So "Old Self in mory" didn't refer to the user's own "old self," but rather to a still-uninitiated Cheng Shi hidden sowhere in the tapestry of recollection?
Cheng Shi never could have dread that the key linking all the past threads together would trace back to the Ti Deduction he had once used on Long Jing.
But this also reinforced his conviction: countless slice universes had long since beco entangled. The world beneath his feet was not a single, isolated spaceti — it was a condensed mosaic, ford from the converging gazes of innurable tilines, each pinning its hopes on the future.
The group exchanged glances, a complex mix of emotions on every face.
It seed the plan had sprung a leak, but it could still proceed.
Silence settled. Before long, Cheng Shi shot Zhen Xin a look loaded with aning. She understood instantly and released her hold on Jie Shu.
Jie Shu erged from his ntal haze. Seeing that Zhao Xishi and Mo Shu had finished their work and Su Yida was "ready to depart," he paused for only a beat, then frowned and tore open a passage to the world's exterior through the fractured Void behind the rooftop door — a spaceti tunnel leading beyond the world.
The tunnel looked precarious, fragile beyond asure, yet the maelstrom of multicolored divine power howling through it was awe-inspiring all the sa.
Zhao Xishi stared in astonishnt and asked curiously, "What kind of power is that?"
Jie Shu replied in a low voice:
"Blended divine power — extracted, refined, and pieced together from players of different faiths. When I realized there was no way back after falling into this world, I began experinting with breaking through the spaceti barrier.
Using nearly identical divine-power structures, I continuously reconstructed the spaceti composition I'd felt on the Dolphin Bridge. After countless experints, I finally found an approximately correct thod and developed a kind of loophole tunnel capable of temporarily breaching the spaceti barrier.
It's not a true passage. It's more like a workaround that bypasses the barrier's obstruction and taps into the properties of the Dolphin Bridge.
As a result, it's extrely unstable — but sufficient for one person to make a round trip.
After you leave, rember to use the thod I told you. When it's ti to return, simply jump off the Dolphin Bridge. The matching aura will guide you back here."
With that, Jie Shu glanced at Su Yida. "Ti to go, Master of Trickery."
All eyes turned to Su Yida, who furrowed his brow and gave the wildly unstable tunnel a dubious look. "This is it? You're sure I can actually co back?"
Jie Shu smiled. "That question isn't for . It's for you to answer yourself."
"..."
Su Yida clenched his fists, as though steeling his resolve. Before leaving, he tossed one last declaration over his shoulder:
"I'll show you all the true power of the Master of Trickery."
With that, he leapt decisively into the tunnel and vanished from sight.
Watching Su Yida's figure disappear, Zhao Xishi cast a sidelong glance at Jie Shu, her smile full of aning:
"Well then — you've shipped off the fool. Now let's have so honest talk, shall we?
Jie Shu, what are you really scheming?
I don't believe you went through all this just to kill so Cheng Shi and find a world without a Fate Weaver.
Sure, I'll admit the Fate Weaver's reputation looms too large, and his closeness to that Zhen woman rubs
the wrong way too. If I could leave this disheartening world, I'd be willing.
But that doesn't an I have to play dumb and ignore your scheming.
Everything you've done looks more like you're setting up the Master of Trickery you brought along to be slaughtered.
What — does he have a grudge with you? Otherwise, why are you manipulating him like this?"
Long Jing and Mo Shu turned to look as well. Jie Shu took in everyone's expressions, then gave a cold chuckle:
"The Master of Trickery and I are partners. No grudge, no grievance — why would I manipulate him?
We're simply getting what we each need."
"Getting what, exactly?" Long Jing perked up, asking with an amused grin.
Jie Shu gave a cryptic smile.
"Wait for him to co back. Then you'll know."
...
Beyond the spaceti barrier — the Real Universe.
This was Long Jing's first ti setting foot in the Real Universe. The instant he passed through the spaceti tunnel and left the world behind, he was hit by a suffocating loneliness.
Even though the starry sky here looked no different from the one inside the world — simply vaster, more remote — he couldn't find a single thread of familiarity.
He felt like a lone skiff, adrift on the boundless sea of stars, with nothing to anchor him ahead.
At least he had the Clown for company!
Even if the Clown was currently fused into the divinity, hidden sowhere on his body and unable to move, simply knowing soone was there brought a sense of security.
Long Jing drew a deep breath. He couldn't afford to waste ti. Without hesitation, he crushed the ring.
The image of the other world's Cheng Shi appeared before him once more. This ti, the spectral figure didn't look at Long Jing. Instead, it closed its eyes, sensing for a long mont before pointing him in a direction.
The mory figure imdiately set off. Long Jing followed without missing a step, and before long they plunged headlong into a spaceti storm.
The Acrobat was terrified by the sudden encroaching darkness. If he hadn't trusted Cheng Shi, if he hadn't watched the mory figure dive straight in, he would never have stood still and let that pitch-black maelstrom swallow him.
A spaceti storm's formation signaled a world's destruction — and heralded a world's rebirth.
Within that vortex of new creation, Long Jing and the figure drifted down onto the Spaceti Dolphin Bridge.
The mory figure smiled and pointed beneath the bridge, saying nothing.
By now it no longer resembled a vivid recording. It was more like a pre-written program — chanically and flawlessly guiding Long Jing to the Dolphin Bridge, then providing an anchor for the consciousness-targeting beneath it.
That anchor was Old Self in mory. It pinpointed a world inhabited by a past version of Cheng Shi.
Long Jing held that sa kind of world in his mind, but the intent was broad and vague — enough only to ensure that jumping from here would lead to such a world, without any certainty of which specific one.
Seeing the mory figure gesture downward, Long Jing understood instantly. He gritted his teeth and leapt off the bridge.
Enormous silhouettes of Void-Whiskered Swallowing Dolphins crisscrossed beneath the bridge, swimming freely, as though opening a gate through spaceti for Long Jing.
...
The Void. The Void once more.
When Long Jing regained consciousness and opened his eyes again, he found himself already standing on the "stage."
In the distance, a figure was slowly approaching through the Void.
That figure was unmistakably familiar — identical to the Master of Trickery he was impersonating.
Except this Master of Trickery didn't look like he'd weathered any hardship. His face was still youthful, almost boyish — yet those eyes, burning with hunger for power, couldn't fool anyone.
Even back then, he was an ambitious Master of Trickery.
'Here it cos — it really is that Trial!'
The approaching Su Yida naturally noticed the figure in the Void as well. At first he was afraid, terrified he'd stumbled upon so unknown entity floating in the emptiness.
But when he saw that the figure looked like a person — and moreover a person who couldn't move — he swallowed his fear and crept toward the silhouette.
His thoughts blazed with excitent, though his posture grew ever more cautious.
But against a sufficiently vast power gap, caution was aningless. Before he could even draw close, a force seized him and locked him in place within the Void.
Then ca a derisive laugh:
"Su Yida, how did I never notice you had this much nerve back then?
More than a Master of Trickery, you're practically a Lord of Desire, aren't you?"
As he spoke, the figure rose to its feet and revealed, right before Su Yida, a face identical to his own.
"What a naive past. I'm back.
What — not going to welco ?"
"!!!"
In that instant, the past Su Yida's pupils trembled violently, his entire body going numb.
...
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