Chapter 558: The Superfluous Man
Chu Tianqiu had given up on me. Not only did he fail to mention anything that had happened last time, he never brought up "cooperation" with me again.
I walked dejectedly toward "Heaven's Gate," accompanied by no one.
Yes, this was how it had been from the very beginning. Before I joined Chu Tianqiu's faction, I had always been alone, and now I had merely returned to that previous state.
Besides, I had always harbored ulterior motives. My current outcome was what I deserved.
When I arrived at Heaven's Gate, I witnessed a sight I would never forget for the rest of my life.
On that bloodstained plastic track, the corpses of Li Xiangling had piled up into a small mountain of flesh.
At that very moment, Li Xiangling was still carrying Li Xiangling as she walked toward Li Xiangling.
One person, and she alone presented a suffocating display of "Endless Cycle."
It seemed that Qi Xia had not only "Echoed," but the effect was immense. Scattered across the field, besides the gathered corpses of Li Xiangling, were also the bodies of Qiao Jiajin lying everywhere.
Just as Qinglong had said, as long as Qi Xia wanted a person to live, that person would never die.
Even if they died, they would not die.
I could imagine that on that day, when Qi Xia was being tortured to death by Xuanwu, his final thought had been, "Qiao Jiajin and Li Xiangling will definitely survive." And because of that sentence, the two of them had truly begun a bizarre form of "eternal life."
So my plan could barely be considered a success. Whether it was my own goal or Qinglong's, both had been achieved with the chaos at Heaven's Gate.
What happens next?
In this situation crafted by three people, everyone had achieved their goals to some extent. Now, who would make the next move faster—them, or "Heavenly Dragon"?
Li Xiangling tossed away one of her own corpses and looked up, meeting my gaze with an extremely complicated expression.
Yes, in her eyes, I was the culprit who had caused all this, the one who had killed Qi Xia.
She said nothing, but I understood that Heaven's Gate no longer had a place for me.
I took a few cans from the cafeteria and came to the rooftop, where no one could see me, yet I could overlook all of Heaven's Gate.
Around afternoon, Qi Xia's team finally left the interview room and joined Heaven's Gate.
At that moment, Li Xiangling also began to move Qiao Jiajin's corpse, and Qiao Jiajin stepped in to help.
I opened a can of beer and took a small sip. The feeling now was strange. I didn't know if I was still useful, or if I had been abandoned.
Qi Xia, Chu Tianqiu, and Qinglong—none of them had explicitly declared me out of the game, nor had they reached out to me again.
So what kind of position was I in?
Until dark, I was just a dispensable part of Heaven's Gate. No one asked if I was still there, and no one noticed that I had disappeared. I had become an invisible man, standing on the rooftop waiting for the sunset.
"Qinglong, have you gotten what you wanted?" I murmured to myself.
As soon as I spoke, "Silence" enveloped me.
"Still very vague..." A voice that was half male and half female suddenly sounded behind me. "Chu Tianqiu and Qi Xia are both interesting. I can't let go of either one."
I didn't turn around. I just stared ahead and took another sip of beer. This feeling was truly unbearable.
I heard him continue behind me: "For now... Qi Xia scores higher in my book."
Qinglong came up beside me, picked up one of the cans I had set down, opened it, sniffed it, then spilled it on the ground with disgust.
"Why?" I asked.
"Why can a person's mind be so meticulously thorough?" Qinglong tossed the empty can aside and turned to look at me. "When he was building the Giant Bell, he managed to foresee that one day there would be a sound at 'Overclock'—a sound he himself would be completely unable to hear."
"So what exactly were the words displayed on the screen that night?"
I looked at Qinglong with some curiosity, and only then did I notice that his expression was different from before.
He was more excited than before.
"I *saw* the surging of 'Endless Cycle'..." Qinglong said, then bared his teeth in a slightly manic grin. "Too interesting. Why didn’t I know about this information back then...? Did he also use 'Silence' at that time?"
"*Saw*?" I was taken aback.
For decades, the display screen had always shown "heard." How could it show "seen"?
"Let me think..." Qinglong reached up and touched his forehead. "Qi Xia was originally a 'Spirit Hearer,' but when he heard the three-character 'frequency,' he already predicted that he wouldn't be able to catch the four-character frequency..."
"What...?"
"That's right!" Qinglong turned to look at me, his eyes wide with excitement. "When he built the Giant Bell, he added an 'insurance policy' for himself!"
He looked incredibly excited, almost as much as Chu Tianqiu.
If the two of them didn't have completely different appearances, I would have thought he was Chu Tianqiu himself.
"This 'insurance policy' you're talking about..."
"It's 'Spirit Vision'!" Qinglong shouted. "That Giant Bell never held just one person's soul... There was also a 'Spirit Vision' inside... Qi Xia... you are too interesting..."
Qinglong seemed to be recalling a piece of art he had once seen, his eyes constantly shining with brilliance.
"You knew long ago that relying solely on three-character frequencies wouldn't shake the position of me and 'Heavenly Dragon.' You knew that 'Overclock' would appear, and at that time you wouldn't be able to hear it—you could only hope that someone else could see it. So you convinced another person... His soul also moved into the Giant Bell, willing to stand there with you for eternity..."
With just a few words, Qinglong had made the general outline of the matter clear to me.
Decades ago, when Qi Xia sealed his soul into the "Giant Bell," he was already paving the way for today.
I swallowed my saliva and stared seriously at Qinglong. "So... did 'Heavenly Dragon' hear it?"
"Of course!" Qinglong laughed. " 'Heavenly Dragon' has lost all appetite. Right now, it's gathering a group of 'Heavenly ranks' to discuss countermeasures. 'Peach Blossom Spring' is really going to see a change."
"But 'Heavenly Dragon' doesn't know who this person is, right?"
I suddenly felt that Qinglong's strategy was correct after all. Qi Xia's bell toll had actually thrown "Heavenly Dragon" into disarray.
"Of course 'Heavenly Dragon' doesn't know. That's Qi Xia's only trump card." Qinglong smiled faintly. "Now 'Heavenly Dragon' is deaf. Qi Xia's existence can't be easily exposed to him. Let's see how things develop next."
I was about to say something, but I suddenly noticed something was off.
"Qinglong... Since you're the only 'ear' in the entire 'Land of the End,' why did you activate 'Silence'?"