“Kill you…?”

Man-Snake felt that every sentence Qi Xia spoke refreshed his understanding, and for a moment he didn’t even know how to respond.

“Am I not qualified?” Qi Xia asked. “Do you have any knives or weapons here for execution?”

“I… uh, yes…”

“Kill me,” Qi Xia said. “If you’re not at ease, I can leave my corpse here right now.”

Man-Snake paused, looking at Qi Xia with a thoughtful expression.

Now two paths lay before him. One was to believe what Qi Xia said—that in this game no “Zodiac” would die—quietly wait here until the game ended, and then incite the “Zodiacs” to remove their masks together this afternoon at the signal of the bell’s destruction.

The second was to decisively take Qi Xia’s head to claim credit with Qinglong and take the opportunity to become “Earth-level.”

The first path was too dangerous with extremely high uncertainty, while the second path was too safe, as if it were a trap.

But Man-Snake had spent a long time with Baiyang and could generally judge whether a person was lying. At this moment, Qi Xia’s eyes were very sincere, not at all like he was deceiving him.

A thought couldn’t help but rise in Man-Snake’s heart… Was this man before him really prepared to leave his life here?

At this critical juncture when the plan was about to begin?

Qi Xia seemed to see through what Man-Snake was thinking and said softly, “I can’t let anything go wrong with today’s events, so either path is fine. As long as you can completely trust me, it doesn’t matter if I die here.”

After hearing this, Man-Snake was startled and asked again, “If you die… can the plan continue?”

“It can,” Qi Xia said. “Whether it’s me or Baiyang, in this final moment, we are both dispensable existences.”

Not long after, Man-Snake slowly stood up and said with a complicated expression, “I understand. I believe you.”

After hearing these words, Qi Xia’s brow furrowed slightly. He also stood up and said, “There’s no need to force yourself. If you don’t believe me, I can leave a hand here first.”

“That’s not necessary,” Man-Snake said. “Although you are not Brother Yang, and Brother Yang is not you, you are very similar.”

“Is that so?”

“The person who reached out to pull me up from days of suffering had a cold sheep face,” Man-Snake said. “I only remember this, so I cannot acknowledge that you are Brother Yang. But I will still carry out Brother Yang’s plan—consider it helping you for Brother Yang’s sake.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia felt his emotions toward Man-Snake were also very complicated.

Some scenes of getting along with Man-Snake circled in his mind, but he was no longer Baiyang—how should he treat him?

“Since you believe me, I’ll entrust this matter to you,” Qi Xia said. “I guarantee to you… none of the ‘human-level’ participants caught up in this matter will die.”

“What…? You guarantee it?”

“That’s right,” Qi Xia said. “Since you said I’m very similar to Baiyang, you should also know that we wouldn’t speak such empty words to deceive our own people.”

After hearing this, Man-Snake lowered his head to look at the problem book on the table. Baiyang had deceived him, but only once—and of course, it was also the most fatal time.

“Alright, since I’ve already decided to help you… then I’ll also trust you on this matter,” Man-Snake said. “Leave the ‘human-level Zodiac’ matter to me. Even if I can’t incite a second person this afternoon, I will definitely remove my mask myself to disrupt Zhu Que’s conviction.”

“Thank you,” Qi Xia said.

“Then what about the second problem that needs to be handled?” Man-Snake asked.

“The second problem?” Qi Xia paused. “You mean… the second ear besides ‘Qinglong’?”

“Right.” Man-Snake nodded. “If I survive in this game, I might also be killed by him. After all, everything I do is under his surveillance.”

“Heavenly-Dog might not have that courage,” Qi Xia answered, raising his head to look at the ceiling. “In this torrent, he also has to choose which side to stand on. He’ll soon know who represents the prevailing trend.”

Man-Snake followed Qi Xia in raising his head to look at the ceiling.

Qi Xia paused and continued, “Even if he hears these words, it doesn’t matter. He’s always known what I’m doing. I believe he has his own judgment in his heart.”

“Alright…” Man-Snake nodded. “If that’s the case… then it’s settled.”

“Good.”

Qi Xia turned around and walked to the “door.” Just as he was about to open it, he suddenly thought of something, and his brow immediately furrowed.

He paused and slowly turned back around, feeling that he had discovered a very strange problem.

“Chen Junnan has ‘Wrap’ and ‘Cloth’ on him…” Qi Xia said in a low voice. “How did he see you?”

“What?”

“Theoretically, neither of the two ‘characters’ in his hands can ‘cross the river.’ Once he ‘crosses the river’ and opens a ‘door,’ he’ll encounter an ‘Earth-level Zodiac,'” Qi Xia asked with a furrowed brow. “Is there something I’ve overlooked? Why would he see you?”

“Are you also stuck in fixed thinking?” Man-Snake gave a bitter laugh. “After he opens the ‘door,’ he indeed can’t see me, but the ‘door’ was opened by me.”

“You actively opened the ‘door’?”

“Yes,” Man-Snake said. “Like a fateful coincidence, I originally wanted to secretly open the ‘door’ to peek at what was on the other side, but as soon as I opened the ‘door,’ Chen Junnan was standing right there.”

“I see…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes, feeling that he had obtained another important piece of information.

Since “Zodiacs” could actively open doors… then there were many more things that could be done in this “Cangjie Chess.”

For instance… what if he didn’t open the “door” but instead knocked on it?

For instance… if a “human-level Zodiac” and an “Earth-level Zodiac” opened the same “door” together, whose “door” would actually lead to “Cangjie Chess”?

“Interesting,” Qi Xia said. “It seems the ‘doors’ are even more interesting than I imagined.”

“Stop finding things ‘interesting,'” Man-Snake said. “Since I’ve agreed to help you, don’t go dying in ‘Cangjie Chess’ in the time ahead.”

“Alright, just now an ‘Earth-Snake’ told me the same thing,” Qi Xia chuckled. “I won’t die. Even if I die here… I won’t die.”

Qi Xia’s words left Man-Snake baffled once again, but this feeling was very much like Brother Yang.

“Farewell.”

Qi Xia turned around, opened the “door,” and walked out of the room. He hadn’t expected that in these few minutes, the three “characters” he had tossed on the ground were still there. Just as he was about to bend down to pick them up, the room’s “door” was opened.

Doctor Zhao stood on the other side, looking at him with a terrified expression.

If Doctor Zhao had opened the “door” a few seconds earlier, the “characters” on the ground would have had a new owner. If he had opened the “door” a few seconds later, he wouldn’t have seen Qi Xia either.

But he just happened to open the “door” at this exact moment.

Qi Xia calmly bent down, grabbed all the “characters,” and put them in his pocket, then looked coldly at Doctor Zhao.

“You… you…” Although Doctor Zhao had opened the “door,” he never dared to enter the room, and his tone of speech began to become stammering.

“What did you see?” Qi Xia asked.

“I, I didn’t see anything…” Doctor Zhao hurriedly said.

“No, you did see something,” Qi Xia said. “Go tell Chu Tianqiu.”