After hearing this, Qi Xia blinked slightly: “Earth-Sheep, our current conversation isn’t part of the game content. You have no need to lie.”

“Lie?” Earth-Sheep raised his eyes to look at Qi Xia. “‘Heavenly-Sheep’ is my promotion path. If he were still here, it would mean I have no hope of promotion. How could I work so hard then?”

“Hmm…?” Qi Xia was startled, feeling his thoughts getting a bit chaotic again.

If the “Heavenly-Sheep” position was vacant… didn’t that mean “Earth-Sheep” was already the highest-ranking Sheep here?

Then what was Yu Nian’an?

Qi Xia had an increasingly ominous premonition.

He had made assumptions before—the real Yu Nian’an had either died here or risen to become a “Zodiac.”

But now it seemed… she was more likely to have died here?

“Qi Xia.” Earth-Sheep suddenly said. “Don’t you want to become a ‘Sheep’?”

“What?”

“The path of collecting ‘Dao’ is too difficult. Would you consider becoming a ‘Zodiac’?” Earth-Sheep asked again.

“You ‘Zodiacs’… actively recruit people?”

“No… but there are really too few ‘Sheep.'” Earth-Sheep sighed. “Currently there are five ‘Man-Sheep,’ one ‘Earth-Sheep,’ and ‘Heavenly-Sheep’ is directly vacant. We ‘Sheep’ are the fewest of all the ‘Zodiacs.'”

“What does that have to do with me?” Qi Xia found it somewhat amusing. “So what if all the ‘Sheep’ die out?”

“I can only tell you… collecting ‘Dao’ isn’t realistic. One day you’ll discover that becoming a ‘Zodiac’ is the fastest way to leave this place.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia nodded silently: “Although you’re right, I can’t become a ‘Zodiac’ at the moment, because right now for me… ‘collecting Dao’ is faster.”

Seeing he couldn’t persuade the person before him, Earth-Sheep shook his head and pulled out a huge bundle from under the table—all the ‘Dao’ he had prepared.

“Oh?” Qi Xia looked at the bundle. “Then our deal is complete?”

“What do you think?” Earth-Sheep asked irritably. “Could I really kill you here?”

Qi Xia nodded and opened the bundle to look inside.

It was indeed a large pile of glittering spheres. There wasn’t much time left now, impossible to count them one by one, but thinking carefully, Earth-Sheep had already handed over such a large quantity to him—he probably couldn’t play any more tricks.

Qi Xia tied up the bundle, shouldered it, then asked Earth-Sheep for two fans. The two successfully paired up.

Right now with such a large quantity of ‘Dao’ on him, he was both in danger and safe.

If anyone killed him for these ‘Dao,’ then Xuanwu would intervene, so Qi Xia’s situation was relatively safe. But if the person who killed him didn’t take these ‘Dao,’ but instead used the method of the “Extreme Path”…

Qi Xia shook his head and headed toward the exit.

After three steps, he stopped, feeling something was strange.

There seemed to be a peculiar sense of dissonance.

He slowly put down the bundle from his back, opened it again, then carefully sniffed.

This large bundle of ‘Dao’ had no rotten stench at all.

What was going on?

Previously, the ‘Dao’ that Chu Tianqiu gave off released a pungent smell that spread rapidly with just a small opening. But now, with over a thousand ‘Dao’ right in front of him… there was no smell at all?

Qi Xia felt somewhat puzzled, so he lowered his head and sniffed very carefully again.

There was a trace of a strange fishy smell.

But this smell was definitely not rot.

He picked up one ‘Dao’ and squeezed it in his hand, then turned around and asked: “Earth-Sheep… are you deceiving me?”

“What?”

“Your ‘Dao,’ why are they different from the ones I’ve seen?”

“Different?” Earth-Sheep immediately frowned. “Qi Xia, you’re pulling this trick again? Now the ‘Dao’ have all been given to you… yet you say what I gave is wrong?”

Qi Xia thought carefully and felt it was indeed strange.

How could Earth-Sheep possibly predict his tactics in advance and prepare over a thousand fake ‘Dao’ beforehand?

Thinking this way… Chu Tianqiu was more likely the problem.

Could the ones he gave be fake?

But why didn’t “Earth-Tiger” notice that those two thousand nine hundred ‘Dao’ were fake?

Earth-Tiger dealt with ‘Dao’ all day long. If there was a problem with the ‘Dao,’ he would definitely point it out immediately. That meant… both types of ‘Dao’ were real?

While Qi Xia was pondering, Earth-Sheep went on his own way toward the exit.

“Time’s almost up, I won’t keep you company.” He said as he walked up the stairs.

Qi Xia looked at the electronic clock on the wall. Indeed, it was approaching one hundred twenty minutes, so he hesitated no more. After shouldering the bundle, he followed Earth-Sheep.

The two walked out of the casino one after the other. Time was up, game over.

Earth-Sheep was just about to turn around and say something when Qi Xia directly retreated back into the casino, closing the door along the way.

Earth-Sheep was startled, then felt somewhat angry.

Qi Xia’s little schemes were practically thrown in his face.

He was about to write IOUs for everyone, an action that would definitely cause an uproar. If at this moment everyone noticed Qi Xia carrying a large bundle of ‘Dao,’ an uncontrollable incident was extremely likely to occur.

“Damn…” Earth-Sheep cursed under his breath. “You’re really quite the scoundrel.”

Standing behind the closed door, Qi Xia found it amusing. This seemingly rigid Earth-Sheep now had to debate the masses—he wondered if he could handle it?

Sure enough, within less than a minute, chaos erupted outside the door.

What did “writing an IOU” mean? No one had ever imagined that after experiencing all this, they would receive a blank piece of paper.

Moreover… did a ‘Zodiac’s’ IOU even count?

A middle-aged woman in the crowd shouted particularly forcefully. Ironically, before the game, no one had dared speak to Earth-Sheep like this.

After a while, the crowd gradually quieted down. Qi Xia then pushed the door open a small crack and found Song Qi among the crowd.

Song Qi also keenly spotted Qi Xia. The two exchanged glances, and Song Qi walked over.

“Hey, brother.” Song Qi said. “I thought you were dead.”

Before he could say his next sentence, Qi Xia handed him five ‘Dao.’

“This is what we agreed on before.” After Qi Xia finished speaking, he took out five more and handed them to him again.

“What’s this?” Song Qi looked at the ten ‘Dao,’ slightly puzzled.

“These five are from me personally, to ask you to help me with something.”

“Help?” Song Qi felt the man before him was rather interesting. “Why did you choose me to help? It looks like you earned quite a bit here. Aren’t you afraid I’ll betray you?”

“Because you said your name is Song Qi.” Qi Xia said. “With your reputation, it’s enough to conduct a fair transaction in the ‘Land of the End.'”

“Haha!” Song Qi couldn’t help but smile after hearing this. “Brother, you’re really quite something. Tell me, what do you need me to help with?”

Qi Xia paused, then said: “I hope you’ll go to ‘Tiantang Kou’ to deliver a message. Help me find a person called Qiao Jiajin and tell him I need help.”

“‘Tiantang Kou’…?” Song Qi was startled. “You’re from ‘Tiantang Kou’?”