On the rooftop, Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia stood at the edge, overlooking the dilapidated city before them.

“Chu Tianqiu.” Qi Xia called out. “I haven’t recovered all my memories.”

“Oh…?” Chu Tianqiu let out a puzzled sound with an expressionless face, then asked in an indifferent tone: “How could that be?”

“You should know something.” Qi Xia asked. “You started recovering all your memories earlier than I did.”

“Can we openly chat about these matters here?” Chu Tianqiu raised his head to look at the sky. “This feeling is as if we’re summoning divine beings to assassinate us. There’s no difference between this and directly jumping from here.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Qi Xia said. “Since I spoke first, it proves I’m confident.”

“Oh…?” Chu Tianqiu grinned. “So what exactly is your state right now? Have you even gotten Heavenly-Dog under control?”

“I wouldn’t dare control Heavenly-Dog.” Qi Xia also showed a smile as he looked toward the sky. “I’ve only gotten Qinglong under control.”

“Ha…” Chu Tianqiu couldn’t help but laugh. “Qinglong?”

“Qinglong’s current state is very interesting.” Qi Xia answered. “He hasn’t taken our side, nor has he taken Heavenly-Dragon’s side, so I believe he’ll help us.”

“You’re counting on Qinglong to help you deal with Heavenly-Dog…?”

“What else?” Qi Xia turned his head to look at Chu Tianqiu. “Should I go kill Heavenly-Dog right now instead?”

The two people laughed heartily toward the sky on the rooftop like old friends, their laughter carrying all the way down to everyone’s ears below.

They could clearly sense that these two people had gone mad.

After a long while, Qi Xia put away his smile and asked softly: “So… when exactly did you start recovering your memories?”

“Oh…?”

“Why do you think that is… Qi Xia.” Chu Tianqiu reached up and tapped his temple. “My ‘memories’ are clearly stored with Wen Qiaoyun, and Wen Qiaoyun can no longer activate her ‘Echo,’ so how did these ‘memories’ return?”

“So that’s how it is?” Qi Xia nodded. “You don’t lose your memory with each annihilation, but rather you actively threw away your own memories.”

“Of course.” Chu Tianqiu smiled. “This place has Heavenly-Snake and Heavenly-Dragon, and even various talented individuals. If I only pretended to have ‘amnesia,’ they might discover me someday, and the situation would be even more dangerous. So the best method is, of course, to truly lose my memory.”

After Chu Tianqiu finished speaking, he looked at Qi Xia and asked in a low voice: “You did the same thing, didn’t you?”

Qi Xia thought for a moment, then shook his head: “I need to deny this. Although you and I are both taking desperate risks, I didn’t use the same method as you. Actively throwing away one’s own memories is certainly a good thing, but it’s also full of uncertainty. That’s not my style. I hate everything outside my expectations.”

“That’s because you can always predict the results.” Chu Tianqiu said. “Has your life always been like this? Knowing all the answers in advance, with nothing holding any sense of anticipation for you.”

“Yes, I always try to predict everything in advance.” Qi Xia nodded. “My life is a narrow path that can only push forward. Above my head is a sharpened blade, behind me are man-eating ghosts, before my eyes is undispellable fog, and beneath my feet is cracking ice.”

“I’m starting to sympathize with you.” Chu Tianqiu said.

“Any accident could lead to my eternal damnation and loss of everything.” Qi Xia turned his head to look at him. “You’re the same, Chu Tianqiu. In this place, it doesn’t matter who has it better than whom. Everyone is in the same situation.”

“Perhaps. The road beneath my feet was smooth at first, but as I walked it became covered with spikes. When I looked back, I discovered it was already stained with my own blood.” After Chu Tianqiu finished speaking, he pointed at his own head again. “If I can’t throw away my memories, I won’t be able to control myself from constantly looking back. I’ll see those spikes covered with the flesh of myself and my companions. I’ll see those spikes stained with countless people’s blood.”

“Yes, people must move forward and cannot be trapped by the past.” Qi Xia nodded.

“But I’m still trapped.” Chu Tianqiu said. “Why exactly… did Wen Qiaoyun, who had already become a Madman, suddenly release her ‘Echo’? And why did those memories suddenly assault me?”

Hearing this, Qi Xia’s gray-white pupils flickered slightly. Combining this with the note Heavenly-Snake had shown him, he suddenly thought of something with an extremely low probability.

“Speaking of Wen Qiaoyun…” Qi Xia squinted his eyes, thinking about something. “Could it be…”

“Your expression looks like you’ve met her.” Chu Tianqiu said. “The eyeball she ate, was it really because of you?”

Qi Xia carefully thought about what had happened in recent days. If he had made someone eat an eyeball, it was only the female clerk at the convenience store.

Chu Tianqiu continued: “I’ve done experiments. Even if you make a ‘Madman’ eat an ‘Echo’ user’s eyeball, their ability can only manifest for an instant. For someone like Wen Qiaoyun to release all her abilities like that, there’s only one possibility. The eyeball you gave her to eat… happened to be Wen Qiaoyun’s own?”

Qi Xia still didn’t speak, but Chu Tianqiu had guessed the result.

“But this is really very strange…” Chu Tianqiu pondered. “It’s been decades since Wen Qiaoyun’s last death… For these decades, she’s been living with the identity of a ‘native.’ So where did you find an eyeball that belonged to her and hadn’t yet rotted?”

“It wasn’t an eyeball, it was a ‘Dao.'” Qi Xia said. “But at that time, I didn’t know that person was Wen Qiaoyun, nor did I know the ‘Dao’ had transformed from an eyeball.”

“I see… Because she was emaciated beyond recognition, you only just now realized that woman was Qiaoyun.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “Although the probability is extremely low, it could indeed happen. Reasonable.”

“No, not reasonable.” Qi Xia rebutted expressionlessly. “This probability is far too low. At that time, Man-Dragon gave us four ‘Dao’ to step onto this land, and one of them came from Wen Qiaoyun from decades ago. Yet we actually encountered Wen Qiaoyun and by a strange coincidence gave her a ‘Dao.’ Even if it’s possible, it shouldn’t be such a coincidence.”

“It is indeed too much of a coincidence.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “What do you think the reason could be?”

“In my thinking, there’s only one method.” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes and said. “If this matter was truly Man-Dragon’s deliberate action at that time, then he only has one method to increase his success rate—that is, all four eyeballs he gave me at that time came from Wen Qiaoyun. But there’s still one thing that’s very puzzling. How could he be certain we would definitely encounter Wen Qiaoyun?”

“Those involved are blind, Qi Xia. When you all stepped onto this land… who suggested going to that convenience store?” Chu Tianqiu asked.