At this very moment, a bold idea suddenly emerged in Qian Wu’s mind.

Since he couldn’t take the other party with him, could he transform his own body into ‘Xuanwu’?

Even if doing so would create endless future troubles… such as never being able to disappear with “The End” again, or becoming a “Divine Beast” rather than a “Participant.”

But now that Qi Xia’s grand plan had begun, no matter how one looked at it, they needed such a role.

With this thought, Qian Wu immediately extended his right hand and grabbed Xuanwu’s palm.

“Give me your body…”

But what Qian Wu never expected was that although he was grasping Xuanwu’s palm, his body didn’t undergo the slightest change, as if his “Twin Flower” had become ineffective at this moment.

“What…?”

“What trick are you playing now?” Xuanwu asked with an ice-cold expression. “If you still can’t kill me… I’ll be very disappointed…”

At this moment, Qian Wu finally knew that everything he did was futile. Facing this woman who seemed like a deity, he was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, actually believing he could exchange his life for hers.

From any angle, it was obvious… his life… and ‘Xuanwu’s’ life, how could they possibly be equal?

“I really can’t seem to do it…” Qian Wu let out a bitter laugh, his expression extremely dim.

Hearing these words, Xuanwu clearly showed a displeased expression. She forcefully withdrew her hand.

At the same moment, all the wounds on Qian Wu’s body changed from pitch-black to blood red, and his neck gushed blood like a bursting dam.

He had originally had the chance to heal his injuries by touching Chou Ershi, yet he didn’t extend his hand. After all, he knew Xuanwu wouldn’t let things end peacefully. The outcome this time was already predetermined.

Now he had no need to struggle further. He also knew that relying on himself alone, he absolutely couldn’t be a match for the three people before him.

So he simply slowly opened his arms wide, welcoming his own death.

Xuanwu didn’t hold back either, directly obtaining Chou Ershi’s heart out of thin air and immediately crushing it in her hand.

Killing the three people before her wasn’t difficult for Xuanwu, but her eyes revealed deep sorrow.

“Mission accomplished.” She sighed lightly, then suddenly disappeared from the spot.

Heavenly-Horse and Heavenly-Tiger, who had been standing to the side for a long time, saw Xuanwu disappear and slowly breathed a sigh of relief. A few seconds later, anger gradually appeared on Heavenly-Horse’s face.

She turned her head, looking toward the prison with an especially cold expression.

“You damned people… actually daring to bully this old lady?” She walked forward a few steps, then slowly took out a pocket watch from her bosom. “This old body’s moment is about to arrive… All of you shall die…”

Everyone inside the prison watched Heavenly-Horse through the door cracks with some tension. After all, most people were experiencing the “Heavenly-Horse Moment” for the first time and had no idea what would happen next. At this moment, they all held their breath and waited quietly.

“Three… two… one…” Heavenly-Horse smiled slightly and closed the pocket watch with a “click.”

The ‘Heavenly-Horse Moment’ descended.

The sun in the sky suddenly contracted after Heavenly-Horse’s countdown ended.

A full several seconds passed since ‘Heavenly-Horse’ closed her pocket watch, yet the imagined disaster didn’t appear. Throughout the entire prison, aside from the subtle sound of wind, only everyone’s breathing remained.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet.

A moment later, Qi Xia felt some strange sounds overhead. A rustling noise came from mid-air, like a light drizzle beginning to fall, or like countless birds sweeping across the sky.

Everyone looked up to discover that the sky, which had never shown clouds before, now seemed to have an additional dark cloud.

That dark cloud emerged from behind the earthy-yellow sun and was gradually expanding.

“Clouds… behind the sun?”

Qi Xia suddenly felt he had discovered a barely visible flaw, but at this moment there was no time to consider such details.

That dark cloud grew larger and larger, as if about to envelop the entire sun. Then, like a living creature, it circled in the sky for a while before suddenly plummeting toward the ground.

Only then did everyone finally see the true nature of that dark cloud.

It wasn’t a “dark cloud” at all, but rather a large mass of writhing, chaotically dancing black threads.

“Holy crap…” Qiao Jiajin felt that the weirdness of this place was breaking through his bottom line time and again. He hurriedly tugged at Qi Xia beside him. “Liar boy, shouldn’t we be running now?”

“Running…” Qi Xia squinted at the sky. “But which direction should we run?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the mass of black threads that had descended to mid-air spread out suddenly like ink diffusing in water, and countless black threads flew in countless directions.

“Get out first!!”

Everyone ran out of the prison gate one after another, only to see that the black threads were about to descend to the ground.

“Everyone!” Chen Junnan shouted loudly. “You absolutely cannot let these threads touch you. They’re as sharp as blades and can shred you the instant they make contact! Fortunately, these threads aren’t particularly fast. As long as you can keep running, you’ll eventually shake them off!”

The ‘Cat’ team members nodded in agreement, and Chen Junnan also exchanged glances with Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin.

For the time that followed, everyone could only rely on their own abilities. No one could help anyone else anymore.

“Old Qi,” Chen Junnan stared at Qi Xia. “I’ll say it one more time—we can both die, but you can’t.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia nodded somewhat hesitantly.

He felt that although he had already come back to his senses from last night’s nightmare, for some reason he still felt somewhat dazed.

“Liar boy, you don’t look right…” Qiao Jiajin asked. “Still not feeling well?”

“I’m fine,” Qi Xia shook his head. Just as he was about to say something, he discovered that Officer Li, who had been standing behind everyone earlier, had disappeared. “Where’s Officer Li?”

“Over there…!”

Zhou Mo pointed to the open ground in the distance. Officer Li was rushing rapidly toward something bright red on the ground.

“Hey! Big Brother Li!” Chen Junnan shouted. “Where are you going?”

“You guys go first! I need to get something!” Officer Li replied.

“Get something?”

Everyone knew this was a life-or-death moment. Even if Officer Li truly encountered danger, there was no way to protect him.

“Never mind, run first,” Qi Xia said. “Everyone scatter across the open ground, otherwise we can’t distinguish which ‘thread’ is our own. If we make a mistake, we’ll die.”

“Understood!”

Everyone dispersed across the small plaza. At this moment, those black threads had already reached three to five meters above everyone’s heads.

“May you all live… As for these things…” Chen Junnan smiled bitterly, then picked up a stone from the ground and threw it fiercely toward mid-air. When the stone touched the black threads in the sky, it was instantly cut in half. “I hope they never touch any of you.”