Chapter 343: Jade

Qian Wu stared into Officer Li’s eyes and smiled slightly. “It’s getting late. Time to rest.”

“Then you…” Qi Xia called out to her. “Have you already determined my ‘stance’?”

“Is there any need to confirm?” Qian Wu shook his head. “Haven’t you always been like this?”

Without hesitation, she turned and pushed the door open to leave, with Zhou Liu following closely behind, leaving the others standing there in stunned silence.

“Everyone, please follow me…” Song Qi said to the group. “I’ll take you to your rooms. Just a heads-up—our ‘Cat’ rooms are all solitary prison cells. I hope you won’t mind.”

Officer Li chuckled wryly and shook his head. “Never thought I’d end up sleeping in a prison cell one day.”

…

The group followed Song Qi to their respective cells, with Zheng Yingxiong insisting on staying in the same room as Qi Xia.

As Song Qi was about to leave, Qi Xia stopped him, feeling uneasy about Chen Junan.

That morning, Chen Junan had confidently declared he would head alone to the Earth Snake’s game. By now, the game should have already concluded.

“Song Qi, can you go back to ‘Paradise’ and check for me?” Qi Xia asked. “I want to know if Chen Junan has returned.”

“Chen Junan…?” Song Qi nodded. “Understood. I’ll be back soon.”

Only after everyone had left did Qi Xia turn his attention to Zheng Yingxiong.

This peculiar child always gave him a strong sense of dissonance.

“Yingxiong,” Qi Xia called out.

“What is it, civilian?” Yingxiong replied.

Qi Xia sighed helplessly. “What’s your ‘Echo’?”

“‘Echo’…?” Zheng Yingxiong seemed to mull over the word before sniffing the air a few times and answering, “I’m a ‘Spirit Sniffer.'”

“‘Spirit Sniffer’…?” Qi Xia had never heard of such a bizarre ‘Echo’ before. “So when you said earlier that you could smell the stench on ‘Zodiacs’ and the scent of ‘Echoes,’ it’s because of this ‘Spirit Sniffer’?”

“Exactly.” Yingxiong nodded emphatically. “That’s why I’m different from all of you. I’m destined to be a lone ‘hero.'”

Qi Xia couldn’t shake the odd feeling. “Then aren’t you just like the ‘Display’ and the ‘Giant Bell’? Except you ‘smell’ instead…”

“No way!!” Zheng Yingxiong declared with unwavering determination. “I’m way stronger than that stupid ‘Display’!”

“Oh?” Qi Xia smirked and slowly sat on the edge of the bed. “Then tell me, how exactly are you stronger?”

“I can detect the faintest scents, but the Display can’t!” Yingxiong boasted as if praising himself. “That dumb Display only shows ‘Echoes’ based on the ‘Bell Chime.’ If someone activates their ‘Echo’ too subtly, it won’t trigger the bell, and the Display won’t light up.”

“Oh…?” Qi Xia felt like he had stumbled onto something significant. “So… if someone activates their ‘Echo’ very lightly, the ‘Bell’ won’t ‘chime’?”

“There’s another scenario!” Yingxiong’s youthful voice echoed in the tiny cell. “If someone masters their ‘Echo,’ they can activate it so swiftly that they finish before the ‘Bell’ even has a chance to chime!”

Qi Xia slowly raised his eyebrows, feeling like he had learned a great deal during this visit to the ‘Cat.’

So, as Lin Qin had said, could the ‘Bell Chime’ really be controlled?

“You know how the Bell is constructed, right?”

“Of course I do,” Qi Xia replied.

“If you’ve ever looked up at the Giant Bell from below, you’d understand why some people can avoid triggering it.”

Qi Xia thought for a moment before asking, “Are you saying that if an ‘Echo’ is activated fast enough, the pendulum inside the Giant Bell won’t have time to strike the wall, so the Bell won’t chime?”

“Exactly.” Zheng Yingxiong nodded emphatically.

Though Qi Xia understood Yingxiong’s explanation, another question arose.

If that was the case, then the Giant Bell had a glaring flaw. Why would the ‘Land of the End’ build such a thing?

If they could construct the Giant Bell, why not make it more refined?

“Civilian, your scent is strange,” Zheng Yingxiong remarked. “Aren’t you a ‘Fragrant One’?”

“‘Fragrant One’…?”

“I—I mean an ‘Echoer’…”

Qi Xia frowned. “What? Does my scent differ from others’?”

“Normally, those with abilities have a fresh fragrance, but yours is odd… somewhere between a ‘Zodiac’ and an ‘Echoer.'”

“Is that so?”

Qi Xia lifted his arm and sniffed lightly, but he couldn’t detect any particular scent.

After all, only Yingxiong could smell it.

“Yingxiong, how did you join ‘Paradise’?” Qi Xia abruptly changed the subject.

“Me?” Zheng Yingxiong pulled out the newspaper short sword from his waist, carefully wiped it, and then turned to Qi Xia. “A very strong civilian invited me in.”

“So this is your first time joining ‘Paradise’?”

“Yes. I didn’t even know this place was called ‘Paradise.'”

“I’m curious,” Qi Xia said. “Where were you before? Did you retain your memories?”

Zheng Yingxiong sheathed his newspaper sword and answered, “To be honest, civilian, I come from another city.”

“Another city?”

“Right. Our city was already sick, already fallen.” Zheng Yingxiong looked up at Qi Xia with a dazed expression. “I never imagined there were still so many active people here.”

Qi Xia recalled the time he had ridden in Xu Liunian’s taxi to the edge of the city, where he had seen towering buildings and sprawling roads.

It was a shame that even this small city before him had already worn him down.

Just how big was this place? What lay beyond the city? Where exactly was the edge?

Where were the Zodiacs stationed? And just how many participants were there?

“Fallen…?” Qi Xia studied the child with suspicion, sensing there was more to his identity.

“Even though I’m a ‘hero,’ I couldn’t rally the entire city. Everyone just kept cycling between life and death.”

Zheng Yingxiong’s expression grew increasingly despondent, making Qi Xia feel as if he had once been a leader in his city.

“But it’s strange…” Zheng Yingxiong blinked. “You mentioned collecting ‘Tao’ earlier. What is ‘Tao’?”

The question caught Qi Xia off guard. He felt like someone had asked him this before, but that person couldn’t possibly be connected to Zheng Yingxiong.

After all, that person was the White Tiger—that gaunt, eerie old man who had once asked Qi Xia with genuine confusion, “What is ‘Tao’?”

“Yingxiong, in your city, did people not need to collect ‘Tao’?”

“I’m not sure if we’re talking about the same thing. What’s the use of this ‘Tao’ you mentioned?”

Qi Xia thought for a moment. “It’s the currency for participating in games.”

After a brief pause, Zheng Yingxiong fished out a handful of small, jade-green stones from his pocket.

He spread them across his palm and extended his hand toward Qi Xia.

“This is what we used to play games,” Zheng Yingxiong said, puzzled. “Don’t you guys use ‘jade’?”