Chapter 1291: Signs of Defeat
Qi Xia bent down again and picked up the fourth chair leg.
"No matter what happens to Blue Dragon, my only target is Heavenly Dragon. Once that team carrying extreme luck completes their mission, Chu Tianqiu and I will take a shortcut into Heavenly Dragon's dream and collapse his mental state entirely."
As he spoke, Qi Xia raised the last chair leg high and smashed it against his knee, shattering it into pieces. He instantly fell to his knees, and White Sheep stumbled a step.
"This should be fine..." Qi Xia muttered as he knelt on the ground. "As long as we keep pushing forward step by step... eventually we'll be able to..."
"What kind of absurd plan is this...?" White Sheep leaned against the wall, revealing an extremely complicated expression. "Perhaps I overestimated you..."
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia's fingers paused slightly, and the broken chair leg in his hand fell weakly to the ground.
"What's wrong?" he asked, looking at White Sheep as blood began to seep from the wounds all over his body.
"I laid out all the schemes I had arranged and handed them over to you... and this is the answer you give me?" White Sheep's voice trembled slightly. "Every single one of these answers is the most ridiculous joke I've ever heard in the 'End Land'..."
Qi Xia felt that White Sheep's state was unlike before—all his rationality was barely suppressing his rage.
"Are you dissatisfied with this answer?" Qi Xia asked.
"Are you satisfied?!" White Sheep took a step forward, reaching out to grab Qi Xia's collar, but caught nothing but air. "Is this your plan?! To destabilize Heavenly Dragon's state of mind, interrupt his 'Disruption,' then have the 'Train' lead the few survivors to another space... Is this your plan?!"
Qi Xia gave White Sheep a cold look, then said with a heavy expression, "Yes."
"You..." White Sheep glared with his pale gray pupils, his face full of anger. "I've worried countless times that your intellect might be lacking, but I never imagined it would be this low... You've experienced 'Defeat,' you've experienced 'Eternity,' and now you come up with a plan like this to fight Heavenly Dragon... You've truly lost your mind... He will dismantle your plan in an instant, and all our arrangements could collapse in a single thought...!"
White Sheep seemed unable to contain his fury any longer, yet he still couldn't touch Qi Xia.
"But do you have a better strategy?" Qi Xia asked.
"What...?"
"Weren't you just calling me pathetic? But look at yourself now—what state are you in?" Qi Xia frowned and retorted. "Even if we don't follow this plan, what decision would you make?"
"At the very least, I wouldn't use the same plan as you... because this plan once..." White Sheep gritted his teeth. "Qi Xia, you have truly disappointed me..."
Upon hearing this, Qi Xia's expression shifted slightly, then he changed his tone and said in a low voice, "I am the one commanding this battle now. Even if I lose... what does it have to do with you?"
White Sheep's eyes widened, and he remained silent for a long time. The helplessness in his gaze almost seemed about to tear apart his cold, beast-like face.
"You are merely a figment of my imagination, a fabricated illusion..." Qi Xia said coldly. "I cannot believe you truly exist, so you will never be resurrected. You are already dead. The outcome of this battle has no bearing on you at all. Why are you so agitated?"
"I am aggrieved on behalf of everyone in the 'End Land.'" White Sheep's expression gradually cooled as he listened to Qi Xia. "At the final moment... they entrusted their lives to a worthless piece of trash like you..."
"Heh..." Qi Xia slowly curled his lips into an unusually sinister smile. "They entrusted their lives to me, so I must lead everyone to success? The moment they put their lives on the table, they should have known that winning and losing were equally possible. No matter the outcome, they have no choice but to accept it."
Upon hearing this, White Sheep's expression faded away, as if his heart had died. He slowly stepped back and sighed. "I understand now... It's not that you're incompetent, but that you're too old. Your sluggish brain is making wrong decisions, guiding everyone—including me—toward destruction. Yet your arrogance prevents you from seeing the severity of the problem."
"Heh..." The blood from Qi Xia's forehead once again seeped into his eyes. He raised a hand to cover his forehead, his gaze peering through the gaps between his fingers. "Enough. Am I being lectured by an illusion?"
White Sheep slowly stood up and gave Qi Xia a meaningful look.
That look was laced with loss and despair.
"I bet wrong," White Sheep said. "I should have realized long ago that you were useless, but I always clung to hope. I thought you would come up with a strategy that would impress me."
"I'll say it again," Qi Xia said, his eyes also growing despondent. "Since you can't interfere with the big picture, don't point fingers at my current plan."
White Sheep nodded upon hearing this, and his figure began to fade.
"Qi Xia." White Sheep's voice was very soft, as if speaking to himself. "Run."
"Run..." Qi Xia lowered his head, and the wounds all over his body trembled slightly. "Run where?"
"Find a way to survive." White Sheep's voice gradually faded, as if about to disappear. "I'll forgive all this recklessness of yours this once. But if you truly aren't ready, then you shouldn't have set up such a grand chessboard."
"Enough... White Sheep... We can't even run."
White Sheep sighed, as if offering his final piece of advice. "If you enter Heavenly Dragon's dream now, you will die for sure. Once you and Chu Tianqiu die, Heavenly Dragon will instantly turn the entire situation around, and all everyone has worked for tonight will go up in smoke. If you don't want to live anymore, at least let Chu Tianqiu survive, and give him the chance to lead the next rebellion."
After listening, Qi Xia lowered his head and continued muttering to himself. "Even you think this plan is unfeasible..."
White Sheep looked down at his legs, which were gradually vanishing, and then said in a low voice, "Do you think it's feasible? This plan of yours is exactly the same as the one from the last failure."
"The last time..." Qi Xia kept his head down, his face filled with confusion.
"Ha... haha..." White Sheep let out a bitter laugh. "I see... Excessive aging has kept you from recovering all your memories... Qi Xia, you're senile. You only remember experiencing 'Eternity,' but you don't remember why you fell into 'Eternity' in the first place..."
Before Qi Xia could respond, White Sheep's voice gradually faded. He looked down at his own palm. "It seems you no longer need this illusion of mine... Farewell, Qi Xia. We cannot afford to experience another 'Eternity.'"
The next moment, White Sheep's apparition vanished completely, and the room fell silent once more.
Qi Xia was silent for a few seconds, then slowly broke into a smile:
"I was worried this plan might not fail... Now that even you think it will fail..."