Chapter 811: It's All Fake
"You're afraid no one will know you're here," Qi Xia said.
"Hey! What kind of talk is that!" Chen Junnan replied. "A quiet man like me usually only speaks up when I run into someone I'm really tight with."
"Better be that way," Qi Xia answered.
Qiao Jiajin quickly caught up and asked, "Swindler, you finished your business?"
"Almost. Just one more person to see," Qi Xia nodded. "Do you want to come with me?"
"Pfft." Chen Junnan shook his head. "We were just worried you'd get soaked by that black rain, so we came to check on you. Didn't expect you'd already cracked those little black beads. Since you're fine now, alright, alright, you get busy. The three of us still have a meeting to go to."
Qiao Jiajin elbowed Chen Junnan. "Jun Nan, you still holding a grudge?"
"I never hold grudges," Chen Junnan said. "I'm just impatient, petty, can't get over things, and have a strong vengeful streak."
Qi Xia let out a light sigh and shook his head.
"Hey, come on," Qiao Jiajin laughed and tugged at him. "We were good before, right? Good brothers shouldn't have overnight grudges."
"You really think I'm still sore about that?" Chen Junnan chuckled. "Old Qi, we came to you this time just to make you owe us a huge favor. Listen up—we know that big rat's motive now."
"Oh?"
Chen Junnan quickly relayed what the Mole had said to Qi Xia.
He not only told Qi Xia that the Mole was a trustworthy "fence-sitter," but also that the eight "Zodiacs" on the map seemed to have received special treatment from "Tianlong," making their promotion faster than anyone else's. The games they commanded had also been guided by "Tianlong."
So anyone would think these eight were Tianlong's confidants. The situation seemed quite strange.
"Special treatment from Tianlong...?" Qi Xia rubbed his chin after hearing this. He hadn't anticipated this.
Why would Tianlong single out these eight people?
If their identities were exposed, they should have been branded as "ants" like the former "Dilong." If their identities weren't exposed, why would they receive special treatment?
"Someone is ensuring my plan is executed accurately..." Qi Xia murmured. Could that person be Tianlong?
Thinking this way, Qi Xia felt his direction of inference had become slightly clearer.
Many subtle clues pointed out that in the "Land of the End," the person to be most wary of might not be Tianlong, but "Qinglong."
Qinglong appeared far more often than Tianlong, and most of the information Qi Xia had obtained came from Qinglong. If Qinglong lied, no one could refute him.
Since Tianlong had been sleeping all along and lacked the "Spiritual Hearing" ability, even if Qinglong lied, Tianlong wouldn't notice.
"Just as I thought." Qi Xia nodded. "At least for me, Tianlong isn't as evil as imagined, and Qinglong isn't as good as imagined."
"Oh?" Chen Junnan sounded puzzled. "What are you mumbling about?"
"Nothing." Qi Xia shook his head. "Any other news?"
The three exchanged glances, as if there was something they were reluctant to say.
"Speak up," Qi Xia said. "I can see from your eyes that there's something else."
They could only sigh helplessly, hemmed and hawed for a while, and finally told Qi Xia about Qin Dingdong.
They told Qi Xia that Qin Dingdong was Wei Yang's disciple, having learned deception techniques from him. She was responsible for messing up the participants' various games so that no one could escape this place. It sounded very similar to the methods of the "Jidao," but Qi Xia's expression remained cold, as if he wasn't interested.
Then they told him about her "disordered memories."
When Qi Xia heard this part, his eyes kept flickering, and his mind was racing.
He turned to Qin Dingdong and asked with a hint of doubt, "You're saying your entire life is fake?"
"I only suspect that the life in my memory is fake," Qin Dingdong shrugged. "After all, I am me. I know my own personality. With my personality, I couldn't have done the things in my memories, nor lived the life I remember."
"Interesting." Qi Xia nodded. "If what you say is true, I have a question."
"What question?"
Qi Xia thought for a moment and asked, "Why do you think the life in your memory is fake, rather than thinking your current personality is fake?"
"Ah...?" Qin Dingdong was momentarily stunned. "Classmate Qi, what do you mean?"
"Don't misunderstand. I just have a small doubt," Qi Xia said. "If you believe your memory has been 'falsified,' it means your entire life has been altered."
"Yes, that's what I mean..." Qin Dingdong nodded.
"But if it's 'personality falsification,' you only need to change your current personality," Qi Xia said. "Analyzing these two possibilities, isn't the latter more likely? After all, the latter could be achieved by using a 'Echo' in the 'Land of the End.'"
"But that doesn't seem right either..." Qin Dingdong hesitated. "If I needed to change my personality, the workload would seem small... because this is always my personality after every rebirth. When would it have been changed...?"
As she spoke, her voice trailed off, because even she realized Qi Xia had a point.
Trying to go back and alter someone's entire life was far less realistic than simply changing someone's personality in the "Land of the End."
But why would someone do that?
Although these two methods seemed to have completely different starting points, they both led to the same result—making the person doubt that their life was real.
"I'm not completely certain," Qi Xia said. "But 'drastic personality change' sounds more likely than 'life falsification.'"
"Drastic personality change..." Qin Dingdong thought for a long time before looking up and asking softly, "Classmate Qi... aside from me, have you seen anyone else here who has undergone a 'drastic personality change'? No matter how I think about it..."
"Yes."
"Yes...? Who?"
"I suspect there are two others."
"Two?"
"Me and Chu Tianqiu," Qi Xia replied coldly. "Currently, many clues point to this, forcing me to believe it."
"You..." Qin Dingdong was slightly taken aback. "No, that can't be, right? Classmate Qi, when I first met you, your personality was already pretty much like it is now."
"That only means my change happened earlier, possibly even before we met," Qi Xia replied.
"Wait a minute..." Qin Dingdong felt she had heard something she'd never considered before. "If you and Chu Tianqiu also had 'drastic personality changes,' doesn't that mean you both suspected your own lives were fake?!"