The atmosphere was impossibly heavy. Even the sound of breathing had vanished.
Long Jing was not only shocked but deeply confused. He could piece together sothing from Mada Freud's disappearance and the trial's background, but he still couldn't fathom why Cheng Shi, of all people, had beco Void's golden child.
While the rest of them had been diligently running trials trying to understand the gods, Cheng Shi had brought the Joker the truth that lay beyond their world. And now, while everyone was striving to uncover the greater truth of the universe, the clown was telling them he'd beco Yu Xi!
And this damned trial was riddled with taphors about how important the clown was... But important how, exactly?
Without figuring that out, Long Jing couldn't sort his own thoughts. So he stared straight at Cheng Shi and voiced the question burning inside him.
"Why you?"
Good question!
Cheng Shi had once asked mory the sa thing. mory's answer had been: Void set its gaze on you, and so the gods cast their attention upon you.
To this day, he still didn't know why Void had chosen him.
Combining the "clues" from this trial, he could roughly surmise that Fate was likely the god who truly knew the "answer." Deceit was rely copying His brother-god's howork.
On the surface, Fate was trying to forge a sacrifice that ca closest to Origin's will—to please the Creator. But the problem was no god could fathom Origin's thoughts, just as no mortal could see through a god's mind.
So on what basis was Fate so certain that His concept of "fixed destiny" could please Origin?
The answer to that question probably lay not with Fate Himself, but with Origin!
Just as Cheng Shi had theorized before, this grand universe experint had to have a clear objective—the Creator's will, which could also be understood as the "experint instructions." And the projection of those "experint instructions" within each slice universe was very likely the manifestation of Fate's will.
Fate's so-called "fixed destiny" had probably never been His own intention from the start—it was the Creator's intention.
As for why that intention was him...
'Heh, apart from Origin, who would know?'
Cheng Shi couldn't answer the question, but he could push everything onto Fate.
He said:
"I didn't want it. But Fate chose ."
Long Jing believed it in a heartbeat. That was how damned fate worked—it never asked for consent, only beat people into clowns.
He looked at Cheng Shi with sympathy, then decided the man didn't deserve any.
Even if he'd been dragged kicking and screaming onto the stage, at least the stage was grand enough—dazzling enough. Unlike himself, who even as a beaten-down clown was just a clown floundering in a mud pit.
Long Jing took two deep breaths, recalling the words another Cheng Shi had once spoken to him. A mont of clarity washed over him—he should have realized long ago that soone capable of revealing the world's truth couldn't possibly be uninvolved in it, and that anyone whom another version of himself would willingly sacrifice for had to be at the vortex's center. He just hadn't expected the wheel to turn so quickly—now it was his turn.
'Follow him again, then?' He still had one trump card unused.
Long Jing's expression was deeply conflicted: "Does staying an standing against Void?"
Cheng Shi's mind was a maelstrom too. He refused to use "saving the world" as an excuse to rope anyone in, because right now the person he most wanted to save was himself. But in this mont, he truly understood the wisdom in Qin Xin's Torchbearers' philosophy of never forcing anyone to carry the fla.
Without a desire and resonance born from the deepest recesses of the heart, nothing could sustain so many people walking in the sa direction.
"Not just Void. Very likely every god."
"..."
Long Jing clenched his fists. After a mont's hesitation, he gave a firm nod.
In truth, for a fleeting instant, Cheng Shi had hoped Long Jing would leave. He didn't know what lay ahead—only that the other world's Long Jing had entrusted him with keeping this Long Jing alive.
But he couldn't even guarantee his own survival. How could he guarantee Long Jing's?
Yet the mont Long Jing nodded, Cheng Shi smiled. He seed to see the shadow of that blind Long Jing in the man before him.
"If this is the ga's grandest stage, then how could President Gong possibly be absent!"
Long Jing silently straightened his clothes and turned to face the other two with a radiant grin:
"But let's get one thing straight—even as a supporting role this ti, my scenes have to be spectacular enough.
I need the audience to know that President Gong was never the clown. The clown is soone else entirely!"
"..."
The brief emotion Cheng Shi had just felt imdiately froze on his face. His eyelid twitched. He looked away toward Old Zhang.
Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes, his tone dead serious:
"Don't waste ti. If things are truly as urgent as you say, every second counts.
Say what you need to say. But don't say what you shouldn't..."
As he spoke, Zhang Jizu pointed at the sky. His aning was clear—without the Bone Bell's protection, whatever Cheng Shi said could very well be heard by the gods. By Deceit.
Cheng Shi scoffed and tilted his head skyward:
"Then let Him hear!
He might as well know—this 'Masford' has no intention of playing along!"
He didn't rush to share everything with the two Joker mbers. Instead, he first addressed Brother Mouth:
"Brother Mouth—do you know what's going on with the Fun... with Deceit?"
The Fool's Lips was silent for a good while, but Cheng Shi could sense it had sothing to say. So he waited patiently. Eventually, Brother Mouth's voice ca—unusually low and heavy:
"I don't know...
I do know He once left this world. But when He returned, I sensed no change in Him whatsoever.
I'm thinking... maybe everything you're seeing in this trial is an illusion. Maybe it's all just another deception He's using against you.
Of course, it's also possible that I'm the one being deceived. After all, the Outer God is also Deceit, and Deceit understands Deceit best."
For once, the Fool's Lips had said a great deal. The hesitation and uncertainty in its tone rivaled Cheng Shi's own.
If the Outer God were any other deity, it might have questioned how an outsider could wield this world's faith and perfectly impersonate one of its gods. But the problem was—this was Deceit...
And who was Deceit? The surface of Void, the lie of the universe. What He did best was deceive!
As long as Deceit's authority remained in His hands, no one could see through who He truly was.
But then again, if there truly was a Deceit who had co from the Real Universe to replace the original Deceit—where had the original gone?
It wasn't hard to imagine. Given Deceit's nature, as long as He still drew breath, He would never abandon His own world to "flee" alone. That would be tantamount to ripping out His own rebellious spine and bowing to Origin.
According to the Fool's Lips' understanding of Him, He would never do such a thing. So the original Deceit had most likely already...
This was why Brother Mouth's voice was so low.
It believed its benefactor had fallen.
The outsider had stumbled upon Deceit's corpse—or perhaps witnessed His fall firsthand. Regardless, a god who died in the Real Universe would leave behind abandoned authority, invisible to both the Convention and Death.
The outsider then picked up Deceit's authority, ca to this world, and used the original Deceit's authority—or perhaps abilities that transcended the gods—to deceive the entire universe.
This was far from impossible. The exact nature of the force behind that world-saving ti reset was still an open question. If the one pulling the strings truly was the Outer God Deceit, then could the clown...
...still fight back?
...
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