Chapter 898: The Path of Division
Unfortunately, even though I had also established an organization and was called a "King," I was never truly the leader.
Being capable of leading an organization and being capable of establishing an organization are fundamentally different concepts.
I couldn't completely simulate Nie Bei's state of mind, nor did I know what kind of decision he would ultimately make.
If it were me... if I knew an organization or a city was about to collapse, what would I do?
I can only say that I'm truly not suited to be a leader, because there's a high probability I would abandon this city.
In the end, I can only ever be a "shadow." I operate in the darkness; the brighter the sun, the deeper I become.
"But even if I really wanted to stay..." Gu Yu raised his head to look at me. "Sister Zhichun... how can I stay?"
"You..." I frowned at him, knowing this was also an urgent problem to solve.
I had no idea about the situation in his "Interview Room." If, like "Bamboo Shoots After Rain," too few people meant they couldn't clear it... then Gu Yu would ultimately be unable to escape.
It took me about five or six hours to travel from one end of a city to the other. If Gu Yu really came from another city, he would have to spend at least a day migrating every single cycle.
"After all, I was born in 'Jade City'..." Gu Yu slowly lowered his head. "Every time I die, I return there... I open my eyes and see those smiling 'family members'... they're all possessed by madness... they smile, pull at me, and whisper softly to me about how wonderful 'home' is... but all I want to do is escape."
Just hearing Gu Yu's description sent chills down my spine.
Wait... A question suddenly occurred to me...
Of the five cities here, two had already fallen completely, and two more were in the process of falling.
But why was our "Dao City" so strange...?
There was no need to even mention "falling"—there wasn't even a single sign of it.
Everyone was still active. Many people couldn't even preserve their "Echo" and returned with lost memories and renewed enthusiasm.
Every cycle in "Dao City," someone started over. This made the situation in the entire "Dao City" completely different from the remaining four cities.
What caused this situation?
I thought about the commonalities between "Vortex City" and "Jade City" and quickly reached a conclusion... they were too "united."
Once a city was unified, it would act according to the leader's directives. It didn't matter if the leader's decisions were right or wrong; no one could possibly "succeed" because there was no path leading out from this entire "Land of the End."
So only two paths remained for a "united" city—either the leader was overthrown, or the leader led everyone down the path set by "Celestial Dragon."
Thinking about it this way... Could it be that the reason "Dao City" was still healthy was precisely because it was too disunified?
There were many strong people here. Whether it was Chu Tianqiu's faction or Saturday's faction, including the faction of that powerful "Participant" from a few years ago... Countless large and small organizations occupied their own territories, keeping their noses clean and not interfering with each other. Having no friction was already a stroke of luck, let alone merging to create a single dominant power.
Because capable people always possessed capability. Even if they lost their memories, they wouldn't be willing to subordinate themselves to others.
Therefore, this place would never be unified.
In other words, "strong people" were the lifeblood keeping this city "healthy."
But why were there so many strong people in this city?
Of the remaining four cities, did each one only have a single strong person?
Wait...
I had actually forgotten about myself.
There was another extremely important reason why the people in this city didn't trust each other...
That was the "Ultimate Path Seekers"!
As long as there were "Ultimate Path Seekers" capable of hiding their identities, it would be difficult to "unify" this place!
Now, "Ultimate Path Seekers" had already infiltrated every faction. Was this a coincidence or a predetermined course...?
A cold, clear voice suddenly rang out in my mind:
"Yan Zhichun, I'm giving you a problem to solve. First, I need a way to fill the people here with despair and significantly increase the probability of gaining 'Echo.' The more powerful a person is, the more I need them to despair. Second, I need to stop everyone from collecting three thousand six hundred 'Dao.' If anyone tries to achieve this goal, you must stop them at all costs. Third, I need powerful, trustworthy 'Echo-users' who can serve my purposes."
My heart was beating so fast... Wait... I need to sort out the current situation...
I seemed to have discovered something incredible...
White Ram, Ultimate Path Seekers, a fragmented city, powerful and despairing Echo-users, protecting this place...
"Protecting this place."
So that's it... He had already thought about protecting this place long ago!
All of these situations pointed to one possibility...
"This was also his plan..." I murmured to myself. "Oh my god..."
"Huh...?" Jiang Ruoxue looked at me. "Zhichun, what's wrong?"
"The lifeblood of this city's health isn't 'strong people'... it's 'White Ram'..." I said. "This is too absurd..."
Goosebumps instantly covered my entire body, and even my hairs stood on end.
What kind of thinking was this? How could he have come up with this method?
"Ruoxue... He's using 'division' to ensure 'unity'...!" I said, somewhat excitedly.
"Huh...?" Jiang Ruoxue and Gu Yu both looked at me with bewildered expressions.
"The more divided the surface, the healthier the city's core... What kind of reverse thinking is this?" I swallowed my saliva and said. "His thinking is so many steps ahead of ours!"
"I-I don't quite understand," Jiang Ruoxue said.
I grabbed her excitedly. "God... Ruoxue, listen to me... Even though mentioning 'White Ram' might still make you angry right now, everything we're doing seems to be within his plan."
I briefly explained the situation to Jiang Ruoxue, and her eyes slowly widened as well.
"What...?" Gu Yu was also slightly stunned. "'Unity' leads to destruction...?"
"Yes..." I nodded. "Over ninety percent of the 'Participants' here want to 'escape.' So a normal organization, a normal 'leader,' must be able to promise people this condition in order to become the 'leader.' But once someone becomes the 'leader' because of this, the organization's path is already wrong... White Ram had already thought of this. So he single-handedly caused division here... And everything we 'Ultimate Path Seekers' did was within his expectations..."
After I finished speaking, I slowly lowered my head again. "I thought I was smart... I thought I had come up with the best way to merge the 'three problems' into 'one problem.' But I never imagined White Ram had already thought this far ahead... Indeed, to him, this was really just 'one problem.' Only when 'the Ultimate Path' appeared here could this 'one problem' be considered solved. No other method would work."
"W-Wait a minute..." Gu Yu was still a bit dazed after hearing this. "This 'White Ram' you're talking about... Is he a 'Zodiac'?"