Chapter 567: Deception is Also Belief
Upon hearing Qi Xia's words, Qinglong slowly grinned, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers in front of him.
Qi Xia felt the entire car engulfed by a bizarre aura, much like "Silence."
"Of course you can! Qi Xia!" Qinglong laughed loudly. "Resist! Kill him!"
"What...?" Qi Xia hadn't expected Qinglong to take this stance and was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
"You should absolutely rise up and fight back!!" Qinglong shouted. "Only then will it be exciting enough! Why can't mortals kill 'gods'? Why must only us be able to walk out of here? That's not right!"
Qi Xia tried to gauge Qinglong's personality in the shortest time possible, but he quickly realized it was futile.
This man with his cold features was emotionally unstable—even more deranged than anyone Qi Xia had ever met.
How could one possibly understand someone like him?
"Qinglong, what do you really want?" Qi Xia asked. "Aren't you here to stop Xu Liunian?"
"Stop Xu Liunian...?" Qinglong seemed to suddenly remember something. "Right, right, right... Although an elephant wouldn't deliberately go out of its way to kill an ant, 'establishing authority' is still necessary."
"Establishing authority?" Xu Liunian was taken aback. "What?"
"In my view, a 'chess piece' must remain a 'chess piece'," Qinglong said. "No one in this world is an exception. Once I set my sights on you, you become my 'chess piece.' All pieces must act according to my instructions—this rule must never be broken."
As he spoke, he extended his hand toward Xu Liunian, an eerie power radiating from his fingers.
"Don't worry, Xu Liunian. I won't let you die," Qinglong said with a smile. "I merely intend to take back the 'rationality' I granted you, turning you completely into a 'madman.' From now on, no one will come to your aid, and no one will return your 'rationality' to you. This is the consequence of defying me, Qinglong."
Xu Liunian's eyes slowly widened. If she had never become a 'madman' before, she might not have been so terrified.
But those two years of muddled existence were etched into her memory—utterly horrifying.
"No... no..." Xu Liunian shook her head, retreating backward, then hurriedly reached for the car door.
But the door seemed to have been sealed by some technique, immovable as if cast in cement.
"Kill me... I'd rather you kill me than take away my 'rationality'..."
Qinglong sneered. "That's not for you to decide."
"I said, wait a moment."
Qi Xia reached out and grabbed Qinglong's wrist.
This action felt like a grave insult to Qinglong, even causing his arm to flinch back.
"You... touched me...?" Qinglong asked, frowning. In his decades of memory, he had never been touched by a mortal. The sensation was unpleasant.
"Qinglong, you won't take away her rationality," Qi Xia said, his eyes turning cold as a smile crept onto his lips. "If you take her rationality, I will kill Xu Liunian right now. When the next cycle begins, as a 'participant,' she will return here. You can't beat me."
Xu Liunian was momentarily stunned by Qi Xia's words. If moments ago Qi Xia had claimed she came 'from hell,' now she truly had no way out.
Yet Qi Xia insisted he didn't believe her—he firmly believed she was a 'participant.' This seemingly desperate choice had, at this moment, become critically important.
"Qi Xia, you not only gave me orders, but you also touched me..." Qinglong muttered to himself. "Even though I've been courteous to you, that doesn't mean you can overstep your bounds. A mortal is still a mortal; you cannot touch me with your filthy body."
"Ridiculous," Qi Xia said, still holding Qinglong's wrist without any intention of letting go. "What kind of 'god' do you think you are? Even if you can treat human lives like chess pieces and toy with them, aren't you still sitting here in the back seat of this old taxi, negotiating with me?"
"Presumptuous..." Qinglong's face turned icy cold, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
"Qinglong... you can't even kill me," Qi Xia said with a smile. "I've experienced enough in this cycle. Now it's time for you to regret."
"What?"
"Consider this possibility..." Qi Xia's lips curled upward, his eyes now brimming with the same murderous intent. "I've already obtained 'Endless Vitality' three times. That doesn't mean I'm strong—it means you've given me enough despair."
"So what?" Qinglong asked.
"So I boldly speculate that starting from the next cycle, I'll become more familiar with this feeling and more easily achieve 'Echo.' If I stop losing my memories from today onward, how will you and 'Tianlong' possibly stop me?"
Qi Xia's successive challenges caused Qinglong's expression to shift repeatedly.
"You say you'll stop losing your memories from today?" Qinglong frowned, scrutinizing Qi Xia's eyes as if trying to discern the truth from his words.
After all, 'Endless Vitality' required one's subconscious to activate it, yet Qi Xia had openly stated his intention.
Was he 'deceiving,' or was he 'believing'?
"Qi Xia... I'm glad you're so optimistic," Qinglong paused for a long time before finally shaking his head. "It seems you still don't understand where the gap lies between us."
Qinglong's wrist trembled, shaking off Qi Xia's hand, and then he said softly, "Killing 'participants' doesn't require such trouble. We can even do it directly in the 'interview room,' because Tianlong and I are the rules here. No matter what we do, no one will interfere."
Qi Xia's smile slowly widened. What a ridiculous feeling.
Even someone like Qinglong could be caught in a loophole in his own words?
"Ridiculous... Qinglong, are you trying to deceive me?"
"You—"
"You and Tianlong's rules are the rules?" Qi Xia didn't take Qinglong seriously at all, instead laughing angrily. "How absurd! If Tianlong's ultimate goal is to kill all 'participants,' then why go to the trouble of making such complicated rules? He could simply have you take away everyone's 'rationality,' wait for them all to become 'natives,' and then slaughter them himself. Perhaps within just a few days, no living person would exist in the 'Land of the End.' After all, back then I only said that 'participants' should be allowed to reincarnate."
Qinglong frowned deeply upon hearing this.
It had indeed been a mistake to let Xu Liunian hand over her 'weapon' to him.
Now Qi Xia seemed to have cleared the obstructive debris from his thoughts, moving in a bizarre direction.
Seeing Qinglong's puzzled expression, Qi Xia pressed his advantage:
"Qinglong, you don't think I'm just bluffing, do you?"