“Hey!!” The elder blocked the sand and dust falling into his eyes with his hands while shouting in panic, “Who exactly are you? Why are you doing this?”

Qi Xia pushed the soil around the pit down again and again. One could only say that everything was destined by fate—when he tried to pass through the alley searching for Earth-Ox, he accidentally discovered the elder digging in the ground.

What this elder had discovered absolutely could not be allowed to spread. No… to be precise, anyone could know about it, except it couldn’t let “Heavenly-Dragon” know.

“Consider yourself unlucky,” Qi Xia said. “There aren’t many things I remember, but this happens to be one of them.”

Seeing that the other party was determined to kill, the elder hurriedly sought a way to survive in this pit of only a few square meters. He pushed the sandy soil beneath his feet toward the wall, then stepped on the wall edge and tried hard to climb upward.

After a few minutes, he had just poked his head out when he was struck in the face by an oncoming iron shovel. With a wail, his entire body fell back into the pit again.

This strike was not light. It made the elder dizzy and lose his sense of direction at the same time. He only felt his face burning with pain, the surroundings pitch black, and he couldn’t tell at all whether he was lying down or face down.

But the scream allowed Qi Xia to confirm the direction. He kept throwing dust toward the elder’s body until the elder completely lost all sound.

All the dust excavated from the area was filled back into the pit in less than ten minutes, and the ground here had become flat again.

Before the kerosene lamp went out, Qi Xia stepped on it and used both feet to stamp the entire ground more firmly.

His state of mind was somewhat chaotic.

“My apologies,” Qi Xia said with a complex expression. “Dying here is no loss. Moreover, none of us should continue living… I forgot, I don’t even have ‘sorrow’ anymore.”

By the last glimmer of the kerosene lamp’s light, he looked at the iron shovel in his hand and said gloomily, “But you won’t be too lonely. After all, someone is lying here with you. The person with you doesn’t even have as good treatment as you do—after all, he doesn’t even have a grave.”

After speaking, he turned the iron shovel in his hand around, aimed the metal part at his own neck, and then suddenly exerted force.

The kerosene lamp went out at this moment, and the entire alley fell back into deathly silent darkness.

……

Yan Zhichun and Jiang Ruoxue, with the beads above their heads, hurriedly walked forward a few steps and called out to Lin Qin and Wen Qiaoyun ahead.

Just as the two were about to open their mouths to ask something, they were stopped by Jiang Ruoxue reaching out her hand.

Before the two could speak, Jiang Ruoxue introduced the origin of the black beads above their heads to them.

Fortunately, both were intelligent people. After hearing her account, they instantly understood the formidable nature of these beads. Lin Qin had been killed during “Pegasus Hour” before and now, no matter what, didn’t want to experience that feeling of having her brow pierced again.

“I see…” Wen Qiaoyun nodded. “In that case, I suggest we ask some common knowledge questions now to consume the beads above our heads.”

“That would be the best,” Jiang Ruoxue said. “If I hadn’t experienced it once before, perhaps everyone would have died inexplicably while chatting.”

“I agree,” Yan Zhichun nodded, then turned her face to look at Lin Qin.

“I have no objections either.”

Seeing that all four agreed, Jiang Ruoxue spoke to Wen Qiaoyun in front of her, “You go first.”

Wen Qiaoyun nodded and said to Jiang Ruoxue, “Then I’ll ask the question. How many days are in a week?”

Her bead flew toward Jiang Ruoxue.

“Seven days,” Jiang Ruoxue answered.

*Bang.*

The bead shattered in response. Seeing that this method could indeed destroy the beads, Wen Qiaoyun looked very happy, but the three people beside her showed no expression.

“It’s my turn,” Jiang Ruoxue said.

“Alright,” Wen Qiaoyun nodded. “Don’t ask questions that are too difficult—some common knowledge questions are fine.”

Jiang Ruoxue looked at Wen Qiaoyun and nodded. “Alright, what is ‘trauma theory’?”

As soon as the words fell, the bead above Jiang Ruoxue’s head flew toward Wen Qiaoyun, ultimately hovering at her brow.

Yan Zhichun and Lin Qin beside her both became serious after hearing this question, then silently looked toward Wen Qiaoyun.

This was a perfect opportunity to verify her identity. If she truly was the legendary leader who dominated the scene thirty years ago, this kind of small question should definitely be no problem for her.

Hearing this question, Wen Qiaoyun clearly frowned.

She had just been saying repeatedly to ask “common knowledge questions,” but the woman before her opened her mouth and asked what seemed like an academic question instead. Naturally, Wen Qiaoyun had ten thousand questions in her heart.

What exactly did this woman before her want to do? Did she want to kill her?

But now with the bead hovering at her brow, Wen Qiaoyun didn’t dare speak carelessly.

Jiang Ruoxue’s action undoubtedly made Wen Qiaoyun lose all favorable impression of her. She stared at the black bead before her, frozen for quite a while, then swallowed and answered with her eyes closed:

“I don’t know.”

These simple four words made the remaining three people freeze for a moment, but before anyone could speak, the black bead in front of Wen Qiaoyun shattered with a *bang*.

Discovering she hadn’t died, Wen Qiaoyun slowly opened her eyes, then smiled lightly. “So saying ‘I don’t know’ works too?”

“No…” Jiang Ruoxue answered with a frown. “This only proves that you really don’t know.”

“I really don’t know in the first place,” Wen Qiaoyun laughed. “This kind of question sounds very absurd—ordinary people wouldn’t know it, right?”

The three people beside her looked at each other, each harboring different thoughts. At this moment, Jiang Ruoxue also looked toward Lin Qin, who nodded knowingly.

Wen Qiaoyun had thought she had finally passed the death crisis, but Lin Qin beside her suddenly spoke up again at this moment.

“Wen Qiaoyun, what did you do before coming here?”

A brand new bead floated over from above Lin Qin’s head again and came to Wen Qiaoyun’s brow.

Only now did she feel that the three people before her seemed vaguely to be on the same side, working together to extract some information from her.

But now she was like someone being held at gunpoint—she didn’t dare speak carelessly, much less speak falsely.

Just now, the woman before her said that the reason she could survive saying “I don’t know” was because she “really didn’t know.” It seemed that telling lies might directly result in death here.

“Before coming here… I was just a convenience store cashier,” Wen Qiaoyun answered.

*Bang.*

The second bead also shattered under this flawless answer.

“A cashier…” After hearing this, Lin Qin slowly frowned. She knew this answer was true.

The first time she met Wen Qiaoyun, she had lost her reason and was hiding in a convenience store.

Since all “Natives” would mechanically repeat the life they had experienced before, she really was Wen Qiaoyun.

Or rather, Wen Qiaoyun in the real world was also merely a store clerk.

Then how did such a person lead the “Participants” thirty years ago?