“Xu Liunian… I’m very troubled right now.” Under the night sky, Qinglong slowly raised his glowing eyes.

“Troubled about what…?”

“I’m wondering whether or not to smash the four giant bells here,” Qinglong said.

“You want to destroy the bells here…?” I asked tentatively. “What’s the reason?”

“Xu Liunian… you were dead at the time, so you don’t know the origin of the ‘bells,’ do you?”

“Yes, I don’t know.” I shook my head. “But you said they were built by Qi Xia.”

“To be precise… they were built by Qi Xia leading a group of ‘participants.'” Qinglong said. “He’s a person with extremely meticulous thoughts. He was actually able to think of establishing four giant bells in the city to greatly increase the visibility of everyone’s ‘Echoes.'”

“So…?” I felt what Qinglong said was somewhat contradictory. “If that’s the case, shouldn’t you preserve these four giant bells even more? That way the ‘participants’ will one day be able to stand before you again. One day they’ll find a way to kill you and ‘Tianlong,’ thereby completely liberating this place.”

“From certain angles, you’re right.” Qinglong nodded in agreement. “Thanks to these four giant bells, only this city hasn’t completely gone mad. But precisely because of this, all the ‘Zodiacs” attention has also gathered on this ‘Dao City,’ but…”

Qinglong looked at me meaningfully, then shook his head. “Never mind, after all I don’t want to shatter everyone’s hope.”

Although Qinglong didn’t explain clearly, I roughly guessed—when Tianlong and Qinglong are truly killed, will this place be liberated?

If it really is “Endless Life,” how exactly can we be liberated?

“I just want to destroy those four bells.” Qinglong spoke again. “Although this approach will put all the ‘participants’ in danger, it can preserve ‘Endless Life.’ He is the key to all of our liberation.”

“But I still feel doing this… is too dangerous,” I said. “Even if Qi Xia really is ‘Endless Life,’ how well does he actually utilize this ability? He’s only retained his memory once. What level do you expect his ‘Echo’ to reach? He’s not mad enough yet.”

“I…”

“Qinglong, if you destroy all the ‘bells,’ then this ‘Dao City’ will soon become like the neighboring ‘Jade City,’ with everyone wandering the streets like headless flies. You’ll be the only one who can hear everyone’s ‘divine powers.’ Regardless of whether Qi Xia can stand out, the rest will definitely be lost.”

After pondering for a moment, Qinglong slowly said, “To be honest, ‘Jade City’ is about to fall.”

“By ‘fall’ you mean…?”

“Good people make up less than ten percent. ‘Tianlong’ is preparing to begin a massacre. At that time, ninety percent of the ‘participants’ will directly disappear. The remaining people will never be able to leave the interview rooms. Four of the five cities will fall. This will be the last hope for all ‘participants.'”

“What…” I slowly widened my eyes. “Did ‘Whirlpool City’ also fall during these two years?”

“That’s right. When ‘Tianlong’ shifts his attention from ‘Jade City’ to ‘Dao City,’ he’ll naturally discover that Qi Xia is the greatest threat. At that time, no one will be able to protect him.”

Qinglong’s words made me slowly cover my forehead. Time wasn’t constantly reincarnating, but rather constantly moving forward.

We thought there was still plenty of time. We thought time was always reincarnating… but now “Tianlong” was about to win.

As long as he could thoroughly kill all the “participants,” he would truly win.

Regardless of whether he would become a “god” or not, this “Taoyuan” would only belong to him alone.

“So is there really no way at all…?” I asked quietly. “Once you smash the four ‘bells,’ it’s equivalent to all the ‘participants’ unknowingly betting their lives against ‘Tianlong’… What are our odds of winning?”

After hearing this, Qinglong turned around, standing with his hands behind his back on the rooftop of “Heaven’s Mouth,” looking toward some unknown direction.

“Xu Liunian… perhaps there’s one more method,” he said in a low voice.

“Tell me.”

“What you just said woke me up…” he murmured. “Since this is a war initiated by Qi Xia against ‘Tianlong,’ naturally we can’t let everyone be completely unaware.”

“So?”

“So you can directly ‘show your cards.'” Qinglong smiled slightly. “The four bells will be placed there openly and honorably. Once the giant bells ring out, that will be the horn signaling the start of war.”

After hearing this, I took a deep breath. Although I had refused to dismantle the four “bells,” Qinglong’s idea was really too bold.

“Let Qi Xia awaken…” Qinglong slowly revealed a strange smile. “Let the giant bells sound! Let the four giant bells sway in the ‘Land of End’! Let the sound of metal colliding sing for me to hear, sing for ‘Tianlong’ to hear!”

Before I could say anything, he suddenly turned his head around, his eyes widening with unusual excitement as he said to me, “You’re right! Xu Liunian! The reason I’ve been so lonely for seventy years… is because I was the only one who heard that tremendous sound back then… This is wrong… you should all hear it! Let all the ‘participants’ hear it! Let ‘Heaven, Earth, and Man’ hear it! Let the ‘Four Divine Beasts’ hear it! That’s how it should be!”

“Wait a moment…” I swallowed and said, “Qinglong, even if you really want us to show our cards to ‘Tianlong’… how do you get Qi Xia to obtain ‘divine power’? Will the giant bells of war really start swaying so easily?”

“Let’s try it!!” Qinglong shouted loudly, the expression in his eyes gradually becoming manic. “First we need to try whether that giant bell can actually receive such high-frequency sound! After all, humans fundamentally cannot capture this kind of sound… I’m not sure if Qi Xia was so meticulous back then that he could predict in advance the appearance of ultra-high frequency sounds.”

“Then… how exactly do we make him ‘Echo’?”

“There’s you!” Qinglong said. “Xu Liunian, aren’t you still within my plan? Let’s make a new deal… If you can’t make Qi Xia obtain an ‘Echo’ this time, when the next reincarnation begins, I won’t promise you the identity of a ‘participant’ anymore… Your life and death will be up to fate. How about it?”

“What…? You…”

Ultimately, I had still boarded the madman’s ship.

Where was this any kind of deal? It was clearly a threat.

“You’re saying… you want me to find a way to make Qi Xia ‘Echo’ on my own?”

“Yes… you’ve succeeded once before.” Qinglong extended one finger and lightly tapped his temple. “Use this person, use his most painful ‘obsession’ to make him ‘Echo.’ Wouldn’t that be such an interesting thing?”