Su Shan, Lin Qin, Qin Dingdong, and Zhang Chenze stepped out from a {Mortal Horse} ga arena, each of them looking visibly worn out.
"XiaoShan, co on… can we call it a day now?" Qin Dingdong rolled her neck and called out to Su Shan, who was leading the group. "Today was both a ntal grind and a footrace, are you putting us through special training or what?"
"But it's still not enough…" Su Shan murmured to herself. "Could Qi Xia have been right? That to truly succeed, we'll have to cast off parts of our humanity… beco more ruthless, more deranged?"
"What did you an?" Zhang Chenze asked.
"What I an is… perhaps we need harsher {gas}." Su Shan shook her head. "You're all sharp, these {Mortal-grade} gas are simply too easy for us."
Lin Qin thought for a mont, then asked, "Are you really going to take part in a {Terrestrial-grade} ga?"
"Yes." Su Shan nodded resolutely.
Qin Dingdong blinked, then looked up at the darkening sky. "It's nearly evening, you sure you want to enter a {Terrestrial-grade} ganow?"
Lawyer Zhang frowned slightly at the word. "{Reverberation}?"
Qin Dingdong and Lin Qin, both seasoned veterans of the field, rely responded with faint, composed expressions.
"Is the sole purpose of taking us through five {Mortal-grade} gas today to set off your {Reverberation}?" Lin Qin inquired.
"Correct." Su Shan nodded. "And I've discovered… earning {Dào} isn't all that difficult to collect."
"You're smarter than most, so for you, it wouldn't be," Lin Qin acknowledged. "But even if you win every single {Mortal-grade} ga, that doesn't guarantee you'll gather three thousand six hundred in ten days."
"Is that so…?" Su Shan responded vaguely. "Still, I have a feeling—I'll find a way to collect all three thousand six hundred {Dào} in a short span."
Lin Qin sighed softly. "I advise you not to try."
"Not try…?"
"Please don't get the wrong impression," Lin Qin shook her head softly. "I am only concerned for your safety."
"Is it really that dangerous?" Su Shan pondered aloud. "From what I've seen, {Mortal-grade} gas don't pose a threat to one's life."
"In any case, I've said what I needed to," Lin Qin said. "Try not to make a spectacle out of collecting three thousand six hundred {Dào}. If you're really set on doing it, then don't trust a single soul from {End Point}. Do it in secret, quietly."
"What…?"
Qin Dingdong, upon hearing this, turned to Lin Qin with a wary look. Lin Qin returned her gaze calmly, and the two shared a silent understanding.
"Ladies," Zhang Chenze interjected, "should we find a place to rest for now?"
Su Shan looked at her and said, "I want to take a gamble."
"A gamble?" The others turned to her.
Su Shan raised a finger and pointed at the winding alley before them. "We walk down this path, straight to the main road. If we just happen to encounter a {Terrestrial-grade Earthly Branch}, then that's our stroke of fate. We'll join their ga."
"XiaoShan…" Qin Dingdong shook her head. "You call {encountering a Terrestrial-grade Earthly Branches} a {stroke of fate}?"
"It might not beyour{stroke of fate}, but itismine," Su Shan replied. "I am grateful to Qi Xia, who showed the way to retain my mories. Were it not for his pulling from the ceaseless reincarnation, I'd still be fending for myself with a handful of cumberso allies."
"And so?" Lin Qin asked.
"So I have to figure out a way to trigger my {Reverberation} as soon as possible. Otherwise, I'll fall into passivity again." After speaking, Su Shan turned to Qin Dingdong and asked, "By the way, Dingdong, you once said we were close in the past. Do you know what my {Reverberation} was?"
"Huh?" Qin Dingdong was montarily stunned. "Xiao Shan, didn't you trigger your {Reverberation} last cycle? How co you're not aware of your own ability?"
"Qi Xia's thods were too sophisticated. I was killed less than a minute after I activated my {Reverberation}."
"Ah… well." Qin Dingdong gave a wry smile. "We reallywereclose before. Saw each other all the ti… But I honestly don't know what your {Reverberation} was."
"Hmm…?" Su Shan, trained as a police officer, swiftly caught the logical inconsistency in Qin Dingdong's words. "So, despite my lack of mory of you, we remained as {besties}…?"
"Uh… yes…" Qin Dingdong laughed sheepishly, "I always co find you and remind you who I am."
"Then why did you stop coming to find later?" Su Shan pressed.
"I uh…"
Seeing Qin Dingdong at a loss for words, Su Shan smiled. It wasn't an interrogation, after all, no need to make things tense. "I was just teasing you. We've spent nearly the whole day together. Of course I know you're my good friend."
"Oh, really?" Qin Dingdong let out a breath of relief. "You scared to death."
Lin Qin watched the two with amused interest. She knew full well that Qin Dingdong's greatest talent lay in crafting an image of herself as a liar riddled with flaws—yet her deception always lay hidden within those very flaws.
The more one thought they had caught her in a slip, the deeper they likely had fallen into her trap.
Whether Su Shan had seen through Qin Dingdong's little ga was unclear. She simply urged everyone to gather themselves and set out once more.
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