Chapter 760: Wise Ants
Qi Xia furrowed his brow and slowly stood up.
The situation before him seemed a bit strange.
In his memory, he could never recall "ants" actively tapping on windows; for the most part, they avoided the living.
And the room now had a campfire burning continuously—no matter how he looked at it, it didn't seem like a place an "ant" would enter. So what did this continuous tapping mean?
He turned back to look at Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin, who were still sound asleep. They seemed exhausted as well, not stirred awake by the repeated knocking. So he had no choice but to walk over to the window himself to check the situation.
In just two steps, the pale hand struck the window twice more.
Qi Xia squinted his gray-white eyes and looked down. This was the first time he had observed an "ant" up close.
Its appearance was no different from other ants.
Its eyes were two pitch-black hollows. Since the eyes had been gouged out for so long, wrinkled patterns had grown around the sockets.
Its mouth was wide open, and it was obvious its teeth had been pulled out. Only a small stub of tongue remained. Even its nose and ears had been cut off. Its smooth skull had no protrusions at all, making it look like a skull wrapped in withered skin.
There wasn't a single hair on its entire body—only skin pressed tightly against its bones.
At this moment, it stared with empty eye sockets, mouth agape, looking up as if "meeting" Qi Xia's gaze.
Qi Xia could clearly see its face smeared with dried bloodstains.
Who would have thought that the most horrifying-looking creatures in the "Land of the End" actually bore a suffering that was utterly beyond anyone else here?
Qi Xia faced this "ant" with only a pane of glass between them. He wasn't sure whether the creature had a visual system, nor whether it had noticed him.
But the "ant" seemed to sense something. It slowly lifted its head, its wide-open mouth constantly making sounds—like the chirping of an insect.
Then, it slowly raised its pale, bony arm. This time, it didn't tap the window. Instead, it pressed its dust-covered palm flat against the glass.
Qi Xia found its behavior quite intriguing. He then reached out his own hand and pressed it against the glass.
Their hands slowly aligned across the glass. In an instant, both of them withdrew their hands at the same time.
Qi Xia felt the bone-chilling cold of the palm on the other side.
And the "ant" seemed as if it had been burned, hastily retracting its hand to hold it close to its chest.
Its hand was as cold as a corpse's.
"Who are you…?" Qi Xia asked softly.
The "ant" kept its eyes wide open, then tried to reach out again.
Qi Xia knew the creature probably had no visual system and was acting purely by instinct. Even it probably couldn't be sure what it would touch. The sudden warmth of a palm must have startled it too.
Seeing it press its hand against the glass again, Qi Xia grew even more curious.
Why was this "ant" different from the others?
What was so special about it?
With that thought, he reached out again and pressed his palm against the glass opposite the creature's.
This time, the "ant" didn't pull back. It seemed to be feeling the warmth of Qi Xia's hand through the glass.
Its bizarre face shifted through a series of expressions. But without eyes or other features, Qi Xia couldn't decipher the meaning behind its strange looks.
"Are you looking for me?" Qi Xia asked again.
The "ant" kept opening its mouth, its hoarse throat emitting a sound like crickets rubbing their wings together, but it couldn't form a complete sentence.
Seeing this, Qi Xia thought for a moment. He simply unlocked the window and slid it open. The "ant", feeling the movement of the window, immediately withdrew its hand.
Its reaction really was like that of an insect.
Qi Xia took a step forward, rested his hand on the windowsill, and looked down intently at the "ant" before him.
The creature—half-human, half-insect—was lying on the ground just outside the first-floor window. Now, even the single glass barrier between them was gone, but the creature made no further move. It neither reached out again nor tried to flee.
"You can't see me, and you can't hear me either?" Qi Xia asked.
He already knew its ears had been cut off, but now it seemed its entire auditory system had been destroyed as well.
The "ant" looked up, turning its head in confusion, then crawled forward a step.
After a long silence, it tentatively reached out its hand again, slowly groping forward.
Qi Xia stared closely at the "ant" before him, feeling an indescribable strangeness all over.
If it were a person, he could at least try to deduce its motives. But right now, what kind of thing was this creature?
Within three seconds, that trembling, pale hand had already reached in front of Qi Xia.
The creature was now kneeling on the ground, its once-broken arm raised high—an indescribably eerie sight.
Qi Xia silently watched the path of that hand and roughly understood its target.
It wanted his eyes.
"How strange…" Qi Xia muttered to himself. "Aren't you supposed to be looking for 'chips'? Why are you aiming for my eyes?"
The fingers, like frozen dry twigs, crept toward his eyes. Qi Xia suddenly reached out and seized its wrist.
The "ant" was startled by this hot touch, but couldn't pull its hand back in time.
Its expression shifted dramatically, as if analyzing the situation.
"Wait…" Qi Xia said. "I think I fell into a misconception."
The "ant" panicked for a moment, then suddenly pulled its hand back with great effort. At that moment, something clicked in Qi Xia's mind.
"I misunderstood…" Qi Xia slowly narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice. "I naturally assumed that by becoming 'ants,' you must have lost your sanity. But 'Qing Long' never said he took away your sanity—only that he destroyed your five senses and then implanted a 'thought' into your mind."
The "ant" reached out its other hand and rubbed its wrist, as if feeling the lingering heat.
"So… you're still conscious…?"
Even as he said this, Qi Xia himself could hardly believe it.
But this creature was clearly capable of actions that "madmen" couldn't. It reacted to outside stimuli, and it even had its own thoughts and judgments.
"This really opens my eyes. I knew you were suffering, but I never imagined you were suffering this much."
Looking at the "ant" lying on the ground, its throat rasping, Qi Xia's eyes filled with a trace of pity.
What kind of pitiful creature was this thing before him?
"The 'madmen' here have all their senses intact, but they lack reason," Qi Xia murmured. "But you—you've been stripped of all five senses, yet your mind remains clear…? You're far more miserable than the 'madmen.' Is this the price you pay for working for those two?"