“What’s wrong, Old Joe?” Chen Junan asked from the side.
Joe Jiajin stared at the utility pole in front of him and muttered, “Are all the buildings here really constructed using ‘Echoes’?”
“Yes,” Qi Xia nodded.
“That bastard called ‘Tianlong’… treats this place like a dream and just messes around with it,” Joe said. “But why would he build a city…?”
“I don’t know. All I can say is…” Qi Xia murmured, “This place wasn’t a city before. One day, it suddenly became like this. And because everyone experienced a collective memory gap, no one noticed anything strange.”
Joe continued to run his hand over the utility pole, then suddenly felt something unusual.
He firmly believed every object had its own heartbeat—and this time, he actually seemed to sense a pulse from the pole.
This seemingly ordinary utility pole was now emitting a faint, almost imperceptible rhythm. It was alive.
Startled, Joe hurried over to a dilapidated building, placing his hand on it and slowly closing his eyes.
After a long pause, he frowned. This building also had its own “heartbeat,” but its rhythm was distinctly different from the utility pole’s.
Why would objects created by “Craftsmanship” have their own rhythms? Did they have pulses?
“Trickster… are these things really just made by ‘Craftsmanship’?”
“What’s wrong?” Qi Xia asked.
“I can feel a ‘pulse’…” Joe said. “Trickster, have you ever seen a city that beats? Have you ever seen buildings in a city that pulse?”
Chen Junan, hearing this, mimicked Joe’s actions and walked over to the building, touching it before knocking on it forcefully.
Forget a “pulse”—these cold stones didn’t even show the slightest movement.
Qi Xia looked into Joe’s eyes but didn’t answer his question. Instead, he said calmly, “Fists, I need to tell you something important now.”
“What is it?” Joe asked, bewildered.
“With just one sentence from you, you could make everyone here disappear forever—or even reduce this entire city to nothingness,” Qi Xia said. “Fists, your ‘Lawbreaker’ can end everything.”
Joe wasn’t surprised by this answer—Xu Liunian had already told him.
What surprised him was that Qi Xia would say it out loud himself.
“Trickster, do you want to end all this?” Joe asked. “Won’t it mess up your plans?”
“Of course I don’t want to end it,” Qi Xia said. “But I’m afraid one day things might spiral out of control.”
“Out of control…?”
Qi Xia pointed to his temple. “Right now, all my rationality is hanging by an extremely taut thread. Everything else is pure madness.”
“Trickster… are you really okay?” Joe asked, frowning.
“I’m fine now—my thoughts are unusually clear, and I’m perfectly in sync with all the other madmen here,” Qi Xia said. “But the problem is precisely that I still retain this last shred of rationality.”
“Is keeping your rationality bad?”
“Not entirely good,” Qi Xia replied. “Right now, this state lets me think and reason, but it also prevents me from unleashing the full power of my ‘Echoes.’ I can’t have both—I have to choose.”
“Choose… your own rationality?” Joe’s eyes flickered. “Trickster, how do you choose something like that?”
“I’ve ‘materialized’ my rationality. I can see every corner of my mind, and I know exactly what I can’t let go of—but must. When the time comes, I’ll destroy my own rationality willingly,” Qi Xia said. “Fists, this isn’t something you need to worry about. But I’ll leave the final decision in your hands.”
“The decision?”
“If I lose all rationality, I don’t know if things will go as I expect. If at any point you think I’ve gone wrong, then break my ‘Echoes’ without hesitation,” Qi Xia said gravely. “Remember—if you want to kill everyone, use ‘Lawbreaker’ on me. If you want to destroy the entire city, use it on ‘Tianlong.’ Using ‘Echoes’ on just the people or the buildings here won’t work. You have to target the ‘source.'”
“Trickster…”
“Fists, just like how using ‘Lawbreaker’ on the ‘Zodiacs’ won’t revert their enhanced physiques to normal,” Qi Xia explained. “You have to find the caster—their strength doesn’t come from their own ‘Echoes.'”
“But Trickster… you…” Joe turned, his expression serious. “I don’t even know what you’re planning. How am I supposed to judge whether you’re right or wrong?”
“Use your instincts,” Qi Xia said. “Trust the feeling in your gut. If it feels right, it is. If it feels wrong, it isn’t.”
Joe was silent for a few seconds before saying, “This sounds like you’re giving last words. I don’t like it.”
“Liking it isn’t the point,” Qi Xia said. “Everything I’m doing is to help everyone escape. That’s always been my goal. Even if you don’t like it, I won’t stop.”
Chen Junan, who had been listening, suddenly stiffened. “Hold on, Old Qi… did you just say you’re going to help *everyone* escape?”
“Exactly,” Qi Xia nodded. “Every single one. No one left behind.”
“Escape to where?” Chen Junan asked.
“To where we’re supposed to live,” Qi Xia said. After a pause, he added, “To a place where I can live with Yu Nian’an again.”
“Old Qi, are you really not lying…?” Chen Junan asked skeptically. “No one has ever escaped from here before, and now you’re saying you’ll take *everyone* with you?”
“I don’t even know if I’m lying. My chances of success are slim—maybe thirty percent at most,” Qi Xia admitted. “But even that’s the highest it’s ever been. For that thirty percent, I’ll discard my rationality and bet everything. If I succeed, then every word I’ve said is true. If I fail, then every word was a lie.”
Joe, who had been silent for a while, finally asked, “Trickster, do you remember what I said when we first teamed up?”
“I remember,” Qi Xia nodded. “You said you had fists, and I had brains—so we’d work together.”
“But now you’re choosing to throw away your ‘brains,'” Joe said. “Without your mind and rationality… will you still be you?”
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