Chapter 1348: Extreme Evil, Righteous Path
Someone had once told Qi Xia.
That within the "Land of the End," time was relatively still compared to the outside world.
Now, it seemed, that was indeed the case.
Even if it wasn't entirely still, time here passed more slowly than outside.
After all, when Qi Xia had first set foot here, he had still seen the powder lingering in the sky, drifting for a long time.
He himself had already spent so much time in another place, yet here, it seemed like everything had only just settled.
Breathing in the scent of this place, gazing at the unfamiliar surroundings, standing on the solid earth, even Qi Xia couldn't quite put into words what he felt in his heart.
Was it nostalgia…?
Or was it hatred?
After an "eternity," Tianlong returned to his dominion, the "Peach Blossom Land," with a weary look in his eyes.
But he felt no joy at all.
The moment he set foot on this land, it signaled that his and Qinglong's rule had officially begun its descent into failure.
Yet even Tianlong hadn't anticipated at that moment that coming here was merely a part of the "eternity."
This long, long journey had not yet reached its end.
Qi Xia inspected the "door" of the "Jile Bank." He discovered that when he re-entered this door, he wouldn't return to the City of Flesh and Blood, but would instead emerge from the wardrobe in the Golden Fur Monkey's room.
At this moment, one side of this door led to the "Jile Bank," and the other side led to the Golden Fur Monkey's room.
And the Golden Fur Monkey's room naturally had its own exit, but beyond that exit lay a vast void; the "corridor" had been destroyed.
At this point, Tianlong realized that the "train" he had "dissociated" was merely the corridor. On the verge of death, he had thought that destroying the entire corridor would send all the rooms drifting into nothingness.
This caused countless rooms, unconnected by any corridor, to scatter, each adrift in unrelated spaces.
But what could Qi Xia, standing amidst the rooms scattered across the sky… possibly do now?
Tianlong had once again underestimated Qi Xia's perseverance.
Since he now had the Golden Fur Monkey's room, Qi Xia already had a plan. Though it would take a long time, there was no other method more reliable than this one.
He began using the Golden Fur Monkey's room as a base point, summoning the doors of each room from the endless starry void.
He had spent seven years on the "train." While he couldn't say he knew every detail of this place, he could still remember the general distribution of people.
Starting from the Golden Fur Monkey's room, every time he summoned a "door," he used flesh to establish a connection between the two doors. Then, taking the new "door" as a new base point, he would summon other "doors."
Within this space, whenever he wanted to enter a particular "Zodiac's" room, the "door" of that room would drift toward him.
He was like the master of space in the universe, using his own flesh and blood to piece together the scattered spaces.
After another unimaginably long stretch of time, Qi Xia had, with his flesh-made ropes, haphazardly connected almost all the rooms on the "train," including the room at the head of the train and all the "Heavenly Grade" rooms.
When all these rooms were viewed from afar, the branches of flesh connected countless faintly glowing "doors," growing into a bizarre, magnificent, undulating giant tree in the pitch-black space.
This time, he was going to lead everyone to escape. And this time, he couldn't flee to a false world built of flesh and blood. Instead, it had to be a new world where every person could live normally.
Returning to the "Jile Bank," Qi Xia began to ponder his next move.
To set this chain of plans in motion, several prerequisites were needed, and he couldn't accomplish these prerequisites alone.
By this time, Qi Xia's "Belief" had, over a thousand years, reached its peak. He attempted to create real humans who had once existed in his memory.
The first person he created was "Cunning," Zhang Lijuan.
The second person he created was "Soul Shift," Zhang Chenze.
When he saw these two again, Qi Xia revealed his first smile across the "eternity."
He had never imagined meeting them like this, but just seeing their familiar faces gave him an unprecedented sense of peace.
And the two before him had never imagined that the "god" created them only to kill them.
The two felt as though they had only parted from Qi Xia yesterday, but Qi Xia took several days to explain the current situation to them.
Their reactions were no different from any other time.
Zhang Chenze quickly grasped the pros and cons of the entire situation, while Zhang Lijuan, though only half-understanding, was still willing to help.
Qi Xia wanted Zhang Lijuan to build the entire corridor, replacing the existing flesh. Since the rooms were already arranged, this step was not difficult for her.
She had also run through the corridor before and was familiar with its wooden structure.
The few of them sourced materials locally from the "Land of the End" to construct a wooden corridor that could pass for the real thing. After finishing this, Qi Xia dispersed all the flesh that had supported the corridor, letting it float away into the void.
The "train" was officially restored.
"Zhang Lijuan, I owe you a favor," Qi Xia said. "If there really is a day when we can escape, even if it's the very last moment, I will definitely let you go."
Zhang Lijuan didn't seem to fully understand, but she nodded woodenly.
Finally, Qi Xia created a third person.
A new version of himself.
The two looked at each other knowingly. With just a glance, their plan was set.
"If the 'Rebels' board the 'train,' you will become a 'Participant,'" Qi Xia said.
"If the 'Rebels' board the 'train,' I will become a 'Participant,'" Qi Xia repeated.
"Even if you lose your thoughts, lose your consciousness, on that day you will still become a 'Participant,'" Qi Xia continued.
"Even if I lose my thoughts, lose my consciousness, on that day I will still become a 'Participant,'" Qi Xia repeated again.
"You will only become a 'Participant' on the day of the final battle."
"I will only become a 'Participant' on the day of the final battle."
After these three pronouncements, like an oath, Zhang Lijuan and Zhang Chenze looked at each other in confusion, staring at the two Qi Xias, unable to fathom what they were plotting.
"Finally… you need to change the position of the 'door' according to my will at the final moment," Qi Xia said again. "They are the flesh and blood on your body. You will make the save at the last moment."
"Okay…" Qi Xia nodded, engraving all the words in his heart.
Then, Qi Xia handed a knife to Zhang Chenze and, pointing at the Qi Xia he had created, said, "Kill him."
"Ah?"
Zhang Chenze was caught off guard by this sudden turn of events, at a loss for what to do.
"Kill him. Use 'Soul Shift' to move him into the entire corridor," Qi Xia said. "I also owe you a favor. I'll repay it at the last moment."
The two truly didn't understand Qi Xia's intention, and Zhang Chenze was very reluctant to kill someone with her own hands.
But facing such a bizarre situation, her rationality won out, and she ultimately agreed.
With her left hand, she touched the floor of the entire "train." With her right hand, she plunged the knife into the neck of this Qi Xia.
Under the effect of "Soul Shift," the entire "train" became a special "Participant" waiting to awaken.
Seeing this, Tianlong felt his back nearly soaked with cold sweat.
Wait… if the "Rebels" board the "train," does that mean the "train" itself is a "Participant"?
What kind of cryptic implication was this?
He remembered that in his dream, he had "dissociated" all the "Participants." But on that day, the "corridor" was also a "Participant"… According to this logic… could it be that back then, he had unconsciously "dissociated" the entire "train" corridor?
"White Sheep… you…" Tianlong didn't know what to say. He felt that breaking this plan wasn't as simple as killing everyone.
Even if they defeated all the "Rebels" on the "train," the "train" itself would fall apart on the final day.
Finally, with their consent, Qi Xia, using "a better future" as a transaction, personally killed Zhang Chenze and Zhang Lijuan and carefully buried them by the roadside.
This desperate space had always been like this. To truly lead everyone out of the entire space, his hands would inevitably be stained with blood.
Even if everything truly returned to seven years ago, he would start killing and deceiving all over again—all for the sake of leading everyone to a brand-new world at the end.
Massive evil deeds lead to ultimate good. The ultimate evil cause seeks to cultivate the fruit of the righteous path.
If there really was a "god" in this world, even that "god" probably wouldn't support his actions.
So he could only rely on himself.
In this place of despair, he would lead all his family to escape.