“That’s a fresh perspective,” Qinglong remarked. “You were all trying to escape, but then you gave up on your own?”
“Exactly,” Dilong replied. “I’ve spent more time in the ‘Land of the End’ than in the real world… You know, my nightmares aren’t just about you killing me—they also include actually returning to reality.”
“For you, ‘returning to reality’ counts as a nightmare too?”
“Of course,” Dilong said, lowering his gaze to his scaly hands. “Right now, if I were to go back to the real world, get a job, and earn a living by typing on a computer every day, it sounds tempting. But I’ve even forgotten the layout of a keyboard. I don’t remember how to unlock a phone, the faces of my family, or their phone numbers… I’m not even sure whether a red or yellow traffic light means ‘go.’ How could people like us… ever return to the ‘real world’ to live?”
“So you’re saying…” Qinglong nodded slowly. “‘Mortals’ really are more complicated.”
“In my time, people who spent three years in prison would come out completely out of touch with society, because every day, something new emerges,” Dilong continued with a faint smile. “Trends, viral memes, shocking scandals, AI advancements… Some things don’t even take three years—just three weeks offline, and you fall behind. But I’ve been here for decades. What would be the point of us going back?”
“So you compare this place… to a prison?”
“Similar, but not quite,” Dilong said. “Even prisoners get newspapers and books, some way to keep up with the ‘outside world.’ But we don’t. Every day, I think about which building might have scraps of wood for fire, where I might find leftover canned food, whose ‘Echo’ has what effect, whose game can earn a few more ‘Tao.’ I even plan what injuries would let me kill myself quickly.”
He glanced down at his suit. “And now, the way we live has changed again. Before, if my clothes got dirty, I wouldn’t wash them—I’d calculate how many days until the next ‘Annihilation’ reset them. Now, every time I return to my room, food and clean clothes just appear. My daily job is ‘managing the Zodiacs,’ and the Zodiacs’ job is killing people. None of this is anything close to normal life… Qinglong, tell me, how am I supposed to go back?”
“That makes me even more curious,” Qinglong mused, resting his chin on his hand. “If every one of you feels this way, then ‘Taoyuan’ should be perfect for you. Here, you’re ageless and undying, and you know this life inside out. So why help Qi Xia carry out his ‘plan’ all this time?”
“Maybe it’s because we saw the ‘divinity’ in him,” Dilong said. “That might be the only reason.”
“‘Divinity’…?” Qinglong had never heard the term before and frowned slightly.
“In my memory, Qi Xia has never done a single thing for himself,” Dilong said, shaking his head with a smile. “He’s like the ‘saint’ everyone mocked on the internet in my time—except he actually became one. To break the ‘Taoyuan’ you created and send everyone back to reality, he pushed himself step by step into what he is now. He’s almost reached the ‘end.’ We might have our frustrations, our complaints after all these years, but none of us would ever betray him. That’s our bottom line.”
“Even if it means death?” Qinglong pressed. “You’re so close to the ‘end.’ Are you really willing to die just before it?”
“Did you forget?” Dilong laughed. “We’ve already died of old age! The ones left are just lingering patients. It doesn’t matter who dies before the ‘end.’ It’s like knowing that centuries from now, people will travel among the stars and reach countless new worlds—but my lifespan won’t stretch that far. So I don’t feel regret.”
Only now did Qinglong finally understand why Qi Xia’s teammates willingly became ‘Zodiacs’ and had upheld his seemingly absurd ‘plan’ all these years.
Because they couldn’t go back.
Their lives were split in two—a small part from the real world, and most from ‘Taoyuan.’
If they were forced to leave ‘Taoyuan’ and return to reality now… they’d suffer even more than they do here.
So, at an age when they could’ve died naturally, they chose to ‘end’ their lives themselves and threw themselves into Qi Xia’s ‘divinity.’
They discarded their names, appearances, and everything else that made them ‘human,’ becoming ‘Zodiacs’—no different from death.
“It’s almost like the ‘herd mentality’…” Qinglong muttered. “Just because Qi Xia has ‘divinity,’ you all follow him and uphold that ‘divinity’…”
“Decades are more than enough to understand a person,” Dilong said. “We understand Qi Xia, just as we understand you and Tianlong. If everyone in the ‘Land of the End’ were to vote, Qi Xia would win by a landslide. If he becomes a ‘god,’ we’ll gladly be ruled by him. If he becomes a ‘demon,’ we’ll happily be his devils. So it doesn’t matter what’s behind that red door… If he’s willing to take us there, it means he’s decided that even a hellish place is better than this.”
Qinglong fell silent for a moment before asking softly, “Is this what you ‘mortals’ call ‘brainwashing’? Qi Xia used his silver tongue to recruit a group of utterly devoted followers.”
“Wrong,” Dilong said. “First, we’re not ‘followers.’ Second, Qi Xia never demanded anything from us. Even on the path of the ‘Zodiacs,’ he gave us countless chances to betray him. Every one of us chose this path willingly. No one forced or threatened us. That’s the biggest difference between him and you.”
“Fascinating,” Qinglong murmured. “I never thought the most moving words I’d hear in my life would come from a ‘Zodiac’ beside me.”
“Thank you,” Dilong said with a smile. “If you love a butterfly, you might try to catch it and hold it in your hand until it stops moving. But Qi Xia loves butterflies too—he chooses to plant flowers instead. And when they bloom, countless butterflies come to him.”
Qinglong lowered his head again, watching the crowds shifting below. Softly, he said, “Dilong, let’s make a private bet.”
“A bet?”
“Who do you think will be the final winner of this game?” Qinglong asked.
“I think…” Dilong also looked down, first at Chu Tianqiu, then at Qi Xia, before smiling. “I think the final winners will be all the ‘participants.'”
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