Upon hearing Qi Xia’s description, Qiao Jiajin slowly lowered his head.

During this cycle, that cheerful girl in white clothes emerged in his mind. She had appeared so suddenly, quietly appearing beside everyone.

She was the “concrete obsession” that came from “Endless Life.”

“Qian Wu, you might not believe this.” Qi Xia said gloomily. “My ‘ability’ and my ‘obsession’ are in conflict with each other.”

“What do you mean by ‘in conflict’…?”

“My ability relieves my obsession.” Qi Xia answered.

“What…?”

“The deeper my obsession, the stronger my ability becomes. Unfortunately, the stronger my ability, the more my obsession is relieved.” Qi Xia reached out to slowly touch his forehead. “I’d really like to ask you… under these circumstances… should I ‘Echo’ or not?”

“What exactly did you do with your ability…?” Qian Wu looked at Qi Xia with furrowed brows. He felt like he was conversing with a madman.

“I created a ‘duplicate’ of Yu Nian’an…” Qi Xia answered softly. “Yu Nian’an is my wife.”

“You…” Upon hearing this, Qian Wu turned back and exchanged a glance with Zhou Liu. Both their expressions became somewhat unnatural.

Qi Xia’s… wife?

“So you understand now…” Qi Xia said. “My wife occupied the most important time in my life. She was my everything. But someone took her away from me. My most painful ‘obsession,’ all my demands, is to ask the ‘Land of the End’ to return Yu Nian’an to me. This is also my only motivation for facing all difficulties alone.”

After hearing this, Qian Wu nodded with a grave expression. “So when you activate your ‘Endless Life’… you create your wife? But you know she’s not truly your wife at all, just a duplicate.”

“Exactly.” Qi Xia sighed. “In the coming days, I’m afraid you’ll need to continue treating me as an ‘Unfortunate,’ because now even if I were to meet Yu Nian’an, I couldn’t confirm whether she’s real or fake. Once doubt exists in my heart… ‘Echo’ absolutely cannot activate successfully.”

Some people lose their rationality after going mad, but Qi Xia seemed to be the exact opposite. He would fall into an abyss of rationality, coldly treating everything around him.

For someone else, if they could truly create the person they longed for day and night, even if it was fake, it would be enough comfort in this hellish place.

But Qi Xia would keenly discover that the other person was a duplicate, thus proactively severing this thread of ethereal hope. Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

“So… that one memory you retained…” Qian Wu shook his head. “Was it the ‘Echo’ that burst forth from you on the night we stormed ‘Heaven’s Mouth’…?”

“I…” Qi Xia really wanted to nod in agreement, but there was clearly a paradox before him. “Actually, it’s not. I’ve retained two memories in total.”

“Two…?”

“That’s right.” Qi Xia said. “The circumstances of the first time were equally special. The retention of these two memories leaves me unable to find any commonalities at all, so right now I’m still uncertain about the future, unable to judge what step to take next.”

As soon as the words fell, Zhou Liu walked over and muttered a few sentences to Qian Wu in a low voice. Qian Wu also nodded understandingly.

“Qi Xia, let’s talk as we walk.” He turned back and also gestured to Qiao Jiajin and Officer Li. “Chen Junnan’s game is about to end. It sounds like there are quite a few injured as well. We’re far away, so let’s head toward them first.”

Everyone nodded and set off again. Qi Xia looked back one last time at Earth-Pig standing far away.

He knew that today was only the first day of starting the “Grand Plan,” and it wasn’t appropriate to provoke too many “Zodiacs,” otherwise it would definitely arouse suspicion. This small Earth-Pig with his extremely arrogant attitude could only be let go for now.

Walking along the road, Qi Xia roughly explained to Qian Wu the circumstances of his first death.

At that time, he was dragging his heavily injured body toward the edge of the city. Halfway there, he got into Xu Liunian’s car. This strange Native took Qi Xia racing along the road until they reached the edge of the city. Qi Xia saw the roads extending to other cities, and for a moment his heart turned to dead ashes, and he collapsed and died.

When he arrived at the “Land of the End” for the second time, Qi Xia had retained his memory.

The doubts this passage brought to Qian Wu were truly too numerous, so numerous he didn’t know where to begin.

First, a Native being a taxi driver—this was a situation he had never heard of.

Cars in the “Land of the End” weren’t rare. It was just that most of them were already completely dilapidated and rusted. Even if one could occasionally find a car body that was relatively intact, it had likely been neglected for years and would require professional maintenance personnel to adjust it before it could possibly be driven.

But even so, the problem of “gasoline” was equally serious. In a city where resources were so scarce, how could one stably obtain gasoline?

The small amounts of gasoline scavenged from various places were now most likely in the hands of various powerful forces, an extremely precious non-renewable resource.

So from every angle, a Native who had become a taxi driver was a huge point of suspicion.

Additionally, there was “death.”

According to the timeline Qi Xia provided, on the day he died, the bell had not rung.

As everyone walked along the dilapidated and foul-smelling streets, Qian Wu finally shook his head and said, “Although there have been previous examples of ‘Echoers’ dying before the bell was triggered, if your ‘Echo’ was truly that enormous, the great bell couldn’t possibly have had no reaction at all.”

“So I can’t figure it out.” Qi Xia said. “If we’re talking about the most suspicious circumstance at the scene… I first suspect this person Xu Liunian.”

“Same as what I was thinking.” Qian Wu nodded. “What exactly is special about this woman called Xu Liunian?”

“How should I put it…” Qi Xia squinted his eyes and carefully recalled the person Xu Liunian. “Average intelligence, weak ‘Echo,’ plain appearance, low presence. But such a person… transformed from a ‘Native’ back into a ‘Participant.'”

“No wonder you’re so hesitant.” Qian Wu said. “If we combine your bizarre ‘Echo’ situation with that strange woman, we should be able to figure it out, right?”

“I’ve thought about this question.” Qi Xia answered. “It’s just that all my intelligence is hearsay… You all told me that the transformation of ‘Natives’ is irreversible, but I truly witnessed a reversible situation… Since that’s the case, assuming you all haven’t lied…”

Qi Xia slowly stopped in his tracks and said to Qian Wu with a serious face, “Then I can only believe that the problem lies with ‘Xu Liunian’ herself. Whether it’s ‘Echo’ or something else, she is special. This is something only she can do.”