The instant the true enemy was identified, Cheng Shi decisively had Fang Yuan release the restraints on Galusha.
Galusha let out a cold snort, looked at Cheng Shi, and sneered once more:
"Mr. Prisoner, you sabotaged my experint and now you want my help? Since when does the world work that way?"
Cheng Shi felt a twinge of embarrassnt, though it didn't show through his gravely serious expression.
His mind was terrifyingly clear at that mont. He t Galusha's gaze and mirrored her smile:
"If anyone else were standing before
right now, I wouldn't hold out any hope. But you, Galusha — you'll definitely help
take down these old fossils!"
Cheng Shi was so furious he'd dropped the honorific "Grand Scholar" entirely. Since they'd shown no courtesy, he saw no reason to hold back either.
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Because their victory ans the continuation of [Truth]. You want to purge [Truth] from the world — which ans these old fossils absolutely cannot be left alive.
We are natural-born allies!"
Those words struck right at the core of Galusha's heart. She threw her head back and laughed, wild as a madwoman:
"Exactly!
Whatever the Erudition Presidium seeks to do — I will destroy!
Whatever [Truth] champions — I will forbid!
Only when [Truth] no longer exists in this world will people stop wielding foolish wisdom to suffer pain that was never ant to be theirs.
You have a keen eye, Mr. Prisoner. I always said we'd end up on the sa side. Rest easy — I shall be your most reliable ally, because I am terrified that [Truth] might not die completely enough!"
With that, Galusha raised her whip and charged straight at Volent.
Cheng Shi's eye twitched at the sight. Truthfully, if everything they were experiencing was just an experint, Galusha's assault amounted to little more than venting frustration — it wouldn't help them escape this experintal space in the slightest.
He'd wanted to ask how one could break free from a Consciousness Faith Departnt experint from the inside, but that clearly wasn't an option now. His only choice was to stir up chaos alongside Galusha first and figure things out later.
At the very least, after being deceived this long, he had plenty of pent-up fury. An eye for an eye, a grudge for a grudge — the old fossils had no right to complain about his heavy hand. After all, they weren't exactly upstanding themselves.
Cheng Shi moved — and every player in the room moved with him.
There were no fools in a Trial of this caliber. Once the situation beca clear, anyone who'd been inexplicably stuffed into an experint as raw material would be livid. The players struck with lethal intent, clashing with the six Grand Scholars in an instant.
Violent explosions flattened the entire space. The massive experint site couldn't withstand such ferocious combat, and within a blink it collapsed in on itself.
When the experint site ruptured and the liminal space between reality and illusion was exposed to the surface of Tusnat, the Death Knell Knights, drawn by the explosions, began converging on the scene.
Also appearing was Wei Zhi, who had remained hidden until now. The mont he spotted everyone fighting the Grand Scholars, his entire deanor shifted to excitent. Cracking his knuckles, he launched himself like a cannonball straight at the nearest Grand Scholar — Burza.
Everyone assud he was about to devour the scholar alive to once again "commune with his truth." But no one expected that the instant Wei Zhi tore off Burza's arm, he would imdiately reverse course, slam into Galusha's arms, and sink his teeth into her neck.
Blood sprayed. Grinding teeth filled the air.
In a single heartbeat, the light in Galusha's eyes shattered.
This deranged president of the Reason Association had just bitten the equally unhinged Galusha to death — right in front of everyone!
"!!??"
Cheng Shi's mind went blank.
'Whose side are you even on, man!?'
'I was counting on Galusha to help
analyze how to break this experint, and you just went and ate her?'
'Assimilating [Truth] wasn't enough — you needed a side of [Folly] too!?'
'Great, just great. Nowhere to be found when there's work to be done, but dead-on reliable when it cos to sabotage. You don't look much like a teammate — could you be a mole planted by the Erudition Presidium?'
Wait!
A mole?
Cheng Shi's brow tightened as he suddenly recalled that the location of the western timber warehouse had been given to him by Wei Zhi. Viewed in this light, this "teammate" might genuinely have been compromised.
After all, Ernie wasn't dead. And the real Ernie was very likely one of the experint's overseers, observing from beyond this "world." So the information Wei Zhi had obtained by consuming his flesh could well have been deliberately fed to him by Ernie.
That alone wasn't enough to determine whether Wei Zhi had been duped or had willingly chosen to cooperate. But now that he'd turned around and killed Galusha, only one possibility remained:
This lunatic had learned part of the truth through Ernie and had chosen to cooperate with the Grand Scholars to serve his own ends.
As for what those ends were...
Heh — as the leader of those madn in the Reason Association, his wish was probably to rge with a Grand Scholar.
Why else would a [Truth] follower be so obsessed with Zangier? In his own words, standing on the shoulders of giants saved a great deal of effort — and what he sought was to beco one with those giants.
Lunatic!
Cheng Shi's expression darkened in an instant. He fired a bolt of lightning at Wei Guan, then snatched Galusha's corpse during the dodge. Although his next move would be to regress and face all of this over again, given that the regression's effectiveness was weakening, he had to make a gesture for his new ally — to show his willingness to cooperate.
The battle raged on, but wasting ti like this was pointless. Cheng Shi snapped his fingers without hesitation and reset ti once more.
Even if the reset had no effect on the Grand Scholars, at the very least his ally needed to co back first.
This ti, upon returning to the ruins, Cheng Shi didn't seek out anyone else. He rushed straight to the vicinity of the Three Suns Tower to et Galusha.
On the way, one thought consud him: since the Grand Scholars behind the scenes hadn't imdiately dismantled and reconstructed the players, this experint was clearly not that simple. It couldn't be executed at the Erudition Presidium's whim.
That was why Volent and the others had been communicating with Wei Zhi in secret — to lure Cheng Shi to the western warehouse.
Which confird it — the underground laboratory had to be the linchpin of this fabricated experint.
Furthermore, since the Ti Battlefield couldn't affect the Erudition Presidium beyond the experint, his ti resets were effectively stretching the temporal dinsion in their eyes. The fact that they allowed him to reset without interference ant the Grand Scholars were also preparing. They needed ti too!
In that case, both sides were racing against the clock.
The question was — who would be faster!
Before long, Cheng Shi arrived back at the Three Suns Tower and spotted Galusha beneath it. This ti he felt no revulsion at her violence. With a casual bolt of lightning, he blasted the scholars resisting before Galusha into charred husks.
Surrounded by her Death Knell Knights, Galusha whipped around in fury, searching for whoever had interrupted her revelry. But the mont she saw it was Cheng Shi, a brilliant smile blood across the Wise Man's face.
"It seems Mr. Prisoner has decided to destroy this world alongside ?"
Cheng Shi's smile was equally radiant. He stepped forward and extended his hand.
"The mont I decided to shatter this godforsaken world, my only regret was that the lightning in my hands wasn't fast enough.
So — can I trust you, Galusha?"
...
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