Chapter 1219: I Have Been Here Before
"Zhichun..." Jiang Ruoxue stopped walking and looked at Yan Zhichun, sensing that the other's conviction was wavering. "Are you okay? Are you too tired...?"
"I'm fine... it's just..." Yan Zhichun paused. She clearly remembered that Jiang Ruoxue had just been to her right rear, but now she was to her left front. "...it's just that a very familiar feeling has appeared..."
This was a sensation that only surfaced when Aries was in chaos.
Chu Tianqiu and Qin Dingdong were together, and both of them felt equally dazed.
They hadn't been following the groundhog for long before they felt the groundhog's position begin to shift, as if it had teleported a short distance.
Chu Tianqiu turned his head and felt that the position of the scars on Zhang Shan's body had also moved.
Qin Dingdong wasn't sure if this was her imagination, so she tentatively asked, "Chu Tianqiu... do you feel something's wrong?"
"I..."
Chu Tianqiu and Qin Dingdong opened their eyes wide and looked at the scene before them again. Sure enough, after a moment, everything began to revert, becoming the same as it had been a few seconds ago.
It was as if the two of them had experienced a bizarre journey in those few seconds—a journey where everything was slightly different from the present—and yet now, everything was as if it had never happened.
"I don't know..." Chu Tianqiu said with a frown.
He had encountered this feeling before, but never as intensely as today.
He only felt that he was very close to the center of the storm, and even his memories were being affected by something.
"Aries..." Qixia struggled to control his thoughts and spoke, "Don't whitewash yourself... Those people... didn't you kill them?"
"Oh?" Aries shrugged noncommittally. "Did I?"
"When I killed too many people and couldn't hold on anymore... wasn't it you who took over for me?" Qixia continued. "Without such a thick 'aura of finality'... how could I have killed thousands?"
Aries stared into Qixia's eyes for a long time before smiling. "It looks like you've managed to hold onto your last shred of reason once again."
"I can't go mad... If I go mad... the consequences would be too severe." Qixia frowned. "I still need the three of them..."
"The three who have preserved their memories the longest... right?" Aries countered.
"Yes..." Qixia rubbed his forehead and said, "You should also know... what's in the minds of everyone who has boarded the train now..."
"The entire history of the 'Land of Finality.'" Aries looked toward the door and said, "Even Qian Wu has boarded the train, along with the scattered thousands of 'participants.' The memories of these people cover the entire history of the 'Land of Finality.'"
"Right." Qixia lifted his head. "With these people's memories, I can take everyone from the 'Land of Finality' away..."
"Won't there be any omissions?" Aries asked.
"Omissions..." Qixia narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment. "No."
"What about An?" Aries asked. "Who will take her away?"
"An..."
Qixia's expression gradually changed, and the next moment, a splitting headache struck. He lowered his head, grabbing his hair and groaning.
He felt as if his brain was split into two parts—one part possessed an unparalleled rationality, and the other carried a fanciful sensibility. Now, these two parts were violently merging.
"Because you can't leave," Aries said. "You can't leave... so who else has memories of her?"
"Wait a minute..." Qixia clutched his hair and whispered, "We can't talk about this topic now..."
Yan Zhichun, who had just come back to her senses, felt her mind sink, and she nearly fell.
Seeing this, Jiang Ruoxue reached out to grab her, but in a daze, she saw Yan Zhichun disappear from in front of her and reappear by her side.
"Ruoxue, what's wrong?" the Yan Zhichun beside her asked.
"Ah?"
As Jiang Ruoxue reached out and turned around, she found that the Yan Zhichun beside her had vanished. The Yan Zhichun in front of her was about to fall, barely saved by the hand she had extended.
This dizzying feeling made Jiang Ruoxue unsure if she was the one going mad.
"I... I'm fine..." Yan Zhichun shook her head. "I just had a moment of distraction... an old habit..."
"What kind of old habit is that?" Jiang Ruoxue looked with lingering fear at the spot where Yan Zhichun had just appeared. "Why haven't I heard you mention it?"
"I... forget it." Yan Zhichun shook her head. "There's nothing worth saying."
Jiang Ruoxue felt that there was something chaotic about Yan Zhichun right now, but it wasn't a mental disorder. Instead, it seemed like a kind of...
A kind of chaos in time and space.
Meanwhile, Chu Tianqiu was supporting himself against the wall, while Zhang Shan looked at him anxiously.
"What the hell... Tianqiu, what's wrong with you?" Zhang Shan asked, bewildered. "You've been acting weird since a moment ago..."
As Zhang Shan spoke, he noticed that Chu Tianqiu's appearance suddenly changed. His eyes became gentle and refined, and a smile hung on his face.
This appearance was exactly how he looked the first time Zhang Shan met him at "Heaven's Gate."
But in the blink of an eye, Chu Tianqiu's eyes turned red again, and the killing intent returned in full force.
"I'm fine... go check on Qin Dingdong..." Chu Tianqiu wiped his forehead. "I can still hold on..."
"Qin..." Zhang Shan turned his head and looked at the girl who had come up with him. "Are you okay?"
Qin Dingdong's face was pale. She paused, opened her mouth to say something, but her expression instantly regained color.
"I'm fine."
Now it was Zhang Shan's turn to be confused.
What on earth was happening to these two?
Not far away, the groundhog noticed their abnormality and stopped in his tracks, squinting as he pondered the situation.
There were no enemies in sight... yet these two seemed to be suffering a blow to their convictions... What was going on?
"Chu Tianqiu..." Qin Dingdong gritted her teeth and asked. "Does this feeling really make sense?"
Only then did Chu Tianqiu begin to realize how absurd the situation was. The people and scenery before him kept shifting. How could he describe this abstract sensation...
"It's as if all this has happened before..." Chu Tianqiu murmured. "And our memories are getting confused with the memories from that time..."
"Ah...?" Qin Dingdong was taken aback.
"It's like... I've been to this place in a dream before..." Chu Tianqiu reached out and touched the wall. "Only the scene in the dream was different from the present one... and now my brain is trying to decide which one to believe."
"What the hell... I'm getting more and more confused..." Zhang Shan muttered. "Are you two sleepwalking for no reason...?"
"I can't say for sure..." Qin Dingdong said. "But Chu Tianqiu's description just now was spot on—he said in one sentence exactly what I was feeling. I also feel like I've been here before, but I completely don't remember it..."