“Uh… doesn’t seem to work too well…” Jiang Shi said. “Is there anything else? Something I can use to support myself and stand up?”

Cui Shisi from the adjacent room heard this and took a step forward, moving closer to Chen Junnan. “Leader, does Brother Shi need something to support himself with? We have a treasured sword here.”

“Bring it quickly…” Jiang Shi shouted across the room without any hesitation. “Right now I have no head and no legs, so fighting Earth-Rabbit will be pretty awkward…”

He paused, then adjusted his wording. “I mean… being beaten up by Earth-Rabbit will be a bit awkward.”

Cui Shisi shook his head and took down the longsword from his back—this was the magical treasure belonging to the Eight Immortals’ “Lü Dongbin.”

“Leader…” Cui Shisi turned his head, looking at Chen Junnan with that fair, almost luminous face. “Should we give this to Brother Shi?”

The middle-aged man Wu Shisan frowned slightly from the side. “Wait a moment… Having Brother Shi stand up isn’t a problem, but what if that Earth-Rabbit destroys this sword? Then we’ll never be able to escape…”

“It won’t happen,” Chen Junnan said. “The ‘Zodiac’ can’t possibly cut off all routes to survival in this game. If the exit tool is destroyed, he himself would be breaking the rules.”

“I see…” Cui Shisi nodded. “Then this sword…”

“Throw it to me…” Chen Junnan smiled. “It might even produce a miraculous effect…”

“Miraculous effect?” Cui Shisi didn’t understand what Chen Junnan meant, and could only throw the seemingly very sturdy iron sword through the door to Chen Junnan. Chen Junnan then turned and tossed it beside Jiang Shi.

Seeing this scene, Earth-Rabbit suddenly felt something was wrong. Just as he was about to rush forward to snatch it, he saw Jiang Shi’s body suddenly roll over, and accompanied by the screaming sound of the head on the ground, lunged directly toward the sword.

“Excellent!” Jiang Shi’s head shouted loudly. “Grandpa now has a weapon at hand! You demons, why don’t you…”

Jiang Shi reached out to grab the treasured sword, but accidentally grabbed the blade directly. After screaming in pain, he immediately grabbed toward the hilt instead.

“Ah ah ah! Why don’t you quickly surrender!!!”

Jiang Shi used the treasured sword to prop himself up from the ground and stood up, walking forward with great difficulty for a few steps. Then he reached out to grab his own hair and gathered his head into his embrace.

“I feel so cool right now…” Jiang Shi muttered quietly. “One hand holding a sword, one hand holding my head… I’m like a mythological figure… Who was it again?”

Chen Junnan sighed deeply. “There probably isn’t such a mythological figure… The closest one to you would only be Xing Tian, but he didn’t hold his head, and what he held wasn’t a treasured sword either.”

“Doesn’t matter!” The head in Jiang Shi’s hand shouted loudly. “As long as I’m here… no one can get past!”

“The momentum is quite fierce…” Chen Junnan shook his head. “Kid, if you use that sword well… it should guarantee you won’t get hurt anymore.”

“Oh?” After hearing this, Jiang Shi turned his upper body around, and the head in his hand asked in a serious voice, “What did you say? Do you have some strategy?”

Seeing a bare upper body turn around, Chen Junnan felt a bit confused.

“Turn your damn head around!!” Chen Junnan shouted. “Why are you only turning your upper body?! Can you even see me?”

“Oh, sorry.” Jiang Shi also felt it was strange, and could only use his hand to turn the head he was holding around as well. “If you have any strategy, please tell me… I will certainly do my utmost for everyone.”

“Sigh… You’ve certainly done a lot, but why do I feel like you and I are the same type of people—never letting anyone have peace of mind…” Chen Junnan shook his head and continued, “Forget it. As I just said, the ‘Zodiac’ cannot destroy game props… So the ‘sword’ in your hand is now your ‘shield’…”

“Eh?” Jiang Shi was stunned for a moment. “That actually makes some sense… He can’t break this treasured sword…”

“But as for how badly you’ll get beaten… that still depends on you…”

After hearing this, Jiang Shi grabbed his head and nodded a few times. “I understand, thank you for your strategy.”

“Stop nodding! It’s so much effort!” Chen Junnan shouted. “Get ready for battle!”

Jiang Shi turned back around to face Earth-Rabbit once again, while Earth-Rabbit began scratching his head hesitantly.

“To kill you… can I only beat you into minced meat?”

“That won’t work either,” Jiang Shi smiled. “Even if you beat me into minced meat, I’ll probably just keep wriggling on the ground. ‘Immortal’ means ‘Immortal’—you can’t destroy me.”

“Monster… can there really be such an ‘Echo’…” Earth-Rabbit narrowed his eyes and muttered quietly, “Your constitution… what’s the difference between you and those four…?”

“Those four? Am I comparable to the Four Heavenly Kings of the Southern Heavenly Gate now? Ha!” Little Jiang Shi shouted while holding his own head, then raised his treasured sword again. “Demon! Meet your death!”

Chen Junnan watched this kid’s demeanor and felt something was always a bit strange.

A twelve or thirteen-year-old kid should normally be at the age of playfulness and liveliness, but he not only seemed old-fashioned but was also full of incomprehensible talk.

“Sister Shisi,” Chen Junnan turned back to ask the adjacent room, “What did Brother Shi do for a living before?”

“He was an apprentice storyteller,” Cui Shisi answered. “When we were bored at night… Brother Shi would tell us stories from the storytelling performances.”

“Story…” Chen Junnan nodded. “Good, good, good, a family of traditional arts, I see…”

Just as the two finished speaking, Earth-Rabbit once again extended his fist and swung it toward Jiang Shi. At the critical moment, Jiang Shi also swung Lü Dongbin’s treasured sword toward the fist.

Earth-Rabbit’s fist, carrying a whooshing wind sound, stopped just as it was about to strike the treasured sword.

The person and rabbit seemed frozen in place like they had been immobilized.

“Yo ho!” Seeing the strategy work, Jiang Shi shouted loudly, “Demon! Behold my ‘magical treasure’ suppressing you!”

“You…” Earth-Rabbit furrowed his brow and slowly withdrew his fist. He pondered for several seconds before gradually revealing a strange smile. “I understand now.”

“You understand?” Just as Jiang Shi was about to lose his balance, he used the treasured sword to prop himself up on the ground. “What does a rabbit demon like you understand?”

“I understand what you’re doing…” Earth-Rabbit extended his hand covered in white fur and rubbed his fist, then withdrew both hands and put them in his pockets. “‘Immortal,’ if I just ignore you… what can you do about it?”

“Ignore me…?” Jiang Shi blinked, feeling something wasn’t right.