“Even if he becomes a ‘God,’ he still can’t get out…?” Yun Yao confirmed.

Baihu nodded. “On the day Qi Xia becomes a ‘God,’ the Four Divine Beasts will lead all the ‘Zodiacs’ together with all the ‘Participants’ of this place to meet destruction. This is the destiny we were meant to have.”

“Doesn’t that make you all too selfish…?” Zhang Chenze said. “All of us are rushing about here. You make us come when you want, you make us be destroyed when you want… Isn’t this unfair to Qi Xia too? He also strongly wants to return to real life, yet you’re forcing him to become a ‘God’ against his will?”

“We made you come…? We’re selfish…?” Baihu sneered coldly. “Am I not kindly reminding you to proactively forget all of this? You mere mortals… how can you understand our feelings? How can Qi Xia’s own obsession possibly rival ours?”

Zhang Chenze only felt this statement was too ridiculous. Everyone had their own obsessions, yet these upper echelon figures only cared about their own feelings.

“You think we’ll give up like this?” Yun Yao said with furrowed brows. “You and the ‘Zodiacs’ are together. What you’re saying now is also from the ‘Zodiacs’ perspective. The more we forget, the more times the ‘Zodiacs’ can kill us, so I can’t trust you.”

Baihu nodded. “What you say also makes sense.”

“So we’ll continue,” Yun Yao said. “I’ll continue killing all the ‘Zodiacs,’ making this damned place completely paralyzed. When you can’t even manage to create a ‘God,’ will this place still have meaning to you?”

After hearing this, Baihu let out a deep sigh and said, “It’s been a long time since I’ve communicated with ‘Participants’… I didn’t expect you’ve already become so radical now… Your current state is a bit like that woman from back then…”

“What?”

“What was her name…?” Baihu touched his chin. “A long time ago, she caused a huge commotion here and eventually received the punishment she deserved. What was she called…”

Everyone waited for quite a while before Baihu slowly spoke that person’s name.

“I think she was called something like Qiaoyun…” After saying this, he patted his forehead again. “Ah… it’s been too long ago, how many years has it been… You can go see for yourselves.”

“Go see for ourselves…?”

After hearing this, Baihu extended a finger and pointed toward a street not far away. “There’s a convenience store over there. Push the door open and you’ll see that once-glorious ‘Leader.’ She’s now living a fate worse than death, constantly accompanied by rotting food and her own excrement, like a walking corpse.”

“What…?” Lin Qin was slightly stunned after hearing this.

“What a perfect example, right?” Baihu said. “You’re all mortals, yet you presumptuously want to oppose the gods with mortal bodies… Wouldn’t it be better to just live here obediently? That woman called Qiaoyun—isn’t she your predecessor? She killed ‘Zodiacs,’ became a ‘Zodiac,’ and ultimately ended up in such a state… proving that all paths are dead ends.”

The several people silently looked at Baihu without saying a word, but their hearts were already in complete chaos.

“I feel like Qi Xia is walking the same old path that Qiaoyun walked…” Baihu said with emotion. “Among each generation of you, a ‘Leader’ will awaken. Qi Xia disappeared for several years, so he’s surely already passed through the second stage… Now he’s about to find his own ending…”

After speaking, Baihu looked at the group again. “So… all you can do is wait. If you continue taking risks, all the walking corpses here are your examples.”

As soon as these words fell, Baihu’s entire body slowly floated into mid-air, then suddenly disappeared in the air.

The “Land of the End” had always been like this.

These people came when they wanted and left when they wanted. They killed when they wanted to kill and saved when they wanted to save.

Qin Dingdong had been crushed to death in Heavenly-Snake’s hands for an extremely absurd reason. No matter what unfulfilled wishes she still had, she could only wait for the next rebirth.

Zhang Chenze also felt something was strange about herself. Clearly two teammates had died in succession, but as long as she thought about how they could revive, she wasn’t worried at all. This mentality was obviously somewhat pathological.

If one day everyone returned to reality with this kind of mindset, they would definitely subconsciously believe that “death can solve all problems.”

Unfortunately, humans had never been computers waiting to restart. Death couldn’t solve any problems.

“What do we do next…?” Li Xiangling asked quietly from behind.

“Xiangling…” Yun Yao turned to look at her. “You take Lin Qin to get her injuries treated first. Have Tiantian and Lawyer Zhang go with you too. I want to go see that female clerk.”

“No… I also want to go see that female clerk,” Lin Qin said. “Take me with you… Even if I don’t treat this injury, it’s fine. I won’t live more than a few days anyway.”

After hearing this, Yun Yao hesitated, then nodded. She then led everyone toward that convenience store.

The giant bell was very close to the convenience store. Although Lin Qin’s legs and feet were inconvenient, the group arrived at the entrance in just a few minutes.

Before even entering, the rotting, foul smell from inside wafted out, making people wrinkle their brows after just one light sniff.

Lin Qin’s mind returned to the first day she teamed up with Qi Xia. At that time, they had stumbled into this convenience store by mistake and saw that person cooking her own child.

“I should have thought of it earlier…” Lin Qin muttered to herself. “At that time, she pulled Qi Xia into the room, and three grown men couldn’t stop her… Her body was enhanced…”

“Your team encountered her before?” After Yun Yao spoke, she looked at Zhang Chenze and Tiantian again.

“I don’t remember,” Tiantian shook her head.

“Me neither…” Zhang Chenze sighed.

Yun Yao then stopped asking and pushed the door open. The four young women behind her also cautiously looked inside.

There was no one in the room, but the smell was exceptionally strong.

On the ground lay a corpse that had already dried and blackened, crawling with maggots.

“Is anyone here…?” Yun Yao asked, mustering her courage.

Soon, rustling sounds came from inside the room. Within seconds, an extremely emaciated woman pushed open the inner room door and walked out.

She appeared severely malnourished. Not only were her cheeks deeply sunken, but the skin on her body was also as withered as an old tree.

“Mm…?” She stared blankly at the group, then squeezed out a smile, revealing dry, yellowed, and blackened teeth. “Welcome… please browse freely…”

Yun Yao looked at the environment inside the room, helplessly blinked, then walked straight toward the clerk.

“Qiaoyun…?” Yun Yao called out.

The clerk had absolutely no reaction upon hearing these two words. She just stared blankly at her, then spoke. “Please select the goods yourself.”

“We’re not looking for goods. We’re looking for Qiaoyun. Are you Qiaoyun?” Yun Yao asked.

She had also interacted with natives before. Many times, natives could remember their own names, but the woman before her seemed to have been insane for too long and had no reaction whatsoever to the two words “Qiaoyun.”

Or perhaps… Baihu was talking nonsense?

“We don’t have anything called Qiaoyun here…” The female clerk opened her mouth. “The goods are all displayed on the shelves. If we don’t have it, you can check other stores…”