When a dry, hot wind brushed across Hu Xuan's cheeks, the [Birth] Sage stood on a hillside below the mine, gazing up at the unmistakable Abyssal Volcano. Her eyes were wide with shock.
She recognized where she was imdiately — but she couldn't be sure of her exact position in the Underworld.
That's right — this could only be the Underworld!
After Cheng Shi seized the Truth Limit — the key to the entire experint — the players who had been blocking the Grand Scholars outside the experint ground soon felt the world lurch violently beneath them.
Then their vision went black. When they opened their eyes again, everything had changed.
Tusnat was gone. The Afterglow Church was gone. The Grand Scholars were gone. Even Galusha was gone. All that remained were six — no, five players!
They turned around in surprise, but where the experint ground had been, Cheng Shi was nowhere to be seen. Only Wei Zhi remained, staring blankly at the scene before him and muttering under his breath:
"Falling Gate..."
"Falling Gate!?" Fang Yuan's heart lurched. Sothing felt wrong about the Trial. "How can this be Falling Gate?
Isn't this the Extre Desire Brotherhood's forward base — Galusha's ho turf in the Underworld?
What is Cheng Shi doing? Why did the experint change instead of ending?"
Hearing this, the group reacted differently.
ng Youfang and Chen Yi looked at Wei Zhi, suspecting the resurrected Reason Association president had tampered with sothing to cause the experint to go wrong.
Hu Xuan, anwhile, scanned the area with mild concern, searching for Cheng Shi. She wasn't worried about Wei Zhi sabotaging things — in her eyes, nobody could outplay the shrewd Fate Weaver.
Nor did she fear Cheng Shi doing sothing reckless. After all, if he hadn't been reckless before, she never could have escaped Zangier's gaze alive — let alone claid the Eternal Sun's identity.
The Sage simply wondered whether sothing had gone wrong that delayed the experint's end, and whether Cheng Shi needed her help. After searching everywhere without finding him, her heart actually settled.
Not seeing him ant the trickster was at it again. At this point, it was better to worry about the people right in front of her — like whether the Wei Zhi standing behind them was actually Wei Zhi.
His flesh had been used to reconstruct the Truth Limit. So what contingency had brought this Wei Zhi back?
Without enemies in sight, the five players exchanged glances and fell into silence simultaneously.
As the Sage correctly guessed, Cheng Shi had indeed begun his operation — or more precisely, he'd begun deceiving people.
And this ti, he was even deceiving himself!
This was indeed Falling Gate — the place where six players had witnessed a legend of [Ti].
When Cheng Shi entered "Creator" mode and surveyed the experint, he'd been thinking: if [Truth]'s will could reach into the Trial and influence the Grand Scholars' decisions, pushing them to steal player identities and escape history's shackles, then [Truth] must have an agenda.
Combined with the omnipresent hints of [Ti], he'd briefly concluded he was witnessing [Truth] steal [Ti]'s authority.
In the past, even if true gods stole each other's authority, Cheng Shi would've considered it normal. But this particular case was different — [Truth] was going after [Ti]'s authority. And [Ti] happened to be the key that "connected" countless slice universes by breaking through spatiotemporal barriers. So Cheng Shi couldn't help but wonder: was [Truth] using this thod to explore what it considered the universe's "truth"?
This chain of logic was flawless — virtually impossible to fault. From Cheng Shi's perspective, there was nothing to add. Up until now, this had been his working theory.
Before seizing the Truth Limit, his plan had been simple: finish the Trial quickly and inform the Fun God about [Truth]'s ambitions. Whether the god already knew or not, at least Cheng Shi — as a mber of the Fear Faction — would have peace of mind.
But from the mont he'd seized the Truth Limit and entered the experint's "Creator" perspective...
Everything changed.
He was more than just Cheng Shi. He was also Little Greed, the Greed Lord — the man who held [Corruption]'s Container.
Under [Corruption]'s influence... oh, forget the pretense. He was greedy, plain and simple. But it wasn't pure greed — he had his reasons.
First, he was an undeniable [Ti] follower. Regardless of how much attention [Ti] as a Benefactor paid him, [Ti] was part of the Fear Faction. So when a god ca to seize his Benefactor's authority, as its follower, Cheng Shi had every reason to retaliate.
Second, after the Joker Society, the Jokers had established many objectives — one of which was to attempt breaking through temporal barriers to explore other slice universes, drawing on the experiences of other universes to protect their own world.
Under [Ti]'s shelter, Cheng Shi's Ti Deduction talent had given him many opportunities to make contact with alternate selves in other slice universes. But those interactions always felt off — as though separated by a thin veil, blurry and unclear. He'd always wondered if there was a way to et another version of himself face to face.
Months ago, before learning the truth about the universe, Cheng Shi would never have entertained such thoughts. He'd always minded his own business. Even if he t another self, he'd at most lurk in a corner and watch the entertainnt.
But now his thinking had changed. He did feel so confusion about the road ahead. He wouldn't deny that his ultimate reason for living was to honor Old Jia's "last wish." But rely wanting to survive didn't feel like enough motivation to talk about "saving" anything.
The notion that he'd draw close to a "rebellious" god and rally the ga's sharpest players into a collective breakout — all just because he wanted to stay alive — was a self-deceiving proposition. Because in the process, he was already performing acts of salvation whether he admitted it or not.
Cheng Shi didn't consider himself that noble. Yet he couldn't bring himself to simply give up his life either. So he could only be pushed forward, stumbling down this murky path ahead.
He'd been asking himself the question for ages. But he couldn't find the answer. So he decided to ask another version of himself.
The other Cheng Shis had to be struggling too. Judging by the feedback from Cheng Dashi and Long Jing's alternate-universe counterpart, they weren't just struggling — they were actively transmitting hope outward.
Since everyone wanted to say sothing to the outside world, why not et up and talk it out face to face?
And right now was the best opportunity he'd encountered in a long, long ti.
Using [Truth]'s power — the sa power that sought to steal [Ti]'s authority — as a foundation, he could leverage the Truth Limit's power to recreate the scene of that past Trial.
After all, the Truth Limit was a miniature Ritual of Truth. And the Ritual of Truth possessed the power to reshape a "world." So in Cheng Shi's view, [Truth]'s thod for stealing [Ti]'s authority was actually quite straightforward. It didn't need a Trial at all — it simply needed to redirect the Ritual of Truth's world-reshaping power toward repositioning a single entity.
The simplest example: soone starts in the eastern district and walks to the western district. What they experience in between is ti. So without altering the person's state, if you used the person in the west as fuel and employed the Ritual of Truth to reconstruct an identical copy standing in the east — then [Truth] would have effectively mastered [Ti]'s authority. And that particular aspect of the authority might be... "regression."
Based on this understanding, Cheng Shi reconstructed the experint. He decided to pull the tiline back to Falling Gate, craft a variable version of himself — and then transform himself into the variable "Qin Xin" within this experint.
When "Qin Xin" t his other self within the experint, couldn't he then activate Ti Deduction against the experintal variable version of himself — and thereby use "Qin Xin's" identity to et a version of himself from another slice universe?
It wasn't impossible — but it was still a massive gamble!
Cheng Shi had to bet that his understanding of the Ritual of Truth was correct. He also had to bet that [Ti] would allow him to use barrier-breaking [Ti] power under [Truth]'s covetous gaze.
As for [Truth] — it naturally wouldn't refuse, because it was already in the process of stealing [Ti]'s authority. And it appeared to be nearly finished — the fact that [Ti] power could activate the Truth Limit was probably proof enough.
Since [Truth]'s theft of [Ti]'s authority was a foregone conclusion, the only rational move was to claim as much advantage as possible from that fait accompli.
And so, driven by all of these considerations, Cheng Shi personally hosted this experint of "reunion" — one that spanned ti and even dinsions. He took on the identity of "Qin Xin" and stood before another version of himself.
And when he said, with that loaded tone, "You want to fight ?" — the experintal-variable Cheng Shi imdiately launched an attack, hurling a headless corpse straight at him!
...
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