Chapter 490: Bone Setting
"Kid..." Chen Junnan asked, worried. "How long can your 'Echo' last?"
"A long time..." Jiang Shi replied. "If my conviction is strong enough... I can even keep it up for an entire day."
Chen Junnan felt slightly relieved for the moment. Since time wasn't a factor, all he had to do now was see whether Earth Rabbit would voluntarily give up on this killing spree.
Jiang Shi held his own head facing Earth Rabbit, leaving the towering Earth Rabbit momentarily at a loss for what to do.
If this kid doesn't die even when his head falls off... then what other methods would even work?
"I seek death." The head in Jiang Shi's hands parted its lips slightly. "Monster, why have you stopped?"
Hearing this, Earth Rabbit steadied himself again. He extended his thigh, thick as a stone pillar, and kicked Jiang Shi straight in the abdomen. Jiang Shi, having lost his normal vision, misjudged the trajectory of the kick. His entire body, still clutching his own head, was sent flying and slammed heavily into the wall beside Chen Junnan.
Jiang Shi's frail body stuck to the wall like a poster for a few moments before slowly sliding to the ground. This time, the sounds coming from him were even more ominous. Cracking noises of broken bones echoed constantly from his body. Any ordinary person would undoubtedly be dead.
Could anyone in this world really keep being beaten by an Earth-grade Zodiac without dying?
"Oh my god..." After landing, Jiang Shi's head rolled to the side. His body trembled a few times, while the head coughed several times and spat out many unrecognizable objects. "Cough, cough... That hurts so much..."
Chen Junnan frowned and looked at Earth Rabbit, shouting from afar. "Big brother rabbit bastard, how about we set a time limit? Give you another thirty seconds. If you still can't kill him, we'll count it as you forfeiting."
"Forfeit? If I were merciful toward 'Participants,' why would I hold this 'Peng Lai' in the first place?" Earth Rabbit sneered. "The Eight Immortals had to show their powers to cross the sea. To survive, you all naturally have to unleash your 'Echoes.' It makes no difference to me. I am merely the icy sea that takes your lives."
"You and your damn fancy speeches..." Chen Junnan knew Earth Rabbit had no reason to give up, but when would this beating ever end?
Would he have to beat Jiang Shi until he couldn't move at all?
"You... close the door..." Jiang Shi propped himself up with one hand on the ground, barely lifting his upper body. The head beside him also spoke, "I look way too pathetic like this. No need to watch."
"You..." Chen Junnan pursed his lips, slowly crouched down, and looked at Jiang Shi's head from inside the doorway. "Kid, maybe you should give up... Let that old bastard go chase Xiao Song for a while."
"No..." Jiang Shi picked up his head from the side and said, "The 'Zodiac's' attacks are far more ferocious than I imagined... Seventh Brother probably can't withstand them... Among everyone here, only I should be able to..."
Before he could finish, Jiang Shi's head sprayed blood again in a large gush, this time mixed with fragments of internal organs.
"Bad, bad, bad..." Jiang Shi controlled his body to wipe his mouth, then set his head aside, reached out, and fiddled with the organs on the ground. "Make a note of everything I lost... I'll have to tell Fifth Brother later... If I lose any, I'm dead for sure."
"Kid..." Chen Junnan rubbed his forehead. "How about this: throw your head over here first? That way, no matter how badly your body gets beaten up, at least you'll still have your head. I'll take it back and have Little Qian Dou reshape your physical body."
"How can I do that?!" Jiang Shi's eyes went wide instantly. "My body, hair, and skin are gifts from my parents. How can I abandon my own flesh?"
"Huh?" Chen Junnan was completely at a loss. "You're pretty stubborn, aren't you?"
"Stop talking. Close the door quickly." Jiang Shi tried to get up from the ground, but something felt wrong. One of his legs hurt terribly and seemed completely numb.
Chen Junnan immediately noticed something was off. "Kid, what's wrong?"
"Looks like I got hit a bit too hard..." Jiang Shi gave a bitter smile, placed his head on the ground to use as eyes, then flipped his body over. Using his distant eyes, he looked at his right leg. After a moment, he let out a surprised cry. "Oh no! My right leg is broken! Damn it... This is such a headache! Head... Huh? Where's my head?"
Jiang Shi frantically patted around his neck for a few seconds before remembering that his head had long been knocked off.
"..."
Chen Junnan had no idea how to respond. He knew he'd met many people in the 'Land of the End,' but he'd never felt this speechless before.
"Leg... Leg broken..." Chen Junnan was silent for a long time before finally speaking. "You... You'd better lie down and rest for a bit? I said earlier that this game would be aggressive, but you don't have to take it that far..."
"No, no, no..." Jiang Shi's hands were groping around his lower back. "I'm not being aggressive. I think my leg is just sprained... I should be able to twist it back into place... Just... Just wait a moment..."
Jiang Shi twisted his body into an awkward position, reaching behind to grab his right leg. He pinched the flesh around the fracture, while the head not far away grimaced in pain from time to time. The whole scene was so bizarre that Earth Rabbit, still in the same room, was rendered speechless.
After a short while, Jiang Shi's head let out a deep breath. Then, clamping both hands onto the broken leg bone, he let out a miserable scream and twisted sharply.
In the next instant, his right leg went completely numb.
Chen Junnan had at least seen people setting their own bones on TV, but he'd never heard anyone scream like a stuck pig.
"You... How can your bone-setting sound like slaughtering a pig? Are you really okay?"
"Oh no..." After Jiang Shi's scream, the head on the ground stared with wide eyes. "What do I do now... Oh my god... I twisted it the wrong way..."
Chen Junnan covered his eyes, feeling too embarrassed to watch.
"What... What the hell?" he said urgently. "Do you even understand joint structure?! What the hell does 'twisted it the wrong way' mean...?"
"I could have gotten it right!!" Jiang Shi said frantically. "But this is my first time getting my head knocked off, so now my body looks reversed to me... Oh no, oh no, what do I do?"
"How the hell would I know?!"
"Maybe I'll twist it again... Just a moment..." Jiang Shi reached out again to feel for that misaligned leg bone.
"Forget it, already!"
Chen Junnan was about to start arguing with Jiang Shi through the doorway. In his mind, this supposedly awesome 'Undying' ability was even less reliable than 'Scapegoat.'
"Right, I need a crutch..." Jiang Shi couldn't twist his head around, so he used the head on the ground to look sideways at Chen Junnan. "Isn't this 'Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea'? Do you have Iron Crutch Li's crutch? If I can just stand up, I can still keep fighting..."
Chen Junnan curled his lips and pulled a pitch-black hairpin the size of a chopstick from his pocket. There was even some black mud stuck to the tip.
"Kid, will a mini version do?"