Earth-Sheep stared at Qi Xia’s expression for a long time and was actually intimidated by his aura.

“It’s not impossible,” Earth-Sheep said. “I need to think it over…”

“Then I’ll consider that as your agreement,” Qi Xia said. “I don’t know what I told you before, but I’m standing here now precisely to ensure the plan proceeds smoothly.”

“You… brat,” Earth-Sheep slowly frowned after hearing this. “You don’t even know what you’re supposed to do, yet you claim you’ll ensure the plan proceeds smoothly… Isn’t that too confident?”

“Not confident enough,” Qi Xia said. “After all, I have no way out, so I won’t think about what happens if I fail. This mindset means I can only be this confident.”

Seeing Earth-Sheep remain silent, Qi Xia asked again, “So has your position changed?”

“Position?”

“Whose side are you on now?” Qi Xia went straight to the point. “How much can I trust you?”

After hearing this, Earth-Sheep looked at Qi Xia and said, “You should understand me…”

Hearing Earth-Sheep speak, Chen Junnan became furious on the side. “Whether Old Qi understands you or not, I don’t know, but this young master damn well understands you. Are you going to say ‘I belong to whoever I want to belong to’?! You’re purely playing tricks.”

“Mind your own business…?” Earth-Sheep turned his head and said. “People have always lived this way in the world. If you don’t do what you want to do, you might never have another chance.”

“Then how chaotic is your damn life?” Chen Junnan asked. “Were you like this in the real world too? Did you just do whatever illegal things you wanted to do?”

“Heh…” Earth-Sheep smiled bitterly. “It’s precisely because I had too many hesitations and too much indecisiveness in my life that I missed the school I should have attended, the things I should have learned, the lover I should have cherished, and the life path I should have taken. That’s why I made up my mind to change myself. From the moment I became a ‘Sheep,’ I decided that from then on, I would do anything I wanted to do. That’s all.”

“It’s precisely because I can’t buy it that my ‘regret’ can’t be cured at all. On countless late nights, I regret the decisions I made in the past,” Earth-Sheep said. “‘Regret’ is the most sorrowful thing in this world. I absolutely cannot let myself have the possibility of regret again.”

“But the situation is exactly the opposite,” Qi Xia said. “If you do whatever you want, in my view, you’re even more likely to regret it. Because you can only see what’s in front of you—you can’t see the ‘future.'”

“It doesn’t matter… Even if I truly regret it… that’s because I wanted to regret, so I regret…” Earth-Sheep said with a dejected expression. “So everything I do is what I myself want to do.”

“If you truly want to never regret anything, then never look back,” Qi Xia said. “Never reconsider decisions you’ve made, never look back at paths you’ve walked.”

“What…?” Hearing this viewpoint, Earth-Sheep clearly felt it was somewhat unreasonable. “Then how do we verify whether we did right or wrong in our long lives?”

“As long as you don’t look back, you’ll never be wrong,” Qi Xia answered.

“You…”

“Every choice you make is correct,” Qi Xia said. “You only need to remember this one point.”

Qiao Jiajin nodded on the side. “That’s right, white snake. Athletes running in first place never look back either. Once they look back, they’ll be overtaken. So you just need to stick to your own viewpoint.”

“Ha.” After hearing this, Earth-Sheep revealed a smile tinged with relief. “Qi Xia, I never expected you’d become such a person now… If only it had been earlier? No… If only I had met someone like you in the real world.”

“The real world?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow.

“Why does everyone around me only mock and ridicule coldly?” Earth-Sheep said with a bitter smile. “They tell me things like ‘I already thought it wouldn’t work,’ ‘I wanted to tell you at the time,’ ‘You chose it yourself, blame who?’ Some even tell me ‘The so-and-so who broke up with you before has now found a rich person,’ ‘The job you didn’t take before now pays over ten thousand a month’… There’s truly no medicine for regret in this world, but there are people who can help you regret.”

“So you’re truly depressing, kid,” Chen Junnan interjected from the side. “You’re so depressing that whoever stays with you becomes depressing too. Don’t look at how our Old Qi usually also has a depressing face, but this young master has learned quite a lot staying with him.”

“Who has a depressing face?” Qi Xia asked with a frown.

“Old Qi, I suspect this kid is like that dead Earth-Monkey—they both carry…” Chen Junnan’s mouth moved, omitting the word “Echo.”

“I share that view,” Qi Xia said. “But I’m a bit curious—using your power so unscrupulously like this, will there really be no problems?”

“My situation is special…” Earth-Sheep said. “Hehe… After following your instructions back then, I estimate each of us kept an extra eye open, which also let me discover this incredible secret.”

“Secret…?”

Earth-Sheep pretended to be profound as he swept his gaze over the four people before him, then said, “You brats, you all know that people here can become ‘Zodiacs’ just by putting on a mask, and then through waves of elimination, a batch of presentable people eventually remain. Many people know this situation now, but to us at the time, it was pure fantasy.”

“So?” Qi Xia asked.

“So when we followed arrangements and obtained those masks, we all left ourselves a way out,” Earth-Sheep sneered. “Everyone, have you heard this saying: ‘Zodiacs never Echo’?”

The people present remained silent. Although they hadn’t heard this phrase, they knew that typically, “Zodiacs” had no way to perform “Echo.” Otherwise, they would simultaneously gain physical abilities surpassing ordinary people and powerful “Echo” abilities, which would make them invincible.

“At that time, I was curious…” Earth-Sheep said with a smile. “Why can ‘they’ both be ‘Zodiacs’ and ‘Echo’… Why can’t I? Why can’t any of us?”

After hearing this, Chen Junnan nodded. “Hurry up and tell us—why exactly?”

“Don’t rush… After all, my teacher was in charge of all the ‘scientific research’ here, and I learned some knowledge from him,” Earth-Sheep grinned wickedly. “But what comes next is truly too critical. If I say it, it might bring ‘shocking thunder.'”

After hearing this, Qi Xia looked up at the sky and said, “It doesn’t matter. I’ll block that ‘thunder’ for you.”