“Storing… ‘energy’?”
Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Qi Xia. “Why do I feel like I’ve heard of this person?”
“She was a certain ‘pathfinder,'” Qi Xia said. “In the final period of her ‘zodiac’ status, she fell into the same panic as me.”
“What panic…?”
“That is, ‘not knowing how to preserve memories that are about to disappear,'” Qi Xia said.
Qi Xia’s explanation was somewhat abstract, and the several people in the room couldn’t quite understand it.
After all, no one had tried to become a “zodiac,” so how could they understand the thoughts of someone in the “final period of zodiac status”?
“When she had a premonition that her ‘zodiac path’ was coming to an end, the only solution was to think of a way to preserve her memories,” Qi Xia said from a distance, pointing at the notebook in Chen Junnan’s hands. “Before thinking of a better method, she could only ‘write it down.'”
“This sister’s got some nerve,” Chen Junnan said. “Just leaving it out in the open like this? What if that bastard Qinglong discovered it? Wouldn’t he persecute her student to death?”
After hearing this, Qi Xia shook his head and said softly, “Do you think Qinglong… would care about what a certain ‘zodiac’ placed under their desk? Or rather… would Qinglong even enter these rooms?”
“Uh… that old bastard Qinglong wouldn’t, but what about the cleaning lady?” Chen Junnan asked again. “With so many rooms…”
“The rooms are cleaned by ‘natives’ led by Heavenly-Snake,” Qi Xia said. “Moreover, once a room is vacant, even the ‘natives’ won’t enter.”
“Uh…” After hearing this, Chen Junnan scratched his head and looked at the dust in the room. “I guess that’s true… once there’s no one living here, no one manages it at all.”
Zhang Chenze felt that what Qi Xia was saying contained a lot of information, so she could only turn her head and ask, “Then how did you preserve your memories?”
“I… can only say it’s more profound than ‘writing it down,'” Qi Xia said.
“Finished reading.” Chen Junnan closed the notebook in his hands and said, “It’s indeed as Old Qi said—this is both like a ‘work journal’ and like a ‘biographical record.’ Whether good or bad, every single matter is recorded inside, completely meant for posterity to see.”
But Chen Junnan also discovered one fact: the later the records went, the more biased and extreme Golden Monkey’s thinking became.
Although it was clearly the same person’s handwriting, Golden Monkey’s state of mind in the later period had obviously begun to fluctuate. She wavered repeatedly between tremendous power and human nature, constantly hesitating.
Should she adapt to her current life, or should she retain her last shred of rationality?
The drawbacks of preserving memories long-term were fully exposed in her case. This was probably a trial that every “zodiac” had faced.
Even if someone initially joined the “zodiac” ranks as an ordinary person, they would become violent and cold-blooded over the years.
But Wen Qiaoyun had already begun to realize something was wrong. She not only started thinking of ways to preserve her memories but even planted a “needle.”
In some respects, she walked a path similar to Qi Xia’s, but she walked this path too cautiously—using a pen for “memories” and planting only one “needle.”
“She knew that if everything developed according to her plan, only her own people could discover this notebook,” Qi Xia said. “So although this method looks full of loopholes, it happens to be safe on the ‘train.'”
“Liar!” Qiao Jiajin came to Qi Xia’s side with a contemplative expression on his face. “This tall horse—is she the referee from ‘Wooden Flowing Bull-Horse’?”
“It’s called ‘Wooden Flowing Ox-Horse’…” Chen Junnan corrected from the side.
“It should be her. With Golden Monkey’s protection, rising to ‘earth-level’ wouldn’t be strange,” Qi Xia said. “What about it?”
After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin smiled awkwardly. “Damn… I don’t know if I understand correctly, but no matter how you look at it, this ‘horse’ is one of our own people… The ‘forbidden technique’ on her body seems to have been destroyed by me…”
“That’s not my concern,” Qi Xia said. “The situation at the time was that if you didn’t break her ‘echo,’ you would die. What do you think I would choose?”
“This…”
“Even if I had known the situation in advance, my choice would have been the same. I have no relationship with that Earth-Horse, so it’s impossible for me to let you die to preserve her ‘art,'” Qi Xia continued. “Moreover, we didn’t know anything beforehand, so there’s no need to blame yourself for this matter.”
“But… this isn’t a question of whether to blame myself or not, Liar!” Qiao Jiajin said again. “What I’m worried about is that we’ll lose a combat power now. Doesn’t this tall horse have ‘energy’ on her? Maybe she could help us in certain aspects?”
“I’m not sure how powerful the ‘energy’ Golden Monkey could give her is,” Qi Xia said. “So I won’t count her as a primary combat force.”
“Having something is better than having nothing,” Qiao Jiajin said. “Even in a group fight, the more people standing on the street, the better.”
“Then it can only depend on her,” Qi Xia said. “Your ‘Breaking Ten Thousand Arts’ ultimately just suppressed the ‘echo’ on her body. As long as her conviction is stronger, she might be able to break through this layer of restriction.”
Chen Junnan thought for a moment and felt something wasn’t quite right. “But it’s not her own ‘echo’ either. Wasn’t it placed on her by Golden Monkey?”
“Right,” Qiao Jiajin also nodded. “It’s like if ‘Doesn’t Know Pain’ gives me his ‘echo,’ I also have no way to control it. Whether I feel pain or not mainly depends on what he says.”
“The types of ‘echoes’ are different,” Qi Xia thought about how to describe this situation and said, “It’s like someone who sells boxes gave her one of the boxes, and she can freely use the things inside the box. Now Fist has locked the box. As long as she can open it, theoretically she can continue to use it.”
“Good heavens,” Chen Junnan said after a moment of stunned silence. “It’s that abstract?”
“Put simply, Golden Monkey’s ability is a large-scale ‘box warehouse,'” Qi Xia said. “She can store boxes herself and also send boxes out. She herself is only responsible for making boxes and storing things in the boxes.”
“Then what’s her goal…?” Chen Junnan said puzzledly. “She clearly has such a heaven-defying ability… yet she entrusts a box to a stupid horse?”
“Perhaps she had no choice,” Qi Xia shook his head. “Or perhaps she felt that ‘horse’ was very much like herself, but we have no way to guess her thoughts. Now even she herself has forgotten—this is the terrifying aspect of the ‘Land of the End.'”