Chapter 509

Chapter 509 Closing in on the Truth

Qiao Jiajin lowered his head slowly as he listened to Qi Xia’s words.

The cheerful girl in white from this cycle drifted into his thoughts, appearing without warning or sound, quietly standing with the rest.

She was the {materialized obsession} from {Endowing Life Without End}.

“Qian Five, you may find this hard to believe,” Qi Xia said quietly. “My {ability} stands in direct conflict with my {obsession}.”

“In {direct conflict}…?”

“My ability alleviates my obsession,” Qi Xia explained.

“What!?”

“The deeper my obsession, the stronger my ability becomes. But the stronger my ability, the more of my obsession is eased away.” Qi Xia raised a hand and slowly touched his forehead. “I’d really like to know, in such a situation… should I even trigger my {Reverberation}?”

“What exactly have you done with your ability…?” Qian Five frowned, staring at Qi Xia. He felt as if he were speaking to a madman.

“I created a {replica} of Yu Nian'An…” Qi Xia replied quietly. “Yu Nian'An is my wife.”

“You…” At this, Qian Five turned to exchange a glance with Zhou Six. Both of them looked awkward and unsettled.

Qi Xia’s… wife?

Qi Xia continued, his voice heavy, “My wife occupied the most important moments of my life. She’s everything to me. Yet someone took her away. My deepest {obsession}, the sum of all my desires, is to reclaim Yu Nian’An from {End Point}. That alone is what allows me to endure every hardship and press forward in solitude.”

Qian Five solemnly nodded. “So when you trigger your {Endowing Life Without End}… it creates your wife? But you know she isn’t truly your wife, she’s only a replica.”

“Correct,” Qi Xia sighed. “For the days to come, you’ll have to continue treating me as an {Unfortunate One}. Even if I were to see Yu Nian'An now, I could not confirm whether she was real or not. The moment I harbor doubt… my {Reverberation} cannot be successfully invoked.”

Qian Five understood that the core problem lay within Qi Xia himself—he was far too rational.

Some people lose reason when they go mad, but Qi Xia seemed to do the opposite: he plunged into the abyss of rationality, regarding everything around him with cold detachment.

For anyone else, being able to give form to the one they yearned for ceaselessly, even if only a fabrication would be enough to offer solace in this hellhole.

But Qi Xia, acutely aware that the figure was only a replica, would deliberately sever even that faint hope. Whether this was a blessing or a curse was unclear.

“So, the only memory you preserved…” Qian Five shook his head, “was the night we breached {Passage to Heaven}, when your {Reverberation} flared out of control…?”

Qi Xia nearly nodded, but the contradiction before him gave him pause. “In truth, no. I retained memories of two separate cycles.”

“Two?”

“That’s right,” Qi Xia said. “The first was no less unusual. Having preserved memories of two cycles, I can find no point of convergence between them. Even now, my path forward is uncertain; I cannot tell which step to take next.”

No sooner had he spoken than Zhou Six approached, murmuring a few words to Qian Five, who nodded in understanding.

“Qi Xia, let’s continue the conversation as we go.” Qian Five glanced back at Qiao Junnan and Officer Li, signaling them as well. “Chen Junnan’s game is nearly over. I hear there are quite a few injured. We’re a distance away, so we should head there first.”

Everyone nodded and set off once more. Qi Xia cast one last glance at the diminutive Terrestrial Pig standing in the distance.

This was only the first step of their {ultimate plan}, it would be unwise to provoke too many {Earthly Branches}; drawing suspicion now could jeopardize everything. For the time being, he let the brazen little Terrestrial Pig be.

As they walked, Qi Xia explained to Qian Five the circumstances of his first death.

At that time, he was dragging his gravely injured body toward the city’s edge when Xu Liunian’s vehicle appeared. The strange indigenous inhabitant whisked Qi Xia along the road at breakneck speed until they reached the outskirts. Qi Xia glimpsed the endless roads stretching toward other cities, and in that moment, his spirit collapsed, fell to the ground, and died.

The second time he stepped into {End Point}, his memories of the previous cycle stayed with him.

For Qian Five, this account raised an overwhelming number of questions, so many that he didn’t even know where to begin.

To begin with, a taxi-driving indigenous inhabitant was something Qian Five had never heard of.

Vehicles in {End Point} weren’t exactly rare, but most were completely dilapidated and rusted. Occasionally one might find a car that was relatively intact, but even then it would be long out of service and would require a professional mechanic to restore its function.

Even so, {fuel} remained a critical issue. In a city so starved of resources, how could one reliably obtain gasoline? The small quantities scavenged from various locations were mostly in the hands of the major powers by now, as an incredibly precious, non-renewable resource.

From every angle, an indigenous inhabitant working as a taxi driver was a massive anomaly.

Then there was the question of his {death}: according to Qi Xia’s timeline, the day he died, the bell had not rung.

Walking along the dilapidated, foul-smelling streets, Qian Five eventually shook his head. “There are precedents of the bell remaining silent when the {Reverberatee} perished too fast, but if your {Reverberation} really was truly that immense, the bells couldn’t have remained completely unresponsive.”

“So I find it incomprehensible,” Qi Xia remarked. “As for the most questionable presence there… my first suspicion falls upon Xu Liunian.”

“Likewise,” Qian Five nodded. “What exactly is so special about this woman called Xu Liunian?”

“Well…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes, recalling her carefully. “Average intelligence, weak mastery of her {Reverberation}, plain features, and low presence. Yet this person… transitioned from {indigenous inhabitant} back to {participant}.”

“No wonder you feel uncertain,” Qian Five said. “If you combine your bizarre {Reverberation} situation with that enigmatic woman, I imagine the picture becomes clearer.”

“I’ve contemplated this issue,” Qi Xia replied. “Only, all my intel is from what I’ve been told… Everyone claims that {indigenous inhabitants} can never revert, yet I have witnessed a reversal with my own eyes… Provided none of you are lying…”

Qi Xia gradually came to a halt, his expression grave as he faced Qian Five. “Then it seems the anomaly must lie with {Xu Liunian} herself. Whether it be her {Reverberation} or something more. She is unique, only she could have achieved this.”

---

TL Note: Rant goes here ( •̯́ ₃ •̯̀)