Chapter 860: Competitors

Are you going to tell them the "truth"? Jiang Ruoxue asked.

That's right, I said to her in a very serious tone. If someone has really collected three thousand six hundred "Dao," everything will start over, so the ultimate goal of this organization is to "protect this place."

Jiang Ruoxue stared at me for a long time before smiling and saying, Is there anything I can help with?

Help...? I thought for a moment and replied, Actually, just helping me sort out my thoughts is already a huge help. I'm not a smart person; I've just read a bit more than others, and sometimes I can't figure things out. This time, you've been a big assistance to me.

What do you mean by 'I'm not a smart person'? Jiang Ruoxue laughed again. There aren't that many smart people in the world anyway, so why emphasize it? I've never heard anyone introduce themselves by saying, 'I'm very smart'.

That's not exactly what I meant... I shook my head. Anyway, just listening to me talk is already a tremendous encouragement. I'll keep pushing forward in this direction.

In the time that followed, Jiang Ruoxue and I not only became the best of friends but also teammates working together in this place.

Working with her was far more comfortable than with Zhang Qiang, even though she had a bunch of bad habits, none of which were really annoying.

She liked calling every pretty girl "wife" and was always handsy with other women; she might suddenly hug you or just as suddenly ignore you.

She did things without any plan, acting on whims; sometimes she'd want to go east, other times west, but I thought that was just right.

She lived much more freely than I did.

She told me that people only have a few decades on this earth, and if you spend them hesitating and worrying about others at your own expense, it's as if you never lived at all.

Though that advice really resonated with me, it came too late.

It should have come before my worldview and personality were fully formed; I believe it would have led to a more exciting life for me. Now, trying to change... it's too late for me.

For the next nearly two years, Jiang Ruoxue and I wandered around Zhongyan Zhidi as friends.

Although we had set a clear direction, it turned out to be much harder than we imagined.

I told the "truth" to quite a few people, but no one believed me.

Building trust between strangers is difficult anywhere, and especially so in a place like this, where everyone assumes you're approaching them with ulterior motives. So, before you even speak, they've already put up their mental defenses.

Under those circumstances, trying to convince someone of an absurd truth with just my words was like something out of a fantasy.

I couldn't provide any solid evidence or promise them any benefits; I could only weakly ask them to do as I said.

But that wasn't reasonable—if someone said that to me, I'd refuse too.

Fortunately, over those two years, Jiang Ruoxue and I got to know a lot of people and remembered the names of some strong individuals. She told me that Liu Bei had to invite Zhuge Liang three times, and these people weren't as clever as Zhuge Liang, so maybe we'd need to invite them more than that.

On top of that, we had a major "rival"—a massive, nameless organization active in this city.

Its influence had spread to every corner, and legend has it that its founder was that prominent participant from two years ago.

Since I don't like getting involved in large gatherings, I always avoided crowds, so most of the information about them came from Jiang Ruoxue.

She told me that this organization was somewhat similar to the one we were trying to build. Though it seemed huge, its core members were mysterious; their top leader never showed his face, and outsiders didn't even know his name. He just gave orders to his subordinates.

Now, countless strong individuals, along with their teammates from the rooms, had joined the organization. They seemed to have conquered the games here, winning through the "Shengxiao" repeatedly.

I'm getting curious about that leader now—does he really have that much capability?

Two years ago, I doubted this "participant's" abilities, thinking that if he kept going like that, he'd eventually meet Bai Yang and get utterly defeated.

But now, he's grown even bigger, while I've stayed stuck in place.

As I said from the beginning, no matter where I am, I can't be the strongest; there's always someone stronger out there.

If I want to achieve Bai Yang's goal, should I consider cooperating with him?

But what's my status right now? I'm just a lone participant with only Jiang Ruoxue by my side.

We're not strong enough, and what we're doing doesn't fit with this organization's style at all.

Then, another three years passed, bringing us to about seven years ago.

Jiang Ruoxue and I still couldn't establish a powerful organization. Even if we found some temporary companions, they'd quickly leave or fall into forgetfulness.

But I wasn't completely unproductive—with Jiang Ruoxue around, my personality seemed to have grown a lot. I wasn't as cold and numb as before and even started joking around with people sometimes.

Still, how long could this go on?

It had already been five years, and luckily, Bai Yang hadn't contacted me yet, so I still had time.

But on the other hand, even with a clear goal, I hadn't accomplished anything in five years—it was pretty incompetent.

Time here is stuck, which means my work is stuck too; I might have to persuade the same person multiple times.

And it was exactly seven years ago that Jiang Ruoxue told me some news that was hard to say if it was good or bad.

She said there was a big rumor on the streets: the leader of that massive organization had apparently "disappeared."

He hadn't died, lost his memory, or turned into a native; he had just "disappeared."

But for us, it didn't make much difference. I didn't care at all, and while Jiang Ruoxue might have some connections with them, they weren't really friends.

So, the leader of an organization disappeared—who knows, maybe he was tired, or bored, or found another path. Where there are people, there are rivalries; new strong figures will emerge here and take over the organization.

But what should I do...?

Zhichun, what are you thinking about? Jiang Ruoxue suddenly asked me.

I... I fell silent; even I didn't know what I was doing anymore.

My life seemed to have circled back to before; I had no goals again.

I felt like I couldn't get stronger or solve the problem Bai Yang had given me.