“Old Qiao, what’s wrong?” Chen Junnan asked from the side.

Qiao Jiajin looked at the utility pole before him and said quietly: “Are all the buildings in this place really built with ‘Echoes’?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded.

“That sausage called ‘Heavenly-Dragon’… treats this place as a dream, then randomly changes everything.” Qiao Jiajin said. “But why would he build a city…?”

“I don’t know. I can only say…” Qi Xia murmured to himself. “This place wasn’t a city before. It suddenly became like this one day. And because everyone had a collective memory gap, no one noticed anything unusual.”

Qiao Jiajin continued to stroke the utility pole in front of him, suddenly feeling something strange.

He firmly believed that every object had its own heartbeat—and this time he seemed to truly feel the heartbeat on the utility pole.

This ordinary-looking utility pole was actually emitting an imperceptible pulsation at this moment. It had life.

Qiao Jiajin hurriedly went to a dilapidated building, reached out and placed his hand on it, then slowly closed his eyes.

After a long time, he frowned. This building also had its own “heartbeat,” but it clearly emanated a different rhythm from the utility pole.

Why would things created by “Clever Object” have their own rhythm? Did they have a pulse?

“Liar boy… are these things… really just created by ‘Clever Object’?”

“What do you mean?” Qi Xia asked.

“I can feel the ‘pulsation’…” Qiao Jiajin said. “Liar boy, have you ever seen a city that pulsates? Have you ever seen buildings in a city that pulsate?”

After hearing this, Chen Junnan followed suit and walked to the side of the building, reaching out to touch it, then forcefully knocking on it.

Qi Xia looked at Qiao Jiajin’s eyes without answering his question, only saying indifferently: “Fist, now I need to tell you something very important.”

“What is it?” Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia with a bewildered expression.

“One word from you can not only make all the people in this place disappear forever, but can also turn all the cities into nothingness.” Qi Xia said. “Fist, your ‘Breaking All Laws’ can terminate everything.”

Qiao Jiajin wasn’t surprised to hear this answer. After all, Xu Liunian had already told him.

What surprised him was that Qi Xia would actually say this out loud himself.

“Liar boy, do you want to terminate all of this?” Qiao Jiajin asked. “Won’t your plan be disrupted?”

“Of course I don’t want to terminate it.” Qi Xia said. “But I’m afraid that one day it will spiral out of control.”

“Out of control…?”

Qi Xia pointed to his temple and said: “Right now all my rationality is held together by an extremely hard string. Besides this string, everything else is madness.”

“Liar boy… are you really okay?” Qiao Jiajin asked with a frown.

“I’m fine right now. My thinking is exceptionally clear, and I can completely align with all the madmen in this place.” Qi Xia said. “But the problem now is precisely that I still retain that last bit of rationality.”

“Isn’t retaining rationality good?”

“Not entirely good.” Qi Xia answered. “My current state allows me to make final thoughts and deductions, but I have no way to display the most powerful ‘Echo.’ I can’t have both of these things. I must make a choice.”

“Choose your own rationality…?” Qiao Jiajin’s eyes flickered. “Liar boy, your own rationality—how do you choose?”

“I’ve ‘materialized’ my own rationality. I can see clearly every corner of my inner self, and I know what things I ultimately can’t let go of but must let go of. When necessary, I will actively destroy my own rationality.” Qi Xia said. “Fist, this isn’t something you need to worry about, but I will put the decision for this matter in your hands.”

“Decision?”

“When I lose all rationality, I don’t know if things will proceed as I expect. If at a certain moment you think I’ve done something wrong, then just go ahead and break my law.” Qi Xia said with a serious expression. “Remember, if you want to kill all the people, then you must use ‘Breaking All Laws’ on me. If you want to destroy the entire city, then use ‘Breaking All Laws’ on ‘Heavenly-Dragon.’ Using ‘Echoes’ individually on the people here or the buildings here won’t have any effect. You must find the ‘source.'”

“Liar boy…”

“Fist, just like how using ‘Breaking All Laws’ on the ‘Zodiacs’ can’t make their physiques return to normal people.” Qi Xia said. “You must find the caster. The enhanced physiques of those ‘Zodiacs’ don’t come from their own ‘Echoes.'”

“But liar boy… you…” Qiao Jiajin turned around and said with a serious expression. “I don’t know at all what you want to do, so how do I define your ‘right and wrong’?”

“Use intuition.” Qi Xia said. “Believe in your own inner intuition. If you think it’s right, then it’s right. If you think it’s wrong, then it’s wrong.”

After listening, Qiao Jiajin was silent for a few seconds, then said: “This sounds like you’re giving your last words. I don’t really like this feeling.”

“There’s no such thing as liking or not liking.” Qi Xia said. “Everything I’m doing is to enable everyone to escape. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Even if you don’t like it, I will still do it this way.”

Chen Junnan on the side was stunned: “Wait, Old Qi… you said you want to let everyone… all escape?”

“That’s right.” Qi Xia nodded. “Not a single one left behind. Everyone escapes.”

“Escape to where?” Chen Junnan asked.

“Escape to the place where we should be living.” After Qi Xia finished speaking, he paused for a long time, then said again: “Escape to a place where we can live together with Yu Nian’an.”

“Old Qi, are you really not lying…?” Chen Junnan asked with skepticism. “No one in this place has ever escaped up to now, yet you want to take everyone away?”

“I’m also not sure if I’m lying. My success rate is extremely slim.” Qi Xia said. “Probably at most only thirty percent, but this thirty percent is also the highest in history. For this thirty percent success rate, I will discard rationality and bet everything. If I succeed, then every word I’ve said is true. If I fail, then every word I’ve said is false.”

Qiao Jiajin was stunned for a long time on the side, finally asking: “Liar boy, do you remember what I said when I cooperated with you?”

“I remember.” Qi Xia nodded. “You said you have fists, I have a brain, so we cooperate.”

“But you ultimately decided to discard your own ‘brain.'” Qiao Jiajin said. “Without a brain and rationality, can you still be considered you?”