I had looked at this map once and had completely memorized it, so the “map” as an object wasn’t important—the information on it was what mattered.

Wait… In the “Land of the End,” how could one preserve a map completely and safely?

If I carried the map on me, even if I hadn’t encountered Qinglong, I would still leave the map on the ground during one of the annihilations.

That way, the map’s whereabouts would be unknown, and there was no telling whose hands it would fall into.

If I wanted to preserve it safely… I might as well hand it to Qinglong. But directly giving it to him would definitely make him suspicious, so Baiyang set up this scheme.

But who was the preserved map meant for? Theoretically, only someone who had lost their memories would need this map.

Could it be…?

Baiyang had stated countless times that he might lose his memories on some future day… Could it be that he wanted to use Qinglong’s hands to transfer this map to himself…?

As I walked out of Baiyang’s game venue, cold sweat ran down my body.

I still remembered telling Jiang Ruoxue… Baiyang’s thinking was too many steps ahead of us.

When he gave me this map, he had already anticipated how Qinglong would react next, and also predicted how I would react.

He had even anticipated that when I discovered all this, I might cooperate with him to put on a performance that would set Qinglong’s mind at ease.

The path I had wracked my brains to break through all the fog and scout out—I discovered that Baiyang had already drawn landmarks all along this road.

I couldn’t delay any longer. Baiyang was already speeding along this path, but I was still groping my way forward.

I knew I needed to become stronger immediately.

After all, I wasn’t certain how many years Baiyang’s plan would last. Although I had memorized these locations, there was no guarantee I wouldn’t forget them over so many years.

Afterward, I began days of wandering through the city. In the mornings, I participated in “Earth-level” games, secretly slaughtering “Participants.” In the afternoons, I continued recruiting “Extreme Path” members.

Since I didn’t need to regularly report to Baiyang’s game venue, I also had more time to go find Jiang Ruoxue.

She had indeed joined “Heaven’s Gate” and had a close relationship with Yun Yao. I didn’t reveal Baiyang’s plan, only telling Jiang Ruoxue that “Extreme Path” couldn’t remain so scattered forever.

I needed a method—a method that could gather all the “Extreme Path” members at a certain moment.

Normally, the “Extreme Path” members could disperse and operate in various places. Although they were very safe now, there was no way to gather everyone together. If this continued, there would be no way to execute the final mission Baiyang had entrusted.

Although Jiang Ruoxue didn’t ask for reasons, she agreed to go find a solution. She said this matter wasn’t difficult and required her and Zhoumo to work together to complete it. “Cause and Effect” combined with “Sound Transmission” should allow the other party to hear heavenly sounds descending.

They said they needed some time to prepare this plan. When the time was ripe, they would go find each “Extreme Path member” to apply “Echo.”

During this period, I also went to find Baiyang. He still stood properly at the game venue entrance. What gave him a headache was that “Bliss Bank” had become popular again. He had wanted to lower the game’s popularity, but couldn’t stop the greedy participants.

Baiyang said he really didn’t want to earn “Dao” anymore, but the quantity of “Dao” was still exploding every day.

When I spoke with Baiyang, I also tried my best to follow contentious dialogue. Since Qinglong believed we had begun to split, let’s carry the split through to the end.

Such days continued for a while… until two years ago, when I zoned out again.

This time zoning out, I felt something was wrong… I had arrived at an unfamiliar place. After wandering the streets for about a day or two, I finally discovered I was at the edge of “Dao City.” I didn’t know why I had come here, but I still quickly found a main road I was familiar with and headed toward Baiyang’s game venue.

I suspected my time had begun to disorder again… I needed to immediately know what year and what day it was now…

But along the way, I only saw countless corpses. The bloody smell in the air was extremely heavy… The “Land of the End” on ordinary days already looked very much like hell, but today it looked especially so.

What was going on?

Why couldn’t I see a single living person on the streets…?

I had also zoned out many times before… but this time the situation was truly special.

After walking for roughly five or six hours, I finally saw Baiyang.

His game venue was different from usual—inside were actually all dead “Participants,” yet Baiyang was still reading in the room.

“Brother Yang…?” I pushed open the door and called out tentatively.

Baiyang was clearly stunned. He stared at me for a long time, then showed confusion: “Why are you already here now…”

“Did something happen…?” I asked in a deep voice. “How did the streets become like this…? Why are all the ‘Participants’ here…”

Before I finished speaking, I suddenly froze.

I hadn’t noticed before… but now something felt wrong.

In the center of Baiyang’s office lay a corpse.

The corpse was face-down, so I couldn’t see the features clearly… but she was wearing a white dress.

This white dress looked somewhat familiar… Wait, was this?

“B-Brother Yang…” My voice trembled. “What is this…?”

Baiyang didn’t look at the corpse before him. Instead, he stared into my eyes and said: “There’s nothing here. You saw wrong.”

“What…” I blinked. I felt like I hadn’t seen wrong—this was my corpse…

I stepped forward and turned the corpse over. Sure enough, there was a face identical to mine.

I looked at her fingers again—they also had tattoos exactly the same as mine.

There was an obvious wound at her brow, as if something had pierced through it…

Baiyang seemed slightly flustered. He stood up from his seat, grabbed my arm and pulled me to the doorway, then said: “Yan Zhichun, there’s nothing here. You saw wrong.”

I didn’t know what exactly Baiyang was trying to do… Had he just killed me?

No, that still wasn’t quite right… If he had killed me, then what was I now?

“B-Brother Yang… Can’t I ask about this?” I murmured. “Although I know you have your own arrangements… but this is really… very hard for me to accept…”

“You’ll always be safe,” Baiyang said. “It’s just that something seems to have gone wrong… You actually appeared before the annihilation.”

“Before… the annihilation?”

“Yan Zhichun, find a place and wait to die,” Baiyang said. “This is all a nightmare. Everything will be fine when you wake up.”