Chapter 110: Choice
The two Old Wangs came to a temporary truce for the greater good and continued leading the way, while War Tiger kept a close eye on Cheng Xin in case the man got any funny idea.
The eight of them navigated the complex maze of crisscrossing branches, sometimes climbing and other times jumping until they got to the top of the underground space. They could touch the cool rock face of the dome by standing on their toes and reaching up.
Gao Yang strengthened the flames on his palm and lit up their surroundings further. Immediately, he said with alarm, “The branches are moving.”
The others noticed too. The branches buried into the dome were shifting slowly, accompanied by falling stone debris. Judging by the direction the branches shifted in, they seemed to be retracting.
All signs pointed to the core of the space lowering to the roots and the ground.
The branch they were all standing on was shifting as well. They had to keep moving to stay where they were.
“Where’s the exit?” War Tiger asked one of the Old Wangs.
“It will show up soon. You’ll see.”
“Are you certain?” White Rabbit asked.
The Old Wang with a forehead wound said, “There are tens of thousands of scenarios in my head, and I’ve tried all the possible escape routes. Trust me when I say that this is the only way out.”
Then all eyes were on Cheng Xin.
Cheng Xin hurriedly nodded. “Yes, this is the only exit, or I wouldn’t have climbed up the tree.”
What was left for them to do was wait.
Old Wang and Cheng Xin had seen countless selves experiencing countless successes and failures in the countless timelines. For the five of them from the Twelve Zodiac Signs, however, this was their first and only chance to escape.
And their failure would be their death.
Waiting was more difficult than they imagined. The area below them grew increasingly brighter, while the area around them grew darker and darker. Even the fire in Gao Yang's hands was rendered a sorry attempt at dispersing the darkness. It fluctuated weakly and struggled to cast a circle of light around them, illuminating the different looks on their faces.
Amid the suffocating darkness, War Tiger broke the silence. “Why did you cheat us into entering the tree hole, Cheng Xin?”
“That wasn’t me!” Cheng Xin hurriedly said. “That was the other me!”
“There’s no difference,” War Tiger said in a severe tone. “I’ll give you another chance. You better be honest with us.”
Cheng Xin grew nervous again, and he avoided War Tiger’s eyes. “I got the second team killed. Even if I get out, I’d be persona non grata to the Union. I wanted to get the Rune Circuit to redeem myself and put all the blame on Old Wang, but...”
Cheng Xin glanced at War Tiger and didn’t dare go on.
“But,” War Tiger spoke for him with a smile. “You knew you wouldn’t be able to keep the Rune Circuit from all of us, so you tried to lure us into the tree hole with lies so that we would get into a fight with our other selves. Then you would escape with the Rune Circuit in the ensuing chaos.”
“...Yes.”
The moment Cheng Xin finished his response, both Old Wangs spat him in the face.
“Bastard! I would punch your chin off if I weren’t struggling to stand upright!”
“I told you! The Cheng Xin who lied to you is dead!” Cheng Xin argued vehemently. “A score should be settled with the one who wronged you. Hate him, not me! I didn’t lie to you! I helped you get the Rune Circuit!”
“That’s because you didn’t have a choice, or you would’ve done the same!” White Rabbit said derisively. There was no one she hated more than those who betrayed their companions.
Then she suggested, “I say we push him off. What right does he have to get out of here alive? Among the second team, he’s the one who deserves to die the most.”
“Seconded,” said Qing Ling.
“Make it three,” Officer Huang agreed with ire. If not for this sorry excuse of a man, Old Wang wouldn’t have gotten a duplicate. Moreover, the five of them had almost suffered the same fate.
“No opposition from me,” Gao Yang raised his hand and said.
“You, you can’t do that to me! I didn’t do anything wrong!” Cheng Xin panicked and turned to War Tiger. “Please, please don’t kill me. I gave you the Rune Circuit. I just wanted to live...”
“Let’s wait til we get out of here.” War Tiger was being surprisingly generous and forgiving. Gao Yang thought the man would have shoved Cheng Xin off the branch himself.
A meaningful glint flashed through War Tiger’s eyes. He turned to the two Old Wangs. “Now, we must decide what we do with them.”
Everyone fell silent.
They couldn’t avoid making a decision forever.
War Tiger sighed, conflicted. “I may not be an educated man, but I know this is a special space created by the Time-Space Rune Circuit, and that in a normal space, you two cannot exist at the same time.”
Without a word, the two men stared at each other darkly.
“If you are to decide a survivor with a fight, the two of you will be at a stalemate with Iron Skin, and there’s no space for you to fight here anyway. And if you are to have a debate with words, neither of you will convince the other.”
A coin appeared at War Tiger’s fingertips. “Why don’t we leave it to fate?”
The two men exchanged a look. After a brief silence, they said at the same time, “Okay. I call head.”
Then the Old Wang with a forehead wound said, “FIne, I’ll bet on tail.”
“Alright. One toss decides the victor.”
War Tiger gently cast the coin into the air before catching it with the back of his left hand and covering it with his right. During the two seconds, everyone watched him with bated breaths and pounding hearts.
The two Old Wangs, especially, had been staring at War Tiger’s hands with their eyes twitching and cold sweat streaking down their faces.
War Tiger slowly lifted his right hand. It was tail.
The Old Wang with a wounded forehead sighed in relief, eyes brimming with tears. “Thank god.”
The other Old Wang stared at the coin with reddened eyes, his expression aggrieved.
Suddenly, he glared at War Tiger, “You cheated! You can make head or tail at will, can’t you?”
War Tiger met Old Wang’s gaze quietly as the firelight dimmed. His eyes glinted with a cold killing intent. “You don’t belong here, Old Wang. You belong to the world five minutes ahead. Don’t make me take care of you myself.”
“But, but I’m Old Wang too! You can’t do this to me...” Old Wang broke into broken sobs with tears and snots running down his face, looking pathetic and pitiful.
He grabbed onto Officer Huang and begged, “I can’t die here, Old Huang. I have a wife and kid to return to. Help me, please...”
Officer Huang looked away. “I’m sorry, Old Wang.”
The wounded Old Wang looked at his other self. “I understand you, but I won’t give up. This is my world...”
Suddenly, a heavy tremor shook the space. It didn’t come from a specific direction, but from everywhere.
Gao Yang felt a burst of strange power inside his chest, threatening to tear him apart. The fire in his hands vanished, and he toppled backward in the moment of lightheadedness.
At the last moment, two hands reached out from both sides to grab him. It was Qing Ling and Officer Huang.
“Grab and steady each other!” War Tiger shouted. He was right beside them, yet his voice was so faint it sounded like it had traveled from one cliff to another.
All of them linked their hands and made a circle.
An unexplainable gravity pulled at them from beneath their feet like countless invisible hands, grabbing and yanking them to make them fall.
“Ahhhh!”
They cried out at the top of their lungs as they fought the formidable gravitational pull. It was pitch dark around them. The only light source was the strange white light below.
Then suddenly, Gao Yang’s vision cleared.
He looked up with difficulty and realized that the dome was gone, replaced by a boundless, desolate void. Hovering in the void was a glowing white shape that looked like an ethereal jellyfish. Countless white tentacles emerged and spread in all directions.
They elongated and contracted, like the white light was breathing.
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