Chapter 978: Better Half

“You may not know how terrifying Qilin is,” One Stone said, her voice trembling without her realizing it. “From a short distance, he can kill the hostages in a split second with Eidos. He’ll do that with a glance if we don’t cooperate, giving us no chance to save the hostages. If we play along, though, perhaps Qilin will let the hostages go.”

“That’s what Qilin wants you to think! You’re falling for it!” Crimson Bee shot back. “If Qilin gets all twelve Rune Circuits, do you think we’ll have any chance against him? The psycho is going to turn all of us into puppets sooner or later!”

Lin Fu scoffed, fueled by the truth from War Tiger, “If Qilin were a pacifist, he would’ve agreed to Captain Gao’s solution and let a third party open the Gates. The fact that he tried to kill Captain Gao and started a civil war without hesitation—the lives of his kind be damned—proved that he doesn’t care about human lives. I’m not believing a word out of such a man’s mouth.”

“But—” One Stone’s words were interrupted by Nine Frost.

“I know you are eager to save our companions and don’t want to give up any hope, One Stone, but think about it. How long has Vermilion Bird followed Qilin? Where did that lead her? Do you really think Qilin’s words can be trusted?”

One Stone fell silent, clutching her arm with a conflicted look on her face. “I really don’t want to see any more deaths...”

Dead Pig's voice came out pained and furious. He hadn't had any food or sleep since Lovely Lamb was taken. “Lovely Lamb and Yanyan are so young...”

“I don’t care. Nothing must happen to them.” Under the firelight, Heavenly Dog’s eyes blazed with killing intent. The gentle, lazy, innocent young man was no longer there.

Gao Xinxin and Gregor didn’t say anything. Both lowered their heads, their eyes reddened.

When it seemed like the conversation would go into another endless circle of arguments—

“Everyone.”

Gao Yang’s reassuring voice cut through the noises and cooled them down.

“One Stone asked a good question, and it’s about our tactics. Let’s assume our strategy is to kill Qilin. What will the tactics entail?”

Gao Yang held One Stone’s gaze. “You said that Qilin would be able to kill the hostages in an instant from a short distance. If we don’t cooperate, he may kill all of them, right?”

One Stone nodded.

“Then think about it.” Gao Yang smiled. “Will he?”

One Stone blinked. “I...I don’t understand.”

“Does Qilin enjoy killing?” Gao Yang asked from a different perspective.

“Objectively speaking, I don’t think so. He’s someone who’ll do anything to achieve his goal, no matter the means. That’s why I think the hostages will live if we cooperate.”

“Good.” Gao Yang nodded. “Killing is only the means and not the end. Then what is Qilin’s goal tonight?”

One Stone paused. “He wants you to meet him alone and give him the Rune Circuits.”

“Alright. Keep going,” Gao Yang said. “If I go to Qilin tonight and refuse to give him the Rune Circuits. He hasn’t achieved his goal, has he?”

“Yeah.”

“And we know that killing is only the means to his end. Without reaching his goal, why will Qilin kill the hostages unnecessarily?”

One Stone blanked. She found no flaws in the logic, but something didn’t sit right with her. “But, but...”

“You’re thinking that if I go against what Qilin wants and offend him, he may kill the hostages in the heat of the moment to make us regret it, right?”

One Stone nodded slightly. It seemed that she had found the starting point of her messy yarn of thoughts.

“Then think about it clearly,” Gao Yang said. “Will Qilin kill for a meaningless reason like that?”

“No!” One Stone realized. “He doesn’t care about any of that. He only sees his ambition and nothing more. Although I don’t know what his ambition is.”

“Good. Let’s keep going.” Gao Yang looked at each of them in turn. “If I go against Qilin tonight and Qilin does kill all the hostages, what will his reason be?”

Before the others could finish processing the question, Qing Ling broke her silence. “To anger you.”

“Bingo. If Qilin does kill the hostages, it will only be to anger me and make me lose it. Then he’ll kill me and take the Rune Circuits...” Gao Yang raised his fist. “And finally achieving his goal.”

War Tiger smacked his lips with a smirk. “As expected of your better half.”

“However,” Gao Yang pointed at his temple. “I have Psychic Armor. It won’t be so easy to anger me. Qilin must know that well.”

Nine Frost smiled. “So the only reason Qilin may kill hostages for isn’t valid.”

“Moreover,” Gao Yang’s eyes darkened, “If he kills the hostages for the momentary release, he risks angering everyone, and some of us may disobey orders and hide the Rune Circuits forever, aiming for mutual destruction with Qilin. That’s something Qilin least wants.”

“Cool.” Heavenly Dog gave Gao Yang a thumbs-up. He currently had the Time-Space Rune Circuit. Gao Yang had given him a good idea.

Gao Yang nodded. “Therefore, Qilin has almost no reason to kill hostages, while he has many reasons to not kill them.”

“Good thinking, Brother Yang!” Old Seven slapped his thigh. “That’s the strongest brain, dammit! What’s Dr. Jia compared to him? Simply mediocre!”

“But...” Hong Xiaoxiao’s eyes were swollen from crying. “Why did he kill Zhong He?”

Gao Yang responded solemnly, “Zhong He was strong. Making him a hostage posed more risk than benefit. It might have foiled his plan.”

“Nothing is off-limits for him when it comes to his goal.” Lying Wood scoffed, barely containing his ire. “Very much like Qilin.”

“Quiet Book just woke up. She told me what happened.” One Stone sighed. “Zhong He was killed after attacking Qilin. Quiet Book didn’t know what happened later after falling under Qilin’s control.”

Lying Wood was surprised. “How...is that possible? Don’t buy Zhong He’s usual bravado. He was actually quite a scaredy cat. When he knew he couldn’t win, he wouldn’t have been so reckless...”

“You’re wrong, Lying Wood,” War Tiger said ruefully, a hint of admiration in his voice. “I’ve got a good eye for this. Zhong He may have had the strongest backbone among you—no, among all of us.”

Mischievous Monkey was standing on one leg, his voice old and distant. “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear”

Lying Wood fell silent, struck by the words.

“How is he...such a fool? Why...?” Hong Xiaoxiao covered her face with both hands, her shoulders shaking with sobs.

Nainai shifted from foot to foot before stepping forward, her arms spreading awkwardly but her embrace gentle as she held Hong Xiaoxiao, patting her back like a small rabbit comforting another.

“This isn’t time for tears, everyone,” Nine Frost said, his determined gaze sweeping across the group. “Pick yourselves up. We have a difficult fight ahead of us!”

“That’s right!” Old Seven said impassionedly. “Turn our rage into strength and kill the bastard Qilin!”

“Yeah! Kill Qilin!”

The others' voices rose in agreement before fading into a heavy silence.

Nine Frost returned to their original topic. “Everyone, Captain’s made it clear. If Qilin wanted to kill the hostages, he would’ve already done it. And if he hasn’t yet, he won’t do it in a rush. He knows it’ll do more harm than good.”

Relief washed over the faces of Gao Xinxin, Gregor, Dead Pig, and Heavenly Dog as they exhaled collectively.

The others nodded, their earlier disagreements resolved.

“I’ll keep going,” Gao Yang continued, his voice steady. “After all that, we’ve neglected to mention someone important: Surnamed Li.”

He paused and said in a lower tone, “You all know that Surnamed Li has a clear goal—to kill me. In her prophecy, she saw me turning into the Malediction and killing everyone...”

“Haha! Hahahaha!” Wang Zikai burst out laughing, the sound rumbling like thunder.