Ten Day Ultimatum

“Kid...” Chen Junnan asked with genuine concern, “how long can your {Reverberation} last?”

“A long time...” Jiang Ten replied, his voice calm, “if my conviction holds... it could even last an entire day.”

Chen Junnan felt a faint relief. Time was no longer a factor. Now, all that remained was to see whether Terrestrial Rabbit would voluntarily abandon this round of slaughter.

Jiang Ten, clutching his own head, faced the towering Terrestrial Rabbit. For a moment, this strong Earthly Branch seemed at a loss.

This child...still didn’t die after his head was detached. Then were there any other viable methods?

“Courting death.” Jiang Ten’s mouth, on the detached head, moved slightly. “Monster... why’ve you stopped?”

The words seemed to steel Terrestrial Rabbit’s resolve. With a controlled fury, he swung his thigh, thick as a stone pillar, toward Jiang Ten’s abdomen.

Deprived of normal sight, Jiang Ten misjudged the strike and was sent flying, clutching his own head, smashing directly into the wall beside Chen Junnan.

The slight frame of Jiang Ten hung against the wall like a poster for a moment before sliding slowly to the ground. The impact sounded ominous, bones creaking violently; in any other case, death would have been certain.

Could anyone in this world truly endure the constant blows of a Terrestrial-grade Earthly Branch and survive?

“Aiya, my heavens...” Jiang Ten’s head rolled to one side after he hit the ground. His body twitched several times, while the severed head coughed violently, spitting out a heap of unrecognizable fragments. “Cough... cough... that hurts too much...”

Chen Junnan frowned and shouted toward Terrestrial Rabbit from a distance, “Cotton-tailed rascal da ge, how about we set a time limit? I’ll give you thirty seconds. If you still can’t beat him to death, we’ll count it as you conceding.”

“Concede?” Terrestrial Rabbit sneered. “If I were merciful toward the {participants}, why would I ever host this {Penglai}? Even the Eight Immortals must each reveal their divine abilities to cross the sea. For you to survive, you all will naturally trigger your {Reverberations}. To me, there is no difference at all. I am merely the cold sea that takes your lives.”

“You really are full of shit,” Chen Junnan realized Terrestrial Rabbit had no reason to give up, yet just how long was this beating supposed to go on? Did Jiang Ten have to be reduced to something that could no longer move at all?

“You... close the door...” Jiang Ten propped himself up with one hand, lifting his upper body with great difficulty. The head beside his body spoke, “I look way too miserable like this. There’s no need for you to watch.”

“You...” Chen Junnan pressed his lips together, slowly crouching down. From the doorway, he looked at Jiang Ten’s head lying off to the side. “Kid, how about you concede? Let that old bastard go after Xiao Song for a while.”

“No...” Jiang Ten reached over and picked up his own head. “The {Earthly Branches}’ attacks are far more ferocious than I imagined. Seven ge wouldn’t be able to hold out... among everyone present, only I—”

Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Ten’s head once again spewed out a mouthful of blood, mixed with shattered fragments of organs.

“Damn it, damn it, ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) damn it...” Jiang Ten controlled his body to wipe his mouth, then set his head aside and reached out to poke at the scattered organs on the ground. “Make a note of what I’ve lost... you have to tell Five ge later... if anything’s missing, I’m dead for sure.”

“Kid...” Chen Junnan pressed a hand to his forehead. “How about you just throw your head over here first? That way, no matter how badly your body gets beaten, at least your head will be safe. I’ll go back and have Xiao Qian Dou rebuild you a new body.”

“How can that be allowed?!” Jiang Ten’s eyes flew wide open. “‘The body, hair, and skin are all bestowed by one’s parents’*! How could I abandon my own flesh?”

(TLN: This is a saying from Confucius. ‘Our bodies - to every hair and bit of skin - are received by us from our parents, and we must not presume to injure or wound them. This is the beginning of filial piety.’ From the Classic of Filial Piety, c. 4th century BC)

“Alas.” Chen Junnan was completely at a loss. “You’re as stubborn as a mule.”

“Enough talking, just close the door.” Jiang Ten tried to climb up from the ground, but something felt wrong. One of his legs throbbed with pain, as if it had completely lost all sensation.

Chen Junnan noticed immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“Seems I got hit a little too hard...” Jiang Ten gave a wry smile. He placed his head in front of himself, then rolled his body over, peering at himself from a short distance. A moment later, he cried out in alarm, “This is bad! My right leg’s broken! Damn... this is really a headache—head... huh? Where’s my head?”

Jiang Ten panicked, feeling for his head, only to realize that it had already been knocked away from his panic.

“...” Chen Junnan was completely left for words. He had seen plenty of people in {End Point}, but never had he felt this utterly speechless.

“Sin–Since your leg’s broken...” Chen Junnan finally spoke after a long pause. “Kid... maybe you should lie down for a bit? I know I said we should be reckless and aggressive during this game, but kid, you didn’t have to take it this far...”

“No no no...” Jiang Ten’s hands scrambled along his back. “I’m not being reckless... I think my leg is just twisted... I should be able to fix it... just... wait a moment...”

Jiang Ten twisted his body into an awkward position to reach his right leg, pressing and pinching around the fractured area. His detached head winced and grimaced in pain, its expressions bizarre enough to leave even the nearby Terrestrial Rabbit speechless.

A moment later, Jiang Ten’s head let out a deep breath. Both of his hands gripped the broken leg bones, and with a scream, he twisted violently.

His right leg then went completely limp.

Chen Junnan had seen people perform bone setting on TV, but never with such ear-splitting screams. “Y-You... this bone realignment ...why does it sound like you're butchering a pig? Are you really okay?”

“Oh no...” Jiang Ten’s head cried out, eyes wide. “What do I do... oh my heavens... I twisted it the wrong way...”

Chen Junnan shielded his eyes, overwhelmed with second-hand embarrassment. “W-What...the heck...Do you have any sense of joint anatomy? How the hell did you manage to {twist the wrong way}...?”

“I could have twisted it right!!” Jiang Ten shouted back just as anxiously. “But this is the first time I’ve ever had my head knocked off! Right now my body looks reversed to me! This is bad, this is bad, what do I do?!”

“How would I know?!”

“How about I try it again... give me a second...” Jiang Ten reached out once more, feeling around for the dislocated section of his leg bone.

“Oh, give it a rest!” Chen Junnan felt like he was on the verge of arguing with Jiang Ten outright. He couldn’t help thinking that this supposedly lofty-sounding {Unbreakable Spirit} was even less reliable than {Penalty Proxy}.

“Oh right, get me a crutch...” Jiang Ten couldn’t turn his head, so his head on the floor glanced sideways at Chen Junnan. “Isn’t it {Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea}? Don’t you have {Iron Crutch Li’s} crutch? As long as I can stand, I can still fight...”

Chen Junnan flattened his lips and pulled a small hairpin from his pocket, no thicker than a chopstick, jet-black from end to end, with traces of dark mud clinging to its tip.

“Kid,” he said, “will a mini version do?”