Correct. Cheng Shi had arrived.
He arrived at exactly the right mont.
[Ti] had brought the mastermind of this farce here, said not a single word, and imdiately departed — leaving Cheng Shi alone beneath that starry sky, receiving the scrutiny of every assembled divine being.
He wasn't worried in the slightest. None of his old fear remained. He offered a slight bow to the gathered gods and said with a smile:
"Turns out only a new god ascending its throne can draw all the true divine into one place. Thank you all for attending the ceremony. Nothing left to see here — feel free to disperse.
We'll have plenty of chances to et in the future. I hope you won't find
too much of a bother."
The gods were baffled. They could not have been wrong — this player standing before them was clearly Cheng Shi. But the player who had just received the radiant light had also clearly been Cheng Shi. Why was...?
As the gods puzzled over this, the Cheng Shi inside the [mory] Collection Hall — or rather, the new [Chaos] — let out a quiet laugh and shed the disguise. A head of dark, long hair appeared, along with that highly recognizable magician's tailcoat.
She had intended to bow toward the assembled gods in imitation of Cheng Shi's way of taking a curtain call — but then, reconsidering her current status, she settled for a slight nod instead.
She smiled and said:
"If you enjoy performances, you're welco to visit my temple anyti. I welco all visitors — especially anyone willing to discuss [Origin] with ."
One sentence — and where [Silence] had gone, silence returned.
The gods, startled, realized in the sa mont that the one who had just inherited the [Chaos] throne and its authority was, apparently — another follower of [Deceit]?
They hadn't noticed it. They had been deceived by a mortal?
No.
The one who deceived them was no mortal. It had moved.
"Zhen Xin?!"
Li Wufang stared blankly. He couldn't begin to understand why his chief had suddenly beco that [Deceit] Chosen One of complicated reputation.
In that mont, every mory of the day surged into his mind all at once. He scrambled through them desperately — and found not the faintest trace of when the two had switched.
How did they do it?
Zhen Xin caught Li Wufang's expression of shock from the corner of her eye. She tilted her head and gave him a wink.
"A secret.
The most captivating part of a substitution trick is not knowing the thod. If I told you how it was done, the fun would be gone — wouldn't it?"
"...?"
Whose fun exactly?
Li Wufang's eye twitched slightly. Shock still lingered in his gaze. Then he seed to rember sothing, turned to look at Li Jingming — and found Long Jing wearing an expression of soone who already knew everything, not surprised in the slightest.
His eyes went wide. It hit him. "You knew all of this the whole ti. That's why you were smiling?"
Li Jingming smiled and nodded. He had indeed known everything — from the mont he'd started reading "Cheng Shi"'s mories, the plan was impossible to hide from him.
No — more accurately, the plan had never intended to be hidden from him. The later sequence that deviated to the [mory] Collection Hall had been unexpected, but the result was good, and Li Jingming had completed what Cheng Shi had assigned to him perfectly.
Correct — Long Jing had been a part of the plan all along.
He had seen the real Cheng Shi. In front of everyone's eyes. Right under the Iron Law of [Order]'s nose.
But the Cheng Shi he saw was not the Cheng Shi of that mont. It was a past Cheng Shi — and the place he saw him was not in the void, but buried inside... Zhen Xin's mories.
Because all of this had been a sche Cheng Shi had personally laid.
To explain it properly, you'd have to go back to the first ti Cheng Shi sought an audience with the Iron Law of [Order] and failed.
At that point, he had already conceived of the idea to have Li Wufang petition the Iron Law of [Order] and use the die to smuggle himself in — but he'd thought even further than that.
Yes, the clown had set his sights on the [Order] throne. But he couldn't ignore a risk: the Iron Law of [Order] was fundantally [Chaos].
If everything proceeded according to the best possible scenario — if a friendly [Chaos] returned to its own throne, or else self-destructed in atonent in the guise of [Order] — then the path to claiming a throne would be cleared with no obstacles, and Cheng Shi might even gain [Chaos] as an ally, adding one more force to his side.
But what if [Chaos] was not friendly?
The sche [Deceit] and [Chaos] had conspired to pull off — replacing [Order] — its details were unknown to anyone. Who could confirm exactly what thod the Fun God had used to win [Chaos] over?
Cheng Shi's current situation left no room for the slightest carelessness. He had to carry steadiness to its absolute limit. So on the worst possible chance [Chaos] had been manipulated by the Fun God and, upon reclaiming itself, turned hostile toward the Fun God...
No — it didn't even have to go that far. Simply by being [Chaos] — a god so thoroughly orderless that its intentions were impossible to predict — Cheng Shi had to plan contingencies in advance for any potential surprise. And protecting Fixed Destiny's identity from corruption was the most critical among those contingencies.
So before preparing the audience, he had gone to find one more person. This was his first recruit: Zhen Xin.
Cheng Shi t Zhen Xin at the museum and laid out his entire plan. He said that, given his understanding of the inflexible personalities within the [Order] lineage, once the Iron Law of [Order] had its identity challenged and Justice (Order) was called in for a face-to-face confrontation, there were only two possible endings:
Either it could not recognize itself, could give the universe's order no satisfying answer, and self-destructed in sha. Or it recognized the truth of being [Chaos] and abandoned [Order] to return to [Chaos].
The first carried no danger — at worst, so divine being would need to provide cover during the self-destruction. The second carried far more complications.
Cheng Shi feared that the prior cooperation had been the Fun God's trap. He feared even more that [Chaos], in its desire to amplify the universe's chaos, would "die to declare its will." That wasn't empty worry — [Prosperity], [Truth], [Oblivion] — there was ample precedent. The gods had never been understated in expressing their intentions.
And so Cheng Shi devised the substitution sche with Zhen Xin.
He wanted Zhen Xin to impersonate him in exposing the Iron Law of [Order]'s identity. If everything developed in a positive direction, Zhen Xin was nothing more than a mouthpiece — zero danger. But if the worst unfolded — Zhen Xin at least would have her life.
Because Cheng Shi knew [Death] would absolutely protect "Cheng Shi." In [Death]'s presence, unless [Death] permitted a death, no one died.
Since death was off the table — why couldn't Cheng Shi go himself?
Sa reason as always. Death wasn't the most terrifying outco. A problem arising with Fixed Destiny was.
The Final Oracle.
Though Qin Xin's Final Oracle had beco Cheng Shi's weapon in the false Curtain Call, it was also sothing Cheng Shi had to guard against. If [Chaos] went to its most extre — a destructive blaze-of-glory — and chose to issue a Final Oracle to trigger a countdown to world collapse, who could stop it?
The Fun God?
Even in the false Curtain Call, the Fun God couldn't stop a Final Oracle. Let alone now, in reality.
Cheng Shi wouldn't risk it. To eliminate the last trace of risk on the path to claiming a throne, he found Zhen Xin.
And when Zhen Xin heard all of it — she went quiet. Not because she didn't want to cooperate. She couldn't cooperate. She stated it clearly:
"The plan is good. But there are two flaws that can't be concealed.
One: my disguise talent works freely among players — but before the eyes of true divine beings, it won't hold.
Two: even if my impersonation isn't seen through by [Chaos] — if the worst outco arrives and [Chaos] addresses you by na and demands that Cheng Shi inherit its authority — what then?
When a Final Oracle nas a specific target, all disguise is useless."
These were indeed the two biggest problems. Cheng Shi had considered them both — and had thought further than Zhen Xin.
Because in this sche, he wasn't only playing against the Iron Law of [Order]. He was also playing against his own patron — [Deceit].
He gave Zhen Xin a smile and said:
"No matter — what you and I can't solve, soone else will 'naturally' handle for us.
The Fun God has been avoiding . I've had nothing to stand on and have been afraid to take big steps forward. I don't know what it's planning — but I know that everything, whether drawing closer or moving away, is tied to Fixed Destiny.
So right now, Fixed Destiny's safety can't rest on my steadiness alone. If it wants its plan to continue, it has to co through for .
Go ahead and perform freely. If any link along the way runs into trouble, I'll appear at the scene imdiately and pull you out of the sche.
Risk taken by the person of Fixed Destiny — I don't believe it would stand back and let go."
As he spoke, Cheng Shi deliberately gave the bone bell in his hand several deliberate, forceful strikes.
Yes — from the very start of the exchange, he had been ringing the bone bell, afraid the Fun God lurking in the shadows might not hear the plan.
Zhen Xin was sharp. When she understood that Cheng Shi was using his Fixed Destiny identity to drag the Fun God into the sche, she smiled — a knowing, understanding smile — and agreed to the plan.
And in order to keep the matter of the Iron Law of [Order]'s identity contained within the smallest possible circle — to preserve as much maneuvering room as possible going forward — they also planned to bring Long Jing in.
But for the evidence to be "credible," they couldn't let Li Jingming know the whole plan from the start.
So Cheng Shi devised sothing. This [Deceit] follower understood the use of mory better than anyone. After finishing his discussion with Zhen Xin, he specifically — in front of Zhen Xin's eyes — left a ssage for Long Jing.
So when Li Jingming appeared before the Iron Law of [Order] and began searching through "Cheng Shi"'s mories — he found, inside those mories, the real body of "Cheng Shi" — Zhen Xin — and the real Cheng Shi, who was looking right at him and saying:
"Long Jing, good to see you again. Welco to the [Order] Collapse Plan."
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