Qi Xia walked out of Earth-Dog’s venue and once again took out the map that “Qinglong” had given him.

Among the eight “Zodiacs”, four had already confirmed their identities, and he had met three of them face to face.

One was Earth-Monkey, whose strangeness was apparent at first glance, and another was Earth-Dog, who had been left behind by his previous teammate through a fortunate coincidence.

As for the third… that was Earth-Pig, whom he had met once before.

Qian Wu had once taken people to meet that short and arrogant Earth-Pig, and Qi Xia himself had encountered him in front of his venue.

But at that time, Earth-Pig had only looked at him meaningfully without saying anything suspicious.

Thinking carefully about it, when Qi Xia first met that short Earth-Pig, he had gotten into a conflict with Luo Shiyi, leaving an extremely poor first impression.

“Wait a moment… a conflict?”

Since Qi Xia still considered that Earth-Pig as a teammate at the time, he had unconsciously imagined him as a clever person.

Was it common for a “Zodiac” to openly have a conflict with “Participants” at his own game venue, even going so far as to push one down?

Although on the surface “Zodiacs” and “Participants” had always been opposed, for so long everyone had tacitly agreed to kill each other within games, rarely having conflicts outside the venues.

After all, in the eyes of “Zodiacs”, the lives of all “Participants” were merely tools for their advancement. They needed to find ways to make them willingly come to their venues to die, so many “Zodiacs” worked hard to improve their “service attitude”.

Under these circumstances, someone doing the opposite could only have two possibilities.

First, he didn’t want to attract “Participants” to join his game, or rather, he was controlling the number of people entering his game venue.

Second, he wanted to convey some message under those circumstances.

That Earth-Pig had a conflict with Luo Shiyi and Zhou Liu in front of him… what exactly had he said at that time?

Qi Xia slowly closed his eyes to recall the scene from that time, but unfortunately, when he first met him, he had only regarded him as an ordinary pig and hadn’t paid much attention to what he said.

When he pushed Luo Shiyi down, he had said: “What qualifications do you have to shout at me? I can’t kill you, but can’t I still beat you?”

He had also said: “Opposing gods with a mortal body—seeing how weak and frail you all look makes me want to laugh.”

Qi Xia’s eyes slowly opened. Yes, it was that sentence.

Thinking carefully, that sentence was very abruptly said to Luo Shiyi, which was obviously strange.

Luo Shiyi had only exchanged a few curses with Earth-Pig—how did it become “opposing gods with a mortal body”?

So that sentence wasn’t said to Luo Shiyi at all, but rather to himself.

That pig looked more like he was complaining about him.

“In your expectations… I should have been ‘Earth-Sheep’, not a ‘Participant’… right?”

Qi Xia worked out Earth-Pig’s train of thought at that time. Only from this perspective would what Earth-Pig said make complete sense.

Overall, Earth-Pig was a very strange “Zodiac”. Earth-Tiger had said he was just a youth and could gain Earth-Tiger’s trust, yet looking at his ruthlessness and scheming, he was completely unlike a youth.

“My former teammates are really more interesting than one another.” Qi Xia muttered to himself.

If Earth-Pig was really a child, then his mentality couldn’t be completely mature. He would easily believe that “power is everything”. After enjoying the boost that power gave him, he would naturally consider Qi Xia, who lacked divine power, as a burden unable to complete the plan to escape from here.

Looking at it comprehensively, if he really had to choose between Qi Xia and “Heavenly-Dragon”, Earth-Pig had the possibility of betrayal, and the possibility was quite high.

After his conversation with “Qinglong”, Qi Xia now understood that he couldn’t completely trust his former teammates.

Although “Heavenly-Dragon” and “Qinglong” were two madmen, they were very good at manipulating human nature, and the conditions they offered were very tempting. So over this long period of time, he had no way to guarantee that these people’s positions would remain completely unchanged.

“This is truly strange…” Qi Xia muttered to himself again and shook his head. “Did I not leave behind any ‘needles’ before doing this? How can I ensure that these eight people will smoothly advance along the path I set…”

He lowered his head again to look at the map. Now there were only four “Zodiacs” he had completely never met or heard of.

Ox, Dragon, Snake, and Rooster.

The closest to here was “Ox”.

Qi Xia placed the cake box and the plastic bag containing fruit together, tied them in a secure knot, and walked toward the location marked with Earth-Ox on the map.

If he had a choice, he wouldn’t choose to contact Ox or Tiger type “Zodiacs”, since the games these people controlled weren’t in his area of expertise, and he had no way to threaten them by “wagering his life”. But since the map indicated “Ox”, theoretically he should still go meet them once.

Just after determining the direction, Qi Xia felt something unusual. For some reason, the hair on his body stood on end at this moment.

The atmosphere in this area seemed to have changed.

He looked back at Earth-Dog’s game venue in confusion but didn’t discover anything different, then looked at the empty street.

The street here was the same as before—quiet and decayed. The withered bones by the roadside and the sticky ground were no different from before.

But Qi Xia just felt something had changed. How should he describe this situation…?

It was as if a rainstorm was imminent, with the entire street permeated by an unusual atmospheric pressure. But theoretically, the “Land of the End” wouldn’t have rain. Where was this unusual feeling coming from?

This was a feeling both familiar yet relatively strange, as if he had experienced it just a few days ago.

“This… could it be…”

Qi Xia slowly raised his head to look at the sky, only to discover that the sky had changed at this moment.

Countless black particles floated out from the direction of the “sun”, spreading across the sky like a locust plague or a black rain, instantly staining the entire dark red sky.

Before he could react, countless black dots fell like a rainstorm.

The “rainstorm” had truly arrived.

Qi Xia’s expression changed. He was about to return to Earth-Dog’s game venue to avoid this unknown disaster when suddenly a rough hand grabbed his arm.

“Don’t go!”

A hoarse and discordant voice rang in Qi Xia’s ear. He abruptly turned to look, only to discover someone he could never have expected appearing here.

“Wei Yang…?” Qi Xia was stunned. “You…”

“Don’t ask questions! Come with me first!” Wei Yang grabbed Qi Xia’s arm and shouted, “Staying alive is what matters!”