Flas consud the entire house in an instant.
If Cheng Shi hadn't run fast enough, this fire really might have been "passed on"—through his own body, no less.
When the two stumbled out of the roaring inferno, covered in soot, Cheng Shi glared at The Prisoner with a face blacker than coal, barely restraining the urge to punch him into the ground.
He snarled through clenched teeth:
"How did you dare pour gasoline on yourself?!!"
That's right—The Prisoner hadn't splashed the gasoline on the study furniture. He'd doused himself and Cheng Shi with it.
The Prisoner still held the empty barrel. He rubbed his bald head, looked at Cheng Shi, and genuinely couldn't see the problem.
"You said you wanted to pass the torch. If the fire doesn't reach your own body, how do you pass it?"
"I—"
Cheng Shi had gone numb. He decided humanity still understood far too little about this man.
Though The Prisoner's statent did raise a real point—not about his motor-mouth, but about willpower.
If one only acted after the fire reached their own body, that wasn't passing the torch—that was desperate survival.
The Torchbearers' situation might be dire, but they weren't the type to wait until the flas singed their eyebrows before mobilizing. Their will was far nobler and far clearer than that of re survivors.
Of course, Cheng Shi hadn't set the fire to "get closer to the Torchbearers." That was just an excuse to shut The Prisoner up. His real goal was still the investigation.
Since clues had surfaced at Kandert's place and Cheng Shi now suspected the man was hiding sothing, he might as well use a fire to light his own way forward.
If Kandert truly had a guilty conscience, the firelight would flush out his shadow.
Sure enough, upon receiving word that his own house was ablaze, Kandert dropped everything and rushed back at top speed. He led his Folly Prohibition Guards in extinguishing the fire, and before the last embers had even died, he strode into the ruins with an ashen face, surveying everything.
He went straight to the study. But after a single glance at the desk's ashes, he left. Then he moved to the bedroom, entering and exiting the ruins multiple tis, checking sothing unknown—until his brow finally relaxed. Without a word, he departed the scene.
All of this was observed by the two players hiding nearby. The Prisoner pointed toward the bedroom and whispered:
"So you wanted Kandert to find the clue for you?"
"You're really sharp, brother-in-law."
Cheng Shi's eyes glinted as he stared at the bedroom. He knew the fire had been worth it. But his mouth still snapped: "Don't call
brother-in-law."
"Did you two have a fight?"
"..."
"But if I don't call you brother-in-law, it feels like sothing's missing. Like we're not close anymore."
"We were never close!"
"That really hurts, brother-in-law. I—okay, okay! No more brother-in-law! But I do need to call you sothing. 'Fate Weaver' sounds too formal, and just using your na feels off..."
"Oh, I've got it! How about I call you Cheng Jie?"
"The World's Answer! How about that?!"
"?????"
Kandert was about to order the area sealed off and leave the fire scene. Cheng Shi had been ready to move in for a closer look, but The Prisoner's "Cheng Jie" hard-locked him in place.
His eyelid twitched violently. He held back for a long ti before reminding himself it wasn't worth getting angry at an idiot.
But "Cheng Jie" was truly revolting. If that nickna got out, he'd be nailed to the pillar of sha!
So Cheng Shi exhaled forcefully, his face dark: "Just go back to calling
brother-in-law."
"You two made up?"
"You weren't secretly calling my sister while we were chatting, were you?"
"..."
'Who on earth ranked this guy second?!'
'I object!'
'Make him first!'
WHAM!
Enough was enough.
Cheng Shi's true body might not be a Hero of Today, but he packed a decent punch. One blow drove The Prisoner straight into the dirt. Then, dodging the periter guards, he slipped back into the ruins.
He retraced Kandert's route and arrived at the bedroom wreckage. After scanning the area, he found nothing—and frowned.
The Prisoner's mouth had no filter, but he also knew that interrupting Cheng Shi's train of thought right now would earn him another beating. So he managed a rare stretch of silence.
It was precisely those few breaths of precious quiet that produced a flash of inspiration. A possibility lit up in Cheng Shi's mind.
He snapped his fingers and pointed at the ground beneath The Prisoner: "Move."
The Prisoner looked wounded: "I promise I won't question you and my sister's relationship ever again. Don't make
leave."
"..." Cheng Shi's eyelid convulsed. He squeezed the words from his throat in a barely contained growl: "Move. You're standing on the clue."
"Huh?"
The Prisoner blinked, then looked down. Beneath his feet were countless footprints—Kandert's, left from pacing in and out. The ash-blanketed floor naturally showed many prints.
But the odd thing was: only the footprints under The Prisoner's feet were noticeably deeper. Everywhere else in the bedroom, the prints were shallow.
The Prisoner wasn't stupid. He understood in a second. "There's sothing under ?"
"Exactly—sothing's buried here!"
"Kandert kept going in and out of the bedroom not because the room itself held anything important, but to verify whether whatever's beneath this patch of ground had been disturbed!"
"His repeated trampling was his way of confirming the object was still safe. But with everyone watching, he couldn't do anything more."
"So move—right now. This is our only window to discover what he's hiding down there."
The Prisoner's excitent surged. Nothing thrilled a Silence follower more than uncovering soone's secret.
He stepped back imdiately and stomped at the edge of the area. The massive force caused the surrounding ground to collapse—yet the central section rose up in an almost magical fashion.
The mastery of force was nothing short of miraculous. Even Cheng Shi had to silently applaud.
Better yet, this man was a Silence follower—aning no matter how much noise occurred here, the guards outside would hear absolutely nothing.
And so, before their eyes, the earth erupted—and from underground ca a...
Corpse!!
The body had been partially lted and charred by the heat above, but it still looked fairly fresh. Ti of death: yesterday at the latest.
The corpse was completely naked—its clothes clearly stripped—but even with the face twisted and warped, both of them imdiately recognized who it was.
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. He let out a cold laugh and clapped his hands:
"What a lovely little masquerade!"
"All I want to know is—if the man before us is the real Kandert, then who was the 'Kandert' who ca here just now?"
The Prisoner rubbed his head, looking thoughtful:
"Strange. I didn't detect any trace of disguise on that Kandert. If he really was a fake, then it could only be one of your Deceit followers."
"But a Deceit follower showing up here feels a bit illogical."
"Though it does confirm one thing: whoever killed Kandert and impersonated him is definitely trying to get close to the statue's secret!"
For once, The Prisoner was serious—and it actually impressed Cheng Shi.
He nodded:
"Your reasoning should be correct. But whether this person is a Deceit follower remains to be proven. In this era, there's one god whose followers appear far more frequently than the Fun God's."
"Chaos?"
"Exactly—Chaos!"
"I want to know who's actually fishing in these muddied waters."
"So why don't we ask Kandert himself?"
With that, Cheng Shi produced his Finger Bone Brooch.
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