Qi Xia pondered for a moment, closed the door of the safe, and as soon as he turned around, the figure of the White Goat appeared before him again.
“Annoying, aren’t you?” Qi Xia asked.
“I just thought of something…” The White Goat stroked his chin.
“If you can’t figure it out, take your time.”
“No.” The White Goat shook his head. “In my opinion, asking you will yield an answer much faster.”
“Ask.”
“When the time comes… how are you going to leave?”
Qi Xia turned a cold gaze toward the White Goat and said, “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb.” The White Goat’s expression turned equally stern. “I’ve thought about it for a long time and couldn’t find an answer… Did you arrange an escape plan for yourself this time?”
“No.” Qi Xia answered decisively. “I’m destined to die here.”
“Just as I thought.” The White Goat stroked his chin, then narrowed his eyes after a pause. “I thought it was a flaw in my logic… After all, I couldn’t see a way for you to survive. So you really never intended to walk out alive from the start.”
“So what?” Qi Xia asked again.
“If you die, it means I die completely,” the White Goat replied. “So whether you can survive is perhaps the only thing I truly care about regarding you.”
“But… you’re already dead.” Qi Xia sneered and tapped his own temple. “You’re just a lingering hallucination in my mind. Do you really think you’re human?”
“Have you ever considered…” The White Goat’s voice suddenly turned icy. “…why I insisted on leaving behind this one trace of hallucination?”
“Oh?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow, pondered for half a second, and then said, “So this is your ultimate weapon after all…”
“You’re far smarter than most people here, so of course you understand my strategy.” The illusory figure of the White Goat shifted slightly as he pointed at the black safe behind him. “How could my ‘ultimate weapon’ be that ‘door’ behind me? That was just something I prepared for you out of both sentiment and logic.”
“Logical.”
“So, are you prepared to fall for it?” the White Goat asked again.
“Interesting.” Qi Xia nodded. “Because people will keep dying here, you assume I’ll repeatedly use ‘Endless Life,’ driving me further into madness.”
“Exactly.” The White Goat smiled. “If there comes a moment when you completely lose your mind, then I will no longer be just a hallucination…”
“…but a real person.” Qi Xia pretended to have an epiphany and nodded. “Clever scheme.”
“Do we really need to keep pretending to praise each other’s schemes here?” the White Goat asked.
“Not really.” Qi Xia shook his head. “But I can’t recklessly wield the overwhelming power of ‘Endless Life’… After all, you also remember what happened to Yan Zhi Chun. Once either of us loses our sanity, those who are reborn with memories through ‘Endless Life’ will become disordered. We still need them.”
“Fair enough.” The White Goat said. “Right now, countless people outside are probably already dead or injured. Are you just going to ignore it?”
“If they want to live, they’ll have to tap into my subconscious, just like the trick you’re using.”
“It’s just a simple open scheme. You couldn’t possibly fail to notice it, but you have no way to refuse.” The White Goat chuckled. “You disdain to see yourself as me, and I disdain to see myself as you. Even the time-crossing ‘Human Serpent’ would tell you, ‘He is him, and I am me.’ Under these circumstances, once you mentally separate the two of us, I’m forced to manifest here. And if you completely equate me with yourself, you’ll have to accept all my memories.”
“What a ‘forced manifestation.’ So, as I said… truly a brilliant scheme.” Qi Xia stretched his fatigued shoulders and slowly sat down in a chair. “For something like this, you made the Human Serpent deliver a message across time… Was it really necessary?”
“He remembered that sentence because of his bond with me,” the White Goat replied. “His subconscious also refuses to acknowledge that we’re the same person. Among my disciples, he’s the only one who would relay those exact words to you.”
“A flawless open scheme. You can exploit my subconscious to achieve rebirth, all while replacing a version of me who’s gone mad. Even though you’re dead, you’ve planted a needle in my mind—one that forces me to tread carefully even when controlling my own thoughts.” Qi Xia said. “In the entire ‘Land of the End,’ aside from myself, you’re the only one bold enough to plant such a needle in my brain.”
“That was the original plan,” the White Goat admitted. “But I didn’t expect you to leave no escape route for yourself.”
“Is that so strange?” Qi Xia asked. “I turned myself into a monster using my subconscious. The current me is both terminally ill and cold-blooded. There’s no way out for me. In other words, this escape route was never meant for me from the start.”
The White Goat let out a cold laugh, his white fur trembling slightly. “You’re calling yourself a monster… in front of me?”
“Changing into a monster in appearance is just the surface-level transformation. Now, I’m no longer human from the inside out.” Qi Xia continued, “Under these circumstances… do you still plan to use ‘Endless Life’ to resurrect and replace me?”
“Good question.” The White Goat nodded thoughtfully. “Since you’ve left no escape route for yourself, my appearance would only mean my inevitable death as well. That does dampen my enthusiasm significantly.”
“But even you can’t stop this plan now.” Qi Xia said. “After all, the current you isn’t the real you either—you’re just a version of you in my subconscious. The moment you manifested here, my consciousness already separated you from me.”
“Strange…” The White Goat narrowed his gray eyes, staring at Qi Xia with a complicated expression. “It sounds like… you’re admitting defeat.”
“Not admitting defeat—just seeing through it.” Qi Xia replied. “To be honest, whether you resurrect or not means nothing to me. But this time, I must ensure everyone except me gets out.”
“So, what’s your final decision?” the White Goat asked.
“I will board the ‘train’ with Tianlong and journey into the distance.”
“Oh…?” The White Goat nodded. “How unusual. Isn’t that exactly what Tianlong has been hoping for? To reach a new space and create a brand-new world.”
“Hah…” Qi Xia smirked coldly. “It might sound the same, but the reality is vastly different. The fact that you’d ask such a question only proves you’re not the real White Goat—just a figment of my hallucination.”
Upon hearing this, the White Goat smiled faintly, his figure growing increasingly indistinct in the room.
Seizing the moment, Qi Xia shook his dizzy head. The increasing frequency of the White Goat’s appearances could only mean his rationality was gradually slipping away.
This wasn’t a good sign.
Steadying himself, he walked out of the office and closed the door behind him—only to find Yun Yao standing at the entrance of the bank the very next second.
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