Yan Zhichun lifted her head to look at Black Sheep.

Although she couldn’t read any expression on a “Sheep’s” face, she had to admit that every Sheep she’d encountered possessed meticulous thinking. Working with them sometimes required little deliberation—there was an inexplicable sense of security.

“I understand what you mean, but I think it’s inappropriate,” Yan Zhichun shook her head. “If I stay here, there will definitely be trouble.”

“What’s inappropriate about it?” Black Sheep asked.

“Everyone knows that the two of us stayed behind at the end. But if only you appear down below, no matter what you say, neither Jiang Ruoxue nor Zhoumo will believe you,” Yan Zhichun said. “Moreover, many people are here because of my summons. If I don’t appear, the problems will be even more serious than they are now.”

“Interesting.” Black Sheep nodded. “Just moments ago you called it an ‘isolated organization,’ yet they seem to have an indestructible leader?”

“I wouldn’t dare claim to be ‘indestructible’—after all, this feeling is hard to describe,” Yan Zhichun sighed. “I don’t feel like a true leader in the real sense. At this moment, I can only serve as a kind of ‘spirit.’ After all, they’ve gathered here relying on ‘faith,’ and right now I am the embodiment of that ‘faith.'”

“I think I understand now.” Black Sheep contemplated. “They’ve transferred their ‘faith’ onto you. If you don’t appear, it would be viewed as the ‘collapse of faith.'”

“Yes, that’s what I mean. So what should we do now…” Yan Zhichun frowned. “Do you need me to arrange for someone else to guard this place?”

“I said I don’t trust other people.” Black Sheep lowered his head and stroked his sheep horns with his hand. “So…”

He felt the current situation was somewhat awkward. After all, falling into this predicament certainly couldn’t be blamed on Yan Zhichun—rather, he should blame himself.

He knew that although he had taken on some students, he had never tried to build good relationships with those students, resulting in not even having a single person he could trust now.

Apart from Baiyang, Pei Qianhu, Man-Snake, and Man-Mouse, Black Sheep felt it was extremely difficult for him to establish trust with strangers. Expressing goodwill toward strangers without reason would be an extremely long and painful process for him.

Rather than spending his thoughts on something he wasn’t good at, it would be better to refine his games, kill more people, or earn more “Dao.” After all, in this world, trusting others wasn’t as reliable as trusting himself.

Yet now, even the simplest form of karmic backlash had stumped him.

If Sheep Brother were here, he would definitely send people over at the first opportunity, right…?

“Black Sheep Teacher.”

A faint voice sounded beside his ear. Black Sheep and Yan Zhichun turned their heads to look, and surprisingly, a group of strange-looking people was approaching. The leader was a young woman they had never met before. Behind her, some wore masks—clearly “Human-level Zodiacs”—while others merely wore suits with nothing on their faces, appearing to be odd “Participants.”

Although Black Sheep was puzzled, the address “Black Sheep Teacher” sounded extremely familiar.

“I am Man-Monkey.” Man-Monkey held out the mask she was carrying and explained, “During the earlier melee, my mask was torn off. To prove my identity, I specifically brought the mask over. Everyone behind me is one of Tiger Teacher’s students. They can all vouch for me.”

In one short sentence, clear in organization and logical in reasoning, Black Sheep’s doubts gradually dissipated.

The person before him wasn’t some ordinary “Human-level” Zodiac, but one of the students utterly devoted to Pei Qianhu.

“You all…” Black Sheep paused, feeling as though he had triggered some strange causality. Just by moving his thoughts in his mind, people had actually come to help?

“Tiger Teacher said to come find you. Although we don’t know what we can do, we still came at the first opportunity,” Man-Monkey said. “Black Sheep Teacher, please feel free to instruct us to do whatever you need.”

Seeing this, Yan Zhichun could only turn to look at Black Sheep and ask in a low voice, “Can they be trusted?”

“In my estimation, their trustworthiness exceeds yours,” Black Sheep answered.

“Well, thank you so much for your honesty.”

Through her exchange with Black Sheep, Yan Zhichun felt this man wasn’t entirely as Baiyang had described him. He might truly be someone who would use any means necessary, but from certain angles, he was also longing to encounter like-minded companions.

Black Sheep stared at Man-Monkey and said, “I happen to have a matter that needs trustworthy people to help with.”

“Black Sheep Teacher, please feel free to instruct us.”

“Next, we’ll be entering the ‘cargo hold’ to face Heavenly-Ox. We need you all to guard this door here.” Black Sheep pointed at the old iron door. “During this time, absolutely no one is allowed to close the door or enter.”

Man-Monkey looked at the door, her expression turning serious for half a second, then nodded. “Alright, I understand.”

“This is indeed a very difficult task…” Black Sheep said in a deep voice. “The closest room to here contains Qinglong, and further that way are the ‘Heaven-level’ Zodiacs… Anyone who can appear around here definitely won’t be easy to deal with, but I have no one else I can entrust this to.”

Man-Monkey smiled bitterly and shook her head. “It’s fine, Black Sheep Teacher. We’ve been prepared for a long time.”

“Prepared…?” Black Sheep looked at Man-Monkey. “You all are even calmer than I imagined. Just how did Pei Qianhu convince you to willingly go to your deaths? You’ve only known each other for a very short time.”

“This is somewhat embarrassing to say… Because in my memory, Teacher has always been clamoring about rebellion,” Man-Monkey laughed awkwardly. “He made such a huge commotion that everyone knew about it. As students of a ‘rebel,’ we definitely can’t survive. Rather than constantly living in fear about how to stay alive, we might as well go all out and help him.”

A Man-Dog behind Man-Monkey also sighed and said, “That’s right. We can’t beat him anyway, so we can only go along with him. Our teacher is rather special—once we stop looking after him, he could end up dead in the streets at any moment. So as his students, we can only worry more about him.”

“What a case of fools having foolish luck…” Black Sheep shook his head and said to them, “I never imagined that ‘Earth-level’ Zodiacs and their students could have this kind of relationship dynamic.”

“We can only say we had no choice—we encountered such a teacher,” Man-Monkey said. “But generally speaking, we’re still doing what we want to do.”

“That foolish tiger is incredibly fortunate to have met you all.” Black Sheep asked again, “Where is he wandering around now?”

Hearing this, Man-Monkey exchanged glances with the people beside her, as if there were something difficult to say.

Black Sheep’s brows furrowed as he instantly read quite a bit of information from their expressions.

“Black Sheep Teacher…” Man-Monkey paused before answering, “I don’t know what Tiger Teacher is doing. He only asked us to tell you… ‘No rush.'”