Cheng Shi could feel his future self's hesitation too!
Because he genuinely didn't know the answer. He firmly believed that everyone had their own fate. Yet he also couldn't bear the thought of all his mories of Old Jia simply evaporating in another stroke of misfortune.
So...
That was why Cheng Dashi had chosen such an elaborate, covert thod to leave a hint—or perhaps, a choice?
Then what was this choice?
Setting aside what the choice might be, the information he'd deduced today alone was staggering enough.
He stood in Eposka's garden, brow deeply furrowed, face tight with gravity.
Because Cheng Dashi seed to have conveyed sothing extraordinary and deeply ominous—that this "dream" called reality, in the future, appeared to have shattered...
Another tragedy!
Perhaps in the future, the entire world had beco a tragedy—one that even a Cheng Dashi capable of deceiving the Gods couldn't prevent.
'So that's why you ca back, future !'
'You're so much like
that you believe our futures run along similar paths.'
'So it turns out our entire lives consist of stumbling through one tragedy after another, until we suddenly vanish in the final misfortune.'
'Heh. So that's why He favored ?'
'Fixed Destiny. Fixed Destiny.'
'So this is what Fixed Destiny ans!'
'Fate...'
'Damn it!'
'Just great.'
Cheng Shi had been standing motionless for far too long—so long that Hong Lin thought sothing was wrong. The giant bear delivered a thunderous palm strike to Eposka's body, knocking it backward, then charged toward Cheng Shi on all fours.
Once she reached him, she roared, scooped up both Cheng Shi and Amir in her paws, and bolted toward the garden's periter.
The jolt snapped Cheng Shi back to reality. He blurted out in confusion:
"Did you lose?"
The giant bear froze mid-stride, then instantly turned ferocious, roaring:
"CHENG! SHI!"
The explosive roar sprayed spittle directly onto Cheng Shi's face. He suddenly realized Hong Lin hadn't lost at all—she'd only retreated because she thought he was in trouble. He froze for a mont, then scratched his head with an embarrassed grin:
"My bad! That one's on ! But retreating works out. I've got so ideas I need to think through carefully. Sowhere quiet. Let's fall back."
Hong Lin had been seething over that "Did you lose?" remark. But seeing Cheng Shi's increasingly serious expression, she assud he'd figured out sothing critical. Swallowing her indignation, she ground out: "Where to? The Fog Gate is gone."
Cheng Shi took a deep breath: "The Void. We go to the Void!"
Even though his shadow had lost its responsiveness, and entering the Void now might an all traces of the "future" were long gone, he still wanted to take a look—to see if any clues remained.
Hong Lin frowned deeply: "Walking through the Void is worse than walking through the Sighing Forest directly. At least here we have landmarks. The Void has no sense of direction at all.
Unless you have a way to navigate?"
"No." Cheng Shi shook his head.
"Then—?" Hong Lin's eye twitched. She wanted nothing more than to crush this infuriating Fate Weaver in her paw. But almost imdiately, she realized Cheng Shi only wanted to get out of Eposka's sight—he had no intention of returning to the Mushroom-Footed People's Tribe. She wrinkled her nose and growled: "You'd better have found sothing!"
With that, she extended her bear paw and slamd it down on empty air. A shockwave powerful enough to tear reality rippled outward, and through brute force alone, she ripped open a Void rift right in front of Cheng Shi.
Cheng Shi gaped at the spectacle. Before he could even react, the giant bear unceremoniously hurled him in.
Hong Lin leaped in after him, then sealed the rift behind her. Eposka was in hot pursuit not far behind, and when it saw the scent of [Prosperity] vanish before its eyes, it let out a frenzied roar, growing even more volatile.
But it was nothing more than impotent rage. Utterly useless.
...
The Void.
The Void once again.
If a trial didn't include at least one trip to the Void, it simply wasn't a complete trial for Cheng Shi.
'Ho again. This ti, really ho.'
This was his first return to the Void since becoming a child of [Void], but staring into the endless darkness before him, Cheng Shi felt no more relaxed than before.
Because from the instant he'd stepped into the Void, he'd begun searching for Cheng Dashi's traces. But after scanning in every direction, he found nothing but infinite blackness. His brow furrowed once more.
Seeing Cheng Shi's grave expression, Hong Lin—having reverted to human form—frowned slightly, let out a cold snort, casually kicked the unconscious Amir aside, and said with visible displeasure:
"Talk. What did you find?"
"..."
'A slave driver through and through. Not a mont's rest, not even for acupuncture!'
'But... have I truly missed my chance at that prophecy?'
Cheng Shi sighed inwardly, but on the surface, he shook his head with a rueful smile: "Relax. I'm almost there. Just a bit more and I'll have it."
He sat down cross-legged, eyes closed, and continued thinking.
Hong Lin saw this and frowned but said nothing more.
Cheng Shi was certain that if he wanted to send a ssage back to the past, he would always have a contingency. Perhaps the once-responsive shadow hadn't been ant as his clue at all—rather, it was the shadow becoming unresponsive that served as the actual alert.
Pursuing this line of thought, he continued expanding and branching his reasoning, searching for whatever hint Cheng Dashi had left behind.
First, one thing had to be established: if "he" was the one setting the ga, no piece of information would be wasted. So the clues had been planted from the mont Su Yida entered the picture.
But Cheng Shi was genuinely curious—had that Su Yida, who died simultaneously in the past and the future, been "tricked" into coming back by his future self? Or had it all been... an act?
Probably not an act... what kind of actor gets himself killed performing?
Besides, the desire to kill him that had burned in Su Yida's eyes had been all too intense. He'd only held back because of his own plan.
Was it possible, then, that his future self had deceived Su Yida first?
"..."
'Can't think about it that way. The future is the future. I am . You can say we're alike, but you can't simply draw an equals sign.'
Since he'd thought of Su Yida, he naturally had to consider the [Prosperity] Divinity the man had carried!
That Divinity had been ant for Old Cui, but by a strange twist of fate, Old Cui had stuffed it back into Cheng Shi's body. So—was this also within Cheng Dashi's calculations?
[Prosperity] had catalyzed the fruitless Conjugate Whisper. And the failsafe Cheng Dashi had hidden within it had quietly crept into the fruit Cheng Shi had fabricated, nesting inside his shadow, even fooling the Gods.
But had it truly fooled Them?
If Cheng Dashi possessed such power, why not be more direct? Even if direct contact with himself was off limits, the clues could at least be more straightforward. The very fact that he'd been so secretive ant he couldn't yet deceive Them outright—he'd rely exploited Them...
And Them—especially the four of [Existence] and [Void]—didn't operate solely within the space-ti dinsions inhabited by mortals. So perhaps, in the future, Cheng Dashi was also locked in a ga against Them. He'd simply managed to steal one round this ti, getting his ssage through.
If that was the case, then he must have found a way to Change the tragedy. And the hint of that thod was hidden sowhere within the sche he'd set up.
So what was it...
In truth, Cheng Shi had already arrived at the answer.
It was [Prosperity]!
From beginning to end, throughout this "killing ga" from the future—or this twist of [Fate]—the shadow of [Prosperity] had appeared at every critical juncture.
And this trial, as it happened, was also a ga of [Prosperity].
When coincidences piled up until they wove through the entire story, they could no longer be called coincidences.
If Cheng Dashi had chosen this specific trial to unveil the hint and let himself know he'd once been here, then the clue he was pointing to was painfully obvious.
It was [Prosperity]!
The turning point for that future tragedy—the shattering of reality—might lie right within this trial!
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