“I…” Zhang Chenze was startled by Chu Tianqiu’s appearance, but still said without changing expression, “I will definitely do my best.”

Chu Tianqiu left the window, looking as if he had already let down his guard. He sat down in front of Zhang Chenze once more, then spoke softly: “Lawyer Zhang, do you know… in order to survive here, what exactly must we do to ensure we don’t go mad?”

“Go mad…?”

“Yes.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “We’re reborn in this godforsaken place round after round… day after day, year after year. What exactly must we do to not hallucinate the ‘Seven Black Swords’? How strong must we be to break free from ‘Yu Nian’an’? What exactly must we do to not eat people, and what must we do to confirm we’re still human?”

Zhang Chenze felt that treating this matter as a “case” was indeed somewhat presumptuous.

Chu Tianqiu’s words seemed to carry some philosophy, but were also filled with madness. The questions he threw out one after another left her completely unable to find a direction for answers.

“Then what do you think should be done?” Zhang Chenze asked in return.

“The answer is a ‘lock.'” Chu Tianqiu extended one finger and tapped his own brow. “This godforsaken place puts a ‘lock’ on everyone, making us forget those painful memories and expecting us to start from zero.”

“That is indeed the case.” Zhang Chenze nodded. “Forgetting memories from previous cycles… this can also be considered a kind of protection mechanism.”

“A ‘protection mechanism’…?” Chu Tianqiu grinned, smiling in an extremely strange way. “What a laughable ‘protection mechanism.’ It can only protect the weak, but causes the strong to gradually go mad… Among those who have made a name for themselves in the ‘Land of Finality’ now… how many are truly clear-headed?”

“What you say also makes sense.” Zhang Chenze nodded. “The more someone is able to obtain an ‘Echo’… the longer their preserved memories will be, and the more of a torture it becomes.”

“So I voluntarily put a ‘lock’ on myself.” Chu Tianqiu smiled. “There’s someone on this land whose ‘Echo’ can lock away memories… allowing me to start from zero.”

After hearing this, Zhang Chenze was slightly stunned: “That person is Qiaoyun…?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head. “Qiaoyun isn’t that ‘lock,’ but rather a ‘key.'”

“A key…?” Zhang Chenze felt she was about to be unable to keep up with Chu Tianqiu’s train of thought. This person was not only extremely intelligent, but also showed obvious signs of madness. It was difficult for normal people to communicate with him.

Only now did Zhang Chenze roughly understand: “You mean… Qiaoyun’s ‘Echo’ is to restore people’s memories?”

“You could understand it that way.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “But her ability also has limitations. She can’t allow everyone to regain their memories… only those she’s touched can…”

Zhang Chenze slowly furrowed her brows, still not quite understanding the point Chu Tianqiu was trying to express.

“I thought Qiaoyun had already lost this ability…” Chu Tianqiu slowly hung a bitter smile on his face. “But before I met Qi Xia… I was suddenly affected by an unexpected ‘Echo’ that restored quite a few of my memories… and this ‘Echo’ came from Qiaoyun.”

This brief sentence nearly caused Zhang Chenze’s train of thought to become blocked several times. Her understanding of this place was still far too limited.

“It was also on that day that I finally remembered who Qiaoyun was…” Chu Tianqiu smiled as tears streamed down his face. “A large number of memory fragments floated into my mind. I immediately wrote all those fragmentary memories on the blackboard… and also remembered that man called Qi Xia.”

After hearing this, Zhang Chenze swallowed slightly, then asked tentatively: “Recovering memories… isn’t that a good thing?”

“A good thing…?” Chu Tianqiu’s smile slowly became cold and stern. He bent down and leaned closer to Zhang Chenze. “If it’s a ‘good thing’… why would I voluntarily ‘lock’ myself? Do you know how much despair is contained in my memories?”

“I…”

“Every day…” Chu Tianqiu’s body began to tremble slowly, as if recalling something extremely terrifying. “My memories come floating from all directions every day… The despair I recall grows more with each passing day… You tell me this is a ‘good thing’? Every time I remember an encounter from a cycle, I become more convinced that ‘we can’t get out’… You tell me this is a good thing?”

“But for people like us… the only weapon we can use to fight against them is ‘memory’…” Zhang Chenze also slowly revealed a sorrowful expression. “Only by understanding enough, by remembering enough things… one day we’ll escape from this godforsaken place…”

“No.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head. “That’s ‘for you people,’ not for me. For me, the more I recall, the more convinced I become that we can’t get out.”

Chu Tianqiu’s words plunged Zhang Chenze into silence once more. Soon he spoke again in a detached manner: “As for escaping from here… I already have a better method.”

“What… method do you have?” Zhang Chenze asked.

“I want to become a god.” Chu Tianqiu said. “I want to become the true master of this place. At that moment, everyone can be liberated.”

“Ah…?” Zhang Chenze was slightly stunned. She wasn’t sure whether Chu Tianqiu before her had truly gone mad or had other plans.

An ordinary person… becoming a “god”?

“Why would you have such an idea…?” Zhang Chenze asked in confusion. “If you’ve retained many memories, you could clearly become the strongest force among the ‘participants’…”

“It’s precisely because I’ve retained many memories that I know that approach simply won’t work.” Chu Tianqiu reached up to brush aside a few strands of hair that had fallen over his forehead, his face full of melancholy as he said, “All the strong people in my memories have failed… Qiaoyun is just one of them.”

“But now we have Qi—”

“Qi Xia has also failed before.” Chu Tianqiu said indifferently. “Qi Xia and Qiaoyun are too similar. The paths they walk are completely identical. This isn’t a bad thing—consider it them testing the wrong approaches for me. But now I need to walk a path of my own.”

Hearing Chu Tianqiu’s words, Zhang Chenze wanted to speak several times but the words got stuck at the edge of her mouth.

She had originally wanted to ask Chu Tianqiu for the method to awaken the natives, but now it seemed very difficult to broach the subject.

“So… I really want to know…” Zhang Chenze pulled the topic back again. “What exactly is your relationship with Qiaoyun? The child Qiaoyun gave birth to…”

“Thirty years ago, Qiaoyun was my lover.” Chu Tianqiu said with a calm expression. “And that child is also mine.”