“He’s a card addict; his mantra used to be, “Cards?” I had nothing to do at night back then, so I would often play with him.”
Bai Lixin: “So when he said “cards,” he meant he wanted to play cards?”
Chi Yan: “Yes, I suppose so.”
The next second, a deck of playing cards appeared before Chi Yan and the man.
Two pairs of eyes instantly looked at Bai Lixin, the difference being that one was shocked and the other was pleasantly surprised.
The man, clumsily grabbed the playing cards, and his originally numb expression brightened.
He waved his hands happily and said, “Cards! Come and play cards!”
“Are you guys coming or not?!”
Chi Yan was still in shock when Bai Lixin spoke lightly, “This could be the way to completely wake him up.”
Chi Yan was frozen for a second before he quickly joined Bai Lixin to sit on the grass cross-legged.
Seeing both of them sitting, the man smiled happily, his eyes gradually going crazy.
He quickly took out the cards, and those hands, which had been moving clumsily, suddenly became unusually nimble the moment they touched the cards.
Ten fingers seemed to have life, and the playing cards were posed in various positions like an obedient pet.
Even the man’s eyes and expression changed, becoming focused and his expression solemn.
After shuffling the cards, the man slapped the cards on the ground and shouted majestically, “Call the landlord!”
*”Call the Landlord” is a poker game of at least three players, one of whom is the landlord and the others are the party.
Bai Lixin: “You have a loud voice, so you can be the landlord.”
Chi Yan: “???”
The man: “???”
—————
Two hours later, Chi Yan secretly yawned and came up to Bai Lixin while the man was shuffling his cards: “We’ve been playing for so long, but there is no change. We’ve tried to let him win and lose, but his expression doesn’t change! Isn’t this enough?”
As Bai Lixin pondered, the man suddenly spoke up, “No whispering! That’s the rule!”
At these words, Bai Lixin looked up at the man, a faint glint in his pupils.
He winked at Chi Yan and began a new round of Call the Landlord.
Chi Yan: “……”
‘What does he mean by winking at me? Just say the word. You think I can understand just because you winked at me?’
This time the man was still the landlord, and the game went on, but Chi Yan was somewhat distracted.
He had a grudge against Bai Lixin for winking earlier and not explaining, so he kept glancing at him often.
But it was as if Bai Lixin hadn’t noticed his gaze and was playing his cards without looking away, completely ignoring him.
Seeing that Bai Lixin was not responding, Chi Yan sighed and unintentionally glanced to the front, only to suddenly find the man glaring at him viciously.
Chi Yan’s heart skipped a beat, but before he could say anything, the man suddenly slapped the ground, stood up, and cursed at the two, “You two, how dare you cheat?!”
“A sacred thing like playing cards is not one for you to tarnish like this!”
Chi Yan: “No, wait a minute, when did I cheat?”
Man: “You still say you didn’t cheat, I just saw him change his cards from his sleeve and you kept looking towards him.”
“You two are clearly working together.”
“Chi Yan, you let me down!”
His name was suddenly called out, and Chi Yan couldn’t sit still. “You remember me, senior?!”
The man suddenly froze.
He stretched out his hand to look at his palm in disbelief, then up at the diamond slate overhead, and his eyes finally fell back to Chi Yan. “I …… I woke up?”
Chi Yan was also stunned, “Yes, senior. Are you really awake?!”
After the initial shock, Chi Yan very sensibly looked at Bai Lixin beside him and asked, “Little ancestor, what the hell is going on here?”
You’re the ancestor, your whole family is full of ancestors!
Bai Lixin: “At first, I thought that winning or losing was the key to completely waking him, but then it suddenly occurred to me that winning or losing is the most common in cards.”
“And the first thing you learn to do when playing cards is to learn to accept losses and wins. So whether it was a loss or a win, he could accept it.”
“But just now when the two of us were talking quietly, he suddenly scolded us. I was just thinking, since winning or losing doesn’t work, then won’t breaking the rules wake him up?”
Chi Yan: “Is that why you winked at me on purpose, just to stimulate me into looking at you throughout the game? While you yourself do the cheating? With this double stimulation, it’s no wonder that the senior is angry.”
“But how did you know that I would be looking at you?”
Bai Lixin smiled, “Because he was the only one who was serious about playing cards. You weren’t thinking about playing cards, and when you found something suspicious, it was easy to get your attention.”
When Bai Lixin said “he,” he obviously meant the man who had just woken up.
Chen Yan came to realize this.
Although there was still much doubt about the man’s sudden awakening, it was no longer their first concern.
Chi Yan introduced the two men enthusiastically.
“Senior, this is Bai Lixin, who came in after us.”
“Bai Lixin, this is the senior I met when I entered this place, his name is Zhao Nan.”
Zhao Nan’s entire aura had changed since he had regained his senses.
Just a moment ago, he was yelling at them for cheating, but now, he was unusually introspective and profound.
As he looked at Bai Lixin warily, Bai Lixin was also looking at him.
The man’s hair was long, but not as long as Bai Lixin’s, with a head of golden lion-mane-like hair that fell to his waist.
He looked less than thirty, and if he were to compare, his aura was a bit like Zhou Guang’s, but a little darker and more calculating than Zhou Guang.
Zhao Nan extended his hand: “Hello, nice to meet you. I only knew Chi Yan when I lost my mind; I didn’t expect to see someone new when I woke up.”
“I can say that I’m witnessing history.”
Bai Lixin shook the other man’s hand politely and said, “Welcome back.”
Zhao Nan’s arm instantly froze as he thought over Bai Lixin’s words, and a few seconds later, he suddenly burst out laughing.
With this laugh, even his hostile aura weakened quite a bit.
“Yeah, I’m back!”
“So what’s the situation now?”
Bai Lixin: “If there’s no mistake, we’re going through a tunnel to the outside with the help of a bird.”
“But we just found it today,” added Chi Yan, “so we don’t know what is on the other side.”
“We had planned to go out of that tunnel tomorrow to check it out.”
Compared to Chi Yan, who was excited about the tunnel, Zhao Nan was much calmer and more restrained.
But he was also stunned by the news, then he nodded in approval, “Can I be added?”
Chi Yan did not answer him but looked at Bai Lixin.
Even he hadn’t realized that he had become dependent on Bai Lixin.
Bai Lixin didn’t push back either: “Of course you can. But I’ll also tell you that I won’t wait for you if you fall behind. If you want to come along, be prepared to run with all your strength; we are in a race against time.”
Zhao Nan: “Of course.”
————–
The sun was shining brightly on Diamond Mountain, and everywhere shone with a bright crystalline glow.
In this pure white and immaculate world, an uninvited figure suddenly appeared.
He did not linger in this pure white realm but quickly entered the pre-dug tunnel.
In the blink of an eye, he disappeared, and the Diamond Mountain returned to their usual tranquility, as if this figure had never appeared.
Bai Lixin was still in his pure black outfit, and Chi Yan and Zhao Nan were nowhere to be seen because they couldn’t keep up with his speed.
When he had set out in the morning, he had agreed with the two that if they were separated, they should make a reasonable judgment as to whether to turn back.
There was no need to wait for each other; anyone left behind would first have to keep himself safe before darkness approached.
It had taken Bai Lixin two hours to get here, and it should take the other two another three hours or so to get here.
Without waiting for them, Bai Lixin had taken the lead and entered the tunnel.
Seeing the diamond birds still lying around on the ground, Bai Lixin kept looking to his left and right as he darted forward, his mouth slightly open as if he was chanting something.
As he had calculated yesterday, this tunnel would take an ordinary person six hours to run at full speed, but about two hours would be enough for Bai Lixin.
The tunnel was densely packed with corpses of birds on both sides.
As he ran out further and further, the degree to which these birds had become diamonds became more and more severe.
At first, it was only on the surface, and you could still see the lifelike feathers and so on inside, like beetles sealed in resin.
Eventually, he could vaguely make out that it was a bird-shaped diamond.
A bird represents one year, and there were over 100,000 birds in this tunnel.
It would take an average person six hours to run through this tunnel, but it took the birds 100,000 hours to chisel it out.
What perseverance.
The white light in front of him grew more and more intense, and finally, Bai Lixin took a step forward, and left this tunnel.
In the distance was a higher, more towering Diamond Mountain.
The summit of the mountain was so high that it could not be seen from the clouds.
Bai Lixin stopped and narrowed his eyes at the diamond mountain in the distance.
He was out, but not quite out.
It was like the fairy tale where it says the first second of eternity is done after pecking through the mountain.
He should have thought about it before, since it was Eternal Diamond Mountain, how could there be only one Diamond mountain?
Only mountains upon mountains would fit that setting in the fairy tale.
