“Even as a ghost you’ll find a way to repay me…?” Qinglong kept his eyes narrowed.

“Yes… I’m one hundred percent loyal to you…” Xiao Ran’s tears streamed down, dripping onto the back of Qinglong’s hand. “In my entire life, I’ve never thought about devoting myself to anyone like this… I swear you’re the first.”

“Why?” Qinglong asked.

“Because I have no way out…” Xiao Ran said with her eyes closed. “You’re the only person I can rely on in this world. Only by relying on you can I survive.”

Qinglong stared at Xiao Ran’s eyes, feeling increasingly strange.

No matter how you looked at this woman, she didn’t seem to be lying. She genuinely wanted to rely on him from the bottom of her heart, and displayed a degree of loyalty greater than Heavenly Snake and Heavenly Dog.

No, ultimately the other “Heaven-levels” were loyal to him mostly out of fear, but the woman before him didn’t show much fear. Instead, it was a kind of loyalty from the heart.

But what about that ghostly voice that lingered in his mind like a specter?

Was this an enormous coincidence… or did the person before him have ulterior motives?

Unfortunately, this woman was too inconspicuous in all of “Taoyuan.” He had never placed his attention on her. Her background, past, abilities, personality—he knew nothing about any of it.

Qinglong turned his ear to the side, discovering that “Spiritual Hearing” had disappeared once again. He had no way to hear the “Celestial Art” this woman carried. Everything had become a fog again, as if it had all been predetermined by someone long ago.

Such a loyal dog, a person who wanted to serve him even in death… yet at this moment he had no way to know the “Celestial Art” on her body, he had no way to determine her level of danger.

If he now personally killed another genuine “Divine Beast,” would it benefit or harm the battle situation?

This difficult choice loomed over Qinglong’s heart like a great mountain. At this very moment, he didn’t even have anyone he could consult with.

Had he really never seen this woman before?

“Yes, yes!” Xiao Ran hastily agreed. “Although I came from Qi Xia’s room, he’s my mortal enemy. We have Qi Xia as a common enemy… I want him dead, so I’ll spare no effort to help you… we’ve always been on the same side…”

Qinglong didn’t listen carefully to Xiao Ran’s words at all. Instead, he closed his eyes and searched his memories.

About twelve years ago, in a room filled with “Silence,” that man had pushed a piece of paper before him.

On it were clearly written names one after another—

Qiao Jiajin, Chen Junnan, Li Shangwu, Zhao Haibo, Zhang Chenze, Zhang Lijuan, Han Yimo, and… Xiao Ran.

“What are you saying?” Qinglong had asked at the time. “If I help you gather all the people on this list, you can kill Heavenly Dragon for me?”

“No.” Qi Xia shook his head. “It’s not that simple. I want you to help me gather these people, then form a new room together with me.”

“You’re pushing your luck a bit.” Qinglong decisively refused. “Such a big operation—how could it possibly be hidden from the other ‘Zodiac’?”

“Hide from the other ‘Zodiac’?” Qi Xia raised his eyebrows. “Why would we need to hide from the other ‘Zodiac’?”

“You want to leave your current room and switch to a new room,” Qinglong said. “This will involve at least six interviewing ‘Zodiac.’ They’ll all see the little moves I’m making. What I want is Heavenly Dragon’s accidental death, not premeditated murder. You understand, right?”

“There’s a misunderstanding.” Qi Xia said. “First, this matter won’t involve the ‘Zodiac.’ The ‘Zodiac’ where my current interview room is located will only discover that the people in the room are disappearing one by one. They’ll smoothly advance to ‘Earth-level,’ and won’t care at all where I went. As for the ‘Zodiac’ of the new interview room, I’ll arrange that for you.”

“You’ll arrange it for me…?” Qinglong snorted lightly. “You’ve got some nerve. Do you know who you’re making a deal with?”

“Qinglong, you’ve also got some nerve.” Qi Xia said. “Do you think the one we’re going to kill this time is some minor character? He’s the same as you—both at the pinnacle of the entire ‘Land of the End.’ I’m doing something this big for you. How could you possibly take his life without any payment whatsoever?”

After hearing this, Qinglong’s brows lowered and he thought for a moment, then asked: “I can make a payment, but I need to receive the corresponding reward. What do you want me to do?”

“Your payment won’t be small.” Qi Xia said. “I’ll also say the ugly words up front. For someone even you would find very hard to kill, the difficulty is even greater for me. You’ll need to cooperate with me in this operation. After these eight people are gathered, I’ll probably have you arrange other rooms.”

Hearing these words, Qinglong’s expression naturally wasn’t too pleased. He looked down at the paper on the table, then said: “I need to confirm that your plan only targets Heavenly Dragon and won’t implicate me.”

“I will definitely implicate you.” Qi Xia said. “As the highest rulers here, you and Heavenly Dragon—I will, as before, find a way to simultaneously launch an usurpation challenge against both of you. It’s just that this time I’ll formulate the plan in more detail, striving for Heavenly Dragon’s death.”

“Then aren’t you toying with me?” Qinglong laughed angrily. “If it’s the same as before, simultaneously resisting both of us, why would I help you?”

“Because this time you know in advance.” Qi Xia answered. “Qinglong… you don’t only have this level of capability, do you? Knowing so many years in advance that I’m going to carry out an usurpation, yet you don’t have confidence to take Heavenly Dragon’s life together with me in this chaos… if you insist on saying it like that…”

“Hey.” Qinglong interrupted Qi Xia’s words and said, “You’re looking for death…”

Qi Xia shook his head: “If I die, your loss would be greater. After all, I’ve taken on the task of ‘killing Heavenly Dragon.’ Aren’t you going to look at the results before killing me?”

“Then won’t there be this kind of situation…” Qinglong leaned forward, saying with a smile on his face, “You say on the surface you’re killing Heavenly Dragon, but at the final moment you want to catch both of us in one net?”

“If I have the strength to catch both of you in one net…” Qi Xia also stared into Qinglong’s eyes and looked back fearlessly, “then wouldn’t that prove Heavenly Dragon is certain to die, and you should make this deal with me even more?”

After hearing this, Qinglong became even more hesitant. The fact that Qi Xia could say these words naturally proved he had this confidence. But if this matter implicated him, this deal would need to be reconsidered…

“Qinglong, I’ll make a bet with you. You can also take the opportunity to eliminate me in this chaos.” Qi Xia interrupted Qinglong’s train of thought and said, “This way we’re even. You want to kill me and Heavenly Dragon, I want to kill Heavenly Dragon and you. Heavenly Dragon gets two votes, extremely high probability of death. Let’s see who can survive to the end. How about it?”