Yu Nian’an was terrified by Qi Xia’s appearance.
“Ah…?”
“Will you wait for me on that land soaked in the stench of blood?!” Qi Xia wailed. “Will you wait for me in that living hell?! Will you wait for me beside the mountains of corpses?! How can I escape from there?! How can I ever see you again?!”
“Xia… You…” Her lips trembled, unsure of what to say.
“An… Do you have anything else to tell me?!” Tears streamed uncontrollably down Qi Xia’s face, the sharp pain in his heart like daggers stabbing deep. “I’m waking up! I’m about to wake up!! I want to hear you speak… Can you talk to me more? Say anything… I just want to stay with you now… Because the moment I open my eyes, it’s hell on earth!”
“But I’m right here…” Yu Nian’an’s eyes reddened slightly. “Xia, what’s suddenly gotten into you? You’re scaring me… Haven’t we always been fine?”
“I lost! I’m going to lose!” Qi Xia roared in despair. “An! They took you away! I thought I could escape hell and return to live with you like before… But I was wrong. Now, I have to fight with everything I have just to see you in my dreams… Just for this moment, I’ve struggled through decades in hell!! And now I’m about to believe it!!”
“Believe… what?”
“I’m about to believe you never existed at all!” Qi Xia’s entire body shook as he grabbed Yu Nian’an’s arm. “All the answers point to this one path!! Tell me, what should I do?!”
His eyes reflected utter collapse, as if he had lost all hope in everything.
“I… don’t exist?” Yu Nian’an smiled through her tears. “Xia, do you know? There are many paths in this world…”
**BOOM!!**
A sudden deafening noise startled Qi Xia, and he turned to look out the window.
The sky outside was cracking, scattering fragments of starlight.
Before he could speak, his brow furrowed.
He realized that Yu Nian’an’s words today were slightly different from before.
This was a line he had heard countless times—yet now, it had one extra word.
“An… What do you mean… ‘paths’ in this world?” Qi Xia’s lips trembled. “Didn’t you always say ‘roads’ before?”
“Xia, do you know?” Yu Nian’an’s eyes grew vacant as only one phrase left her lips. “There are many paths in this world, and every…”
A surge of fear gripped Qi Xia. He quickly released her arm and stumbled back several steps.
“By the way, do you know?” A new voice, one he had never heard before—a man’s voice—echoed in his ears.
He frantically looked around, but the small, empty room held only himself and Yu Nian’an.
When he turned back to the window, the cracks in the sky had widened, and the sun above began to shrink.
“What… What is this?!” Qi Xia shook his head violently, his thoughts spiraling into chaos.
“Xia, do you know?”
“By the way, do you know?”
The voices of a man and a woman spoke simultaneously in his ears, sending chills down his spine as if something ancient was stirring awake.
“There are many paths in this world…”
“The Dao has three thousand six hundred gates…”
The merged voices hammered against Qi Xia’s mind, paralyzing his thoughts, while the fractures in the sky expanded rapidly, unleashing a deafening roar of collapsing heavens.
“And everyone has their own…”
“And each holds but one root…”
Hearing both lines at once, Qi Xia felt as though he had encountered something unspeakably terrifying. A bone-deep coldness seeped into him, though he couldn’t pinpoint its source—only that it clung to him, refusing to fade.
Who?
What was being said?
“Xia, do you know? There are many paths in this world, and everyone has their own.”
“By the way, do you know? The Dao has three thousand six hundred gates, and each holds but one root.”
Qi Xia staggered backward until his back hit the door. The Yu Nian’an before him had lost all semblance of humanity, now only repeating the words like a broken record.
And with every repetition, the voice of that unknown man echoed alongside hers.
The two voices intertwined like cursed incantations, swirling endlessly in his mind.
“What ‘three thousand six hundred gates of the Dao’…?” Qi Xia struggled to comprehend. “Who are you?!”
Fragments of memory collided violently in his mind.
The voice of the Human Dragon whispered in his ear: *”As long as you gather three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’…”*
Then, the aged voice of the White Tiger followed: *”What is ‘Dao’…? Three thousand six hundred? So… he still remembers the master’s words…”*
*The Dao has three thousand six hundred gates, and each holds but one root.*
*I want you to collect three thousand six hundred ‘Dao.’*
*There are many paths in this world.*
Now, Qi Xia had only one thought—**escape.**
If he stayed here any longer, he would truly lose his mind.
Trembling, he turned and flung open the door, revealing a long corridor lined with wooden doors on both sides.
“Xia…”
“By the way…”
“There are many paths in this world…”
“The Dao has three thousand six hundred gates…”
*Stop…*
Qi Xia’s mind screamed: *”Stop… Please stop…”*
“And everyone has their own path.”
“And each holds but one root.”
He sprinted down the hallway, the rotting floorboards creaking beneath his feet as doors swung open one by one.
“Just stop…” Qi Xia cried out in terror. “What do you want from me…?”
“And everyone has their own path…”
“And each holds but one root…”
“SHUT UP!!”
Qi Xia clapped his hands over his ears—only to feel thick fur covering them.
“What…?”
He slowed to a halt, lowering his gaze in disbelief at his hands—now covered in white fur. His mind blanked once more.
“I am…”
“Brother Goat…”
A childlike voice called from behind. Qi Xia swallowed hard and slowly turned around.
A blackened, rotting corpse stood before him, clutching several ‘Dao’ in its hands.
“Brother Goat…” The corpse raised its hand toward him.
Instead of fear, an overwhelming wave of guilt crashed into Qi Xia’s heart like a train.
“Mouse…?” The name escaped his lips instinctively.
The next moment, the corpse’s indistinct features twisted, and what might have been a mouth slowly opened.
“Brother Goat, you really didn’t lie to me.” The corpse laughed softly. “No matter what I become… you still recognize me when we meet again…”
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