Shadow Cheng Shi returned to the Rest Area and reverted to a shadow. Cheng Shi himself was sitting cross-legged on the ground, brow furrowed in deep thought.
He was very concerned about Jie Shu's plan.
If Jie Shu was searching for a world without Cheng Shi in it, that ant he possessed a thod of breaking through the barriers of spaceti — and right now, that was exactly the thod Cheng Shi needed to reach the Real Universe and salvage [War]'s Authority!
For a fleeting mont, he nearly picked up his phone to call Big Cat and go beat the answers out of Jie Shu — at the very least, capture the Fool Hunter and put him through an interrogation to see if anything useful could be squeezed out of him.
But after a few seconds of impulse, he set the phone back down.
Not for any other reason — he had thought of Cheng Dashi.
Cheng Shi's expression shifted through sothing unreadable. After a long while, he let out a quiet sigh, abandoned the idea, and began contemplating how Jie Shu could possibly have broken through the spaceti barrier.
The man was indeed a [Folly] follower. But no matter how clever he was, he couldn't circumvent the fundantal rule of the spaceti barrier: to travel to another Slice Universe, one had to rely on the hand of [Ti].
The Ti Deduction talent was the best proof of this.
[Ti] had always been aligning the "ti" of the current world with that of the Real Universe. As long as [Ti] didn't act, theoretically no one could shatter the shackles of spaceti.
Even if the [Folly] of another world still held its Authority intact, it could only have left its original world for other universes by stealing [Ti]'s Authority.
But the subject of all these hypotheses was [Folly] — the wisest True God in the entire universe!
No matter how smart Jie Shu was, he couldn't possibly be [Folly] incarnate!
How could he, as a re player, have shattered the spaceti barrier to arrive here?
Cheng Shi didn't believe [Ti] would extend aid to a follower of [Folly]. From his limited observations of [Ti], this Benefactor of his had no ti to bother with [Folly]. Of all the gods, [Ti] was the most like a "savior," silently upholding the world, ensuring this starry sky didn't anomalously collapse under Origin's Experint.
Furthermore, [Folly] didn't seem like a god who would be "in cahoots" with the Fun God. At least on the path of defying Origin, [Ti] and [Deceit] were the true allies. So the hypothesis of Jie Shu breaking the spaceti barrier via [Folly]'s power didn't hold.
But if he eliminated both [Ti] and [Folly], who else could have helped Jie Shu achieve this?
Though the other world's developnt might differ entirely from this starry sky, based on Cheng Shi's deductions about each god's will, he couldn't identify a suitable answer — except for [Deceit].
The Fun God didn't need reasons to do things. Only fun. But was sending soone to eliminate another world's Clown considered fun?
Had the Fun Gods across the Real Universe already begun sabotaging each other?
'Surely not — that would be too...'
'Wait!'
Cheng Shi's expression hardened. He sat up straight.
'Why not?'
When sothing was absurdly ridiculous, no one paid it any mind. But when that absurdity involved [Deceit]...
'Hiss—'
...it beca a bit hard to say.
This sort of baseless conjecture had no real answer, and Cheng Shi wasn't trying to link the Fun God to Jie Shu. It simply reminded him that the Fun God was also going to the Real Universe to claim Authority — and that undertaking carried enormous risk.
Given [Ti]'s temperant of silently holding the world steady, would It tolerate the Fun God bringing such a massive risk to this starry sky?
Probably not.
But could [Ti]'s refusal stop the Fun God from reaching the Real Universe?
Definitely not.
So the Fun God must have a way to bypass [Ti] and reach the Real Universe. What Cheng Shi needed to figure out wasn't the relationship between Jie Shu and the Fun God — he only needed to guess how his Benefactor planned to "break out."
Once his thinking found the right track, Cheng Shi began recalling every connection he knew of between [Deceit] and the Real Universe.
The first thing that ca to mind was how the Fun God had once hijacked Cheng Shi's Ti Deduction talent, borrowing [Ti]'s power to travel to the Crevice of [Existence] and et with [Birth] from another world.
Consider: when a cunning prisoner discovers a gap in the prison wall, would he not morize the location to make future trips more convenient?
Of course he would.
But how would he mark it?
The wall belonged to [Existence]. And he — a "Prisoner" of [Void] — where would he find...
Cheng Shi's eyes flew open as he realized he had been overlooking sothing.
'He doesn't need to find one. He doesn't need to find anything!'
'He already has it!'
'He secretly forged a crowbar from [Existence] — likely in preparation for this very jailbreak.'
'Mockery and Jeering!'
'That river of [Existence] flowing in the depths of the Void — isn't it the [Existence] He fabricated using stolen [Existence] Authority based on His own understanding?!'
Before, not knowing the Fun God's relationship with [Ti], he had simply assud the Fun God robbed everything in sight, ransacking [Existence]'s house top to bottom. But now it seed that [Ti] had probably left the door wide open and let Him steal. As for [mory]...
'Probably the only sucker in the deal.'
At this thought, a gleam of inspiration flashed in Cheng Shi's eyes, and excitent surged through him.
He was eager to verify his guess. He pulled out the Tongue of Eating Lies, licked open the Void, and licked his way all the way down to the deepest reaches of Nothingness.
When that river brimming with infinite, iridescent change appeared before him once more, he didn't so much as furrow his brow. Without hesitation, he jumped in.
'I'm ho!'
An enormous spider web materialized at once within the kaleidoscopic current. Cheng Shi stared at himself in astonishnt — the web's area had nearly doubled since his first ti here.
Countless twisted strands of silk flickered in and out of existence, interweaving into a seamless web-bed. And at its very center hung a pure-white, complete mask!
The mask's shape was so familiar that Cheng Shi recognized Crown's face in an instant!
'Crown's mask?!'
Cheng Shi was stunned. His first instinct was to reach out and grab the "complete" mask. But he failed — every movent he made was even more distorted than before within Mockery and Jeering.
Under so mysterious force, the spider silk was growing slightly uncontrollable. The feedback on Cheng Shi's body made it feel as though his limbs had a mind of their own.
The distortions in his movents followed no pattern. In the constantly shifting tides, he had nearly lost the ability to touch himself.
After countless failed attempts, Cheng Shi gave up. He rested in place, panting heavily, and began pondering why the "complete" Crown mask had appeared in Mockery and Jeering.
'Where did the Nose of Verification co from?'
'Could it have been hidden within this twisted river of [Existence] all along?!'
A flash of inspiration struck. Cheng Shi's eyes went wide with sudden understanding. 'It's not impossible. Mi Laozhang once said the Nose of Verification was most likely a tool the Fun God used to steal [Existence]'s Authority. And isn't Mockery and Jeering precisely His tool?'
'The Nose really might be hidden here. And perhaps that's why, the mont I jumped in, the mask completed its assembly within Mockery and Jeering!'
'But since I haven't actually found the Nose of Verification, I can't take this mask yet.'
'Still — now that I know where the Nose is, even if I have to turn this entire river upside down, I will find it!'
"Brother Mouth, your family is about to reunite. Are you happy?"
No one answered within Mockery and Jeering. Cheng Shi gazed at the mask hanging on the spider web, his eyes burning.
Whatever secret [mory]'s Collection Hall concealed — the answer was no longer far away.
...
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