Qi Xia frowned and slowly stood up.

The situation before him seemed a bit strange.

In his memory, he had never recalled “ants” actively tapping on windows. They mostly avoided living people.

And now, a bonfire had been burning continuously in the room. No matter how one looked at it, this didn’t seem like a venue “ants” would enter. So what did this continuous tapping represent?

He turned back to look at the sleeping Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin. The two seemed quite tired and hadn’t been awakened by the tapping sounds, so he could only walk to the window himself to check the situation.

In just the time it took to take two steps, that pale hand tapped the window twice more.

Qi Xia narrowed his gray-white eyes and looked down. This was the first time he had observed an “ant” at such close range.

His appearance was no different from other ants.

His eyes were two pitch-black holes. Because his eyes had been gouged out for too long, wrinkled patterns had grown around the holes.

His mouth was wide open, and one could clearly see that his teeth had been pulled out. Only a small stub of his tongue remained, and even his nose and ears had been cut off. There were no protrusions whatsoever on his smooth skull—he looked exactly like a skeleton with withered skin stretched over it.

He didn’t have a single hair on his entire body, only skin tightly clinging to his bones. At this moment, he stared with his eyes and opened his mouth wide, raising his head to “look directly” at Qi Xia.

Qi Xia could clearly see that his face was covered with dried bloodstains.

Who would have thought that the most terrifying-looking thing in the “Land of the End” had suffered hardships completely beyond the reach of other people here?

Qi Xia gazed at the “ant” before him through a pane of glass. He wasn’t sure if the other party had a visual system, nor did he know if the other party had noticed him.

But that “ant” seemed to sense something. He slowly raised his head, his wide-open mouth continuously making sounds, like an insect chirping.

Qi Xia found his behavior quite interesting and then also reached out his own hand close to the glass.

The two people’s hands slowly came together through the glass. In an instant, both simultaneously retracted their hands.

Qi Xia felt the bone-piercing coldness of the palm on the other side of the glass.

And that “ant” seemed as if he had been burned, also carefully retracting his palm to his chest.

His palm was as cold as a corpse.

“Who are you…?” Qi Xia asked softly.

The “ant’s” eyes continued to widen, then once again attempted to reach out his hand.

Qi Xia knew the other party should not have a visual system and was only acting based on feeling, so even he himself wasn’t sure what he would touch. The sudden palm temperature just now should have startled him as well.

Seeing the other party press his hand against the glass once more, Qi Xia felt even more curious.

Why was this “ant” different from other “ants”?

What was special about him?

Thinking of this, Qi Xia reached out his hand once again and brought them together.

This time the “ant” didn’t retreat. He seemed to be feeling the temperature of Qi Xia’s palm through the glass.

The expression on his bizarre face kept changing. Unfortunately, since he had neither eyes nor other facial features, Qi Xia couldn’t understand the meaning of his strange expressions.

“Are you looking for me?” Qi Xia asked again.

That “ant” kept opening his mouth wide, his hoarse throat continuously making sounds like a cricket rubbing its wings, yet he couldn’t speak a single complete sentence.

Seeing this, Qi Xia thought briefly, then simply unlocked and opened the window directly. The “ant” also retracted his hand the instant he felt the window move.

His reaction was truly like that of an insect.

Qi Xia took a step forward, reached out to press against the windowsill, then lowered his head to stare directly at the “ant” before him.

That creature that was part human, part insect, was crouched on the ground outside the first-floor window. Now there wasn’t even the single glass barrier between them anymore, yet the other party made no other movements—not only did he not continue to reach out his hand, he didn’t even flee.

“You can’t see me, and you can’t hear me either?” Qi Xia asked.

He only knew the other party’s ears had been cut off, but now it seemed the entire auditory system should have been destroyed as well.

That “ant” raised his head and turned around in confusion, then crawled forward one step.

He remained silent for quite a while, then tentatively extended his hand and slowly probed forward.

Qi Xia carefully stared at the “ant” before him, feeling an indescribable strangeness throughout his entire body.

If the other party were a person, he could at least deduce the other party’s motive. But now, what exactly was the other party?

In less than three seconds, that trembling, pale hand had already extended before Qi Xia.

The other party was now kneeling and crouching on the ground, with only one arm that had once been broken raised high—the scene was indescribably bizarre.

Qi Xia quietly watched the trajectory of this hand and roughly understood the other party’s target.

He wanted his eyes.

“Strange…” Qi Xia murmured to himself. “Aren’t you all searching for ‘chips’? Why would you target my eyes?”

He watched as those fingers approached his eyes like frozen dead branches. Qi Xia suddenly reached out and gripped the other party’s wrist.

The “ant” was startled by this scalding thing but couldn’t withdraw his hand for a moment.

His expression changed dramatically, as if analyzing the situation before him.

“Wait…” Qi Xia said. “I seem to have fallen into a misconception.”

After panicking for a while, that “ant” suddenly used great force to pull his hand back. Qi Xia also understood something at this moment.

“I understood it wrong…” Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice. “I took it for granted that because you became ‘ants,’ you must have lost your rationality. But ‘Qinglong’ never said he took away your rationality. He only said he destroyed your five senses, then implanted an ‘idea’ in your minds.”

The “ant” extended his other hand to rub his wrist, as if feeling this scalding temperature.

“So you’re conscious…?”

Even as he spoke these words, Qi Xia himself found it somewhat hard to believe.

But the other party clearly could make movements that “deranged people” couldn’t. They reacted to external stimuli and even had their own thoughts and judgment.

“This truly opens my eyes. I knew you lived miserably, but I didn’t imagine you lived this miserably.”

Looking at that “ant” crouched on the ground with continuous rustling sounds coming from his throat, a trace of pity arose in Qi Xia’s eyes.

What kind of pitiful creature was this thing before him?

“The ‘deranged people’ here have all their senses intact but lack rationality.” Qi Xia said in a low voice. “But you’ve been deprived of all five senses, yet your consciousness is clear…? You’re far more tragic than the ‘deranged people.’ Is this the fate of working for those two?”