When Cheng Shi awoke once more, he found himself still floating in the void—but back in human form. Not only that, a pair of suprely cold [Void] eyes were open before him.
He jolted, then imdiately stood, bowed, and launched into a triple salute of praise.
"Praise the great [Fate]! May Your radiance shower down, filling the universe with the symphony woven of Fixed Destiny and Change, letting past and future alike sing the hymn composed of fortune and [Misfortune]!"
"Your most devout follower, Your most loyal pursuer, Cheng Shi, sends his greetings."
"And offers the most heartfelt gratitude for Your protection."
This ti, he ant every word.
After all, his Benefactor had just rescued him—the least he could do was coat his lips in honey.
But to his shock, after hearing this devout praise, those cold eyes suddenly turned playful. They regarded Cheng Shi with a hint of displeasure, tongue clicking in disapproval:
"So the praise reserved for others is this devout and heartfelt. I suppose my protection doesn't quite deserve such 'sincere' gratitude."
The instant those words fell, Cheng Shi broke out in so much cold sweat he could have wrung out a body double.
!!!!!
That wasn't [Fate]!
How could it not be [Fate]?
What kind of deity impersonated their own sibling-god on the sa path just to ss with their follower!?
Was this any way for a proper god to behave!? Huh?
Oh—it was [Deceit]. Well then, never mind. Just chalk it up to bad luck.
Cheng Shi choked on his words. He frantically wiped the cold sweat from his brow and pivoted on a di:
"Praise the great [Deceit]! May You... may You..."
Those eyes watched him with that half-smile, as if curious what flowers this follower's mouth could possibly produce.
'This is bad.' Cheng Shi imdiately switched tactics and blurted out the first thing that ca to mind:
"May You be happy every day, and may Your smile endure forever."
Hearing this, the spirals in those eyes began to reverse. They glanced at Cheng Shi with amusent before snorting derisively:
"So it seems I truly don't deserve those elaborate praises."
Cheng Shi waved his hands frantically: "No, no, no—great Benefactor, this is the most genuine blessing from the bottom of my heart! All those formulaic phrases are just for going through the motions. You should know that the simpler the praise, the more devout it is."
"Oh? So by that logic, all those praises you just offered to [Fate] were insincere lies?"
"?"
Cheng Shi had grown wiser. He didn't respond imdiately, but instead carefully studied the details of the eyes before him. Only after confirming this wasn't [Fate] doing a reverse-impersonation of [Deceit] did he look around, then hesitantly nod.
'What else can I do? Just have to get through this.'
In the tiniest voice: "More or less."
The eyes hovering in the void instantly shifted from icy indifference to delight. The corners lifted upward as they giggled: "What was that?"
Cheng Shi steeled his heart, clenched his teeth, and muttered quickly: "More or less."
The mont he finished, an identical pair of eyes opened beside [Deceit]'s, gazing at him with neither joy nor sorrow.
"..."
"..."
"..."
Seeing two pairs of [Void] eyes materialize simultaneously in the void—seeing the spirals in [Deceit]'s eyes whirl in giddy frenzy—how could he not realize he'd once again beco the clown in center stage?
He had no energy left to explain. His shoulders slumped, and he gave up entirely.
'I'm done. Destroy it all.'
'Destroy every last bit of it!'
'[Prosperity] shouldn't have killed Herself—She should have dragged all the gods down with Her and wiped every single one of Them off the face of this world!'
Though [Fate] had appeared "on cue," He did not pursue Cheng Shi's disrespect. He rely spoke in a cold tone:
"I have returned the power the Pact bestowed upon her. The matter of [Prosperity]'s fall is concluded."
"Huh? Power for whom—Baldy? Great Benefactor, did You just go see Baldy?" Cheng Shi couldn't sit still anymore. He scrambled to ask: "So does that an Baldy beca [Prosperity]'s Envoy after all? She beca Frazor? Did she also receive a share of [Prosperity]'s Authority?"
Yet neither of the two pairs of eyes in the void responded. They seed to be ignoring the human entirely, conversing amongst themselves.
[Deceit] looked at [Fate] with a grin:
"What's the matter—[Truth] didn't get the Authority He wanted? You seem a little unhappy."
"I'd wager the most rational being in the universe wouldn't go to the Sea of Desire and ask its occupant for the Authority of Assimilation, would He?"
"?" Cheng Shi looked sharply at [Fate], only to see those abyss-cold eyes grow colder still.
"Fixed Destiny lies in the future. Change governs the present. There is no impact."
"The future? Whose future? Great Benefactor, my future ca back—did You know?" Cheng Shi seized every gap to interject, but the two paid him no mind whatsoever.
Hearing [Fate]'s words, [Deceit] grew even more delighted. His eyes blinked and blinked, barely containing His laughter.
"Oh? And he used that as his argunt to convince you—to cover his tracks?"
Him!?
Who did "him" refer to!?
Cheng Dashi?
Cheng Shi recovered from his initial embarrassnt, and his mind sharpened instantly.
Clearly, he didn't believe his Benefactor [Deceit] was rely having fun. He was obviously saying sothing to Cheng Shi—otherwise, the private exchange between the two gods of [Void] would never have included him.
Since They hadn't tossed him out of the void, it ant he was allowed to hear this—and in all likelihood, it was being said for his benefit.
So he imdiately shut his mouth and listened with rapt attention, determined not to miss a single detail.
He gathered from their words that Cheng Dashi's return seed to be connected to [Fate].
But he couldn't understand why his future self had chosen to work with [Fate] instead of [Deceit]. Logically speaking, his present self was more inclined to trust [Deceit].
Even if He dressed him up as a clown every day—well, tough luck. A con artist's boss should be [Deceit].
However, the two in the void didn't trade riddles for long. [Fate]'s spirals began rotating slowly. He looked at Cheng Shi and opened with a direct answer to the question burning deepest in Cheng Shi's mind.
"Your guess is correct."
!!!
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. He pressed his lips together.
"The matter is actually not complicated."
"When a certain god of [Void] was provoking [mory], the disturbance was too great, creating a rift between [Existence] and [Void]."
"A restless shadow listened to that [Void] deity's ramblings, slipped back through that rift, and found
before [mory] could nd all the cracks."
With that, [Fate] looked at Cheng Shi once more, His gaze unfathomable—as if in a single instant He could see through Cheng Shi's past and future alike.
"He said he didn't return rely at so deity's behest, nor to et his past self. He wanted to present
with a 'predetermined script overflowing with Change.'"
"He found an unchanging future too dull, and wished to bring the climax forward."
"I noted that he had walked the path of Fixed Destiny without wavering, and so I accepted his offering. I placed him into the trial I had bestowed, granting his request."
"I presu you have already t him."
Cheng Shi's scalp tingled, yet he shook his head with composure: "I... only guessed that he'd returned. I never actually t him."
"To know is to see."
"..."
'My level of enlightennt isn't quite that elevated, Benefactor.'
Cheng Shi pursed his lips and looked up: "Has he... already gone back?"
This ti it was not [Fate] who answered, but [Deceit].
"Deported. [Void] enjoys disorder, but [Existence] does not. Those two rigid traditionalists cannot tolerate a single flaw within [Existence]."
"Still, it was quite entertaining—soone using their own brushstrokes to tamper with the collection of one so devoted to collecting."
Cheng Shi didn't bother parsing everything [Deceit] said. He was only thinking about how Cheng Dashi had used this thod to achieve his goal.
"So... he accomplished his objective?"
"Using my offering to [Prosperity] to draw the gods into besieging [Prosperity], and then letting Her self-destruct in pursuit of 'universal prosperity'—was that his offering to You?"
"Is that the climax he rewrote for Your script?"
[Fate] didn't respond. Perhaps He would have, but [Deceit] spoke first.
"Hee~"
"What are you imagining?"
"So you think your future self is that impressive? Ha!"
"That treacherous little rat rely put pen to paper and wrote a single line. The first word of the rest of the script—you wrote that yourself. Everything after that has been part of [Fate]'s [Change]."
"All he did by sneaking back was create an opening. As for whether that opening perfectly exploited [Fate]'s [Change]—well, you'd have to ask this Benefactor you're so tired of showering with false praise."
"..."
'Fun God, I think You're trying to get
killed!'
[Fate]'s cold gaze swept past [Deceit], then coldly swept past Cheng Shi, and once again pardoned his Cri of Blasphemy.
"The fall of [Prosperity] was never part of the Fixed Destiny. The present is indeed governed by [Change], but the future still walks the path of the [Fixed]."
"I advise you—do not create any more rifts, nor entertain such futile fantasies."
"Did you hear that? He's scolding you."
[Deceit] looked at Cheng Shi with that impish grin and blinked.
"..."
'I don't know who's being scolded, but it's definitely not .'
"Tch—boring. This audience was thoroughly unpleasant. I'm leaving. Seeing the two of you irritates ."
With that, those gleeful eyes gradually faded. The cold eyes swept over Cheng Shi one more ti, then silently disappeared as well.
Only Cheng Shi remained, standing alone in the void with furrowed brows, silently organizing his thoughts.
It seed the Change that Cheng Dashi had hoped for had arrived.
But [Fate] said the future was all Fixed Destiny—so had he actually changed fate, or hadn't he?
Or perhaps... his purpose in returning was never to change fate at all?
At this thought, Cheng Shi furrowed his brow in the dark.
"The future... Fixed Destiny... tragedy..."
"[Prosperity]... [Existence]... [Void]..."
"What exactly are They trying to do?"
...
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