Chapter 1224: Stars

“You could say that.” The dark, lean man nodded. “If the plan succeeds, it’s ‘collaboration from within and without.’ If it doesn’t…”

“I get it,” Zhang Shan nodded. “If it fails… at least this city tried its best.”

“Hah…” The man let out a dry chuckle. “Dashan, if you really make it to the end, what do you want to do?”

“What to do… I…” Zhang Shan had just received this news and naturally hadn’t thought about where to go from there.

“We’re soldiers,” the man continued. “How about trying the tactic of ‘capture the leader first to capture the gang’? Find a way to take out their leader.”

Zhang Shan pondered for a moment. The leaders here… weren’t they precisely Tianlong and Qinglong?

“Get some rest early,” the man abruptly changed the subject. “Now that you know about my lie, remember to keep it a secret for me.”

Zhang Shan took a deep breath and lowered his head to look at the corpses beneath his feet.

Corpses were indeed a diverse thing—some with bizarre appearances, some still soft, others already stiff; some looking lifelike, others already rotting and festering.

But no matter their state, piled together here, anyone who saw them would only call them by the same name—corpses.

If they couldn’t be revived, whether rotting and festering or lifelike, whether dismembered or unrecognizable, they would ultimately be seen as the same decaying flesh.

They couldn’t leave or escape. They came from all corners of the world, yet now they were haphazardly gathered together, destined to rot the same way and turn into the same bleached bones.

“Old Nie… damn it, screw this,” Zhang Shan muttered through gritted teeth. “So damn annoying… fuck…”

“Still can’t kick that habit of cursing?” the man asked with a laugh.

“Old Nie, tell me… when I leave, will you warn me in advance?” Zhang Shan asked.

“No,” the man shook his head. “What, are we supposed to have some tearful farewell like a couple of weepy kids?”

“At least…” Zhang Shan fell silent for a moment. “Damn it, at least give me a heads-up so I can brace myself?”

“You’ve been discharged before,” the man said, patting Zhang Shan’s shoulder. “It’s the same principle. Comrades who fought side by side every day will one day scatter to the ends of the earth, maybe never to meet again in this lifetime. In situations like this, we men don’t cry—or at least, we cry under the covers where no one can see.”

“Damn it…” Zhang Shan clenched his jaw. “I…”

The man expected Zhang Shan to say something sentimental, but after a long pause, Zhang Shan only spoke quietly: “Old Nie, I’m afraid I won’t get another chance to say this… I lied too.”

“Oh?” The man thought for a moment. “What could a rough guy like you possibly lie about?”

Zhang Shan ran a hand over his buzzcut, similar to the other man’s, and replied, “I said I’m used to this haircut because I spent so much time in the military…”

“Yeah,” the man looked at him.

“But the truth is, I spent a long time in prison too,” Zhang Shan gave a bitter laugh. “Before I came here, I wasn’t ‘freshly discharged’—I’d only been out for a few months.”

“Hah, damn…” The man burst out laughing at the lie. “I thought it was something serious… Prison? So what?”

Zhang Shan blinked, wondering if he hadn’t made himself clear. “Are you deaf? I fucking committed a crime…”

“You *committed* a crime, not that you *like* committing crimes,” the man waved it off. “After fighting side by side all these years, do I really need to judge whether you’re a good person based on your past?”

“Aren’t you even going to ask why I committed a crime?” Zhang Shan frowned.

“You’d have told me if you wanted to,” the man shrugged. “Who in this world hasn’t made mistakes?”

Zhang Shan let out a quiet, complicated chuckle.

“Dashan, I’ve already turned the page on your past. You should do the same.”

The man leaned back slowly until he was lying atop the pile of corpses.

He cracked his eyes open to look at the sky, but the “Vortex City” that night still had no stars.

The surviving warriors in the city were like stars too, flickering with light no one could see.

But can stars still be called stars if no one sees their light?

Zhang Shan’s gaze flickered as he felt his body rise and travel through time, back to the “Vortex City” of years past.

He passed through shadowed rooms, walked down ruined streets, traversed hellscapes of slaughter, and saw schools bathed in sunset.

When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in a long corridor.

On either side, numerous “Zodiacs” stood indifferently, watching him.

“Zhang Shan,” Chu Tianqiu called from behind. “Are you alright?”

Zhang Shan turned and hesitated before studying Chu Tianqiu’s face. After a long pause, he tentatively asked, “Chu… Tianqiu?”

Hearing this, Chu Tianqiu slowly furrowed his brow. “The way you said that… it’s like you forgot my name.”

Zhang Shan felt a flood of memories crash into his mind—flashes that felt like years of lived experience.

Seeing Chu Tianqiu now, he had almost truly forgotten his name.

This disorienting sensation… would it happen to every “participant” on the “train” as time went on?

“I remember everything now…” Zhang Shan said numbly. “Someone’s been pushing all of this forward…”

He shook his head hard, his thoughts still chaotic. Most of his memories had resurfaced, but fragments remained, unplaced in time.

“What do you mean…?” Chu Tianqiu asked.

“What we’re experiencing now… is the result of countless people working together,” Zhang Shan said. “Under the noses of Qinglong and Tianlong, someone secretly united the entire ‘Peach Blossom Spring.'”

Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes, already guessing who that might be.

“That white sheep…” Zhang Shan turned to look at Dìshǔ. “Among the ‘Zodiacs,’ there was a white sheep… Where is he?”

“Leader…” Dìshǔ gave a hollow smile. “Your memories are back, but you’re still a step behind… There’s no white sheep left now.”

“Huh…?”

Chu Tianqiu shook his head beside him. “He was the white sheep before. Now, he’s Qi Xia.”

“Qi Xia…” Zhang Shan felt like the pieces were finally falling into place.

“So… do you remember what you’re supposed to do here now?” Chu Tianqiu asked again.