Cheng Shi was in no rush to find the grand scholars.
The trial's 3-day ti limit showed the players still had breathing room. And he still held the Afterglow Church — the edict he'd issued did contain legitimate orders, with tracking the grand scholars being one of them.
The Toll Knights were probably already on the move. All Cheng Shi needed to do was find sowhere to avoid that [mory] psychopath, then wait for the et-up ti with the Life Sage and the bard.
Of course, there was still one important thing to handle in between.
He wove through the streets of the central district, witnessing firsthand how [Chaos]'s will swept across this land of [Truth]. The Toll Knights, spears raised high, brought trauma and death to Tusnat's citizens and scholars. Organized resistance had all but collapsed. Masses of scholars gathered beneath the Tomorrow Truth tower, sworn to defend [Truth]'s last beacon to the death.
Galusha stood atop a platform built from scholars' skulls, surveying the Erudition Presidium's floor — ready to order the final assault at any mont.
That's when one of the Afterglow Church elders approached Galusha and shook his head.
Galusha frowned. Displeasure crossed her face, but she still stepped back, yielding the position.
The elder, standing upon the skulls, addressed the knights below. They looked confused but obeyed. In unison, every spear was lowered.
Before long, the entire city gradually quieted from its spiral of chaos. Even the smoke thinned.
And then — a single prayer bood across the sky.
"Fabricated laws — a cosmic joke!"
[Chaos]'s believers, in that mont, abandoned chaos itself. In unified resonance, they perford a prepared orderly rite — offering their devotion to the supre [Chaos].
Players scattered throughout the city startled at the sudden prayer. Watching Toll Knights raise their heads and pray to the heavens, they thought the Afterglow Church was activating so apocalyptic spell array.
Only Cheng Shi, hiding in a corner of the central district, smirked and snapped his fingers.
"Done!"
He imdiately sprinted toward the west district — but didn't head straight for Wei Zhi's specified location. Instead, his agile movent and sharp eyes assembled the investigative puzzle of this city.
The west was a slum district. Building scale and street conditions differed starkly from other quarters. Tangled alleys should have been the biggest obstacle to searching — but the Toll Knights had already cleared those obstacles for the "boss."
After the brief pause of [Order], chaos resud. War engulfed the city again. Cheng Shi watched the west district crumble under the knights' boots — yet found nothing resembling a hiding place.
The Afterglow Church hadn't sent word either, aning the search was going poorly. Out of options, Cheng Shi finally turned his attention to Wei Zhi's tip: the timber market warehouse.
He'd actually surveyed that spot from afar during his earlier search. Already reduced to rubble. The timber had burned to ash. At a glance — nowhere to hide a person.
But above ground being empty didn't an underground was too. Especially in a place like Tusnat, riddled with laboratories. Hidden underground experintal sites or large chambers were perfectly normal.
So Cheng Shi shifted focus to subterranean spaces. Underground reconnaissance was far slower than surface sprinting. Without soone like Big Cat to barrel through walls, he could only thodically probe for entrances.
Before long, he found one — at the base of a collapsed wall beside the timber warehouse!
The entrance bore faint traces of formation energy. Without getting close, it was impossible to notice the hidden world beneath this crumbled corner.
"Really here?"
Cheng Shi frowned. Sothing about this felt wrong at every level.
Wei Zhi was no fool. After reading Cheng Shi's dismissive attitude, he'd still revealed the Erudition Presidium's exact hiding place? That itself was suspicious. Add the man's identity as Reason Association president...
Don't forget: the Reason Association was, to so extent, born from the Tower of Logic's influence. Though this organization had chosen an entirely different path of madness, lunatics would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
So Wei Zhi couldn't possibly be this generous.
Considering his opening position — wanting to keep all corpses for his al — this man probably hadn't taken the trial seriously at all. What he wanted was maximum personal gain from this scenario. After all, not everyone was lucky enough to stumble into the Erudition Presidium's doomsday.
So his sharing this location could only an one thing...
"Using
as a mine sweeper?
Tch. Well played."
Cheng Shi smiled. He morized the location, then walked away as if he'd never been there.
Shortly after his departure, a nearby ruin suddenly collapsed. Dust and rubble cascaded down. And within the hollow gaps ford by broken timber and stone, a pair of bloodstained eyes quietly opened. From beneath the debris ca a soft, scoffing laugh:
"Cautious fellow. But whoever enters first makes no difference."
...
Cheng Shi didn't pin all his hopes on the timber warehouse underground. He continued circling the west district, discovering several more subterranean spaces along the way. Most had been destroyed by Toll Knights; the few intact ones showed no signs of life.
As ti wore on, Cheng Shi accepted that it was probably there after all. But being prudent, he waited until the agreed eting ti before returning to the vicinity of the Yesterday Truth tower.
By now, Galusha had led her forces into Tomorrow Truth. The tower's lower floors had beco a at grinder. Toll Knights surged in like waves, only to be blasted out by screaming magic. Bodies piled with each cycle.
The scholars fared worse. Each dead knight at least remained a corpse, but every fallen scholar had their head severed by Galusha and strung together like beads.
She burned freely beneath the tower, roasting scholars' skulls until they cracked — as if trying to drive [Truth] out of humanity's minds this way.
The sight drove the scholars inside Tomorrow Truth to the brink of madness — terrified yet enraged beyond reason. They unleashed magical attacks on the Afterglow Church, but Galusha returned her own "magical attacks" — the kind that destroyed sanity.
"She's an absolute lunatic. I won't deny that ti has distilled wisdom into her — but it's also concentrated her madness.
Stay away from her. Madness is contagious."
...
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