Qi Xia stared quietly out the window in the pitch-black night.

He would occasionally raise his head to look at the sky, and at other times look at the ground. His fingers lightly tapped the edge of the window as his brain raced at full speed.

An incomparably quiet, long night unseen for decades.

The ‘Zodiacs’ were quiet, the ‘Ants’ were quiet, and the ‘Participants’ were also quiet.

Now, compared to all the sounds in the entire ‘Land of the End,’ none were as noisy as Qi Xia’s train of thought.

Countless thoughts swirled in his mind as he deduced over and over again the events that were happening or about to happen.

Fortunately, after the battle with ‘Heavenly Dragon’ in the dream, some more memories had been restored. However, many of the restored memories seemed to be walking in a void, like scrambled computer code.

“‘Cat’ should settle on countermeasures tonight,” Qi Xia thought to himself.

“It’s just a pity that you don’t have many choices left… No matter how you consider it, there’s only one method remaining. After all, there are quite a few clever people in ‘Cat.’ The thinking of these strategic generals will make all results point to the same answer. This is the path I’ve laid out for you—to let everything happen naturally.”

“If everything goes as expected, the ‘Zodiacs’ will be in chaos tonight, creating trust gaps. After all, the ‘Zodiac’ I trust most has begun to act, disrupting the pattern originally established by many rebellious ‘Zodiacs.’ At this time, everyone is in danger, wanting to protect themselves.”

He stood up, staring out the window, and thought again, “Only when feeling internal and external troubles can everyone’s potential be developed to the maximum. At this time, as long as one ‘Zodiac’ starts to act… everyone will descend into chaos. The ‘Train’ will be reorganized, and the ‘Heaven Level’…”

Qi Xia turned around again to look at the corpse that had been lying on the floor in the center of the classroom.

“The ‘Heaven Level’ has already started dying,” Qi Xia quickly simulated the upcoming situation. “At this point, how could ‘Heavenly Dragon’ not want to see me…? And how could ‘Heavenly Pig,’ who’s been sleeping all along, not receive orders to activate the ‘Puppets’…? If the puppets are activated in front of ‘Qinglong’… how will you survive? And when these ‘Earth Level’ beings facing internal and external troubles discover that the ‘Heaven Level’ can truly be killed, the massive gears will begin to turn forcefully.”

All the preliminary work had already been done for ‘Heavenly Dragon.’ Not to mention someone like ‘Heavenly Dragon,’ this self-proclaimed ‘god’—even a true ‘god’ couldn’t possibly anticipate that someone would use such a long period of time to plan a simple murder.

“And the ‘Extreme Path’…” Qi Xia stroked his chin. “The ‘Extreme Path’ is also advancing according to all the established tracks, and walking more steadily than any other team… After all, I made this needle from ‘forging iron’ from the very beginning, and I personally shaped it into what it is now.”

Qi Xia turned his head to look outside the door, thinking to himself, “Chu Tianqiu…”

“You mustn’t disappoint me. The fact that Wen Qiaoyun came back from the dead didn’t make you crazier, but instead restored a bit of rationality… Why are you still so naive now? Do I need to tear her apart in front of you for it to work?”

After a few seconds, Qi Xia shook his head again. “But that won’t work. If I tear Wen Qiaoyun apart… you can only hate me. If ‘Heavenly Dragon’ tears her apart, you’ll only hate ‘Heavenly Dragon.’ This is completely insufficient.”

“What you need to hate is yourself, the world, all people… What you need is ‘powerlessness over everything.’ What you need to bear is ‘everything falling into despair.’ What your eyes will contain will be endless corpses of Wen Qiaoyun… This is our only path.”

In this bizarre place, killing people was to save people, while saving people was harming people.

Qi Xia knew well that this team didn’t need people who were too kindhearted, and Chu Tianqiu was the best choice in this plan aside from himself.

Both of them would kill countless people and use any means necessary to do “good deeds.” This was a rare phenomenon that wouldn’t be seen anywhere else.

“Countless ‘evil deeds’ achieve ‘good karma,’ therefore actions are neither good nor evil, and karmic force neither increases nor decreases,” Qi Xia thought again. “I don’t need ‘good fruit’ or ‘evil fruit,’ I only need a predetermined ‘fruit’ after long planning.”

After another few seconds of silence, Qi Xia nodded. “That’s right… Chu Tianqiu… I shouldn’t underestimate you… Perhaps you’ve already thought of it?”

Outside the door was incomparably quiet, as if the entire ‘Heaven’s Gate’ had already fallen silent.

“I’ll give you one last chance… If tomorrow Wen Qiaoyun proposes to bet her life with ‘Earth Dragon,’ then I’ll help you along… But if you’re set on protecting her… then your vehicle can only stop here.”

Qiao Jiajin stared at Qi Xia for a long time. Only when Qi Xia’s brow was no longer furrowed did he softly ask, “Liar boy… what side business are you taking on now?”

“I…” Qi Xia was startled. “Nothing, I’m thinking about things.”

“Oh…” Qiao Jiajin nodded, still staring at Qi Xia with curiosity.

While the two were silent, footsteps sounded outside the door. The travel-worn Chen Junnan hurried back.

“Eh…?” Seeing Chen Junnan return, Qiao Jiajin couldn’t help but be curious. “Handsome boy… how did you come back in the dark? Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Hey…” Chen Junnan shook his head. “This is a long story. Today the streets seemed to have been sprayed with some kind of insecticide. I didn’t see a single ‘Ant.'”

“In… insecticide?” Qiao Jiajin was stunned.

“Anyway, I’ve gloriously completed my mission,” Chen Junnan found a chair and sat down. “Both the surface mission and the mission Old Qi didn’t mention should be completed. If you guys have time, I can tell you about my dashing heroic bearing just now.”

Qi Xia stroked his chin and pondered for a few seconds. “After you left, did ‘Cat’ start having a meeting?”

“Uh… damn it, you knew again?” Chen Junnan cursed. “How could they not have a meeting? This strongest chess piece of mine has already appeared. Isn’t it hitting wherever I point?”

“Good… it’s about time,” Qi Xia said.

“About time…?” Chen Junnan asked puzzled. “What’s about time?”

Qi Xia didn’t speak. Sure enough, after a few seconds, a voice sounded in his ear.

“Tsk… great genius.”

“Mm.” Qi Xia responded softly. “I’m here. Speak.”

Seeing this, Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan naturally knew what was happening. The two subsequently stopped talking and quietly waited on the side.

Zhou Liu cleared her throat again and said, “Tsk, I have ‘Silence’ here, so I’ll speak and you listen.”

“Alright,” Qi Xia said.