Chapter 190: The Will to Win and the Will to Protect
"What the hell..." Qiao Jiajin's lips trembled slightly. "You guys are absolutely insane..."
Xiaoxiao let out a few loud laughs and said, "Hooligan, we can die anytime we want. But what about you?"
Qiao Jiajin didn't answer. Instead, he turned his head to look at Zhang Shan. "Big guy... this rock looks like it's at most three or four hundred jin. Did it really knock you out?"
Zhang Shan was pinned under the rock, not moving.
"Damn... you're not dead, are you...?" Qiao Jiajin let out a bitter laugh and flexed his hands and feet again. "This is going to be hard to explain."
As soon as he finished speaking, a fist flew into Qiao Jiajin's face.
Qiao Jiajin's head snapped to the side, followed by a few coughs.
"Hooligan, weren't you always trying to make me admit defeat?" Xiaoxiao sneered. "I'll give you the same words. If you admit defeat now, I'll give you a way out."
"A way out?" Qiao Jiajin lifted the corner of his mouth and turned his head back. "Who says I want a 'way out'?"
"Oh? So you're not afraid of death either?"
"What's there to be afraid of in death..." Qiao Jiajin shook his head. "What I'm afraid of is 'loss'."
Xiaoxiao's face turned cold. She backhanded Qiao Jiajin across the face.
"Pretentious." She grabbed his shoulder and tried to push him off the bridge, only to find that the rock on his body was extremely heavy, rooted to the ground like a tree stump, immovable.
"With such a heavy rock hanging on you, your arms and legs aren't broken?" Xiaoxiao asked with a smile.
"Thanks to you, my limbs are still sturdy," Qiao Jiajin said. "How about you? Does your right leg still hurt?"
"You..."
Xiaoxiao touched her broken right leg, clearly provoked by Qiao Jiajin. She swung her fist and struck him hard on the arm.
Because Qiao Jiajin's arm was buried in the rock, the impact not only caused pain but also a tearing sensation.
He felt like he was about to lose that arm.
"Still talking tough!" Xiaoxiao shouted coldly. "Today I'll break all four of your limbs and see if you still talk tough!"
Hearing this, Qiao Jiajin let out a helpless laugh. He looked back at Zhang Shan. "Big guy... what do you think we should do?"
Zhang Shan, lying on the ground, finally slowly opened his eyes. He felt pain all over his internal organs.
"Cough..." A large mouthful of blood sprayed onto the ground from Zhang Shan.
"Oh... good morning..." Qiao Jiajin said with a smile.
"Am... I dead or not?" Zhang Shan coughed a few times and asked in a low voice.
"Probably dead," Qiao Jiajin nodded. "You're haunting me right now."
Zhang Shan turned his head with difficulty to look at the situation on the bridge.
Li Xiangling was no longer there, and Qiao Jiajin didn't look like he could hold on much longer.
"Are we... going to lose?" Zhang Shan asked incredulously.
Upon hearing this, Xiaoxiao limped over and kicked Zhang Shan in the head.
"Did you think you were going to win?!" Xiaoxiao shouted coldly. "After this battle, Qi Xia will belong to our 'Jidao'."
She tried to push Zhang Shan off as well, but the rock on his body was even heavier than Qiao Jiajin's, and she couldn't budge him for the moment.
Qiao Jiajin slowly lifted his head. "Big woman... what the hell are you talking about? You only said you were taking him away. You never said you were going to turn him into a madman like you..."
"If he doesn't agree, we'll just kill him every time we see him, until he does."
Qiao Jiajin's expression turned icy cold, a buzzing in his ears.
"Last time, because I wasn't there, I failed to protect Jiu Zai... He followed the wrong person, trusted the wrong person... So after he died, no one even collected his corpse..." Qiao Jiajin slowly raised his head, as if he had made up his mind. "But this time, I'm here... I absolutely will not allow the same thing to happen..."
Zhang Shan also let out a bitter laugh after a few more coughs. "Looks like... we really are going to lose..."
Both of their expressions changed.
"Surname Qiao, do you want to go on a rampage with me...?" Zhang Shan asked.
*Clang*!!
A huge bell sound rippled from afar. It was extraordinarily loud, as if it were right in front of them.
Qiao Jiajin listened to the bell and thought for a moment. Finally, he dropped his disguise, his face as still as dead water. "Go on a rampage...? I couldn't ask for more."
*Clang*!!
Another massive bell sound shook the skies, even louder than the last one.
...
Chu Tianqiu and Xiao Nian were walking toward the notice board in the square.
"Tianqiu, showing yourself so rashly... is way too dangerous." Xu Liunian said with a worried expression.
"It's fine." Chu Tianqiu shook his head. "Thanks to you, even if 'Jidao' discovers me now, they'll think I'm an impostor."
Xu Liunian lowered her head and was silent for a moment, then asked, "But are they really okay? That man named Zhang Shan..."
"Xiao Nian, you just came back, so you don't understand Zhang Shan." Chu Tianqiu revealed a meaningful smile.
"I know he's an 'Echoer', but so what?" Xu Liunian asked with concern. "The other side also has three 'Echoers'... It's three against one. There's no way he can come out on top."
"I stumbled upon Zhang Shan about a year ago," Chu Tianqiu said. "His ability is incredibly powerful... Although it only lasts a very short time, it's enough to make him invincible in battle. I believe that even among 'Echoers', there are levels."
"Levels among 'Echoers'...?" Xu Liunian didn't understand. "Our abilities all seem to have various drawbacks. How can we distinguish levels?"
Chu Tianqiu was silent for a moment, then spoke. "Xiao Nian, I'll take you somewhere. When you see Zhang Shan's 'Echo' with your own eyes, you'll naturally see what sets him apart."
"You mean..." Xu Liunian thought for a moment. "Zhang Shan's 'Echo' has a different name from others?"
"Exactly."
As they spoke, they arrived at the square. In front of them stood the huge screen and the bronze bell suspended above it.
Chu Tianqiu found an old bench and sat down, beckoning to Xu Liunian.
"Come, sit."
Xu Liunian sat down with a puzzled look, feeling a bit uneasy.
She was willing to give up her life for Chu Tianqiu, yet she always felt she could never truly enter his heart.
What was this smiling man constantly thinking about?
Chu Tianqiu gazed at the sky with a melancholy expression, then pulled out an old piece of paper from his pocket.
The paper looked like it had been torn from a notebook, yellowed and worn, seeming quite old.
On it was a single sentence: "I absolutely must not let Qi Xia obtain the 'Echo'."
He then took out another slip of paper from his left pocket. The handwriting on both was the same, but the content was different.
"I must let Qi Xia obtain the 'Echo'."
Chu Tianqiu knew that both slips were written by him at some point, but he didn't know which one was lying.
Since they were completely opposite answers, one of them must be a lie.
He... lying to himself?
Chu Tianqiu lifted his head slightly and noticed the bronze bell not far away begin to sway.
"Cover your ears, Xiao Nian."
He put away the papers and covered his own ears. Xu Liunian followed suit.
*Clang*!!!!
A massive bell sound rang out before them. The sound wave circled the entire square once before shooting into the sky.
The bell was so loud it could blast a person's soul right out of their body.
Xu Liunian and Chu Tianqiu couldn't keep their eyes open. They could only wait for the bell sound to dissipate on its own.
After a moment, they both opened their eyes and looked at the display screen.
A line of shimmering text appeared in their view.
"I hear the Echo of 'Tian Xing Jian'!"
"'Tian Xing Jian'..." Xu Liunian stared at the screen in shock. This was the first time she had seen a person's 'Echo' name consisting of three characters, and also the first time she had heard such a powerful bell.
"What exactly is his ability...?" she asked.
"He is..." Before Chu Tianqiu could answer, he saw the huge bronze bell start swinging violently again. "What?!"
"Quick! Cover your ears!" he yelled.