Foolish Game of the Chapter 1128: You're Saying the Dark Dragon King Didn&#

Left with no choice, Dragon King shared the surface-level Joker mories he'd witnessed with Cheng Shi.

However, most of it was mundane trivia from the past—nothing particularly thought-provoking. What he'd seen aligned with the dreamlike fragnts Cheng Shi had observed on the maze's surface layer and with what he already knew about everyone's histories.

By the end, Cheng Shi was pursing his lips with diminishing interest.

Who would've guessed that the greatest reward from That Dream My Nightmare would be watching Dragon King make a fool of himself?

'Rare indeed—even this mory follower had an off day.'

"You didn't try the seventh path?"

"Seventh path?" Li Jingming's voice halted on the other end. "What seventh path?"

"!!??"

'Dragon King didn't see the seventh path?!'

Cheng Shi's pupils contracted, his expression freezing montarily.

'No wonder!'

'I knew sothing was off—why would there be a path leading to Void inside an Existence artifact stuffed full of mories? Turns out it really was a backdoor the Fun God opened just for !'

'But why can He even tamper with an Existence artifact?'

'Did mory get robbed? He can't possibly have lost His authority without even realizing it, can He?'

'Deceit can't be that powerful, can He? Otherwise, what's He waiting for? Why hasn't He unified the universe already?'

In that instant, Cheng Shi recalled what Wei Mu had once said to his Benefactor, Folly: "If you're truly so wise, why would you let the other fifteen gods stand as your equals?"

Right now, swapping "wise" for "powerful" fit perfectly.

After a long silence on the other end, Li Jingming spoke again, puzzled:

"Cheng Shi, is this seventh path you found the reason you escaped?"

Cheng Shi reined in his thoughts, utterly unflustered, and lied on the spot:

"Exactly. I followed the seventh path straight out."

"I didn't expect it to lead directly to the void outside the mirror."

Li Jingming's brow tightened. He carefully reviewed the maze's layout in his mory, confird he absolutely hadn't missed any path, and grew even more curious: "Where was this seventh path?"

Cheng Shi smirked:

"Dragon King, you seem to have gotten dumber. I think you must've left your brain inside the mirror."

"Think carefully—you and I entered the sa maze. When you couldn't see that path, shouldn't you ask yourself whether you missed sothing?"

Li Jingming was far from stupid. There had been no such path before him—naturally he couldn't see it. But Cheng Shi's hint imdiately pointed him toward the one direction in the maze besides the cardinal points: up!

A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes as he said gravely: "The walls?! You climbed out through the mirror walls of the maze?"

"Exactly!" Cheng Shi curled his lips and spun his yarn along Dragon King's line of reasoning. "I nearly got lost in the mories too. In desperation, I went all in and scrambled upward as hard as I could. Then, in a daze, I found an exit in the wall and jumped into the void."

"But when I woke up and tried to retrace it in my mind, I couldn't rember how to get there."

"..."

This was practically an open admission of lying, yet Li Jingming couldn't challenge it—because the power of mory genuinely could produce such effects.

But the main reason was that he'd lied too, which left him no ground to expose Cheng Shi.

Silence settled over both ends of the line. After a long pause, Cheng Shi finally asked, curious:

"Has sothing like this ever happened before?"

"If the person swapped in escapes on their own, does the Nightmare Shadow automatically get pulled back into That Dream My Nightmare?"

"No, and it can't."

Li Jingming's tone shifted, becoming rather laden with aning: "Because my Nightmare Shadow—the fake Li Jingming who'd been impersonating —has already left."

"?" Cheng Shi blinked, a little lost. "What do you an, 'left'?"

"He left Cloud Field Temple. And before he did, he even left

a letter."

"Wait, hold on—you're saying the Dark Dragon King didn't return to the mirror and has beco an independent entity that left your rest area?!"

'Dark Dragon King...'

Li Jingming's eyelid twitched. He gave a quiet affirmation.

Cheng Shi was dumbstruck: "Huh? Then the mirror..."

"I don't know if it's because of his departure, but I no longer have a Nightmare Shadow inside the mirror. That Dream My Nightmare seems to have stopped working on ."

"!!!"

'Stopped working?'

'No way—then how am I supposed to contact the Fla of Hope in the future?'

Cheng Shi's brow darkened as he hurriedly asked: "Has it stopped working on just you, or..."

"I don't know. I haven't had a chance to have soone else test it."

Before Li Jingming could finish, Cheng Shi jumped in:

"I'll do it—let

test it. Just bury the mirror at the Jokers' eting graveyard like the Dark Dragon King did. I'll go retrieve it when I have ti."

"Don't worry, I won't have any funny ideas about your mirror. I'm simply overco by an urge to help others."

"..."

'More like you're overco by an urge to lie.'

Li Jingming shook his head with an amused laugh and agreed:

"Fine. Since this mirror is no longer of use to , it can be 'donated' as shared Joker property, so all of you can access His Collection Hall whenever you wish."

"I've tested it—the Collection Hall can still be reached."

No sooner had the words landed than Cheng Shi said shalessly: "What a coincidence—the Jokers just appointed an asset manager, and that would be yours truly. Rest assured, I'll take excellent care of this first piece of communal property."

"...When was this appointnt? How co I don't know about it?" Li Jingming's eyelid twitched again.

"What do you an? You know now, don't you? And you're the first to know, at that."

"..."

Li Jingming's mouth twitched violently. 'Classic him.'

Though still bantering, Cheng Shi hadn't forgotten that the Dark Dragon King had left Dragon King a letter. He wanted to ask what it said, but then he heard Dragon King say with deliberate weight:

"That falls outside our earlier 'debt repaynt.' If you want to know what the letter says, let's trade."

"Tell

what you saw on your way out of That Dream My Nightmare, and I'll tell you the ssage he left ."

"?"

Cheng Shi didn't miss a beat: "The back of the mirror's engravings, repeating patterns, and endless darkness. There, I'm done. Your turn."

Li Jingming chuckled: "What I want is the truth, not lies. You can't fool , Cheng Shi. Think it over and co find

when you're ready. I have things to attend to."

With that, Dragon King hung up.

Cheng Shi stared at the phone in his hand, his expression odd as he muttered under his breath:

"It's not like I can tell you the Fun God opened a backdoor for

inside That Dream My Nightmare. If a mory follower like you found out about that, what would I do if you got jealous?"

"Sigh, the hardships of being a grandpa—always worrying about the grandkids..."

...

Reality. An unknown Daoist temple in an unnad province.

Li Jingming sat cross-legged on a ditation cushion. Before him lay six thick accordion-fold books arranged side by side, each bearing a na on its cover. A closer look revealed they belonged to the six mbers of the Jokers—himself included.

The edges of these books were dark with dense ink, clearly filled with writing. Judging by their thickness, the stories recorded within were far more extensive than what he'd shared with Cheng Shi.

He stacked all the books together, carried them into the scripture vault, and pressed them beneath a stone. Then he returned to the main hall, lit incense, and prayed:

"All mortals suffer, whether the gods descend or not."

"All deeds are virtuous, whether the world crumbles or not."

He bowed three tis, placed the incense in its holder, and glanced at the white paper on the desk. Eight characters were written on it:

"Desire is no sin. I'll spare you this once."

Li Jingming's eyebrows drew together slightly. After a mont of silent contemplation, he soundlessly mouthed a na.