Chapter 836: Guardian of Hope

"Qian Wu has indeed lied..." Qi Xia murmured to himself.

"What?"

He briefly explained his suspicions to everyone, and a different expression appeared in his eyes.

Qian Wu might have truly deceived everyone in the Mao team, making them work tirelessly without knowing the truth.

But for the Mao team, for Qian Wu himself... what other choices did he have?

Although the Mao team had few members, each with a flawed character, they were all outstanding Hui Xiang Zhe.

These people might have committed wrongs in the real world, or perhaps let down their families in the past, but at this moment, they were all striving for their families' sake. Even if they died horribly here time and time again, they would never regret it.

This was the "path of redemption" they had found in the endless darkness of hell.

Qian Wu would not expose this lie, and they themselves would not either. Even if some members of the Mao team noticed something suspicious, they would unconditionally believe that their families would become wealthy in the future. This was likely the last line of defense keeping their sanity intact.

Thinking carefully about Chu Tianqiu and Qian Wu's actions, one would realize that their "deal" with the Sheng Xiao was highly unusual.

Everyone here said that the Zhong Yan Zhi Di was full of sinners who deserved hell. People had either broken the law, done wrong things, or lived in lifelong regret. They claimed that on the way to hell, these individuals were pulled here to select a "god."

Yet, in a place that sounded full of evildoers, it was ironic that the two who chose to take the risk and make a deal with the Sheng Xiao—Chu Tianqiu and Qian Wu—had no selfish motives at all.

They could have been more self-centered and given up such choices.

Chu Tianqiu had poured his heart and soul into building an organization to provide food and help for everyone, while Qian Wu established an organization to help people grow stronger and find redemption.

In the end, the ones who truly had nothing were these two leaders. Chu Tianqiu had completely given up on this path, but Qian Wu was still persisting.

Compared to the other members of the organization, these two leaders not only received no substantial rewards but had also gouged out countless teammates' eyeballs as currency. Then, with hands stained in their teammates' blood, they covered their own eyes and deceived everyone, bearing a heavy psychological burden.

Even if one day everyone in the organization could find redemption, these two could never go back.

If there was a "cause" for this situation... then Qian Wu's cause must come from Chen Junnan, and Chen Junnan's from himself.

What about Chu Tianqiu?

Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling the answer was obvious—his cause came from Wen Qiaoyun; he was shouldering the task that Wen Qiaoyun should have completed.

Everyone here was holding onto a hope that was almost invisible.

How important was "hope" to a thinking being?

In the 1950s, scientists at Johns Hopkins University, led by Dr. Curt Richter, conducted an experiment on "hope."

They threw a white rat into a bottle filled with water, and the rat struggled to survive, thrashing about for fifteen minutes before realizing escape was futile and eventually drowning from exhaustion.

Later, they modified the experiment: just as the rat was about to drown, they reached in and pulled it out, giving it a moment to catch its breath, then threw it back in.

The results changed dramatically from that point. How long did this rat struggle after being thrown back into the water?

Not fifteen minutes, not an hour, not even a day.

It struggled for a full sixty hours in the water-filled bottle, always believing that a hand would reach in and save it at some moment. Unfortunately, it never came.

That is the power "hope" gives to life.

As long as hope exists, even if everyone in this hellish place is submerged in suffocating depths, no one will choose to give up.

"I think Qian Wu didn't deceive me," Qi Xia said. "He made a deal with the Sheng Xiao, but I bet even he doesn't know what those eyeballs were used for."

"Is that possible..." Chen Junnan said. "He knows Xuanwu's ability is 'immortality' and 'forgetfulness'—how could he not anticipate it?"

"He's curious, but he can't figure it out," Qi Xia said. "After all, he doesn't know what Tian She is doing, and he has no way to immediately connect those eyeballs to the Shen Shou abilities."

"That makes sense; who the hell would think of something like that except a lunatic?" Chen Junnan said. "Who in their right mind would gouge out eyes and stick them on someone's back?"

"Now we basically have a general understanding of the Shen Shou abilities..." Qi Xia said. "The Mao team gathered all these people with different Hui Xiang, which conveniently lets us learn about the Shen Shou abilities directly. In the end, even Xuanwu's 'probing' comes from the Mao team."

After saying that, Qi Xia paused, then looked up at the street around them.

"Hold on... if that's the case... then this city must also come from Hui Xiang... and it's very likely from the Mao team's Hui Xiang..."

Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin both froze and said:

"Qiao Wu...?"

"No wonder... no wonder..." Qi Xia said, his eyes flickering. "No wonder we can only find a city here... five cities floating in the vast void... what kind of madman could create something like that?"

"What... cities floating in the void?" Chen Junnan asked. "What have you remembered now, kid?"

"This story is too long..." Qi Xia shook his head. "I suspect someone created cities out of nothing in the void, because I've never seen anything like it elsewhere..."

At that point, Qi Xia abruptly stopped and swallowed the rest of what he was about to say.

"Ah...? By 'out of nothing,' you mean...?"

"Haven't you noticed?" Qi Xia snapped back to attention and pointed to the rundown buildings around them. "The architecture here is hard to pin to any specific era; it seems to have shops from every period. There are skyscrapers, but also farms, schools, and prisons all nearby. Under normal circumstances, how could these four types of buildings be so close together?"

"It's always been like that, yeah," Chen Junnan said. "Is there a problem with that?"

"No problem; it's just that I now know who built this city..." Qi Xia said. "What an astonishing feat."