Perhaps because the Afterglow Church belonged to [Chaos], and he happened to be the "Envoy" of [Chaos], Cheng Shi had a certain fondness for this scene of dying sunlight.
The sun was sinking low, stretching the shadows of people and objects into long silhouettes — all except Cheng Shi's, which was tattered and broken, looking like a kite full of holes.
As for Cheng Shi himself, while not quite as ragged, he was in a wretched state. His spiritual energy had been completely burned away by the searing breath of [War], leaving him unable to cast even a single healing spell.
He staggered into an alley and quickly vanished into its shadows.
A few breaths later, a figure appeared atop the alley's rooftops. Zhao Xishi furrowed her brow and observed for a mont. When she noticed a few passersby occasionally glancing back into the alley, a smile crept across her lips.
As a Historian who reconstructed the past, she excelled at piecing together clues. They might not be as skilled at tracking as Hunters, but as long as they caught even the faintest traces, they could calculate a target's position all the sa.
Clearly, a stranger had entered this alley.
But Zhao Xishi didn't rush in. Instead, she took out her history book and altered the history of Redi Core, causing the passersby to suddenly change direction and file into the alley one by one.
Only after they erged safely from the other end did she nod, confirming that the Fate Weaver was indeed a spent force — he no longer had the strength to set traps here.
"No wonder he ran so fast. It seems [War]'s fire really did burn through his defenses."
Zhao Xishi chuckled softly and strode into the alley. As a precaution, she left a failsafe at the entrance to summon Mo Shu — this way, even if she made a careless mistake and fell to the critically wounded Fate Weaver, at least one ally could arrive for the final harvest.
As for whether Mo Shu could shake off the Prisoner and arrive in ti...
She'd stake the Scavenger's entire reputation on it. If he couldn't make it, he had no business continuing in Jie Shu's company.
The Historian was cautious. Even though everything had gone smoothly today, proceeding exactly according to plan, she still gave her all when facing a Fate Weaver of extraordinary combat prowess.
She didn't believe the Fate Weaver would simply flee without fighting back. So she used herself as bait, first walking halfway through the alley to slow his retreat, then decisively pulling out a page from her book and leveling half the alley in one blast.
Before Cheng Shi could even make a move, the explosion blew him out from underground.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood and, rather than fighting back, imdiately bolted for the exit while cursing:
"Damn it!
Zhao Xishi, you'd better hope I never catch you!"
"Catch ?" Zhao Xishi's gaze hardened. "You won't live long enough for that."
With a wave of her hand, the passersby who had previously left the alley inexplicably turned around and filed back, blocking Cheng Shi's escape route — their faces twisted and savage, as if ready to devour him.
Cheng Shi's brow darkened, but his stride didn't falter. He charged straight through.
"You think a few NPCs can stop ?
Dream on!"
"You're the one dreaming. After all, death is nothing but an endless dream..."
The Historian opened her history book once more. At her command, the passersby threw themselves at Cheng Shi one after another, each detonating on impact and releasing dense waves of [Oblivion]'s power. Only then did Cheng Shi realize that Zhao Xishi's killing technique had actually co from Mo Shu all along.
The concentrated [Oblivion] energy was several tis greater than the dose that had been inside Ji Yue. It struck Cheng Shi down almost instantly.
He collapsed, coughing blood, writhing and convulsing — yet his jaw remained clenched, and he didn't let out a single cry of pain.
He poured every last shred of strength into healing himself, but the feeble glow of the healing spell against the rampaging [Oblivion] energy inside him was like a firefly before the full moon — utterly useless.
The Fate Weaver's defeat was sealed.
Even so, Zhao Xishi still didn't approach.
She rely watched from a safe distance, tossing out the occasional barbed remark to hasten the Fate Weaver's emotional collapse.
Cheng Shi struggled for a long ti before his strength finally gave out. He twitched twice, the blood trickling from his mouth already black, his pupils slowly dilating. He stared at Zhao Xishi with defiance and asked the final question of his life:
"Why?"
Zhao Xishi scoffed.
"Why?
For a peak player, what a childish question.
This world has always been kill or be killed, deceive or be deceived. You died because you weren't tough enough — there's no 'why' about it.
But we are quite interested in you.
As for how exactly... heh, I'd rather not let you die enlightened."
The Historian said no more, refusing to reveal a single secret. The defiance in Cheng Shi's eyes only deepened, but the light within them was already fading.
He died. The widely acclaid Fate Weaver had fallen, right there in the history of Redi Core.
After confirming three tis over that the corpse before her showed no signs of life whatsoever, a flash of fervent hunger crossed Zhao Xishi's eyes.
She looked at Cheng Shi's body with undisguised covetousness, wishing she could deliver it to Jie Shu that very second to verify whether his staggering hypothesis was true.
She strode toward Cheng Shi, pulled a small urn-like paper box from her personal space, opened the lid, and reached for the corpse's hand to stuff it inside.
But the instant her fingers touched Cheng Shi's arm — everything changed!
The lifeless corpse suddenly opened its eyes. Beneath the charred skin of its face, burnt flesh peeled away to reveal the corner of a mouth curled in a grin. A scorched hand whipped around and seized her arm with such force that it crushed Zhao Xishi's bones on the spot!
Zhao Xishi's pupils contracted violently, her face twisting with shock. Ignoring the pain, she imdiately drew her blade and hacked off her own arm to pull away, screaming:
"That's impossible!!!"
"Impossible?"
A perfectly intact Shadow Cheng Shi materialized behind her in the sa instant, closing in just as he had the first ti he'd killed her. His arm hooked around her neck while his other hand tore off the Historian's one remaining arm — the last limb that could hold a pen and write history.
He leaned in and whispered in her ear like a demon:
"This world has always been kill or be killed, deceive or be deceived. You died because you weren't tough enough — there's no such thing as 'impossible.'"
Before the echo of his words faded — crack. Her neck snapped.
Cheng Shi lunged forward and drove the Flaying Bone Knife into Zhao Xishi's heart once more.
This ti, the Historian truly fell into history.
Looking at the lifeless Zhao Xishi, Cheng Shi felt no satisfaction. Instead, he violently spewed a mouthful of blood and collapsed onto the ground, cursing at the sky:
"No wonder the Prisoner couldn't hold out...
If it weren't for Vitality, who the hell could withstand that thing?
[Oblivion] is this overpowered and they haven't nerfed it?!"
Then, gritting his teeth, Cheng Shi dragged himself upright and answered his own question:
"Nerf it!
I'll nerf it myself!"
The setting sun's afterglow laid a golden carpet through the alley, stretching Cheng Shi's shadow long — long enough to drape over Zhao Xishi's body.
Those who defile fate have never t a good end throughout all of history — save for one particular individual. The Historian had proven this truth with blood-red strokes, and her swan song was at last buried in the annals of the past.
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