Chapter 916: A Leaping Life
White Sheep dragged me out of the room without explanation and pushed me toward the hellish outdoors.
I looked at the ravaged streets, reached out, grabbed my arm, and pinched it hard...
I wasn't dreaming, was I?
This was a feeling I had never experienced before... Walking down the street, I felt as if everyone in "Zhongyan Land" had died, and I was the only one left alive.
I had never thought about how the gradually drying texture of blood felt like glue—stepping on it even created strings.
The oppression, despair, and stench here were even stronger than before.
I walked dazedly along the street, and indeed, it was no different from what I had imagined... There were no living people to be seen, only "Zodiacs" and "Natives".
The "Natives" seemed liberated, each returning to "normal life". I could see young people out for a stroll, an older sister carrying a basket while shopping in an empty supermarket, and an office worker who kept waving for a taxi by the roadside.
His arm for hailing a cab had been raised for so long that it was starting to dry out.
These people were both quiet and insane.
As for those "Zodiacs", every one of them showed utter numbness and confusion. They slowly dragged the corpses of "Participants" from their rooms out onto the street, tossing them away like trash.
When they saw me, they were slightly taken aback, but soon lowered their heads helplessly and continued cleaning their own spaces.
I carefully considered the current situation... It seemed like some uncontrollable change had occurred, causing everyone to die...
But if it were a "Celestial Moment", logically someone should have survived...
Why was there not a single living person? Why was I the only one alive?
By the second day, all the "Zodiacs" began to shut themselves indoors, as if they also knew that no one would come to play games anymore.
For the "Zodiacs", this was like a long-awaited vacation...
Wait... Could this feeling be... the "Great Reshuffle"?
Yang Ge once said that once someone gathered three thousand six hundred "Dao", a major reshuffle would inevitably occur among the upper echelons. At that point, everyone would have their memories wiped and be killed, ensuring that everything here started from scratch.
Now it looked a lot like... some kind of "Great Reshuffle" had taken place.
This meant someone had collected them all... But who was that?
Was it the leader of some organization?
After calming down, I thought the most likely person to have done this was the man who had once won two thousand nine hundred "Dao" from Yang Ge.
It seemed I still hadn't fully understood Yang Ge's thoughts. I thought he transferred those "Dao" to "Participants" to "prevent the reshuffle", but unexpectedly, it was to "facilitate the reshuffle"...
Perhaps, as he himself said, he planned to drastically reduce the activity of the "Ultimate Joy Bank". Now he could not only lower the activity but also treat all the "Dao" in the bank as his own chips.
After all, no one remembered ever depositing "Dao" there.
Was White Sheep in urgent need of money recently?
Wait a second... I suddenly frowned...
If it's the Great Reshuffle... Would Jiang Ruoxue also be reshuffled?
Would she still remember me?
Thinking of this, I frantically searched the city for Jiang Ruoxue. I went to the areas she frequented and began to examine the corpses on the ground...
At this point, I noticed something strange about all the corpses—they were all lying face down.
It seemed as if something had pierced through the back of these people's heads, then through their foreheads. So they all fell forward, completely defenseless.
But this also increased my workload—I had to turn over almost every corpse to confirm their faces.
For an entire day, I turned over hundreds of fresh corpses, but I still couldn't find Jiang Ruoxue. My hands were stained with the blood of countless people. It dried, got stained again, and dried again. Now they were unbearably itchy... But where was Jiang Ruoxue?
Would she completely forget about me?
I finished searching the last street just before sunset, then sat down against a wall, utterly drained...
Something seemed off... I needed to sort out my thoughts...
Yes, it was true that I hadn't found Jiang Ruoxue, but I also hadn't found any "Extreme Path Cultivator" I remembered.
Maybe I had only searched through too few corpses—just a few hundred. I needed to keep searching in the coming days. I finally understood what "alive, see the person; dead, see the body" really meant.
On the second day, according to the location of "Heaven's Gate" that Jiang Ruoxue had mentioned, I headed toward the hotel they were staying at. But there wasn't a single corpse there. I was puzzled—had such a huge organization all gone out?
Before long, I found a note in what looked like an office. The handwriting was elegant and neat. It had just three lines:
"To returning comrades: 'Heaven's Gate' has moved to the school in the west. Please proceed to rendezvous."
"School..."
I put the note back and headed toward the school in the west. If "Heaven's Gate" had really moved there, it meant Jiang Ruoxue had gone along with them.
When I reached the school, I indeed found a large number of corpses... Unfortunately, I didn't recognize any of them.
I had never seen their leader, nor did I know what the core members looked like. However, I did find an extremely beautiful girl.
Given her height of over one meter seventy-five, she was likely the "Mighty Fortune" Jiang Ruoxue had mentioned. Even she hadn't escaped.
I searched the entire school but found no trace of Jiang Ruoxue... Not even Aunt Tong's body.
I began to understand what was going on...
White Sheep had once said to me: "I have always been ensuring the safety of you and those around you."
Now I finally understood what that meant...
"Extreme Path" seemed to have a get-out-of-death-free card...
As I walked out of the school, I mumbled to myself, head down.
No wonder... No wonder "Extreme Path" could remain so stable. No wonder we could keep recruiting members...
People from "Extreme Path" could escape the Great Reshuffle... They have longer memories than anyone else...
But that's not right!
My mind suddenly jammed... If all "Extreme Path" members never die and can escape the reshuffle... then why was there a corpse of me in White Sheep's office?!
Why did I die?!
While I was lost in thought, a slight questioning sound came from not far outside the school gate.
"Hey...?" The person tentatively called out, then raised their voice, "Girl!"
I looked up and saw "Old Sun" of the "Original" standing there.
"Old Sun...?"
"It's me!" Old Sun walked over cheerfully. "So you're one of us! Are there any of our own still inside this school?"
"This..." I shook my head. "There are no living people inside."
"Then that means Little Jiang isn't here," Old Sun said. "Where has that kid wandered off to this time?"
"Wait a minute... Old Sun." I wasn't quite sure about the situation. "Have you experienced this kind of thing before?"
"How can you be so dumb, girl?" Old Sun said with some confusion. "You've been in 'Extreme Path' longer than I have, right? This Great Reshuffle happens every few years. I'm used to it. Haven't you gotten used to it yet?"
Every few years...?
I seemed to know the problem now... It appeared that every time I spaced out, I skipped over the Great Reshuffle.