All eyes turned to Galusha.
Everyone present knew that the only person in the room who wanted the experint to fail and the Tower of Logic destroyed was this follower of [Folly].
But Cheng Shi didn't think Galusha could give him an explanation, because her reaction just now hadn't seed faked at all — which ant that even Galusha herself didn't know why she hadn't died.
Since the person who was supposed to die had already lost every ans of influencing the experint, the one who'd carried out the mission had confird the task complete, and the one overseeing the experint had verified all paraters were correct... the only logical explanation was that the experint had encountered an unforeseen problem.
Cheng Shi didn't understand [Truth] experints, but he did know a thing or two about [Ti]. So when everything appeared fine yet the outco was wrong, his mind went to one possibility — could this regression experint have sent Chen Yi into a parallel tiline?
In other words, Chen Yi had indeed killed young Galusha, but it was the Galusha of another tiline who'd died, which was why the present Galusha was still alive.
He looked up with uncertainty and asked Volent whether such a thing was possible. Volent froze for a mont, then furrowed his brow in deep thought before answering:
"The question of parallel tilines has indeed been a subject of study for countless scholars. We've detected the existence of such tilines more than once in past experints, which is precisely why we developed spatiotemporal anchoring as a calibration thod.
Spatiotemporal anchoring was created to establish fixed coordinate points for the regression process, preventing the regressed subject from drifting off the temporal corridor.
But ti is, after all, enigmatic — beyond the full comprehension of mortals. So if an unexpected deviation occurred during spatiotemporal regression, it wouldn't be impossible."
"Are you saying this failure was just a deviation?" Hearing this, Cheng Shi's spirits lifted.
"Until other evidence proves the experint was flawed, that's the only conclusion we can draw.
I must say — luck is also part of any experint, and a critical part at that."
Volent reviewed the experintal data once more with a pained expression, then let out a despairing sigh:
"A deviation may be small, but it is often fatal.
It appears [Truth] has rejected us once again. There's no ti left.
Between Galusha's machinations and the Afterglow Church's rampage, we've completely lost any chance to start over. The path of [Truth] is about to be severed. Everyone — pray with .
May [Truth] still shelter us. May knowledge never be buried beneath slaughter.
Peer into essence, walk to find truth!"
"Peer into essence, walk to find truth!"
With that, all six Grand Scholars bowed their heads and began chanting the [Truth] prayer.
Clearly, the Erudition Presidium — standing tall for thousands of years — had, in this mont, surrendered in despair.
But...
'You're the ones out of ti. What does that have to do with
— a Ti Walker?'
A gleam flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes, and confidence surged back.
If one experint had a deviation, then he'd run a second. If that didn't work, a third, a fourth — even if it took dozens of attempts, a single success would an victory in the Trial!
Besides, deviations couldn't possibly happen every single ti, and he only needed to win once.
With that mindset, Cheng Shi initiated the regression once more.
But what he never expected was that what awaited him wasn't that one successful experint — it was an endless, bottomless streak of failure.
Experint launched — Galusha alive. Launched again — still alive. Launch, alive. Launch, alive...
After the seventeenth regression — ten consecutive failures — Cheng Shi finally realized that sothing had gone terribly wrong.
It wasn't just the experint. The Ti Battlefield itself was beginning to malfunction.
His teammates' voices questioning the ti resets were growing louder. Even right after a fresh reset, the mont Cheng Shi found them, they already had a vague sense that ti had been rolled back.
Hu Xuan kept warning Cheng Shi to watch out for [Ti] followers. Although the real [Ti] follower was Cheng Shi himself, the fact that this was happening sent a chill down his spine — it ant the Ti Battlefield was still functioning, but its effect on those within it was steadily weakening.
Why?
Was the power of [Ti] fading?
There was another oddity — the Grand Scholars' responses were becoming increasingly chanical. Volent's explanations were converging, growing more and more identical to what he'd said in previous iterations. Even the sentence lengths stayed the sa, with only a few pronouns swapped out.
These robotic, NPC-like replies made Cheng Shi's frown deepen. He couldn't help but question whether the so-called "deviation" the Grand Scholars kept citing actually existed, and who was truly pulling the strings behind these puppet scholars.
At first, given how cooperative the Erudition Presidium had been with the experint, Cheng Shi had assud these puppets were simply husks the Grand Scholars controlled remotely for their own safety.
But as the experint failed again and again, he was forced to scrutinize whoever was behind these puppets. Were they really the Grand Scholars?
Could it be soone else entirely — like... Galusha?
No — Galusha seed unlikely. If she'd already seized control of the Erudition Presidium, there'd be no need for this elaborate theatrical performance. She could've just toppled the Tower of Logic directly.
But if not Galusha, then who else would want this experint to fail?
Cheng Shi racked his brain but couldn't find an answer. However, he did co up with a thod that could definitively eliminate the mastermind's influence — use the experint itself as leverage to force the puppet master into the open!
As long as he could confirm that the person controlling the Grand Scholar puppets truly was the Erudition Presidium, then this experint could only continue through infinite trial and error.
And so, after the eighteenth reset, Cheng Shi spoke to Volent before the experint began:
"Grand Scholar, I know you're a puppet body. I can understand that you'd hide elsewhere for your own safety. But...
This is an experint that will determine the survival of the Tower of Logic and the Erudition Presidium. I believe we should all face each other in our true forms.
Drop the puppets. Only when the real you personally oversees this experint can the margin of deviation be minimized and the experint's success be ensured. Isn't that right?"
Volent was silent for a long while before shaking his head. "The shift in spatiotemporal regression anchor coordinates is an absolute anomaly — it cannot be influenced by human will. Even if I ca in my true body, it wouldn't change a thing.
And while you've co to help, your identities remain unknown. Cooperating with you through puppet bodies is already the greatest concession the Erudition Presidium can make.
In this hour of existential crisis, mutual understanding is the foundation of cooperation. This is all the Tower of Logic can offer.
Now — let us begin the experint. There's no ti to waste."
"Wait!"
Cheng Shi's expression suddenly turned grim. His startled gaze fixed on Volent as he raised one hand, clenching the Fun Ring and aiming it squarely at the scholar. His voice dropped to a cold, deliberate tone as he questioned, word by word:
"Grand Scholar — I only ntioned a deviation in the experint. How did you know the deviation would specifically occur during the spatiotemporal regression process, and that it would be a shift in the regression anchor coordinates?
The experint hasn't even started yet!"
"!!!"
The mont those words left his mouth, the entire room froze.
The faces of all six Grand Scholars turned gravely serious in an instant.
...
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