Chapter 1170: Open Stratagem
Qi Xia pondered for a moment, then closed the safe door. As soon as he turned around, Bai Yang’s figure appeared before him again.
“Aren’t you getting annoying?” Qi Xia asked.
“I suddenly thought of something…” Bai Yang reached up and stroked his chin.
“If you can’t figure it out, take your time.”
“No.” Bai Yang shook his head. “In my view, asking you will get me the answer faster.”
“Ask.”
“When the time comes… how are you going to leave?”
Qi Xia shot Bai Yang a cold look. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb.” Bai Yang’s expression also turned stern. “I’ve thought about it for a long time and still can’t find the answer… Did you arrange an escape plan for yourself this time?”
“No.” Qi Xia said decisively. “I’m destined to die here.”
“I see.” Bai Yang rubbed his chin, then narrowed his eyes after a moment. “I was afraid my logic had a flaw… since I couldn’t see any way out for you. Turns out you really never planned to walk out alive from the start.”
“So what?” Qi Xia asked.
“If you die, that means I die completely,” Bai Yang replied. “So ‘whether you can survive’ is probably the only thing I care about concerning you.”
“But… you died long ago.” Qi Xia let out a cold laugh and pointed to his own temple. “You’re just a lingering illusion in my mind. Do you really think you’re a person?”
“But have you ever considered…” Bai Yang’s voice suddenly turned icy. “Why did I have to leave behind this one illusion?”
“Oh?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow, thought for half a second, and said, “So this is your final weapon, is it…”
“You’re smarter than most people here, so naturally you know my strategy.” Bai Yang’s illusory figure turned slightly, pointing at the black safe behind him. “How could my ‘final weapon’ be that ‘door’ behind me? That’s just something I ought to prepare for you, both in reason and in emotion.”
“Reasonable.”
“So, are you going to fall for it?” Bai Yang asked again.
“Interesting.” Qi Xia nodded. “Because people here will keep dying, you think I’ll be forced to use ‘Endless Life’ repeatedly, which will make me more and more insane.”
“That’s right.” Bai Yang smiled. “If you go completely mad at some moment, then I’ll no longer be an illusion…”
“But a real person.” Qi Xia nodded as if suddenly enlightened. “A well-laid scheme.”
“Do we need to hypocritically praise each other’s schemes here?” Bai Yang asked.
“Not really.” Qi Xia shook his head. “But I can’t recklessly unleash the overbearing power of ‘Endless Life’… After all, you remember what happened to Yan Zhichun. Once your mind or mine is affected, everyone reborn with memories through ‘Endless Life’ will go into disarray, and we still need them.”
“That makes sense.” Bai Yang said. “Right now, there must be countless dead and injured outside. Are you going to just let it be?”
“If they want to live, they have to tap into my subconscious, just like the trick you’re using.”
“It’s just an ordinary open stratagem. You can’t possibly miss it, but you have no way to refuse.” Bai Yang chuckled lightly. “You disdain to think of yourself as me, and I disdain to think of myself as you. Even ‘Ren She,’ who spans time, would tell you that ‘he is he, and I am I.’ Under these circumstances, once you truly separate the two of us in your heart, I am forced to appear right here. And if you completely take me as yourself, you’ll have to accept all my memories.”
“Well said—‘forced to appear.’ So, as I said, a truly well-laid scheme.” Qi Xia stretched his tired shoulders and slowly sat down on the chair. “For something like this, you had Ren She deliver a single sentence to me across time… Was it worth it?”
“The reason he remembered that sentence is based on his bond with me,” Bai Yang replied. “His subconscious also refuses to acknowledge that we are the same person. Among my disciples, only he would pass that sentence to you verbatim.”
“Indeed, an open stratagem. You can use this opportunity to exploit my subconscious to achieve rebirth, and in the process, replace an insane version of me. Even though you’re dead, you’ve planted a needle in my mind—a needle that forces me to tread carefully even when controlling my own thoughts.” Qi Xia said. “In all of the ‘Land of the End,’ aside from myself, only you have the audacity to plant a needle in my brain.”
“That was the plan originally,” Bai Yang said. “But I didn’t expect you wouldn’t leave yourself a way out.”
“Is that so strange?” Qi Xia asked. “I used my subconscious to turn myself into a monster. Now I’m terminally ill and cold-blooded, so I can’t leave. In other words, this path of survival was never meant for me in the first place.”
Bai Yang let out a cold laugh, the white fur on his face trembling slightly. “You, calling yourself a monster in front of me?”
“Becoming a monster on the outside is merely the most superficial change. From the inside out, I’m no longer human,” Qi Xia went on. “Under these circumstances… are you still planning to use ‘Endless Life’ to be reborn and replace me?”
“Good question.” Bai Yang nodded thoughtfully. “Since you left yourself no way out, it means that even if I appear, I’ll surely die. That certainly dampens my enthusiasm a great deal.”
“But even you can’t stop this plan now,” Qi Xia said. “After all, even the you right now isn’t the real you, but the you in my subconscious. When you appeared here, my consciousness had already divided you and me into two different people.”
“Strange…” Bai Yang narrowed his gray eyes, looking at Qi Xia with a complex expression. “It sounds… like you’re admitting defeat.”
“Not admitting defeat, but seeing through it,” Qi Xia replied. “To be honest, whether you are reborn means nothing to me. But this time, I am determined to let everyone except me leave.”
“So what have you finally decided to do?” Bai Yang asked.
“I will take the ‘train’ with Tian Long and go far away.”
“Oh…?” Bai Yang nodded. “How rare. Isn’t that exactly what Tian Long has always been hoping for? To go to a new space and create a brand new world.”
“Heh…” Qi Xia let out a cold laugh. “Sounds the same, but the reality is far too different. The fact that you asked that question only proves you are not the real Bai Yang, just a mere illusion of mine.”
Bai Yang revealed a faint smile at this, and his entire figure became hazy and ethereal in the room.
Qi Xia took the opportunity to shake his dizzy head. Seeing Bai Yang more and more often only meant that his sanity was gradually fading.
This was not a good omen.
He steadied his mind, stepped out of the office, and closed the door. The next second, he found Yun Yao standing at the entrance of the bank.