Chapter 1299: The Luck-Bound Grudge
Chu Tianqiu arrived at the door, pulled it open a crack, and peered outside.
Ever since the "Ants" had joined the battlefield, things had indeed changed out there.
Almost every room had been visited by "Ants." They held many eyeballs and "Dao" in their hands, their harvest considerable.
Yan Zhichun and the others, along with many "Ants," seemed to have finished sweeping through the "Heaven-level" rooms and had moved on to corridors further away.
In a daze, Chu Tianqiu seemed to see many people rushing toward the "locomotive."
There were "Zodiacs," "Participants," and even "Ants."
Initially, the "Ants" shouldn't have been converging on the locomotive anymore. But now, a strange "Participant" far in the distance had caught the attention of many "Ants." She was leading a large swarm of them as she sprinted toward the locomotive.
She seemed to possess "Teleportation," yet she looked incredibly harried. Whenever an "Ant" was about to touch her, she would use "Teleportation" to shift a short distance. But she stubbornly refused to use it for long-distance movement, maintaining a tantalizingly close distance with the "Ants," a situation that was utterly baffling.
"Ants" don't attack "Participants" at all, so what was she?
A "Heaven-level"...?
As Chu Tianqiu pondered this, he saw the door to a room on his left front open. The battered forms of Earth Monkey and Earth Rooster appeared. Coughing, they pulled strands of long hair from their bodies.
Inside that room, besides the floor covered in ashen-black hair, were the shattered bodies of many "Ants." It looked like they had also fought a desperate battle.
"Hey..." Chu Tianqiu said urgently. "Get back inside."
"Back...?" Earth Rooster spotted Chu Tianqiu in the "locomotive" and his expression shifted. "Why are you out in the open in this room?"
"Long story short... both of you retreat. Something doesn't feel right," Chu Tianqiu said. "Something strange is coming. Seems like a 'Heaven-level'..."
"Another 'Heaven-level'?" Earth Rooster and Earth Monkey were stunned. They quickly ducked back into the doorway. "How is that possible...? Haven't the 'Ants' already been fully deployed...?"
Chu Tianqiu couldn't pinpoint the problem either. The woman's figure was too far away; besides her gender, he could barely make out anything else.
"Is there a woman in 'Heaven-level' who can use 'Teleportation'?" Chu Tianqiu asked, staring into the distance.
"A woman with 'Teleportation'..." Earth Rooster thought for a moment. "That would be Sky Horse...?"
Earth Monkey nodded in agreement. "Yes... 'Teleportation' is probably the only ability that can allow one to escape the 'Ants' pursuit..."
"But could that be Sky Horse...?" Chu Tianqiu squinted at the flustered figure. "Since everyone knows about Sky Horse's ability... if I were her opponent, I would risk everything to cripple her legs."
"Sky Horse's opponent was that tall girl's sister..." Earth Rooster mused. "Not sure if she had such a method... Maybe she failed?"
Chu Tianqiu had no time to think further. He just said to them, "Find a way to hide first. Whatever that thing is, don't let it see you. The people who knew you were 'Rebels' are dead. You're safe now."
The two exchanged a glance and agreed. They had no further plans now. Since they couldn't help with the next phase, the least they could do was not hinder those who were acting.
They nodded at Chu Tianqiu and silently retreated back into Sky Monkey and Sky Rooster's room, closing the door behind them.
Chu Tianqiu, while keeping his eyes on the corridor outside, asked the three women behind him in a low voice, "Almost done?"
"Almost... give me two more minutes..." Tian Tian said. "I'll have it all memorized soon."
"Two minutes..." Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes and palmed an eyeball.
The situation was indeed tricky now. If the newcomer really was a "Heaven-level," theoretically he would need to consume a large number of eyeballs to match her.
But with so many "Ants" roaming around, the only way to avoid being accidentally injured by them was to get rid of the eyeballs he had. In this dilemma, how was he supposed to fight the "Heaven-level"?
As Chu Tianqiu was strategizing, some "Zodiacs" and "Participants" arrived at the door first. He focused and saw it was an Earth Dog, followed by Lin Qin, Xiao Xiao, and Zheng Yingxiong.
The two sides looked at each other through the crack in the door, but said nothing. Earth Dog then led the group towards the fork in the road where the "Heaven-level" room was, and soon a knocking sound came from there.
Chu Tianqiu was even more confused. The closer the plan got to the end, the more bizarre things seemed. Earth Dog was leading a group of "Extreme Path" members to knock on a "Heaven-level's" door? So what exactly was going on now...?
Before he could reach a conclusion, the "Heaven-level" seemed to have gradually mastered the use of "Teleportation." In just a few flashes, she arrived within sight.
But when Chu Tianqiu saw her face, he couldn't suppress the confusion in his eyes.
He had made countless assumptions in his head, but he couldn't make sense of what was happening.
Because the "Heaven-level," panicked and desperate to escape, was none other than Xiao Ran.
"Green Dragon!! Green Dragon, open the door!! Everyone outside has gone mad!!" Xiao Ran shouted as she ran toward the door. "There are so many people rebelling out here... and so many monsters!"
Chu Tianqiu felt his thoughts have never been this jumbled. With no other option, he could only choose to reach out and close the door.
He didn't even know if he was trying to block Xiao Ran or the "Ants." He just had a vague feeling that Xiao Ran seemed to have become one of Green Dragon's people, and he absolutely couldn't let her into this room.
"Huh?!" Seeing the door shut, Xiao Ran's expression instantly changed. "Green Dragon, what are you doing?!"
She ran to the door and started pounding on it violently. "Open the door!!"
Solicitor Zhang and Yun Yao were drawn by the noise. Their hearts both skipped a beat as they turned to look at Chu Tianqiu. "What's going on...? Who's knocking?"
Chu Tianqiu didn't know how to answer that question. His mind felt like a mess. "It's Xiao Ran... What the hell is going on? I really don't understand..."
"Xiao Ran..." Zhang Chenze paused, then looked at Tian Tian. "...Who is that?"
Tian Tian shrugged, indicating she had never heard the name.
Upon hearing this, Yun Yao's expression shifted. She reached into her small bag, pulled out her lipstick, and casually tossed it onto the table. The lipstick rolled across the surface a few times before standing perfectly upright.
"Tianqiu, open the door," Yun Yao said. "'Luck' is still strong. Every decision I make from now on is the right one. Let Xiao Ran in."
Chu Tianqiu looked back at her. "Are you sure? I heard you two have a grudge..."
"I'm sure," Yun Yao nodded. "Perhaps it was precisely because of 'Strong Luck' that we became enemies."