Chapter 443: Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse
Qiao Jiajin and his small team searched for a long time before finally finding the second Earth-level Zodiac.
The three men and three women in the team didn’t know what Qiao Jiajin was so worried about, but considering that everyone combined earlier hadn’t been able to beat him, they had no choice but to follow him unconditionally as they walked along the street.
Until they spotted the Earth Horse from a distance.
The Earth Horse appeared to be a woman, with a pure white horse head, and white mane cascading down like long hair.
She wore a pure white suit with a wine-red shirt inside, and was standing in front of an indoor basketball court waiting for them.
“Hello.”
Seeing them approaching, the Earth Horse started greeting them from afar.
Qiao Jiajin scratched his head and walked up slowly.
“Horse... Horse...” Qiao Jiajin hesitated for a long time before uncertainly spitting out three words, “Sister Horse?”
“What ‘sister’...” The Earth Horse frowned at Qiao Jiajin. “How rude. At the very least you should call me ‘Earth Horse.’”
“Alright, alright...” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “Sister Di.”
“How rude!” The Earth Horse shouted. “How can there be someone so rude as you?!”
“Huh?” Qiao Jiajin felt a bit wronged. “Where was I rude? Didn’t you tell me to call you Ms. Di?”
“Stop talking nonsense.” The Earth Horse looked angry, the elegant demeanor she had just displayed disappearing in a few sentences. “Do you want to play or not?!”
“Uh...” Qiao Jiajin was stunned. “Play, play... but can you first tell me what this game is about?”
“Death Race.” The Earth Horse said impatiently. “Five Dao per person. Ten for each survivor. Hurry up.”
Qiao Jiajin looked back at his companions with a troubled expression and asked quietly, “Did I provoke her? Do the Zodiacs have the surname ‘Di’ or ‘Ma’?”
“I don’t think it’s about the surname...” Bai Jiu covered her mouth with a smile. “The problem is with ‘sister.’”
“‘Sister’?” Qiao Jiajin didn’t understand. “This woman is almost two meters tall. Shouldn’t I call her ‘big sister’?”
“You’re also quite strong.” Bai Jiu reached out and tapped Qiao Jiajin’s arm. “You look thin, but you’re actually so solid.”
“Sigh... forget it...” Qiao Jiajin shook his head. “Do we have enough Dao? Seven people, five each... that adds up to a lot.”
“Don’t worry.” Bai Jiu nodded, took out dozens of Dao from her small backpack, counted them with her not-so-broad palm, then stood up and handed them to the Earth Horse. “Sister, don’t be angry. Here’s the Dao.”
“Good girl.” The Earth Horse reached out and patted Bai Jiu’s head, then put away all the Dao.
Qiao Jiajin was even more puzzled. “I still don’t get it... why is it fine when you call her ‘sister’?”
“Brother Qiao, just don’t ask.” Bai Jiu and Yun Shijiu both gave wry smiles. “Let’s go in quickly.”
The Earth Horse put away all the Dao, nodded to them, then turned around and opened the door behind her.
Everyone felt a wave of cold air hit them, as if the room had an air conditioner set to a very low temperature.
“If any of you have thick clothes, please put more on. Catching a cold would be very unpleasant.” The Earth Horse seemed to have regained her composure, speaking in a soft voice. “This way, please.”
They took a deep breath at the entrance, then braving the freezing chill, slowly walked into the basketball court.
Fortunately, basketball courts are simple in construction, so they could take in the entire layout at a glance.
Although called a “basketball court,” it looked like a completely remodeled small square. The hoops on both sides had been removed, leaving only a flat floor.
Upon closer inspection, the floor seemed to have been tampered with—it was covered with a thick layer of ice. It would be no problem to call it an ice rink instead of a basketball court.
In the center of the venue, many pieces of broken glass with sharp tips pointing upward were neatly arranged in two rows, vaguely marking a straight track in the middle of the ice.
Outside the track, many wooden boxes about half a person tall stood on both sides, each with a small round hole, whose function was unknown.
At the end of the track, something about the size of a motorcycle was covered by a dark curtain.
“Everyone, my game is called ‘Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse.’”
“Wooden Flow Flow Horse?” Qiao Jiajin paused.
“Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse.”
“Wood, wooden ox ox horse?”
“Wood—” The Earth Horse was about to explain, but suddenly turned her head away angrily. “If you can’t understand, forget it. Why are you causing trouble here? Someone as crude as you probably wouldn’t be any use even if you did understand.”
“This...” Qiao Jiajin felt that the big sister in front of him was still angry, but he had no idea what he had done wrong.
“Now I’ll explain the rules. Listen carefully.” The Earth Horse slowly walked around the ice and reached the end of the straight track. “My game rules are very simple... All seven of you must complete one round trip on this track within fifteen minutes to win.”
“One round trip?” Qiao Jiajin looked at the track made of thick ice and swallowed. “Are you going to give us ice skates?”
“Ice skates...?” The Earth Horse smiled slightly. They then noticed that she seemed to have put on lipstick on her dark lips, looking somewhat strange. “Don’t even think about ice skates. But I’ll give you something else—something much more powerful than Westerners’ ice skates.”
“What...?” Qiao Jiajin lifted his foot and looked at his old leather shoes, feeling that this was going to be difficult.
The Earth Horse paused, then reached out and pulled aside the curtain, revealing the wooden structure that had been hidden underneath—a very strange handcart.
The handcart looked no different from an ordinary cart, but there was a chair on top of the cart board. The chair seemed to be integrated with the cart, fixed by mortise and tenon joints during construction.
Qiao Jiajin then looked at the wheels of the handcart. His casual glance gave him a start.
Although like other handcarts, the wheel was in the middle of the cart, it was not an ordinary wheel—it was a very smoothly carved wooden sphere.
“Damn...” Qiao Jiajin cursed under his breath. “Lady Di, you must be joking? You want us to push this cart with a spherical bottom on the ice?”
“Yes.” The Earth Horse said. “Not only must you walk on the ice, you must return before the time limit, or everyone dies.”
“Do you think I’ve never pushed a handcart before?” Qiao Jiajin felt this game was ridiculous. “Even ordinary wheels might not roll smoothly on this ice, let alone a ball...”
“That’s why someone has to push it.” The Earth Horse said. “Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?”