# Chapter 143: The Unusable Tactic
The speed at which the room was ascending increased once again.
Qi Xia pressed himself against the dark window and looked outside. The opposing room was now like an elevator that had lost its cables, plunging ceaselessly toward the flames.
His heart felt heavy.
Was there also a team in that room across from them?
Were there also four people?
They might just die like this, without even knowing what hit them.
Just as the opposing room was about to fall into the fire, the descending speed suddenly slowed down.
Qi Xia furrowed his brow, realizing that they had also thrown out all their stools.
It seemed the other side also had a strong fellow.
Now the weight of both sides was about the same, and they might even return to the initial state.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then immediately took off his own shirt, rolled it into a towel shape, and tossed it out through the dark window.
He turned around to say something, only to find that Qiao Jiajin had already taken off his shirt too.
"Take mine and throw it!" As he spoke, he started taking off his pants.
"Ah, you…" Yun Yao awkwardly covered her eyes, "How come you suddenly…"
"Don't worry! I won't take everything off!"
"Then… what about us?" Tiantian asked awkwardly.
"Forget it, you two," Qi Xia shook his head. "Your clothes don't weigh much. Taking them off won't help."
Qi Xia took Qiao Jiajin's shirt and jeans and shoved them out without a second word.
Then he took off his own shoes and Qiao Jiajin's and threw them out too.
Yun Yao and Tiantian followed suit, taking off their shoes, cutting them up with a knife, and tossing them out.
The two big men were now stripped down to their briefs. They went to the wall and nervously looked outside.
Sure enough, the balance was broken again.
The opposing room had just started to rise, but then it sank once more.
There was indeed a clever person on the other side, but their strategy was always one step behind Qi Xia's.
In this kind of life-or-death game, never mind being one step slower—even a single moment's delay could send you plummeting into hell.
This time, the other side was destined to fall into the sea of fire.
Qi Xia watched the room in the distance accelerate downward, and his brow suddenly furrowed.
Something occurred to him.
"No!" He quickly turned back and shouted to the three, "Grab hold of the wire mesh on the floor!!"
"Huh?"
The three were stunned. They immediately followed Qi Xia's lead, crouched down, and gripped the iron mesh tightly.
They realized that through the mesh beneath their feet, they could clearly see what was happening below in the distance.
The distant room crashed heavily into the flames with tremendous force. Countless sparks splattered in all directions, instantly illuminating the surrounding area.
The next second, the room rebounded from the fire due to the reaction force of the impact, like a real seesaw.
The metal pillars connecting the two rooms let out a tremendous screech.
Qi Xia's room synchronized with the opponent's—after shooting upward sharply, it suddenly plummeted. If they hadn't grabbed the mesh in advance, they would have been badly injured.
A series of faint, ethereal screams came from the distant room, barely audible.
But everyone knew that the other side had either been burned or injured from the impact. Their losses must have been severe.
Even though they had only fallen into the fire for an instant, the sudden, searing heat was enough to burn their clothes and hair.
"Damn it…" Qi Xia gritted his teeth and pounded the floor hard. "Why is this…?"
He closed his eyes, unable to bear watching or listening any longer.
But the screams he imagined never came again.
"Hey… trickster… something's not right…" Qiao Jiajin shook Qi Xia. "Take a look!"
Qi Xia opened his eyes and saw that their own room was slowly descending, while the other room, like a sun wreathed in flames, was rising steadily.
"What's going on?"
The reaction force from hitting the ground would cause a brief ascent, but it definitely wouldn't sustain a continuous rise…
Did they have another plan?
Was there something else they could throw out that he hadn't thought of?
"What is it?"
Qi Xia kept scanning the room. There was nothing left on them to discard.
But why was the other side still rising?
At that moment, Tiantian slowly extended her hand and raised it in front of Qiao Jiajin.
"What are you doing?" Qiao Jiajin asked, eyes wide.
"My hand is very small and light. It should be okay to throw," Tiantian said, her voice trembling.
"I said no!" Qiao Jiajin shook his head repeatedly. "There has to be another way! We'll think of something else!"
"There's no time to think of anything else!!" Tiantian shouted. "We'll fall into the fire in less than a minute! I'd rather die in pain than be burned to death!"
"No, no, no…" Qiao Jiajin kept shaking his head. "The trickster is still here. He'll think of something!"
"If you won't do it, I'll do it myself!" Tiantian said. "Give me the knife!"
"I said no!"
The noisy arguing made Qi Xia's head throb painfully.
He certainly couldn't let Tiantian cut off her own hand, but…
Was there any other way besides that?
Maybe cutting off one of Tiantian's hands, or both…
Or…
Qi Xia suddenly frowned and slapped himself hard across the face.
"Qi Xia, what the hell are you thinking?" he muttered to himself. "You can't do that to her. Calm down… calm down… Think carefully about what knowledge you can use."
Yun Yao turned her head and looked at Qi Xia. He seemed to be in extreme pain, the despair in his eyes stronger than usual.
"The Lansden Principle…? No, no… The Disaster Bias Law… No, that's not it…" Qi Xia grabbed his hair, muttering incessantly.
The room slowly descended. Scorching hot air had already filled the entire space.
The four of them were drenched in sweat. Every second now felt as long as a year.
Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia with reluctance, then picked up the knife and walked to a corner of the room. Without a word, he swung hard at the wire mesh on the floor.
"What are you doing?" Yun Yao wiped her sweat and asked.
"I want to help the trickster," Qiao Jiajin said flatly. "But I'm very stupid. The only idea I could come up with is to cut off part of the wire mesh."
"Cut off… the wire mesh?" Yun Yao and Qi Xia both paused.
"That's right. It's the only thing I could think of."
"Yes!" Qi Xia scrambled to his feet, his expression twisted with urgency. "Great idea!"
He stumbled over to Qiao Jiajin and stared at him as he hacked at the mesh.
But the wire mesh was exceptionally hard. Qiao Jiajin exerted great effort, chopping many times in a row, before he managed to cut through one of the wires.
At this rate, they would definitely fall into the fire.
Yun Yao also crouched down, covering her forehead in frustration. It was all over.
But Qiao Jiajin and Qi Xia still hadn't given up. They set the knife aside, grabbed the gap in the mesh, and pulled with all their strength.
A loud screech rang out as the mesh was lifted, but it didn't break.
Their weight remained unchanged.
"Qiao Jiajin, cut here again!" Qi Xia pointed at the joint of the mesh.
"Okay!"
Qiao Jiajin turned around to grab the knife, but found it was gone.