He naturally didn’t know what had happened. He only saw that the “Life Gamble” seemed to have started, yet also seemed to have ended.

Earth-Dragon was already dead, lying on the ground, yet Wen Qiaoyun was standing there perfectly fine.

Qi Xia moved aside, revealing the path to “Rout” for everyone in the venue.

Then he turned to Qinglong and said, “Let me confirm with you once more—they can leave now, right?”

“They can,” Qinglong nodded.

“It doesn’t count as a violation, right?” Qi Xia asked again.

“It doesn’t,” Qinglong said. “This game no longer has anything to do with them from here on out. It’s only between you and me.”

“Good.” After hearing this, Qi Xia looked at Chu Tianqiu again, once more transmitting information through his gaze.

Seeing this scene, Chu Tianqiu was naturally filled with confusion. Both Qinglong and Xuanwu were standing here, yet they were willingly letting the entire team go…

That left only one possibility—his team had won the “Life Gamble.”

But only two or three minutes had passed. How had this “Life Gamble” in Earth-Dragon’s game quickly gone from start to finish?

And how had Earth-Dragon died so miserably in such a short time, blood flowing everywhere?

Due to the excessive complexity of questions in his mind, Chu Tianqiu could only temporarily give up thinking and instead calculate what would come next.

“Cangjie Chess”—what a laughable “Cangjie Chess”?

What exactly had he gained in this “Cangjie Chess”?

Now at the end of the game, he was forced to make a deal with Qi Xia.

Betting whether the entire team would survive, with the wager being “infiltrating Heavenly-Dragon’s dream.”

Looking at the process, he had been constantly working hard to make choices, but looking at the results, he seemed to have gained nothing and instead stepped into two even bigger pitfalls.

Was this trajectory of ending up with nothing really correct?

“Wait…”

Chu Tianqiu’s brow suddenly furrowed as he felt words Qi Xia had once said echo in his mind for an instant.

Why did he always feel he had gained nothing…?

He looked at the many “Cangjie Chess” teammates before him, and a thought flashed through his mind—

Hadn’t his teammates all survived?

Wen Qiaoyun, Doctor Zhao, Jin Yuanxun, Xu Liunian, and even Yan Zhichun, whom he’d met a few times.

Except for Zhang Shan… weren’t they all alive?

This was the first time such a wonderfully contradictory feeling had surfaced in Chu Tianqiu’s mind.

Why had he never considered his teammates being alive as a “gain,” and never considered his teammates’ deaths as a “loss”?

Thinking this, he sighed deeply and looked up at Qi Xia, saying, “Qi Xia, if I’m not mistaken, this gamble was about the ‘entire team’ surviving.”

He naturally didn’t spell it out completely, since they were too close to Qinglong at the moment, but Qi Xia still understood Chu Tianqiu’s meaning.

Qi Xia nodded and said, “When we agreed on ‘entire team,’ it means ‘entire team.’ Not one will be missing.”

“You…”

Chu Tianqiu’s expression darkened. He knew that for Qi Xia, this really wasn’t anything difficult. He could only helplessly nod, turn around, and plunge into the darkness.

All the members of his team also stepped forward at this moment and entered the “door” representing “Rout” before Qinglong could change his mind.

No one had imagined that this game would end up like this—did they win or lose?

A “door” that had never existed before, one that had just appeared, soon materialized before the group.

Chu Tianqiu stepped forward and pushed open the “door,” discovering that outside was the “Land of the End.”

He knew the current situation was somewhat laughable.

He had clearly already entered the “train,” yet now he had to actively step off the “train.”

After struggling on the edge of death, he would enter the “locomotive” again with Qi Xia.

But if he didn’t board this ship, was there a better opportunity for him?

“Tianqiu…” Wen Qiaoyun said beside him. “Have you thought through the path ahead?”

Hearing the familiar voice ring out beside his ear, Chu Tianqiu rarely felt a chill run down his spine for an instant.

He seemed to comprehend something at this moment.

In this game, Qi Xia’s ultimate goal wasn’t to make him personally bury Wen Qiaoyun’s life with his own hands, but rather to help him understand Wen Qiaoyun’s importance through this game.

After all, when Wen Qiaoyun proposed the “Life Gamble” with Earth-Dragon, no matter how the situation developed, Qi Xia would step in to save her.

“You believe that ‘gods’ are ultimately in the form of mortals…” Chu Tianqiu said with a bitter smile. “You believe that only those who carry ‘attachments’ can reach peaks that others cannot reach.”

Chu Tianqiu realized that Qi Xia wanted to use this opportunity to prove to him which path was truly correct, but the method he used was one that others wouldn’t even dare to imagine.

“Qiaoyun, let’s go,” Chu Tianqiu said.

“Go where…?” Wen Qiaoyun asked.

Chu Tianqiu extended his hand and pointed toward the “Land of the End” outside the door, answering, “If it’s possible, let’s go see the outside world together.”

“The outside world…?” Wen Qiaoyun looked where Chu Tianqiu’s finger pointed.

What “outside world” was there?

It was merely a blood-red “End.”

Chu Tianqiu didn’t answer again. He walked out the “door” and disappeared from the “Cangjie Chess” venue.

The remaining few people no longer hesitated and followed him out one after another.

At this moment, Qinglong stood in the game venue, surveyed the high walls around him, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly, then leaped onto the high platform.

Not knowing what he did on the high platform, after a few seconds, except for the outermost perimeter wall, all the central walls and “doors” began to slowly descend, as if sinking into the ground.

The “river channel” and both teams’ “preparation areas” connected at this moment into one large complete area. In the center, Zhang Shan’s corpse and a pile of quietly sitting “characters” remained abruptly.

Those who had been in the red team’s “preparation area” finally had no obstruction to their line of sight and saw Qi Xia at the far end.

They had just been shocked into confusion by the earth-shaking changes of this moment, when they saw Qi Xia and Qinglong standing in the distance, facing each other.

“This is bad,” Chen Junnan said decisively. “That guy Old Qi seems to have confronted Qinglong.”

“Damn!” Qiao Jiajin limped forward a step. “Junnan boy, should we go up together and beat him up?”

Chen Junnan was about to speak when he felt a stabbing pain in his ribs, then said helplessly, “Old Qiao, we might die on the way over there. How about we don’t try to show off?”

“Then what about that liar boy?” Qiao Jiajin said. “Can he handle that person?”

“Well…”

While several people were looking worriedly into the distance, they suddenly felt another change occurring within the venue.

A white wall positioned in the center of the venue began to slowly rise, with a huge display screen hanging on it.