Chapter 834: A Suspicious Organization
"What do you mean?" Qin Dingdong asked. "You're saying that the 'Echo' in this place isn't 'Jiju Feiniao'?"
"Qin Dingdong, you weren't in that game," Qi Xia said. "But it was how I found the Celestial Serpent's weakness."
"That's right..." Chen Junnan said. "We almost got screwed over by that old Earth Monkey. If Old Qi hadn't seen through his cheating in advance, we'd all be dead by now."
"I'm a bit confused..." Qin Dingdong said. "What does Earth Monkey have to do with Celestial Serpent?"
"They're not related," Qi Xia said. "This probably has nothing to do with those two. But what Earth Serpent said created a contradiction between their situations, and cast a layer of fog over the truth of this place. I think that 'Echoes' are not the only things that exist."
Qin Dingdong was no fool. After hearing their conversation, she thought for a moment and quickly reached a conclusion: "We got tricked by Earth Monkey? Are you saying that the ability to see through playing cards that you mentioned just now... Earth Monkey and Earth Serpent are the same kind of person?"
"Right," Qi Xia said. "Unless there's some other ability in this place that can also see through cards, this situation deviates from expectation."
"Damn it," Chen Junnan said. "That Earth Serpent must have lied just now. I'll go back and ask him again!"
"No need," Qi Xia said. "We've already said this much. If Earth Serpent knew the truth, he wouldn't hide it. It wouldn't make sense for him."
Chen Junnan let out a breath, then nodded. "So what you just said about Celestial Serpent's research direction being wrong..."
"Either the research direction is wrong, or there's another rare possibility," Qi Xia said.
"What possibility?"
"As far as I know, 'Echo coexistence' does exist." Qi Xia pointed up at the sky and said solemnly, "The 'Echoes' that those people up there have can highly overlap with ours at the same time. For example, 'Dreamwalk' can exist simultaneously, and 'Undying' can exist simultaneously."
"Tch..." Chen Junnan thought for a moment, then said, "But didn't that old guy just say that he got the ability by implanting those people's eyes? For instance, if I gouge out my eyeballs right now and give them to Celestial Dragon, then Celestial Dragon... he... he'd be really damn unlucky."
Qin Dingdong kicked at Chen Junnan again, but he dodged as if he had anticipated it.
"Can you stop joking around at a time like this?" Qin Dingdong said.
"How is that a joke? He really would be unlucky," Chen Junnan said plaintively. "Anyway, a powerful ability like 'Scapegoat' probably isn't something anyone can understand. If Celestial Dragon doesn't want it, that's his problem."
Qi Xia nodded. "That reasoning is correct. I think this so-called 'implantation' can use not only the eyes of 'Natives', but also the eyes of living people or 'Participants'. After all, what Celestial Serpent wants is the 'Echo' in the eyes, so as long as the owner of the eyes is an 'Echoer', the condition can be met. That's why those 'Insignificant Ants' come out every night to collect eyes."
"Is that so...?" Chen Junnan said thoughtfully. "Those 'Insignificant Ants' want the eyes?"
"They're not just looking for eyes." Qi Xia thought for a moment and then said, "But in this city, it can only be 'eyes'."
Qiao Jiajin scratched his head on the side. "So they're like 'porters'? These things deliver the 'eyes' to those people?"
"What they deliver is 'Dao'," Qi Xia said. "In this city, 'Dao' is made from eyes. But I believe that 'Echoes' still reside in the 'Dao'."
Of course, this was the first time the group had heard that 'Dao' was made from eyes, but they had already suspected as much from various clues.
"I've been wondering for a while," Chen Junnan shook his head. "The things people here go to such great lengths to win are actually just the eyeballs of the dead."
"Yes. Turning eyes into 'Dao' isn't some profound technique," Qi Xia said. "Making these 'Dao' probably uses abilities related to 'Camouflage' and 'Decay Retardation'. Overall, it's not difficult."
"Decay retardation...?" Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia.
"You should remember that Chu Tianqiu once gave me nearly two thousand 'Dao'. The moment I opened them, they gave off a rotten smell," Qi Xia said. "According to him, these 'Dao' had been collected for a long time and were starting to decompose. But strangely, you couldn't tell any difference from the outside. So I think even if they're completely rotten, they still look like 'Dao' to us. In summary... the 'Heaven Grade' must have used a specialized 'Camouflage' to change their appearance and 'Decay Retardation' to prevent short-term rotting."
Chen Junnan nodded after hearing this. "So you're saying that aside from these two changes, 'Dao' and 'eyeballs' are no different."
"Yes. The only inconvenience is that every 'Dao' looks exactly the same. Once they're mixed together, it's hard to tell whose owner they are. That means the 'Echo' they contain is also unknown," Qi Xia said. "In that case, it's better to just use living people's eyeballs directly."
"Hold on..." Chen Junnan seemed to have noticed a problem. "If 'Dao' and 'eyeballs' are exactly the same except for their appearance... how do those 'Insignificant Ants' tell the difference between 'Dao' and 'eyeballs'?"
"So I said... what the 'Insignificant Ants' are looking for is originally 'eyeballs'," Qi Xia said seriously. "The managers of this place used a cunning scheme to make the 'Insignificant Ants' accurately collect five types of chips."
"In that case, the 'Insignificant Ants' aren't collecting 'eyeballs' reliably, because most of what they find are 'Dao' that can't be used directly," Qin Dingdong interjected. "Qi, if the other side wants to mass-harvest 'Echoer' eyeballs..."
"Then they need someone to provide them regularly," Qi Xia replied.
After this remark, the three people beside him fell silent.
"Though I don't want to admit it..." Qi Xia said after a pause, "Someone in this place has probably been supplying 'eyeballs' to the 'Zodiacs' all along."
Chen Junnan's brow tightened. "Then that only leaves that kid Xiao Chu, right? Birds of a feather."
"Chu Tianqiu is just the visible supplier," Qi Xia said. "But I suspect that most of the eyeballs he provides are turned into 'Dao'. After all, among the upper-level people I know, not many have the abilities of 'Heaven's Gate'."
Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan seemed to think of something when they heard this question.
If we're talking about 'ability overlap', the abilities of 'Heaven's Gate' rarely appear among the 'Divine Beasts' and 'Heaven Grade'.
What was suspicious instead was...
"Cat."