Quan Taibin continued, "In my view, Gods share information about the deaths of their own kind. This is reflected in the steadily declining points awarded for Disc Carapace."
Liu Changsheng seemed to have found a hole in his argument and asked, "That doesn't make sense! Even if Gods of the same species have some kind of signaling mechanism that lets them learn about one another's deaths, how would newborn Gods know?"
"Take Blood Salamanders, for example. They hatch from eggs. Can they communicate with others of their kind while they're still inside their eggs? That defies all common sense."
The corners of Quan Taibin's mouth rose. "Can you use common sense to reason about Gods? Let me ask you just one thing. You've gone on and on about Blood Salamanders laying eggs, but have you ever witnessed one being born? Or, for that matter, have you ever seen the eggs or even the juvenile form of any God?"
"...That's what the books say."
"Books are written by people, and people can make mistakes. Only factual evidence is reliable. So I'll ask again: have you ever seen a God's eggs or juvenile form?"
"...No, I haven't."
Quan Taibin nodded. "Not only have you never seen them, no one in the Safe Zone has. How Gods come into being has always been a mystery. Humans can only use their knowledge of biology to reason things out and speculate about how they reproduce."
"Even the claim that all Blood Salamanders are female and lay eggs is merely an explanation inferred from observed circumstances. No one has actually hidden inside a Waterlogged Begonia and witnessed the process."
Qin Siyang suddenly recalled Ji Ping, the professor he had killed inside the Waterlogged Begonia.
Ji Ping had spent who knew how long holed up inside the