“At least I’m not insane,” Qi Xia said.
“Oh?”
“After enduring countless things that normal people couldn’t accept, I’ve still managed to remain this rational. That alone proves I’m not insane,” Qi Xia replied expressionlessly.
“Quite the opposite,” Qinglong said. “It only proves you’ve been insane for a long time—beyond saving.”
Hearing this, a smile gradually spread across Qi Xia’s face. “So, I’ve gone mad beyond cure?”
“Exactly. Only by being sufficiently deranged… can one reach the best state. And that’s a good thing,” Qinglong replied with a manic gleam in his eyes. “Mad enough, ruthless enough, cold-blooded enough—without needing to empathize with any ‘mortals.’ That’s the prerequisite for becoming a ‘god.'”
“But I don’t want to become a ‘god,'” Qi Xia said. “The reason I’ve done all this isn’t to indulge in slaughter for my own pleasure.”
“Indulge in slaughter for my own pleasure?” Qinglong raised an eyebrow, as if hearing an absurd notion. “What kind of idea is that? Do I seem like that kind of person?”
“Aren’t you?” Chu Tianqiu interjected. “When someone gathers enough ‘chips,’ you slaughter everyone. Logically, shouldn’t you just kill the one who gathered the chips?”
“Interesting. As ‘gods,’ we can’t empathize with ‘mortals,’ and as ‘mortals,’ you can’t empathize with ‘gods’ either,” Qinglong nodded. “Chu Tianqiu, let me ask you—if a colony of ants invaded your home, what would you do?”
“A colony of ants…?”
“Suppose you found that this colony of ants tries to bite you every day, but it doesn’t hurt at all. You just watch them with amusement as they scavenge food, build their base, fight among themselves, live, and die—the best entertainment for your boredom,” Qinglong continued. “But over time, one or two ants grow clever, figuring out the rules, and start trying to crawl into your eyes.”
Chu Tianqiu seemed to grasp something and fell silent.
“Would you single out those ants and kill them?” Qinglong slowly clenched his fist. “No one would bother with such tedious work. The best solution is to pour boiling water into the entire nest and wipe them all out—clean and simple. Because I am ‘human,’ and you are as lowly as ‘ants.’ Just as I am a ‘god,’ and you are as lowly as ‘mortals.’ If I want to kill, I kill. I don’t care what the ants think.”
Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia stared at Qinglong in silence. His position had always been so lofty that his words were hard to comprehend.
But today, for some reason, they found his logic eerily persuasive.
“Qi Xia, you don’t want to become a ‘god’—you want to escape?” Qinglong asked.
“Yes.”
“A pipe dream,” Qinglong said. “Why are you even more naive than Chu Tianqiu?”
His words made both men frown slightly.
After a moment of thought, Qi Xia spoke. “So… you’re not even bothering to hide it anymore? Both of us fought our way up from among the ‘participants.’ Right now, we represent them. Are you sure you want to outright tell us there’s no escape?”
“Of course,” Qinglong nodded. “‘Lies’ are for the masses, not for the elite. The fact that you two waited here for my arrival proves that petty deceptions no longer work on you. Why would I keep feeding you the same old nonsense? Hearing the truth from my lips is an honor you’ve earned yourselves. The masses can only envy you. After all, you two are the finest ants in my presence.”
Qi Xia glared coldly at Qinglong. Though he had long known escape was impossible, hearing it so casually from Qinglong’s mouth still stirred resentment.
It was like spending decades tracking down a murderer, only for them to confess all their crimes the moment you met—and then say, *I never intended to hide it from you.*
Qinglong, amused by their expressions, chuckled. “One thousand eight hundred ‘Chains,’ one thousand eight hundred ‘Hooks,’ three thousand six hundred ‘Paths,’ three thousand six hundred ‘Vortexes,’ fifty-seven thousand six hundred ‘Jades’—each more absurd than the last. The moment Tianlong sets a rule, hordes of people die for this ridiculous ‘game.’ It’s like holding sugar in your hand and watching ants fight over it… though ‘humans’ are far more entertaining than ‘ants.'”
He then stepped closer to Qi Xia. “Do you know what Tianlong said to me when we set the most outrageous rule yet—during the ‘Jade City’ phase?”
“What did he say?” Qi Xia asked coldly.
“He said, *Let’s set an absurdly high number and turn the teeth green without even changing their shape. Let’s see if these pitiful mortals will die for it.*”
“You…” Chu Tianqiu seemed about to speak, but his voice caught in his throat.
“He also said, *We can assign a group of workers to legitimize our slaughter of other participants, drastically slowing down their progress. Just give them a fancy title, and they’ll forget everything else, obsessed with climbing the ranks. Call them ‘Celestial Stems,’ ‘Earthly Branches,’ even ‘Constellations’ or ‘Zodiacs’—it doesn’t matter. Once we tell them they can escape by killing their own kind, they’ll willingly become our lapdogs.*”
“Oh, and as they say, *Serving a ruler is like serving a tiger*,” Qinglong added. “But serving a ‘god’ is far worse. These people were already ‘ants.’ We graciously let them stand beside us—but if they break the rules or make mistakes as our dogs, well… that’d be a shame.”
Qi Xia nodded. “You’ll turn them into real ‘ants.'”
“HAHAHAHA!” Qinglong spun around, his face twisted with madness. “How did you guess?!”
“Hard not to,” Qi Xia said. “Those bugs that crawl out at night—they’re your handiwork.”
“Of course! Of course!!” Qinglong laughed. “We gouged out their eyes, cut off their noses, pulled their teeth, shaved their eyebrows, and crushed their ears. Then we planted an idea in their minds: *If you can find your missing features, you’ll become human again.* Isn’t that brilliant?”
Qi Xia nodded again. “Brilliant.”
“That way, every night, the ‘Beetles’ release them to scavenge for ‘Paths,’ ‘Hooks,’ ‘Jades,’ ‘Chains,’ and ‘Vortexes’ scattered across the city and on people. It keeps the ‘participants’ from hoarding them and saves us the effort of making more chips… Absolutely perfect!”
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