I agreed to Qinglong’s request.

It wasn’t because I was particularly interested in this matter, but because the disparity in our positions was too great—I simply couldn’t refuse.

In the days that followed, I constantly thought about a method that could make Qi Xia “Echo.”

Chu Tianqiu would give me some plans he had written in advance in the evenings to ensure that all the members of “Heaven’s Mouth” could activate their own “Echoes” according to plan the next day.

Since he understood the triggering mechanisms for everyone’s Echoes in “Heaven’s Mouth” better than I did, I completely trusted his arrangements.

But he framed me.

On the first day, he provided the game map for “Man-Dragon,” directly causing the deaths of Qi Xia’s teammate, as well as “Heaven’s Mouth” veterans Jin Yuanxun and Little Glasses.

Qi Xia also directed all his anger at me.

Fortunately, I truly didn’t know, and under no circumstances had I lied. No matter how capable Qi Xia was, he couldn’t possibly detect any flaws in my tone or demeanor.

From that day on, I no longer followed Chu Tianqiu’s arrangements. I decided to handle everything personally.

But when I personally selected Zhang Shan, Qiao Jiajin, and Li Xiangling to participate in the “Earth-Tiger” game, I was suspected by Yun Yao again.

I wasn’t as clever as Chu Tianqiu, so no matter what, I would expose flaws.

This was inevitable, something I could foresee.

But did you all even know how dire the current situation was?

“Tianlong” was about to win!

That day, after Qi Xia resolved the incident of Xiao Ran turning into a Man-Rabbit and returned to “Heaven’s Mouth,” he said to me with great certainty, “Xu Liunian, the person cooperating with me is Chu Tianqiu, and you are you. We’re three independent people. I can cooperate with ‘Chu Tianqiu,’ so naturally I can also cooperate with ‘Xu Liunian.'”

At that moment, I vaguely realized that Qi Xia’s “door” had opened to me.

But what he extended to me wasn’t any olive branch—it was a blood-stained thorn.

I could no longer keep up with everyone’s pace. No matter how many wounds this thorn would leave on my arm, I had to grab it and climb up.

But I couldn’t agree directly, after all, the other party was Qi Xia.

“Qi Xia, you’re a person who’s very hard to trust. I’m far less clever than you, so I dare not trust you even more. I’m afraid you’ll drag me into hell.”

“You’re right not to trust me. I’m a liar. You can only believe half of what I say.”

“If that’s the case, how am I supposed to cooperate with you?”

Qi Xia told me his purpose. He wanted to “collect Dao,” and I could help him protect his teammates. In his view, our goals were aligned.

But Qi Xia… you still don’t understand me. Our goals have never been aligned.

Even Chu Tianqiu didn’t know that my ultimate goal was to destroy this place, not to escape from it.

Qi Xia had revealed a flaw, and this flaw was enough for me to achieve my goal.

“So, Xu Liunian, let me see your capabilities.”

That was exactly my intention. I would definitely let you see my capabilities.

After all, I had one card that was extremely lethal to you—Yu Nian’an.

But there was still one problem that urgently needed to be resolved, and that was Qi Xia’s specific “Echo trigger mechanism.”

Considering the last situation comprehensively, there were two most direct triggers.

He was both “near death” and had “seen Yu Nian’an.”

Since Qi Xia had already died many times, “near death” probably wasn’t a necessary condition—”Yu Nian’an” was.

But could such a powerful “Echo” really only require seeing Yu Nian’an?

To be safe, I prepared to wait for an opportunity.

That was to let Qi Xia completely replicate the last situation. I would make him see “Yu Nian’an” while “near death.” That way, he would obtain an “Echo” with an extremely high probability.

Although Qi Xia would immediately die, after all, there was no clause about keeping him alive in my deal with Qinglong.

My mission could be accomplished.

Now I needed to wait for an opportunity—for Chu Tianqiu to also extend a “thorn” to me.

As long as these two people simultaneously opened a door for me, I could tiptoe and move between them.

That evening, I came to the basement again to see Chu Tianqiu, but what made me somewhat curious was… the cellar door wasn’t locked at all.

For a moment I was somewhat confused. Had I forgotten to lock the door… or had Chu Tianqiu opened it himself?

“Xiao Nian, you’ve come.” Chu Tianqiu smiled from inside the door.

He had been sitting at his dining table the whole time, as if he had never left.

“You seem very happy today,” I said.

“Yes.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “What about you? Did anything happen today?”

“Today…” I thought for a while, concealing my conversation with Qi Xia and generally describing what had happened at “Heaven’s Mouth.” “There were quite a few injured. Li Xiangling was hurt the worst.”

“Li Xiangling?” Chu Tianqiu raised an eyebrow. “Next… will she still be able to participate in games?”

“She probably can’t,” I said. “She needs to rest and recuperate.”

“Good…” Chu Tianqiu nodded, then stood up and walked to the wall, reaching out to pull open a cabinet drawer and taking out a syringe from inside.

“What are you going to do…?” I asked softly.

“‘Heaven’s Mouth’ has been operating for so many years, and our medical supplies are decreasing.” Chu Tianqiu held the syringe up to his eyes to look at it, then flicked the needle tip with his hand. “Sometimes we have no choice but to make certain decisions. You should understand, right?”

Looking at Chu Tianqiu’s stern expression, I realized something wasn’t right.

Had he even started actively killing people?

“You’re going to kill Li Xiangling?”

“Me? Oh, no, of course not.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head, put the protective cap back on the needle tip, then tucked it into his pocket. “I just want to inject some antibiotics into Li Xiangling, so don’t lock me in tonight. I need to go out for a bit.”

But how could I believe what he said?

His first question was “whether Li Xiangling could still participate in games.” After learning the answer, he insisted on going out at night and taking the risk of personally injecting her with a syringe… How could this not be for the purpose of killing her?

“Xiao Nian.” When Chu Tianqiu passed by me, he called out to me, saying in a flat tone, “Tonight I’m going to wash ‘Heaven’s Mouth’ in blood.”

“Hm?”

I felt I had heard wrong, as if some word that shouldn’t appear in Chu Tianqiu’s mouth had just poured into my ears.

“I hired the ‘Cats’ to kill everyone in ‘Heaven’s Mouth.'” He explained with a smile. “Once midnight arrives, no one here will be able to escape. I suggest you flee early.”

Looking at his sincere gaze, I knew he absolutely wasn’t exaggerating. He might truly want to kill all the members of “Heaven’s Mouth,” but what was the significance of doing such a thing?

In just a few seconds, my thoughts were suddenly opened up.

If what Chu Tianqiu said was true, then this wasn’t a disaster—it was the “thorn” he was throwing to me.