“Haha!” The captured Earth Tiger suddenly chuckled, despite being restrained. “Coming here with students to demand an explanation? How ridiculous!”
“You dare laugh at a time like this?” Earth Boar tightened his grip. “Your life is in my hands now. How can you still be so arrogant?”
“I just couldn’t help myself,” Earth Tiger laughed again. “It’s suffocating not to laugh. You constantly beat and threaten your students, demanding they hand over their ‘Dao’ on pain of death. And now, when your life is in danger, you bring them along to fight for you. How dare you, you dwarf?”
“I discipline my own students strictly. What’s wrong with that?” Earth Boar sneered. “I don’t think those fools would dare to defy me here.”
“That’s true,” Black Sheep, standing opposite Earth Boar, spoke up. “Your students didn’t rebel against you. But that makes them even more pitiful.”
“Oh?” Earth Boar frowned at him. “And what brilliant insight do you have now?”
“You might not know this yet,” Black Sheep sneered. “When your senior disciple, Human Boar, faced his greatest crisis, he didn’t seek your help. He turned to Brother Sheep instead.”
“What…?”
“Come on,” Earth Sheep coldly added. “You didn’t pretend not to know that your senior disciple died gambling his life against a ‘Participant,’ did you? I heard he often defied your orders. But when he communicated with Brother Sheep, he was humble, courageous, decisive, and insightful—a fine person indeed. So why would such a good person end up on his knees begging Brother Sheep for help?”
Earth Boar’s expression changed dramatically. He looked furious.
“Oh, could it be that he became your student that he ended up in such a desperate situation?” Earth Sheep threw his iron rod aside and said, “Earth Boar, whether you admit it or not, you’re just a paper tiger now. You’ve been lording over the Human Class for too long. We of the Earth Class aren’t afraid of you.”
Seeing Earth Boar still silent, Earth Sheep continued, “Earlier, I said I had something to say to you. Why don’t you listen first before deciding whether to crush that clumsy cat in your hands?”
“Who the hell are you calling a clumsy cat?!” Earth Tiger flared up, painfully twisting his head toward Earth Boar. “Dwarf, it’s fine if you kill me, but after you kill me, you must also kill that black bastard. Otherwise, I won’t die peacefully!”
“Who are you commanding?”
“Who do you think I’m commanding?!” Earth Tiger cursed. “So you enjoy killing me, but you’re scared to kill Black Sheep? What the hell are you afraid of?!”
Earth Boar’s eyes rolled, then he looked up at Earth Sheep. “Fine. What do you want to say?”
“I…” Earth Sheep glanced at Earth Horse, who was groaning on the ground holding her ankle, and asked, “I want to know exactly how she conveyed the message to you?”
“Huh?” Earth Boar looked at Earth Horse, then back at Earth Sheep. “What do you mean?”
“You’re not that stupid, right?” Earth Sheep smiled. “Have you become so desperate that you start fighting in front of so many Earth Class members just because of someone else’s words? The information you received must be different from what we heard, right?”
At this moment, Earth Rat also stepped forward with a sneer. “Leader Sheep is right, Leader Boar. You seem like a very smart person. How could you be so foolish as to be used as someone else’s tool? Is this really a fight you wanted, or is it someone else’s fight?”
After hearing this, Earth Boar seemed to realize something. He looked down at Earth Horse. “Hey… you wouldn’t happen to be… deceiving me, right?”
“I…” Earth Horse didn’t speak, but her expression, full of hesitation and unspoken words, said everything.
“Damn it…” Earth Boar immediately released Earth Tiger and stepped forward, grabbing Earth Horse by the collar. “This had nothing to do with ‘Celestial Horse,’ didn’t it?!”
“Don’t waver… Brother Boar…” Earth Horse painfully smiled. “Even if it wasn’t arranged by ‘Celestial Horse,’ capturing them can still earn you credit…”
“Credit…? You think that’s what I want?” Earth Boar’s expression gradually turned cold. “Have I not earned enough credit over the years? I don’t want superficial achievements. What I want is a ‘promise’… a promise from the ‘Celestial’!”
“It’s the same… Brother Boar… as long as you capture them, it’s all the same…”
“No, it’s not the same!! I was just one step away from success… If they had just given me the word, I could definitely be promoted…” Earth Boar gritted his teeth. “I’ve already killed 3,599 people… Just one more ‘Participant’ and I would complete my mission. Do you think I haven’t completed it yet? No! I’ve been waiting for the Celestial to give me the order! Today, when those leather-clad people came before me showing off their strength, I had to deliberately let them survive. Do you know how frustrating that felt?!”
After hearing this, Black Sheep narrowed his eyes and exchanged glances with Earth Rat.
“Wait a second…” Black Sheep said. “Earth Boar, why didn’t you kill 3,600 people? What were you waiting for?”
“I…” Earth Boar seemed to freeze after hearing this, then sighed. “I was waiting for a one-hundred-percent chance to be promoted to the Celestial Class. I don’t want to end up like White Sheep…”
“You…”
Everyone in the room widened their eyes after hearing this.
“If I’m not mistaken… White Sheep never actually got promoted…” Earth Boar said, his whole body involuntarily trembling. “He was just too foolish. In the ‘End Land,’ he could fight with anyone, but he had to pick a fight with ‘Celestial Dragon’—a person who is a god above everyone else… Do you know why the ‘Chinese Zodiac’ never ‘Resonates’?”
“…Why?”
“Because ‘Resonance’ could shake ‘Celestial Dragon’s’ position…” Earth Boar lowered his head. “Either ‘Immortal Arts’ or ‘Divine Power’—to manage this place more conveniently, ‘Celestial Dragon’ separated these two powers and gave them to the ‘Participants’ and the ‘Zodiac’ respectively… Even though we ‘Zodiac’ might have strong physical abilities, we’re ultimately fragile stone giants, insignificant in front of Celestial Dragon. And the ‘Participants’ are even more ridiculous—ordinary humans who can use ‘Immortal Arts,’ prone to madness at best, and self-destruction at worst… Even someone like ‘Celestial Dragon’ could do such things, yet there are still people who dare to try to overthrow him…”
Everyone’s expressions changed after hearing this. Earth Boar, indeed, was a senior member here. He had been surviving all this time, possessing more information than any other ‘Zodiac.’
“It sounds like another form of divide and rule…” Earth Rat nodded, regaining his smile. He stepped forward and asked, “Leader Boar, I still want to ask—why do you think White Sheep failed to be promoted?”
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