The clown had his defenses shattered.
Which clown? Hard to say.
Once Long Jing realized he'd been identified, he dropped the pretense entirely and stord off in a fit of mortified rage, practically wishing he could vanish on the spot.
But the mont he rounded another small hill, his expression turned serious. He stopped dead in his tracks, spun around, grabbed Zhang Jizu, and dove behind the hill. Ears perked high, he strained to catch the movents of the two on the other side, while simultaneously saying:
"Old Zhang, don't just stand there. Keep an eye out and make sure that Cheng doesn't spot us here. I want to hear exactly what's going on between those two!"
Zhang Jizu shook his head and pulled Long Jing three feet down from where he was pressed against the hilltop.
"You're lying too high. If they start fighting, any jump would give them a clear view of you."
Long Jing blinked, then gave him a thumbs-up.
"Now that's reliable. I won't hold it against you for calling
a clown.
We're all brothers here—and you shouldn't hold it against
for saying your eyes are small.
After all, your eyes really are small. But I'm definitely not a clown."
"..."
Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes. His fists clenched.
Long Jing, completely absorbed in eavesdropping, didn't notice Zhang Jizu's thunderous expression. He muttered to himself: "Poison said she knows a huge Corruption secret. What do you think it could be?"
Corruption?
Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes and shook his head. But he suspected the secret might be related to Poison's visible exhaustion.
...
On the other side, while Shadow Chengshi and Poison were in their standoff, Cheng Shi quietly erged from behind a different hill. He glanced toward the direction Long Jing and Old Zhang had gone—at a mound that just so happened to be the perfect size to conceal two people—and silently rolled his eyes.
He knew there were almost certainly two sneaky Joker mbers lurking behind it, eavesdropping. But he chose not to call them out.
What was the point? Even if he flushed them out and chased them off, who knew if they'd next pop up underground or overhead?
If the Joker mbers weren't intensely curious, they'd never have banded together to pursue the universe's true secrets in the first place.
So... since he couldn't stop them, he might as well let them be. It was actually better knowing where they were—at least he could selectively block things when secrecy was required.
Cheng Shi approached slowly. The two Cheng Shis rged into one before Poison's eyes. Watching this wondrous sight, she remarked with fascination:
"So this is the authority you've manifested?"
"..."
'Good thing the Bone Bell had rung in ti. Otherwise, all my disguises would've been stripped away.'
Cheng Shi gazed at Poison, casually deflecting: "I have no idea what you're talking about. This is tanning I paid for."
"Pfft—hahahaha—" Poison doubled over again, eyes dancing. "Where did you get it done? I'd love to try."
Cheng Shi rolled his eyes once more. "Just because I pointed you down a path doesn't an you get to bounce around in front of . I've said it before—inside the ga, I prefer that you address
as Cheng Shi."
His tone was intimidating, but Poison knew perfectly well he wasn't actually angry. Still, she lowered her stance and adopted a humble, obedient deanor:
"Very well, Lord Cheng Shi. Shall we begin?"
"?" Cheng Shi blinked. "Begin what?"
"You dismissed everyone and left just little
here. Surely that ans you want to..." As she spoke, Poison used her dagger to slice open the collar of her hoodie, then trailed the blade downward, along—
"BOOM—"
An abrupt thunderbolt grazed past Poison's hair and scorched the ground behind her into charred earth.
The blast instantly yanked Poison's mory back to that house in Kannar, capital of the Rosna Empire. Cheng Shi had opened their "normal" conversation with the very sa thunderclap that ti too. Funnily enough, two people had been eavesdropping then as well.
Poison cast a aningful glance at the distant hill, then feigned alarm: "Lord Cheng Shi, did I do sothing wrong?"
"..."
"Act normal," Cheng Shi said darkly. "Stop with the nonsense."
Poison looked deeply aggrieved: "How am I not being normal? I accidentally stabbed myself just now and I'm trying to cut so cloth for a bandage—is that not allowed?
So people are priests who won't even heal a person...
If you won't do it, at least let
treat myself?"
"I..."
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched violently.
'Right, right—I see now. You Corruption followers and your endless tricks!'
Seething, he flung a healing spell at her. Radiant, vitality-rich holy light cascaded over Poison. As she felt her flesh knitting together with a tingling sensation, Poison couldn't help herself:
"Ahh~"
"Shut your mouth!"
Cheng Shi's face had gone rigid. He raised his hand and charged another thunderbolt: "Make that noise one more ti and I'll bury you in Old Zhang's cetery—dead until you can't make any noise ever again!
Talk fast. Stop wasting my ti.
And be serious—put away all that garbage in your head!"
Perhaps sensing Cheng Shi's genuine impatience, Poison obediently tucked away her earlier expressions, knelt neatly on the ground, and lowered her head in apology:
"I understand, Lord Cheng Shi. But let
mount a defense for myself.
What's in my head isn't garbage... it's the genuine article.
Colors don't have right or wrong. The wrong lies with the people wearing tinted glasses.
Just like human desire—people's prejudices have never disappeared since the dawn of ti."
"..."
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched again. If he hadn't confird Zhen Xin had already left, he might have thought the Poison before him was actually Zhen Xin in disguise.
'Girl—have you caught Deceit too?'
'Why are you so chatty today?'
Cheng Shi gave a cold snort and looked down at her: "Do you think you're funny?"
"Probably not as funny as a clown..." Poison's posture grew ever more humble.
"...?"
'Sothing's wrong!'
'Definitely wrong!'
Given Poison's talent for flattery and her will that excelled at reading situations, the normal her would never repeatedly dance on his "landmines." Today's Poison seed more like The Prisoner—going out of her way to provoke a fight.
But she knew his identity as Yu Xi. What kind of upheaval could have given her the suicidal courage to pick a fight with the very servant god who had guided her?
He imdiately realized everything she'd been doing was deflection and distraction—forcing composure to mask the turmoil beneath.
What had happened to her?
Cheng Shi frowned slightly, thought for a mont, then lowered his hand and asked seriously: "What happened?"
The sudden shift in atmosphere instantly stripped Poison of her earlier "courage." She slumped, eyes heavy with exhaustion. She shook her head—then, as if wrestling with sothing, forced herself back up. She looked at Cheng Shi, locked onto his gaze, and asked, word by painful word:
"You...
Are you really Yu Xi?"
Cheng Shi's eyes sharpened. Whatever Poison had experienced was very likely connected to Yu Xi. He couldn't be sure how things would develop, nor whether he'd already revealed so flaw. So he kept his answer vague, wrapping it in mystery:
"Yes—so what?
No—so what?
Believe and it is. Doubt and it isn't. It's rely a servant god's title—what's there to agonize over?
I am Cheng Shi. Sa as always. Never changed.
Does that answer satisfy you?"
Poison blinked, carefully parsing his words. Then she shook her head in confusion:
"I don't know...
I don't know if I'm satisfied. I don't even know what I'm doing—or why I'm chasing this ga...
Lord Yu Xi, if you truly are one of those gods high above, could you clear sothing up for ?
Faith—what is it even for?"
Cheng Shi's inner doubts deepened, but his surface remained calm as a breeze:
"Simple. It's for staying alive."
Poison froze again—then suddenly burst into wild laughter. Her laugh was so lost, so mocking, so unhinged that Cheng Shi thought she'd gone mad.
"Staying alive?
What a lovely answer—'staying alive.'
If it's for staying alive, then why did He choose to perish right before my eyes?"
"!!??"
...
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