Qi Xia turned around and looked toward the front of the car window. He discovered that the “Heavenly Horse Moment” seemed to be nearing its end—the numerous black lines on the street had already begun to grow still.

“No matter what schemes you want to use on me, I will make you lose utterly and completely.” A trace of manic laughter also appeared on Qi Xia’s face. “In this entire ‘Land of the End,’ there’s only one thing I can believe in—that is, ‘I am the strongest.’ The next reincarnation won’t produce a Wen Qiaoyun stronger than me—it will only produce a me who is stronger than my current self. Is that enough?!”

This short statement left both Qinglong and Xu Liunian stunned in place.

Meanwhile, Qi Xia reached out to open the car door and stepped onto the empty street.

He raised his head to look at the sky, as if speaking to Qinglong, yet also as if speaking for Heavenly-Dragon to hear.

“Even if human lives are chess pieces, you cannot play this game of chess recklessly.”

“This game of chess can only be played by me, Qi Xia.”

The sky was incredibly quiet, with only the sun hanging there silently.

“An, I will break everything here, then rescue you,” Qi Xia said again.

The earth-yellow sun seemed to hear Qi Xia’s words, then suddenly contracted.

Qinglong blinked lightly, and his body had already left the car, standing before Qi Xia.

Looking at Qi Xia’s manic expression, he couldn’t help but feel somewhat uneasy.

He was grateful he had activated “Silence” in advance, otherwise the situation would have become completely uncontrollable.

“Qi Xia… are you certain you can defeat ‘Heavenly-Dragon’?” Qinglong’s tone returned to calm as he asked softly.

“I will exhaust everything I have.”

“Ha…” He seemed to think of something extremely amusing, then covered his face and laughed maniacally.

From inside the car, Xu Liunian saw Qinglong and Qi Xia standing back to back, both emanating completely different auras.

“Qi Xia, I want to play a game with you,” Qinglong said softly while staring at Xu Liunian.

Hearing this, Qi Xia paused slightly and asked: “Why does even ‘Qinglong’ have a game?”

“It’s not that formal,” Qinglong said. “It’s just a game between you and me. Although it’s neither a ‘Zodiac’ game nor a ‘Moment,’ it’s more deadly than any kind of game. Do you dare?”

“Deadly…?” Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes. “You should know that in your ‘Peach Blossom Spring,’ ‘deadly’ is simply not enough to threaten me.”

“Of course.” Qinglong nodded. “So the ‘deadly’ I’m referring to is truly capable of threatening you—genuinely ‘deadly.'”

“You…”

“Qi Xia, look at this map.” Qinglong flicked his hand, and a piece of paper flew before Qi Xia’s eyes, slowly hovering in front of him.

This was an exceptionally detailed city map, with “Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao” and other Earthly Branch characters written at many intersections and in front of buildings. Some of the characters were in red.

“Is this a ‘Zodiac’ map?” Qi Xia asked with furrowed brows. “Are the red characters ‘Earth-level’?”

“No, all the characters are ‘Earth-level,'” Qinglong said. “Red represents the ‘targets.'”

“‘Targets’…?” Qi Xia felt something was amiss.

“Four days. I want you to kill all eight ‘Earth-level’ Zodiacs I’ve marked,” Qinglong smiled. “These eight ‘Zodiacs’ are arranged according to the order of the twelve Earthly Branches, corresponding to the eight teammates in your interview room.”

“What…?”

“Starting from your left hand side…” Qinglong continued meaningfully. “For every ‘Zodiac’ I’ve marked that you spare, I will ‘eliminate’ your teammates according to the order of the Earthly Branches.”

“‘Eliminate’…?” Qi Xia felt this word was worth pondering.

“Qi Xia, do you dare gamble with me?” Qinglong smiled. “If I take away their sanity and then strike to kill… do you have absolute certainty you can save them? Even if you possess ‘Endless Life,’ do you dare gamble?”

“You…” Qi Xia’s eyes slowly narrowed as he continuously contemplated the feasibility of this gamble.

To consecutively kill eight “Earth-level” Zodiacs within four days—probably no one in the entire “Land of the End” had ever done such a thing.

“But this ‘game’ has no benefits for me whatsoever,” Qi Xia said. “What difference is there between this and threatening me? Because you cannot shake me, you’re targeting my teammates instead. You look like a rogue scoundrel who’s gone mad.”

“Ha…” Qinglong laughed in anger. “So even if I ‘eliminate’ your teammates, you won’t care?”

Qi Xia furrowed his brows and slowly turned around, staring at Qinglong’s back as he said: “Do you think I would risk my life for strangers?”

“You will,” Qinglong smiled. “Qi Xia, you absolutely will.”

Watching the two converse so calmly and composed, Xu Liunian’s heart rose to her throat.

She couldn’t interject a single word and only dared to listen quietly from the side.

“You don’t understand me…” Qi Xia said.

“I understand you very well.” Qinglong also turned around to meet Qi Xia’s gaze directly. “Qi Xia, let me put it another way—don’t treat this as a threat. It’s merely a form of cooperation.”

“Cooperation…?”

“That’s right.” Qinglong flicked his sleeves and clasped his hands behind his back. “The eight ‘Zodiacs’ marked on my map are all people ‘Heavenly-Dragon’ trusts most. If you gamble them all to death, ‘Heavenly-Dragon’ will be without support, and your chances of winning will increase.”

“Bullshit.” Qi Xia interrupted. “Even if I gamble all the ‘Earth-level’ Zodiacs in the ‘Land of the End’ to death, ‘Heavenly-Dragon’ still has eleven ‘Heavenly’ ranks beside him. Why would you use such a crude lie to deceive me?”

“I want to turn you into a ‘chess piece’—I need some pretext, don’t I?” Qinglong waved his hand again, summoning the map before Qi Xia. “Why don’t you go meet them?”

Qi Xia carefully pondered Qinglong’s words, feeling that Qinglong’s purpose seemed impure.

At this moment, “Silence” was still active. What exactly was he concealing?

“Meet them…?” Qi Xia reached up to stroke his chin, carefully contemplating Qinglong’s motive.

The “Heavenly Horse Moment” was now nearing its end, and most people in the “Land of the End” had already died. If he truly wanted to consecutively gamble eight “Earth-level” Zodiacs to death, without help from others it would naturally be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Would Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan survive?

Just as his thoughts were about to drift away, Qi Xia immediately interrupted his train of thought, then closed his eyes, let his mind go blank, and slowly uttered a sentence: “They’re all stronger than me—they’ll definitely be fine.”

“Ha… interesting…” Qinglong said. “A beautiful frequency. So you’re agreeing?”

Qi Xia reached out to grasp the map, then rolled it into a cylinder and stuffed it into his pocket.

“Qinglong, I’ll go meet them, but don’t read too much into it,” Qi Xia answered. “You perhaps don’t know in whose hands the initiative rests.”

“Oh?” Qinglong smiled faintly, and the surrounding aura actually trembled at this moment. “Qi Xia, you’re not going to say… that the initiative now rests in your hands, are you?”