When the mysteries kept piling up with no leads, Cheng Shi stopped dwelling on the present.
He disposed of Zhao Xishi's corpse, then stepped into the void alongside Ji Yue to go reinforce the teammate neither of them particularly wanted to reinforce.
But when they reached the battlefield where the Prisoner and Mo Shu were fighting, the scene before them left both stunned in their tracks.
The two warriors weren't locked in a desperate battle through the void as expected. Instead, they sat cross-legged facing each other from a distance, silent, as if waiting for sothing.
The mont Cheng Shi and Ji Yue burst in, the Prisoner's face lit up with delight while Mo Shu's expression darkened. Their standoff finally had a result.
"Told you I'd win. You didn't believe
— do you believe
now?
Call
daddy."
"..."
The entire void fell silent.
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched violently. Ji Yue's lip spasd.
'What is this — a father-son match?'
'How does this jinx manage to adopt family mbers wherever he goes?'
'And with Mo Shu's personality, how could he possibly have agreed to such a bet?'
Cheng Shi and Ji Yue exchanged a look, each finding the sa answer in the other's eyes: this poor Scavenger had probably been "tacitly consented" into it again.
Seeing Mo Shu rise to his feet with a stony expression, refusing to respond, the Prisoner cheerfully called out:
"Aw, my dear boy."
That single remark ignited Mo Shu's fury. His expression turned glacial. He launched a punch at the space before him, and while the Prisoner moved to block, Mo Shu annihilated his own form in an instant, leaving behind a single parting line:
"The arrogant are unworthy of counsel."
The three of them weren't about to let such a perfect opportunity slip, so they gave chase simultaneously. But Mo Shu employed the sa old trick — after returning to reality, he left three false trails heading in three different directions, clearly intending to split the Torchbearers up.
The Prisoner stared at the three streams of [Oblivion] energy drifting in opposite directions, paused, scratched his head, and said:
"This kind of thing is more up my bro-in-law's alley.
Bro-in-law, where are your dice? Pull them out — odd we go left, even we go right, standing on edge we go center. If the Scavenger's fate says he's done for, we'll definitely catch him."
"..."
Hearing this, Ji Yue rolled her eyes, shoved the Prisoner aside, and began carefully sensing the residual [Oblivion] energy to gauge which trail was strongest.
Seeing that no one was paying him any attention, the Prisoner clicked his tongue and turned around:
"Bro-in-law, why aren't you saying anything? You...
Hm?!
Where'd my bro-in-law go?"
Ji Yue froze. She spun around only to find that Cheng Shi, who'd been trailing behind them, had already disappeared without a trace.
She furrowed her brow and sighed.
"We were never destined to walk the sa path."
The Prisoner grew anxious: "That's exactly why we need to pull him in! You fought Zhao Xishi together — that's a life-or-death bond. How could you not even try to persuade him?"
'Persuade?'
'How am I supposed to persuade him?'
'I'm the one he persuaded into joining! And now you're telling
he was never even part of it? How many versions of this Torchbearer story are there?!'
Ji Yue had only just recovered her mories, and her mind was in turmoil. She had no patience for the Prisoner and simply shook her head:
"Let's split up too."
The Prisoner blinked. "You want to quit the Torchbearers?"
"..."
Ji Yue nearly lost it.
She hurled her spear forward, its tip stabbing the ground at the Prisoner's feet:
"I'm talking about the paths at your feet!
I'll take the left. You take the right. If either of us spots anyone, send up a flare. Whatever happens, we can't let the Fate Weaver fall into danger."
With that, she vanished without waiting for the Prisoner's reaction.
The Prisoner looked left, looked right, scratched his head, and ultimately ignored Ji Yue's instructions entirely — choosing the center path instead.
He felt he was very "central."
And while the Torchbearers split up to search, Cheng Shi had already found Mo Shu!
The instant he'd left the void, he'd broken away from the group and returned to the spot where Zhao Xishi had died. He figured that if Zhao Xishi and Mo Shu truly belonged to the sa nascent organization, Mo Shu would co to confirm the Historian's death first.
Sure enough, when he arrived, Mo Shu was already there with an iron-dark expression, erasing every trace from the scene.
The Scavenger knew he was at a disadvantage. But when Cheng Shi appeared, he didn't imdiately flee. Instead, he asked in a low voice:
"You found out?"
Cheng Shi gave an easy smile. "Of course. I have ten thousand ways to pry what I want from her mouth, but I chose the simplest — making the dead talk."
He even showed Mo Shu the Finger Bone Brooch in his hand.
Don't forget — [Death] and [Oblivion] were rivals. This was a blatant provocation.
Yet Mo Shu kept his composure. His expression shifted, and he asked another question:
"So — beyond this world, there really are countless other worlds?"
"?"
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. He suddenly realized that this small group centered around Jie Shu knew far more than he'd anticipated.
As a Chosen One, Mo Shu couldn't possibly be unfamiliar with parallel worlds. So the only thing that could prompt such a question was the slice universes in the real universe!
'He even knows about that?'
'Jie Shu told him?'
'But how does Jie Shu know?'
'They ca after
just to verify this?'
'Could it be that during the world reset, the followers of [Folly] slipped through a loophole?'
'No, that can't be it — otherwise Jie Shu would already have the answer instead of still trying to confirm it. But as a re player, how could he have learned all this?'
A torrent of theories flooded Cheng Shi's mind, but his expression remained perfectly calm. He even fired back with a taunt: "If that's what you think, then sure."
Mo Shu's face grew colder: "How did you discover all of this?"
Cheng Shi scoffed:
"That's none of your business.
Worry about yourself instead.
If there really are that many worlds beyond this one, then your Benefactor's so-called will to annihilate the world is a fantasy that'll never co true.
Let
tell you sothing — in the worlds beyond ours, many versions of [Oblivion] are already dead..."
"Utter nonsense!"
"Tsk, hit a nerve, did I?
A frog at the bottom of a well can never grasp how vast the world is. I've seen more worlds than you've t people.
Here's another secret for you — [Oblivion] in our world is almost finished too.
Otherwise...
Why would He be in such a rush to annihilate ?"
In truth, Cheng Shi was bluffing. But the words were so powerfully suggestive that Mo Shu's first instinct was to conclude that his Benefactor's downfall was sohow tied to the Fate Weaver standing before him.
But how could a mortal influence the fall of a true god?
His logic had tumbled straight into Cheng Shi's trap. He never even stopped to consider whether anything Cheng Shi said could be a lie.
After all, the information was too shocking. Beyond that, it was unprecedented for a deity to issue a divine decree to hunt down a single player. All these coincidences, piled atop one another, made Cheng Shi's words all the more convincing.
Of course, Cheng Shi's words weren't entirely false either. He was indeed working to make [Oblivion] disappear — just not the god itself, but rather the Divine Throne beneath Him. And the crucial step in that plan was to first et [Oblivion]'s sole Envoy: Herobos.
So, seizing the mont while Mo Shu was still reeling, Cheng Shi smiled:
"You're out of your league. Telling you all this is pointless.
If you want to save your Benefactor — go get your boss.
We're all smart people here, so let's stop playing gas. Herobos, I know you can hear . Co out. I'll teach you how to save your Benefactor."
The instant his words fell, reality split open above Mo Shu's head. A massive hand tore through the void and lunged for Cheng Shi. But Cheng Shi didn't move an inch. He stared at the titanic Hand of Purifying Weevil hovering just above him with an expression of pure amusent, then tilted his head upward:
"I'm standing right here. Do you dare?"
"!!!"
Under Mo Shu's utterly stunned gaze, the hand — overflowing with savage [Oblivion] energy — actually stopped three inches above Cheng Shi's head.
A cold voice drifted from the void.
"You have one minute. Explain."
Cheng Shi casually pushed the hovering hand aside with a smirk:
"You have one minute. Stand before
properly.
Otherwise — no deal."
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