TDU Chapter 419
Chapter 419 Listen and Respond
“You’re implying that…” Celestial Snake’s expression faltered for a moment before he furrowed his brow, “that old hag was trying to deceive me…?”
Seeing this, Qi Xia allowed himself a quiet sigh of relief. Even {Celestials} had weaknesses. Their differences from the {participants} were not so vast.
Before encountering these {Celestial-grade} beings, Qi Xia’s greatest concern had been that they might act in unison, leaving him powerless against such a formidable, ironclad force.
But now, it seemed each {Celestial} harbored their own independent thoughts, and their relationships were far from harmonious. This was monumental news.
“But why do I feel…” Celestial Snake slowly frowned, “that the words you just said sound so familiar…? It’s like… like someone else has said this to me before…”
He inched closer to Qi Xia, his shrewd eyes behind thick glasses constantly tracking Qi Xia’s pupils.
“You’re… very calculating…” Celestial Snake murmured. “Have we… met before?”
“We…” Qi Xia took a deep breath and locked his pupils fiercely with Celestial Snake’s. “I don’t think we… have, right?”
The instant their pupils met, an overwhelming flood of information crashed into Celestial Snake’s mind, like a bomb detonating in his brain, forcing him to shut his eyes immediately.
“What…! What…!?” Celestial Snake furrowed his brow and stepped back two paces, slowly covering his eyes. “Such a chaotic flood of thoughts… how much are you thinking about at once?”
“I’m just an ordinary participant…” Qi Xia exhaled deeply before fixing it again on Celestial Snake’s nose. “Every thought I have is about surviving. It’s just that this place is slowly driving me insane.”
“An ordinary participant…?” Celestial Snake lifted his eyes to Qi Xia. In an instant, this man’s pupils had conveyed an explosive torrent of information, yet the strands of data seemed like fine threads drifting in the air—so scattered that he couldn’t grasp a single one in his panic. “I—I refuse to believe a common participant could possess such a mind…”
“Maybe… I just read a little more than others?” Qi Xia suggested.
“Read more…?” The words seemed to spark a strange competitive streak in Celestial Snake. “Are you very learned?”
“That depends on who I’m compared with,” Qi Xia replied.
“And with me?”
“I cannot say.” Qi Xia shook his head. “On conjecture alone, I cannot gauge the breadth of your knowledge.”
“There’s a simple simple solution…” Celestial Snake let out a light laugh. “Please listen and respond—”
“Hold on!” Qian Five stepped forward, reaching out toward Celestial Snake, only to be deftly avoided. “On what grounds are you posing questions to my people? Did you get my permission first?”
“Heh…” Celestial Snake smiled. “It’s just a meeting of minds, a meeting of minds!”
“Listen and respond…?” Qi Xia raised an eyebrow, faintly entertained. “What will you ask of me?”
Celestial Snake sidestepped Qian Five and fixed his gaze on Qi Xia. “Tell me, what is the {Bamboo Principle (竹子原理)}?”
Hearing the question, Qi Xia slowly lifted the corner of his mouth. Such was the {Snake}, ever devoted to questions.
“What is the stake?” Qi Xia asked.
“What…?”
This time, Qi Xia closed the distance, stepping forward deliberately. “This question-and-answer you’ve invoked resembles a {game}. Since it is a {game}, why not let us wager in earnest? If I answer correctly, what are you willing to pay as the price?”
"Price...?" Celestial Snake frowned.
This man seemed unlike the others. In the past, whenever he posed a question, all the {participants} would scramble in panic for an answer—but this one immediately asked about the {stake}?
"What do you want to stake…?" Celestial Snake probed cautiously.
“If I give the right answer, you perish. How does that strike you?” Qi Xia asked.
A slow smile spread across Celestial Snake’s face. "Heh… heheh… what are you thinking? This isn’t {Celestial Snake's Hour}; it’s nothing more than a minor {recruitment} test… a special prerogative granted to me by {Celestial Dragon}… Did you really think I’d initiate a {game} this easily?"
“And where’s the fun in that?” Qi Xia continued. “If I answer such a basic question, what’s in it for me?”
“Which is to say, you are a man of knowledge…?” Celestial Snake chuckled. “Would you not consider serving as my assistant…? Together, we could command the foremost advances of {End Point}…”
“Not interested,” Qi Xia replied. “How about this: if I answer correctly, you tell me the method you mentioned before…how to have {indigenous inhabitants} trigger their {Reverberation}. Agreed?”
"Hiss..." Celestial Snake mulled for a moment as he rubbed his chin. "That’s far too favorable. Let’s up the number, three questions—if you can answer all three questions correctly, I’ll share that method with you."
Qi Xia smiled slightly and replied, “Then let me be clear first… the questions you ask must have answers.”
“Don’t worry… I won’t resort to trickery.”
“Good to know.”
As soon as Qi Xia spoke those three words, Celestial Snake felt he might have underestimated him, though there were plenty of deceitful people in the world, and this could just be a bluff.
“If you can’t answer those three questions—”
“I die,” Qi Xia said.
Celestial Snake nodded expressionlessly.
Qi Xia paused for a second, then answered, “The Bamboo Principle states that bamboo grows only three centimeters in the first four years. But starting from the fifth year, it rapidly grows thirty centimeters per day, and in six weeks, it can reach fifteen meters. This is because during the first four years, the roots have already spread hundreds of square meters underground. It is a common principle encouraging patience and gradual accumulation.”
“You…” Celestial Snake wanted to say something but restrained himself and said, “Second question, the Ogilvy's Law—”
“If you always hire people who are bigger than you are, then your company will become a company of giants,” Qi Xia replied without hesitation. “That is Ogilvy's Law.”
With two successive questions cracked by Qi Xia, Celestial Snake’s expression visibly shifted.
He had lived longer than most, yet all the knowledge he had painstakingly acquired from books was all solved in a single moment—a sight unprecedented in {End Point}.
“Pose the third question,” Qi Xia said, voice carrying authority. “The outcome is imminent; act swiftly.”
“I…” Celestial Snake furrowed his brows. Though he admired learned individuals, he prized victory even more.
He had seen countless people in {End Point}, yet none were as knowledgeable as the man before him.
As his mind swirled, the image of Zhang Chenze slowly emerged in Celestial Snake’s thoughts.
She had also poised three questions… yet that woman had somehow bested him in the end…
‘Right, I can’t be bound by convention either,’ Celestial Snake slowly smiled. “This question… will make your death clear and certain.”
“Go ahead.”
“When I… was still in the real world… before heading to work every day, I would stop by the breakfast stall downstairs to get my favorite breakfast. No matter the season, I always went… because this single option was just that convenient. So tell me, what is my choice of breakfast…?”
Qi Xia’s expression slowly twisted into one of mild contempt. “Celestial Snake, you disappoint me. Does presenting such a question show any superiority over me?”
TL Note: The original quote reads—
“If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising
