Chapter 1089: The Trace of God

“I thought that was ‘Shen’…” Chu Tianqiu interjected. “I spent almost ten years trying to prove that this place has a ‘Shen’ more powerful than Tian Long. I made countless notes, but I found that there’s no such thing at all.”

“Ten years,” Qi Xia said. “I didn’t realize it had been so long.”

“At first, I really wanted to give up,” Chu Tianqiu continued. “But ‘Zhong Yan Zhi Di’ has someone like Tong Yi, who firmly believes there’s a great ‘Mu Shen’ here. I wasn’t sure if it was misleading me or guiding me, so I spent even more time searching for ‘Mu Shen.’ Eventually, I directly recruited Tong Yi into ‘Tian Tang Kou.’ I thought that would bring me closer to ‘Mu Shen,’ but I never expected…”

“But you never expected the real answer wasn’t ‘Mu Shen’…?” Qi Xia asked tentatively.

“Exactly,” Chu Tianqiu said. “I used all the methods Tong Yi mentioned, but I couldn’t find any evidence of ‘Mu Shen’s’ existence. I believe our constant rebirth here comes from a domineering ‘Hui Xiang’…”

“But ‘Mu Shen’ does exist,” Qi Xia said.

“What…?” Chu Tianqiu was stunned, as if he had heard the most unbelievable thing in his life.

“I’ve seen traces of her; she really exists,” Qi Xia said.

“Are you joking…?” Chu Tianqiu frowned. “Qi Xia, you’ve gone too far with this madness. I’ve traveled through almost every corner of ‘Zhong Yan Zhi Di,’ and there are no traces of any ‘Mu Shen’ here at all. Are you saying she exists…? Have you lost your reason before we even reach the final stage?”

“I’m not mad,” Qi Xia said. “I once saw her face.”

“You…”

“I even thought you might have seen her too.” Qi Xia pointed at Chu Tianqiu’s outer coat. “Do you remember your notes? You wrote about someone who gambled away all the ‘Sheng Xiao,’ and a magnificent goddess descended from the sky to take him away.”

“But that was made up…” Chu Tianqiu said flatly.

“We’re getting off track,” Qi Xia said. “Right now, I don’t want to discuss ‘Mu Shen’ with you. I just want you to know that everything you’ve done has been under my watch; I’ve been observing you the whole time. You’re the first person on this entire land to investigate everything so thoroughly. You boldly guessed that there’s a stronger ‘Hui Xiang’ here, though you didn’t know it’s called ‘Sheng Sheng Bu Xi.’ But you realized this ‘Hui Xiang’ might come from me.”

Chu Tianqiu furrowed his brow and said nothing, suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of information beyond his understanding. Scattered memories began assaulting him from all sides.

He stood there in a daze, processing the information surging through his mind.

For some reason, in this space, his memories were recovering faster than in ‘Zhong Yan Zhi Di.’

“Chu Tianqiu, whether you believe it or not, I’ve always needed someone who firmly believes they can become ‘Shen’ to board the ‘Lie Che’ with me,” Qi Xia said. “Do you remember why Di Long made a deal with you?”

Chu Tianqiu paused, recalling how Di Long had appeared and offered a deal right after he joined the early days of ‘Tian Tang Kou.’

After thinking it over, he decided that trading his eye for food from Di Long wasn’t a bad idea, so he agreed.

Why had Di Long appeared then… and why had he chosen him?

‘Tian Tang Kou’ became the strongest organization at the time because of its steady food supply.

Di Long’s reason back then was simply that he “thought you were suitable,” but Chu Tianqiu had just joined the early ‘Tian Tang Kou,’ which didn’t even have that name yet. How had Di Long known he was suitable?

“So, it wasn’t Di Long who thought I was suitable—it was you?” Chu Tianqiu asked.

“Exactly, so you don’t need to be too modest,” Qi Xia said. “You’ve always been the strongest in my eyes and the most fitting choice for this path. After all, you always feel out of place with those around you, though not to the extent that Tian Long and Qing Long look down on ‘ordinary people’… but it’s close enough. That’s the first quality I see for becoming ‘Shen.’”

“But Qi Xia…” Chu Tianqiu said, “now I’ve ‘Zhui Tao’ in the game and can’t survive anymore. How can I go with you to the ‘Che Tou’?”

“Not necessarily,” Qi Xia said. “I reviewed the ‘rules,’ and nothing says ‘Zhui Tao’ means death—that’s just our assumption.”

“Even if that’s true… our team has no ‘Zhu Jiang’ now. If we lose the game, the whole team dies.”

Qi Xia paused before replying, “If your team doesn’t lose anyone, would you agree to my request?”

Chu Tianqiu chuckled lightly: “Qi Xia, are you planning to use ‘Sheng Sheng Bu Xi’ to revive all my teammates…? Do you think such a simple trick would make me willing to serve you?”

“No, of course not,” Qi Xia said. “Chu Tianqiu, let’s make one more bet now. I bet Qing Long will willingly let your entire team go.”

“What…?” Chu Tianqiu asked in disbelief. “Willingly…?”

“What I’m going to show you isn’t the power of ‘Sheng Sheng Bu Xi,’ but the power of ‘layout.’ Even someone like Qing Long will fall to a ‘layout.’” Qi Xia said. “You can wait outside the door; everything will be resolved soon.”

Chu Tianqiu looked at Qi Xia in confusion, with no idea what would happen next.

Meanwhile, Qing Long on the viewing platform was clearly getting restless.

He could only see half of Qi Xia’s body entering the door before it went still. A few seconds later, he turned to Di Long and said, “Isn’t this against the rules?”

“It’s not against the rules,” Di Long said. “Chu Tianqiu counts as ‘Zhui Tao,’ and Qi Xia only stuck his head out to check—his body is still inside the door. Maybe he’s just saying goodbye to Chu Tianqiu?”

“This goodbye is taking too long,” Qing Long said. “How much time is left in the game?”

“Just one or two minutes,” Di Long said. “Now that Chu Tianqiu’s side has no ‘Zhu Jiang,’ it’s probably Qi Xia’s win if nothing changes.”

As they spoke, Qi Xia pulled his upper body back in, stuffed his hand into his pocket, and gently closed the “door.”

Everything was settled. He stopped looking at all the “characters” on the ground and went straight to the door. Just as he was about to open it and leave, he heard a clear “clink” again.

This time, the sound was exceptionally distinct, not like an illusion at all.

Qi Xia crouched down and carefully examined the pile of “characters” he had left behind.

He hadn’t been wrong—the pile had moved.

But what could have caused the “characters” to move…?

He reached out and shuffled through the pile on the ground, but they lay there quietly now, with no further reaction.

Hearing the sound once might have been a coincidence, perhaps the “characters” were unstable, but twice meant it wasn’t.

Qi Xia turned his gaze to the two “Shi” pieces leaning quietly against each other.

If any of these “characters” were strange, it had to be the “Shi.”

Qi Xia picked up the crooked “Shi” that Tian Tian had made and examined it closely for a few seconds. Then he shook it gently, and a strange idea formed in his mind—

Could it be that the “Shi” Tian Tian made wasn’t hollow, but had some kind of mechanism inside?