Chapter 458: Rare Effect
Bai Jiu stood before the "Wenqu" and slowly swallowed. Lowering her head, she murmured, "Sixth Sister, I'm standing here now. My life is in your hands."
"Tch, what are you saying?" Saturday sighed impatiently. "Has Sixth Sister ever done you wrong?"
"No, it's just that this is too hard to understand..." Bai Jiu said. "A freezing liquid that can frostbite a person, but if you shake it off within two seconds, you'll be fine... Doesn't that sound like the 'three-second rule' for food dropped on the ground?"
"Tch..." Saturday finally understood Bai Jiu's concern. "Xiao Jiu, since you're personally striking the ball now, let me tell you the principle I heard."
Bai Jiu slowly extended her arm, imitating Qiao Jiajin's posture, facing the "Wenqu" as if confronting an enemy.
"Sixth Sister, go ahead."
"It's called the Leidenfrost effect—something like that. It means that if a liquid suddenly comes into contact with an object far above its boiling point, it won't immediately boil or evaporate. Instead, a vapor layer forms on its surface, wrapping around the liquid and allowing it to move about irregularly for a period of time."
"Ah...?"
"If I'm guessing correctly, the liquid you encountered was probably 'liquid nitrogen.' Its boiling point is minus one hundred ninety-something degrees Celsius. Tch, a human palm is far too hot for it, so it triggers that Leidenfrost effect, causing the liquid nitrogen to tumble and roll on your hands without immediately harming your body. Understand now?"
Bai Jiu swallowed again after hearing this. "The Leidenfrost effect... Can something like that really be stored in a person's mind and then applied...?"
"Tch, isn't it being applied right now?" Saturday said. "Just do as I say first. We're almost there."
Bai Jiu nodded and began staring intently at the "Wenqu" before her.
"Ninth Sister..." Chou Ershi beside her said with a worried expression. "Is it really going to work?"
"It will." Bai Jiu agreed. "I fully trust Sixth Sister now."
The mechanism before them trembled slightly. After all, it was just a machine. The "Wenqu" didn't give them time to discuss; it immediately shot out a pure white cold sphere.
This time, the cold ball didn't fly toward Bai Jiu, but instead headed for Chou Ershi.
Chou Ershi had always been wary of it. For a moment, he was stunned and made no move to react.
Bai Jiu was already prepared. She took two steps forward, pulled Chou Ershi aside, then rose on her tiptoes and punched the fist-sized white ball with her fist.
*Crack!*
Such a fragile white ball shattered instantly under Bai Jiu's small fist. The liquid nitrogen inside splashed out, some even landing on Bai Jiu's body and face.
Bai Jiu immediately screamed and shook her whole body frantically: "Aaaahhh!! I'm gonna die! Gonna die! Gonna die!!"
The intensely cold liquid, emitting thick white vapor, left her body under the violent shaking, eventually all turning into white mist.
Bai Jiu stood still for a few seconds, watching the liquid nitrogen on the ground completely turn into cold white smoke, and only then did she realize that she was truly unharmed.
The liquid nitrogen had almost covered her entire body. Although Bai Jiu felt extremely cold, she was indeed unscathed.
"Huh...?" Chou Ershi was stunned. "Ninth Sister... you..."
"Just as I thought!" Bai Jiu looked up with a smile and gave Chou Ershi a heavy pat on the shoulder. "Hehe! Ershi, Sixth Sister's idea is absolutely amazing!!"
Chou Ershi was about to smile back when he noticed frost forming on the leather jacket at Bai Jiu's abdomen.
"Ah! Ninth Sister... your here..."
At that moment, Bai Jiu also felt a chill spreading from her lower abdomen, accompanied by a tingling pain invading her body.
She frowned, looked down at her leather jacket, and saw that the area around her abdomen had frozen as hard as stone.
"Damn..." Bai Jiu pouted and muttered. "So it's not a hundred percent safe... but it's still much better than before."
Without any hesitation, before the cold could get worse on her abdomen, she directly punched and shattered the frozen leather, revealing her flat, toned stomach.
*Crash!*
The shattered pieces of leather fell to the ground like hard plastic shards.
"My clothes!" Bai Jiu felt really aggrieved. "A leather jacket in my size is so hard to find!!"
"Uh..." Chou Ershi blushed a little, glanced at Bai Jiu's unique style of leather jacket, then looked away. "Ninth-ninth Sister... I remember Tenth Brother's size is similar to yours... Maybe you could ask him after we go back..."
"Little Jiang Shi...?" Bai Jiu nodded after hearing that. "Good idea! I'll ask Little Jiang Shi for clothes when we get back."
Chou Ershi nodded and slowly stepped in front of Bai Jiu.
"Ninth Sister, your protection is too thin now. Leave the rest to me." He rolled his shoulders and added, "If shaking off this stuff keeps you safe, I can do it too."
For the next while, Chou Ershi single-handedly handled all the ice balls from the "Wenqu."
But he was a bit too cautious. Every time he shattered an ice ball, he would jump around frantically like he'd been electrocuted, until not a single drop of liquid nitrogen remained on him.
The last time, even though he had already shaken off all the liquid nitrogen, Chou Ershi felt it wasn't safe enough and jumped a few more times on the spot. Eventually, his foot slipped and he landed hard on his butt.
"Silly brat..." Qiao Jiajin, watching from a distance, blinked slightly. "What kind of circus act is that?"
"Jo-Jo Ge..." Chou Ershi lay on the ground with an awkward smile. "Sorry, my feet are really slippery..."
Now, the group had quickly passed through four stars in a very short time. There were still over eight minutes left in the game, and the progress was more than halfway through. No matter how you looked at it, this was excellent news.
After reaching the finish line, Qiao Jiajin got off his tricycle, walked to the side of the track, and looked down at the shattered white balls on the ground. Soon, his brow furrowed.
Neither the iron balls from before nor the current white balls had any traces of writing on them.
"Damn it, you ugly bastard..." Qiao Jiajin cursed under his breath. "So many 'balls' without any writing. Were your so-called rewards written on those 'coal balls' from before?"
The group rested for about ten seconds. Ning Shiba looked down, counted on his fingers again, then raised his head to scan all the wooden mechanisms around them. He felt like he had found some clue.
"Jo Ge!" Ning Shiba decided to share his thoughts with Qiao Jiajin immediately.
"What?"
"The next round's 'ball' should contain the so-called 'reward,' but it might also be even more dangerous..."
"What?"
Ning Shiba took a deep breath. "The next 'star' is called 'Lucun.' It belongs to 'Ji Earth' and governs 'blessings, fortune, and wealth.'"