While the surrounding crowd looked on in alarm, Earth Bull slowly walked over.
"You two, stop."
He said lightly, "It doesn't matter if you kill each other, but please do it after you leave this room." The two were unyielding, completely ignoring Earth Bull, both gritting their teeth and secretly exerting force. Earth Bull looked at the two brawling men, then simply stopped trying to persuade them.
Instead, he bent down, effortlessly pried Qiao Jiajin's arm from Zhang Shan's neck, then grabbed Zhang Shan's collar with his left hand and Qiao Jiajin's arm with his right. With a gentle toss, the two flew apart like a pair of small pebbles, knocking over all the chairs.
"Damn..."
Qiao Jiajin felt like his bones were about to break. Zhang Shan on the other side wasn't much better off. He was rolling on the ground in pain, all the wounds on his body bleeding.
"Fuck... that damned old Bull, one day I'll skin you alive..."
At this moment, the crowd also hurried forward to check on the two of them.
"Hey, Qiao Jiajin, are you still alive?"
Qiao Jiajin gave a bitter laugh after hearing that.
"What do you think..."
Tian Tian and Lin Qin also gathered around, and the three of them helped Qiao Jiajin to his feet. On the other side, Zhang Shan was helped up by little glasses and Old Lu.
"Are you alright? Zhang Shan?" little glasses asked.
"I'm fine."
Zhang Shan scratched at the wounds on his body, which felt quite unpleasant, but he still came to his senses and said to little glasses, "Looks like you were right, those two are quite interesting."
"Right!" little glasses smiled happily, as if he himself had been praised.
"The tattooed man is very strong, and the one called 'con man' is very smart. The two of them are definitely qualified."
Old Lu, however, kept pursing his lips at the side, as if he didn't quite agree with what little glasses said.
"Come on, let's go talk to them again."
Zhang Shan laughed heartily and led the two of them forward once more. Before he had taken three steps, Earth Bull reached out a pitch-black hand and placed it on Zhang Shan's shoulder.
"Still planning to cause trouble?"
Zhang Shan looked at Earth Bull and said, "Don't worry, it's just a simple conversation." Earth Bull pondered for a moment before withdrawing his hand.
"Be careful, I'm watching you."
In just a few steps, Zhang Shan was face to face with Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin again. Qiao Jiajin took a step forward, blocking Qi Xia.
"Hey you, are you ready to settle the score with me again after we leave?"
"Forget it."
Zhang Shan scratched the shocking wound on his chest and said, "I'm out of strength today. I'll make an appointment with you next time."
"Ha."
Qiao Jiajin was amused by him.
"Since you're not here to fight, what do you want with us?"
"That's an unreasonable thing to say."
Zhang Shan shook his head helplessly.
"I never came looking for a fight in the first place. It was your brother who suddenly started on me."
Qiao Jiajin thought about it for a moment and realized that was indeed the case.
"Not here to fight us?"
Qi Xia felt that this person before him was a bit strange.
"Then what did you come looking for us for?"
Zhang Shan turned around and waved at little glasses and Old Lu. The two of them took cloth bags from their waists and handed them to him. Although Old Lu looked reluctant, he seemed to be wary of Zhang Shan and could only do as he was told.
Zhang Shan weighed the two cloth bags in his hand, then tossed them to Qi Xia.
"Thirty-eight 'Dao' in total. For you."
Qi Xia took the two cloth bags in disbelief. He opened them and saw that they were indeed filled with glittering golden spheres.
"What's the meaning of this?"
Qiao Jiajin looked at Zhang Shan suspiciously.
"We haven't settled the score yet, why are you giving us the 'Dao'?"
"Because that's what we agreed on during the game. When you make a bet, you have to be willing to lose."
Zhang Shan looked back at little glasses and continued, "Besides, little glasses has praised you two over and over again in front of me, saying you're both very impressive."
"Very impressive?"
Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin looked at each other, not knowing what the other party was up to.
"When I first came looking for you, I wasn't looking for trouble either."
Zhang Shan raised a finger, tapped his temple, and said to Qi Xia, "little glasses told me you defeated that black bear using this. Is that true?" Qi Xia didn't answer, still watching Zhang Shan cautiously.
"Don't overthink it," Zhang Shan said.
"We are gathering a group of formidable people to get out of this place together. Are you two interested in joining?"
"No," Qi Xia replied.
"Don't be so quick to refuse..."
Zhang Shan gave a simple, honest laugh and reached out to pat Qi Xia's shoulder.
"You guys can think it over."
"Yeah!" little glasses also stepped forward and said to Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin, "Mr. Qiao, Mr. Con, you both have outstanding abilities. We have a great chance of getting out of here."
"Mr. Con?"
Qi Xia thought he had misheard.
"Are you calling me?"
"Yeah..." little glasses thought he had said something wrong.
"Hasn't this Mr. Qiao been calling you 'con man'...?"
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly and said, "Forget it, a name is just a title. You can call me whatever you want, but I won't be joining you."
"Why so resolute?" little glasses didn't quite understand.
"As the saying goes, there's strength in numbers. Besides, I've participated in a game with you, I know you're a trustworthy teammate. If we work together..."
"But I don't trust you," Qi Xia interrupted.
"Besides, only one person can get out of this place. What's the point of gathering so many people? Won't they just end up as cannon fodder at the final moment?"
"O-only one person can get out?" little glasses was slightly taken aback.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Why would only one person be able to get out of here?"
"Isn't that the case?"
Qi Xia retorted.
"Those animal masks said..."
Just as Qi Xia was about to say more, he suddenly froze. Wait a minute. Why did I think only one person could get out?
Had anyone said something like that? No, they hadn't. The Goat-Head Man had once told Qi Xia that if they won the game, one of them would become a 'God'. At that time, Qiao Jiajin had asked the Goat-Head Man very clearly, "What happens if we can't win the game?"
The Goat-Head Man's answer was— "If you can't win, that would be a great pity." He had never mentioned the issue of escaping this place.
"Could it be that I misunderstood...?"
The word 'pity' is very ambiguous. When the Goat-Head Man said 'pity', for whom was he feeling 'pity'? For himself... or for the participants?
Qi Xia blinked. He felt as if he had understood something. In this damned place, besides 'becoming a God' and 'being destroyed', could there be a third option: 'escape'...?
"You... why do you think you can escape this place together?"
Qi Xia asked.
"Because we've seen people escape from here, of course," Zhang Shan replied.