Chapter 915: Nightmare?

I’ve studied this map thoroughly and memorized it completely, so the physical map isn’t important—what matters is the information on it.

Wait… In the Zhongyan Zhidi, how can we safely preserve a map?

If I carry the map on me, even if I don’t encounter Qing Long, it might get left behind during one of the annihilations.

That would leave the map’s whereabouts unknown, and who knows who might end up with it.

If I want to keep it secure… I might as well hand it over to Qing Long. But giving it to him directly would make him suspicious, so Bai Yang set up this scheme.

But who’s the map meant for? Theoretically, only someone who’s lost their memory would need it.

Could it be…?

Bai Yang has said countless times that he might lose his memory one day… Is he planning to use Qing Long to transfer the map to himself?

Sweat trickled down my face as I walked out of Bai Yang’s game arena.

I remembered telling Jiang Ruoxue that Bai Yang’s thinking was way ahead of ours.

When he gave me the map, he had already anticipated Qing Long’s reactions and even mine.

He even predicted that I might play along and put on a convincing act for Qing Long once I figured everything out.

I racked my brain to unravel all the mysteries and find a path forward, only to discover that Bai Yang had already marked out the landmarks along it.

I couldn’t afford to delay any longer. Bai Yang was already racing ahead on this road, while I was still fumbling around.

I knew I needed to get stronger right away.

I found an abandoned building and used abstract lines to recreate Bai Yang’s map on a hidden wall. It looked just like cracks in the wall itself. Once I confirmed that only I could understand it, I added labels in obscure Middle English for the eight animals.

After all, I wasn’t sure how many years Bai Yang’s plan would take. Even though I’d memorized the locations, there’s no guarantee I wouldn’t forget them over time.

From then on, I spent my days wandering the city. In the mornings, I’d join the Di Ji games and secretly eliminate participants. In the afternoons, I’d continue recruiting members for Ji Dao.

Since I didn’t have to check in regularly at Bai Yang’s game arena, I had more time to look for Jiang Ruoxue.

As expected, she’d joined Tian Tang Kou and had a close relationship with Yun Yao. I didn’t reveal Bai Yang’s plan; I just told her that Ji Dao couldn’t stay so loosely organized.

I needed a way to gather all the Ji Dao members at a moment’s notice.

Normally, they could scatter and operate independently, and they’re safe that way, but without a way to bring everyone together, we couldn’t carry out the final task Bai Yang assigned.

Jiang Ruoxue didn’t ask for details but agreed to help find a solution. She said it wouldn’t be hard and that she and Zhou Mo could work together on it. With Yin Guo combined with Chuan Yin, they could make it sound like a divine command.

They said they’d need some time to prepare the plan and would then seek out each Ji Dao Zhe to apply the Hui Xiang.

During this time, I went to see Bai Yang again. He was still standing at the entrance of his game arena, looking troubled because Ji Le Qian Zhuang was booming again. He’d wanted to cool down the game’s popularity, but he couldn’t stop the greedy participants.

Bai Yang said he was tired of earning Dao, but the amount of Dao kept skyrocketing every day.

When I talked to him, I stuck to the script that would stoke the fire, letting the division between us play out fully, since Qing Long already thought we were splitting apart.

This routine went on for a while… until two years ago, when I blacked out again.

This time, the blackout felt off. I ended up in a strange place and wandered the streets for about a day or two before realizing I was on the edge of Dao Cheng. I had no idea why I’d come here, but I quickly found my way back toward Bai Yang’s game arena.

I suspected my timeline was getting messed up again… I needed to find out what year and date it was right away.

But along the way, all I saw were countless bodies, and the air was thick with the stench of blood… Zhongyan Zhidi was already like hell on a normal day, but today it was worse than ever.

What had happened?

Why were there no living people on the streets…?

I’d blacked out many times before, but this was different.

After walking for about five or six hours, I finally reached Bai Yang.

His game arena was unlike usual—filled with dead participants—while he sat inside reading a book as if nothing was wrong.

“Yang Ge…?” I pushed open the door and called out tentatively.

Bai Yang looked startled and stared at me for a long time, then said with a hint of confusion, “How are you here now…?”

“What’s going on…?” I asked gravely. “Why does the street look like this…? And what happened to the participants here…?”

Before I could finish, I froze.

I hadn’t noticed earlier, but something felt wrong.

In the center of Bai Yang’s office, there was a body lying face down, its features hidden… but it was wearing a white dress.

That white dress looked familiar… Wait, was that…?

“Y-Yang Ge…” My voice trembled. “What is this…?”

Bai Yang didn’t even glance at the body; he just stared into my eyes and said, “There’s nothing here. You must be seeing things.”

“What…?” I blinked, but I knew I wasn’t mistaken. That was my body…

I stepped forward and turned the body over. Sure enough, it had a face identical to mine.

I checked the fingers, and they had the exact same tattoos as mine.

There was a clear wound on the forehead, like something had pierced right through it…

Bai Yang seemed a bit flustered. He stood up from his seat, grabbed my arm, and pulled me toward the door, saying, “Yan Zhichun, there’s nothing here. You must be seeing things.”

I had no idea what Bai Yang was up to… Had he just killed me?

No, that didn’t make sense… If he killed me, what was I now?

“Y-Yang Ge… Can I ask about this?” I muttered. “I know you have your own plans… but this is really hard for me to accept…”

“You’ll be safe forever,” Bai Yang said. “It’s just that something went wrong… You showed up before the annihilation.”

“Before the annihilation?”

“Yan Zhichun, go find a place and wait to die,” Bai Yang said. “It’s all a nightmare. You’ll wake up fine.”

(Things have been really hectic lately… Updates are getting later and later, everyone—brothers, family, friends—sorry, but tomorrow it’ll be just one update. Please understand.)