Qiao Jiajin died here, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Moreover, “Break Ten Thousand Laws,” for some unknown reason, had coincidentally destroyed all the game props in Earth-Horse’s venue. Looking at it this way… did Earth-Horse still have a way out?

Regardless of whether this iron ball could be caught or not, victory was already destined in this game.

When Earth-Horse calmed down to contemplate this matter, would she still think the “Divine Beasts” wouldn’t care?

Once a person who broke the rules was forgiven, the “Divine Beasts'” dominance would weaken. The balance between the various “Zodiacs” and “Participants” in the “Land of the End” was so delicate that once cracks appeared, it would certainly lead to unmanageable adverse consequences. So Earth-Horse had to die.

Over twenty years of experience as a “Zodiac,” exchanged for a senseless death—no one would willingly accept such consequences.

Everyone inside the straight track gripped the cart and turned back to stare intently at Earth-Horse’s movements together with Qiao Jiajin.

As long as they could slightly interfere with the iron ball’s trajectory this time, everyone could win this game full of deceit.

Qiao Jiajin also slowly raised the metal bat to his ear. Thinking from Earth-Horse’s perspective, her several attacks hadn’t ended the game. To win this round, she would definitely target the person in the cart.

“It’s just a baseball game,” Qiao Jiajin said. “Hit it and we win. Miss it and we die.”

He gripped tightly the now pitted and scarred bat, took several deep breaths to calm his mindset again, then stared intently at Earth-Horse’s shoulders and arms.

“Everyone…” Qi Xia turned back to the people beside him. “Prepare to extinguish the fire.”

After hearing this, several people decisively took off their leather jackets and held them in their hands, staring fixedly at the changes on the field. Qi Xia slowly walked to the wall and picked up a ball from the ground.

Under everyone’s gaze, Earth-Horse stepped back one step, calculated the direction, then fiercely threw the iron ball in her hand.

Qiao Jiajin also directly swung the bat at this moment.

Both used their maximum strength, swinging their arms toward each other’s direction.

The sound of breaking wind entered their ears. A black line traced through the air. Qiao Jiajin swung fiercely at it.

DING!!

A crisp sound rang out in the air, immediately followed by the sound of bones cracking in Qiao Jiajin’s arms, and in the next instant came the sound of the metal bat breaking.

Countless sparks scattered in all directions like a cosmic explosion.

At the same time, the several people pushing the cart instantly mustered all their body’s strength and pushed this “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse” out.

The iron ball’s direction was slightly changed by Qiao Jiajin’s iron rod, flying toward Qiu Twenty on the cart. Fortunately, its landing point was slightly off from Qiu Twenty. It ultimately brushed past him at a distance of ten centimeters, carrying fierce wind as it flew directly into the distance.

Next came fires burning everywhere.

The first to ignite was Qiao Jiajin’s bat, followed by his arms and entire body, then the ice surface on the track, and the leather jackets on everyone’s bodies.

Before they could leave the track, they were instantly engulfed by flames all over.

The other members of the “Cats” team waiting on the side already had palms full of sweat. After seeing Qiu Twenty and the cart fly out of the track together, they immediately rushed up with their leather jacket coats and covered several people’s bodies and legs. The fire was instantly controlled by more than half.

Qiao Jiajin threw away the bat and hurriedly rolled on the ground, but the flames ignited by the sticky black oil were hard to extinguish through rolling. Just when he was in desperate straits, Qi Xia ran over with mud balls that had fallen on the ground in previous rounds and lost their toxicity, quickly applying them to Qiao Jiajin’s burning areas.

Although everyone screamed miserably for a moment, everything happened within just ten seconds.

Due to the “Cats” team’s excellent mobility and coordination, this “fire attack” directed and staged by Earth-Horse had already fallen to a close before it could expand.

In the venue emitting thick smoke, now only the sound of everyone’s heavy breathing remained.

Even Qi Xia was somewhat amazed at the difficulty of this game.

If the previous games increased in difficulty because he had personally intervened, then whose intervention was behind this game?

Could Earth-Horse’s level alone… achieve this extent?

To survive this game with one hundred percent certainty required not only physical strength, force, and brainpower, but even knowledge of the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse” allusion, familiarity with the “Big Dipper,” and directly confronting an “Earth-level” in the final round.

“The mastermind behind this game is not simple…” Qi Xia knew the Earth-Horse before him absolutely couldn’t be this game’s designer, but he also knew that all his memories about that “Zodiac” part had completely disappeared.

Now he could only hope the mastermind was no longer a “Zodiac.” Otherwise, facing such a strategic mastermind, even he himself didn’t have complete confidence in victory.