It was a dark tunnel cut into the wall of the corpse pit.
Only by circling past the divine corpses stacked at the front could one discover the gap behind them. Inside flickered iridescent specks of light, swirling with kaleidoscopic mist — utterly incongruent against the black-and-white canvas of dead gods.
Shadow Cheng Shi stopped here and dared not proceed further, because ahead there was not a single shadow left to hide in.
One more step ant full exposure in the chromatic glow. He asked himself again and again: was this risk worth taking?
Cheng Shi was torn as well. His heart kept insisting that if real danger existed here, he would already be dead. Yet he had to consider whether this mysterious sound source might be a trap — just like [Silence]'s drifting corpse in the Real Universe.
Leave it alone and nothing happens. Insist on looking, and problems arise.
Fate Has Divergence still hadn't finished cooling down. To ensure safety, the [Fate] faith remained on his main body. That ant if danger struck, the [Deceit]-empowered Shadow Cheng Shi had virtually no way to—
Wait!
He could turn to mist!
Cheng Shi's spirits surged. The deep tunnel ahead was filled with mist, and [Deceit] fused with [Chaos] could rge into mist. Could this be his one and only ans of breaking through?
After a mont's deliberation, Cheng Shi did exactly that — he let Shadow Cheng Shi dissolve into smoke, blending with the mist, and peered inward from an omniscient vantage.
What he saw was a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.
At the end of the unfathomably deep tunnel, a hidden world opened up. Beyond the passage, within a space self-contained by that iridescent mist, a massive Divine Throne stood at a slant.
The throne resembled two triangles pressed tip to tip — shattered, fractured, fissured throughout. A closer look revealed it was not a single throne that had broken apart, but rather countless miscellaneous fragnts of divine corpses assembled into one horrifying, gargantuan chair.
This was a true "Divine" Throne!
And through the crevices beneath the seat, dense, kaleidoscopic mist wove in and out, grinding against the throne's surface to produce that teeth-grating, soul-chilling sound:
"The gods... are extinguished. The universe... disintegrates. This is... Origin..."
"!!!"
Cheng Shi was stunned. He had expected a survivor hiding in here. Instead, the voice was a dead sound — mist flowing through the throne's cracks!
The sound fluctuated in volu, chanical and repetitive. At its quietest, you couldn't hear it even by pressing your ear to the throne. At its loudest, the sound carried only to the tunnel's midpoint.
Seeing this, Cheng Shi frowned. He guessed that their rapid descent had caused spatial ripples that altered the mist's flow rate, which was why they had heard the dead material's lant outside the tunnel.
But this was no accident.
Setting aside how the throne had been assembled — the re fact that iridescent mist flowing through crevices in a throne could produce comprehensible syllables could not possibly be a coincidence of corpses tumbling together.
Soone had deliberately assembled this throne and placed it here.
But who?
Cheng Shi couldn't guess. Rather than puzzle over the builder's identity, observing the present scene was clearly more productive.
Even with his mind overloading, Cheng Shi needed only two laps around the throne to spot sothing vital.
The "corpse fragnt" materials in this throne were remarkably "comprehensive." Every type of divine corpse found in the pit had a corresponding piece in the throne — except, again, for [Corruption] and [Fate].
Several sections in the throne's backrest were hollow. Cheng Shi studied them carefully, tracing the grain of the fragnts, and concluded this was a "work in progress."
These hollows were ant to be filled with additional material. But no matter how thoroughly Cheng Shi searched the space, he couldn't find any fragnts to complete the throne.
At first this puzzled him. But soon the reason dawned on him.
Because the missing materials simply weren't here.
Those gaps were most likely reserved for [Corruption] and [Fate]!
And as luck would have it, these very hollows, combined with the crevices between the throne's fragnts, ford the channels through which the mist flowed, producing those distinct syllables.
And the kaleidoscopic mist saturating this space was the twisted posthumous remains of [Chaos]...
Outside, [Chaos]'s corpse-fragnts were scattered and hard to identify. Through faith resonance, Cheng Shi had only found a few. But this chamber was thick with [Chaos]'s essence.
Clearly, their concentration here was inseparable from the throne's construction.
Who had built all this?
Cheng Shi listened to the sound over and over, trying to parse its deeper aning, but made no headway.
His understanding of Origin was simply too scant.
Ti slipped away silently. When Cheng Shi realized there was nothing else useful to find in this space, he finally decided to retreat.
If he delayed any longer, Big Cat might go berserk.
But to leave empty-handed after lingering so long — did that justify the risk?
At the thought, Cheng Shi gritted his teeth... and fixed his eyes on the one "useful" thing before him — the throne!
But the throne was enormous. An intact throne would never fit in his portable space. Left with no choice, Cheng Shi tried to see whether he could pry it apart along the cracks and disassemble it.
As it turned out — he could!
The seemingly solid throne crumbled at a touch. Cheng Shi barely had to exert himself before the throne ca apart into puzzle pieces, which he stuffed wholesale into his portable space.
That done, he didn't linger a single second. He imdiately withdrew from the area, rged with his main body, snapped his fingers, and returned to the Dolphin Bridge.
He was eager to share what he'd seen and learned with Hong Lin and Qin Xin. But the mont he materialized, what greeted him was not Big Cat's embrace — but an iron fist!
The enraged giant bear slugged Cheng Shi flat onto the bridge's surface. Tears brimming in her eyes, she seized his shoulders and roared:
"Liar!
You liar!"
Another fist crashed beside Cheng Shi's head, making the entire Dolphin Bridge hum with the impact.
Cheng Shi saw stars. He shook his head, pried open a half-swollen eye, and looked at the "wronged" Hong Lin — then imdiately broke into a grin.
He didn't bla Big Cat for her fury. He knew his behavior had truly been reckless.
Though that punch was a bit much, wasn't it?
Cheng Shi half-coughed, half-laughed:
"Survived the Corpse Field of Gods, and then nearly got beaten to death by you."
Hong Lin blinked, incredulous that he still had the nerve to joke. She glared daggers and raised her fist again. But Cheng Shi imdiately added:
"But I've always been a liar."
"..."
Hong Lin's fist froze in midair. The joy of reunion, arriving on the heels of anger's delay, finally smoothed away her terror. She stared at Cheng Shi with teeth clenched, wanting to say sothing — but every word that reached her lips dissolved into silence.
Seeing this, Cheng Shi tilted his head toward Qin Xin, who was still visibly shaken, and said with a pout:
"Besides, you two are the ones who left
behind. How is that my fault?"
"..."
Silence fell. A few seconds later, Qin Xin bowed deeply in apology:
"I'm sorry. In that mont, I truly couldn't have done better."
'It's fine, it's fine...'
Cheng Shi had no reason to bla Qin Xin. Quite the opposite — he should thank Qin Xin for extracting his friend from danger.
'But Old Qin, soone needs to take the fall for this. Help
draw Big Cat's fire.'
So Cheng Shi suppressed a grin, turned his swollen half-face away, and mumbled:
"I refuse to accept that — unless Big... Hong Lin also gives him a punch. No — a full beating!"
The words had barely left his mouth when the giant bear before him vanished. Then ca the sound of fist eting flesh.
THUD — THUD — THUD —
Big Cat's blows were savage, one after another. The battered Qin Xin took every hit in silence. Not a word of complaint.
Cheng Shi craned his neck slightly. Watching the giant bear sweat from exertion, he knew Big Cat genuinely wanted to hit Qin Xin.
Fair enough. In her worldview, death wasn't scary. What was scary was abandoning a friend and leaving them to die.
Even at the height of terror, Hong Lin's subconscious would never have given up on Cheng Shi. But since Qin Xin had saved her, she couldn't exactly complain. Now that she'd been given a reason to strike, she naturally unleashed all her fear and fury at once.
And so the Dolphin Bridge suddenly had two pig-faced occupants.
Cheng Shi pulled himself to his feet. Looking at Qin Xin's face — swollen like a pig's — he burst out laughing. But the instant Hong Lin whipped a glare his way, his whole body flinched. He straightened his expression, looked at them both, and said solemnly:
"I'm sorry."
This apology was heartfelt and genuine.
Hearing it, Hong Lin lowered her fist. Qin Xin managed a smile.
Both turned to look at Cheng Shi, about to say sothing — when the earnestly apologetic liar added contritely:
"I'll do it again next ti."
"..."
"..."
"Because ti waits for no one, and the chance only cos once!"
...
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