“What…?” Qi Xia’s hand holding the snacks froze slightly.

“What?” Earth-Tiger looked at Qi Xia contemptuously. “You said you wanted to make a deal, but now you won’t even do this small thing for me?”

Qi Xia’s expression remained unchanged as he pocketed the snacks, saying, “No, it’s just that it’s too late today. It would be dangerous for us to move around.”

“Then go rest in my game venue. There are no ‘ants’ there.” Earth-Tiger impatiently pushed Qi Xia aside and walked toward the light gate.

“Then these two thousand nine hundred Dao…”

Earth-Tiger stopped in his tracks, lowered his head in thought for a moment, and said, “Leave them with me for now. If you don’t handle this matter well for me, I’ll make you regret it for the rest of your life.”

He grabbed the two heavy sacks of Dao with one hand, draped them over his body like towels, then turned and plunged into the light gate.

The light gate closed abruptly at that moment.

Before Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin could speak, another light gate appeared in the same location. The next second, a large number of dark shadows crawled out from inside.

Each shadow moved on all fours, their limbs twisted, their mouths emitting rustling sounds, their hollow eyes staring without eyeballs.

“Not good…” Qi Xia grabbed Qiao Jiajin. “Let’s go quickly.”

Qiao Jiajin was startled by the scene before him but quickly recovered and followed Qi Xia running toward the building.

The two entered Earth-Tiger’s venue and pushed the door shut behind them before finally relaxing.

“Liar… what were those things?” Qiao Jiajin said in confusion. “Were those… people?”

“They should be…” Qi Xia said in a deep voice. “I’ve seen them once before. Although they won’t attack people, they still feel very dangerous.”

“Damn…” Qiao Jiajin slowly caught his breath, then changed the topic. “Liar, is it really safe to give the Dao to that tiger?”

“For now, it’s the safest method.” Qi Xia thought for a while and said, “I don’t know if you noticed… Dao are completely useless to ‘Earth-level’ Zodiacs.”

“What…?” Qiao Jiajin froze.

“Think carefully about the few Earth-level games we’ve participated in. All the Zodiacs were in a state where expenses exceeded income. The entry fees they collected were far from reaching the rewards we won.”

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin stroked his chin in thought for a long time, then said seriously, “Liar… I’ve only participated in one ‘Earth-level’ game.”

“Uh…” Qi Xia shook his head. “It’s not that you haven’t participated, but that you lost your memory. When we first arrived at the Land of the End, the bear you beat up was an Earth-level game.”

“Oh, I see…”

After hearing this, Qi Xia continued, “So I speculate that the purpose of ‘Earth-level’ isn’t to win Dao at all, but to use Dao to attract us to our deaths. Dao are dispensable to them, they can even operate at a loss.”

“But…” Qiao Jiajin was still somewhat puzzled. “You gave him all the Dao based on just a ‘speculation.’ Isn’t that a bit risky?”

“Of course it’s risky.” Qi Xia said. “As long as these two thousand nine hundred Dao are in my hands, whatever choice I make will be risky, and the Extreme Path will hunt us down relentlessly because of these Dao. Comparatively speaking, entrusting the Dao to an Earth-level Zodiac is actually the safer thing to do.”

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin nodded and asked again, “Then… the ‘Heavenly-Sheep’ you mentioned earlier, where do we go to find her?”

“I don’t know.” Qi Xia shook his head. “Never mind Heavenly-Sheep, we can’t even find the Man-Mouse that Earth-Tiger mentioned.”

“What?” Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia in confusion. “He already told us the location. How can we not find her?”

“That child is dead.” Qi Xia said with some regret. “The last time we just arrived, you and I saw that corpse together… do you remember?”

“Damn… a child?” Qiao Jiajin suddenly recalled the scene from that time. “I only remember that corpse was very small. It was actually a child?”

“Yes.”

“Who was so vicious to kill her?!” Qiao Jiajin looked very angry. “To even kill a child, how is this bastard still considered human…”

“I killed her.” Qi Xia said bluntly.

“Huh…?”

“At the time, I heard that when participating in games in the Land of the End, you could choose not to pay stakes but instead wager your own life, so I tried it in that child’s game.” Qi Xia sighed despondently. “But I didn’t expect… that the ‘referees’ here are also some kind of ‘Participants.’ If I wagered my life and achieved victory, it would cause the other party to lose their life.”

After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin sighed with some regret.

In a situation where one knew nothing, who could consider whether their choice could preserve a Zodiac’s life?

“Then what should we do…?” Qiao Jiajin asked. “It seems that tiger-headed guy still doesn’t know about this…”

Qiao Jiajin turned to look at Qi Xia. He felt that based on Qi Xia’s methods, there was a high probability he would choose to deceive Earth-Tiger.

“I’m planning to explain this matter to him clearly tomorrow.” Qi Xia said. “I did it, so I’ll admit it.”

“Damn… explain it clearly?! What if he wants to kill you?” Qiao Jiajin sounded a bit uneasy. “I feel like I can’t last more than two moves against him…”

“He probably won’t.” Qi Xia shook his head. “As a Zodiac, he shouldn’t be able to actively kill people, but he’ll definitely be very angry. Since I’ve decided to cooperate with him, I’ll naturally show sincerity and give it a try.”

After Qi Xia finished speaking, he found a corner to lean against and sit down. “Fist, rest early. There are many things to do tomorrow.”

Qiao Jiajin nodded with an uneasy expression, then found a wooden plank to lie down on.

Although he said that… how could Qi Xia possibly fall asleep?

Everything that happened today kept circling in his mind.

Yu Nian’an had committed suicide.

Qi Xia didn’t feel surprised; it was even within his expectations.

He had originally planned to search for Heavenly-Sheep during this cycle, but he hadn’t expected Yu Nian’an’s substitute to appear. So he changed his plan and instead brought Yu Nian’an to join the Mouth of Heaven.

This way, no matter what problem arose with Yu Nian’an’s substitute, he could immediately and openly direct the blame toward Chu Tianqiu.

Qi Xia just hadn’t expected this day to come so soon.

These “created” Yu Nian’ans always seemed a bit strange—

In their subconscious, they knew they were fake. They would doubt themselves and might even become confused.

Both the last time’s “knock knock knock” and this time’s suicide could prove this point.

So Qi Xia inexplicably left behind a fruit knife.

Deep in the night, a lonely classroom, foul air, a playground full of corpses, combined with Yu Nian’an’s self-doubt—how suitable for suicide did that sound?

Qi Xia felt he could use this characteristic to identify the real Yu Nian’an. The real Yu Nian’an wouldn’t doubt herself, but fake Yu Nian’ans would.

Besides that…

Qi Xia reached up to touch his forehead.

In the past, every time he was about to feel sadness, that immense pain would strike, but today he witnessed Yu Nian’an die right before his eyes, yet his head didn’t hurt.

This was also excellent evidence.

It seemed the “substitute” couldn’t affect him at all.

“Headache…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes and thought slightly.

The first time he felt a headache in the Land of the End was when the Man-Mouse died.

Logically speaking, he didn’t know that child, so why did he have a headache then?

A stranger he’d only met once actually made him sad?

“Is it because the one who died was a small child…?”

Qi Xia pulled out the bag of snacks Earth-Tiger had given him from his pocket and shook his head with some regret.