Just how panicked the gods were, Cheng Shi had no idea.
All he knew was that if he didn't move soon, his spoils of war would be lost.
The gods frozen in place had been so terrified they'd forgotten the world was still collapsing. They had stopped supporting the Void together, and the universe's disintegration was accelerating.
Cheng Shi and Big Cat had still been trying to figure out how to loop back to the section of the Void where the trial was located, but that plan was now aningless — the Void had nearly fallen entirely.
With no other choice, the two of them fled in the only direction that still showed signs of vitality.
Hong Lin gritted her teeth and pushed forward, burning through nearly all of her divine power. Without the Authority of [Prosperity] sustaining her, she would have collapsed from exhaustion halfway.
But running like this was no solution. With the gods motionless, the universe would inevitably shatter. Fleeing alone couldn't save their lives.
In this mont of desperation, Big Cat had no room for other thoughts — she just wanted to understand what was happening before she died. She wanted to know whether the Fun God's "salvation" was real or not.
"What is He waiting for?"
Indeed — what was He waiting for?
Cheng Shi himself had no answer.
He had assud that even if [Truth]'s experint and [War]'s actions exceeded expectations, the Fun God would be able to pivot and exploit everything they'd done, perhaps using it to probe Origin.
But now the problem was clear: Origin's power had exceeded all predictions. So would the Fun God's original thod of "saving the world" still work?
Why hadn't that savior appeared yet?
Just as these thoughts churned through his mind, in the midst of the spreading panic, a beam of light suddenly rose in the vast real universe.
It was unlike [War]'s fla. This light was brilliant, radiant — like a pillar refracting the colors of [Existence], and like a cot carrying the wonder of [Void].
It surged upward — an inverted fall — mirroring exactly the way [War] had charged!
In a universe paralyzed by silence, this light shattered the shroud of fear, broke through the spreading panic. It was defiance freed from chains, contemptuous of the infinite darkness with its own luminance — as if crying out on behalf of the trillions of slice universes beneath it, and as if keening justice for the trillions of [Wars] who had vanished!
At first, only a single beam of light existed. But soon — two, three, four... more and more lights erupted from below, weaving together, converging into a sea, once again illuminating that hollow darkness.
Yet that was all they could do — illuminate the darkness. Because compared to [War]'s raging inferno, the brightness of all these lights combined was still far too dim.
In the end, humans could never match gods.
Indeed — humans!
This ti, the lights streaming upward against the current were not the gods of any world. They were the mortals of countless worlds!
When the gods discerned exactly who those radiant mortals were... a gasp of shock swept through the real universe, echoing the very first cries when the space-ti barriers had shattered.
"It's him... has he gone mad?!"
The gods whipped around. After seeing him within their crumbling world, they turned again to look at all those versions of him in the real universe.
[Fate]'s pupils contracted violently, unable to bear the sight. [Deceit]'s smile vanished completely, replaced by eyes like frost.
The converging mass of light traced the Void-scars left by [War]'s passage, surging upward once more in a fresh "charge" toward Origin's domain.
Though the montum of this advance compared to the last was like a firefly against the moon — worlds apart — they traveled farther than [War] ever had.
Yet even that greater distance couldn't illuminate a single corner of that throne.
Human strength had its limits.
The brilliant light grew weaker, dimr, before long lting into the hollow darkness until it could no longer be seen.
They seed exhausted — or perhaps dissolved.
This feeble assault didn't even attract Origin's attention. It simply dissipated on its own, halfway there.
But just as the fear dispelled by the light ca surging back like a tide, and the spreading despair shattered the silence once more — from the place where the light had vanished ca a series of rolling thunderclaps.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Thunder pealed endlessly. The fleeting brilliance lit up that hollow expanse once again.
This ti, what every living being in the real universe saw was not rely the infinite darkness beneath that light — but a mocking smile, assembled from countless bursting droplets of blood.
That smile had only a pair of eyes and a mouth, exactly like the brushstrokes on a mask. Those empty, hollow eyes overflowed with crimson, staring directly toward Origin's domain. And the upturned corners of that mouth seed to be ridiculing sothing.
As for what...
No one knew.
Except... Cheng Shi.
Cheng Shi's mind went completely blank.
Those countless thunderbolts in the real universe might as well have struck his skull directly. He felt his brain humming, screeching, howling.
His eyes flew wide and his strength left him. He toppled straight off Big Cat's back. Even as he fell, his pupils still quaked, his limbs still trembled. He stared in disbelief at that blood-red smile in the real universe, only one sentence echoing through his mind:
"For the sake of us being 'our own people' — rember to cheer for
when I die. Because that is neither humiliation nor surrender. It is mockery drawn in blood. I will sneer at that Observer, before the gaze of billions of lives and tens of thousands of worlds, and tell 'Him': Your experint will never produce any answer!"
He never imagined the chance would co so soon!
He actually did it.
No — they did it!
With astonishing synchronicity, as though they had coordinated in advance, amid the chaos of the universe's truth being laid bare, amid the terror of [War]'s death at the hands of an inviolable power, under the stunned gaze of the gods across countless slice universes — they painted this unparalleled tableau. Facing the supre Creator, they used their lives to curve their lips into a blood-red sneer!
But... did this an anything?
Yes!
Of course it did!
Freedom has always been born of defiance. Without the cry that dares to break free from chains, how could there ever be brilliant rebirth amid despair!
So Cheng Shi smiled.
Though his eyes were bloodshot, he couldn't stop smiling.
Smiling, clapping, cheering:
"Show-off — Cheng Shi, you're nothing but a show-off!
Showing off in front of ten thousand universes — feels great, doesn't it?"
He wanted to say "You got your thrills, but from now on all the pressure falls on the one version of
who never got to face Origin..." — but those words never left his lips. Instead, they turned into a self-deprecating sigh:
"That's fine. As long as you're all happy.
Despair is in the past now. From here on, you'll never have to live in fear again."
He muttered to himself, even as his entire body plumted toward the shattering nothingness below.
Hong Lin was equally stunned when she saw that scene. Her legs buckled from the sheer shock, and she nearly crashed to the ground — and at that exact mont, Cheng Shi lost his grip and slid off her back.
The instant she sensed him falling, Big Cat nearly lost her mind.
She let out a howl toward the heavens and dove after Cheng Shi. Her outstretched claws didn't reach him — but they touched the tears floating upward.
Big Cat's heart seized in panic. The words tore out of her throat:
"Cheng Shi, don't you dare!!!"
Cheng Shi looked at Big Cat lunging toward him and smiled even wider.
"Of course I won't go. If I did, wouldn't their deaths be for nothing?
Don't worry — I'll live well. I'll keep living until the day 'He' declares the experint a failure!"
Feeling the tearing force of the crumbling world growing ever stronger around him, Cheng Shi reined in his smile. His tone turned playful:
"It's about ti. This should be the mont."
With that, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers — a snap that made no sound.
And then, under Big Cat's astonished gaze, space-ti froze.
...
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