Time had lost all meaning.

Everything before him seemed to float. The Sphinx had doubled, its outline blurring. The sword-shaped stones wavered and bent in his vision.

Daniel closed his eyes. After a few seconds, he slowly opened them again.

He was lying on the flat summit. His strength was completely gone. The moisture was draining from his body. The glaring sun burned into his eyes. The heat felt like it could cook the very air.

Not going to last much longer…

At this rate, he would die.

He didn’t know how the other games were going. In his current state, at least this one… was probably out of reach.

Daniel forced his eyes open again, his gaze drifting between the stone swords.

Should he… try again?

Maybe something would turn. Maybe the questions would change, or a hint might appear…

He desperately wanted to try. But every time he steeled himself, his heart failed him. Bruce’s fate was still fresh in his mind — and that fear was enough to make him choose the agony of slow death by heat over confronting the terror of that decisive moment.

He remembered Pan Xiaoxin’s parting words: Fool! Worthless! Gutless!

“You little…” His cracked lips bled; salt and copper seeped in, tasting of nothing but bitterness. “You miserable kid… how dare you say those things to me…”

Childhood crept into his mind — memories of a small, powerless version of himself being shoved around, bossed about, berated by his parents. Obey. Do as you’re told. Submit to their control. Like a slave.

“I hate them… children… they’re just so unbearable…”

The platform had no wind. It was utterly still. Only the immovable stone figure bore witness to his murmuring.

A series of soft knocking sounds broke the silence — like pebbles tumbling down the steps. The faint noise cut through the fog in Daniel’s mind and brought him, barely, back to clarity.

He turned his head with great effort toward the edge of the platform — and found that insufferably irritating child climbing back up again.

Daniel stared at Pan Xiaoxin. He was too parched and too weak for his face to hold any expression.

Pan Xiaoxin looked exhausted too, but compared to Daniel, he was in far better shape.

“You’ve been up here all this time and haven’t even tried the riddle?” Pan Xiaoxin didn’t know what to make of him. Even with no hope left in sight, wasn’t it better to climb down and rest in the shade rather than staying up here baking to death?

When it came down to it, he simply couldn’t let go of the only advantage he had left.

“You… came back… why?” Daniel rasped out. “Could it be… that you actually know the answer?”

Pan Xiaoxin gripped one of the stone swords from the ground and wrenched it free. “You’ll never know the answer unless you try.”

“You little…” Daniel pushed himself up to a sitting position. “Are you lecturing me?”

“Don’t look down on children!” Pan Xiaoxin’s voice suddenly rose. “Always calling me a brat — you’ve only lived a few more years than me! And even with those extra years — you’re nothing! You’re the scum of the earth!!!”

Daniel: “You—!”

The enormous Sphinx rose and walked toward them, cutting off Daniel’s outburst. The stone figure stopped before Pan Xiaoxin and spoke in a grave, resonant voice:

“An animal walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening.”

Pan Xiaoxin deliberately paused — then raised the sword in his hand and met the Sphinx’s gaze.

“The answer is… three thousand… three thousand five hundred and sixty-seven.”

Daniel was stunned. “What kind of answer is that?! It asked about an animal — you’re supposed to guess an animal!”

“No!” Pan Xiaoxin shouted, his young face taut and fierce. “The Sphinx never asked a question. From the beginning to the end, the only one who posed a question — was this stairway itself. And the question I answered belongs to the stairway.”

“What…” Daniel couldn’t process it. “What are you talking about?! When did the stairway ever ask a question?!”

“It did.” Pan Xiaoxin said with absolute certainty. “How many tiers of heaven’s stair must you climb before you behold the divine?… The Sphinx is the divine being this stairway leads to.”

—