Is “Yu Nian’an” really non-existent…?
“She was the path I left for myself…?” Qi Xia bent down, staring at the ground, gripping his hair with both hands—something felt deeply wrong.
In his twenty-six years of life, Yu Nian’an had occupied seven of them. This so-called “backup plan” was far too real!
Before Yu Nian’an, what had been his reason for wanting to escape?
If he had truly created Yu Nian’an, then which path had he left for himself?
Qi Xia felt as though he was communicating with his past self—from seven years ago, even ten years ago—through some hidden thread.
But he also knew his own mind wasn’t so easily deciphered.
What had his past self truly intended to convey?
Was Yu Nian’an really just a fabrication?
“Impossible… I don’t believe it.” Qi Xia shook his head, muttering to himself. “Even with ‘Endless Life,’ it’s absolutely impossible to create someone who never existed…”
Qi Xia knew that for any ability in the “Land of the End” to succeed, his subconscious had to believe it was real. If he had never met Yu Nian’an, how could he have created her?
Why would his subconscious believe in the existence of someone who didn’t exist?
And how could he be so certain of Yu Nian’an’s personality and appearance?
Qiao Jiajin understood Qi Xia’s temperament—whenever he fell into deep thought, he would become utterly absorbed like this. All Qiao Jiajin could do was watch silently.
Meanwhile, Qian Wu picked up the wine bottle in front of Qiao Jiajin, poured himself half a glass, and spoke up. “But Qi Xia, I heard from Song Qi that you ‘echoed’ this time. Strangely, the sound of your ‘echo’ was unusually loud—it alarmed every ‘Zodiac’ on the entire train.”
Qi Xia snapped out of his thoughts and slowly raised his head to look at Qian Wu. Another question surfaced in his mind: “Qian Wu, you said I ‘echoed.’ But can someone… have two ‘echoes’ at once?”
Qian Wu took a small sip of wine, then shook his head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. Only beings at the level of ‘Divine Beasts’ can possess multiple abilities resembling ‘echoes.’ But are you a ‘Divine Beast’?”
Qi Xia knew he was certainly no “Divine Beast”—he wasn’t even a “Zodiac” now.
So why wasn’t his latest “echo” the usual two-character kind?
What exactly was “Endless Life”?
Noticing Qi Xia’s troubled expression, Qian Wu paused, lowering the glass he’d just raised to his lips. “Qi Xia… could it be that you can manifest two ‘echoes’? Was this one different from before?”
Qi Xia knew Qian Wu was no ordinary person. There was no point in hiding it further, so he nodded and admitted to the woman who called herself Qian Wu, “That’s right. This time, my ‘echo’ is ‘Endless Life.'”
He expected skepticism, but instead, Qian Wu nodded seriously.
“Just as I thought…” Her lips moved faintly. “No wonder no one in the entire ‘Land of the End’ has heard such a sound before—four characters… Did your past self plan this all along?”
“My past self planned this…?” Qi Xia found the idea hard to accept.
Had every alternate path he left for himself been leading to the creation of a four-character “echo”?
But in the “Land of the End,” no one had ever heard of or seen a four-character “echo.” How could he have even aimed for such a thing?
Now, looking back, his experiences in the Land of the End seemed to fall into four distinct phases.
The first phase stretched from the beginning until about ten years ago. Back then, he had possessed an ordinary two-character “echo.” After an unknown length of time, he had eventually led ten thousand participants in a final confrontation against “Tianlong”—only to suffer a crushing defeat. After that, he lost even that two-character “echo.”
The second phase lasted from ten years ago to seven years ago. During this time, though he was branded an “Unfortunate One,” he and his teammates—Qiao Jiajin, Chen Junnan, and others—remained highly active in the Land of the End. They defeated numerous “Zodiacs,” and Qi Xia himself formulated his next strategy: to become a “Zodiac.” Perhaps out of concern for Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan, or perhaps for other reasons, he kept this plan a secret.
The third phase spanned from seven years ago until just over a month ago. During this period, he had been a “Sheep.” But this path didn’t lead him out—instead, it stripped him back to his original state once more.
Now, he was in the fourth phase.
If there was one thing that set this phase apart from the others, it was “Endless Life”—an unprecedented development. Had all his previous paths been converging toward this moment?
Detective Li, seeing Qi Xia lost in thought, turned to Qiao Jiajin. “Gangster, what exactly is ‘Endless Life’?”
Qiao Jiajin shrugged. “Cop, I’m not entirely sure myself. But last time, when I kept reviving to take down all those ‘Cats,’ I think I had the swindler’s help to thank for that.”
“You mean that pile of your corpses on the ground…?”
Song Qi’s eyes widened in realization. “Wait—you’re saying your repeated resurrections were due to ‘Endless Life’?”
“Yeah,” Qiao Jiajin nodded blankly. “Unless there’s some cloning machine around?”
“Then what’s *your* ‘echo’?” Song Qi asked.
“I forget the name.” Qiao Jiajin shook his head, then added with a straight face, “Might’ve been something like ‘Hey, you cheating bastard, don’t you dare rig the game!’ or whatever.”
The sheer absurdity of his words left everyone speechless.
Qian Wu chuckled. “Your ‘echo’ is called ‘Shatter All Laws.'”
“Oh?” Qiao Jiajin glanced at him. “You even know mine?”
“Of course.” Qian Wu nodded. “Once your ability activates, every ‘echo user’ in the Land of the End must bow their head—unfortunately, it doesn’t work on ‘Tianlong.'”
“That’s good enough for me.” Qiao Jiajin stretched lazily. “If I can protect my teammates from harm, that’s all I need. As for that ‘Tianlong’ you keep talking about… well, you lot can figure that one out.”
“A solution…”
Qian Wu’s gaze returned to Qi Xia, laden with complexity. If there was any way to counter Tianlong now, it lay with the Land of the End’s only four-character “echo user.”
“I’ve made up my mind…” Qi Xia declared. “I’ll find a way to gather all three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’ and force ‘Tianlong’ to show himself.”
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