Upon hearing these words, Black Sheep’s eyes instantly turned cold and severe.

“Man-Monkey, you should know…” Black Sheep said in a deep voice, “there’s no use lying to me, right?”

“I have no choice,” Man-Monkey answered. “My teacher conveyed it this way, so I’m relaying it truthfully.”

“So that damned bastard has already engaged with Heavenly-Tiger, hasn’t he?”

“Yes.” Man-Monkey nodded.

Yan Zhichun standing beside them could see that Black Sheep was very anxious, yet at this moment he was utterly helpless, as if two important matters had collided in his mind.

“Is he still alive?” Black Sheep asked again. “He hasn’t already died, has he?”

“He was still alive when we left.”

“That damned bastard…” Black Sheep gritted his teeth. “To engage with Heavenly-Tiger without waiting for me… I’ll fucking kill you sooner or later.”

“Black Sheep Teacher, you may have misunderstood,” Man-Monkey shook her head. “Tiger Teacher didn’t go looking for Heavenly-Tiger—Heavenly-Tiger came looking for him on his own.”

“Came looking for him on his own…?”

Black Sheep didn’t know whether today’s plan was going smoothly or not.

After all, assembling this small team had taken far too long. Those hundreds of “Participants” who had flooded into the train were an accident for everyone, and many plans had been obstructed because of it.

He had thought it was an extremely poor start, but when the plan actually began to be implemented… it felt like many tiny cracks were being smoothed over imperceptibly by some force.

For instance, the “Death Gate” among the “Zodiacs” had been broken by someone. For instance, the vast procession had walked all the way to the “cargo hold” without anyone obstructing them. For instance, the “Heaven-level” Zodiacs were deployed individually and scattered. For instance, the team before him was much stronger than he had imagined—almost everyone possessed “Immortal Arts,” and among them was even one with “Spirit Vision” who could allow others to steadily obtain “Immortal Arts” in a place like the “train”…

Just his own part of the plan already had so many inexplicably mysterious assists. If the battlefield were to expand to the entire “train,” what would everyone’s experience be like?

Above this “train,” there seemed to be a pair of invisible giant hands treating all the characters as chess pieces, executing strategic maneuvers of vertical and horizontal alliances.

These hands would push the pieces that needed to go to the squares where they were most needed at every critical moment, using strategy to compensate for all combat power, using schemes to ignore differences in numbers, leading a group of ordinary chess pieces to launch an attack against the “gods.”

Whenever Black Sheep thought about how this person had long since ceased to exist, he still couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.

Where did the terror lie?

It lay in the fact that these giant hands weren’t currently overseeing the entire game and arranging corresponding strategies based on the existing situation.

Rather, months ago, years ago, or even decades ago, they had already anticipated all possible situations that might occur and provided corresponding chess moves in advance.

Perhaps for a single chess move, he had spent several years approaching and understanding a chess piece, imperceptibly transforming the other party into a handy weapon for himself.

In the end, he transformed himself, becoming one of the many chess pieces on the board, coordinating with the giant hands he had once extended from midair, attacking the enemy camp.

Among these many chess pieces, only he himself knew that he was a chess piece.

All the others thought they were fighting desperately for some goal that was beneficial to themselves—even the enemy side was the same.

The enemy believed that not intervening to stop these “rebels” at this moment was the most advantageous choice for themselves, not realizing they were already one of the chess pieces.

So… if asked who he admired most in the entire “Taoyuan,” Black Sheep could only blurt out that it was Baiyang.

This admiration wasn’t submission to someone’s abilities, but rather a sense of powerlessness in the face of some unknown creature. This sense of powerlessness meant Black Sheep had absolutely no way to generate the emotion of “resisting Baiyang.”

If Baiyang were only at a level he could reach by standing on his tiptoes, Black Sheep would naturally be interested in competing with him. But when drawn into this plan, Black Sheep realized how laughable his thoughts were—like a three-year-old child unilaterally declaring war on the Soviet Union.

“I need to hurry up and send away Heavenly-Ox,” Black Sheep said to Man-Monkey and the several “Human-level Zodiacs.” “I’ll leave this place to you all… I’ll say this in advance: guarding here might result in death.”

“We’ll die sooner or later anyway,” Man-Monkey nodded. “I also wanted to tell you, if you find there’s no way to return here, the only possibility is that we’ve all been wiped out.”

“Good.” Black Sheep nodded. “If you’re all wiped out, I’ll kowtow to Pei Qianhu ten thousand times in hell to apologize.”

“You’re joking, Teacher. By that time we’ll all be dead anyway.”

Black Sheep turned back and exchanged a glance with Yan Zhichun. After the two nodded, they successively walked through the metal door, descending the stairs step by step. The sound of their footsteps echoed in the pitch-black tunnel before gradually disappearing.

Man-Monkey crouched down and inserted her mask into the door crack, then left the door slightly ajar.

Just as she was about to arrange tactics with the people beside her, she heard the sound of a door opening from the “Heaven-level” rooms in the distance.

Everyone looked toward the sound and saw a withered old man and a white-haired old woman emerge from their respective doors. The hearts of Man-Monkey and the others instantly leapt to their throats.

They had just seen off Black Sheep and already welcomed “Heaven-level” Zodiacs. Even Black Sheep probably hadn’t imagined the mission would fail this quickly, right?

For a dozen or so “Human-level” Zodiacs, risking their lives might allow them to obstruct one “Earth-level” Zodiac, but what did it mean for mortal bodies to face two “Heaven-level” Zodiacs at once?

No one made a sound. They just stared as those two “Heaven-level” Zodiacs walked step by step to the center of the T-junction.

The withered old man seemed to have injuries on his body. His complexion was somewhat pale at the moment, and there were dried bloodstains at the corners of his mouth. He quickly noticed a group of strange people standing at the entrance to the “cargo hold.” He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but seemed to be wary that meddling might cause problems. He simply shook his head, pretended not to see everyone, and turned to walk toward the “train” corridor.

The old woman behind him appeared even more thought-provoking. She seemed to not have noticed at all that people were standing at the “cargo hold” entrance. She was holding a severed limb covered in tooth marks, currently looking around searching for something. If not for the horrifying object in her hand, everyone would have thought she was just an old lady who had lost her child.

The two “Heaven-level” Zodiacs just swaggered past these “Human-level Zodiacs” like that. Forget about stepping forward to obstruct them—they didn’t even exchange a single word.

Man-Monkey and those behind her were all bewildered, feeling that the situation seemed rather different from what they had anticipated.

But regardless, getting past one obstacle was still an obstacle cleared. Seeing Black Sheep’s anxious appearance, eliminating “Heavenly-Ox” shouldn’t take too long. They could only hope that they would finish early.