Hearing Earth-Snake’s description, Qi Xia recalled the note he had seen.

To enable “Natives” to obtain “Echo,” make them consume the eyeball of an “Echoer.”

At the time, “Heavenly-Snake” had said this was his research result, but Qi Xia had never imagined this research result was discovered through such a brutal and absurd method.

“You know…” Earth-Snake continued, “‘Natives’ also need to eat. They live by instinct. If they don’t eat for a long time, they’ll starve to death. So as long as you put a group of hungry ‘Natives’ together and use a few little tricks, they’ll cannibalize each other.”

After speaking, Earth-Snake slowly sighed, as if recalling something extremely terrifying.

“The teacher had me smear spices on one of the ‘Natives,’ just like marinating roasted meat, then locked him together with seven other hungry ‘Natives,'” Earth-Snake laughed. “Qi Xia, guess which of these seven people would first want to eat that person covered in spices?”

Qi Xia pondered for a few seconds and said, “None of these seven people chose to eat him.”

“Even this you know…”

“I can imagine it,” Qi Xia said. “‘Natives’ survive by instinct, but ‘wanting to eat people’ isn’t an instinct. In their subconscious, there’s no option to ‘eat people’ at all. So I believe the first to choose cannibalism was the person who had been smeared with spices. He was the first to start eating people, right?”

“Indeed, only lunatics can understand a lunatic’s line of thinking…” Earth-Snake let out a dry laugh. “You’re exactly right. ‘Natives’ are numb to common sense and pain. So after several days, the ‘Native’ smeared with spices finally couldn’t hold back. Every time he raised his right hand to examine it, his gaze was as if looking at something else… Then one day, he finally couldn’t resist. After examining his palm for a long time, he still bit down.”

After hearing this, everyone revealed different expressions, feeling the scene was truly rather bizarre.

“But he didn’t know there was nothing in his hand. Biting down would only bite his own palm… How bizarre?” Earth-Snake continued narrating to everyone. “Yes… humans are such wondrous animals… I watched him with my own eyes…!!”

Earth-Snake grew more and more excited as he spoke, walking up to Qi Xia and gripping his shoulders again. “I watched him with my own eyes bit by bit eat his own…!! He gnawed until his mouth was full of blood, gnawed until only red bones remained!! I saw him bite through tendons mouthful by mouthful… Do you know how much that scene resembled a vision of hell? Even though everyone here has died miserably… I still feel my spine go cold because of that scene.”

“Yes… I can imagine it,” Qi Xia said.

Qi Xia pondered for a few seconds and sighed once more.

“The remaining seven people watched with growling stomachs,” Qi Xia said. “Since they had no rationality, ’empathy’ was impossible. They would only act according to their desires. They discovered that this person covered in spices was actually edible, so they would want to eat him.”

“Lunatic… you really are a lunatic…” Earth-Snake said with his whole body trembling. “Only a lunatic could think of this answer…”

“Is that so?” Qi Xia answered ambiguously. “I don’t think so.”

“You don’t believe it…? Your line of thinking is exactly the same as a lunatic’s… What difference is there between you and the irrational ‘Natives’?” Earth-Snake asked with furrowed brows.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Qi Xia answered. “Or maybe I just have powerful empathy abilities and can imagine the psychological state of the Natives.”

“Fine, fine, fine… so you’re quibbling, are you?” Earth-Snake nodded. “Then guess again… discovering that everyone wanted to eat him… how would this person covered in spices respond?”

After hearing this, Qi Xia lowered his head and pondered for a while, then said, “The reason people are called people is that they have fundamental differences from other animals. Their intelligence is higher. In the situation you’re describing, he believed that having more people survive would create the possibility of escape. So that person covered in spices ate his fill himself, and voluntarily shared the ‘food’ he found with everyone.”

“You fucking…” Earth-Snake grabbed Qi Xia’s collar in one motion. “If those eight people weren’t personally selected by me, I’d simply suspect you were at the scene.”

“I can just imagine it,” Qi Xia said. “People without rationality are very much like animals, but they aren’t animals.”

After hearing this, Earth-Snake gradually released his hands, his whole person seemingly losing focus.

“You guessed correctly…” He sighed and said in a low voice. “Before my eyes, that person tore at and gnawed the ‘food he discovered’ himself, then warmly invited the others to eat it together. The remaining several people weren’t polite either. Like seven wild beasts, they devoured it, tearing and pulling, using their teeth to dismember the ‘food’ into eight pieces. Each of their hands and faces were covered in blood, like primitive people from hundreds of thousands of years ago who consumed raw meat and blood…”

Earth-Snake’s voice gradually diminished. Even though he was an Earth-level “Zodiac,” even though he had killed countless people, he could still be shocked by the scene before him.

After a few seconds, his eyes revealed deep sorrow.

“Qi Xia, in a certain instant… I felt there was no difference between myself and them,” Earth-Snake said. “It’s just that they behaved more primitively. They used teeth and instinct to kill each other, while we use intelligence and schemes to kill each other. Tell me… what difference is there between us?”

Qi Xia looked at Earth-Snake with complex eyes, furrowing his brows and saying, “Stop switching concepts… The reason we kill each other here is precisely because people like your teacher exist. No one’s purpose in coming here was to kill, and no one was willing to actively enter this place.”

“Perhaps…” Earth-Snake nodded. “I just feel deep sorrow for them, for us.”

“What happened next?” Qi Xia asked. “Seven ‘Natives’ cannibalized one ‘Native’… what happened after that?”

“The situation that occurred at that time wasn’t quite what the teacher expected… Not everyone among these seven people obtained a small portion of ‘immortal technique,’ nor did all of them obtain powerful ‘immortal technique’… Instead, six people got nothing, while the remaining one person became extremely powerful.”

Qi Xia naturally knew the answer to this matter, but this voodoo-like method was utterly devoid of humanity.

“So the teacher began searching for new methods to determine exactly how to enable ‘Natives’ to accurately and infallibly obtain ‘immortal technique,'” Earth-Snake said. “Since these people had begun adapting to cannibalism, as long as people were smeared with the same flavored spices, to them this would be ‘food,’ and the following matters would be somewhat easier to handle.”