“Chu Tianqiu has gone completely mad…?” Yun Yao retorted, “Indeed, a good reputation built over years can crumble overnight with a single descent into madness. He brought this upon himself.”
“Don’t you think so?” Zhang Chenze glanced at Lin Qin.
“What you know is only the current Chu Tianqiu…” Yun Yao said wistfully. “Believe it or not, in all the years before Qi Xia appeared, Chu Tianqiu was the ‘King of the Righteous.’ He did more for all the ‘participants’ than you can imagine.”
Lin Qin had heard of Chu Tianqiu’s reputation before, but after meeting him, she realized he was nothing like she’d imagined.
Then again, if Chu Tianqiu had been this deranged from the start, how could he have become the “King of the Righteous”?
Why else would so many in “Paradise” have supported him?
Zhang Chenze paused. “You’re saying Chu Tianqiu had a child in the ‘Land of the End’… but the child was eaten alive by its own mother… and that drove him to madness?”
“It’s just my speculation…” Yun Yao sighed. “As much as I hate to think it, this explanation makes all of Chu Tianqiu’s motives suddenly make sense.”
A heavy silence fell over the group.
When the one thing you cling to in the “Land of the End” is torn away, who wouldn’t go mad?
But was that child really Chu Tianqiu’s sole reason for living?
“Earlier, when I saw Qi Xia’s headache… I wanted to bring this up,” Yun Yao said. “Chu Tianqiu also suffered from headaches—so severe they gave him no reason to leave.”
“What?” Lin Qin’s eyebrows shot up. “He had headaches too?”
“Yes. Chen Junnan probably knows about this.” Yun Yao nodded slowly. “Chu Tianqiu had brain cancer.”
“What…?”
The group suddenly recalled how, when Chen Junnan held a knife to Chu Tianqiu’s throat, he had tapped his own temple and asked, “Does it still hurt here?”
“Chu Tianqiu had no reason to go back,” Yun Yao continued. “In the real world, he only had two months left to live. The ‘Land of the End’ was his only refuge. The fact that he did so much for the Righteous was already selfless. Logically… no one has the right to blame him. For a long time, he gathered food and shared it, freely offering game strategies just to improve everyone’s chances of survival here.”
“But if that’s the case…” Lin Qin said, “why would you ever leave? Is there anyone in the ‘Land of the End’ more reliable than him?”
Yun Yao hesitated before replying, “I turned against him because he toyed with the lives of everyone in ‘Paradise.’ We trusted him completely, yet he manipulated us like puppets. That’s betrayal. He could’ve told us the truth—we would’ve chosen our own fates. Instead, he let us march to our deaths with blind faith.”
The others understood Yun Yao’s anguish. Betrayal was one thing, but betrayal by the one you trusted most was another.
Now, Yun Yao was increasingly convinced that Chu Tianqiu’s madness began the moment he learned the woman named Qiao Yun had eaten their child.
When he activated that eerie replication ability, he’d also torn off a piece of flesh and eaten it. Was he… imitating Qiao Yun’s cannibalism?
“Who… is this Chu Tianqiu you’re talking about?” The shopkeeper’s voice trembled as if grasping at a memory just out of reach.
“Do you remember Chu Tianqiu?” Yun Yao asked. “He was the one who ‘delivered goods’ to you. He had a beautiful smile and a soothing voice.”
The shopkeeper blinked, vague memories stirring in her mind. But how old were those memories?
Decades, at least.
“Xiao Wen, we’ll lead everyone out. We’ll destroy this place.”
“Xiao Wen, you’re our only hope. But if you can’t find me after leaving… it might be because I don’t want to be found.”
“Xiao Wen, the path you’re on now is incredibly dangerous…”
“Xiao Wen, where have you been all these years? Do you… not even remember me?”
“Am I Xiao Wen…?” The shopkeeper’s eyes flickered, tears welling as she murmured dazedly, “Am I Wen Qiaoyun…?”
The group relaxed slightly. Was she regaining her sanity?
But seconds later, Wen Qiaoyun’s expression dulled, her gaze turning vacant again. The fleeting memories were like a stone tossed into a lake—ripples fading into stillness.
“Please browse freely…” She lowered her head slowly. “Please select your items… Please…”
Like all the other “Natives” they’d encountered, she’d briefly recalled fragments of the past—only to lose them again the moment she tried to grasp them.
“So…” Zhang Chenze looked at Yun Yao and Lin Qin. “Once someone becomes a ‘Native,’ they can never return to normal?”
Lin Qin nodded. “Right. I’ve never seen a ‘Native’ regain their sanity.”
Yun Yao almost agreed, but the words caught in her throat.
“No…” Her expression darkened. “I’m not so sure anymore. Maybe Natives *can* wake up…”
“What?” Lin Qin frowned. That was unheard of.
“Xiao Nian…” Yun Yao said. “Do you remember her? Xu Liunian. Qi Xia said she was once a Native, but now she’s back in ‘Paradise’—fully lucid, even capable of triggering an ‘Echo.'”
“Regained her sanity…?”
“But here’s the strange part…” Yun Yao continued. “Xu Liunian never returned to the ‘Interview Room’… She seems to have escaped ‘Annihilation,’ yet she just wanders this place endlessly.”
Lin Qin froze.
“That can’t be… Is someone like that even possible?” She furrowed her brows. “If she escaped ‘Annihilation,’ it means she can *never* return to the real world. Even *we* go back every ten days, but she can’t… What is she now? A ‘Participant’ or a ‘Native’?”
“I don’t know…” Yun Yao admitted. “I asked her privately once. She just said she woke up one day, lucid again, and returned to ‘Paradise.’ Chu Tianqiu temporarily tasked her with impersonating him… You know the rest.”
“If there’s precedent… then it *is* possible…” Lin Qin’s eyes widened. “If she doesn’t face Annihilation, her memories will never fade… If we find the right method, we could free everyone in the ‘Land of the End’ from this curse. That would be a breakthrough…”
“But one thing still puzzles me…” Yun Yao’s tone shifted. “If she doesn’t return to the ‘Interview Room,’ it means she can’t revive after death… Yet this time, she *did* revive. Where? And why?”
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