Could a small door really block those black lines?

Or rather… was this a method employed by “Extreme Path”?

“Can you escape the pursuit of those black lines?” Qi Xia asked again.

“Don’t even mention it…” Old Sun shook his head. “Little brother, if it weren’t for you, we could’ve rested here for ten minutes. Your arrival disrupted our plans.”

After speaking, he looked at the chubby uncle. “Old Deng, are you done?”

The chubby uncle continued chanting with his eyes closed for a while, then opened them and said, “Almost… should have transferred over by now.”

Qi Xia listened carefully. From outside came faint “thud” sounds, as if someone had fallen to the ground.

“What did you do?”

The white-clothed girl saw Qi Xia’s expression but didn’t answer his question. Instead, she slowly crossed her arms in front of her chest and asked softly, “What’s your name?”

“Qi Xia.”

“Qi Xia… do you know me?” the white-clothed girl asked again.

“If you haven’t heard my name before, then we shouldn’t know each other,” Qi Xia said with furrowed brows. “But your aura feels very familiar.”

“Your aura also feels somewhat familiar,” the white-clothed girl said with a cold smile. “Those eyes of yours always make me recall certain past events.”

The white-clothed girl’s words made Qi Xia feel once again that things weren’t simple. Could he really have met her before?

But she clearly had an extremely deep cunning about her, with members of “Extreme Path” standing on both her left and right sides, indicating her status within “Extreme Path” was not low.

“My name is Yan Zhichun,” the girl said.

“Yan Zhichun.” Qi Xia nodded. “Good name.”

“Thanks to me, you can rest here for a few minutes.” Yan Zhichun turned back to grab a bottle of water from the table, then turned and handed it to Qi Xia. “There’s a back door here. In a moment, you can escape through there. We’re just ships passing in the night—leaving a name, leaving some water, I’ve done my utmost duty.”

Qi Xia still didn’t quite understand what the current situation was. Even Chen Junnan and Qian Wu hadn’t mentioned that this game would have “rest time.”

“Could it be that you happen to have an ‘Echo’ that can counter ‘Pegasus Moment’?”

Hearing this, the three people exchanged glances. Yan Zhichun took a step forward and slowly said in front of Qi Xia, “You seem a bit too clever. Being too clever in this kind of place without hiding yourself will put you in a very dangerous position.”

“What?” Qi Xia sensed a threatening tone in her words but remained unaffected. “I’ve seen through your secret, so now you’re going to kill me?”

“Interesting.” Yan Zhichun nodded. “I really like meeting clever people, especially unruly and arrogant ones like you.”

“I only like meeting sincere people,” Qi Xia replied.

“So do you want to leave an address? We could keep in close contact in the future.”

“With you ‘Extreme Path’ people?” Qi Xia instantly recalled the scene of Qiao Jiajin and Tiantian being killed by “Extreme Path,” his expression becoming extremely cold as he said, “No need. I just have a few questions I want to ask you.”

“Questions?”

Qi Xia also took a step forward, staring intently at the girl before him. When the two were separated by only two steps, Qi Xia caught her scent.

A pine wood-scented laundry detergent smell, mixed with the lily of the valley fragrance of her shampoo, was simultaneously captured by Qi Xia.

In that instant, he felt his mind completely chaotic, his ability to think nearly vanishing.

Wasn’t this exactly Yu Nian’an’s scent?

“Why…?” Qi Xia asked in a daze. “Why are there so many coincidences?”

Yan Zhichun didn’t know what Qi Xia meant. She just stared coldly at this man. Though the man before her seemed clever enough, he always gave people a feeling of madness.

“What coincidences? What exactly are you trying to say?”

Qi Xia closed his eyes, feeling as if Yu Nian’an was standing right before him. But the moment this woman opened her mouth, it would shatter Qi Xia’s dream, since even their voices were completely different.

“Yan Zhichun, where is your hometown?” Qi Xia asked.

“Cangzhou, Hebei.”

“Hebei…” Hearing this answer, Qi Xia was obviously somewhat disappointed. The two of them were, after all, completely different people.

But why would such coincidences exist in the world?

Their clothing, silhouettes, physiques, including their scents—all were identical.

Never mind in this “Land of the End” with its limited personnel—even in the real world, what were the odds of encountering such a person?

“What did you do before coming here?” Qi Xia asked again.

These two consecutive questions seemed to make Yan Zhichun’s expression somewhat unpleasant. As one of the top figures in “Extreme Path,” her operating principles had always been concealment and deception, yet the man before her kept probing into her past.

“Does it concern you?” Yan Zhichun asked with furrowed brows. “You said you had questions to ask me—are these the questions?”

“Can you consider it a favor I owe you?” Qi Xia said. “I really want to know the answer.”

Yan Zhichun saw that Qi Xia’s cold eyes actually contained a trace of pleading, and her heart involuntarily softened. As if possessed, she opened her mouth and said, “I’m just an English major university student who’s currently looking for an internship. Is this question very important to you?”

“These questions aren’t particularly important…” Qi Xia shook his head. “My most important question is… have you ever heard the name ‘Yu Nian’an’?”

After hearing this, Yan Zhichun lowered her head in thought, then shook her head. “Never heard of it. Which room is she from?”

Qi Xia felt the girl before him wasn’t lying—at least her expression didn’t look like she was lying. He could only calculate the current situation over and over in his mind.

The paths he had previously deduced no longer needed further deduction—they would only lead to wrong answers.

Now that he had met this girl Yan Zhichun, he seemed to have opened up a new path.

If his memories could be altered by himself, then was there such a possibility…

That the Yu Nian’an in his memories and dreams wasn’t her original appearance?

For some unknown reason, he had changed Yu Nian’an’s appearance… perhaps to disguise her, or perhaps to escape from something?

Qi Xia felt he must have met Yan Zhichun before, only their personalities didn’t seem compatible, making the possibility of Qi Xia keeping her in his heart zero.

But what exactly had happened at that time… that would make him borrow Yan Zhichun’s body and then install Yu Nian’an’s soul?

“Any more questions?” Yan Zhichun asked.

“No more.” Qi Xia shook his head. “If I hear the Way in the morning, I can die content in the evening.”

“Then will you follow us?” Yan Zhichun stared at Qi Xia and said, “Old Deng’s ‘Echo’ can’t hold out much longer. Once those black lines outside kill the ‘Puppet,’ they’ll immediately come looking for you.”

“Puppet…” Qi Xia seemed to understand something and nodded. “I’ve rested enough. Let’s part ways here.”

He knew that what was most important now wasn’t to get entangled with the “body” before him, but to find Yu Nian’an’s “soul.”

“Where’s the back door?” Qi Xia asked.

Yan Zhichun turned around and raised her hand to point in a direction.

But when she extended her finger, Qi Xia’s eyes instantly widened, and his ears began to buzz.

On the side of Yan Zhichun’s index finger were three tattooed letters.