Chapter 1069: Coordinated Attack
Upon hearing this, the Snake’s eyes darkened, and he lowered his head deeply.
In the dimly lit room, the two sat facing each other in silence. The oppressive light flickered faintly with a nearly imperceptible draft.
“Brother Sheep…” The Snake finally spoke after a long pause.
“It’s Qi Xia,” Qi Xia said.
“What difference does it make…?”
“I don’t know,” Qi Xia shook his head. “But I feel there is a difference.”
“Whether it’s Brother Sheep or Qi Xia…” The Snake sighed. “Both of you seem to be striving for the same goal.”
“It appears so,” Qi Xia nodded. “For now, I see him as a partner. Since I can’t fully read his memories, he is me, but I am not him.”
“I met Chen Junnan earlier,” The Snake continued. “He said you’re writing something now that far surpasses *Macbeth*…”
“*Macbeth*?” Qi Xia glanced down at the notebook in front of the Snake, piecing together the full picture in his mind. “The *Macbeth* written by the ‘Infinite Monkeys’?”
“Yes,” The Snake confirmed. “Is what he said true? Are you saving all the monkeys?”
“It seems so,” Qi Xia replied. “I’ve walked many paths before, but they all led to dead ends. Eventually, I pieced together this one.”
“What…?”
“That’s what I meant when I said I realized I couldn’t ‘win’ just as I was about to reach the end,” Qi Xia said. “It’s a subtle feeling. I deduced that if I had achieved a temporary ‘win’ back then, I would have fallen into an eternal ‘loss.’ It was the same whether I stood before the Heavenly Dragon or was about to become the Heavenly Sheep. So I gave up.”
The Snake listened to Qi Xia’s description and remained silent for a long time. It was just like his impression of the “End Land”—he hadn’t stored many memories, yet Qi Xia had already tried countless paths.
So what truly distinguished the End Land from real life?
Some people opened their eyes here at a starting point far beyond that of ordinary people, just as unfair as life itself.
This far-reaching starting point was even earned through the lives of their ancestors, generation after generation—no different from reality.
If one didn’t want to work hard, they could only hope their parents had, and their parents hoped their grandparents had.
Replace “parents, grandparents, and ancestors” with countless versions of oneself, and that was the End Land.
If even once the memory wasn’t preserved, it was as if the family line had lost its bloodline, and everything started over.
“So this time… can you win?” The Snake asked again.
“So far, I don’t see the backlash from ‘winning,’” Qi Xia answered. “So I’ll keep moving forward until this path leads to the end.”
“Which means your plan has already begun,” The Snake said, lifting his head to look into Qi Xia’s eyes. “But in this plan… is there no part for me?”
Qi Xia was about to answer when he slowly closed his mouth.
From a normal perspective, the Snake indeed couldn’t help much. After all, fights among the “Zodiacs” were mostly about raw strength, so the “Ground-level” were the key players in any chaos.
But Qi Xia had stuck so many “pins” into the End Land—were there none among the “Human-level”?
If there were… how could the “Human-level” survive this storm?
“If I were the White Sheep, I would have told you everything before I left.”
After speaking, Qi Xia tapped the notebook on the table.
“There should be more than just this,” he added. “My memories haven’t fully recovered—something seems to be locking them. So, is there anything you want to tell me?”
The Snake looked at Qi Xia. After a long pause, he spoke slowly, “Qi Xia, Brother Sheep spoke to me alone before he left.”
“I guessed as much.”
“I thought they were just a few parting words, but now seeing you standing here…” The Snake gritted his teeth. “Make me realize they weren’t just farewells—they were a mission.”
“So, are you willing to share them with me?” Qi Xia asked again.
The Snake hesitated, as if there was something he couldn’t say. After a moment, he said, “If you were standing before me as Brother Sheep, those words might not apply. But since you’re ‘Qi Xia’ now… this becomes a bit troublesome. I also want to ask you… who should I trust between the two of you?”
Qi Xia heard this and reached up to stroke his chin, feeling that the situation was roughly what he had guessed.
“You asked Chen Junnan about the ‘Coordinated Attack Problem’ earlier,” Qi Xia said. “In reality, the ‘coordinated attack’ isn’t between me and Tianchuqiu—it’s between me and the White Sheep.”
“You…”
“The mountains where the White Sheep and I stand aren’t far apart in distance, but in time,” Qi Xia said, thinking as he spoke. “To achieve ideological alignment across two different time periods, not everyone we meet along the way can be trusted.”
The Snake pondered this and realized that the situation was exactly as Qi Xia described… This was a “coordinated attack” that spanned across timelines, but far more complex than the original problem.
Not only were the two mountain generals unable to synchronize their timing, but even the scattered soldiers had to decipher the messages sent by the generals. Amidst this process, there were countless enemy troops, spies, and lies. Some had even gone completely mad, no longer the same people they once were.
What’s more… Qi Xia could no longer send messages back to the White Sheep. He could only receive the clues left by the White Sheep through bits and pieces, try to judge their authenticity, and then gather his own people to launch a coordinated attack with the original White Sheep.
He had to tread carefully, step by step, because the enemy’s reach was like a net spread across every corner—they could even hear every word Qi Xia said.
Just listing these problems made the Snake feel like his brain was about to explode.
Could anyone actually solve all these problems in such a hostile environment and swim against the current? One moment of carelessness could lose the whole game, and decades of painstaking efforts would turn to nothing.
No… The Snake quickly thought of an even more terrifying problem.
This was more than just a coordinated attack between the White Sheep and Qi Xia…?
When the White Sheep became the White Sheep, he had also coordinated with an even earlier Qi Xia.
So it wasn’t just a collaboration between two people—it was a collaboration among countless versions of oneself.
After all, Qi Xia himself said that he ended up here because he felt he couldn’t “win” back then, so he chose to “lose.” Almost every Qi Xia since then had followed the same logic, just to ensure the ultimate “win.”
In other words, spanning seventy years… just to coordinate all the troops, all the failed experiences, and launch a final offensive.
And the person in front of him was neither Qi Xia nor the White Sheep—he was the aggregate of all his predecessors.
“No wonder you said he is you, but you are not him…” The Snake laughed bitterly. “Because your composition is even larger than his.”
“So what did he say?” Qi Xia asked.
“Qi Xia… the situation now is about what I imagined. Brother Sheep told me back then, ‘If a new leader ever appears here, remember that he is he, and I am I.’”
The Snake lifted his eyes to look at Qi Xia, his expression extraordinarily complex.