“Qi Xia…” Qian Wu felt that the man before her was even more unfathomable than she had imagined. “Even if we truly must use each other, why would you choose such a terrifying teammate as Chu Tianqiu? Wouldn’t it be more suitable if I opened my heart to you?”

“He wants to become a god, and I can help him.” Qi Xia smiled. “He’s willing to replace ‘Heavenly Dragon’ here, while I only want to leave. So from the perspective of our respective goals, neither of us will cause the other any trouble. Once he becomes a god, he absolutely cannot let someone like me remain in the ‘Land of End.’ After all, he cannot completely kill me, and I will one day threaten his position. This is the deal we’ve made on a knife’s edge.”

After hearing this, Qian Wu was silent for a while before looking up and asking, “You’d rather make a deal with someone like that than give me face…?”

Qi Xia looked at this person before him who kept shifting between male and female, and silently shook his head. “Qian Wu, in my view, you’re actually a decent person, which is precisely why it’s difficult for me to cooperate with you. After all, those who cooperate with me never end up well.”

“Ha…” Qian Wu laughed bitterly. “But Qi Xia, I’ve been searching for you for ten years.”

“Is that so…?”

“In the first three years, I could still see you from time to time, but starting from seven years ago… you seemed to have completely disappeared.” A trace of sorrow passed through Qian Wu’s expression. “After a while, all of you vanished… I once thought you had become walking corpses in some corner of the ‘Land of End.'”

Qi Xia just felt that Qian Wu’s state seemed familiar somehow—he was very much like Chen Junnan.

“Why must it be me?” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes and asked. “There are tens of thousands of people in this ‘Land of End.’ Even if the numbers have decreased significantly now, why must it be me?”

“Because only you have directly confronted ‘Heavenly Dragon.'” Qian Wu said with some excitement. “Even if you’ve already lost all your memories, I know you can do it. Ten years ago, you could make ten thousand people simultaneously stand before ‘Heavenly Dragon,’ and ten years later you still can.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia slowly lowered his head, similarly feeling a wave of sorrow.

“Qian Wu, but I lost.” Qi Xia said. “I not only lost ten years ago, I even lost ten years later. Although I have no memories, I know I’ve been using different methods to break through ‘Heavenly Dragon’ and escape from here, but I truly have no confidence.”

Qi Xia felt that this seemed to be the first time he had revealed his true feelings since entering the “Land of End” for so long. He didn’t know whether it was because he had some inexplicable sense of familiarity with Qian Wu, or whether “Silence” gave him a sense of security.

“Different methods…?” Qian Wu seemed very interested. “You know what methods you’ve used?”

Qi Xia nodded and said, “This matter should be revealed anyway—it can serve as leverage for negotiations with you.”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you about the second method I’ve used, and you can comprehensively consider the possibility of cooperating with me.”

After hearing this, Qian Wu nodded seriously. “Go ahead.”

“I was a ‘Zodiac’ for seven years.”

After these words, everyone was shocked. All present except Qi Xia stood up.

“You were a ‘Zodiac’ for seven years?!”

This answer completely exceeded Qian Wu’s expectations.

“I started from ‘Man-Sheep,’ climbed up step by step, and reached as high as ‘Earth-Sheep.’ But just as I was about to be promoted to ‘Heavenly-Sheep,’ I was tricked by ‘Heavenly Dragon,’ knocked back to my original form. All my memories were erased, and I became a Participant again.”

After hearing this, Qian Wu slowly and deliberately exchanged glances with Song Qi and Zhou Liu, then asked tentatively, “This matter… you can remember it?”

“No, I don’t remember.” Qi Xia shook his head. “I deduced it from various clues, but looking at it now… there’s no evidence that can overturn my hypothesis.”

At this moment, Qiao Jiajin’s lips also moved slightly as he said in a low voice, “Liar, you’re the sheep that tiger guy was looking for…?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded.

“Then why didn’t you tell him?”

“Because I don’t know his stance.” Qi Xia sighed and said, “What does it matter if he knows I’m that ‘Sheep’? As a ‘Zodiac,’ would he choose to help us ‘Participants’? Or would he make me become the ‘Sheep’ again? I don’t look forward to either situation, so I didn’t make it clear to him.”

At this moment, Qian Wu sat down slowly as if in a daze. “I originally thought becoming a ‘Zodiac’ was our fallback, but now it seems it’s still just another deception?”

Song Qi, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke up. “So… all the paths here lead nowhere… Fifth Brother… how should we escape?”

“Paths…?” Qi Xia frowned slightly.

Xia, there are many paths in this world, and each person has their own.

“Wait a moment…” Qi Xia suddenly thought of an extremely ethereal clue, but couldn’t quite grasp it.

A strange question also circled in his mind.

Why did he use different methods each time he faced Heavenly Dragon?

The same person, walking out from the same room, leading the same teammates along the same path, yet he used completely different tactics.

“Hold on…” Qi Xia touched his forehead, as if he had understood something extremely crucial.

What if…

What if he clearly knew that he wouldn’t retain his memories—then how would he know that he needed to use a different method to confront ‘Heavenly Dragon’ next time?

How could he ensure he hadn’t repeated the same mistakes?!

“So that’s how it is…?” Qi Xia suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Qian Wu.

At this moment, only this man knew the answer to the question, but Qi Xia didn’t dare ask it aloud now.

If the answer was truly the same as what he imagined, then… what about Yu Nian’an?

Qian Wu also noticed Qi Xia’s unusual behavior and frowned slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“I…” Qi Xia thought it over repeatedly, but still asked this question. “Qian Wu, in your memories from ten years ago… was I an ‘Echo User’?”

Qian Wu pondered slightly, then nodded. “You should have been. On the battlefield at that time, I seem to have heard someone mention this. It’s just that your ability wasn’t particularly powerful—just an ordinary two-character ‘echo.'”

As expected…

Qi Xia somewhat frustratedly covered his forehead, his expression extremely pained.

This way, everything made sense…

Why did he choose a different path each time?

Because he had paved the way for his future self!

If his guess was correct, when he failed in challenging ‘Heavenly Dragon,’ he left behind a contingency plan. This plan was to seal away the trigger for his own “echo.” This way, no matter how many times he revived, he could only be an “Unfortunate One,” so he had no choice but to take the path of becoming a “Zodiac.”

And after seven years as a “Zodiac,” seeing that he was about to fail, in order not to repeat the same mistakes, he left himself a new path.

This path was named Yu Nian’an.

As long as Yu Nian’an existed, it could ensure that he retained his attachment and wouldn’t become a “Zodiac” again.