Chapter 1212: The Box in the Warehouse
"Store... a 'Power'?"
Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Qi Xia: "Boss, I feel like I've heard of this person before?"
"She's one of the 'Pathfinders'," Qi Xia said. "In the final stages of her 'Zodiac' period, she fell into the same panic as me."
"What panic...?"
"The panic of 'not knowing how to preserve memories that are about to disappear'," Qi Xia said.
Qi Xia's explanation was somewhat abstract, and the few people in the room couldn't quite grasp it.
After all, none of them had ever tried to become a 'Zodiac', so how could they understand the mindset of a 'Zodiac in the final stage'?
"When she sensed that her 'Zodiac path' was coming to an end, her only option was to think of a way to preserve her memories," Qi Xia said, pointing from a distance at the notebook in Chen Junnan's hand. "Before she could think of a better method, the only choice was to 'write it down'."
"Then this sister's got some serious guts," Chen Junnan said. "Just leaving it here out in the open like that? What if that bastard Qinglong finds it? Wouldn't he crack down hard on her students?"
Qi Xia shook his head after listening, and said softly, "Do you think Qinglong... would care about what's under a certain 'Zodiac's' desk? Or rather... would Qinglong ever enter these rooms?"
"Uh... old man Qinglong wouldn't, but what about the cleaning lady?" Chen Junnan asked again. "With so many rooms..."
"The rooms are cleaned by the 'Natives' led by Tianshe," Qi Xia said. "And once a room is vacant, even the 'Natives' won't come in."
"Uh..." Chen Junnan scratched his head after hearing that, then looked at the dust in the room. "Seems about right... Once a place is unoccupied, no one bothers with it at all."
Zhang Chenze felt that what Qi Xia said carried a lot of information, so she turned to ask, "Then how did you preserve your memories?"
"I... can only say it was more profound than 'writing it down'," Qi Xia said.
Zhang Chenze was speechless after hearing that. She knew that what Qi Xia had done couldn't be explained in just a few words right now.
"I've finished reading," Chen Junnan said, closing the notebook in his hand. "Just like Old Qi said, it's both a 'work log' and a 'personal biography'. It records everything—good or bad—completely for later generations to read."
But Chen Junnan also noticed a fact: as the records progressed, the Golden-Haired Monkey’s thoughts became more paranoid and extreme.
The handwriting was the same person's, but the Golden-Haired Monkey's state of mind in the later stages had clearly begun to waver. She oscillated between immense power and her fundamental human nature.
Should she adapt to her current life, or should she hold on to the last shred of rationality?
The drawbacks of long-term memory preservation were laid bare in her case. This was probably a test that every 'Zodiac' had faced.
Even if someone joined the 'Zodiac' team as an ordinary person at first, over the years they would become violent and cold-blooded.
But Wen Qiaoyun had already realized something was wrong. Not only did she start trying to preserve her memories, she even planted a 'Needle'.
In some respects, she had taken a path similar to Qi Xia's, but her path was too cautious. She used a pen for 'memories' and only planted one 'Needle'.
"She knew that if everything went according to her plan, only her own people would find this notebook," Qi Xia said. "So even though this method seems full of holes, it was actually safe on the 'Train'."
"Tricky guy!" Qiao Jiajin came over to Qi Xia, deep in thought. "This Tall Horse—isn't she the referee from the 'Wooden Flowing Horse' game?"
"It's called 'Wooden Flowing Ox-Horse'..." Chen Junnan corrected from the side.
"It's probably her. With the Golden-Haired Monkey's protection, it's not strange for her to rise to 'Earth Level'," Qi Xia said. "What is it?"
Qiao Jiajin gave an awkward smile after hearing that. "Damn... I don't know if I'm understanding this right, but no matter how you look at it, this 'Horse' is one of our own people... And that 'Forbidden Art' on her seems to have been... broken by me..."
"That's not my concern," Qi Xia said. "At that time, if you didn't break her 'Echo', you would have died. What do you think I would have chosen?"
"This..."
"Even if I had known the situation in advance, my choice would have been the same. I have no relation to that Earth Horse; there's no way I'd let you die just to preserve her 'Power'," Qi Xia continued. "Besides, we didn't know anything before, so there's no need to blame yourself for this."
"But... it's not about blaming myself, tricky guy!" Qiao Jiajin insisted. "What I'm worried about is that we might lose a combatant now. This Tall Horse has a 'Power', doesn't she? Maybe she could help us in some way?"
"I'm not sure how strong a 'Power' the Golden-Haired Monkey could give her," Qi Xia said. "So I won't consider her a primary combatant."
"Something is better than nothing," Qiao Jiajin said. "Even if we're in a brawl, the more people we have on the street, the better."
"Then it's up to her," Qi Xia said. "Your 'Breaker of Ten Thousand Laws' essentially suppressed her 'Echo'. If her conviction is strong enough, she might be able to break through that confinement."
Chen Junnan thought for a moment and felt something was off. "But that wasn't her own 'Echo', was it? Wasn't it something the Golden-Haired Monkey added to her?"
"Right," Qiao Jiajin nodded. "Just like when 'No-Pain' gave me his 'Echo', I couldn't control it either. Whether I feel pain or not was mainly up to him."
"The types of 'Echoes' are different," Qi Xia said, trying to describe the situation. "It's like a box seller giving her one of the boxes. She can freely take out whatever's inside. Now, Fist has locked the box. If she can open it, she can still use it in theory."
"Good grief," Chen Junnan was stunned. "That abstract?"
"In simple terms, the Golden-Haired Monkey's ability is like a large 'box warehouse'," Qi Xia said. "She can keep the boxes herself or give them away. Her role is only to make the boxes and store things inside them."
"Then what was she getting out of it...?" Chen Junnan asked in confusion. "With such an incredible ability... why entrust a box to a clumsy horse?"
"Maybe she didn't have a choice," Qi Xia shook his head. "Or maybe she felt that 'Horse' was very much like herself. But there's no way for us to guess her thoughts. Now even she herself has forgotten—that's the terrifying thing about the 'Land of Endings'."