Chu Tianqiu walked to the door, cracked it open slightly, and peered outside.
Ever since the “Ants” joined the fray, the situation beyond the door had indeed turned chaotic.
Almost every room had been visited by the “Ants,” who carried many eyeballs and “Tao” in their hands, their harvest bountiful.
Yan Zhichun and the others seemed to have led a large group of “Ants” to sweep through the “Heavenly” rooms before heading toward the distant corridors.
In a daze, Chu Tianqiu thought he saw many figures rushing toward the “locomotive.”
There were “Zodiacs,” “Participants,” and even “Ants.”
Normally, the “Ants” shouldn’t have been gathering at the locomotive, but at that moment, a strange “Participant” far away had caught their attention. She was leading a swarm of “Ants” toward the locomotive at a sprint.
The woman seemed to possess “Blink,” yet she looked utterly disheveled. Every time she was about to be touched by an “Ant,” she would use “Blink” to shift a short distance away. But for some reason, she refused to use it for long-range movement, maintaining a precarious distance from the “Ants”—a baffling tactic.
“Ants” never attacked “Participants,” so… what was she?
A “Heavenly”…?
As Chu Tianqiu pondered, he noticed a door to his left swing open. The heavily wounded Earth Monkey and Earth Rooster emerged, coughing violently as they plucked strands of long hair from their bodies.
Beyond the door lay a floor covered in gray-black hair and the shattered remains of “Ants,” suggesting they had barely survived a brutal battle.
“Hey…” Chu Tianqiu said urgently, “Get back inside first.”
“Back…?” Earth Rooster spotted Chu Tianqiu in the “locomotive” room and stiffened. “Why are you just standing there so openly?”
“It’s… complicated. Just retreat for now. Something strange is happening.” Chu Tianqiu frowned. “There’s something weird coming—might be a ‘Heavenly’…”
“Another ‘Heavenly’?” Earth Rooster and Earth Monkey exchanged glances before hastily retreating behind the door. “How…? Aren’t the ‘Ants’ already swarming everywhere?”
Chu Tianqiu couldn’t explain it either. The woman was too far away—her gender was the only discernible detail.
“Among the ‘Heavenly,’ is there a woman who can use ‘Blink’?” he muttered, squinting into the distance.
“A woman with ‘Blink’…” Earth Rooster thought for a moment. “That’d be Pegasus…?”
Earth Monkey nodded. “Yeah. ‘Blink’ is probably the only ability that can escape ‘Ants’ pursuit.”
“But is that really Pegasus…?” Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes at the disheveled figure. “If I were fighting her, I’d cripple her legs first—no matter the cost.”
“The one facing Pegasus was that tall girl’s sister…” Earth Rooster mused. “No idea if she had the means to do that. Maybe she failed?”
Chu Tianqiu didn’t have time to dwell on it. “Just stay hidden for now. Whatever that thing is, don’t let it see you. The ones who knew you were ‘traitors’ are dead—you’re safe now.”
The two nodded in agreement. With no further plans, the least they could do was avoid becoming a burden.
They gave Chu Tianqiu a silent signal before slipping back into the room of Heavenly Monkey and Heavenly Rooster, shutting the door behind them.
Meanwhile, Chu Tianqiu kept his eyes on the corridor and whispered to the three girls behind him, “Not done yet?”
“Almost… Two more minutes,” Tian Tian replied. “I’ll have it all memorized soon.”
“Two minutes…” Chu Tianqiu clenched an eyeball in his hand, his expression tense.
The situation was precarious. If that really was a “Heavenly,” he’d need to consume a massive number of eyeballs to stand a chance.
But with so many “Ants” lurking around, carrying eyeballs would only make him a target.
How could he fight a “Heavenly” in this damned dilemma?
As he racked his brain, a “Zodiac” and several “Participants” arrived at the door. To his surprise, it was Earth Dog, followed by Lin Qin, Xiao Xiao, Zheng Yingxiong, and others.
Their eyes met through the crack in the door, but no words were exchanged. Earth Dog simply led the group toward the branching path where the “Heavenly” resided, and soon, knocking echoed from that direction.
Chu Tianqiu’s confusion deepened. The closer they got to the end of the plan, the stranger things became. Earth Dog was leading a group of “Extremists” to knock on a “Heavenly’s” door? What in the world was happening?
Before he could piece it together, the “Heavenly” seemed to have mastered “Blink,” closing the distance in a few flashes until she was almost within sight.
But when Chu Tianqiu finally saw her face, his bewilderment exploded.
No matter how many scenarios he ran through his mind, he couldn’t make sense of this.
Because that panicked, fleeing “Heavenly” was none other than—
Xiao Ran.
“Qinglong!! Open the door!! Everyone’s gone mad out here!!” Xiao Ran screamed as she sprinted toward the door. “There are rebels everywhere… and monsters!”
Chu Tianqiu’s thoughts had never been this scrambled. With no clear course of action, he simply reached out and slammed the door shut.
He wasn’t even sure if he was keeping Xiao Ran out or the “Ants.” All he knew was that if Xiao Ran had somehow become Qinglong’s ally, she couldn’t be allowed inside.
“Wha—?!” Xiao Ran’s expression twisted in fury as the door shut in her face. “Qinglong, what the hell are you doing?!”
She pounded on the door violently. “OPEN IT!!”
The loud banging made Zhang Lushi and Yun Yao flinch, their hearts seizing as they turned to Chu Tianqiu. “What’s going on…? Who’s knocking?”
Chu Tianqiu didn’t know how to answer. His mind was a whirlwind of confusion. “It’s Xiao Ran… What the hell is happening? I don’t get it…”
“Xiao Ran…?” Zhang Chenze paused, then glanced at Tian Tian. “…Who?”
Tian Tian shrugged—she’d never heard the name before.
Yun Yao’s expression darkened. She pulled a tube of lipstick from her small bag and tossed it onto the table. It rolled a few times before standing upright.
“Tianqiu, open the door,” she said firmly. “My ‘Luck’ is still strong. Every decision I make now is the right one—let Xiao Ran in.”
Chu Tianqiu turned to her, skeptical. “Are you sure? I heard you two have bad blood…”
“Positive.” Yun Yao nodded. “Maybe that bad blood is exactly why ‘Strong Luck’ brought her here.”
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