The scene went quiet. Even the trembling divine bodies around them stilled, and everything fell back into silence.
Cheng Shi's chest tightened. From that single sentence alone, this person felt exactly like the Gravekeeper who had gone missing — but he still didn't dare confirm it. It was all too convenient. He had to be sure.
"What happened?"
Steady-Cheng asked the universal question.
Steady-Zhang half-shut his eyes and looked the other over from head to foot, then delivered the universal answer.
"Nothing happened. I'm waiting for soone."
"Who are you waiting for?"
"A clown who wants to get buried in a cetery but can't find the cetery manager to buy a ticket."
Cheng Shi blinked — then gave a half-amused look. "What a coincidence. I'm also looking for soone."
"Oh," said Zhang Jizu, and then said nothing more.
"?" Cheng Shi's expression stiffened. "Why don't you ask who I'm looking for?"
Zhang Jizu's eyes narrowed to a line. He slowly put away the scalpel and said with absolute deadpan seriousness: "Don't want to get yelled at. So I won't ask."
"What the—"
Cheng Shi was already pointing a finger at Zhang Jizu's nose, ready to let rip — but when he saw the smile beginning to spread across the other man's face, every choice word stuck in his throat.
At that sa mont, the Gravekeeper reached out and landed a solid clap on Cheng Shi's shoulder.
"You're still alive. The world is still there. Good."
Cheng Shi stopped. He felt the warmth of Old Zhang's palm — and finally let out a long, deeply relieved exhale.
A living Gravekeeper. It was him.
But then Cheng Shi's expression shifted again. He retracted the pointing finger and replaced it with a different one — a thumbs-up — and said in that characteristic sarcastic drawl:
"I suppose I should thank Comrade Gravekeeper for giving this humble one a second life? Praise the universe's greatest Gravekeeper — truly I should give you an award. But before that — I'm curious why you didn't stay in that world peacefully waiting for a bus ride ho, and ca all the way out here instead. You didn't decide the credit for saving the world was too enormous and thought you'd reward yourself by annexing the Corpse Field of Gods into your graveyard, did you? Ha. Not a bad idea — but the execution was far too reckless. I have an easier thod. Want to hear it?"
"I..."
"You do. Good. I'll tell you: just change your na. 'Zhang Jizu' becos 'Zhang Origin.' After all, you're scrounging wool from right under [Origin]'s nose — what's a little more?"
"!!!"
Zhang Jizu's whole body went rigid. His eyes widened by about two degrees. He nearly yanked the scalpel back out to sew Cheng Shi's mouth shut on the spot.
Where did he think he was?! This was the Real Universe — the place where gods fell. Sothing unknown lurked beneath the pit below, and he was shooting his mouth off like this? Wasn't he afraid of attracting catastrophe?
This had nothing to do with being reckless or careful. This was flat-out courting death.
Seeing Old Zhang's reaction, Cheng Shi understood imdiately that the other man didn't yet know what was generating the sounds from below. Understandably — stuck in a place like this, with no knowledge of what lay above or below, boldly engraving arrays and using sound to scare off intruders and hold the territory was still impressively gutsy and careful on Old Zhang's part.
But Cheng Shi still wanted to know — why had Old Zhang co here? Had sothing really gone wrong in that other world?
"What happened?" He asked the question again.
This ti Zhang Jizu's brow creased slightly. He glanced down into the pit below — and upon seeing that the depths showed no reaction to Cheng Shi's "blasphemy," sothing seed to click. He gave a slow nod and said, heavy-voiced:
"He died."
"???" Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. "Who?"
"The other . The Gravekeeper who inherited [Death]'s authority."
"!!!"
Cheng Shi's eyes went wide. He finally understood why the anchor on the Dolphin Bridge had failed. It wasn't just that Old Zhang had run into trouble — the other Zhang Jizu had also t with an accident.
"How did he die?"
Zhang Jizu's expression darkened. He exhaled. "He used the authority to die in place of another Cheng Shi. He was atoning for sothing. He died at peace."
Cheng Shi's eyes went wider still. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He thought he might have misheard.
"Who did you say died? That Cheng Shi died? How is that possible — the outer god was a fake, the Fun God in disguise. Why would it personally kill a clown?"
"???"
What — the outer god was fake?
Now Zhang Jizu was also stunned.
Before seeing Cheng Shi, he had spent a long ti searching for the original world and failing to find it. He'd even started to think that the world might have already reached its tragic [Void] ending. Then the mont he saw Cheng Shi and confird this was the Fate Weaver from his world — he had felt an enormous relief, interpreting it to an that the [Deceit]-path Cheng Shi from that world had saved it through self-sacrifice.
But now you're telling
the outer god was fake — was the Fun God all along?
Because the whole thing was a [Deceit] trial?
Zhang Jizu's eyes narrowed to nothing.
If Cheng Shi was right, then the other Cheng Shi's death was indeed a little strange. His brow furrowed deeply. Both of them stared at each other, each equally shaken.
"What happened in the trials after that?"
Cheng Shi didn't hesitate. He told Zhang Jizu everything about the false Curtain Call in a low, steady voice. And Zhang Jizu told Cheng Shi everything he had seen and experienced — and that was when Cheng Shi finally understood why Old Zhang had ended up here.
It had been, in truth, a chain of accidents.
After the [Death]-version Zhang Jizu fell, he had rushed to confirm the state of the original world. In [Death]'s cetery, he found a path leading to the Real Universe, and through it, entered the Real Universe.
But newly arrived and completely without guidance, he had no idea how to navigate the place — until he encountered the enormous floating "corpse" of the World-Leaking Silent Puppet that Cheng Shi had once described.
Zhang Jizu found it like a beacon. He planted himself beside the Leaking World Silent Puppet and refused to move. Wherever the puppet drifted, he followed — and following it for so ti, whether because his "navigation thod" had sohow worked, or because fate had quietly chosen to protect him again, he and the Leaking World Silent Puppet were jointly swept into a spaceti storm.
Afterward, the Leaking World Silent Puppet disappeared without a trace, and he was thrown into the Corpse Field of Gods.
Initially, seeing this place, Zhang Jizu was anything but thrilled. Cheng Shi had shared his earlier exploration of the Real Universe during a trial — but at that ti, he hadn't yet ntioned the Corpse Field of Gods or the divine throne to his companion clown in the trial. So Zhang Jizu had no idea where he was.
Boundless terror engulfed him. But fortunately, nothing here posed a direct threat. After adapting to the fear, he began to explore the area.
And then he found the voice coming from below the corpse pit.
Anyone who heard soone speaking disrespectfully of [Origin] in a place like this would naturally assu it had sothing to do with the real [Origin]. The Gravekeeper was no exception.
But unlike a certain spectacularly bold clown, once he realized there was a living presence beneath the pit, he suppressed his curiosity entirely. He refused to descend. He stayed put, waiting for a chance to leave.
At the sa ti, uncertain whether any outside threats might co, he used whatever materials were nearby and the new knowledge he'd absorbed in the [Death]-version Zhang Jizu's cetery — and set up the triggering chanism to scare away intruders. Which was precisely what Cheng Shi had activated.
And so the Gravekeeper began a long wait.
Though he called it waiting, the hopeless Zhang Jizu had long since accepted this as a new cetery. He didn't believe hope would co. Just like the news of [Deceit]-Cheng Shi's death — he believed he would eventually be buried in this strange and foreign graveyard.
But no one could have guessed that on the very first day after the trap was finished, the intruder he had been cautiously guarding against showed up. And that intruder was the clown who embodied all hope — Cheng Shi.
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