Chapter 749: All Are Ants

"At least I'm not crazy," Qi Xia said.

"Oh?"

"After experiencing countless things that no normal person could accept, I'm still able to maintain this level of sanity, which proves I'm not crazy," Qi Xia said with a blank expression.

"On the contrary," Qing Long said, "that only proves you're already insane, beyond any hope of cure."

Hearing this, a smile slowly spread across Qi Xia's face: "So, I've got this madness, and it's incurable?"

"That's right—only by being mad enough can you reach the best state. This is perfect," Qing Long said with a mad glint in his eyes. "Mad enough, ruthless enough, cold-blooded enough, and you don't need to empathize with any 'ordinary people' at all. That's the prerequisite for becoming a 'shen'."

"But I don't want to become a 'shen'," Qi Xia said. "I'm not doing all this just to please myself by going on a killing spree."

"For your own pleasure by going on a killing spree?" Qing Long raised an eyebrow, as if he'd heard an utterly ridiculous idea. "What kind of talk is that? Would I be that kind of person?"

"Isn't that the case?" Chu Tianqiu interjected at that moment. "Once someone gathers enough 'chips', you all just kill everyone. Logically, couldn't you just kill the one who gathered the chips?"

"How interesting—as a 'shen', I can't empathize with 'ordinary people', and as 'ordinary people', you can't empathize with a 'shen' either," Qing Long nodded. "Chu Tianqiu, let me ask you. If a nest of ants invades your home, what would you do?"

"A nest of ants...?"

"You find that this nest of ants tries to bite you every day, but they can't hurt you at all. You just watch them with great interest as they carry food, build their base, fight among themselves, and go through birth, aging, sickness, and death. It's the best amusement for your bored self," Qing Long continued. "But over time, one or two ants think they're clever and figure out all the rules, and every day they try to crawl into your eyes."

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu seemed to think of something and pressed his lips together in silence.

"Would you bother to single out those one or two ants and kill them?" Qing Long clenched his hand into a fist. "No one would go to such trouble. The best way is to pour boiling water into the entire anthill and destroy it all at once. Because I'm a 'person', and you all are as lowly as 'ants'. Just like I'm a 'shen', and you all are as lowly as 'ordinary people'. If I want to kill, I kill—I don't care what the ants think."

Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia fell silent, looking at Qing Long. Originally, the position he stood in was so high that every word he said was hard to comprehend.

But for some reason today, it all made a strange kind of sense to the two of them.

"Qi Xia, you don't want to become a 'shen'; you want to get out?" Qing Long asked.

"Yes."

"A yellow millet dream," Qing Long said. "Why are you even more naive than Chu Tianqiu?"

Qing Long's words made both of them furrow their brows slightly.

After thinking for a moment, Qi Xia said: "So... you're not even bothering to pretend anymore? We two fought our way here from among the 'participants', and now we represent the 'participants'. Are you sure you want to just tell us straight out that we can't escape?"

"Of course," Qing Long nodded. "'Lies' are for the masses, not for the elite. The fact that you two have waited here for me to descend means that kind of petty lie doesn't work on you anymore. Why would I keep using that line to fool you? Hearing the truth from me directly is an honor you've earned yourselves. Those masses can only envy you. After all, in front of me, you two are the finest ants."

Qi Xia looked at Qing Long with cold eyes. Although he had long known there was no way out of this place, hearing Qing Long say it so casually still stirred up discontent in his heart.

It was like spending decades tracking down a murderer, only for the murderer to admit all his crimes the moment you meet and say, "I never meant to hide it from you."

Seeing the wonderful expressions on their faces, Qing Long laughed again: "What about those one thousand eight hundred 'Suo', one thousand eight hundred 'Gou', three thousand six hundred 'Dao', three thousand six hundred 'Wo', fifty-seven thousand six hundred 'Yu'—isn't each one more entertaining than the last? As long as Tian Long sets a rule, a huge number of people will die for that ridiculous 'rule', just like holding white sugar in your hand and directing ants to fight over it... But 'people' are ultimately much more interesting than 'ants'."

After finishing, Qing Long slowly walked up to Qi Xia and asked: "Do you know how many times this absurd rule was designed, and what Tian Long said to me when it came to 'Yu Cheng'?"

"What did he say?" Qi Xia asked coldly.

"He said, 'Let's set an exaggerated number and directly turn teeth green, without even changing the shape, and see if this group of ridiculous ordinary people will die for it'."

"You..." Chu Tianqiu seemed to want to say something, but his throat felt blocked, and no sound came out.

"He also said, 'We can arrange a group of staff to help us legitimately slaughter the other participants, greatly slowing down everyone's collection of these items. Just give them any title, and they'll forget everything else and focus only on advancement. Call them "Heavenly Stems", "Earthly Branches", or even "Constellations" or "Zodiac", it doesn't matter. Then, just tell them that by slaughtering their own kind, they can escape, and they'll willingly become our lapdogs'."

"Oh, right... as the saying goes, 'serving a ruler is like serving a tiger'." Qing Long said, "But serving a 'shen' is even more terrifying than serving a tiger. These people are originally 'ants', and we're giving them face by letting them stand with us. But if they don't cherish it and break the rules or make mistakes while being our lapdogs, that would be such a pity."

Qi Xia nodded after hearing this: "So, you'll turn them into real 'ants'."

"Hahahahaha!" Qing Long turned back with a maniacal expression. "How did you guess that?!"

"It's hard not to guess," Qi Xia said. "Those bugs that crawl out at night are your handiwork."

"Yes... of course!!" Qing Long laughed. "We gouged out their eyes, cut off their noses, pulled out their teeth, removed their eyebrows, and destroyed their ears. Then, we implanted an idea in their minds—'As long as you can find your five senses, they'll come back, and you can become human again.' Isn't that interesting?"

Qi Xia nodded: "Interesting."

"That way, they'll be released every night by the 'Heavenly Ox' to collect the scattered 'Dao', 'Gou', 'Yu', 'Suo', and 'Wo' from the city and various bodies. It not only disadvantages the 'participants' here but also saves us effort in making the chips... It's simply perfect!"