TDU Chapter 495
Chapter 495 The Unmatched Spear
“Huh?” Jiang Ten froze. “Wait… did I hear that right? You’re going to reattach my head?”
“Yeah,” Chen Junnan said. “You’re a bit too spine-chilling right now. It’s bad for presentation.”
“Presentation…?” Jiang Ten snapped. “Have you ever had your head knocked off?”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan pondered seriously for a moment, then replied, “Probably not knocked off. But I’ve had it blown open before.”
“How is that the same thing?” The Jiang Ten who had seemed fearless moments ago was suddenly nervous. The more he looked at this idiot captain, the less reliable he felt.
“You’re already like this,” Chen Junnan tucked Jiang Ten’s head under his arm, rummaged around in his pocket for a while, then pulled out a black metal hairpin. “This young master figures it can’t hurt much more than it already does. Your wounds look more like a broken sculpture than flesh anyway. I’ll do it the way they fix clay figurines and use this little pin to skewer your head and body together.”
“Huh?” Jiang Ten stared at him in disbelief. “That can’t be right, can it? This hairpin’s way too short. Won’t my head fall off the moment I move? And it’s dirty too, look at all that mud!”
“That still beats carrying your head around!” Chen Junnan barked. “Enough nonsense.” He wiped the black mud off the pin with his sleeve and shoved Jiang Ten’s head into position. “Just tell me. Are we doing this or not?”
“Uh…” Jiang Ten pursed his lips. “O–Okay… do it…”
“This is probably going to hurt like hell.”
“I already hurt enough…”
“Alright then!” Chen Junnan felt along the dry, splintered-like stump of Jiang Ten’s neck, then raised the black metal hairpin and drove it down in one sharp motion, leaving the pointed end sticking up.
“OWWWW!” Jiang Ten screamed from beneath Chen Junnan’s arm. “That’s insanely painful!! Did you stab straight into my spine?! What if I end up paralyzed?!”
“Give me a break…” Chen Junnan said helplessly as he lifted Jiang Ten’s head. “This young master is genuinely curious. Your head’s already fallen off, so how exactly does your body’s pain still get transmitted to your brain?”
“There’s nothing strange about that,” Jiang Ten replied. “The last time my arm got torn off, it worked on its own too. The hand could even crawl around on the ground by itself…”
“Alright, alright, enough,” Chen Junnan cut him off before he completely lost the ability to comprehend Jiang Ten’s mode of existence. “Listen up, you little runt. Grit your teeth. This young master’s about to put your head back on.”
“Ah! Okay!” Jiang Ten squeezed his eyes shut at once, clenching his teeth as hard as he could.
Seizing the moment, Chen Junnan lifted Jiang Ten’s head and drove it down with a sharp {splat}.
“ARGHAHHHH!!” Jiang Ten stood frozen in place, screaming at the top of his lungs. His arms flailed wildly, completely out of control. “My head hurts! My head hurts! My head hurts!!”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan could not help but feel a pang of guilt. At the very least, Jiang Ten’s hands were finally free, and he looked more human than before. That had to count for something. “Kid… are you… alright?”
“Alright my head!!” Jiang Ten yelled. “No, no, I mean my head’s not alright! The inside of my head hurts so much!”
Watching tears spill from the corners of Jiang Ten’s eyes, Chen Junnan felt a surge of sympathy. Despite it being their first day meeting, this kid had already gone above and beyond.
“Then… should I just take it off for you?” Chen Junnan asked with a wry smile. “And you can carry your head and run?”
“N-no need…” Jiang Ten clenched his teeth and cautiously rotated his neck. He soon realized that the length of the hairpin was just right. His head was firmly secured to his body. Aside from the intense pain throbbing inside his skull, there were no other apparent drawbacks.
Yet the more he considered his current state, the stranger it felt. He seemed less like a living person and more like a clay figurine, held together by an unseen armature, and severed limbs easily pinned back into place with iron rods.
“Where’s my divine sword…” Jiang Ten turned around, then bent down to fumble across the floor. In the brief moment he lowered his head, it nearly slipped clean off his neck. Startled, he quickly reached up to steady it, then grasped Lü Dongbin’s divine sword artifact and used it as a crutch. “This should… more or less do it…”
“Alas…” Chen Junnan furrowed his brows as he looked at Jiang Ten. “Mind locking the door, then?”
“No problem…” Fortunately, Jiang Ten’s physical constitution was stronger than that of an ordinary child. Though far from whole, he could at least move normally again. Limping step by step, he hobbled toward the direction Terrestrial Rabbit had gone earlier and, with a crisp {click}, locked the door.
“What now…” Jiang Ten asked. “Where should we—”
“Just watch my expression and act accordingly,” Chen Junnan murmured with a crooked grin. “From this moment on, no one speaks unless I do.”
“Uh…okay…got it…”
…
Terrestrial Rabbit stood outside Room {Ten}, ears pricked high as he listened intently. Gradually, a grave expression spread across his face.
This team was unnervingly odd.
The man who had proposed a wager with him had actually employed an indirect approach to achieve his aim. While he was closing in on him, the latter had struck to directly combat the root of a problem, rescuing that unkillable brat and bringing him back from the brink.
‘Sounds like you even locked the door…’ Terrestrial Rabbit’s ears and nose twitched simultaneously as he strained to capture every movement across the venue.
“All {participants} have completed their actions. {Earthly Branch}, please proceed.”
Without hesitation, Terrestrial Rabbit opened the door to Room {Six} and stepped inside. This was the room Chen Junnan had been loudly baiting him toward earlier. One more round, and he would catch up to Chen Junnan and that unkillable child. Even if they chose to lock a door, one of them would inevitably be left behind.
‘That’s right… you’ll all die…’ Terrestrial Rabbit said with a smile. ‘I’ll kill every last one of you here…’
Terrestrial Rabbit’s eyes slowly lost their focus. In an instant, his mind filled with the urge to kill. He felt as though a strange silhouette stood right before him, and every thought in his head screamed to tear it apart completely.
When he finally came back to himself, Terrestrial Rabbit realized he was standing in the center of the room. It was only then that he understood he had just gone through a subtle, nearly imperceptible hallucination.
'What just happened…?" Terrestrial Rabbit muttered, rubbing his head in confusion.
Did I really… drift off for a moment?
“The {Earthly Branch’s} round has ended. {Participants}, please proceed.”
Just as Terrestrial Rabbit was feeling certain of victory, a shadow flickered at the open door on the north side of his room. A lean, capable figure with a half ponytail stepped inside of his own accord. After closing the door behind him, he stood quietly before Terrestrial Rabbit.
“You—”
“My name is Song Seven,” the man began. “That name alone is enough to ensure a fair duel between the two of us at {End Point}. Until a victor is decided, no one else will interfere.”
“What are you playing at…?” Terrestrial Rabbit was baffled. In all his years as an Earthly Branch, everyone in this game would exhaust every means to distance themselves from him. Never before had anyone voluntarily approached him with the intent to kill. “How did you get here?”
“It’s my turn, is it not?” Song Seven looked at Terrestrial Rabbit with utter seriousness. “Then I’ll make the first move?”
Seeing that Song Seven was still some distance away, Terrestrial Rabbit felt a faint unease, though not enough to inspire fear. He studied the man with curiosity, cautiously weighing what kind of attack he might unleash.
“Then I won’t hold back.” Song Seven reached into his pocket, took out a small stone, rubbed it lightly with his thumb a few times, and gently tossed it toward Terrestrial Rabbit.
Terrestrial Rabbit was no fool. He knew the stone Song Seven had thrown earlier had caused no disturbance, but now that they were in the same room, every motion carried life-and-death consequences. There was no chance this was mere posturing. He immediately stepped back, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
‘Could it be {Strength Drain}…?’ Terrestrial Rabbit stared intently at the stone, never imagining that it would suddenly erupt with sparks like crackling lightning while still in midair.
‘Not good…!’
Before Terrestrial Rabbit could cry out, the stone struck his forearm, erupting in a burst of scorching heat alongside a flash of fire.
{Boom!!}
A wave of heat swept through the entire room. A modest but violent detonation threw Terrestrial Rabbit backward, his body smashing into the wall just as Jiang Ten had done before.
TL Note: Rant goes here ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)
