Chapter 774: Mutation

Qi Xia walked out of the Earth Dog’s game area and once again took out the map given by the Azure Dragon.

Among the eight “Zodiacs,” four had been identified, and he had met three of them in person.

The first was the obviously eccentric Earth Monkey, and the second was the Earth Dog, who had been left behind by his previous teammates by sheer coincidence.

As for the third… it was the Earth Pig, whom he had only met once before.

Qian Wu had once led a team to confront that arrogant, short-statured Earth Pig, and Qi Xia himself had crossed paths with him in front of his game area.

But at that time, the Earth Pig had only looked at him with an inscrutable expression, saying nothing suspicious.

Looking back, that diminutive Earth Pig had clashed with Luo Shiyi the moment Qi Xia first saw him, leaving an extremely poor first impression.

“Wait… a clash?”

Since Qi Xia still regarded the Earth Pig at the time as a teammate, he unconsciously imagined him as a clever person.

But was it common for a “Zodiac” to openly provoke a “participant” in their own game area, even going so far as to push them down?

On the surface, “Zodiacs” and “participants” had always been in opposition, but for so long, the unspoken rule had been to fight within the confines of the games—conflicts outside the game areas were rare.

After all, in the eyes of the “Zodiacs,” the lives of all “participants” were merely tools for their own ascension. They would do everything in their power to lure participants willingly into their game areas to die, so many “Zodiacs” actively worked to improve their “service attitude.”

Under such circumstances, someone acting contrary to this norm could only mean one of two things.

First: He had no intention of recruiting “participants” into his game—or perhaps he was deliberately controlling the number of people entering his game area.

Second: He was trying to convey some kind of message in that situation.

Qi Xia stared at the map, rubbing his chin. Though his memories would eventually return, deducing the answer early could save him a great deal of time.

That Earth Pig had clashed with Luo Shiyi and Saturday in front of him… What exactly had he said at the time?

Qi Xia slowly closed his eyes, trying to recall the scene. Unfortunately, during their first meeting, he had dismissed the Earth Pig as nothing more than an ordinary pig and hadn’t paid much attention to his words.

When he had pushed Luo Shiyi down, he had said: *”What right do you have to provoke me? Even if I can’t kill you, can’t I at least beat you?”*

He had also sneered: *”Mere mortals daring to challenge a god—seeing how pathetically weak you are just makes me laugh.”*

Qi Xia’s eyes slowly opened.

That was it—that line.

Thinking about it now, that statement had been oddly directed at Luo Shiyi, which made no sense.

Luo Shiyi had only exchanged a few insults with the Earth Pig—how did that escalate to *”mortals challenging a god”*?

So those words hadn’t been meant for Luo Shiyi.

They had been meant for him.

That pig… had almost seemed to be complaining about him.

*”In your expectations… I should have been the Earth Sheep, not a ‘participant’… right?”*

Qi Xia pieced together the Earth Pig’s train of thought. Only from this angle did the Earth Pig’s words make complete sense.

All in all, the Earth Pig was a very strange “Zodiac.” According to the Earth Tiger, he was just a teenager—yet he had earned the Earth Tiger’s trust. However, his ruthlessness and cunning were anything but juvenile.

*”My former teammates really are each more interesting than the last,”* Qi Xia murmured to himself.

If the Earth Pig truly was a child, his mindset wouldn’t be fully mature. It would be easy for him to believe that *”strength is everything.”* After experiencing the power of a “Zodiac,” he would naturally see Qi Xia—who lacked divine abilities—as dead weight, incapable of executing their plan to escape this place.

Taking everything into account, if forced to choose between Qi Xia and the Celestial Dragon, the Earth Pig was highly likely to betray him.

After his conversation with the Azure Dragon, Qi Xia now understood that he couldn’t fully trust his former teammates.

The Celestial Dragon and the Azure Dragon might both be madmen, but they excelled at manipulating human nature. The conditions they offered were too tempting—there was no guarantee that his allies’ loyalties would remain unchanged over such a long period.

*”How strange…”* Qi Xia shook his head, muttering to himself. *”Did I really not leave behind any ‘needles’ before doing this? How was I supposed to ensure that all eight would follow the path I set?”*

He looked down at the map again. At this point, there were only four “Zodiacs” he had neither seen nor heard of:

The Ox, the Dragon, the Snake, and the Rooster.

The closest one here was the “Ox.”

Qi Xia tied the cake box and the plastic bag of fruit together with a tight knot and began walking toward the location marked as the Earth Ox’s territory on the map.

If he had a choice, he wouldn’t have sought out the Ox or Tiger-type “Zodiacs.” Their games didn’t fall within his area of expertise, nor could he threaten them by “gambling his life.” But since the map indicated the “Ox,” he supposed it was worth meeting.

Just as he confirmed his direction, an uneasy feeling crept over him. For some reason, the hairs on his body stood on end.

The atmosphere around him had shifted.

Puzzled, he turned to glance back at the Earth Dog’s game area but found nothing unusual. He then scanned the empty street.

The road was the same as before—quiet and decayed, littered with withered bones and sticky patches on the ground.

Yet something *had* changed. How could he describe it…?

It was as if a storm was brewing, saturating the street with an abnormal pressure. But theoretically, the “Land of the End” never saw rain—so where was this ominous sensation coming from?

It felt familiar yet foreign, as though he had experienced it just days ago.

*”Could this be…?”*

Qi Xia slowly raised his head to the sky—and saw that it had transformed.

Countless black particles drifted outward from the “sun,” spreading across the heavens like a swarm of locusts or a downpour of dark rain, staining the entire crimson sky in an instant.

Before he could react, the black specks descended like a storm.

The “rain” had truly arrived.

Qi Xia’s expression darkened. He was about to retreat into the Earth Dog’s game area to escape this unknown disaster when a rough hand suddenly grabbed his arm.

*”Don’t go in there!”*

A hoarse, dissonant voice rang in his ear. Qi Xia whipped his head around—only to see someone he never expected to appear here.

*”Wei Yang…?”* Qi Xia froze. *”You—”*

*”No questions! Come with me first!”* Wei Yang yanked at his arm urgently. *”Survival comes first!”*