“You… won?”

Chen Junnan was the first to stand up, carefully examining the cards in front of Earth-Monkey.

“Brother Monkey, forgive this younger brother’s stupidity, but you didn’t look at the cards wrong, did you?” Chen Junnan said. “Where exactly did you win with these cards? Did you win on that rat-faced monkey expression of yours?”

Everyone looked at Earth-Monkey’s cards with some bewilderment, their minds filled with a heap of questions.

Why would this hand win?

It wasn’t easy for Earth-Monkey to win a round, after all, his hand had to beat everyone on the field.

Even if the rules changed, everyone’s hands would combine into many different possibilities. With five people’s hands, could there really not be a single one that could beat Earth-Monkey?

Qi Xia was also rapidly thinking through various possibilities.

Why would “Tomb-Sweeping Day” and “Spring Equinox” plus “Spring Festival” be the biggest on the field?

What made this hand so big?

Seeing that Earth-Monkey didn’t answer him, Chen Junnan slowly sat back in his chair. He just felt a wave of fear—if Qi Xia hadn’t stopped him just now, his life would have been wasted right now.

“Fat monkey!” Qiao Jiajin slammed the table and also stood up. “Are you a sore loser trying to trick us on purpose?”

“Oh?” Earth-Monkey laughed coldly. “I don’t understand.”

“This hand of yours is clearly the smallest in the whole game!” Qiao Jiajin said. “Did you feel like you were going to lose and just directly declare yourself the winner? After all, this is your ‘casino,’ and whatever you say goes.”

“Then I’m truly sorry.” Earth-Monkey pushed out the cards in front of him. “Before the game started, I already said there wouldn’t be any ‘false reporting.’ If you won but I didn’t acknowledge it, that would count as violating the game rules, and right now ‘Xuanwu’ would already be standing beside me.”

Qi Xia also thought that Earth-Monkey wouldn’t suddenly fabricate a lie at this critical juncture—that would make the entire game meaningless.

Not only would the “Lunar Month” hand be meaningless, even the glowing wooden box on the table would become a useless prop.

Earth-Monkey stood up and took away the chips in front of each person. This round, Qi Xia had put out five “Dao,” and the others had each put out three. Earth-Monkey had won fourteen “Dao” from everyone in a single round.

Now Qi Xia had lost everything. Xiao Cheng only had one “Dao” left in his hand, and the others had two “Dao” each. The situation was even worse than at the start of the game.

But Qi Xia wasn’t disheartened by losing the “Dao.” He just kept examining Earth-Monkey’s cards, considering various possibilities.

“Earth-Monkey…” Qi Xia pushed all the chips in front of him to Earth-Monkey, his expression somewhat grave.

“Don’t ask. I won’t say.” Earth-Monkey said. “But looking at it this way, it seems a bit unfair and somewhat takes away from the fun of gambling. How about this, Qi Xia…”

Earth-Monkey slowly leaned forward, gathered the chips on the table into his arms, and said in a low voice, “How about I give you a ‘lifeline’?”

“A lifeline…?”

“You can ask me one question, but you can’t directly ask about the ‘rules.’ I’ll answer honestly, and after that it depends on your own abilities.”

Qi Xia placed his hand under the table and tightly gripped his already broken pinky finger—he knew Earth-Monkey was giving him a chance!

This wasn’t just Qi Xia’s chance—it was the only chance for all six people to achieve victory.

In this round of the game, Earth-Monkey had won almost all of everyone’s chips, and there were four rounds left until the game ended.

There was no more time for them to make mistakes. If they couldn’t deduce the rules in one go here, none of the six people present would survive.

But that lingering fog made Qi Xia clench his teeth tightly.

The situation was truly dire. His pinky finger had already turned a dark red color. Looking at it now, it was certainly completely shattered. Even this pain couldn’t dispel the fog—was his condition worsening?

Qi Xia was out of options, but suddenly thought of something. He turned to look at Zheng Yingxiong.

At this moment, Zheng Yingxiong also seemed to have telepathy and turned to meet Qi Xia’s eyes.

He immediately raised his nose, wanting to capture some “feeling,” but in the next second, Qi Xia saw his nose gush out fresh blood.

Zheng Yingxiong felt something and immediately covered his mouth and nose with his hand. Fresh blood continuously seeped out through the gaps in his fingers.

This nosebleed didn’t look like an ordinary nosebleed. Instead, it was like his body had been slashed open with a huge gash. The blood didn’t flow out strand by strand, but spread in sheets.

“Little brother!” Tiantian quickly pulled Zheng Yingxiong aside, reaching out to press on his nose. Zheng Yingxiong tilted his head back accordingly.

But this tilt caused all of Zheng Yingxiong’s nosebleed to flow backward, instantly making him cough nonstop. Before long, he was coughing up blood continuously, and the table was also splattered with blood spots.

Remembering that Qi Xia had once told him not to tilt his head back, Zheng Yingxiong quickly bent forward and pinched his nostrils with his hand.

Seeing that Zheng Yingxiong’s nosebleed was still seeping from his fingertips, Qi Xia knew his “external brain” was also gone.

Zheng Yingxiong had already done enough—he himself just wasn’t strong enough.

Qi Xia looked around for a handy tool. Now Earth-Monkey would never let him use the wooden box in the center of the table to attack himself, so he could only look for something else—

Something that could make him hurt more.

After looking around the entire circle and not finding any tools, Qi Xia slowly stood up, then pressed on the back of his chair, lifting the front legs of the chair off the ground, and then placed his entire right hand underneath.

Yes, merely sacrificing a finger was no longer enough to keep him awake. He now needed a stronger stimulus.

Like destroying his entire hand.

Qi Xia knew that over these years, he had lost far more than just one hand, so there was no need to hesitate at all. Just as he was about to bring the chair crashing down, Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan simultaneously reached out to grab the chair.

“Old Qi! What the hell, are you crazy today?!”

Chen Junnan quickly flipped the chair aside, and Qiao Jiajin took the opportunity to pull Qi Xia’s right hand out.

“Liar boy! What have you been doing this whole time?”

The two helped Qi Xia up, both looking at him with puzzled expressions.

Qi Xia still seemed to be that same Qi Xia—calm, sharp, able to handle all kinds of difficult problems that arose on the field. But today he had frequently begun bizarre, vicious self-harm, making both Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin feel somewhat uneasy.

“I need to wake myself up…” Qi Xia said with a face full of despair. “I’m currently lost…”

“What?”

The two noticed that Qi Xia’s eyes seemed to have changed somewhat—

He seemed to be afraid.

“Your fist… Old Chen… I can’t get lost here…” Qi Xia said with a trembling voice. “My brain is out of control… We can’t win anymore…”

After hearing this, the two looked at each other, first letting out a bitter laugh, then slowly spreading the smile across their entire faces.

“I thought it was something serious…” Chen Junnan laughed heartily. “Old Qi, you’re tired, aren’t you?”

“What…?”

“That’s right.” Qiao Jiajin also nodded and looked at Chen Junnan again. “Liar boy, if you’re tired, just rest well. You can leave the field to the two of us.”