Zhang Chenze arrived at the plaza where she had previously parted with Yun Yao and the others with an uneasy heart, only to discover that the dark and thin Li Xiangling was already waiting there.

Beside her, the bodies of Qin Dingdong and Su Shan lay neatly arranged. It appeared Li Xiangling had carefully tended to them and had taken two relatively clean pieces of waste cloth to cover their faces.

At this moment, Li Xiangling was kneeling before the two, hands clasped together in devout prayer.

Hearing approaching footsteps, she keenly turned her head, her eyes instantly becoming cautious. Then she discovered the person approaching was Zhang Chenze.

“Sister Zhang!” Li Xiangling chuckled lightly, patted the dust off her body, and slowly stood up. “I was afraid you wouldn’t know the way to Earth-Snake’s game venue, so after settling them, I waited here for you. How did things go on your end? Did you find out anything about Wen Qiaoyun?”

“Qiaoyun’s matter…” Zhang Chenze’s expression clearly became extremely unpleasant.

Everything Xu Liunian and Chu Tianqiu had said earlier echoed in her ears, making her momentarily vexed and troubled, completely unsure how to answer.

Should she follow Chu Tianqiu’s strategy and not interfere in this matter, letting everything take its natural course… or should she follow Xu Liunian’s arrangement and use Qi Xia’s subconscious to create an entirely new Wen Qiaoyun?

“Xiangling, let’s go see Yun Yao and the others first… I have something I want to discuss with all of you.”

Li Xiangling nodded in agreement and led Zhang Chenze along the way to Earth-Snake’s game venue. Before leaving, the two glanced at the large screen not far away. The number of “Echoes” on it was extremely numerous. At a glance, they were all names they hadn’t seen much, such as “Crimson Flame,” “Gigantification,” “Forget Worry,” and even… “Breaking Ten Thousand Laws.”

Unfortunately, now was not the time to discuss these matters, as a more thorny problem was already before them.

When entering Earth-Snake’s game venue, Zhang Chenze discovered the smell here was very pungent—the stench mixed with quite a bit of rankness, making one frown after just a few seconds.

Fortunately, Yun Yao and Tiantian had already cleaned up most of the debris and rubble here. The interior was relatively tidy. Lin Qin was also resting on the floor in the center of the room, though her right leg still looked bad.

“Lawyer Zhang?” Yun Yao wiped the sweat from her forehead. Her face was also stained with quite a bit of dust. “You’re back?”

After hearing this, everyone turned around to bring out chairs and sat in a circle in the hall of Earth-Snake’s game venue, quietly looking toward Zhang Chenze.

Zhang Chenze, standing from a completely neutral angle, fully disclosed everything she had seen and heard during today’s visit to “Heaven’s Mouth.” Out of professional habit, her narration was even detailed down to every word spoken by Old Lu and Auntie Tong.

Everyone’s expressions changed repeatedly as she narrated.

Whether it was Chu Tianqiu’s words or Xu Liunian’s words, they were very difficult for them to understand.

“I roughly understand…” Yun Yao nodded. “To put it simply… Tianqiu’s ultimate goal and Xiao Nian’s ultimate goal are opposite…”

“Exactly.” Zhang Chenze nodded, looking at Lin Qin and Yun Yao. “You two understand far more about the ‘Land of the End’ than I do, so I really want to ask for your opinions.”

Lin Qin and Yun Yao looked at each other. Even with all their memories, they couldn’t possibly have any constructive opinions on this kind of matter.

One person wanted to “become a god,” another wanted to “create a person.”

“I think we can first clarify the direction of our discussion…” Zhang Chenze straightened her body in the chair, leaned back, then crossed her legs and said, “First, we need to discuss whether to help one of them. If so… who should we help? Second, if we don’t plan to get involved in these two people’s affairs… what is our next direction of effort?”

“There’s also a third question.” Lin Qin said. “Qi Xia.”

“Yes.” After hearing this, Zhang Chenze nodded. “Qi Xia is also a thorny problem… The elderly Baihu said before that ‘Qi Xia is the person closest to becoming a god.’ The implication is that even the management here values Qi Xia’s abilities. They believe Qi Xia has the greatest probability of success… From the most rational standpoint, we could also choose to help Qi Xia.”

After hearing this, Yun Yao took a deep breath, as if she wanted to say something, but before speaking, she still shook her head lightly and turned to look at Lin Qin.

“What…?” Lin Qin noticed Yun Yao’s movement and turned to ask.

Yun Yao organized her words and answered, “Lin Qin, I haven’t had much contact with Qi Xia… I want to know what kind of person he is in your mind.”

“He…” Lin Qin thought carefully, then spoke at length. “I’ll speak honestly… The first feeling Qi Xia gave me was ‘danger.'”

“Danger…?”

“Yes.” Lin Qin nodded. “The feeling he gives people is very strange… I’m well-versed in psychology, but I can’t see through what he’s thinking at all. Even if I can notice his every micro-expression and movement, I never know what he’ll do next or what he’ll say, let alone know the plans hidden in his mind… At that time, I always felt I was dealing with an extremely dangerous person. Even if his ultimate goal was to harm me to death, I would have absolutely no way to discover it in advance.”

Yun Yao nodded. She had briefly contacted Qi Xia before. That “Man-Dragon” game was still vivid in her memory, and Qi Xia’s performance at that time was very strange.

He was extremely flustered when on the “seesaw,” even his tone began to tremble. But when Tiantian personally cut open her own neck and let out fresh blood, Qi Xia’s state began to change. When Tiantian died completely, all of Qi Xia’s panic and sorrow vanished without a trace, leaving only a cold sentence: “Watch, we’re about to win.”

Thinking carefully, this was completely consistent with certain aspects of what Lin Qin said. Was Qi Xia truly panicked at that time…?

Was he truly so panic-stricken that he couldn’t think of any solution?

In that game, Yun Yao began to have doubts about Chu Tianqiu, but wasn’t Qi Xia equally worthy of suspicion?

“I think what you said is very right…” Yun Yao said with a grave expression. “Sometimes Qi Xia is truly a dangerous person…”

Seeing Yun Yao’s serious expression, Lin Qin suddenly revealed a smile. “But later I changed my view.”

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at her once more.

Lin Qin paused, then said, “I don’t know what level artificial intelligence has developed to in your era. But Qi Xia is very much like a machine that conquers games. His algorithm only has ‘victory’ written into it. This kind of artificial intelligence will have obvious advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that nothing can stand in his way, but the disadvantage is equally obvious. If necessary… for the sake of victory, he will calculate all the people around him.”