Chapter 66: The Eerie Heaven’s Gate

“How could he be dead?!” Qi Xia said in disbelief. “He was fine when we parted ways yesterday.”

“I find it strange too,” Old Lü replied. “Maybe he lost too much blood? He was laughing and talking before going to bed last night, but this morning, he just didn’t wake up.”

Qi Xia’s pupils contracted slightly, sensing something indescribably eerie about the situation.

Zhang Shan had been injured, but it certainly wasn’t fatal. From the descriptions given by Lin Qin and Tian Tian, the black bear had only caused him some superficial wounds—nothing that reached his internal organs.

So how could he have died in his sleep?

“Did he suffer any other injuries?” Lin Qin asked. “Like being stabbed by a blade in the early morning or something…”

“No,” Old Lü shook his head sadly. “But I can’t say for sure. After all, we’re not medical examiners. All we know is that Zhang Shan stopped moving, stopped breathing, and his chest wasn’t rising anymore.”

Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling that this was most likely related to “Xiao Xiao.”

In Di Niu’s game, Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan had undoubtedly been the two most outstanding players. Without them, far fewer people would have survived those two rounds.

Yet in just one night, both of them had died.

If it wasn’t Xiao Xiao’s doing, then it had to be Di Niu’s.

“Are you cheating…?” Qi Xia muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes icy.

“Who? Me?” Old Lü was startled.

“No…” A sense of foreboding crept into Qi Xia’s heart. If things continued this way, fewer and fewer people would have a chance of clearing the game.

Thinking this, he turned to Old Lü and asked, “Old Lü, since your ‘organization’ no longer exists, can you tell me about escaping from here?”

“No longer exists?” Old Lü scratched his head awkwardly. “It’s not exactly gone… It’s just that with Zhang Shan dead, I can’t stay there anymore…”

“Huh?” Qi Xia didn’t understand. “Wasn’t Zhang Shan your leader?”

“Not exactly,” Old Lü shook his head. “Our leader wasn’t Zhang Shan. He was more like the third-in-command.”

“Third-in-command?”

“Yeah,” Old Lü continued. “Our organization is called ‘Paradise Port.’ There are about twenty of us. The leader is a man named ‘Chu Tianqiu’—a very smart guy. The second-in-command is ‘Yun Yao.’ She has incredible luck, often wins in gambling, and is extremely beautiful. Rumor has it she was a celebrity before ending up here. As for Zhang Shan, since he used to be a soldier, he mostly chose ‘Ox-type’ games…”

“Wait, hold on…” Qi Xia felt like he’d stumbled upon a glaring inconsistency and quickly interrupted Old Lü. “You’re saying your organization has *twenty* people?!”

“Well, probably fewer now… With Zhang Shan dead, ‘useless’ people like me got kicked out…”

“That’s not the issue!” Qi Xia said, bewildered. “Old Lü, when exactly did you arrive here?”

“Two days ago,” Old Lü answered without hesitation. “Weren’t you the same?”

Qi Xia grew even more confused. “We *did* arrive two days ago, but I still don’t get it… How did you manage to establish an organization in just two days? Even assign three leaders? How could you trust each other so quickly?”

Then he shook his head. “No… No, you already had this organization yesterday, meaning you set up ‘Paradise Port’ on the *first day*?!”

“Yeah,” Old Lü nodded solemnly. “That was all Chu Tianqiu’s idea. On the first day, he didn’t participate in any games. Instead, he ran all over the city looking for strong players. Since I, Xiao Glasses, and Zhang Shan came from the same room, we joined him together. But now that Zhang Shan is dead, I…”

“Hold on…” Qi Xia raised a hand to stop him again. “Are you saying this Chu Tianqiu gathered twenty people in *a single day*?”

“Yeah,” Old Lü said seriously. “That’s why I told you Chu Tianqiu is incredibly smart.”

“But why would you trust him?” Qi Xia asked, puzzled. “Shouldn’t you be suspicious when a stranger asks you to join a group?”

“Because Zhang Shan trusted him,” Old Lü explained. “I don’t know what he whispered to Zhang Shan, but after thinking it over for a few minutes, Zhang Shan brought me and Xiao Glasses into ‘Paradise Port.’ That said, the people there are pretty decent—though I’m the most useless one among them.”

Qi Xia stared at Old Lü in disbelief, trying to gauge whether his words were true.

If something like “Paradise Port” really existed, and if someone as capable as Chu Tianqiu was leading it, why was *he* still alive?

If the “Zodiacs” truly wanted to eliminate strong participants, the first one to be taken out should’ve been the leader, Chu Tianqiu.

“Is Xiao Glasses not with you?” Qi Xia asked.

“No,” Old Lü said dejectedly. “Xiao Glasses is stronger than me, so he got to stay in ‘Paradise Port.’ He was always a good student, unlike me—I spent over twenty years just selling socks at a stall.”

Qi Xia nodded. It seemed that despite Zhang Shan’s death, nothing fundamental had changed.

The organization called “Paradise Port” still held the key to escaping this place.

The “notes on escaping” that Zhang Shan had mentioned earlier were likely in the leader’s possession—Old Lü wouldn’t know the details given his status.

Gradually, Qi Xia’s objective became clearer.

This time, after finding Officer Li, he’d try to team up with him. After all, he was one of the few people Qi Xia could trust.

Then, they could offer their services to “Paradise Port.” On one hand, they could pursue the method of “escape.” On the other, if there really were a group of strong players there, Qi Xia wouldn’t mind joining them in these deadly games.

As Qi Xia pondered this, the three of them passed the intersection marked with “S” and “Z.”

Old Lü led them in the opposite direction without hesitation.

Lin Qin blinked in surprise and turned to Qi Xia. “So we were going the wrong way? Those ‘S’ and ‘Z’ markings weren’t left by them?”

“Don’t know,” Qi Xia shook his head.

Hearing their conversation, Old Lü glanced at the two symbols that resembled both letters and numbers.

“‘S’ and ‘Z’?” Old Lü hesitated. “Isn’t that just ‘52’?”

“You know what it means?” Qi Xia asked.

“I don’t know the meaning, but I’ve seen numbers like this in a lot of places,” Old Lü said. “Maybe they’re just markers to help people remember the route? Like, this could be called ‘52nd Street’ or something.”

Now that Qi Xia knew the symbols had nothing to do with Officer Li, he no longer cared about their meaning.

After all, there were too many puzzling things here—no time to investigate them all.

“We’re almost there, just ahead,” Old Lü said, quickening his pace.