Chapter 1218: Putting the Cart Before the Horse
After sending off Tian Tian and the other two, only Qi Xia was left standing alone in the corridor.
Although there were still scattered "participants" passing by from time to time, Qi Xia now looked just like one of those many participants, with no one paying him any attention.
He turned his head again to glance at the illusory figure of Bai Yang, then retreated back into the room, closed the door, and sat down once more in the center of the room.
The timing wasn't right yet; he could only continue waiting.
As expected, when he lifted his head again, Bai Yang was already leaning against the doorframe.
He was like a nightmare to Qi Xia—impossible to drive away, impossible to dispel.
"What an annoying ghost…"
Bai Yang sneered upon hearing this and stepped forward one by one until he sat down in front of Qi Xia.
"Is it because I want to appear?" Bai Yang retorted. "I've already done everything I needed to do. It's supposed to be my retirement, yet I keep getting conjured up by someone over and over. Why don't you just admit defeat? I'll handle the rest."
Qi Xia rubbed his forehead after hearing this, feeling that the situation was once again slipping toward the brink of chaos.
If Bai Yang's phantom was a figment of his own imagination, then every word he spoke was a reflection of his subconscious. Wasn't Bai Yang's current argument proof that he himself was having thoughts of retreat?
"My mind is a mess," Qi Xia said. "But you should know what I'm thinking…"
"Of course," Bai Yang nodded. "You think it doesn't matter even if you die, as long as someone can make it to the end."
"But things are different now…" Qi Xia said. "Something beyond my expectations is happening."
Bai Yang thought for half a second after hearing that, then shook his head and said, "A towering pagoda is bound to have tiny cracks."
"Will it collapse?" Qi Xia asked again.
"So what if it collapses?" Bai Yang stared at Qi Xia and said, "Your goal isn't to make this pagoda stand for a thousand years, but to build it so that it exists for just a single moment."
"Yeah…" Qi Xia muttered, lowering his head. "As long as I build the pagoda and can touch the sky for that one moment, that's enough…"
"So can you stop calling me out?" Bai Yang said with a cold expression. "Is your trump card really me?"
"I…"
For a moment, Qi Xia was speechless. As usual, his mind was juggling many matters at once, but an uneasy premonition in his subconscious kept interrupting every train of thought.
"Isn't it just thousands of faceless people…" Bai Yang chuckled lightly. "As long as you don't say anything… who would find out?"
"Yeah…" Qi Xia nodded. "As long as I don't say anything…"
"Didn't we personally kill those thousands of people?" Bai Yang stood up, then leaned down, his face close to Qi Xia's, and said, "Do you consider those things human?"
Qi Xia's brow furrowed slightly, feeling his mind growing even more chaotic.
"We killed them day and night for many days… before we finally finished them all…" Bai Yang continued. "How long did it take just to bury those bodies?"
"Wait a moment…" Qi Xia held his forehead and looked up at Bai Yang with a cold gaze. "What are you doing?"
"We buried them… wasn't it to cover up this enormous lie?" Bai Yang went on. "So why are you starting to get scared now?"
Qi Xia felt that Bai Yang was trying to shake his psychological defenses, yet Bai Yang was clearly his own illusion.
What benefit would it be to him if he broke down?
Did he really want to be resurrected amid this chaos?
"Sooner or later, they'll be dug up… right?" Bai Yang asked again. "You used those faceless people, then killed them, buried them in the dark corners of the alley… How could you possibly not be found? This place is full of madmen; how can you predict their actions?"
"Are you trying to comfort me or not…?" Qi Xia frowned. "Did I kill those people out of selfishness…?"
"Didn't you…?" Bai Yang leaned down and whispered in Qi Xia's ear. "Are you going to tell me those people wanted to die?"
"Those people…" Qi Xia paused. "No, you said it yourself—those things aren't human."
"What I asked was… do you consider those people human?" Bai Yang straightened up and continued staring at Qi Xia with a meaningful gaze. "Killing faceless people to save those with faces… Is whether they deserve to be saved determined by whether they have facial features?"
"I…"
"Who has been with you longer?" Bai Yang asked again. "How have you gotten things so backward?"
Qi Xia noticed that Bai Yang's form was gradually changing. He wasn't becoming solid, but a faint red aura began to surround him.
It was the dense aura of the "Land of Finality."
Perhaps the person before him had never been Bai Yang, but the "Evil of Finality" that he had been suppressing deep in his heart.
He was himself, yet not entirely himself.
How many people had he killed for this path…?
No… there were still loopholes, because some people weren't killed by him alone—they were killed by Bai Yang as well.
"Bai Yang…" After a few seconds of silence, Qi Xia spoke. "Back when you became the referee of the 'Human-Level Game,' you couldn't even recognize Yan Zhichun… And now you're here mocking me for getting things backward?"
Bai Yang let out a light laugh upon hearing this. "Yan Zhichun… If it were you, would you have recognized her? So many years without seeing her… How long has it been?"
He reached up and stroked his chin, and involuntarily a word surfaced—
"Eternity."
"Yeah, it's been an 'Eternity' since then…" Bai Yang laughed. "After experiencing 'Eternity,' I could still recognize that face—it means Yan Zhichun left a deep enough impression on me. If it had been anyone else, there's no way they'd remember an old acquaintance under those circumstances… right?"
"Some 'Eternity' indeed," Qi Xia said. "That 'Eternity' wasn't just experienced by you—I've gone through it too."
"That 'Eternity' changed our temperaments drastically, turned Bai Hu into an old man, and taught us how to fight against Tian Long…" Bai Yang continued. "But those faceless people who stayed with you… in your eyes, they aren't even human. That makes you seem very cold."
Qi Xia felt his mind gradually descending into chaos.
Far down the corridor, Yan Zhichun, Chu Tianqiu, and Qin Dingdong also slowed to a halt.
They felt that the scene before them seemed to be changing, but the subtle shift was hard to detect. Fortunately, none of them were ordinary people, and they almost instantly sensed something was off.
Perhaps it was just a change in someone's position, or perhaps some people's expressions had suddenly twisted—but this "train" indeed seemed different from before.