Chapter 1250: The Path to Victory
"I didn't see anything." Yan Zhichun said, slightly displeased.
"How could that be...?" The old man was taken aback, then muttered to himself, "Those images came flooding into my mind. We should all be the same... we're all human, after all."
"I think you should stop dwelling on these questions for now. As long as we survive, you'll have plenty of time to study them."
Yan Zhichun turned her head to look at the Black Sheep in the distance. He had already fended off the Longhorn Beetle's attack for the fourth time. Even though it was called "fending off," the result was that he was sent flying each time—barely managing to stay alive.
"No... I really can't calm my heart. Those images were just too real." The old man reached up and grabbed his disheveled hair, completely unconcerned with the Black Sheep's life or death, talking only to himself. "I can still feel the sensation of each shovel strike... but at the very end... what happened at the end...?"
Yan Zhichun's heart was restless. She vaguely felt that this old man seemed to have some peculiar connection with the White Sheep.
But on second thought, every single "Extreme Path" member ultimately had some kind of link to the White Sheep.
What was truly troubling was the old man's claim of "ancestral memories." That sudden flash of images in his mind was very similar to her own moments of distraction. Could it be that his connection to the White Sheep ran deeper than others?
Yan Zhichun shook her head. She knew the issue at hand wasn't the White Sheep, but survival. So she could only shift her position while the old man was lost in his own ramblings, looking toward the nearest other "Extreme Path" member.
She crouched down, about to lift her leg and move, but the old man grabbed her again.
"Little girl... you don't believe me?!" The old man's lips trembled, and even his voice changed. "I truly saw those images... How can you not believe me?!"
Yan Zhichun's expression darkened. She spoke, "I do believe you, but I can't have an in-depth discussion with you right now. We need to set this topic aside for the moment."
"Set it aside now...?" The old man growled. "No way... After we leave, where will we find these 'ants'? What if I can no longer see those images?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Yan Zhichun heard Zhou Mo's voice in her ear.
"Tch... I really can't figure you out, you bitch. This is a critical moment, and you're out here having a loud argument with someone?"
"Which eye of yours saw me arguing?" Yan Zhichun sighed. "Isn't it him shouting on his own?"
"You'd better shut him up," Zhou Mo said again. "Tch, this is really getting out of hand. In the entire square, aside from the Black Sheep, your spot is the loudest."
"I'm trying my best." Yan Zhichun shook her head, but then remembered something. "Zhou Mo... do you know the person next to me?"
"Tch, I don't know that weirdo," Zhou Mo replied. "Someone this eccentric is usually hired by that bitch Jiang Ruoxue."
"Ruoxue..." Yan Zhichun's heart tightened at the name. "She and Old Sun were the first ones in... Are they okay?"
"Lucky to be alive," Zhou Mo answered. "It seems the Longhorn Beetle didn't expect us to walk straight here. We didn't see her, but she didn't have the chance to launch an attack immediately either. That bitch is still alive."
"I need information about this old man. His 'Echo' is very strong. Help me contact Ruoxue." After saying this, Yan Zhichun felt she had overlooked something. "Wait... you said just now... that none of you saw the Longhorn Beetle when you first entered?"
"What, is that surprising?" Zhou Mo replied quietly. "With so many 'Extreme Path' members having their 'Echo' triggered, if we had seen the Longhorn Beetle right away, would she have been able to kill so many?"
Yan Zhichun blinked. She felt this piece of information seemed important, but she couldn't quite make sense of it.
If none of them had seen the Longhorn Beetle upon entering, it could only mean she had activated "Concealment" from the very beginning. But if she hadn't killed anyone right away, that meant she hadn't known they were coming at all. So why had she activated "Concealment" in advance?
These two contradictory pieces of information, in Yan Zhichun's view, might be the breakthrough point against the Longhorn Beetle.
"Tch, I got the info," Zhou Mo said after a moment. "That old man was indeed hired by that bitch Jiang Ruoxue. She said, 'I saw an old man shoveling dirt on the street, found it interesting, so I pulled him into the Extreme Path.'"
"Uh..." Yan Zhichun felt that this absurd answer was indeed typical of Jiang Ruoxue, so she asked further, "And what about this old man's 'Echo'?"
"Jiang Ruoxue's exact words were..." Zhou Mo sighed. "'Hehe, I forgot.'"
"Alright." Yan Zhichun nodded. "That's perfectly reasonable."
She stopped talking to Zhou Mo and focused her gaze back on the old man in front of her. She felt she might have triggered some strange "causality" again. The old man's hands were gripping her tightly, and his emotions were extremely agitated. If she couldn't handle his issue, the Longhorn Beetle would soon notice the commotion here.
"Old man, how about we make a deal?" Yan Zhichun said. "You tell me your 'Echo,' and I'll tell you a secret about the 'Faceless People' that I've investigated."
"What...? Really?" The old man paused. "You've seen people without faces too?"
"Yes," Yan Zhichun followed the old man's train of thought. "The Longhorn Beetle is too tricky to deal with. If we let her run wild, we'll have no chance to investigate those 'Faceless People.'"
"Longhorn Beetle? You mean that invisible person? What's so tricky about her..." The old man trembled as he released his grip on Yan Zhichun's hand. "I am 'Trace-Seeker'..."
"Huh?"
Yan Zhichun's eyes widened in surprise. She realized she had stumbled upon a way to counter the Longhorn Beetle entirely by accident.
"How else would I be able to find those people without faces?" The old man trembled. "As long as it's an answer I want to know... I can always find the trail. At first, I just wanted to know where we came from, but all the answers led underground."
Yan Zhichun pulled her thoughts together and looked at the old man seriously. "Can you help us lock onto the Longhorn Beetle's position?"
"Isn't that just wanting to win...?" The old man said. "You underestimate 'Trace-Seeker.'"
"What...?"
"Little girl, what you need to find right now is not the 'Longhorn Beetle's position,' but something else." The old man spoke earnestly. "Do you really need to see the Longhorn Beetle in order to win?"
"I don't quite understand." Yan Zhichun felt she still knew too little about this old man. Besides finding someone's location, what else could "Trace-Seeker" find?
The old man reached out on his own, plucked a long strand of hair from Yan Zhichun's head, and held it between his fingers.
"Little girl, what you need to find now is 'the path to victory.'"