After these words, everyone was stunned.
Even the Rat was slightly taken aback.
“You want to… bet your life?” the Rat confirmed.
“Exactly,” Qi Xia nodded. “I’m betting my life.”
The Rat’s throat bobbed as she swallowed hard before saying, “Th-That’s unnecessary, isn’t it?”
Her reaction was beyond Qi Xia’s expectations.
He had assumed these animal-masked figures would welcome such a wager, so why was she panicking?
“M-My game is just a simple ‘searching’ challenge. Betting your life is too extreme… and my entry fee is only one ‘Dao.’ There’s no need to stake your life…”
Lin Qin and Qiao Jiajin looked equally puzzled.
“This game… allows betting lives?” Qiao Jiajin frowned. “But why, Fraudster? Are we running low on ‘Dao’?”
“I remembered what that withered old man said and wanted to test it here,” Qi Xia murmured. “Judging by her reaction, she seems terrified of me ‘betting my life.'”
“I know you want to win,” Lin Qin interjected, “but what if something goes wrong when you bet your life to open the can? What if the ‘Dao’ isn’t inside?”
“I’ll win,” Qi Xia said before turning back to the Rat. “I’ve placed my bet. Can we begin now?”
The Rat remained silent for a long moment before finally trembling out a reply: “If you truly insist on betting your life… then don’t regret it. The game begins now.”
Qi Xia stepped into the room.
Just as the Rat was about to exit and close the door, Qi Xia suddenly grabbed her.
The movement made her entire body stiffen.
Expressionlessly, Qi Xia reached out and slowly retrieved a ‘Dao’ from the Rat’s breast pocket.
“I found it.”
The three at the door gaped in shock.
Was this allowed?
The moment the game began, he had taken the ‘Dao’ from the referee herself.
Did this not violate the “rules”?
The Rat trembled uncontrollably, clearly terrified.
“If I’m not mistaken,” Qi Xia pressed, “the moment you shut that door, this room would no longer contain a ‘Dao,’ right?”
“How did you know…?”
“Simple,” Qi Xia said softly. “Every time you explain the rules, you always stand inside the room and say, ‘Right now, there is a ‘Dao’ in this room.’ That statement is technically true—but it’s also a massive trap.”
When the Rat didn’t respond, Qi Xia continued, “Yes, ‘right now,’ there is a ‘Dao’ in the room. But it’s about to disappear.”
Behind the mask, the Rat’s eyes darted frantically before she finally choked out, “You… you staked your life on such a bold assumption?”
“An assumption? No,” Qi Xia said. “What truly convinced me was how you declared Tian Tian’s ‘game over.'”
“What?!”
“She was behind closed doors. None of us should have known what was happening inside. Yet the moment you opened the door, you immediately told her she’d failed.” Qi Xia shook his head. “How did you know she hadn’t found it?”
“I—”
“The answer is obvious. You knew there couldn’t possibly be a ‘Dao’ in the room.”
The Rat shivered.
“And the ‘Rat-type’ game was another trap. We all assumed rats are nocturnal creatures that search in the dark—that’s the angle Tian Tian took, and logically, she wasn’t wrong. But there are other kinds of rats. Some hide their most important possessions in their mouths, don’t they?”
The Rat stared at Qi Xia for a long moment before realizing she had truly lost.
Suddenly, she mustered all her strength, shoved Qi Xia to the ground, and bolted.
“Damn it!” Qiao Jiajin lunged to grab her, but she twisted away like a real rodent, dodging his grasp.
She sprinted down the street at an alarming speed.
The group stood frozen, never having imagined an animal-masked figure would flee.
“What the hell, Fraudster?” Qiao Jiajin helped Qi Xia up, bewildered. “Why’d she run?”
“I don’t know,” Qi Xia murmured, though his expression suggested otherwise.
Could “betting one’s life” mean…?
He glanced in the Rat’s direction to confirm his suspicion—and then his eyes widened in shock.
“What is it?”
Qi Xia raised a trembling finger, pointing into the distance.
The other three turned and froze.
A figure floated in midair, blocking the Rat’s escape.
“Holy… the Terminator…?” Qiao Jiajin’s voice quivered as the scene defied all logic.
The floating man flicked his wrist, and the Rat collapsed as if drained of all strength.
Then, in an instant, the two vanished—only to reappear right before Qi Xia and the others.
The godlike display left the four of them speechless.
The hovering figure was a tall, slender man, naked except for a blood-red feathered cloak. Wild, unkempt hair framed his face, adorned with a few more feathers. He hovered effortlessly, like a bird in flight.
The group was too stunned to speak.
The Rat trembled violently, muffled sobs escaping from behind her mask.
“Rat,” the man murmured, “what were you doing just now? Trying to run away?”
“I… I…” Her voice was warped with fear.
“Running isn’t allowed,” the man said gently as he landed, stroking her head like a pet. “You must behave. A ‘life bet’ is a ‘life bet.'”
“Lord Vermilion Bird…!” the Rat wailed. “Please, spare me!”
“That’s not possible,” the one called ‘Vermilion Bird’ said, his long fingers tracing her mask. “A wager is a wager. He chose to bet his life. There’s nothing I can do.”
A sense of foreboding gripped Qi Xia. Summoning his courage, he spoke up: “I… I don’t want her life. I only bet mine to win more ‘Dao.'”
“Oh?” Vermilion Bird’s gaze flicked to Qi Xia, but his hand slid down to the Rat’s pale throat, gripping her like a real rodent.
She trembled, paralyzed with fear.
“Is this necessary?” Qi Xia frowned. “I’m the one who initiated the bet. I don’t want her life—just the ‘Dao.’ Killing her does me no good.”
Hearing his plea, the Rat lifted her tear-filled eyes to him.
Vermilion Bird paused, then suddenly chuckled and withdrew his hand.
“How amusing… Rat, stand up. He’s letting you go.” He patted her back lightly.
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