The following questions proceeded just as Chen Junnan had anticipated.

The iron ball overhead rushed leftward like a runaway train, coming to hang above Yun Yao’s head.

Taking advantage of this call opportunity, Chen Junnan told Yun Yao his deduction. He said Earth-Sheep was hiding among the “even numbers,” with coordinates most likely at “-2,” but at this point both Yun Yao and Chen Junnan knew they were probably powerless to change the current situation.

Chen Junnan also shared another conjecture with Yun Yao—to be careful of the “Muffled Man.” This man who kept a low profile should be the person who had previously impersonated Earth-Sheep.

After all, in the round when Earth-Sheep was impersonated, only he could change the question. This meant that without knowing the full picture, he had already completely guessed how things would develop. He was definitely not a minor character.

And in the following rounds, he had also successfully killed “1.”

Looking at it this way, “3” had always been an empty room. The “Muffled Man” pretended to receive a call from “3,” thereby changing the question, but he hadn’t anticipated that the “life-and-death wager initiator” was not far ahead of him, which was how his conspiracy was exposed.

And right before the “Muffled Man” was “Triangle.”

This “Triangle” had also made a move to kill someone—he had killed the previous “3.”

The two men in front of Yun Yao were not ordinary people. Her situation going forward was extremely dangerous.

Round fourteen—Chen Junnan’s screen also lit up with a line of bizarre text. It looked like a question but was completely meaningless.

“A flower collapses among snowflakes.”

After seeing the question, Chen Junnan picked up the phone and called Xu Qian. This round was still the same as before. Even though they had already completed a full circle and arrived at the fourteenth question, the situation still hadn’t changed.

The iron ball ultimately hung above Chen Junnan’s head. The next round’s question would decide whether he survived.

Just as Yun Yao had said, the iron ball that had already killed people was completely different from the ball at the beginning.

It hung there carrying a strong scent of blood. One could vaguely sense its massive, ice-cold contours, as if it could fill the entire room.

“Can’t stop it at all.” Chen Junnan laughed. “Earth-Sheep… why are you in such a hurry?”

Round fifteen began. As the “first person,” Xu Qian made her call, and Chen Junnan only received Yun Yao’s call at the very end.

But Yun Yao’s tone was very strange, as if she were asking him to leave his last words.

“Chen, Chen Junnan…” Yun Yao said. “I, I’ve already chosen ‘No.’ In a moment, you should also choose ‘No.’ Maybe you’ll survive after that…”

“Alright, I understand,” Chen Junnan said indifferently. “I’ll choose ‘No.'”

“Are you… really not afraid of death?” Yun Yao asked somewhat nervously. “The iron ball is already above your head now…”

“To be honest…” Chen Junnan sighed. “My feelings toward ‘death’ have become very numb. Even knowing I might really die, my heart remains completely calm. All these years I’ve only worried about my friends dying, never about my own death.”

“But you…”

“Besides, my view differs from yours,” Chen Junnan said, holding the phone and slowly raising his head to look at the ceiling. “I have a wonderful premonition… I feel like I won’t die in this round.”

“Why…?”

“Because I’ve figured something out,” Chen Junnan said, narrowing his eyes. “In the first few rounds of this game, I was leading the way, but at some point I don’t know when… the person in control of the field has changed.”

“You mean… someone has taken control of this game?”

“Yes, Big Star. Right now there’s an extremely intelligent person on the field. If I’m not mistaken, he should be on par with Old Qi,” Chen Junnan said, reaching out a hand to touch the layout diagram on the wall. “This person should have control over quite a large area across from us, roughly from ‘2’ to ‘6’—all within his sphere of influence. And this person deduced both ‘Earth-Sheep’s participation in the game’ and ‘Earth-Sheep’s precise location’ immediately, and from that moment he began trying to seize the initiative.”

Chen Junnan’s words shocked Yun Yao greatly.

Could there really be such a formidable person in this world?

“So then…?” Yun Yao asked.

“So he’s continuously making the iron ball rush toward ‘-2.’ If all my above conjectures are correct, then this round he’ll have everyone choose ‘No’ to switch between ‘even numbers’ and ‘odd numbers,’ so I probably won’t die.”

“This hypothesis is too bold,” Yun Yao said with furrowed brows. “As long as one conjecture is wrong, you’ll disappear forever.”

“Precisely because I’ve teamed up with Old Qi, I think very highly of people’s upper limits… When dealing with intelligent people, you need to completely trust their methods,” Chen Junnan laughed. “Big Star, guess whether that person has figured out that I’m the ‘life-and-death wager initiator’?”

“Even if he’s guessed you’re the wagerer, so what?”

“Then he should know that once I die, the ‘life-and-death wager’ ends. Earth-Sheep might be released from his room and become a ‘judge’ again. At that point, who knows if he’ll seek revenge or show gratitude, so the best method is to keep him here.”

Yun Yao swallowed, feeling like Chen Junnan trusted intelligent people too much. Could there really be a person sitting in a lonely room who could perceive the full picture of the entire game?

“Big Star, you know that man called Zhong Zhen. Is he that intelligent?” Chen Junnan asked.

“He’s not stupid, but he’s definitely not as smart as you’re describing,” Yun Yao said cautiously. “His greatest characteristic is cold-bloodedness. I’ve participated in several games with him, and he’s killed quite a few teammates—he even killed me once. Chu Tianqiu once said he valued precisely this point about Zhong Zhen, which is why he brought him into ‘Heaven’s Mouth.'”

Chen Junnan nodded. “In that case… the person controlling the overall situation shouldn’t be him, but someone else.”

Yun Yao also began to ponder. They had just encountered all the participants, but who among them could have such capabilities?

“Big Star, let’s stop here for now,” Chen Junnan said. “After all, I can immediately verify whether my thinking is correct.”

He hung up the phone and pressed “No” with a solemn expression, then muttered to himself:

“Let me see what you’re capable of.”

The brief dozen or so seconds felt like a century to Chen Junnan. He watched with wide eyes as the text on the screen dimmed, then gradually brightened again.

The verdict declaring his life or death had fallen.

“The final answer to this question is—’No.'”

“I bet right…” Chen Junnan’s eyebrows immediately rose. Then he heard the massive chains making “clank clank” sounds, pulling the giant iron ball overhead away from him.

From this moment on, this iron ball was like a tank slowly rotating its turret, turning to aim at Earth-Sheep.

Chen Junnan also felt that at this moment, a hidden bridge connected him with someone on the opposite side.