“Of course not.” Qinglong shook his head. “What we need isn’t a specific man or woman, but a ‘universal god.’ Thus, neither pure yang nor pure yin is suitable. As the saying goes, ‘When the two energies interact, all things are born.’ That’s precisely the principle.”
Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia exchanged a glance before slowly furrowing their brows. Qinglong seemed to have revealed a situation they had never heard of before.
Could it be that someone had gotten too close to the apex… prompting Qinglong to disclose information he had never shared before?
“As the saying goes, ‘When heaven and earth unite, all things are born; when yin and yang connect, transformation arises,'” Qinglong continued. “Two men naturally won’t work. Without ‘yin and yang,’ the birth of all things is impossible.”
At that moment, Qi Xia suddenly thought of something.
It was indeed an obvious yet consistently overlooked issue.
“Qi Xia, do you see it?” Qinglong raised a finger toward the sky. “The reason ‘heaven’ is called ‘heaven’ is because it stands in opposition to ‘earth.'”
The two turned their gaze to the sky, pondering the meaning behind Qinglong’s words.
“‘Yin’ and ‘yang’ are both opposing and interdependent,” Qinglong said. “If there were no ‘earth,’ even ‘heaven’ couldn’t be called ‘heaven.'”
“Interesting perspective,” Qi Xia nodded. “You’re saying that because we’re two ‘men,’ we can’t succeed.”
“Exactly,” Qinglong agreed.
“So, do we need to bring in a female teammate now?” Qi Xia asked.
“No, no, no,” Qinglong chuckled, shaking his head. “Why go through all that trouble?”
“Then what do you suggest?” Qi Xia pressed.
“Simply find a way to ensure only one of you remains,” Qinglong replied, the madness in his eyes barely contained. “You clever folk tend to overcomplicate things, but to me, the solution is straightforward.”
“Ha,” Qi Xia feigned surprise, his lips parting. “So, you’re suggesting we fight to the death right here?”
Chu Tianqiu also smiled at Qinglong. “Qinglong, after everything that’s happened, do you really think we’d do that? Even if Qi Xia and I have our differences, even if our end goals diverge, in front of you, we still represent the same side.”
“You misunderstand,” Qinglong sighed. “If I simply made you kill each other here, it’d be far too dull for me. Ants that have struggled so hard to climb up shouldn’t just stab each other in the heart.”
“Then what do you want?”
Instead of answering directly, Qinglong turned to Qi Xia. “I have a more interesting game in mind… Qi Xia, have you met the eight ‘Zodiacs’ marked on that map yet?”
“No,” Qi Xia answered. “I only met one, but that was enough to achieve my goal, so there was no need to seek out the other seven.”
“You achieved your goal, but not mine,” Qinglong’s expression darkened. “Is our contract really this unstable? There were a full eight ‘Zodiacs’ on that map, yet you only met one. How can I trust continuing our cooperation like this?”
“Your goal…?” Qi Xia frowned slightly. “Wasn’t your goal simply to make me realize those eight were my former teammates? People I’ve faced life and death with, the ‘needles’ I planted. Thanks to your map, I remembered them.”
He voiced his doubts openly, then fixed his gaze on Qinglong.
“Oh…? What a coincidence! Hahahaha!” Qinglong suddenly burst into laughter. “Qi Xia, Qi Xia, do you remember what I said when I handed you that map?”
Qi Xia thought carefully and realized something was indeed off.
His attention had been entirely focused on his relationship with those eight, overlooking Qinglong’s connection to them.
When Qinglong handed him the map, he had explicitly stated that all eight were “Tianlong’s trusted aides” who needed to be eliminated quickly.
Qinglong had also claimed that these eight represented the lives of Qi Xia’s current eight teammates—that if he killed one fewer in this cycle, one more teammate would vanish in the next.
“You…” Qi Xia felt a crucial piece of the puzzle was missing. “How could those eight, who were clearly my teammates, be ‘Tianlong’s trusted aides’?”
“‘Tianlong’s trusted aides’ was just a lie,” Qinglong cackled. “I wanted you to gamble and kill three or four before revealing they were your teammates all along. Then I could’ve savored your despair. But you woke up faster than I expected—after meeting just one ‘Zodiac,’ you no longer needed the others.”
“If that’s the case, why deceive me at all?” Qi Xia pressed. “If you just wanted amusement, why go through all this trouble? You could’ve given me no reason and simply ordered me to kill them. You know the saying—’the more you say, the more you risk.’ Those people didn’t resemble Tianlong’s allies in the slightest.”
“Qi Xia, people change,” Qinglong said. “Even if they were once your teammates, how can you be sure they’ve remained loyal over a decade?”
Only then did Qi Xia grasp Qinglong’s implication. He nodded. “So you’re saying some have defected. They’ve sided with you and Tianlong, ready to betray us at the critical moment.”
“Exactly,” Qinglong affirmed. “What if—just hypothetically—you thought you’d planted eight ‘needles’ as ‘Zodiacs’ across the train, but in reality, it’s the opposite? What if those eight were Tianlong’s ‘needles’ planted beside you all along?”
“Ha!”
Qi Xia couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s absurd. Are you saying I unwittingly staged a ‘spy vs. spy’ with myself? Does that even make sense?”
Qinglong neither confirmed nor denied, merely shrugging. “Who’s to say it isn’t possible?”
“Well, now you’ve reignited my curiosity,” Qi Xia said, amused. “What’s Tianlong’s goal, then? Is he as bored as you? Something so simple, yet he chooses the most convoluted path. Whether he wants me dead, stripped of my sanity, or driven mad—any of it should be as easy as snapping his fingers. So why, like me, would he take so long to lay his plans?”
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