Chapter 752: Needles and Needles

"Of course not," Qinglong shook his head. "What we need isn't a specific man or woman, but a 'universal god'. So, *Chunyang* and *Chunyin* are both undesirable. As the ancient text says, '*Er Qi Jiaogan, Huasheng Wanwu*', and that's precisely the point."

Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia glanced at each other, then slowly furrowed their brows, as if Qinglong had just revealed something they had never heard before.

Could it be that someone had gotten too close to the peak... and that's why Qinglong was disclosing information that had never been shared before?

"As the saying goes, 'Heaven and earth unite to give birth to all things, yin and yang connect to bring about change'," Qinglong continued. "Two men naturally won't work. Without 'yin' and 'yang', nothing can be created."

At that moment, Qi Xia suddenly thought of something.

It was indeed an obvious yet overlooked issue.

"Qi Xia, do you see it?" Qinglong pointed toward the sky. "The reason 'heaven' is called 'heaven' is because it stands in opposition to 'earth'."

The two turned their heads to look at the sky, pondering the meaning behind Qinglong's words.

"'Yin' and 'yang' are both opposites and interdependent," Qinglong said. "If there were no 'earth', then even 'heaven' couldn't be called 'heaven'."

"That's an interesting way to put it," Qi Xia nodded. "So, you think we're two 'men', which is why we can't succeed."

"That's exactly what I mean," Qinglong nodded.

"So, does that mean we need to bring in a female teammate now?" Qi Xia asked.

"No, no, no," Qinglong shook his head with a laugh. "Why go through all that trouble?"

"Then, according to you, what should we do?" Qi Xia asked.

"As long as we find a way to leave just one of you two, that would do," Qinglong said, his eyes gleaming with suppressed madness. "You clever people often overcomplicate things, but to me, this is straightforward."

"Ha," Qi Xia opened his mouth, feigning surprise. "So, leaving just one of us means you're arranging for us to kill each other now?"

Chu Tianqiu also smiled at Qinglong: "Qinglong, now that we've come this far, do you really think we'd do that? Even if Qi Xia and I have our share of grudges, even if our goals differ greatly, in front of you, we're on the same side."

"You might be misunderstanding," Qinglong sighed. "If it were just about making you two kill each other here, that would be far too dull for me. Ants that have climbed so high—how could I let them stab knives into each other's hearts?"

"Then what do you have in mind?"

Qinglong didn't answer directly and instead turned to Qi Xia: "I have a more interesting game in mind... Qi Xia, have you seen those eight *Shengxiao* on the map yet?"

"No," Qi Xia replied. "I only met one, but that was enough to achieve my own purpose, so I didn't need to see the other seven."

"You achieved your purpose, but not mine," Qinglong's expression suddenly darkened as he spoke with a hint of menace. "Is our contract so unstable? There are eight *Shengxiao* on that map, yet you only met one. How can I trust continuing our partnership?"

"Your purpose...?" Qi Xia furrowed his brow slightly. "Isn't your purpose to let me know that these eight people were my former teammates? They went through life and death with me; they're the 'needles' I planted, and thanks to your map, I've remembered them."

He voiced his doubt outright, then looked at Qinglong.

"Oh...? Is that so? Ha ha ha ha ha!" Qinglong suddenly threw his head back in laughter. "Qi Xia, oh Qi Xia, do you remember what I said when I gave you that map?"

Qi Xia thought carefully and realized there was something odd about it.

He had been so focused on his connection to those eight people that he overlooked Qinglong's connection to them.

When Qinglong handed him the map, he had clearly stated that these eight were "Tianlong's confidants" and needed to be killed as soon as possible.

Qinglong had also said that these eight represented the lives of Qi Xia's current eight teammates; if even one wasn't killed in this cycle, one of Qi Xia's teammates would vanish in the next.

"You..." Qi Xia felt there was a key piece of information he hadn't figured out. "These eight are clearly my teammates, so how did they become 'Tianlong's confidants'?"

"'Tianlong's confidants' was obviously a lie I told you," Qinglong said with a mad laugh. "I was planning to have you risk your life to kill three or four of them, then appear and tell you they were actually your teammates. That way, I could see your face full of grief and despair. But I didn't expect your awakening to happen so much faster than I anticipated—you only needed to meet one *Shengxiao* and didn't bother with the other seven."

"In that case, what was the point of your deception?" Qi Xia asked. "If it was just for amusement, why make it so complicated? You could have simply told me nothing and sent me to kill them. You know the saying about how too many words lead to mistakes, and those people didn't look anything like Tianlong's people anyway."

"Qi Xia, people change," Qinglong said. "Even if those people were your teammates before, how can you be sure they've stayed true after all these years?"

Only then did Qi Xia roughly understand Qinglong's meaning, so he nodded and said: "So, you're saying some of them have defected and become people for you and Tianlong, ready to betray at a critical moment."

"That's the idea," Qinglong nodded. "What if it's possible that you thought you planted eight 'needles' as the eight *Shengxiao* on the train, but in reality, it's the complete opposite—these eight were needles planted by Tianlong right beside you?"

"Ha!"

Qi Xia clearly found this amusing: "Interesting. So, you're saying those eight were originally Tianlong's people, and I ended up playing a game of espionage against myself? Does that even make sense?"

Qinglong neither confirmed nor denied it; he just shrugged and said softly: "Who knows, maybe it is."

"Well, now you've piqued my curiosity again," Qi Xia asked with a smile. "What about Tianlong's goal? Is he as bored as you? Something that could be done so simply, yet he goes to all this trouble. Whether he wants to kill me, take my sanity, or drive me mad, it should be as easy as lifting a finger. So why, like me, does he choose to set up such an elaborate long-term plan?"