Chapter 540

Chapter 540 Vessel

The present situation left Qi Xia painfully torn. Under any other circumstances, he would never have allowed himself to step willingly into such peril. But this time was different.

That inexplicable sensation coiled around him, robbing him of the ability to think with any calm.

Could Yu Nian’An truly exist within {End Point}, only… bereft of her memories?

In this lightless alley, not only was the woman’s black thread impossible to see, even Qi Xia’s own thread had vanished into the darkness.

‘Whatever it costs, I must unravel the truth today.’ Qi Xia’s gaze slowly turned cold as he plunged once more into the shadow.

He kept as far from his left side as he could, walking forward at a measured pace. This speed should, in theory, match the thread pursuing him from behind, yet Qi Xia had no idea how far away it truly was.

Each step he took was a step closer to death. If the path ahead ended in a dead end, there would be no hope of escaping this alley alive.

The woman had clearly entered this pitch-dark passage… so where was she?

A thought suddenly surfaced in Qi Xia’s mind.

Could she be…dead?

If she truly was Yu Nian’An, then perhaps she really would do something so reckless.

She might have stumbled into a dead end like a headless fly, driven by the black thread into a corner, and silently perished where no one could see her.

A chilling thought reverberated through Qi Xia’s mind: if she truly was dead, this path would lead to the worst possible outcome. Not only would he never see her face again, but he himself might become ensnared.

He took a few more cautious steps forward, only to notice the darkness ahead deepening. Something felt wrong. He had been in shadowed environments long enough that his eyes should have begun to adjust, but why did it remain so utterly black?

He sensed something just beyond his vision, and so he stopped, gingerly stretching his hand forward to probe.

The moment he reached out, a sharp sting lanced through his fingertips. The woman’s black thread had somehow crossed right in front of him, slicing his finger.

Had he not paused, his neck would already have been severed.

Qi Xia paused to collect himself. Then, carefully sidestepping the thread, he reached forward again, groping through the darkness. Suddenly, a cold shiver ran down his back, and his eyes widened.

In the pitch-black alley, his hand had brushed against someone’s shoulder.

The figure stood silently before him, less than half a meter away.

Qi Xia felt as though he were suspended in a universe of utter blackness. His front, back, left, and right all swallowed by shadow yet there, directly in front of him, a person stood perfectly still.

The figure neither spoke nor moved, leaving Qi Xia’s hand, resting on their shoulder, utterly uncertain of what to do.

To his left and behind him, lethal black threads lingered. Three of his four directions were dangerous, and inexplicably, he found himself surrounded.

“Wh–Who are you?” Qi Xia whispered.

The figure gave no response.

A deep sense of unease coiled around him. Never before had he felt so cornered. At any other moment, he could have discerned whether a situation was a trap, but this time, he could not shake the feeling of dread.

Even if this were truly a trap, he had no choice but to throw himself into it.

Otherwise, the most painful {obsession} in his heart would continue to ache, and every branching path would remain forever unresolved.

‘Only the right side remains…’

As Qi Xia stared at the blackness to his right, deliberating his next move, something seemed to emerge from the shadows and instantly grabbed his collar.

His eyes widened. Before he could even react, the figure yanked him forward.

{Bang}!

A heavy door slammed shut, sending a gust of wind sweeping through the small space.

Qi Xia opened his mouth to speak, but a faint light suddenly flickered to life, as if someone had sparked a lighter. Only then did he realize he had been pulled into a small shop.

Three people stood before him.

His gaze could not settle on the two at either side. All his attention was drawn to the woman in white in the center.

How strange…

How truly strange…

The woman before him wore the same white dress as Yu Nian’An, her waist-length hair identical in every detail. Her height and weight mirrored Yu Nian’An’s perfectly… yet their faces were unmistakably different.

Though the woman’s features were elegant, at this moment her expression was cold, her brows furrowed, and a profound depth lay in her eyes.

Her lips were pressed together solemnly, her gaze continuously assessing Qi Xia. In every way, her temperament differed completely from Yu Nian’An’s.

Who…is she?

Qi Xia felt his mind in chaos, countless fragments of memory colliding in his head, yet none of them could be grasped.

A woman who looked identical to Yu Nian’An in every way except her countenance…

“What are you doing?” The woman in white frowned. “Are you blind to the situation? Why would you flee into a dead alley?”

The brevity of her words left Qi Xia utterly at a loss for how to respond.

“I… you…” Qi Xia took a cautious step forward, the faint glow of the lighter revealing her features. “Have we…met before?”

“Met?” The woman in white sounded puzzled, then her expression shifted as if a thought struck her. “You didn’t follow me here, did you?”

“Hm?!” A man with a Northeastern accent beside her suddenly looked at Qi Xia with recognition. “It’s you, bloke!!”

Qi Xia looked toward the source of the sound and noticed a slender man standing at the woman’s right; his face oddly familiar.

“Oi! It’s me!” The man stretched out his hand, and a smooth stone appeared in his palm. “{Raw Object}! Me surname’s Sun!”

Only now did Qi Xia remember this man, whom he had briefly encountered before. He had previously, together with Xiao Xiao and Luo Eleven, faced Qiao Jiajin, Zhang Shan, and Li Xiangling in Terrestrial Tiger’s Single-Plank Bridge game.

“You’re that Ole Sun who can conjure stones…” Qi Xia remarked with furrowed brows.

“Heh! No kiddin’!” Ole Sun nodded. “I were wonderin’ who was daft enough to charge straight into a dead end like that, turns out it’s you, young mate!”

Qi Xia frowned and shifted his gaze to the other person beside the woman in white. It was a short, stout man with a friendly-looking face. His eyes were closed as he muttered something under his breath. This was a man Qi Xia had never encountered before.

Yet the situation seemed all the more peculiar: at such a critical juncture, why were these three individuals willingly enclosed in a tight, sealed space?

“Are you all {Adherents}?” Qi Xia immediately arrived at a conclusion.

The woman in white’s pupils constricted at his words, then a faint smile appeared on her lips. “Oh? So you’re not an ordinary {participant}. You seem to know quite a bit.”

Qi Xia found it perplexing, not only because these three {Adherents}, but also because, ever since entering this room, the black thread behind him had stopped pursuing him.