TDU Chapter 356
Chapter 356 Their Chosen Course
Su Shan, Lin Qin, Qin Dingdong, and Zhang Chenze stepped out from a {Mortal Horse} game arena, each of them looking visibly worn out.
“Xiao Shan, come 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 mental 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… become more ruthless, more deranged?”
“What did you mean?” Zhang Chenze asked.
“What I mean is… perhaps we need harsher {games}.” Su Shan shook her head. “You’re all sharp, these {Mortal-grade} games are simply too easy for us.”
Lin Qin thought for a moment, then asked, “Are you really going to take part in a {Terrestrial-grade} game?”
“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} game now?”
“You two…” Su Shan glanced at Qin Dingdong and Lin Qin. “must be my seniors, so you’ve already triggered your {Reverberation}, haven’t you?”
Lawyer Zhang frowned slightly at the word. “{Reverberation}?”
Qin Dingdong and Lin Qin, both seasoned veterans of the field, merely responded with faint, composed expressions.
“Is the sole purpose of taking us through five {Mortal-grade} games 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} game, 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} games 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 game.”
“Xiao Shan…” Qin Dingdong shook her head. “You call {encountering a Terrestrial-grade Earthly Branches} a {stroke of fate}?”
“It might not be your {stroke of fate}, but it is mine,” Su Shan replied. “I am grateful to Qi Xia, who showed me the way to retain my memories. Were it not for his pulling me from the ceaseless reincarnation, I’d still be fending for myself with a handful of cumbersome 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 momentarily stunned. “Xiao Shan, didn’t you trigger your {Reverberation} last cycle? How come you're not aware of your own ability?”
“Qi Xia’s methods were too sophisticated. I was killed less than a minute after I activated my {Reverberation}.”
“Ah… well.” Qin Dingdong gave a wry smile. “We really were close before. Saw each other all the time… 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 memory of you, we remained as {besties}…?”
“Uh… yes…” Qin Dingdong laughed sheepishly, “I always come find you and remind you who I am.”
“Then why did you stop coming to find me 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 me 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 game was unclear. She simply urged everyone to gather themselves and set out once more.
Su Shan delivered an eye-catching performance across today’s five {Mortal-grade games}. She seemed to be intentionally adjusting her thinking toward Qi Xia’s style—her ideas grew increasingly unorthodox, and she often made bold gambles that made others frown in concern.
Take this moment, for instance: she actually intended to rely on {the Will of Heaven} to seek out a {Terrestrial-grade}.
It wasn’t just this little alley, even if they had set out specifically to find a {Terrestrial-grade}, with poor luck, it could still take hours.
But fate, as always, refuses to go as one wishes.
For the moment they turned the corner and saw an emaciated dog-headed figure squatting silently in the shadows, everyone's expression shifted.
The man's attire differed slightly from that of other {Terrestrial-grades}; he was bare-chested, with a suit jacket thrown directly over his upper body. His muscular torso, covered in short dog fur, was fully on display.
“A {Terrestrial Dog}?” Qin Dingdong murmured under her breath.
Lin Qin suddenly recalled the first time she had truly teamed up with Qi Xia in a game; it had been a {letter delivery} game hosted by another Terrestrial Dog.
However, this Terrestrial Dog looked nothing like the one from before. This one was a sleek, muscular brown short-haired hound of an unidentifiable breed, looking unusually sharp and agile.
“Uh…” Terrestrial Dog blinked, glanced at the four women standing before him, and said expressionlessly, “Ladies… this doesn’t seem ideal, does it? I’m about to clock out.”
TL Note: In case you don’t remember, the {letter delivery} game is from chapter 73, the one where Ole Lu and Lawyer Zhang were in.
