Reality. A supermarket in an unknown city.
Though this was technically a supermarket, the shelves had long been stripped of rchandise. Now, they were packed with nothing but thick, heavy books.
In the aisle between shelves, a tall, thin young man in a windbreaker hunched over a wooden desk, writing furiously.
He transcribed into a massive blank notebook while muttering every word aloud, his expression a twisted blend of fervor and ecstasy—as though imrsed in an indescribable bliss.
"Beneath the Septic Final Tomb, beside the lake of putrid blood, the soil brimming with black ichor was not the flesh of [Decay]'s pilgrims, but the accumulated ash of [Prosperity] over countless years."
"As for where those pilgrims who sought the Septic Final Tomb ended up—the answer might surprise you. They all sank to the bottom of the Blood Lake, becoming part of the chorus of blood effigies, chanically and woodenly chanting [Decay]'s dirge, begging for the day their Benefactor might once again grant them freedom."
This tall, thin young man was obviously Zuo Qiu. He regarded his freshly transcribed "history" with deep satisfaction.
History was never entirely true—indeed, most of it had been embellished by its recorders. He'd understood this from the mont he joined the History School.
So he wasn't copying genuine history. He was slipping his own personal touches into the recorded account.
As for whether those blood effigies at the bottom of the lake were truly begging for freedom...
Who knew?
Let the next person seeking the real history discover those truths for themselves.
After all, [mory] required succession. All he needed to do was cast a hook that was indistinguishable from truth, then quietly wait for the next devout [mory] believer to take the bait and seek the truth. That person would inevitably discover his own history along the way—and rember it alongside everything else.
In this way, his own "existence" would be recorded without end.
Oh, and he should also thank that Puppet Master. At least she, too, had witnessed a segnt of his "existence." Perhaps when he finally died, he might live on in her mories.
...
Reality. An apartnt in an unknown city.
An Jing sat quietly beside the coffee table, wiping the dirt and gri from little Cai Wei's body.
Her wish to seek an audience with [Decay] had fallen through, but that didn't really matter—she wasn't a follower of [Decay] to begin with. She was rely desperate to et any of Them, without a specific target in mind.
As she cleaned, she replayed the unfathomable events that occurred just before the trial ended.
When she and the historian had been running for their lives to escape the rampaging Sighing Sorrow Tide, she could have sworn she glimpsed one of Them atop that colossal canopy.
But she wasn't certain, because she rembered the divine aura beneath the canopy being far too complex—as if more than one deity had been present.
Yet how could multiple gods descend simultaneously in a trial devoted to [Prosperity]?
She couldn't figure it out, and after finishing her cleaning of little Cai Wei, she silently settled on her next target.
'Since my mories aren't very clear, why not pursue [mory]?'
That way, she might even serve as a quiet mole, feeding Xin Xin and Zhen Yi useful intelligence about [mory].
...
Reality. A cinema in an unknown city.
A man lay sprawled on the ground, staring at his rotting hands and his broken body. He slamd his fist against the floor with a vicious curse, letting out a howl of rage and despair.
"No! No!!!"
"Why!? How!??"
"How did it co to this! How did it co to this!!"
This wretched figure, body decayed beyond recognition, was obviously Zhen. As for why he—who had broken his oath to join [Prosperity]—had reverted to this sorry state...
It was simply because he was still alive.
Yes. The reason was that he was still alive.
When that overwhelming [Decay] tide ca crashing down like a mountain, he'd lost all hope, his heart turned to ash—a single thought remaining in his mind: His punishnt had co!
Zhen didn't want to die. Otherwise, he would never have broken his oath in the Blood Lake. So when he found himself with no way out, he was forced yet again to pray to his original Benefactor, begging for forgiveness and pledging everything in return.
In that instant, the despairing man held virtually no hope that this deity would tolerate his faith-hopping antics. But against all expectations, at that very mont, [Decay] actually answered!
He pardoned Zhen's sin of oathbreaking and accepted him once more.
And so, when the frozen-solid tide of [Decay] ca crashing down, Zhen not only survived—he was healed by the infinite power of [Decay].
Of course, [Decay]'s healing was sowhat... different from [Prosperity]'s. So he wound up looking like this half-dead ss once again.
The good news was that he'd survived the trial.
The bad news was...
He now bore two Oathbreaking Curses!
One from [Decay], one from [Prosperity]!
[Decay] had taken him back but hadn't bothered removing the first curse. So after all his maneuvering, he was still the sa fourth-ranked Rot Chanter on the Ladder of Ascent—but now sporting two shiny new oathbreaking curses.
You'd think that was the end of it? No—this poor double-oathbreaker even had twenty points deducted after the trial concluded.
Nobody had ever heard of a player having points deducted during a trial, but to Zhen, this score was an unmistakable declaration of [Prosperity]'s utter loathing toward him!
She was a deity who relished revenge, and the re thought of it drove deeper terror into Zhen's heart.
"No! Why! I refuse to accept this!! Fate is unjust! Fate is unjust!!!"
...
Reality. A villa in an unknown city.
When Hong Lin opened her eyes, she found nothing about herself had changed. She returned to her familiar Rest Area, still in normal human form, still receiving trial rewards and score bonuses during settlent.
Apart from possessing so special powers and a more vigorous vitality within her body, she still appeared to be an ordinary player.
Well, a Chosen One wasn't exactly ordinary—but from Their perspective, she truly was.
Recalling everything that had just happened, Hong Lin couldn't help but smile. And the very instant her lips curved upward, the phone beside her rang.
It was Tao Yi calling.
The first thing she heard upon answering was bewildernt and confusion.
"Sothing feels weird!"
Hong Lin raised an eyebrow, as if she'd anticipated this: "What's weird?"
"After this trial, He gave
three points. Isn't that weird? I've never even gotten the two-point 'honor' before, and this ti I did absolutely nothing and got three points."
"A Tu, you always say two of His three points co with bad intentions—does that an He's started watching
too?"
Hearing this, Hong Lin nearly burst out laughing.
But she held it in, suppressing her amusent: "Yep. He's started watching you."
"Hm? Did you just laugh?"
"You laughed, didn't you?"
"You know sothing, don't you? This wasn't random, was it?"
"Huh? I don't know anything."
"No, you know!"
"You've been way too quiet today. This isn't like you at all. Sothing big happened that I don't know about—right?"
'Little fox is still a little fox.'
Hong Lin finally couldn't hold back. She burst into laughter, clutching her stomach, laughing for a good long while—until she no longer rembered what she was laughing about.
She put the phone on speaker, tossed it on the floor, then lay on her back staring at the ceiling. Her expression a bizarre mix of emotions, she said:
"I saw that swindler. He really is a swindler."
"Hm? Who? Cheng Shi?"
"Ha—I only said 'swindler' and you imdiately knew it was Cheng Shi?"
"...I guessed."
"You guessed wrong. He's not a swindler. He's a Fate Weaver."
"Huh?"
"Also—those three points? I gave them to you."
Hong Lin smiled, waiting for the other end's shock-filled response. But instead, after a mont, she got:
"How is he a Fate Weaver?"
"..." Hong Lin's eyes instantly turned deeply resentful. "Little Yi, you really have changed your affections."
"Huh? No—what did you just say?"
"I said your three points ca from !!!"
"But what does that have to do with him being a Fate Weaver?"
"..."
BANG!
The great eldest daughter of [Prosperity], Frazor, at this mont, sentenced one phone to the death penalty of destruction.
...
Reality. A museum in an unknown city.
Zhen Xin woke. Her eyes held a trace of disappointnt, but far more confusion.
During the closing monts of the previous trial, while she'd been waiting in the mutating rainforest for any additional chance to search for that prophesied "future," she'd dimly made out several of Them descending upon the boundless canopy.
Just when she thought her mont had co, she was abruptly hurled out of the trial by so mysterious force—dumped straight back into the Rest Area.
So Zhen Xin was very confused. What had happened in that trial that resulted in players being ejected?
She racked her brain without answer. Her first call went to Aunt Jing, but Aunt Jing was equally clueless. However, from their conversation she learned that other players didn't seem to have been ejected at the sa ti.
So her exit from the trial wasn't an accident!
Most likely soone—or so god—had deliberately removed her from the trial.
But who was "he," and why?
For anyone else, this kind of question—lacking any logical starting point—might take three days and nights with no result. But Zhen Xin was different. She was a con artist, and a con artist with a vivid imagination.
She reasoned that since she'd been ejected unhard, the other party bore no malice. And since there was no malice, it certainly wasn't so careless afterthought.
So she imdiately strung together every suspicious detail from the entire trial—and her thoughts landed on Cheng Shi's shadow, on that stretch of void, on that utterly unresponsive "future."
Was it possible that the "future" hadn't answered at the ti, but had just now responded?
Only that ethereal, intangible "future" would act so illogically—throwing her out of a trial.
Because if it had been one of Them, she'd have woken not in the Rest Area, but on the Audience Ground.
So... what was the "future's" response?
The answer was simple: the shadow!
Zhen Xin furrowed her brow and switched on a Magic Lamp that Zhen Yi had collected for the museum, casting her shadow onto the floor.
She studied her shadow, preparing to step into the void once more—but the instant she reached out to tear it open, she suddenly noticed that her shadow's outline was... peculiar.
Its shape only vaguely resembled her. Both the upper and lower halves were distorted and warped, with indentations and gaps along the edges and curves, as though corroded by so sourceless light.
Zhen Xin froze, then imdiately repositioned herself, assuming the exact pose she'd struck in the trial when she'd stepped onto the void seeking the "future."
As she adjusted her posture, her shadow slowly shifted, eventually forming an even stranger silhouette.
It looked sowhat like her—but far more like so kind of symbol.
Her gaze locked on. She morized the symbol in an instant, then pulled out a blank sheet of paper and traced it down.
Staring at the bizarre symbol, she murmured unconsciously:
"Is this... script?"
She furrowed her brow and began poring through ancient texts from the Land of Hope, searching for similarly styled characters.
She combed through countless volus from the Civilization Era without finding a single clue. Only after widening her scope to include tribal relics from the Life Era did she finally discover identical characters—on an ancient, nearly crumbling chain of bone fragnts strung together like pages.
Not similar. Identical.
She saw the exact sa strokes.
"Found you!"
The exhausted Zhen Xin finally smiled. She broke down the characters on the bone fragnts, mixed them with other symbols, and distributed inquiries through various channels and contacts. By the ti the next special trial arrived, she had deciphered the symbol hidden in her shadow.
And the aning of those strokes, once translated, condensed into two words:
[Origin].
This was clearly a Divine Na—but strangely, Zhen Xin had never heard of it. Despite having collected countless anecdotes about deities, she had never once encountered this na in the margins of history.
"[Origin]... who is He?"
She repeated the na over and over, scouring every mory for any historical connection. But so focused was Zhen Xin that she failed to notice—the instant she whispered that na, her distorted shadow quietly returned to normal.
And then, abruptly, she froze. Her expression shifted rapidly to delight, the corners of her eyes lifting high, her curling lips unable to conceal a smile. Words spilled from her mouth, uncontrolled and mischievous:
"Hee~"
"My dear sister, why haven't you called
yet?"
"I've been waiting so impatiently."
"Since you won't call , I'll just have to co find you~"
...
[End of Volu One: Faith Ga]
...
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