Chapter 762: Which Dragon
The "ant," having lost all its senses, naturally couldn't offer any answer to Qi Xia's question.
It couldn't even respond to whether Qi Xia's words were true or false. It simply stood there, staring at Qi Xia, as if trying to make the other man believe in it.
"I still don't quite understand," Qi Xia said. "The phrase 'escaping from under a dragon's paw' sounds like telling someone, 'You must survive.' It makes sense, but it's useless."
Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin standing nearby also couldn't grasp the meaning.
Chen Junnan brazenly walked up and directly slapped the "ant" on the shoulder. "Hey! Buddy! I'll get you a pen and paper, you can write it again!"
Before Qi Xia could speak, the "ant" was startled, instantly leaping back and jumping down from the windowsill.
It seemed it thought only Qi Xia was in the room and was frightened by Chen Junnan's sudden appearance.
"Hey! Don't go, buddy! No need to be polite! Come in and have something to eat!"
Chen Junnan grabbed the windowsill, ready to jump out, but Qiao Jiajin pulled him back.
"Junnan! Junnan!" Qiao Jiajin said. "Look outside!"
Chen Junnan followed Qiao Jiajin's gaze and saw a large group of "ants" lying on the distant street.
They were all motionless, facing the direction of the three men, as if ready to pounce at any moment.
Chen Junnan swallowed hard, suddenly glad he hadn't followed the ant out. Although his memory told him these things had never attacked anyone, seeing so many gathered together was still chilling.
Qi Xia watched the "ant" in front of him silently, feeling it should leave behind some important information.
The "ant" raised its hollow, empty eyes and looked in Qi Xia's direction, then lifted its nonexistent nose and sniffed. After that, it reached down and groped on the ground for something.
The three men slowly leaned forward, standing by the windowsill to watch the "ant." They saw it pick up a moderately sized stone from the ground, just big enough to hold in one hand.
Then it raised the stone, as if showing it to the men before it.
"Qi, Qiao..." Chen Junnan said. "This buddy... he's not gonna throw that stone at us, is he?"
Before anyone could answer, the "ant" crushed the stone in its hand into powder, as if it were made of foam.
"Huh?" Chen Junnan was stunned. "What's that supposed to be?"
"So sharp..." Qiao Jiajin murmured.
Then the three saw the "ant" turn around and, in the darkness, walk back into the crowd of other "ants," looking back every few steps.
The other "ants" parted to make way for it. Once it had joined them, they all disappeared together into the night.
It was then that Qi Xia felt his judgment might have been off.
These "ants" weren't hunters drawn by his eyeball, waiting at a distance to strike. They were more like a group of guards.
They were protecting that special "ant."
"Even 'ants' have their own king...?" Qi Xia murmured.
"What?" Qiao Jiajin was taken aback. "Is that a 'queen ant'?"
Chen Junnan blinked. "Gotta hand it to you, Qiao... 'Queen ant' is way too vivid..."
Qi Xia shook his head. The pity was that all the "ants" looked pretty much the same. After they had left in their group, it was impossible to tell which one had just "conversed" with him.
"What the hell is going on...?" Chen Junnan muttered. "In the middle of the night, a 'queen ant' comes in, writes you a message, then performs a stone-crushing trick? Qi, what kind of aura do you have?"
"I don't know," Qi Xia shook his head. "It seemed to want to tell me something, but there were too many interpretations and it wasn't clear."
Thinking it over, from the moment it appeared to its disappearance, the "ant" had written only three characters.
When it noticed Qi Xia in front of it, it wrote the first character: "Who" (谁).
When Qi Xia stated his identity, it wrote "Flee" (逃).
When Qi Xia wrote a question mark, it answered with "Dragon" (龙).
So this strange "ant," after being attracted by his eyeball, had come immediately to confirm his identity. Upon learning he was Qi Xia, it wrote "flee" and explained it was "because of the Dragon."
It wanted him to escape this place...?
But thinking from another angle, these "ants" knew this godforsaken place even better than the Earth-level "Zodiacs." How could they possibly tell him to "flee"? They knew better than anyone that there was no escape from here, that the whole world was a giant deception.
So what was its purpose in coming here?
Qi Xia, flee, Dragon.
Qi Xia rapidly pondered these key pieces of information, then slowly narrowed his eyes.
"Is there still some misunderstanding?" Qi Xia stroked his chin, feeling he couldn't derive any other meaning from it.
"What's wrong?" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head. "Con man, if there's something you don't get, just put it out there. We can all think about it together."
Chen Junnan heard this and threw a punch at Qiao Jiajin's rock-hard chest. "Are you still half-asleep, kid? You're gonna help Qi use his brain? Even I wouldn't dare brag like that."
"Hey, more hands make lighter work," Qiao Jiajin said. "You said it yourself, Junnan. The three of us have three different lines of thought."
Qi Xia nodded upon hearing this. "I just find the 'ant's' motive very strange. Everyone here wants to 'flee,' but it went through all this trouble to come to me specifically and write the character 'flee.' That's what puzzles me."
Qiao Jiajin listened and thought very seriously for a moment, then spoke: "Con man... what if you're overthinking it?"
"Huh?"
"My brain isn't as sharp as yours, so I can only think about what's right in front of me," Qiao Jiajin said. "Maybe those bug-men are the same as me? Maybe what they're trying to say isn't as profound as you're imagining."
Hearing Qiao Jiajin's take, Qi Xia frowned.
Sure enough, Qiao Jiajin's way of thinking was very different from his own.
If he could look at it from a different angle, the three characters the "ant" wrote might take on another meaning altogether.
What if the "Dragon" the "ant" spoke of wasn't the "Azure Dragon" or the "Celestial Dragon"...?
"I'm going to see the 'Earth Dragon' soon with Chu Tianqiu..." Qi Xia said in a low voice. "Is that what the 'ant' was trying to warn me about...?"
"Earth Dragon?" Both Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin were stunned.
"It was telling me that the 'Earth Dragon' is in danger," Qi Xia said. "If it weren't so urgent, it wouldn't have taken such a big risk to warn me in the middle of the night. After all, they are 'ants.' Even if they aren't aggressive, it's pathetic that the first instinct of everyone here upon seeing them is to attack, because they are 'monsters.'"