Yes, I knew I had greatly disappointed Baiyang… but I truly had no other choice.

“Did he threaten you?” Baiyang asked.

“Yes… He not only wanted to threaten me, he also tried to recruit me, but I refused.” I sighed. “However, to protect myself, I could only give him the map… Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have had the chance to come here and speak with you. I would have become a ‘Resident.'”

“Are you really that afraid of death?” Baiyang asked again. “How can your individual life and death compare to everyone else’s?”

Like a child who had done something wrong, I buried my head deeply before Baiyang.

“Yan Zhichun, did you also tell him about my plan?” Baiyang asked sternly again.

“I…” I was about to say I hadn’t, but suddenly felt something wasn’t quite right.

Wait… the plan?

Baiyang’s voice suddenly began circling in my mind: “Yan Zhichun, after today, I won’t mention any of these plans again. Let them become secrets in the depths of your heart.”

Why was he suddenly bringing up the “plan” on his own initiative now…? Was it because I had messed this up?

I raised my head to look at Baiyang. Just as I imagined, although Baiyang’s voice was very stern, he didn’t show any expression at all.

How could Baiyang not have anticipated this?

He had proactively summoned “Silence” to hide this segment of information, indicating he knew someone was monitoring from above. For someone who had been in a long-term monitored environment, suddenly cutting off the monitoring would inevitably attract attention.

Brother Yang had said that once this secret was leaked and a third person found out, all the plans could completely fail. Unfortunately, Qinglong wasn’t human—even he himself didn’t consider himself human.

So the one who knew about this plan wasn’t human, which meant the plan hadn’t failed yet!

Heavens, I was getting a bit nervous… I seemed to be faintly keeping up with Baiyang’s line of thinking.

Now that Qinglong had appeared, Baiyang was proactively bringing up his own plan, which contradicted what he had said earlier inside “Silence.”

If that was the case, should I believe what was said within “Silence,” or what was said under “monitoring”?

The answer was already quite obvious.

Next, I would “place my bet.” I would use actual actions to tell Baiyang that his choice had always been correct.

I was worthy of this “heaven-sent wisdom.”

“Brother Yang… you have to trust me… I really didn’t say anything…” I began to defend myself. “I’m so loyal to you—can’t you see that? How could I possibly reveal your plan…?”

Hearing this sentence from me, the corners of Baiyang’s mouth imperceptibly curved upward.

I knew I had bet correctly.

He slowly stood up, went to the office bar to pour a glass of water, then turned around and handed it to me. He patted my shoulder to have me sit down, then said: “Get lost, Yan Zhichun. You’re useless now.”

Hearing this sentence, my anxious heart finally settled down.

I sat in the chair and drank a large gulp of water, calming my panicked emotions.

So Brother Yang knew everything all along… That’s great…

“Brother Yang, even if I have no merit, don’t I have some effort to show for it?” I took a deep breath and said again. “Qinglong told me you’ve been toying with my life all along. Now you’re going to abandon me—what a ruthless heart… How did I end up following someone like you?!”

I placed the empty cup on the table. Baiyang refilled it halfway, then pointed at a half-eaten bag of peanuts beside him, gesturing to me. I waved my hand to indicate I didn’t want any.

“I toyed with your life?” Baiyang snorted coldly. “Your wisdom was all bestowed by me. So what if I toyed with your life?”

“But that’s not right!” I said. “Qinglong also has powerful abilities, but he never thought to toy with me like this!”

This sentence seemed a bit too emotionally urgent—I felt like coughing.

“Sophistry!” Baiyang grabbed a few peanuts himself and said, “Yan Zhichun, considering you’ve worked for me for so long, I’ll spare your life. If you don’t get lost now, I’ll definitely gamble my life with you. You can’t win my game, and when that happens, you won’t even have an intact corpse.”

Good heavens, those few peanuts Baiyang was eating were obviously moldy… How was he eating them?

“Gamble my life… Brother Yang, are you really going to treat me like this?” I said. “This is clearly Qinglong’s strategy to sow discord… You should be able to see that!”

“Sow discord?” Baiyang slapped the table with his hand, scattering countless peanut fragments, then shouted expressionlessly, “If you hadn’t agreed to work for Qinglong… would you still be able to come back here to me now? Would he have let you go?”

Brother Yang, please really stop eating those peanuts—they’re moldy…

“Brother Yang… if you truly don’t trust me… then I really have no motivation to continue living.” I took another sip of water and said. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll spill all your plans?”

Qinglong wanted to watch insects tear at each other, so we’d perform for him.

When you crouch down one day to watch ants fighting over food, but suddenly discover that these two ants pretending to fight are staring at you with all their simple and compound eyes… what would you do?

“You…” Baiyang stared at me with approving eyes. “Yan Zhichun, are you threatening me?”

“That’s right.” I nodded. “I need to fight for my own chance to survive. Since I could survive before Qinglong, I can definitely do the same before you.”

“Gutsy.” Baiyang said. “You’ve indeed saved your own life, but I won’t completely trust you anymore either.”

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t completely trust you either.” I said. “You made my life a complete mess… This is what you deserve. I’ll execute the plan on the map for my own sake. When the time comes, we’ll part ways.”

After saying this, I stood up, then raised my eyebrows at Baiyang, because I didn’t know whether this conversation should end now.

Baiyang stroked his chin and pondered slightly, then nodded at me.

“That’s it then.” Baiyang said. “For now, let our interests bind us together, but I’ll kill you at any time.”

“I’ll also betray you at any time.”

After hearing this, Baiyang shrugged and nodded at me again in acknowledgment. I also nodded and withdrew from Baiyang’s room.

This time I completely relaxed, leaning against the wall and slowly sitting down. I felt my legs had gone soft…

I had actually navigated between Baiyang and Qinglong… Fortunately, I barely managed to keep up.

I wondered if there was anyone else in this “Land of the End” who, like me, had played games with two monsters in a single day.

But speaking of which, the task Baiyang arranged for me was indeed the easiest among everyone.

He himself had to navigate with Qinglong, and this “map” was also meant to be transferred to Qinglong through my hands.

The “Silence” he summoned had two layers of meaning. The first layer was that Baiyang would truly tell me the plan, which I would then remember and begin slowly preparing. The other layer was to draw out Qinglong.

Baiyang knew I absolutely couldn’t reveal the plan, so I could only give the map to the other party.

But what was the significance of Baiyang transferring the map to Qinglong?