# Chapter 82: Echo
"What…?" Qi Xia turned his head, staring at Jiang Ruoxue with a calm expression.
"Although I don't know the reason, I'm not stupid." Jiang Ruoxue said with a smile. "If you were afraid I would stop you, why did you keep me alive?"
Qi Xia covered his wound, his face gradually turning pale.
"Let me guess. You hoped I would pass the message to the other 'Extreme Path Cultivators,' making everyone think 'Qi Xia has given up.' That's why you spared my life, right?"
"Extreme Path Cultivators?" Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze exchanged glances, completely puzzled by her meaning.
"You really are clever." Jiang Ruoxue nodded. "But you miscalculated one thing: I don't care at all whether you manage to collect three thousand six hundred 'Dao,' and I won't stop you."
Qi Xia's expression turned exceptionally grim. He hadn't expected that all his thoughts had been seen through by her.
"Although we are all 'Extreme Path Cultivators,' each of us pursues something different." Jiang Ruoxue took a hair tie from her wrist, gathered her loose hair into a bun, and then said, "Some people are keen on sabotaging the games, some like to destroy 'Dao,' and others swagger around the streets impersonating Natives. But I'm different."
"How are you different?" Qi Xia asked.
"I enjoy experiencing different games and watching people scheme against each other." Jiang Ruoxue answered without hesitation. "Although the 'Extreme Path Cultivators' are a bunch of madmen, liars, and gamblers, each one protects this place with their own strength. My way of protecting it is to incite those Virtuous Persons to participate in the games."
"So… you're a 'shill'?" Qi Xia hit the nail on the head.
"A 'shill'…?" Jiang Ruoxue thought for a moment, then nodded. "If you put it that way… I really am a shill, except no one pays me."
Qi Xia was momentarily speechless, his mind only continuously pondering one question—what exactly was "Extreme Path"?
"And you?" Jiang Ruoxue asked. "Are you really going to give up?"
"What do you think?"
Qi Xia released his hand from the wound and showed Jiang Ruoxue the blood between his fingers. "Can you heal me?"
"That I really can't do." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "I can't figure out the 'logical relationship' that would let me heal you. Otherwise, I would definitely save you… after all, you just spared my life."
Seeing that Qi Xia and the other two were still watching her warily, Jiang Ruoxue didn't bother to overstay her welcome. She stretched, revealing her sexy curves, and then asked, "Are you going to kill me? If not, I'm leaving."
The three of them were not ruthless killers by nature, so they had no reason to kill Jiang Ruoxue. On second thought, they didn't even have a reason to keep her.
"I'm really leaving?" Jiang Ruoxue confirmed again.
Seeing that no one responded, she shook her head helplessly, and in the distance, a bell chimed.
Hearing that soul-stirring sound, Qi Xia finally couldn't help but ask, "What does the bell actually represent?"
Jiang Ruoxue turned back, thought for a moment, and said, "Since you saved my life, I'll make an exception and answer this question. But you have to answer one of mine."
"Fine." Qi Xia nodded.
Seeing Qi Xia agree, Jiang Ruoxue spoke. "Currently, it's known that the bell rings in only two situations: first, when an 'Echo is heard,' and second, when an 'Echo disappears.'"
"What is an 'Echo'?" Qi Xia asked again.
"That's the second question." Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. "Are we that close?"
Qi Xia covered his wound, his face darkening.
Jiang Ruoxue seemed a bit reluctant to be harsh, so she said, "Qi Xia, I'll make an exception and answer one more question for you. 'Echo' is a very abstract thing. Some people can't understand it in their entire lives, and even those who understand it may not be able to unleash the power of 'Echo.' Today I was very lucky—I succeeded in two consecutive 'Echoes,' which is why you're still alive."
Zhang Chenze seemed to have thought of something. "So… the person killed by the glass—that was your doing…"
"If your understanding still stays at the level of 'doing,' I'm afraid you'll never understand 'Echo' in your lifetime." Jiang Ruoxue turned to leave. After three steps, she suddenly thought of something and stopped. "Qi Xia, don't suppress your own sadness. People only hear 'Echo' under extreme emotions."
With that, Jiang Ruoxue pushed open the door of the inn and stepped onto the street.
"Hey, didn't you have a question to ask me?" Qi Xia called out from a distance.
"I'll owe it to you for now." Jiang Ruoxue didn't look back, just waved her hand.
Her words left everyone confused, but Qi Xia felt he had grasped some clue.
According to Qi Xia's understanding, 'Echo' seemed to be some kind of superpower.
This superpower would randomly appear in certain people.
At that moment, the Giant Bell would ring, and the Screen would display 'I heard an Echo.'
In other words, every time the bell rang before, it meant someone had obtained this superpower called 'Echo,' and the second ring meant the user had hidden the superpower, or… the user had died.
"Officer Li is an 'Echoer'…" Qi Xia muttered to himself.
"Officer Li?" Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze both looked at Qi Xia.
"The bell rang for the first time just before Officer Li died, and it rang a second time after he died." Qi Xia tried to connect Officer Li's strange behavior at the time with this superpower. "That means he obtained this ability just before death, but his behavior was very strange."
Qi Xia pulled out the old metal lighter from his pocket and said to Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze, "At that time, he was like a magician, pulling a cigarette from an empty pack and a lighter from an empty pocket."
"What?" Zhang Chenze looked at Qi Xia in confusion. "Didn't you bring those two things to him?"
"No." Qi Xia shook his head. "At the time, I was afraid you would focus too much on these issues, so I kept it quiet. But thinking back now, he did briefly obtain this superpower."
"So you're saying…" Lin Qin gestured with her hand, "this superpower called 'Echo'… can make things appear out of thin air?"
"No." Qi Xia shook his head again. "If we carefully understand Jiang Ruoxue's words, combined with everything that has happened before, we might as well make a bold assumption… this thing called 'Echo' comes in many categories, and each person gains a different ability. So far, we know of 'Calamity Call' and 'Blame Shift,' as well as Officer Li's 'remote retrieval.'"
Zhang Chenze also nodded and interjected, "That Jiang Ruoxue's ability is also different from Officer Li's… she seems to be able to control the 'logical relationship' of an event…"