When Ti carved a Void rift to the Mockery and Jeering for Cheng Shi's audience with Fate, Cheng Shi had placed a scalpel in Zhang Jizu's hand.
It was just an ordinary scalpel. His aning was clear:
Should the path ahead turn bleak—should Fate fail to protect him in this conspiracy—he needed Zhang Jizu to find a way to kill him and bury him beneath this starry sky.
As a sacrifice, he likely wouldn't get a chance to kill himself.
Zhang Jizu didn't want to think so grimly, but he accepted the blade.
After Cheng Shi left, he invited Long Jing to join his World Saving Plan. However... Long Jing refused.
Not because Long Jing didn't want to—but because President Gong didn't have "ti."
Cheng Shi had given Long Jing three scalpels, laughing that he should bring them to the Dragon King and the Doctor so they, like Zhang Jizu, could give him a rciful cut when all hope was lost.
On the surface, he was begging for death. But in secret... each of those three scalpels hid a ssage.
On their reverse sides, in tiny characters etched by Shadow Cheng Shi while everyone's attention was diverted—they were less instrunts of death than three sealed stratagems!
When passing them to Long Jing, Cheng Shi had deliberately angled them so the engraved sides faced his palm—ensuring Zhang Jizu noticed nothing.
It wasn't that he no longer trusted Old Zhang. He was simply hedging against the Deceit behind Old Zhang—the Deceit who'd once fooled the Gravekeeper. He feared that if Zhang Jizu carried out these plans, Deceit would intercept them midway. So he chose the "least conspicuous" person present: Long Jing.
When Long Jing took the three scalpels and felt the engravings, his expression didn't change one bit—a perfect reception of the clown's performance.
What President Gong hadn't anticipated was that the Gravekeeper had his own plan. This threw him into an imdiate dilemma.
'How do I refuse Old Zhang without arousing suspicion?'
Little did he know: the mont you try not to arouse suspicion, you already have.
Joker mbers were never short on clever people. The instant Zhang Jizu saw Long Jing's hesitation, his gaze flicked to the three scalpels in Long Jing's hand. He seed to notice sothing—but said nothing, nodded, and left on his own.
Long Jing watched Zhang Jizu's retreating figure with a complex expression. Fist clenched, he imdiately set to work following "Lord Yu Xi's" instructions, examining the three nas engraved on the blades.
This was the lifeline Cheng Shi had been gritting his teeth waiting for—the contingency he'd left beyond Fate!
The three blades bore only a few words each:
"Dragon King — mory"
"Doctor — Decay"
"The Prisoner — Fla of Hope"
The first two were straightforward: call upon those gods through those connections. But the last one...
'At a ti like this, what kind of joke is this? How could The Prisoner be the Fla of Hope!?'
'I look more like a Fla of Hope than he does!'
President Gong couldn't comprehend it. But he knew he had to obey. So he threw himself across the Void with everything he had and tracked down all three.
First: the Dragon King.
During the special trial period, players were scattered across various trials, their whereabouts nearly impossible to trace.
Worse, peak players were never where you'd expect—whether they were even in a trial was anyone's guess. Finding them was brutally difficult.
Fortunately, President Gong was among the absolute elite of this ga—aside from his clown status within the Joker. When his own contacts turned up nothing on the Dragon King, he began impersonating him—studying his psychology, guessing his destination—and finally located him inside That Dream My Nightmare!
Indeed, although the Joker's asset manager had claid the mirror, he hadn't taken it with him. It still sat at the Joker's eting ground.
From the start of his search to standing before the Dragon King, barely half an hour had passed.
When Long Jing found him, Li Jingming was standing at the edge of the mory-forgotten land, preparing to risk himself diving into this "mory junkyard" to see what secrets he could unearth.
Long Jing's arrival interrupted the Dragon King's expedition. To convey everything from the Deceit trial—Cheng Shi's deductions and admissions—Long Jing opened his own mories directly.
This act stunned Li Jingming. He dared not delay. In the guise of a mory Traveler, he swiftly "toured" the entire trial. He was first shocked when Cheng Shi returned, then shaken again when the trial's allegory beca clear—and when he reached the scalpel bearing his own na, Li Jingming pulled out of the mory and gave a solemn nod:
"I understand.
To stop Deceit, mory is the best choice after Fate—they've been natural opponents from birth.
Cheng Shi wants
to convince my benefactor to fight the Outer God alongside him."
Having said that, the Dragon King was still reeling. The notion that Deceit was an Outer God was simply staggering—no one could process it imdiately.
His mind jumped to the lost mory within mory's Collection Hall—the one about mory's own forgotten mories. So they were connected to the Outer God?
Or had Deceit brought truth about this world that mory couldn't accept—so He had sealed His own mories?
Had He wanted to keep this starry sky's mories orderly, refusing to let foreign mories pollute what was here?
A keen light flashed in Li Jingming's eyes. Regardless, when it ca to protecting the world, mory should be an ally.
He spoke gravely:
"I'll seek an audience imdiately. Perhaps those mories in the Collection Hall must see the light of day again.
By the way—Cheng Shi is Yu Xi?
Then the stage in San Dales...?"
"..."
Long Jing had been all seriousness. But the mont this topic ca up, both Joker mbers broke composure simultaneously.
At least Li Jingming could console himself: he'd recorded another amusing mory, and it looked like there'd be more to record.
He shot Long Jing an odd look and asked: "Then the guidance Yu Xi gave—that 'Shi Zhen' we'd never heard of...?"
"..."
Long Jing flung his sleeve and strode off. He couldn't waste another second on this insufferable Dragon King.
His ti was precious.
But he hadn't gone two steps before he turned back, face dark, and extended his hand toward the Dragon King.
Li Jingming understood. He condensed the mories he'd witnessed into an item and pressed it into Long Jing's palm.
Long Jing took it without a word and left. Li Jingming watched his receding figure, allowed himself one smile, then swiftly wiped it away and began reciting mory's prayer with a grave expression.
Perhaps because the mory junkyard was particularly conducive to resonance with mory's power, before the prayer was even finished, a surging tide of mory swept over Li Jingming, pulling him into the Sea of mory and propelling him toward mory's hall.
The Collection Hall of mory.
When Li Jingming opened his eyes again, he found his benefactor hovering above him, gazing toward a corner of the Collection—precisely where that indecipherable painting hung.
Seeing His follower awake, those eyes—engraved with the weight of eons and history—spoke quietly:
"I never noticed. Within the Collection I built with my own hands, there existed a mory I'd let slip away.
The concealer was most likely Deceit. Only He could have fooled my eyes.
But why, after all this ti deceiving , has He suddenly withdrawn that power—allowing
to feel this mory's presence again?
I sense Void's disturbance. I perceive upheaval in the Void. But I cannot see what's happening within. Just as I cannot see what past this mory before
describes.
Your audience—is it related to this?"
Li Jingming stood composed in the Collection Hall, bowing reverently:
"Yes."
He didn't rush to seek mory's aid. Instead, he offered the trial mories he'd obtained from Long Jing directly to his benefactor.
Those ti-worn eyes gazed downward. A flash of azure light flickered within them, and the depth of their historical record thickened once more. He already knew His follower's purpose.
"An Outer God...
So His arrival taught Existence to deceive itself.
No wonder Ti has no more ti. He's been protecting this starry sky—protecting this Existence that Origin never cared about.
I understand. You may go."
"!!!"
Li Jingming's composure finally broke. He hadn't expected his benefactor to react like this. Seeing that mory's response to the Outer God's "invasion" was far less severe than imagined, he said urgently:
"Should You not join hands with Ti, restore Existence's glory, and together with all gods drive the Outer God out?"
"Existence's glory?" Those ancient eyes hardened, carrying a hint of self-mockery. "Existence continuing to exist—that is Existence's glory.
Ti does nothing without purpose. His attitude... is my attitude."
"But You are mory!"
"I am rely Existence's surface. Ti is Existence's essence.
Since He sent the clown before Fate's eyes, Void's affairs will be resolved by Void.
Deceit... has fallen. You may return to the proper path of mory."
With that, mory dissolved above the Collection Hall.
Li Jingming stared at where his benefactor had been, a sudden tightness gripping his heart.
'Three blades. One already broken.'
...
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