TDU Chapter 375
Chapter 375 Belief
Terrestrial Dog paused thoughtfully, then finally declared, “I will… take the first move.”
Su Shan understood he had no other choice.
He raised his stick slowly, weighing his options with deliberate care. After a long, tense moment, his gaze fixed firmly on Qin Dingdong.
“This {Calamity} is {Wildfire}.”
With steady hands, he inserted the stick into the slot facing her.
“What?!” Qin Dingdong’s expression twisted in shock and fury. She raised a hand, about to curse Terrestrial Dog, but before she could speak, several narrow pipes extended silently from the ceiling.
In an instant, flames erupted from them.
Thankfully, her soaked body was spared injury; the flames did not burn her, but they forced her fully underwater nonetheless.
Beneath the water’s surface, Qin Dingdong clenched her nose and mouth tightly, her eyes squeezed shut against the sting.
“Player One, kindly {draw}.”
Su Shan had anticipated this moment long ago. Without waiting for the {Default} before her to fully surface, she swiftly seized it and cast it aside. Then, with unwavering precision, she decisively inserted {No Land Shall Lie Fallow}.
Zhang Chenze watched anxiously. After a few agonizing seconds, Terrestrial Dog finally intoned, {Player Two, kindly draw.}
“Damn it! Stop stalling!” Su Shan slapped the glass in frustration. “I thought you were someone who fought fair and square—now you’re resorting to such lowly tricks…”
Though she glared fiercely at Terrestrial Dog, her eyes never stopped flicking toward Qin Dingdong.
Qin Dingdong had plunged into the water far too suddenly, there had been no time to take a proper breath. The situation was far grimmer than Su Shan had anticipated.
The chamber’s lower half was submerged in icy water; the upper half burned with searing heat. The surrounding glass, forged from some unknown material, remained unbroken despite the brutal extremes.
Immersed in the rising heat, Qin Dingdong felt the temperature climb relentlessly. Her lungs, still weakened by the earlier poison gas, flared with sharp pain. With breath held tight, her entire chest felt aflame.
What would claim her first… the boiling heat, or the drowning cold?
Zhang Chenze quickly brushed aside the hovering suit jacket blocking her view and swiftly inserted her {Toil’s Sweat Nourishes the Soil}.
Yet Terrestrial Dog once again fell into several seconds of silence.
She and Lin Qin immediately sensed something amiss and pounded vigorously against their glass walls.
Su Shan’s choice had proven absolutely correct. Had they dispelled {Flood} earlier, only a thin layer of ice would remain in Qin Dingdong’s chamber, leaving her vulnerable to the flames pouring from above, which would have surely burned her alive.
It seemed the rules Terrestrial Dog had set prevented him from stalling indefinitely, but he could delay for roughly five seconds each turn—likely the maximum time he was allowed to manipulate.
Terrestrial Dog must have known that {Torrential Rain Pelts Down Fiercely} was in Zhang Chenze’s hands. Placing {Wildfire} in Autumn’s chamber would have little effect—Summer would intervene within ten seconds to extinguish the flames.
Targeting {Spring} or {Summer} was even more futile. Both seasons acted swiftly at the outset; the moment they deployed their {fortune stick}, even if they perished, Terrestrial Dog would lose the game.
Taking all this into consideration, Terrestrial Dog had no choice but to unleash {Wildfire} within Qin Dingdong’s chamber.
Then, resorting to his most dishonorable tactic, he began to stall the game.
Of all four chambers, only Qin Dingdong’s endured the delayed {Wildfire} without immediate threat of incineration; the sole question was whether she could survive the wait.
“Player Two’s {wish} completed… Player Three, kindly {draw}…”
“You son of a bitch…” Zhang Chenze clenched her fists, hammering the glass with fierce frustration. “This isn’t fair! We’ve done everything we can! You won’t even die if you lose, so why do you have to drag it out like this?!”
Lin Qin stood ready by the hole. The moment {Fields Sway with Coming Harvest} surfaced, she slammed it down without a moment’s hesitation.
All eyes turned to Qin Dingdong. Her brows were tightly knit, legs kicking frantically beneath the water—it was clear she was on the brink of suffocation.
“Please hold on…” Su Shan’s palms were slick with sweat. “Dingdong… you’re our only hope…”
But hope, ephemeral as ever, often paves the way to despair.
Though Qin Dingdong still clamped her mouth and nose beneath the water, everyone clearly saw a sudden burst of blood erupt between her fingers. With the water’s rising temperature, the blood didn’t swirl slowly like ink—it blossomed outward like a firework, staining a vast area crimson.
She was nearing her limit.
“Player Three’s {wish} completed… Player Four, kindly {draw}…”
The {fortune stick} in Qin Dingdong’s chamber slowly surfaced, but she couldn’t open her eyes. Both hands remained tightly pressed over her mouth and nose. After that mouthful of blood, she knew that the moment she released her grip, she would inhale a lungful of water.
“No…” Su Shan’s heart leapt into her throat. She knew that once the {fortune stick} floated free, it would hover between the scorching flames above and the icy water below—making it nearly impossible for Qin Dingdong to grasp it again.
The young women watching Qin Dingdong all held their breath along with her. The only sound left was the thundering of their own heartbeats.
At that moment, Qin Dingdong slowly cracked open one eye. The cold, murky water stung sharply.
She couldn’t hear the broadcast at all. But when she glanced downward, she noticed something move on the table beneath her.
Had her {fortune stick} arrived?
‘But I…’ Qin Dingdong clenched her teeth, forcing herself to sink deeper—but darkness was already creeping at the edges of her vision, and every fiber of her body throbbed with unbearable pain.
At this point, Qin Dingdong knew the only choice left was to push the {fortune stick} down the slot as soon as her hands released her face. She would suffer the agonizing pain of water inhalation, but the game would finally end.
Diving toward the table, she locked eyes on the {fortune stick} and lunged. But fate was cruel, in that very instant, it slipped off the edge and shot upward toward the surface.
She gasped, swallowing a mouthful of water as a burning pain tore through her sinuses and throat. Yet she endured, eyes squeezed shut, and stretched out a trembling hand, reaching for the spot where she remembered the slot to be.
Summoning every ounce of strength left in her, Qin Dingdong pushed down.
This time, all she could rely on was her {belief}.
The others stared wide-eyed at Qin Dingdong. They had all clearly seen her {fortune stick} drift to the water’s surface, yet somehow, she had still managed to drive a {fortune stick} into the slot on the table.
Would it work?
By now, Qin Dingdong had lost all consciousness. Her body went limp in the water, drifting upward like a second {fortune stick}, silently floating toward the surface.
Those few seconds of waiting stretched into an eternity.
At last, the last light above Terrestrial Dog flickered and died—and joyous music erupted, filling the air.
Another year of abundant harvests. This time, the {Nian Beast} had been completely driven away.
All five doors to the glass chambers swung open simultaneously.
The game was over.
The water in Qin Dingdong’s chamber drained away in an instant, sweeping her along with the current. She slammed against the glass walls several times before finally collapsing onto the floor.
Su Shan rushed over to her. Although Lin Qin was also worried, her right leg had completely lost all feeling; she could only brace herself against the wall and inch forward with great difficulty.
Zhang Chenze forcefully brushed aside the animated suit jacket that hovered before her. As soon as she stepped through the doorway, she slammed it shut behind her, then began shaking her body frantically, sending the swarm of locusts clinging to her scattering across the floor.
TL Note: Rant goes here ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)
