# Chapter 334: The Next King?
The atmosphere was unusually silent. Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Yun Yao. Neither of them knew how to explain the current situation.
"Chen... Chen Junnan..." Yun Yao took a deep breath, suppressing her emotions as she spoke. "They're all 'natives'... Do you think we still need to save them...? They don't even know what they're doing right now."
"No... that's not how it works..." Chen Junnan came back to his senses and said, "'Natives' won't disappear with the passage of time... If we don't save them, they'll be trapped here forever, for all eternity."
"This..." Yun Yao turned to look at Xiao Ran. "Although it's somewhat unexpected that she's turned into this, you know what kind of person Xiao Ran is, don't you?"
"I know." Chen Junnan nodded. "I came from the same room as her, so naturally I know her character. Even though I've scolded her into crying more than a dozen times, I still feel like it wasn't enough."
"Then do you think she's worth saving?"
Chen Junnan sighed and turned back. "Big star, I also regret having seen this, but if we just turn around and leave, how are we any different from Earth Serpent's methods?"
Yun Yao looked at him with confusion, asking lightly, "Chen Junnan, what kind of person are you really?"
"In a world full of good people, I want to be a villain." Chen Junnan lowered his head and unlatched the chain around Xiao Ran's neck. "In a world full of villains, I want to be a good person."
He looked at Xiao Ran's face and felt a touch of melancholy.
"How about you all help untie the chains too..."
The three of them moved around the room, rescuing these emotionless 'natives'. The chains were merely looped loosely around their necks, yet they couldn't break free at all, like walking corpses.
After a short while, all the chains had been removed from their necks, but not a single person moved.
"Hey!" Chen Junnan shouted loudly. "You're free now. You can leave."
The girls in the room showed no reaction at all, making Chen Junnan briefly wonder if they were deaf.
After a long moment, Xiao Ran, who was sitting beside the throne, slowly lifted her head and said, "Bad person..."
"What?" Chen Junnan turned to look at her.
"Bad person... I'm not leaving..." Xiao Ran slurred her words. "I'm waiting for Master to come back..."
Chen Junnan looked at Xiao Ran, curled his lips, and said, "Suit yourself. I've done my part."
The moment he finished speaking, one of the girls standing against the wall began to slowly shuffle her feet toward the stairs. Then came the second, then the third.
About half of the twenty-plus people started moving toward the stairs, shuffling like robots as they left the room.
"Let's go too." Chen Junnan turned back to Yun Yao and Xu Qian. "The choice has been given to them."
Xu Qian looked at the remaining girls in the room with some confusion. "Do we really not need to do anything more for them...? There, there are children here who are only in their teens..."
"Sister Qian, although I'm a good person, I'm far from that good." Chen Junnan said. "I only do what I'm capable of."
When the three of them left the basement, the air of the 'Land of the End' felt incredibly fresh.
It was hard to imagine these girls spending their days in a completely sealed room, accompanied by excrement and corpses. Fortunately, they had long lost their consciousness; otherwise, they would have gone mad.
The girls who came out looked left and right after exiting, then slowly dispersed in different directions, while Yan Zhichun, dressed in white, still stood there.
"You...?" Yun Yao looked at her with confusion. "You didn't leave?"
Yan Zhichun smiled calmly at this, reached up to brush her long hair, and said, "You three chivalrous heroes sure have some nerve. You left your 'Paths' lying around here, didn't even leave someone to guard the door for you, and just went straight down to the basement like that? If I locked the door and took all your 'Paths', what would you do?"
The three of them watched Yan Zhichun warily, unsure of her intentions.
After speaking, Yan Zhichun glanced at the women who had already walked away. "But I have to admit, you did do a good deed... This counts as protecting the 'Land of the End' as well."
Xu Qian thought for a moment and asked, "You... came here specifically to cover our retreat?"
"Not really..." Yan Zhichun shook her head, then looked at Chen Junnan. "I remember someone told me earlier not to leave after this was over, that he wanted to treat me to a meal."
"Huh?" Chen Junnan suddenly remembered something and hurried forward a couple of steps. "Sister Chun, I'm not just going to treat you to a meal..."
"Oh?" Yan Zhichun smiled at him. "Is there something else?"
"Sister Chun, do you want a husband?" Chen Junnan gave a weak, strained smile. "If you want a husband... just say the word... and I'll send you one..."
Before he could finish, his eyelids slowly drooped, and his entire body pitched forward.
Yun Yao and Xu Qian were both far away from Chen Junnan, nowhere near fast enough to catch him.
Just as Chen Junnan was about to smash his nose into the ground, Yan Zhichun suddenly raised her hand. At the same moment, the unconscious Chen Junnan also raised his hand, catching himself firmly with his palm.
Yan Zhichun then pushed her hand forward, controlling Chen Junnan's body to flip over, like someone turning over in their sleep, gently lowering him to the ground.
The three women looked at Chen Junnan, who lay on the ground covered in blood, unsure of what to do. They didn't even know if he was still alive.
Yun Yao stepped forward first, crouched down, and felt his neck. His pulse was weak, but it was still there.
"I'm taking him back." Yun Yao said. "He was the one who killed Earth Serpent. I want him to be the king of 'Heaven's Gate'."
After speaking, she looked up at Yan Zhichun and Xu Qian. "Can you help me?"
The two girls seemed confused. Yan Zhichun paused and asked, "How are you going to get him back? There isn't even a cart here."
Without another word, Yun Yao took off her jacket, revealing the athletic tank top underneath. "I'll carry him on my back."
"Carry him?"
Yun Yao crouched down with her back to Chen Junnan, draped his arm over her shoulder, then used her jacket as a rope to tie his waist tightly to hers. With a burst of strength, she hoisted him onto her back.
It was only then that Xu Qian and Yan Zhichun noticed that although Yun Yao looked slim, there were obvious muscle lines on her legs and arms, suggesting she had undergone professional training.
Yun Yao ignored Xu Qian and instead turned to look at Yan Zhichun. "I don't know what side you're on, but if you try anything funny, you'll probably die by my hand."
"Is that so...?" Yan Zhichun's expression still held a gentle smile, but it carried a dangerous undertone. "My 'side'? I'm 'Extreme Path'."
Hearing those two words, Yun Yao's expression turned cold. After all, on this land, the thing she hated most was 'Extreme Path'.
"Different paths, different plans." Yun Yao said. "Go your own way."
"Ha." Yan Zhichun found Yun Yao amusing. "Sister, the one who invited me wasn't you, so you don't have the right to send me away."
Xu Qian could feel the tension between the two growing heavy. It seemed there was some history between them, but she didn't know how to intervene.
"If you two keep dawdling... Chen Junnan is going to die." Xu Qian said. "Shouldn't we take him to get his injuries treated first?"
Yun Yao knew Xu Qian was right. She came back to her senses, walked over to Earth Serpent's corpse, grabbed his withered, dry snake head, and carried Chen Junnan out of the room on her back.
Yan Zhichun and Xu Qian followed behind her as they left this hair-raising, foul-smelling place.