Chapter 171: Unreachable Echo

Chu Tianqiu sat in the dimly lit room, eating breakfast, when he suddenly heard a faint knocking at the door.

“What is it?” he asked.

“He has a question… he wants to ask you,” the voice from outside said.

“Let me guess…” Chu Tianqiu slowly stroked his chin, “It wouldn’t be… asking how long I’ve been here, would it?”

“That’s right,” the shadowy figure outside nodded.

“How interesting.” Chu Tianqiu flashed a meaningful smile, “Qi Xia, that’s more like it…”

“It’s all my fault…” The voice outside sounded hesitant, “I didn’t expect Qi Xia to spot the flaw.”

“It has nothing to do with you.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head, “Even if we could fool everyone, it’s impossible to fool Qi Xia. He’d find out eventually—it’s just that it happened sooner than I anticipated.”

“So, how should we answer this question?” the voice outside asked, sounding troubled, “He said if you get it wrong, he’ll make sure you’re completely ‘out’.”

“Is that so?” Chu Tianqiu nodded slightly and went to sit at the table, where a notebook lay.

The notebook was filled with various inexplicable terms.

Words like “fen nu,” “jue wang,” “kong ju,” “bu she,” “si nian,” “jiao ao,” “bei shang,” and “hui hen” were written all over the page, but strangely, many of them had been crossed out.

“Has Qi Xia ‘huixiang’ yet?” Chu Tianqiu asked.

“No,” the voice outside replied.

Chu Tianqiu’s face darkened, and he picked up a pen to cross out “hui hen” as well.

Now, the notebook only had “bei shang” left.

He capped the pen and lightly tapped the word “bei shang” with his finger, saying, “I might have found the answer.”

“Is that so?” The shadowy figure outside pondered, “But could it be… that the ‘hui hen’ we gave Qi Xia just wasn’t enough?”

“Oh?” Chu Tianqiu thought for a moment, “Are you saying… he doesn’t care about his teammates’ lives at all?”

“I’m not sure.” The voice outside answered, “I couldn’t read anything from his expression.”

“How intriguing.” Chu Tianqiu nodded, “That means he deliberately fell into the trap… knowing it was futile, yet still doing it, even if it meant losing teammates, just to lure me out.”

“Losing teammates…” The voice outside sounded hesitant, “Tianqiu, we’ve lost two teammates too… Is that Qi Xia person really that important? Is he even more important than Jin Yuanxun?”

Chu Tianqiu didn’t answer the question. After a moment of silence, he asked, “Has Lin Geng joined ‘Tian Tang Kou’?”

“Yes.”

“What a rare sight in a century…” Chu Tianqiu tapped the table, “I’m going to meet her.”

“B-but she’s a ‘Ji Dao’!” The voice outside sounded a bit panicked.

“There aren’t many ‘Ji Dao’ with that level of experience left.” Chu Tianqiu slowly stood up, “She’s different from those up-and-coming lunatics.”

The voice outside fell silent for a while before saying, “I understand.”

Chu Tianqiu smiled faintly, “Is the mouth that Qi Xia injured still hurting?”

The voice outside didn’t respond at first, then after a pause, slowly asked, “So, how are you going to answer Qi Xia’s question?”

“That’s easy—you tell him, ‘I have never left.’”

…

Qiao Jiajin held a cloth bundle, feeling exceptionally cheerful.

“Psychologist, writer, you two are pretty clever, huh.”

He opened the bundle and counted— this round of the “Ren Gou” game had earned them six “Dao”.

But he wondered if six “Dao” would be enough to buy alcohol?

Lin Geng furrowed her brow slightly, reached out to take the bundle, and accidentally brushed against Qiao Jiajin’s finger in the process.

Qiao Jiajin didn’t mind, and with the bundle taken, he shoved his hands into his pockets.

Lin Geng sighed softly and asked, “Qiao Jiajin, what are you thinking about?”

“What am I thinking about?” Qiao Jiajin blinked, “Why ask so directly?”

He wanted to use the “Dao” to buy alcohol, but he couldn’t say it outright.

“I…” Lin Geng sensed something odd about Qiao Jiajin.

Like Qi Xia, no matter how she touched him, there was no sign of “huixiang”.

Lin Geng felt that to fully awaken Qiao Jiajin’s ability, she would need to release her full “huixiang”, but that would trigger the bell, making things complicated.

“Are you suppressing your inner feelings?” Lin Geng asked.

“Huh?” Qiao Jiajin was stunned, “Why would I suppress my inner feelings?”

Although Qiao Jiajin denied it, Lin Geng still picked up on the clues.

She felt that Qiao Jiajin wasn’t truly himself, or at least, he wasn’t acting like himself.

“Qiao Jiajin, think about who you really are,” Lin Geng said, “Don’t suppress your inner thoughts.”

“Myself…?” Qiao Jiajin’s gaze gradually turned cold.

“Who are you? Before coming here, did you have any unfulfilled wishes?”

“I…”

A faint bell seemed to ring in Qiao Jiajin’s ears.

Without the disguise, the taste of memories was bitterly painful.

“I’m just myself, that’s it.” Qiao Jiajin cut off his thoughts, smiled, and turned his head, saying, “Psychologist, I don’t have money to book a session with you, so no need to treat me.”

He lazily stretched his arms and walked straight ahead.

Lin Geng knew that Qiao Jiajin’s “huixiang” being hard to trigger wasn’t a bad thing.

It meant his “huixiang” was extremely powerful.

Lin Geng turned to glance at Han Yimo helplessly and muttered to herself, “At least much stronger than ‘Zhao Zai’.”

The three wandered aimlessly through the city, about to head to the next game, when a massive bell suddenly rang out.

“What?” Lin Geng was slightly startled—the bell sounded very close.

Who had “huixiang”?

Was it one of their own?

“Let’s go check it out.” Lin Geng pointed toward the source of the bell, and the three changed direction.

But as soon as they reached the huge screen, the deafening bell rang again.

The “huixiang” had ended.

The screen displayed only a lone line of text:

“I heard the ‘Zhao Zai’ huixiang.”

“Was that a dying person’s ‘huixiang’?” Lin Geng murmured to herself.

Qiao Jiajin stared at the screen for a moment and asked, “Whose ‘huixiang’ is ‘Zhao Zai’? Why is it always there?”

“It’s…” Lin Geng glanced at Han Yimo, who showed no reaction, so she reluctantly said, “I don’t know either.”

The three waited in front of the screen for a bit, finding nothing else, and were about to leave when the screen started flashing lines of text like a barrage.

A series of enormous, continuous bells followed, shaking the three standing in front of the screen so much they could barely keep their balance.

“I heard the ‘Jia Huo’ huixiang.”

“I heard the ‘Yin Guo’ huixiang.”

“I heard the ‘Yuan Wu’ huixiang.”

Along with the original “Zhao Zai”, now four lines of text flickered on the screen, looking terrifying.

“Wh-what’s going on?” Han Yimo stood frozen in place.