Chapter 839: Manipulation

Rest assured, I've always been myself.

Qi Xia reached out and patted Qiao Jiajin's shoulder, then turned back to look at Chen Junnan: "Originally, I thought about abandoning you two and completing this matter myself, but now thinking about it, I do need someone to help me control the final direction of this event."

"Is Xiao Ye useful too…?" Chen Junnan asked.

"You've always been very useful," Qi Xia said. "Next, the thing you need to do is like with your fists—just rely on 'intuition'."

Then Qi Xia also reached out and patted Chen Junnan's shoulder, as if he had made some decision, and set off towards the direction of Tian Tang Kou with a serious face.

Now, the time was neither early nor late, just past Wu Shi, and the situation was as Qi Xia had anticipated; Tian Ma did not activate Tian Ma Shi Ke for two consecutive days.

And the vacant Tian Yang also could not activate Tian Yang Shi Ke, so the next few hours were safe.

However… who is Tian Hou?

After Wei Shi, it's Shen Shi, and at that time, as the Shen Monkey, will Tian Hou take action?

A death moment related to "intelligence" or "agility," happening precisely at dusk when people are most relaxed and vigilant—so at that time, will the participants need to run or flee?

"Wait…" Qi Xia thought again.

Since dusk can have a Tian Ji Shi Ke, what about night?

If there's a Tian Ji Shi Ke at You Shi, that would be okay, since it's from 5 to 7 PM in the evening, but after that, it would cause the death rate to climb.

The following Xu Shi dog, Hai Shi pig, Zi Shi rat, Chou Shi ox, and Yin Shi tiger; all the Tian Ji Shi Ke will span from 7 PM to 5 AM.

Zhong Yan Zhi Di is unlike other places; once night falls, all cities here are like dead, with no moon and no electric lights, so there will be absolutely no light visible.

"Not good…" Qi Xia muttered to himself, "Need to contact Qing Long as soon as possible…"

He looked up at the time and quickened his pace towards Tian Tang Kou.

…

When the four of them—Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, Chen Junnan, and Qin Dingdong—arrived at the entrance of Tian Tang Kou, they found that there were more people here than before, apparently more and more people were gathering at Tian Tang Kou.

Qiao Jiajin also saw Li Xiangling, whom he hadn't seen in a while, as well as familiar faces like Jin Yuanxun and Tong Yi.

The people at Tian Tang Kou seemed pleasantly surprised; after experiencing Tian Ma Shi Ke and Tian She Shi Ke consecutively, all members surprisingly survived, though some people's memories seemed odd—they had survived but couldn't remember what happened during Tian Ma Shi Ke and Tian She Shi Ke.

But for them, this wasn't important; "memory" was always a mysterious thing to them. Now, everyone was gathering in twos and threes, chatting about recent events.

Qiao Jiajin walked aside to talk with Li Xiangling, while Qin Dingdong went into the teaching building to find someone.

Chen Junnan strolled around the playground, greeting dozens of people nonstop, but it seemed not many people recognized him.

He didn't feel awkward; after some socializing, he slowly came to Qi Xia's side and asked:

"Lao Qi, is this also your doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean things like 'everyone surviving' or 'selective amnesia'."

"That's right." Qi Xia nodded. "I did it."

"Is that necessary?" Chen Junnan frowned. "You don't even know these people, and they won't thank you for it. Why save them… Every time you use your 'ability,' there are side effects, right?"

"Just an experiment," Qi Xia said.

"Does this need an 'experiment'?" Chen Junnan scratched his head. "You should already know that your ability can 'duplicate' a person out of thin air, right? Why do this experiment?"

"What I'm experimenting with isn't related to 'duplication,' but to 'time,'" Qi Xia said.

"Time…?"

"Chen Junnan, whether it's you… or those on the playground who forgot about the Tian Ji Shi Ke, you all have one thing in common."

"What's that?"

"Your loop this time had one or two days of memory extracted, but the existing memories can still connect before and after without losing sanity," Qi Xia said. "For you, time 'fast-forwarded'."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute…" Chen Junnan decisively reached out to stop Qi Xia. "Where did I lose track? How did we 'fast-forward'?"

"Just as it sounds," Qi Xia said. "If the Tian Ji Shi Ke is very dangerous, then I… helped these people 'skip' the Tian Ji Shi Ke."

"Damn…" Chen Junnan was stunned again. "Wait, Lao Qi, I feel something's off. These people died horribly in the Tian Ji Shi Ke, right? Isn't your 'fast-forward' a bit flawed… Their bodies are still lying on the ground…"

"This is only from our perspective," Qi Xia said. "We observers are clear about what happened, but for the parties involved, this is clearly 'fast-forward'; their memories directly skipped the Tian Ji Shi Ke and they're standing here perfectly fine."

After hearing this, Chen Junnan's expression changed obviously; he felt that what Qi Xia said was something on a higher level that he couldn't understand for a while.

"Don't you think this experiment is interesting?" Qi Xia said again. "If this happened in the real world, it shouldn't be called 'fast-forward,' but 'amnesia,' because even without a day's memory, their age has indeed increased, which doesn't fit the 'fast-forward' concept, so it can only be called 'amnesia.' But in Zhong Yan Zhi Di, it's different; everyone's time is stalled, so even skipping ten days at once, a person's age won't change at all."

"I really can't keep up," Chen Junnan said. "This person clearly died horribly, but you duplicated a new one to let him live and extracted a day's memory; that's called 'skipping a day'…? Although it sounds logically correct, I still feel something's very strange…"

"Not strange, and I said it earlier," Qi Xia said. "I'm trying to accurately 'manipulate time.'"

"But what you're manipulating isn't 'time' at all!" Chen Junnan said. "You're manipulating people!"

"People are time," Qi Xia said. "From a macro perspective, all of our time is stalled, it's the same principle."