Chapter 1265: The Smile of the Snake
Heavenly Snake scrambled to his feet as if he had seen a ghost, scurrying over to the black hole in the wall. He leaned out, steadying himself against the frame, and his expression was one of utter despair.
"Damn it..." Heavenly Snake's voice trembled. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"
"Of course I do..." White Snake replied, head bowed. "Since my life is already on a countdown, I figured I'd take one with me, haha..."
Heavenly Snake's mind raced. He knew killing White Snake now was pointless, but he had never imagined someone would resort to such an attack.
So, was he dead now... or wasn't he?
Never being able to return to the "Train" meant never appearing before anyone else again. Even if he survived, what was the point?
"Damn it..." Heavenly Snake grabbed at his own hair. "Calm down... calm down... Think of something..."
"Hahahaha!" White Snake, seemingly delirious from blood loss, still managed to laugh. "Heavenly Snake... I know you too well... You can't forge a 'Door,' you can never go back..."
Heavenly Snake turned his head, fury in his eyes as he stared at White Snake. He knew the problem was indeed becoming dire. Even if someone on the "Train" opened the door to his room, they would only see a void inside. There was no way to even rescue him.
The "Train" was still the "Train," but they had derailed.
"You...!!" Heavenly Snake stalked over to White Snake, grabbing him by the throat and yanking him up. His face twisted with rage. "I told you I could negotiate! You could have had anything!! Why did it have to come to this?! What are we supposed to do now?"
"Next..." White Snake forced the words out from his throat. "I will slowly die, and you will spend eternity here with that woman. How does that sound?"
Those words sent a chill down Heavenly Snake's spine, making his blood run cold.
Eternity... with that woman?
He had never heard of a punishment more terrifying than that.
He knew he wouldn't die of old age or starvation. He really could spend countless eons here, scraping by with that woman, their fates intertwined until the end of time.
A wave of profound grief washed over Heavenly Snake, surging in his chest and causing him to tremble uncontrollably.
"You look so sad, hahahaha..." White Snake, his neck still gripped, wore an expression of indescribable relief.
He knew he had won.
This time, he had not only won the battle but had also won his entire life.
As Heavenly Snake took a step forward, ready to throw White Snake into the void, Xiao Ran spoke up.
"Stop!" she shouted. "Don't kill him yet! Wait!"
Heavenly Snake paused, holding onto the last shred of his rationality as he turned to look at her. "...Wait for what?"
"That door isn't destroyed, it just fell outside!" Xiao Ran said. "We can make him go get it back!"
Heavenly Snake let out a bitter laugh.
It seemed the sins of his life had truly caught up with him. In his final days, he was forced to share a room with a woman like this.
Make White Snake go get the door back?
Not to mention the immense difficulty of finding a single door somewhere out there in that vast, infinite space. Even if White Snake did find it, why would he bring it back? He could just as easily destroy it, or simply walk through it himself.
Why did this woman think she could control everything?
Did she really believe that a simple line like, "I'll report this to Azure Dragon," was enough to control a man who no longer wanted to live?
Heavenly Snake lowered his head, a look of profound sorrow on his face. He let his hands drop, and White Snake fell to the floor.
He felt that no matter how hard he tried, it was useless. This room would forever be left with only a corpse of White Snake, a few pieces of mindless "Furniture," and that crazy woman with the "gigantification" hand.
All he could do was hope that this floating room would one day drift toward an escape door, anywhere was fine, as long as he didn't have to stay here alone with "Qiongqi."
"Well, at least I have my books..." Heavenly Snake said with a bitter smile. "I have my beloved books to keep me company... If I read them over and over again, I'll eventually surpass Aries and find a way out of..."
He stopped mid-sentence, his gaze caught by a strange book on the floor.
He recognized the illustrations and text layout. But for some reason, the open page had been vandalized, a long gash cut across it with some kind of sharp object.
A pang of grief struck Heavenly Snake. He walked over, gently picked up the book, and looked at the cover. It was none other than his most treasured copy of "The Theory of Games."
"Damn it... damn it!!" Heavenly Snake's lips trembled. "How could this happen?! Who ruined my book?!"
Xiao Ran's mouth opened slightly upon hearing this, but she dared not speak.
But how could Heavenly Snake not figure it out?
For all this time, the only person who had been alone in his room was Xiao Ran.
"Who ruined my book?" Heavenly Snake asked again, his head lifting to stare directly at Xiao Ran.
"So what if the book is ruined?" Xiao Ran said dismissively. "It's just a book. Instead of worrying about that, why don't you figure out how to turn my hand back to normal? Azure Dragon will be terrified if he sees me like this."
"You idiot..." Heavenly Snake gritted his teeth. The rage and resentment he felt could no longer be contained.
The reason everything had come to this was entirely because of this stupid, arrogant Qiongqi.
Ever since she appeared, everything had felt strange and wrong, yet she had never shown even a hint of guilt.
And even if, in the best-case scenario, if she hadn't been in this room, would White Snake have chosen to destroy that door?
At that moment, Hound's warning echoed softly in Heavenly Snake's ears:
"Don't worry about the 'new Xuanwu,' don't listen to her sweet talk. The moment you get back to your room, kill her immediately. There might still be a chance to save yourself, and maybe..."
"Ha... haha..." Heavenly Snake let out a bitter laugh. "How ridiculous... In the final hour, I didn't trust Hound, who I have the best relationship with, but instead chose to trust you and Azure Dragon... haha!"
Heavenly Snake laughed until he was doubled over, tears clinging to the corners of his eyes. White Snake looked up at him, unsure of what he was thinking.
"Azure Dragon... hahaha... damn it..."
Still wearing that eerie smile, Heavenly Snake surveyed his "Furniture." The "Furniture" responsible for "Grafting" had been stabbed through the throat by a piece of wood, now lifeless, signifying that all escape routes had been cut off.
He walked over to a standing "Furniture" in the corner of the room. This one always wore a blindfold. Heavenly Snake removed its blindfold, pointed at Xiao Ran, then took a pen and paper and handed them to it.
The "Furniture" hesitated for a moment, stared at Xiao Ran, then began silently writing words on the paper:
"Gigantification," "Flashbang," "Leap," "Harden."
After writing these four "Echoes," the "Furniture" paused for a while, then quickly scribbled down two more characters—
"Calamity."
"Ha..." Heavenly Snake smiled bitterly as he looked at the list of words. He seemed completely unhinged.
He crumpled the paper into a ball and crushed it, then turned to Xiao Ran and said:
"'Qiongqi'... I've changed my mind. I'm going to train you in 'Leap' so you can return to Azure Dragon and report."
A smile spread across Xiao Ran's face upon hearing this. "Ha... you've finally come to your senses. You should have done this from the start."
The atmosphere grew stranger. Xiao Ran was smiling. Heavenly Snake was smiling. And even White Snake, lying on the floor, was smiling too.