“Chu Tianqiu… You…”
Dr. Zhao’s lips trembled slightly. Though he knew the man before him was utterly deranged, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was no match for him.
“So, have you made your decision?” Chu Tianqiu turned his head, his expression icy and dangerous. With a faint smile, he licked his lips and said, “If you can’t grasp the wings of this mad eagle, how will you ever soar high enough to witness the divine eye in the heavens?”
“You…”
The two men stared at Chu Tianqiu, whose demeanor had completely transformed, utterly speechless.
A “mad eagle”—the description fit Chu Tianqiu perfectly at this moment.
His gaze was razor-sharp, his body exuding an overwhelming aura of bloodlust.
This “mad eagle” carried bombs and gunpowder on its wings. It sought no prey but instead flew straight toward the most perilous thing in the sky—the sun.
Either destroy the sun or become it.
Behind Chu Tianqiu, the two men involuntarily swallowed hard. Dr. Zhao was the first to speak again:
“You said you needed our help. What exactly do you want us… to do?”
“Hunt down ‘Echoers,'” Chu Tianqiu replied. “I need a large number of ‘Echoers.'”
Dr. Zhao frowned at his words. “Chu Tianqiu… you… you need their corpses? To store in your basement and… devour?!”
The statement startled Han Yimo. “W-what?! Devour corpses?!”
“Hah…” A faint smile crossed Chu Tianqiu’s lips. He glanced at Dr. Zhao before turning his gaze to Han Yimo. “Han Yimo, do you think someone who devours corpses is a ‘good person’ or a ‘bad person’?”
“How could they possibly be goo—”
Before Han Yimo could finish, Chu Tianqiu pulled a golden ingot from his pocket.
The ingot was saddle-shaped, rounded at both ends and cinched at the waist, gleaming brilliantly in Chu Tianqiu’s hand.
“Han Yimo, in your novel, who would receive this golden ingot?” Chu Tianqiu asked.
Han Yimo’s eyes widened slowly. He took the ingot and examined it closely before murmuring under his breath:
“Those judged ‘virtuous’ are rewarded with one tael and seven mace of silver. Those judged ‘wicked’ are pierced through the dantian by the ‘Seven Black Swords’… The swordsman Chu Qi, wielder of the ‘Seven Black Swords,’ spent his life rewarding virtue and punishing vice. Only once did he ever give someone a golden ingot.”
“When was that?” Chu Tianqiu pressed.
“The recipient had a heart of pure innocence, untainted like uncarved jade. A lifetime of good deeds, never once committing wrongdoing.” Han Yimo spoke with disbelief. “Such a person… such a person couldn’t possibly exist in reality…”
“So, can the ‘Seven Black Swords’ lie?” Chu Tianqiu continued. “If it deemed me worthy of this golden ingot, could it have misjudged?”
“No…” Han Yimo frowned. “After Chu Qi’s death, the ‘Seven Black Swords’ carried his soul through the martial world. It can see a person’s past, discern the virtue or wickedness of their soul… So it must be…”
“Which means I’m a ‘good person,'” Chu Tianqiu said, his eyes tinged with crimson. “I, too, have spent my life doing countless good deeds, helping everyone I could to the best of my ability. Yet I’ve received no reward—only wounds upon wounds.”
“You…” Han Yimo seemed unconvinced, yet the golden ingot in his hand felt undeniably real, clearly a relic from the tale of the “Seven Black Swords.”
Could Chu Tianqiu… truly be a good person?
Even he himself had once said that there were no true good people in this world—only varying degrees of wickedness.
Could someone who uttered those words have lived a life entirely free of wrongdoing?
“So you’re… sinless?” Dr. Zhao muttered, taken aback. “That can’t be… Chu Tianqiu, if you’ve never done wrong, why are you here?”
“Heh…” Chu Tianqiu’s expression twisted further as he stared at Dr. Zhao before spitting out his words with force: “I wish I knew.”
“What…?”
“I wish I could ask them!!” Chu Tianqiu suddenly roared. “I have more questions than any of you!! What sin did I commit to deserve this endless cycle in hell?! Is this the ‘reward’ for a lifetime of virtue?! The retribution for my selflessness?! I’ve helped countless people—even here, I’ve persisted in guiding the lost toward hope… But where is my hope?! Where is the ‘path’ this place has left for me?!”
Chu Tianqiu’s furious screams sent strands of blood-matted hair falling over his forehead, making him appear even more unhinged.
“Why?! Why must so much suffering await me on my path?! Is this what I deserve?!” His fists clenched, his entire body trembling. “Twenty-eight years of virtue, and just as my life was beginning, a tumor was discovered in my brain. I thought this place would be my chance for ‘redemption’… But everything I clung to here became a joke. The woman I loved turned into a monster. My ‘virtue’ was rendered worthless! My tumor has never stopped hurting me—not even for a moment of peace…!!”
“A tumor…?” Dr. Zhao found this odd. He had previously dissected Qi Xia’s corpse and found a malignant tumor in his brain as well.
Was the “tumor” some kind of coincidence?
But judging by the tumor’s progression, if Chu Tianqiu’s condition mirrored Qi Xia’s, neither of them had more than six months to live.
“No wonder you don’t want to ‘escape’… You want to ‘ascend to godhood’…” Dr. Zhao nodded slowly. “Because escaping here means ‘death.'”
“I’ve done enough…” Chu Tianqiu said. “I’ve been a ‘lighthouse’ here, guiding everyone for so long… Now, I want to do something for myself…”
“So what you want… is to collect their corpses…”
“No.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head, his expression reverting to its icy detachment. “I no longer need corpses. I need their eyes.”
“Their eyes…?”
The two men’s gazes simultaneously fell upon the necklace of eyeballs hanging from Chu Tianqiu’s neck.
“I need a great many eyes,” Chu Tianqiu said, a trace of sorrow in his voice. “If you can gather the eyeballs of ‘Echoers’ for me… I won’t treat you unfairly. But if you fail to bring me ten eyes every day… I’ll have no further use for you.”
“Ten…?” The two exchanged glances. “That means… we’d have to kill at least five people a day… and they’d have to be ‘Echoers’…”
“Correct. But rest assured—as long as you meet the quota, I’ll provide generous rewards daily.” Chu Tianqiu smiled. “Food, supplies… anything I have, I’ll share with you.”
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