Chapter 66: The Sinister Heaven's Gate
"How could he be dead?!" Qi Xia said incredulously. "He was perfectly fine when we parted yesterday."
"I find it very strange too," Old Lü said. "Maybe excessive blood loss? He was laughing and talking before going to sleep last night, but this morning he just didn't wake up."
Qi Xia's pupils constricted slightly, sensing an unspeakable strangeness about this whole affair.
Zhang Shan had been injured, but it clearly wasn't fatal. Based on Lin Qin and Tian Tian's descriptions, the Black Bear had only inflicted some superficial wounds on him, nothing that damaged his internal organs.
So how could he have died in his sleep?
"Did he suffer any other injuries?" Lin Qin asked. "Like being stabbed with a sword or knife in the early morning..."
"No." Old Lü shook his head sadly. "But I can't say for sure. We're not forensic doctors after all. I just know Zhang Shan stopped moving, stopped breathing, and his chest wasn't beating anymore."
Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling that this incident was probably related to "Xiao Xiao."
In the Earth Ox's game, Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan were undoubtedly the two most outstanding individuals. Without them, there was no way so many people could have survived those two rounds.
Yet in just one night, both of them had perished.
If it wasn't Xiao Xiao's doing, then it must have been the Earth Ox's.
"You're cheating..." Qi Xia muttered through gritted teeth, his eyes carrying a hint of coldness.
"Who? Me?" Old Lü was taken aback.
"No..." A sense of foreboding rose in Qi Xia's heart. At this rate, the number of people with any hope of clearing the game would dwindle to nothing.
With that thought, he turned to Old Lü and said, "Old Lü, since your 'organization' no longer exists, can you tell me about escaping?"
"No longer exists?" Old Lü scratched his head awkwardly. "I wouldn't say that... It's just that with Zhang Shan dead, I can't stay there anymore..."
"Huh?" Qi Xia didn't understand. "Isn't Zhang Shan your leader?"
"No, not at all." Old Lü shook his head. "Zhang Shan isn't our leader. He's sort of the third-in-command in the organization."
"Third-in-command?"
"Yeah." Old Lü continued. "Our organization is called 'Heaven's Gate.' There are about twenty of us. The leader is named 'Chu Tianqiu'—a very clever man. The second-in-command is 'Yun Yao.' She has incredible luck and often wins when gambling. She's also very beautiful—I heard she was a celebrity before coming here. As for Zhang Shan, since he used to be a soldier, he mostly chose the 'Ox' category..."
"Wait, hold on..." Qi Xia felt he had spotted some kind of flaw and quickly interrupted Old Lü. "Did you just say your organization has twenty people?!"
"Probably less than twenty now... With Zhang Shan dead, we 'useless ones' got kicked out..."
"That's not the issue!" Qi Xia said with a puzzled expression. "Old Lü, which day did you all arrive at this place?"
"Two days ago," Old Lü said without hesitation. "Weren't you the same?"
Qi Xia grew even more confused. "We did arrive two days ago, but I still don't understand... How did you manage to establish an organization in just two days? And even appoint three leaders? How could you trust each other?"
After speaking, Qi Xia shook his head again. "No... that's not right. You already had an organization yesterday. In other words, you established this thing called 'Heaven's Gate' on the very first day?!"
"Yeah." Old Lü nodded seriously. "That was all Chu Tianqiu's idea. On the first day, he didn't participate in any games. Instead, he traveled all over the city looking for strong people. Since Xiao Yanjing, Zhang Shan, and I came out of the same room, we joined him together. But now that Zhang Shan is dead, I..."
"Hold on..." Qi Xia raised his hand to interrupt Old Lü again. "Are you saying that this man named Chu Tianqiu gathered twenty people in just one day?"
"That's right." Old Lü looked earnestly at Qi Xia. "That's why I say Chu Tianqiu is very clever."
"But why would you trust him?" Qi Xia asked, bewildered. "When a stranger comes to recruit you, shouldn't you be skeptical?"
"Because Zhang Shan trusted him." Old Lü explained. "I don't know what he said privately to Zhang Shan, but Zhang Shan thought it over for a few minutes and then brought Xiao Yanjing and me into 'Heaven's Gate.' That said, I have to admit, everyone there was pretty decent. Comparatively, I'm the most useless one."
Qi Xia stared at Old Lü incredulously, as if trying to discern whether he was telling the truth or not.
If something like "Heaven's Gate" really existed, and if there really was someone as formidable as "Chu Tianqiu," why was he still alive?
If the "Zodiacs" truly wanted to eliminate capable participants, the first one they should have taken out was the leader Chu Tianqiu.
"Is Xiao Yanjing not with you?" Qi Xia asked again.
"No." Old Lü sounded a bit dejected. "Xiao Yanjing is more capable than me, so he stayed in 'Heaven's Gate.' He's been a good student since he was young—not like me. I spent over twenty years just selling socks at a street stall."
Qi Xia nodded. It seemed that despite Zhang Shan's death, nothing had really changed.
This organization called "Heaven's Gate" still held the key to escaping this place.
The "notes on escaping this place" that Zhang Shan had mentioned were probably with the leader. Someone of Old Lü's status wouldn't know the details.
Qi Xia gradually clarified his objective.
Once he found Officer Li this time, he would try to team up with him. After all, Li was one of the few people Qi Xia could trust.
Then they could go to "Heaven's Gate" and offer their services. On one hand, they could pursue the method of "escape." On the other hand, if there really was a group of capable people there, Qi Xia wouldn't mind joining them in these deadly games.
As Qi Xia was thinking, the three of them passed the intersection marked with "S" and "Z."
Old Lü led them straight in the opposite direction.
Lin Qin was taken aback. She turned to Qi Xia and said, "So we were going the wrong way? Those 'S' and 'Z' weren't left by them?"
"I don't know." Qi Xia shook his head.
Old Lü overheard their conversation and glanced from a distance at those characters that looked like both letters and numbers.
"'S' and 'Z'?" Old Lü hesitated. "Isn't that '52'?"
"Do you know what it means?" Qi Xia asked again.
"I don't know what it means, but I've seen numbers like that in a lot of places," Old Lü said. "Maybe it's just numbers to help people remember the way? Like calling this place '52nd Avenue' or something."
Now that Qi Xia knew these symbols had nothing to do with Officer Li, he no longer cared about their meaning.
After all, there were far too many puzzling things here; there was no time to investigate every single one.
"We're almost there. It's just ahead." Old Lü quickened his pace.