Cheng Shi threw the phone in the end.
He hurled the handset—still carrying Zhen Yi's laughter—out of the warehouse and sat inside sighing.
'Careless. Truly careless.'
He should have known this lunatic wouldn't give up after just one attempt. He'd already fallen for this exact sa trick before, and yet he'd walked right into it again.
'Cheng Shi, oh Cheng Shi—when will you ever learn?'
He sat on the floor and raised his hand, wanting nothing more than to slap himself. But the next mont, he thought: who could possibly defend against this?
If Hong Lin hadn't contacted her, then everything Zhen Yi had said must have been deduced from scraps of information gleaned through her sister, Zhen Xin.
So the Tongue of Eating Lies wasn't wrong. Between the Puppet Master and Zuo Qiu, one of them had to be Zhen Xin—most likely Zuo Qiu!
Because Zuo Qiu was the one who'd used his shadow to step into the void!
But how had she fooled his Master of Deception talent?
She had definitely told lies.
Zhen Yi must have picked up sothing from Zhen Xin's words. She also clearly knew Hong Lin well—well enough to guess the phone gesture, and even fabricate an opening line about an audience with [Birth] based on the upheavals in the trial.
Given that a god had just fallen on the [Life] path, such an opening wasn't even implausible.
But how had she co up with [Birth] as the opening?
The timing was diabolically precise—utterly impossible to guard against.
She also knew what [Death] looked like. And as for [Birth]'s Divine Pillar—well, the less said the better. The first ti Cheng Shi had ever heard about it was from Zhen Yi herself. She might have even had an audience with [Prosperity]—or at the very least had seen the Tree Deity's form.
All this intelligence, combined with her ability to read people and improvise on the fly, made this Master of Trickery a genuinely lethal grifter!
Fortunately, she didn't know Hong Lin had beco an Envoy. That single flaw was what Cheng Shi had caught.
Well... "caught" was generous. He'd stumbled into it through a bluff.
But this experience taught Cheng Shi a lesson: from now on, whenever sothing felt off, assu Zhen Yi first. Even if he was wrong, at least he wouldn't get scamd even harder.
Though what she'd said about being the sa person as Zhen Xin... what did that an?
Split personality?
Cheng Shi paused, recalling the ID "True Heart True Intention."
Maybe Zhen Xin and Zhen Yi really were two personalities sharing one body—even sharing the sa account?
That would explain why both had been ranked in the sa bracket as him.
No!
Wait—Zhen Yi was definitely lying. She was misleading him again!
'Can't trust her anymore.'
Cheng Shi scoffed, deciding to forget everything from today's conversation. And right then, the phone he'd thrown started ringing again.
Ring-ring-ring—
Cheng Shi's expression froze. He glared at the handset with an iron-dark face.
'Oh, so we're doing this, are we? No end in sight?'
'Fine. You want to go crazy? I'll match your crazy. Let's see just how much free ti you have.'
With a cold smile, Cheng Shi strode out of the warehouse, grabbed the handset, held it to his ear, and launched straight into a friendly greeting:
"How's your dear mother doing?"
"Are you sick?" Naturally, it was Hong Lin's voice. Cheng Shi heard the familiar tone and his expression froze.
'Too accurate. Could this be the real one?'
But he imdiately rejected the thought. No—he couldn't trust again. That wretch's imitation was simply too perfect.
He let out a cold hmph: "I've got the sa sickness as your mother!"
A beat of silence on the other end, then a deadpan reply: "You're going through nopause too?"
"..."
"Took so gunpowder pills? What's with the temper? Oh—I get it. Zhen Yi called you?"
'Damn. This one actually sounds real.'
Cheng Shi furrowed his brow and spoke gravely:
"Who did we encounter during the trial?"
"..." The other end went quiet. After a mont: "Sounds like she called more than once. I'm Hong Lin. Don't worry—I can prove my identity."
"She's dead. The Authority is with ."
"Phew—" Cheng Shi went limp. He let out a massive exhale. This ti, it was really her. Hearing that familiar tone, he grumbled: "Your crappy phone doesn't even have caller ID—why did you give one to Zhen Yi?"
"Sigh—that one wasn't for Zhen Yi. It was for her sister, Zhen Xin."
"You know Zhen Xin, right? Seriously, Cheng Shi—was it Zhen Xin who gave you that Master of Deception badge?"
Cheng Shi's heart clenched. He asked in stunned disbelief: "She really is a Magician?"
"Hm? You don't know Zhen Xin, but you've tangled with Zhen Yi?"
"Interesting. Don't tell
you didn't know they're the sa person?"
"Huh? They really are the sa person?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk—you genuinely didn't know, huh? Zhen Xin is the primary personality. She's a levelheaded but very skilled liar of a Magician. Zhen Yi is an imagined secondary personality—a sister she created. She's a... actually, forget it, let's not talk about that jinx."
"Anyway, the phone was for Zhen Xin. Zhen Yi occasionally swipes it."
"Also, whether the phone has caller ID or not isn't up to . When I prayed for it, I only asked for a set of long-distance handsets. How was I supposed to know I'd end up with just handsets..."
"Alright, enough small talk. How is it—how does it feel to wield Authority as proxy?"
Cheng Shi's expression had been shifting constantly, but at the final question he finally returned to sothing resembling normal. He smiled and turned the question around:
"Shouldn't I be asking you that? How does it feel to inherit Authority?"
Silence on the other end. Then:
"Handing out cheated rewards is pretty fun. But it's exhausting. You have no idea how many trials settle at the sa ti."
"The Pact—that terrifying thing—is acting as Her proxy in administering trials. It seems to never refuse bestowing rewards. But that ans my workload is enormous."
"Honestly, only when I'm doing the bestowing do I feel like I've left the realm of humanity and beco one of Them."
"I can't describe the feeling precisely—I can only give an analogy. When countless [Prosperity] trials end simultaneously, I beco like an observer who's leapt out of the river of ti. I can browse through the history of every trial at will, choosing whether to respond when they make their offerings to [Prosperity]."
"If it were just that, it might not be too remarkable—like approving paperwork. But..."
"I'm doing all of this simultaneously!"
"At the sa instant—the sa instant as humans comprehend it—I'm reviewing countless trials at once. It's as though I've split into countless copies of myself working in parallel, yet without interfering with each other."
"Our thinking is unified, our consciousness resonates. I can instantly connect all past events and, with thorough deliberation, distribute different rewards accordingly."
"It's miraculous. Transcendent. I never knew a living being could beco so powerful and abstract."
"But the mont I exit that state and return to being a player, I lose that ability."
"So this made
realize sothing: although I'm a Pact-recognized Envoy, I'll only ever command this tiny sliver of [Prosperity]'s power."
"Which got
thinking..."
Cheng Shi quickly cut her off:
"Whoa, whoa, whoa—hold on! You've barely beco a proctor, and the seat under you isn't even warm yet. You're already thinking about upgrading to question-setter?"
"We are the Destined Ones, not the Death-Wish Ones. You might want to go to your grave, but I still want to live."
"...I was just thinking out loud."
"Keep it to yourself. Don't say it out loud—who knows if They're eavesdropping?"
"What god would be so idle as to—... Okay, fine. I'll keep it to myself."
"..."
Cheng Shi was stupefied. He felt that ever since Big Cat had been bamboozled by him, she'd been sprinting down the road of recklessness without looking back.
Before, getting her to jump into the deep end of a gamble required asking three tis over. Now, without any prompting, she was already harboring loftier ambitions.
'Lady! Progression requires taking things step by step—you can't skip grades!'
"Hey, that's not even why I called. How did I end up blabbering like you? I called for sothing else entirely."
"What is it?"
"I had an audience with [Birth]."
"!!!!"
'You're still claiming you're not Zhen Yi!?'
Cheng Shi was truly, completely numb. This ti he genuinely couldn't tell—but before he could recover from his blank shock, the voice on the other end continued:
"Just now. He summoned ." Her tone shifted to confusion: "But He didn't say a single word. Didn't even show His form."
"Are you really Baldy?"
"...Cheng Shi! I'm telling you about an audience with a True God, and you think I'm Zhen Yi?"
"Ha, ha ha ha—is this really the Fate Weaver who supposedly ran circles around Zhen Yi?"
"Or was it she who ran circles around you?"
"Co on, I'm curious now—what exactly did she say to you?"
Cheng Shi twitched: "The first thing she said to
was: 'I had an audience with [Birth].'"
"..."
Well. Hearing that, Hong Lin fell silent too.
No wonder Cheng Shi had reacted so strongly. Anyone hearing the exact sa line would freeze for a couple of seconds.
"This is exactly why I'm... a little wary of her. Sotis the lies she casually throws out are as accurate as the truth."
Hearing this, Cheng Shi almost laughed. Big Cat had really been traumatized.
But then, rembering how often he himself got swindled, the laughter dried up.
She was wrong about one thing, though. Zhen Yi definitely wasn't lying "casually." Every word she spoke was likely ticulously prepared—even if that ticulous preparation was exactly what the victim was ant to perceive.
Her deceptions weren't entirely untraceable. After replaying them a few tis, you could see the pattern: she excelled at exploiting information asymtry. Once the information gap she'd personally excavated severed soone's ability to verify, the poor soul she'd cut off was ripe for the next swindle.
Her knowledge of the gods far exceeded his own. She also understood Big Cat well—the two even shared secrets they couldn't reveal to outsiders. That was how she kept weaving truth and lies together to fool him again and again.
She might be a lunatic, but she was genuinely formidable.
One thing did puzzle Cheng Shi, though. He could tell that the secret between Big Cat and Zhen Yi seed to involve [Birth]...
Had they encountered each other in a [Birth] trial?
Hm?
Cheng Shi's expression suddenly beca very interesting, because he thought he'd finally figured out what Big Cat had ant by "she turned into a Dense Forest Spotted Leopard"...
Hiss—
'Surely... it's not what I'm thinking?'
'Oh no. Why is everything starting to look... suggestive.'
...
Reviews
All reviews (0)