Ding Chang walked past the giant mantis, paused for a moment, confirmed no one was in his way, and suddenly accelerated.
As Ding Chang was about to get close, Jing Minghe said coldly, "Ding Chang, before you do some things, you'd better think them through. After all, you may not be the absolute strongest."
Ding Chang shrugged, a smug look on his face. "That's how the game is played, Jing Minghe. It doesn't matter if I'm the strongest. What matters is that your luck in this instance is completely over. I'm just following the game rules. Who can do anything to me?"
Following the game rules?
Jing Minghe couldn't help but chuckle inwardly.
He knew that even if he had said those words earlier, it would have been like playing the lute to a cow. He wasn't afraid of death, but he was afraid that if he were killed by this guy, some people might disregard the rules of the City of Death. No matter how powerful a person was, they would seem insignificant when facing an invisible, unknown force.
Therefore, before he completely understood the secrets of the City of Death, he didn't want the people he cared about to be in danger of losing their lives by disregarding the rules.
The moment Ding Chang finished speaking, he lunged at Jing Minghe. Jing Minghe barely dodged Ding Chang's first strike. As Jing Minghe dodged, the giant mantis that had been watching him suddenly pounced, and Jing Minghe, unable to react in time, was once again pinned to the ground by the giant mantis.
The barbs on the mantis's forelegs dug deep into Jing Minghe's shoulders. The intense pain made Jing Minghe even more helpless.
Before Jing Minghe could break free from the mantis, he saw Ding Chang charging again. This time, Jing Minghe had no way to avoid it.
Ding Chang stomped on Jing Minghe's chest, bent down, and looked down at Jing Minghe from above. "I told you, your good luck is over. You've been unlucky since I first met you in the arena. Meeting you in the City of Death is the peak of bad luck. But now that I've made it to this instance, my run of bad luck is finally over, and it's time for you to be unlucky."
Saying this, Ding Chang slowly drew a long spike from his sleeve. It was emerald green, exactly like the giant mantis that was stepping on Jing Minghe.
When Jing Minghe saw the long spike in Ding Chang's hand, he seemed to understand what Ding Chang meant by game rules. If his guess was correct, it wouldn't just be bad luck, but a death sentence from the heavens.
Unable to break free from the giant mantis, Jing Minghe could only watch helplessly as Ding Chang approached him with the spike. Finally, he grabbed one of Jing Minghe's hands and thrust the spike directly into his wrist.
This was precisely the spot Yumi had mentioned earlier, the place with the butterfly mark.
After being pierced by the spike, Jing Minghe's vision began to blur. Ding Chang laughed heartily, looking at his wrist, and said, "As expected! Jing Minghe, you're doomed!"
...
"Mr. Chi," Yumi ran over, panting, and said to Chi Hao, "I can't find Minghe anywhere. What should we do? Will he be in trouble?"
"No," Chi Hao said firmly, "It's just a bigger bug. It can't harm him."
"But..." Yumi frowned, bit her lip, and couldn't help but voice her concern, "But what that guy Diao Tian said earlier, when he thrust that spike into my wrist, he told me to give him time, or he would die. Does his words mean that we, our butterfly marks on our wrists, represent our different times, and when our time is up, we will, we will die?"
At this moment, Yumi felt her mind in chaos. Everything in this instance seemed confusing so far.
Jing Minghe, who had been walking with them, suddenly disappeared. Two giant mantises suddenly attacked them. After Chi Hao killed the mantises, they turned into hard spikes.
The two split up to look for Jing Minghe. Jing Minghe was not found, but Yumi encountered Diao Tian, who was holding a spike formed from the dead giant mantis. As she was about to ask, Diao Tian suddenly rushed over, grabbed her, and thrust the spike into her wrist, where the butterfly mark had appeared, shouting for her to give him time.
Afterward, he roughly pushed her away and yelled madly, saying he had the wrong person and that he was going to die, then hurried off in another direction.
Yumi was almost certain that Diao Tian's condition was related to the butterfly marks on their wrists, making her even more worried about Jing Minghe, who couldn't see the butterfly mark on his own wrist at all.
As they were talking, they saw Qiao Qiao running over from another direction, with a giant mantis chasing behind her.
Qiao Qiao paused when she saw Chi Hao and Yumi, seemingly contemplating whether to ask them for help or continue to flee on her own.
But running like this, she didn't know how long it would last. After all, she had tried, and she could escape, but she couldn't kill this giant mantis at all.
However, she wasn't very familiar with these two and didn't know if they were willing to lend a hand. Moreover, she wasn't the type of person who relied on others. She knew very well that in this City of Death, it was better to rely on one's own strength from beginning to end than to place one's life and death in the hands of others.
Just as Qiao Qiao was about to turn to another side, Chi Hao suddenly appeared, his speed far exceeding that of a normal person.
Before Qiao Qiao could react to how Chi Hao had suddenly appeared from such a distance, the giant mantis chasing her had already been eliminated by Chi Hao. The massive creature ultimately transformed into a thin, sharp spike.
"Time, give me time!"
Diao Tian appeared again from somewhere, this time his target was Qiao Qiao, and he ran directly towards her.
But with Chi Hao present, before he could get close to Qiao Qiao, Chi Hao had already subdued Diao Tian and asked coldly, "Speak, what do you know?"
"I don't know anything," Diao Tian shouted while struggling, "Give me time! Give me time! It's too late, I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
Yumi walked over, her brow furrowed as she looked at the frantic Diao Tian, and asked him, "Time? What exactly does that mean?"
Hesitating for a moment, Yumi moved closer and softened her tone. "Diao Tian, tell us, why do you want us to give you time? If you tell us, maybe we can help you."
Diao Tian looked up at Yumi. "It's not you, you can't do it! Let them give me time, give me time! It's too late, it's too late, ah!"
After Diao Tian's scream, the sky completely darkened, to the point where one couldn't see their hand in front of their face.
Despite being very close to each other, they couldn't see each other.
"He's dead."
Chi Hao's cold voice reached Yumi and Qiao Qiao's ears.