After hearing this, the Man-Snake’s eyes darkened as he lowered his head deeply.

In the dim room, the two sat facing each other in silence. The oppressive lighting swayed gently with the barely perceptible sound of wind.

“Brother Sheep…” The Man-Snake finally spoke after a long while.

“It’s Qi Xia,” Qi Xia said.

“What’s the difference…”

“I don’t know either,” Qi Xia shook his head. “But I always feel there is a difference.”

“Whether it’s Brother Sheep or Qi Xia…” The Man-Snake sighed. “You both seem to be working hard for the same thing.”

“It seems so,” Qi Xia nodded. “I currently treat him as a partner. Since I can’t fully read his memories, he is me, but I am not him.”

“I just met Chen Junnan earlier,” the Man-Snake continued. “He said you’re currently writing something far beyond ‘Macbeth’…”

“‘Macbeth’?” After hearing this, Qi Xia looked down at the notebook in front of the Man-Snake and pieced together the full picture of the entire matter in his mind. “The ‘Macbeth’ written by the ‘Infinite Monkey’?”

“Yes,” the Man-Snake answered. “Is what he said true? Are you saving all the monkeys?”

“It appears so at present,” Qi Xia answered again. “I once walked many paths, but the end of each path led nowhere. Eventually, they pieced together into this one.”

“What…?”

“This is exactly what I meant when I said that when I was about to reach the end, I discovered I couldn’t win,” Qi Xia said. “This feeling is very subtle. I deduced that if I had achieved a temporary ‘win’ at that time, I would fall into an eternal ‘loss.’ Whether it was standing before Heavenly Dragon in the past or about to become Heavenly Sheep, it was the same, so I gave up.”

After hearing Qi Xia’s description, the Man-Snake remained silent for a long time. Just as with his impression of the “Land of the End,” his memories hadn’t been stored for long, yet Qi Xia had already tried countless paths.

Some people, when they opened their eyes and were born here, their starting point far exceeded that of ordinary people—just like life, never fair.

This starting point that far exceeded others was even exchanged for with their generations upon generations of lives, no different from reality.

If one didn’t want to work hard, they could only hope their parents’ generation worked hard, while the parents’ generation hoped the grandparents’ generation worked hard.

As long as the parents’ generation, grandparents’ generation, and ancestors’ generation were all replaced with countless versions of oneself, that would be the “Land of the End.”

During this period, as long as memories weren’t preserved even once, it was like the family bloodline being severed, and everything would start over again.

“Then can you win this time?” the Man-Snake asked again.

“I don’t currently see any backlash from ‘winning,'” Qi Xia answered. “So I will keep moving forward until this path reaches the end.”

“In other words, your plan has already begun,” the Man-Snake raised his head and stared into Qi Xia’s eyes. “But in this phase of the plan… is there nothing that requires my participation?”

Qi Xia was about to answer but slowly closed his mouth.

From a normal perspective, the Man-Snake indeed couldn’t help much. After all, when “Zodiacs” fought each other, they mostly competed in strength, so “Earth-level” were the core figures of chaos.

But had he already inserted so many “needles” into the “Land of the End”—were there none for “Human-level”?

If there really were… then how should “Human-level” survive in this storm?

“If I were Baiyang, I would definitely explain everything to you before leaving.”

After Qi Xia finished speaking, he tapped the notebook on the table.

“It shouldn’t be just this little bit,” Qi Xia continued. “My memory hasn’t fully recovered. It seems to be locked by something. So do you have anything to tell me?”

The Man-Snake looked at Qi Xia. After a long while, he slowly said, “Qi Xia, Brother Sheep spoke with me alone before he left.”

“I guessed as much.”

“I thought those were just a few words of farewell, but now seeing you standing here…” the Man-Snake said through gritted teeth, “it makes me realize that wasn’t just a farewell, but a mission.”

“So are those words convenient to share with me?” Qi Xia asked again.

The Man-Snake paused, as if he had something difficult to say. After a while, he said, “If you were standing before me as Brother Sheep, perhaps those words wouldn’t take effect. But the problem is, you’re ‘Qi Xia’ right now… this matter becomes a bit troublesome… Similarly, I really want to ask you… which of you two should I trust?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia reached out and touched his chin, feeling the situation seemed about what he had guessed.

“You just asked Chen Junnan about the ‘Coordinated Attack Problem,'” Qi Xia said. “Actually, the so-called ‘coordinated attack’ doesn’t refer to me and Chu Tianqiu, but to me and Baiyang.”

“You…”

“The hilltop where Baiyang and I are located isn’t distant in the sense of physical distance, but distant in the sense of time,” Qi Xia said as he pondered. “To achieve unity of thought across two time periods, every person we encounter along the way may not necessarily be trustworthy.”

After hearing this, the Man-Snake carefully thought it over and discovered the situation should truly be as Qi Xia said… This was a “coordinated attack” that spanned across timelines, except the situation was much more complex than in the problem.

Not only did the generals on the two hilltops have no way to unify time, even the soldiers scattered everywhere needed to speculate on the messages issued by the generals. During this period, there were countless enemy troops, spies, and lies filling the space, and what’s more, some had already gone completely insane and were no longer their former selves.

Moreover… Qi Xia no longer had a way to send messages back to Baiyang. He could only receive messages left by Baiyang through traces and clues, then somehow determine their authenticity, and afterwards gather the people on his own hilltop to launch a coordinated attack together with the Baiyang of the past.

He needed to be cautious and careful at every step because the enemy’s claws were spread like an inescapable net in every corner. They could even hear every word Qi Xia said.

Just listing these problems made the Man-Snake feel like his brain was about to explode.

Would there really be someone who could solve various problems and push against the current in such a difficult environment? Any slight carelessness could lead to a complete loss, with decades of painstaking effort all reduced to nothing.

No… The Man-Snake quickly thought of an even more terrifying problem.

How was this just a coordinated attack between Baiyang and Qi Xia…?

When Baiyang became Baiyang, he had also coordinated with an even earlier version of Qi Xia.

So this wasn’t coordination between two people, but coordination among countless versions of himself.

After all, even Qi Xia himself had said that the reason he stood here was because he felt he couldn’t “win” back then, so he chose to “lose.” Later, almost every Qi Xia adopted this same line of thinking, all just to ensure the final “win.”

In other words, spanning seventy years of time… all for the purpose of coordinating all military forces and all failed experiences to launch a general offensive.

And the person before him was neither Qi Xia nor Baiyang, but an amalgamation of all previous generations.

“No wonder you said he is you… but you are not him…” the Man-Snake smiled bitterly. “Because your composition is even more vast than his.”

“So what did he say?” Qi Xia asked.

“Qi Xia… the current situation is about what I imagined. Brother Sheep told me back then, ‘If one day a new leader appears here, remember that he is him, and I am me.'”

The Man-Snake raised his eyes to look at Qi Xia, his gaze exceptionally complex.