“Yan Zhichun…” Yun Yao murmured the name. “Isn’t that the strange woman Chen Junnan and I met when we participated in the Earth-Snake game?”

“Met during the Earth-Snake game…?” Chen Junnan, standing nearby, was stunned. “Really?”

“You…” Yun Yao looked at Chen Junnan before her with a complicated expression. She wanted to explain something but felt it would be futile, so she could only say, “Perhaps that wasn’t you. Anyway, it was ‘Chen Junnan.'”

“Yan Zhichun…” Chen Junnan rubbed his head, feeling he had never heard this name before.

Not only was it absent from his own memories, but it also hadn’t appeared during the past seven-plus years.

Yun Yao then turned to look at Qi Xia: “You said Wen Qiaoyun and Yan Zhichun are together…?”

“Yes.”

“Are you certain…?” Yun Yao asked with a skeptical expression.

The few of them had only heard Zhang Chenze mention that Qi Xia’s ability “Endless Life” was to create a person, but they didn’t know exactly how he created someone.

Could a created person appear anywhere?

But looking at Qi Xia’s performance, he himself didn’t know where Yan Zhichun was, so how could he create someone by her side?

As a fellow “Echoer,” Yun Yao couldn’t understand the operating principle of Qi Xia’s “Echo” at all. She could only tentatively believe he had truly done it.

“I’m certain, she’s there.” Qi Xia nodded. “You might as well go take a look.”

Yun Yao and Zhang Chenze simultaneously looked up at the sky, feeling that aimlessly going outside to search for someone wasn’t a good idea right now. They could only note this matter first and make plans after dawn.

“We’ll go look for her first thing tomorrow morning.” After saying this, Yun Yao turned to Chu Tianqiu. “Excuse me, leader, can we stay here for the night…?”

Yun Yao nodded: “Thank you.”

She turned and walked toward the teaching building, taking Zhang Chenze and Li Xiangling behind her. Tiantian, who had been standing there dazed for quite a while, eventually followed slowly.

“Oh right, Yun Yao.” Qi Xia turned to look at her retreating figure.

“Mm?”

“Lin Qin is also with them, bring her back too.”

Hearing Qi Xia order her with such an unhesitating declarative sentence, Yun Yao felt the situation was too bizarre.

They had personally witnessed Lin Qin being cut in half by those black threads, dying right before their eyes.

Now Qi Xia was asserting with such certainty that “Lin Qin is also there”—wasn’t he afraid two Lin Qins might appear at the same time?

Mentioning “two Lin Qins,” Yun Yao’s mind recalled the “two Chen Junnans” she saw yesterday. Had Chen Junnan also been created by Qi Xia at that time?

But no matter how she looked at it, Qi Xia at that time had no way of knowing the news that “Chen Junnan had already died.” The only person present who could do such a bizarre thing was Chu Tianqiu.

Yun Yao gradually felt that what these two people before her were doing had already begun to exceed the scope of what she could imagine.

“Lin Qin… is she with Wen Qiaoyun?” Yun Yao confirmed again.

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “I promised I could let Wen Qiaoyun join the team, but Lin Qin and Yan Zhichun must come together. If you can’t persuade the other two, I also can’t guarantee I’ll definitely agree to Wen Qiaoyun joining.”

“But you clearly know…” Yun Yao said quietly, “I don’t care whether Wen Qiaoyun joins or not. I only care whether she ‘exists.'”

“As long as Wen Qiaoyun ‘exists,’ she will definitely join, after all, Chu Tianqiu is here.” Qi Xia replied. “But since I’ve helped you so decisively, you can’t let me return empty-handed either.”

After hearing this, Yun Yao pondered for a long while, nodded slightly, then followed the others into the teaching building.

The sun of this day had gradually set. The few people present could only decide to spend the night at “Heaven’s Mouth.”

Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, and Chen Junnan came to a classroom. In silence, they lit a bonfire and quietly watched that strange sun sink below the horizon.

Zheng Yingxiong had run off somewhere again, no one knew where.

“The sixth day.” Chen Junnan was the first to break the silence. “After seven, eight, nine, we’ll be saying goodbye again.”

Qi Xia tossed a piece of wood into the bonfire and said in a low voice: “There’s no ‘goodbye.’ I told you that you two are no longer useful to me, so you don’t need to help with what comes next, and you don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

After hearing this, Chen Junnan looked up and asked irritably: “Old Qi, has anyone ever told you you’re quite deserving of a beating?”

“No.” Qi Xia shook his head. “I rarely talk to strangers.”

“Always hanging ‘useless’ on your lips—I don’t know who you learned that from.” Chen Junnan muttered quietly.

“Indeed useless.” Qi Xia replied. “I came this time to see Chu Tianqiu. What help did you provide?”

This response angered Chen Junnan considerably. He stood up with a “whoosh”: “Surnamed Qi! Don’t play the fool with us! My brother and I risked our lives to help you, and now you say this to us?!”

Qiao Jiajin frowned once again. He felt he wasn’t well-suited to handle this kind of problem and could only hurriedly stand up as well, saying: “Aiya… Junnan boy, sit down and talk calmly…”

“Calmly talk my ass!” Chen Junnan pointed at Qi Xia. “This kid said it once, I could understand it as him being groggy from sleep, but now he’s awake and saying it again—does he really think we’re burdens?”

Qi Xia looked up at Chen Junnan, then said in a deep voice: “Chen Junnan, then you tell me yourself, what have you helped me with?”

“Every fucking time I participated in a game, what I was thinking about was taking down their heads for you. Are you now telling me everything I did was useless?”

“I don’t need others to help me participate in games, and I don’t need others to gamble their lives for me.” Qi Xia said in a deep voice. “You’re using things I don’t need to help me.”

“You fucking…”

Chen Junnan was about to attack, and Qiao Jiajin could only hold him back once again.

“Fine… fine, fine, fine…” Chen Junnan nodded. “Surnamed Qi, since we’ve come to this point, let’s just open the window and speak plainly.”

“Oh?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow. “What else do we need to ‘open the window’ about? I probably understand you better than you think.”

“Heh.” Chen Junnan sneered. “But these past two days, this young master has also had the chance to understand you a bit… Old Qiao and I, we’re not actually people in this room, are we?”

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin kept tugging at Chen Junnan’s arm: “Junnan boy… can we talk about these things here?”

“This young master doesn’t give a damn anymore!” Chen Junnan shouted. “It’s not like I wanted to come here myself! It must be this surnamed Qi who’s behind it! He’s planning to throw us both away like burdens—should I still worry about his safety?”

Qi Xia picked up a stick beside him and poked at the bonfire, then nodded: “You’re right. Not just you two—everyone in the room was reorganized by me.”