Chapter 592: Seven Locales
A perceptive individual glanced inside the room after Earth Dog finished speaking and felt something was off.
Four people were currently locked in violent combat. The amount of alcohol needed to get all four of these "Earth-level" fighters drunk was enormous, but there clearly weren't enough bottles in the room.
Behind the crowd stood a tall, burly Earth Rabbit, his body wrapped in bandages. He had been craning his neck to peer through the doorway ever since the fight broke out, as if sizing something up.
Earth Dog found this Earth Rabbit somewhat unfamiliar. Choosing not to engage further, he simply addressed the crowd again: "Anyway, there's no need to crowd around here. I guarantee no one dies tonight. It's just a fight—haven't you seen one before?"
Although it was "just a fight," this was still a battle between Earth-level fighters. Generally speaking, Earth-levels valued their lives more than any Zodiac, so why would they suddenly start brawling for no reason?
The last time a conflict of this scale occurred was between White Sheep and Earth Snake, where Earth Snake had several bones broken and spent months recovering.
Now, with four people fighting at once, wouldn't the outcome be even more worrying than that?
"Um..." the tall Earth Rabbit called out from behind the crowd. "Do you need help breaking it up?"
"No, I don't," Earth Dog replied with a faint smile. "This is 'off-duty hours' for everyone, isn't it? You'd be better off spending this time eating something good. I'll handle things here."
After giving a few perfunctory remarks, Earth Dog turned and began to close the door. But suddenly, he felt a powerful force holding the door in place.
It was that Earth Rabbit again.
"What's the matter?" Earth Dog turned around, only to find that Earth Rabbit had already pushed through the crowd and was standing right in front of him. His expression instantly turned wary, a trace of displeasure showing in his eyes.
"Do you need help breaking it up?" Earth Rabbit asked again.
"No, I don't. Thanks," Earth Dog replied flatly.
"Are you sure...?" Earth Rabbit furrowed his brow, and the ears on top of his head twitched. "I'm an Earth Rabbit."
"Rabbit...?"
At that moment, Earth Dog finally understood what Earth Rabbit meant.
This tall, gray-white rabbit had overheard his conversation with the Corporate Slave Rat just now. Though his hearing was limited and he couldn't serve as the whole "train's" ears, at this close distance, he should have been able to catch all the information accurately.
Earth Dog slowly opened the door and looked Earth Rabbit up and down, feeling a bit strange.
He was clearly a very strong Earth-level, but now the bandages wrapped around him were seeping blood—he had obviously been injured in a fight.
No recent conflicts between other Zodiacs had been reported. Could it be that a "Participant" had done this to him?
Earth Dog's mind kept buzzing with doubt—was this an Earth Rabbit who had been wounded by a Participant?
"What exactly do you want...?" Earth Dog asked again for confirmation.
After all, a fight among four Earth-levels was very rare. Normal Zodiacs would naturally steer clear to avoid trouble, but this guy had not only eavesdropped on his conversation but was also insisting on getting involved.
"I already told you. I want to break it up," Earth Rabbit said, his hand still on the door, looking very insistent and unwilling to back down.
Earth Dog squinted for a few seconds, thinking. If the other party wanted to expose this matter, he could have done so directly long ago.
Yet he had been deliberately hiding it—could he also be a "seed" planted by White Sheep outside?
Thinking about it carefully, forcing an Earth-level Zodiac into a desperate corner and leaving him covered in injuries meant this "Participant" was certainly no ordinary person. That explanation seemed reasonable.
But how had White Sheep managed to do it?
How could he participate in so many "Earth-level" games in a single day and shake people's resolve?
Could there be a powerful "White Sheep Squad" outside?
"You... since you're not afraid of death, come on in."
The two exchanged a look, then walked inside and closed the door.
The Corporate Slave Rat was naturally puzzled by this scene. His original intention had been for Earth Dog to go to the door and disperse the gathered Zodiacs to keep others from getting involved, but now Earth Dog had actually brought an "Earth-level" inside.
Now, in this small room, a total of seven Earth-levels had gathered.
Four were locked in deadly combat, while the remaining three just watched silently.
"Boss Dog, what's this about?" Earth Rat asked.
"I don't know either," the slacker dog said indifferently, sitting down to the side. "Looks like he's here to throw his life away. I couldn't stop him, and I can't chase him away."
Earth Rabbit held his bandaged body and gave a slight bow to the two, then said, "I promised someone today that if I noticed any Zodiac acting strangely, I'd come and check it out."
"Just that?" The slacker dog thought for a moment and asked, "Was the person who asked you to do this a young man who's unsmiling and meticulous?"
"Uh..." Earth Rabbit thought back, and Chen Junnan's arrogant face appeared in his mind. "If we're talking 'meticulous,' that's probably fair, but 'unsmiling' is a real stretch... That guy talks so much he'd drive me crazy..."
"This... is there someone else doing this?" Earth Rat looked at Earth Dog.
Earth Dog shook his head. Too many coincidences weren't coincidences.
He was more inclined to believe his own inference—it wasn't that someone else had happened to do this, but that White Sheep had organized a team to systematically and deliberately incite the Zodiacs.
"So you heard what we said too..." Earth Dog said. "What's your choice?"
Earth Rabbit lowered his head, silent for a few seconds, then asked, "I want to know—did White Sheep really not ascend to 'Heaven' back then? Do you have any actual evidence?"
"No," Earth Dog shook his head. "All our evidence comes from the Debt-paying Tiger's speculation. For us, this is a huge gamble."
"What...?" Earth Rabbit frowned at the two. "Betting your life on 'speculation'?"
"We all thought it was speculation at first, but tonight, too many 'Zodiacs' have stepped into this room. Your arrival is gradually making this a done deal," Earth Dog replied.
As they were speaking, Black Sheep and Earth Horse were once again sent flying. The two of them lay on the ground for a long time without getting up, clearly at their limits.
Not long after, Earth Sheep propped himself up on the floor, coughed up some blood, then picked up a broken metal table leg from the ground. He tore it open like a piece of paper, shaping it into a sharp, jagged edge.
"Don't underestimate me..." Earth Sheep wiped the blood from his mouth with his thumb and walked step by step to Earth Horse's side, raising the table leg. "None of the 'Sheep' here are easy to mess with."
Seeing this, Earth Rat quickly stepped forward and pressed down on Earth Sheep's hand. "Boss, listen to me... 'Zodiac killing Zodiac' is a serious crime. Have you thought this through?"
"I was taught by Brother Sheep after all. How could I be that impulsive?" Earth Sheep sighed and pushed Earth Rat's hand away.
"Good, then you—"
Before Earth Rat could finish, Earth Sheep drove the metal table leg into Earth Horse's ankle with lightning speed, pinning her lower leg to the ground.
A heart-wrenching scream exploded into the air.
"Brother Sheep once told me," Earth Sheep said, "when you can't kill your enemy because of personal ties, find a way to cripple him."