Chapter 536

Chapter 536 The Former King

“Chu Tianqiu, did you not hear what I just said?”

A figure in white stood before Chu Tianqiu, hesitation etched across their features as they looked at him.

“I heard you, Yan Zhichun. Perfectly clearly, at that,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “{Celestial Horse's Hour} is about to commence. When it does, countless lives will be lost.”

After speaking, he glanced at Jiang Ruoxue and Xiao Xiao behind Yan Zhichun, then let out a faint, wry smile. “You’re just as peculiar. Knowing such a major event is imminent, why not wait in the open?”

He then stepped toward Jiang Ruoxue, his smile gradually taking on a weighty, meaningful quality. “Jiang Ruoxue, you’ve already turned your back on {Passage to Heaven} to join {Judgment’s Domain}, haven’t you? And yet, you’ve come back just to inform me of {Celestial Horse's Hour}?”

“There’s something I need to clarify,” Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. “I haven’t turned my back on {Passage to Heaven}. From beginning to end, I have always been an {Adherent}.”

“I see…” Chu Tianqiu smiled and nodded slowly. “I’ve never heard anything more heartbreaking: possessing both a powerful {Reverberation} and {Sanity}, yet you are a wholly devout {Adherent}.”

After speaking, Chu Tianqiu’s brow furrowed. Most {Adherents} seemed capable of retaining more {Sanity} than ordinary organizations could manage.

“The three of us are all {Reverberatees}. If we die, we die. Escape or not, the outcome hardly differs,” Yan Zhichun said. “But what about the people under your command?”

“The fate of those under my command… what does it have to do with me?”

Yan Zhichun’s soft laugh betrayed her surprise. Chu Tianqiu was far from what she had imagined. “Once the {king of common people}, you’ve gathered all these mighty figures…and yet you cannot even ensure the basic security of their memories?”

“Is there any need for that?”

Chu Tianqiu turned away, draped his coat over his shoulders, then reached up to adjust his glasses. The expression on his face was so inscrutable that even Yan Zhichun failed to read him.

“Interesting,” Yan Zhichun nodded. “I’m very curious. How could a leader like you spread your name all the way to {Judgment’s Domain}? Was it by systematically erasing the memories of those under your command, so that none remember the evils you’ve done?”

“I…” Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes and glanced out the window. The sun had already begun to contract.

He swallowed the words at his lips and said softly, “Flee while you can. Though our deaths are of little consequence, {facing annihilation} is still better than dying a miserable death.”

“And you?” Yan Zhichun asked. “Are you planning to die here?”

“No.” Chu Tianqiu curled his lips into a grin. “I will definitely escape. Anyone here may die, but I cannot.”

“What a selfish, willful leader,” Yan Zhichun remarked thoughtfully.

“Thank you.”

Yan Zhichun glanced back at Jiang Ruoxue. After Jiang Ruoxue gave a slight nod, the three women rose and left the room, stepping out onto the sportsfield.

At this moment, none of those from {Passage to Heaven} had noticed the changes in the sun above. Some were even still indoors. Once those bizarre threads slipped silently to their sides, escape within a short span would be impossible.

“Zhichun,” Jiang Ruoxue called from behind, “we only came to inform you. Why did you insist on informing Chu Tianqiu as well?”

Yan Zhichun responded with a sweet smile. “I was simply curious about him. I wanted to see what choice he would make. His reputation and his actual conduct stand at opposite extremes. Why does such a disparity exist?”

Jiang Ruoxue knew that Yan Zhichun cared deeply about the true worth behind the title {king of common people}.

She had once told many {Adherents} that if one day they grew weary of being {Adherents} and wished to struggle toward escaping {End Point}, the best place to seek refuge would be Chu Tianqiu, the {king of common people}.

Yet now, before any {Adherents} had ever been heard of joining Chu Tianqiu, Yan Zhichun’s faith had already been shattered.

The so-called {king of common people} did not concern himself with the lives or deaths of others.

He was not only deranged to the extreme, but also possessed a mind of formidable depth.

“So in this place, there is in fact no real {retreat} at all,” Yan Zhichun said, gazing up at the sky. “Rather than entrusting hope to others, it is better to choose one’s own path.”

“Do you truly believe that Chu Tianqiu isn’t deceiving us?” Jiang Ruoxue asked, her gaze fixed on the sky.

“Deceiving us…?”

“Though the saying goes, {seeing is believing}, the praises we’ve heard of Chu Tianqiu have been far too many,” Jiang Ruoxue sighed. “If his current actions are the {Hetu}, they could never produce the {Phala} we know of him.”

“You must be losing your mind,” Yan Zhichun shook her head. “Ruoxue, which comes first, {Hetu} or {Phala}? Who in their right mind would treat the present as the {Hetu} and then reverse-engineer the past into {Phala}?”

“So you understand this principle too,” Jiang Ruoxue nodded. “Then doesn’t that prove Chu Tianqiu has changed? We cannot deny everything he has done based on his current state.”

“I hope you are right,” Yan Zhichun gave a slow nod.

The tall and imposing Xiao Xiao stood nearby, watching the two intently. She had joined {Judgment’s Domain} only recently, and this was her first encounter with the so-called {King of Judgment’s Domain}, Yan Zhichun. There was an inexplicable aura about her , one that made her feel almost untouchable.

Yan Zhichun lifted her head, eyes tracing the tangle of black streaks radiating from behind the sun, and shook it helplessly.

“On the fifth day, {Celestial Horse’s Hour} will descend. {Judgment’s Domain} will suffer a grave drain of their life force, and the consequences are unpredictable,” Yan Zhichun’s expression darkened further. “Our manpower was already stretched thin. I fear we may not be able to protect this place.”

“Every {Hetu} leads to its own {Phala}. You have done more than enough,” Jiang Ruoxue remarked calmly. “Let us go.”

The three women paid no heed to the fates of those inside {Passage to Heaven} and strode past the gates.

In the distance, Chu Tianqiu watched their departing figures from the window, his expression growing steadily more forlorn.

At that moment, a light knock sounded at the door. He turned to see Doctor Zhao standing there.

“Chu Tianqiu.”

“What is it?”

Doctor Zhao held a worn rag, dabbing at the blood on his hands. “I have a lead on the task you entrusted to me…”

“Truly professional,” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “Is a body that decomposed even suitable for dissection?”

“It was a little disgusting, but I have a general understanding,” Doctor Zhao tossed the rag aside. “That body of Qi Xia…there was indeed a malignant tumor in the brain. Though the corpse was highly decomposed, I can roughly discern that this condition would leave only a few days of life at most. Most would have been bedridden, awaiting death.”

Chu Tianqiu nodded. Though he had been mentally prepared, the reality still felt surreal. Qi Xia’s brain had harbored a tumor far more malignant than his own.

“But there’s something I don’t quite understand,” Doctor Zhao remarked with a solemn expression. “The brain of that body was damaged, as if someone… had excavated it.”