Chapter 488: Beaten Senseless
This time, Earth Rabbit walked up to Jiang Shi’s door and opened it directly.
It was naturally the right move. After all, Jiang Shi’s direction was closer to Room Ten and Room Fourteen. As long as he locked onto that direction, he could head toward where the participant was.
Seeing his door opened, Jiang Shi slowly stood up, turned his head, and said to Chen Junnan next door, “Idiot leader, do you want to lock your door?”
“Huh?” Chen Junnan looked at him in confusion. “You don’t want me cheering you on from the sidelines?”
“Are you crazy?” Jiang Shi curled his lip. “He’s about to come in and beat the hell out of me, and you want to cheer me on? Are you trying to get me pumped up for a beating?”
“You ungrateful little brat!” Chen Junnan curled his lip back.
Of course, Chen Junnan wanted to see exactly how powerful “Indestructible” was. Getting up close like this was the perfect opportunity to observe, but it also had a clear downside—once Earth Rabbit realized that “Indestructible” was hard to kill, he would naturally shift all his attention onto Chen Junnan.
Thinking that over, he opened his mouth slightly. “I’ll be right here watching you, so you better perform well.”
“I promise I won’t cry,” Jiang Shi said, dead serious.
Chen Junnan watched as the main group moved from Room Six to Room Ten, but neither closed nor locked the door, as if they were leaving themselves an escape route.
“Leader,” Cui Shisi called back. “The artifact isn’t in Ten. We’ll continue onward to Fourteen.”
“Got it,” Chen Junnan nodded. He didn’t have the mind to care about the artifact anymore.
After all, Earth Rabbit had already chosen his battlefield. This place was about to run with blood.
“‘Indestructible’…” Chen Junnan’s heart tightened. “Let’s see what the hell you really are…”
“Participant movement concluded. Please allow the Zodiac to begin their action.”
As the broadcast faded, Earth Rabbit, cracking his wrists, strode into Jiang Shi’s room with an overwhelming pressure.
Jiang Shi was still squatting on the ground, hands tucked into his sleeves, looking up lazily at the towering Earth Rabbit. The sheer difference in their sizes created a stark contrast.
“Kid…” Earth Rabbit slowly rolled his neck, veins beginning to bulge on his face. “Weren’t you begging to die?”
“Ah… yeah.” Jiang Shi nodded blankly. “Begging to die… How do you want me to die?”
“Hah…”
Earth Rabbit slowly raised his fist. From where he stood, Chen Junnan felt that Earth Rabbit’s fist was nearly as big as Jiang Shi’s head.
Jiang Shi still squatted there, expressionless, staring at the massive fist. He muttered quietly, “Am I… about to die?”
The moment the words left his mouth, a perfectly timed bell tolled from somewhere in the distance. And right along with it, Earth Rabbit casually swung his fist down.
Jiang Shi immediately leaned back on the ground, using his right hand to brace himself as he flipped backward in an elegantly acrobatic motion.
The punch landed on nothing.
“Oh…” Jiang Shi steadied himself and tucked his hands back into his sleeves. “Not that fast, huh…”
“Why are you acting like a monkey…?” Earth Rabbit frowned at the kid. He couldn’t figure out how a child who looked only twelve or thirteen could have some kind of martial skill.
But Chen Junnan had already noticed something odd.
Jiang Shi’s flip was something Chen Junnan had seen many times before. It wasn’t real “martial arts”—it was too textbook, more like the acrobatic stunts from Peking opera.
“Don’t be angry.” Jiang Shi looked up and smiled. “As the saying goes… wine is gut-piercing poison, lust is flesh-carving blade…”
Earth Rabbit took a few steps forward and stomped downward. This time he put much more force behind it, but Jiang Shi once again performed a backflip, widening the distance.
A dull thud echoed as if the ground might split, but the kick missed Jiang Shi entirely.
Once he landed, Jiang Shi tucked his hands back in and said slowly, “Wealth is the root of disaster… anger is thunder and gunpowder.”
“What’s wrong with you, kid?” Earth Rabbit felt a strange aura from this child—he seemed even more world-weary than Earth Rabbit himself.
Watching this, Chen Junnan felt a little relieved. Earth Rabbit’s physique was similar to Zhang Shan’s—all that muscle gave him explosive power, but he didn’t seem to have much skill in actual combat.
That punch and kick earlier had no real form—it was like a street brawl. He was relying on pure force to overpower Jiang Shi. But Jiang Shi was more agile than most kids, and his basic training in singing, reciting, and acrobatics gave him an edge. He probably wouldn’t be killed anytime soon.
Their agility gap was huge, but the Zodiac had far greater endurance than normal people.
Earth Rabbit had no time limit for killing participants. And for now, Jiang Shi was using every muscle in his body to flip around with every dodge. He wouldn’t get hurt immediately, but how long could he keep it up?
Just as Chen Junnan expected, after seven or eight backflips, Jiang Shi was already panting. He tried to maintain distance, but Earth Rabbit gradually cornered him.
“Kid, done jumping?” Earth Rabbit snorted, blocking all of Jiang Shi’s exits with his broad frame.
Jiang Shi swallowed slightly. “Too bad I only learned backflips… I never got to forward rolls.”
“Ha.” Earth Rabbit found that funny. “Don’t say I’m bullying a kid. I’ll let you die now.”
Jiang Shi let out a slow breath, pulled his hands out of his sleeves, and flexed his tiny fingers.
“A three-foot dragon spring and ten thousand books—why does Heaven give me birth…” Jiang Shi closed his eyes. “If I cannot repay my country and pacify the world, I am unworthy to be called a man… As I was saying before, a giant rabbit demon stopped at nothing, cornered the brave warrior, and struck without warning. The wind roared so fiercely it stung the eyes…”
Earth Rabbit’s expression changed slightly. He no longer paid attention to the crazy kid. With no finesse, he punched downward from above Jiang Shi’s head, landing square on his cheek.
A crisp sound rang out.
Jiang Shi’s head was violently twisted to one side at a terrifying angle. It looked as if his neck had snapped completely—only a thin layer of skin connected his head to his body now.
The punch had been so fast that flakes of skin from Jiang Shi’s face scattered onto the floor.
A gust of wind from the fist swept past, and Jiang Shi was completely still.
“Hey… n-no way…” Chen Junnan stared in horror. He had expected Jiang Shi to get hit eventually, but he never imagined it would be a one-hit kill. “Kid, aren’t you ‘Indestructible’? Activate it!”
Jiang Shi’s head slowly drooped to one side, and he collapsed limply to the ground.
Chen Junnan immediately turned to look at Cui Shisi, who was still in the far room. “Fourteen, what the hell? The kid got hit and just stopped moving…”
Cui Shisi watched for a moment, then reached up to smooth her hair, thinking hard. Finally, she said, “I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but Brother Ten might just be beaten senseless. It’s fine, it’s fine.”
“Beaten senseless?!” Chen Junnan couldn’t wrap his head around it. “That kid’s head is twisted sideways! And you’re saying it’s fine?!”