Qi Xia bent down again and picked up the fourth chair leg.
“No matter what the outcome for Qinglong is, my only target is Tianlong. Once the team carrying the strongest fortune achieves their goal, I will enter Tianlong’s dream with Chu Tianqiu through the shortcut and completely shatter his state of mind.”
As soon as the words fell, Qi Xia raised the last chair leg high and smashed it against his knee, reducing it to splinters in an instant. He immediately dropped to his knees, and Bai Yang staggered back a step.
“This is fine…” Qi Xia muttered on the ground. “As long as we push forward step by step like this… in the end, we can…”
“What kind of absurd plan is this…?” Bai Yang leaned against the wall, his expression twisted with complexity. “Perhaps I overestimated you…”
Qi Xia’s fingers twitched slightly upon hearing this, and the broken chair leg slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor.
“What’s the matter?” He looked up at Bai Yang as fresh blood began to seep from his wounds.
“I laid out every scheme for you… and this is the answer you give me?” Bai Yang’s voice trembled faintly. “These so-called solutions are the most ridiculous jokes I’ve ever heard in this ‘Land of Finality’…”
Qi Xia sensed something different in Bai Yang’s demeanor—his usual rationality was barely containing his fury.
“Are you dissatisfied with this answer?” Qi Xia asked.
“*You* think this is acceptable?!” Bai Yang took a step forward, reaching out to grab Qi Xia by the collar, but his hand passed through empty air. “You’re telling me this is your plan?! Shaking Tianlong’s resolve, disrupting his ‘Dissolution,’ then letting the ‘Train’ carry the few survivors to another dimension… *This* is your plan?!”
Qi Xia met Bai Yang’s gaze coldly before replying with a heavy expression, “Yes.”
“You…” Bai Yang’s gray-white pupils burned with rage. “I’ve worried countless times that your intellect might falter, but never to this extent… You’ve experienced ‘Failure,’ you’ve endured ‘Eternity,’ and now you come up with *this* to oppose Tianlong… You’ve truly lost your mind. He’ll dismantle your scheme in an instant—everything we’ve built could collapse in a single thought…!”
Bai Yang seemed on the verge of unleashing his fury, yet he still couldn’t lay a hand on Qi Xia.
“But do *you* have a better strategy?” Qi Xia countered.
“What…?”
“You just called me pathetic, but look at yourself now.” Qi Xia frowned. “Even if we don’t proceed with this plan, what decision would *you* make?”
“At the very least, I wouldn’t resort to the same plan as you… especially since this plan once…” Bai Yang gritted his teeth. “Qi Xia, you’ve truly disappointed me…”
Qi Xia’s expression shifted slightly at those words before hardening. “Right now, *I’m* the one leading this battle. Even if I lose… what does it have to do with you?”
Bai Yang’s eyes widened as he stood in stunned silence, the helplessness in his gaze threatening to tear through his cold, bestial mask.
“You’re just a figment of my imagination…” Qi Xia said coldly. “I can never acknowledge you as real, so you’ll never be revived. You’re already dead—the outcome of this battle doesn’t affect you in the slightest. So why are you so worked up?”
“I’m grieving for everyone in this ‘Land of Finality,'” Bai Yang replied, his expression growing distant. “At the final moment… they entrusted their lives to a useless waste like you…”
“Hah…” Qi Xia slowly cracked a grin, revealing an eerie smile. “Just because they staked their lives on me, I *have* to lead them all to victory? The moment they placed their bets, they should’ve known the odds were fifty-fifty. Whatever the outcome, they’ll have to accept it.”
Bai Yang’s expression faded as if his heart had died. He took a slow step back and sighed. “I see now… You’re not incompetent—you’re just *too old*. Your dulled mind is making the wrong decisions, leading everyone—including me—to ruin. But your arrogance blinds you to the severity of it all.”
“Hah…” Fresh blood dripped from Qi Xia’s forehead into his eyes. He pressed a hand to the wound and peered through his fingers. “Enough nonsense… Am I really being lectured by a hallucination?”
Bai Yang slowly rose to his feet, giving Qi Xia a long, meaningful look.
His eyes were filled with disappointment and despair.
“I bet on the wrong person,” Bai Yang said. “I should’ve realized long ago that you’re worthless. But I held onto hope—I thought you’d come up with something that would dazzle me.”
“And I’ll say it again,” Qi Xia replied, his own gaze dimming. “Since you can’t interfere with the bigger picture, don’t criticize the decisions I’m making now.”
Bai Yang nodded, his form beginning to fade.
“Qi Xia,” he said softly, as if speaking to himself. “Run.”
“Run…?” Qi Xia lowered his head, his entire body trembling from his wounds. “Where?”
“Find a way to survive.” Bai Yang’s voice grew faint, as though he might vanish at any moment. “I’ll forgive all your recklessness this time. But if you truly weren’t ready, you shouldn’t have set up such a grand game.”
“Cut the crap, Bai Yang… There’s nowhere to run.”
Bai Yang sighed, offering his final piece of advice: “Entering Tianlong’s dream now is suicide. If you and Chu Tianqiu die, Tianlong will overturn the entire situation in an instant—all the effort everyone put in tonight will be for nothing. If you don’t care about living anymore, at least let *Chu Tianqiu* survive. Pass the torch of rebellion to him.”
Qi Xia lowered his head further and muttered, “Even *you* think this plan won’t work…”
Bai Yang glanced down at his legs, which had already begun dissolving, and said gravely, “Do *you* think it will? This plan is identical to the one that failed last time.”
“Last time…?” Qi Xia’s face twisted in confusion.
“Hah… Hahaha…” Bai Yang let out a bitter laugh. “I see now… Your extreme age has left your memories incomplete… Qi Xia, you’ve grown senile. You remember enduring ‘Eternity,’ but you’ve forgotten *why* you were trapped in it…”
Before Qi Xia could respond, Bai Yang’s voice grew even fainter. He stared at his fading hands and murmured, “It seems you don’t need this illusion anymore… Do as you please, Qi Xia. We can’t endure another ‘Eternity.'”
In the next moment, Bai Yang’s phantom vanished entirely, leaving the room in silence.
After a few seconds of stillness, Qi Xia slowly smiled.
“I was worried this plan might not fail… But now, even *you* think it will…”
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