Chapter 471: Our Leader
Seeing that the participants had completed this game, Earth Horse's expression gradually grew complicated.
Seven participants, and she had only killed one person.
This was a defeat she hadn't encountered in decades.
"If even this game can be broken... does Zhongyan Land still need to exist?" Earth Horse slowly looked down at the ground, the bamboo tube in her hand flopping weakly onto the floor.
"Baa?" Qiao Jiajin slowly stood up, drenched in cold sweat. "Isn't it normal for us 'Participants' to break your games?"
"Yes, extremely abnormal." Earth Horse frowned. "But at this point, I have nothing more to say. Take the 'Dao' and go."
Like the other Zodiacs, she went to a pile of rubble, pulled out a dirty cloth bag, deducted a number for the deceased, and threw the rest to Qiao Jiajin.
Qiao Jiajin tried to catch it, but suddenly found his hands wouldn't obey. Though he raised them, he couldn't control his fingers. Before he could say anything, he felt the world spin, and the floor beneath him rushed up to his face.
Fortunately, Qi Xia wasn't far away. He quickly caught Qiao Jiajin just as he was about to fall.
Qiao Jiajin's body was cooling rapidly. Not only were both his hands completely fractured, but he had clearly lost too much blood.
"Hey!" Qi Xia felt a pang of headache, covered his forehead, and turned to shout, "Qian Wu can save people, right?! Quick, help me take him over!"
"Okay!"
The others didn't dare to hesitate. Luo Shiyi and Wang Ba came to Qiao Jiajin's side, lifted his arms, and helped him quickly out the door. The rest picked up the 'Dao' from the ground and followed them out.
Only Zhou Liu and Bai Jiu remained with Qi Xia. After confirming there was no further danger, Zhou Liu lowered her head and whispered a few words, as if pinpointing Qian Wu's location.
"Tsk, Qi Xia, let's go too," Zhou Liu said. "Luckily Fifth Brother isn't far. His and Fourth Brother's spot is only ten minutes away."
"You two go out first," Qi Xia said. "I have a few more words for Earth Horse."
"Will you be fine?" Bai Jiu asked, rubbing her exposed belly. "This woman is pretty ruthless."
"I'll be fine. Go out and wait for me," Qi Xia said.
The two exchanged a glance, nodded, and turned to leave.
"Talk to me?" Earth Horse didn't look at Qi Xia, only kept her head down cleaning up the various fragments on the floor. "What do I have to talk about with you?"
Qi Xia stopped beating around the bush and asked directly, "Earth Horse, do you still have a way out?"
"A way out..." Earth Horse's hand paused as she gathered the shards. "From the first time I put on the horse-head mask, there was no way out. This special identity forces me only to move forward, not backward."
"But what about this time?" Qi Xia walked over and helped Earth Horse pick up a piece of iron ball fragment from the ice. "If you keep going forward on this path, you'll die."
This sentence seemed to completely shatter Earth Horse's psychological defenses, dragging to the surface all the issues she had been avoiding.
"Your game venue is destroyed," Qi Xia said. "The 'Participants' didn't touch those props, yet it was destroyed. Does that count as your problem or not?"
Earth Horse's hand began to tremble slowly. Even she didn't understand what had happened.
That person said, "Don't cheat," and all the props around them were destroyed just like that. Was that really reasonable?
In her memory, even an "Echo" couldn't achieve such a level.
"What exactly are you trying to do?" Earth Horse looked up at Qi Xia. This time her gaze was different, carrying a hint of sincerity that was hard to detect.
"Of course, we want to get out," Qi Xia said. "So I'm exploring a new 'path'."
"We all want to get out," Earth Horse said. "You should know that whether it's 'Participants' or 'Zodiacs', all our efforts are to get out of here."
"But no one has ever succeeded," Qi Xia said. "Your memories go back further than mine, so you should have seen more tragedies than I have. Who, in your memory, has ever escaped from here?"
Earth Horse's eyes became extremely dejected upon hearing this.
Indeed... who had ever escaped?
"Even Wen Qiaoyun couldn't get out... the others are even more impossible." Although Earth Horse's voice was very soft, the words reached Qi Xia's ears clearly.
"Wen... Qiaoyun?" Qi Xia frowned, looking at Earth Horse's sorrowful eyes, and asked tentatively, "Who is that?"
Earth Horse sighed. "She was ours... no, yours. She was your former leader."
"Our... leader?" Qi Xia felt the amount of information in this sentence exceeded his imagination.
Although these few short words contained little information, it wasn't hard to infer some clues. In Earth Horse's memory of more than twenty years, or even earlier, there was a person named Wen Qiaoyun who was actually his leader.
What an absurd thing that was.
Even a clever person like Chu Tianqiu, who ruled a region, Qi Xia had never acknowledged him as his leader.
So this person named Wen Qiaoyun... had her strength fully earned his recognition?
In Zhongyan Land, could there be a person who would make him completely convinced in every aspect?
"You mean... even someone as powerful as Wen Qiaoyun failed?" Qi Xia changed the subject and asked the crucial question again.
But even Earth Horse had no answer.
"I don't know," Earth Horse replied. "Qiaoyun failed many times... I don't even know where she is now, whether she's still failing..."
After hearing Earth Horse's answer, Qi Xia gradually began to understand.
If what Earth Horse said was true, that even a person he himself called leader was constantly failing, then where was the hope for him to get out?
"So in this world, besides Wen Qiaoyun, you don't intend to trust anyone else?" Qi Xia asked again.
"This question is really absurd..." Earth Horse shook her head. "If I still believed that 'Participants' could get out, why would I have become like this?"
"But you should know your current situation." Qi Xia pointed at the already chaotic game venue. "The people above you will one day discover what happened here. How will you explain then?"
"Explain..." Earth Horse looked at Qi Xia's eyes and gave a bitter smile. "It seems like you're concerned about me, but I know you want me dead more than anyone else."
"Yes," Qi Xia nodded, raising the corner of his mouth. "I want you dead, you want me dead, but we also both want to get out... Aren't you going to give it a try? We harm each other while seeking a way to escape... Think about it—it's a very interesting thought!"
"You..." Earth Horse frowned instantly upon hearing this. "Are you crazy? Who would cooperate with someone who clearly wants their life?"