“That’s great.”

Baiyang nodded. “I just came up with a plan for an Earth-level game.”

“Just came up with…?”

The several of us were stunned. An Earth-level game could almost determine a Zodiac’s entire fate—could someone really come up with one on the spot?

“‘Cause and Effect,’ are you willing to help me?” Baiyang said. “I can exchange with you using ‘Dao’ or ‘food.'”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jiang Ruoxue said. “We don’t need ‘Dao’ at all, and Zhichun already told me what those ‘foods’ are… I don’t want any of them.”

“Then will you still help me?” Baiyang asked again.

Before Jiang Ruoxue answered, she turned to look at me, then said, “You probably still haven’t figured out the logical relationship here. I want to help you because Zhichun wants to help you. So I don’t need any repayment. As long as Zhichun thinks you’re still worth helping, I can use ‘Cause and Effect’ on you for free.”

“Good.” Baiyang nodded, then looked at me. “Yan Zhichun, I’m about to be promoted to Earth-level. If you discover one day that I’ve disappeared, bring ‘Cause and Effect’ to the new venue to find me. Remember… you must find me immediately.”

After hearing this, I didn’t understand for a moment, after all, I had seen the “Zodiac Ascension Gambling Contract.”

“Wait… wait a moment,” I said. “What do you mean you’re ‘about to be promoted to Earth-level’? According to logic… shouldn’t you have to stay in the ‘interview room’ for several years?”

Baiyang stared at me for a long while, then said in a low voice, “I can’t answer that question. In any case, I’ll be directly promoted to Earth-level.”

“How exactly did you manage to do this…?”

I had thought I was beginning to understand Baiyang, but unexpectedly he once again exceeded my expectations.

Everyone who becomes a Zodiac can only advance step by step steadily, but Baiyang is different.

Why could he be different from everyone else? Why could he do things so chaotically?

Several times I wanted to directly voice my doubts, but Baiyang had instructed me not to mention the interview room incident to anyone, so I could only let it go.

“When approximately will you be promoted to Earth-level?” I asked again.

“Very soon,” Baiyang said. “Just come find me every day as usual. Once you discover one day that I’ve disappeared, find a way to go to the new place to find me.”

“But where should I look for you?” I asked again.

“I don’t know myself,” Baiyang answered. “You’ll have to figure it out when the time comes. But remember… you must be fast.”

After that parting with Baiyang, life seemed to return to calm again. After the cycle, Jiang Ruoxue returned to her own area, and I continued to visit Baiyang every day as usual.

Ever since Baiyang met Auntie Tong, he indeed had no more questions.

He seemed to have found his “face.”

Could he have truly seen the “Mother Goddess” that Auntie Tong mentioned?

But why, after seeing the “Mother Goddess,” did he not even need a “face”?

Could the face he had been thinking about in his heart be the “Mother Goddess’s” face?

I really wanted to meet her. I wanted to know what this “origin of everything” that Auntie Tong spoke of looked like.

But I knew this was unrealistic. That person only existed in Baiyang’s heart and couldn’t exist in the real world.

Worth mentioning, the location where Auntie Tong was reborn seemed to be very close to me. I had asked her if she wanted to move together with me, but she declined.

She said she couldn’t keep helping the Zodiacs, but rather wanted to continue searching for people who carried enormous “good karma.” Only by moving together with enormous “good karma” would she commit more “good deeds” and most deeply experience the “Mother Goddess’s” will.

After greeting me, she went deep into the city to search for that enormous “good karma.” Although I didn’t quite understand why anyone would persist in doing good in the “Land of the End,” I supported Auntie Tong’s approach.

To be human, one always needs a goal, even if that goal can never be realized—that’s fine too.

Thinking about it, I was somewhat afraid of moving together with Auntie Tong. She gave me a different feeling from Jiang Ruoxue. Although she always wore a kind smile, I just couldn’t truly see through her.

When staring into her clear eyes, I couldn’t tell what she was thinking in her heart. Perhaps she really was, as she said herself, always pursuing a state of “desireless and undemanding.”

Days passed one by one. About three years ago from now, Baiyang disappeared from his game venue.

By rights, a Zodiac disappearing here is an ordinary matter. They either signed a contract to enter the interview room, or were gambled away and disappeared on the streets. No one would pursue a Zodiac’s whereabouts.

But I was different. I needed to find Baiyang, after all he had repeatedly emphasized that I must find him immediately.

At the same time, I also needed to quickly contact Ruoxue, but we were on opposite ends of the city—how could we get in touch?

No… I suddenly realized I didn’t need to find Ruoxue at all, because “Cause and Effect” exists, she would come find me.

As I expected, Ruoxue sensed that I needed her and appeared by my side a few hours later.

We briefly caught up, then quickly began the journey to find Baiyang. After all, we knew what this meeting represented—

Baiyang needed me, and I needed Jiang Ruoxue.

We almost didn’t have to think. We quickly decided on a plan to find Baiyang: go ask that white flower snake.

As fellow Earth-level Zodiacs, aside from Baiyang, he was the only one who had some connection with us.

When we found White Snake, he was hanging himself with a sorrowful expression. This was probably Jiang Ruoxue’s work.

The two of us stood beside him watching him perform this one-man show. Then he fell from the rope, stood up again with a grin, and we knew he had probably gone mad too.

His gray-white suit didn’t look as clean as in previous years—there were actually some bloodstains. These bloodstains didn’t look like they had splattered onto him from other “Participants,” but rather seemed to have flowed out from inside his body and stained the clothes.

After a round of Jiang Ruoxue’s threats and enticements, emotional guidance, and relationship tutorials, we once again obtained White Snake’s intelligence without joining the “Mutual Aid Association.”

Although we obtained Baiyang’s detailed address, what White Snake said also made me somewhat wary:

“If you’re looking for that white sheep, you’d better hurry. His game is full of loopholes. I don’t know how he convinced those above, but probably any random ‘Participant’ who enters will cause a violation, and Zhu Que will descend directly. Whether you can see him depends on the fortune of you two stinking girls.”