Chapter 66: The Eerie Heaven's Gate
"How could he have died?!" Qi Xia said in disbelief. "He was fine when we parted yesterday."
"I find it strange too." Old Lyu said. "Maybe it was excessive blood loss? He was laughing and talking before going to sleep, but when I woke up this morning, he wasn't breathing."
Qi Xia's pupils slightly contracted, feeling that there was something inexplicably eerie about this.
Although Zhang Shan was injured, it was clearly not fatal. From Lin Qin and Tiantian's descriptions, Black Bear had only caused him some superficial wounds and hadn't damaged his internal organs.
But how could he die in his sleep?
"Did he have any other injuries?" Lin Qin asked. "Like being stabbed by a sword or knife in the early morning..."
"No." Old Lyu shook his head sadly. "But I can't say for sure. After all, we're not forensic doctors. We just know that Zhang Shan stopped moving, stopped breathing, and his chest wasn't beating."
Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling that this matter was eight times out of ten related to "Xiaoxiao."
In Earth Ox's game, Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan were undoubtedly the two most outstanding individuals. Without them, so many people wouldn't have survived those two rounds.
But in just one night, both had perished.
If it wasn't Xiaoxiao's doing, then it must have been Earth Ox's.
"Are you guys cheating..." Qi Xia muttered through gritted teeth, a chill in his eyes.
"Who? Me?" Old Lyu was taken aback.
"No..." Qi Xia had an ominous premonition. At this rate, fewer and fewer people would have hope of passing.
With that thought, he turned to Old Lyu and said, "Old Lyu, since your 'organization' no longer exists, can you tell me about escaping?"
"No longer exists?" Old Lyu scratched his head awkwardly. "It's not exactly that it no longer exists... It's just that since Zhang Shan is dead, I can't stay there anymore..."
"Huh?" Qi Xia didn't understand. "Isn't Zhang Shan your leader?"
"Not exactly." Old Lyu shook his head. "Our leader isn't Zhang Shan. He was considered the third in command of the organization."
"Third in command?"
"Yeah." Old Lyu continued. "Our organization is called 'Heaven's Gate.' There are about twenty of us. The leader is named 'Chu Tianqiu,' a very intelligent man. The second in command is called 'Yun Yao.' She's very lucky and often wins when gambling, plus she's very beautiful. I heard she was a celebrity before coming here. As for Zhang Shan, since he used to be a soldier, he usually chose 'Ox-type'..."
"Wait, hold on..." Qi Xia felt like he had spotted a loophole and quickly interrupted Old Lyu. "You're saying your organization has about twenty people?!"
"Now it's probably less than twenty... With Zhang Shan dead, we 'useless' ones got kicked out..."
"That's not the issue!" Qi Xia said in confusion. "Old Lyu, what day did you arrive at this place?"
"Two days ago." Old Lyu answered without hesitation. "Aren't you all the same?"
Qi Xia became even more puzzled. "We did arrive two days ago, but I still don't understand... How did you manage to build an organization in just two days? And even divide it into three leaders? Can you all trust each other?"
After saying this, 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 Lyu nodded solemnly. "It 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 Little Glasses, Zhang Shan, and I came out of the same room, we all joined him together. But now that Zhang Shan is dead, I..."
"Hold on..." Qi Xia raised his hand to interrupt Old Lyu again. "Are you saying that man named Chu Tianqiu gathered twenty people in one day?"
"Yeah." Old Lyu looked seriously at Qi Xia. "That's why I say Chu Tianqiu is very smart."
"But why would you trust him?" Qi Xia asked in confusion. "When a stranger comes to recruit you, shouldn't you be skeptical?"
"Because Zhang Shan trusted him." Old Lyu explained. "I don't know what he said to Zhang Shan privately, but after thinking for a few minutes, Zhang Shan brought me and Little Glasses to join 'Heaven's Gate.' But I have to say, the people there were pretty good. Comparatively, I was the most useless one."
Qi Xia looked at Old Lyu in disbelief, as if trying to judge whether what he said was true or false.
If something like "Heaven's Gate" really existed, and if someone as remarkable as "Chu Tianqiu" really existed, why was he still fine?
If the "Zodiac" really wanted to eliminate outstanding participants, the first one they should take out would be the leader, Chu Tianqiu.
"Didn't Little Glasses come with you?" Qi Xia asked again.
"No." Old Lyu looked a bit downcast. "Little Glasses is stronger than me, so he stayed at 'Heaven's Gate.' He's been good at studying since he was young, unlike me. I've been selling socks at a stall for over twenty years."
Qi Xia nodded. It seemed that even though Zhang Shan was dead, nothing had changed.
This organization called "Heaven's Gate" still held the method to escape from here.
The "notes on escaping from here" that Zhang Shan once mentioned were probably with the leader. With Old Lyu's status, it was impossible for him to know the details.
Qi Xia gradually clarified his own goal.
This time, after finding Officer Li, he would try to team up with him, as he was one of the few people Qi Xia could trust.
Then they could go to "Heaven's Gate" and volunteer 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 participating in these deadly games with them.
Just as Qi Xia was thinking, the three of them passed the intersection marked with "S" and "Z."
Old Lyu led the two directly in the opposite direction.
Lin Qin was startled and turned to say to Qi Xia, "So we were going the wrong way? That 'S' and 'Z' weren't left by them?"
"I don't know." Qi Xia shook his head.
Old Lyu overheard their conversation and also glanced from a distance at the characters that looked like both letters and numbers.
"'S' and 'Z'?" Old Lyu hesitated. "Isn't that '52'?"
"Do you know what that means?" Qi Xia asked again.
"I don't know what it means, but I've seen such numbers in many places." Old Lyu said. "It might be numbers to help people remember the way? For example, this place might be called '52nd Street' or something."
When Qi Xia learned that these symbols had nothing to do with Officer Li, he no longer cared about their meaning.
After all, there were too many puzzling things here, and there was no time to investigate them one by one.
"We're almost there, just ahead." Old Lyu quickened his pace.