Chapter 1183: The Winner

“Since we’ve made a decision, please wait a moment, everyone,” Di Shu said, “I need to check if this will affect my personal safety.”

“Your personal safety?” Qin Dingdong frowned, crossing her arms. “Di Shu, do you think I have that much free time?”

“I don’t have a choice,” Di Shu said. “Do you know what stage we’re currently in?”

Hearing this, Chu Tianqiu turned to look at Di Shu.

“It’s the ‘betting’ stage.”

Di Shu smiled and raised both hands, one with five fingers extended and the other with four.

“Zhu Que is selecting a suitable betting table. Whichever one he chooses becomes his casino, and among the leaders present here, there’s a one-in-nine chance of death…” Di Shu bared his dry, yellow rat teeth. “In this dangerous game, we can only wait. Isn’t it exciting?”

“Haven’t you done anything yourself?” Chu Tianqiu asked. “It seems you knew about the plan earlier than we did.”

“I am ashamed, but I should also take some pride in this.”

Di Shu smiled and retracted one finger from the hand with four extended.

“Originally, each person’s chance of death was one in eight, or 12.5% per door,” Di Shu continued. “But through my own efforts, I’ve reduced everyone’s probability of death to one in nine, or 11.1%. Do you know how significant that 1% reduction is when spread across so many people… it’s a tremendous act of merit?”

Chu Tianqiu nodded. “You are the extra ninth person, and you opened a door on your own. That’s not like you to take such a risk.”

“Yeah…” Wei Yang added. “You sneaky rat, why are you so invested now? Back when I was in trouble, you were the first to betray me.”

“Oh, I really should explain that.” Di Shu lowered his head, avoiding Wei Yang’s eyes. “If I don’t, you might think I’m not a ‘fence-sitter’ anymore.”

“You…!”

“As the saying goes, ‘a fence-sitter sways with the wind,’ but we still have to play both sides,” Di Shu said. “Your skills were average, and you angered the higher-ups, so betraying you was only natural. But the other one is different—I haven’t found any reason to betray him.”

“So that’s how you ‘single-handedly reduced the death probability by 1% for everyone in the plan’?” Chu Tianqiu laughed.

“Yes.” Di Shu tapped his head. “Saving a specific ‘door’ isn’t my style. This was the best plan I could come up with. Even if you hadn’t made a deal with me, I’d have found a way to get the ‘participants’ into my ‘door’.”

“Interesting.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “That’s a perspective I hadn’t considered.”

“So, the more people involved in this plan, the greater my contribution,” Di Shu said. “If you run into Yang Ge, please put in a good word for me.”

“I’ll try,” Chu Tianqiu finished and turned to look into the distance. “So, has the ‘betting’ ended?”

…

“It feels a bit off…” Tian Gou frowned, whispering to the person beside him.

Tian Gou and Tian She had just finished their tasks and returned to the room, where Qing Long was already seated.

“What’s wrong?” Tian She glanced at Tian Gou’s eyes and suddenly widened his mouth. “‘Shang Che’—what on earth is that…?”

“I… I’m not sure if I understand it correctly, but it seems like the organization called Ji Dao is about to…” Tian Gou looked up and met Qing Long’s gaze.

Qing Long seemed not to hear the rest, looking at Tian Gou with slight confusion. “What about Ji Dao?”

“I…”

Tian Gou had intended to let Qing Long decide, but Qing Long couldn’t hear any sound. Something must have happened to him, causing his Ling Wen to fail temporarily.

“Speak up.”

“Ah… well… it seems Ji Dao is going to ‘Shang Che’,” Tian Gou replied. “But I’m not sure what this ‘Che’ really means…”

“Shang Che…?” Qing Long pondered for a moment and said, “For others, we’d need to check, but not for Ji Dao.”

With that, he closed his eyes and activated his highly refined Soul Seizure. He still had a trace of consciousness linked to Lin Geng’s mind, so as long as he could extract Lin Geng’s thoughts, he could learn everything about Ji Dao’s movements.

“You first disrupted the giant clock, and now you’re going to ‘Shang Che’… Bai Yang, but you didn’t expect me to have a backup plan. That needle is there even if you know about it.”

As he searched Lin Geng’s mind, he quickly noticed something strange.

Lin Geng’s thoughts were completely empty, just pondering mundane things like when to eat or drink water.

“What kind of thoughts are these…” Qing Long slightly opened his eyes and looked at Tian Gou. “Are many people talking about ‘Shang Che’?”

“No,” Tian Gou said. “Just one or two.”

“It should be fine then,” Qing Long said. “Even if they try to hide it, a person’s thoughts can’t be concealed.”

Hearing this, Tian Gou silently lowered his head.

Normally, Qing Long would have gone to investigate immediately, but now his eyes were bloodshot, and he just sat motionless at the round table, as if using any more ‘immortal techniques’ would overexert his will.

“Good that it’s nothing…” Tian Gou nodded, avoiding Tian She’s eyes.

But in that brief moment, Tian She seemed to have glimpsed something unusual.

…

“Tsk, we can’t enter the door now?” Zhou Mo looked at the portal in front of them, impatiently turning to Di Zhu.

“Not now. I have a bad feeling.” Di Zhu gazed into the empty distance, his hands starting to move. “Maybe our luck ends here.”

“Tsk, seriously? We hit the jackpot?” Zhou Mo chuckled lightly, pulling a signal flare from his waist.

“You hot-tempered lady, let’s make a pact,” Di Zhu said.

“What?”

“If you survive, go tell Qi Xia to carry on my beliefs.”

“Tsk, that line’s way too cringy—I can’t say it,” Zhou Mo said. “If we really hit the jackpot, you find a way to survive and tell him yourself.”

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a piece of crimson feather fell from the sky.

The members of Ji Dao all stared at the feather as it slowly descended. The moment it touched the ground, a person cloaked in a feather cape was already floating before them.

Zhou Mo extended a finger to her ear and spoke to the other ‘Cat’ teams:

“Everyone, you’re safe now.”