“‘Xuanwu’ has ‘Immortality’ and ‘Worry-Free’…” Qi Xia murmured to himself. “And ‘Zhu Que’ can float in the air. This floating should be…”

“Zhu Que has ‘Air Suspension,'” Chen Junnan said. “I once participated in Big Fat Rabbit’s game with a big brother called Wu Shisan. Although I didn’t see him demonstrate his abilities, that person did say his ability was ‘Air Suspension.'”

The more everyone thought about it, the more they felt something was wrong.

“‘Qinglong’ also has ‘Silence,'” Qi Xia said again. “The person ranked nineteenth in ‘Cat’ is ‘Silence.'”

“Ah!” Qin Dingdong was startled and turned back to look at Chen Junnan. “That’s right, that’s right… Is there anyone in ‘Cat’ who can control plant growth?”

“Eh? I don’t really know about this…” Chen Junnan replied.

Qiao Jiajin murmured on the side: “‘Wild Growth’ Ning Shiba, that’s the dead astrology girl.”

Qi Xia nodded and interjected: “There’s also ‘Luxuriant Wood’ Liu Twenty-One.”

“Damn… there really are?” Chen Junnan was stunned for a moment, then looked at Qin Dingdong. “Sister Dong, why are you suddenly asking this?”

“That dead snake!” Qin Dingdong said. “‘Heavenly-Snake,’ that immortal old thing, as soon as he appeared, used many tree-root-like vines to entangle us. If there are people in ‘Cat’ with the same ‘Echo,’ then it’s almost certainly true! Many of the powerful abilities in the upper echelons here come from ‘Cat.'”

Qi Xia felt that the most outrageous point about this matter wasn’t that members of ‘Cat’ possessed the same ‘Echoes’ as the ‘Heaven-level,’ but rather that the leader of ‘Cat,’ Qian Wu, possessed ‘Twin Flowers’ just like ‘Heavenly-Dragon.’

Additionally, there was that ‘Gigantification’ ‘sun’ from his dream… These abilities all actually came from ‘Cat.’

“Looking at it this way, Little Chu’s side hasn’t contributed much—’Cat’ has contributed way more,” Chen Junnan said. “There’s a guy beside Little Chu called Jin Yuanxun who possesses an ability called ‘Quantum Leap,’ which can move to wherever the heart desires. Many in the upper echelons should have replicated this ability, but no one else seems to have any others… Even though there are many ‘Echoers’ in ‘Heaven’s Mouth,’ the people above don’t seem to like using their abilities.”

“‘Quantum Leap’s’ Jin Yuanxun…” Qi Xia once again captured the key point.

‘Quantum Leap’ should be the most important ability for various high-ranking individuals. He had seen similar abilities on many people before.

But these ‘Heaven-level’ individuals hadn’t all swarmed to seize Jin Yuanxun’s eyeballs. Instead, they each possessed such abilities, which meant there should be a stable supply channel providing eyeballs.

“Do you think it’s possible that ‘Cat’ and ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ are actually in cahoots?” Chen Junnan asked.

“I don’t think so,” Qi Xia shook his head. “When Qian Wu slayed ‘Heavenly-Pegasus,’ we were all at the scene. His movements were swift and decisive, his eyes showed readiness to die. He and his two brothers died tragically at the scene of slaying ‘Heavenly-Pegasus.’ If he and all the ‘Heaven-level’ were in league… this behavior obviously doesn’t make much sense.”

“Then why is this?” Chen Junnan asked again.

Qi Xia lowered his head and began carefully pondering this matter while touching his chin.

If both ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ and ‘Cat’ were providing eyeballs to the ‘Zodiacs,’ it definitely couldn’t be one-sided contribution. After all, these two organizations couldn’t possibly fear any single ‘Earth-level’ individually, much less be threatened by these ‘Earth-levels.’ There should be ‘transactions’ involved.

If so, what did ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ and ‘Cat’ need?

Qi Xia quickly recalled the ‘welcome meeting’ when everyone first joined ‘Heaven’s Mouth.’ An organization that had existed for many years not only had beer and food, but could even continuously produce various other food resources.

Using the simplest and most direct method of thinking, Chu Tianqiu collected corpses and dug out eyeballs just to exchange with the ‘Zodiacs’ for survival resources to ensure the normal operation of ‘Heaven’s Mouth.’

After all, this was an organization initiated by scattered individuals, and when Jin Yuanxun recruited people, the bargaining chip he used was “we have food.”

For many people who had lost their memories, an endless supply of ‘food’ was almost the most important bargaining chip. Joining ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ meant being able to ‘survive.’

So Chu Tianqiu most likely exchanged ‘eyeballs’ with the ‘Zodiacs’ for food. He didn’t lie—he really did make transactions with ‘Earth-Dragon.’

This way, both sides got what they needed, exchanging things they no longer needed for important supplies. Both sides would save considerable search time—it was a reasonable transaction that wouldn’t produce other entanglements.

If this matter was reasonable, then what about ‘Cat’?

What was strange about this matter was that Wang Ba in ‘Cat’ possessed ‘Gigantification’ and could even magnify a single grain of rice tens of thousands of times. There was no need to consider nutritional balance issues here—food only needed to fill stomachs. So theoretically, ‘Cat’ wasn’t short on food.

Moreover, the composition of ‘Cat’ was very different from ‘Heaven’s Mouth.’ They were well-trained mercenaries, exceptionally united as a team. Food shortages wouldn’t cause the entire team to fall apart. So Qian Wu most likely didn’t request survival resources from the ‘Zodiacs.’

Thinking about it this way, things became somewhat strange.

‘Cat’ received even less than ‘Heaven’s Mouth,’ yet contributed ‘eyeballs’ with more powerful abilities. What was their purpose?

“Wait a minute…”

Qi Xia touched his chin again, feeling as if he had connected the entire matter.

“‘Cat’… why are they so united…?”

He felt as if he had fallen into a blind spot. Qian Wu probably wasn’t deceiving him, but rather deceiving all the other members of the ‘Cat’ team.

Although he didn’t want to admit it, theoretically, all the people in the ‘Land of the End’ had no way to meet each other outside. Everyone was isolated in their own worlds.

If so, how could ‘Cat’ collect ‘compensation’ from other ‘Participants’?

The reason why all the people in ‘Cat’ remained in ‘Cat’ and were fearless in death and extremely united was that their motivation was simply to earn wealth for their families. But how could they verify that their families would possess wealth in the future?

Combining Qin Dingdong’s and Chu Tianqiu’s situations, Qi Xia felt he had conceived an unprecedentedly bold idea.

What Qian Wu exchanged for was probably—’modified memories.’

Thinking about it this way, everything made sense.

The families of ‘Cat’ members could truly receive compensation—at least that’s how it was in their memories.

These people’s families became wealthy in the future, and other ‘Cat’ team members from future timelines could verify this for them.

As long as everyone’s memories could be slightly modified with a unified narrative, a perfect lie would become self-justifying within ‘Cat.’

They would become more and more united, their reputation would grow greater and greater, other people would know of ‘Cat’s’ existence and bring more money and missions.

And the more missions ‘Cat’ executed, the more ‘Echo eyeballs’ they would produce, instead becoming a strange supply chain.