[Birth]'s trials were generally not that difficult. The entire trial invariably revolved around the two characters "birth" and "growth," and His hints were usually obvious enough—without too many twists and turns. Even so, [Birth]'s trials remained a nightmare for many players.
Because the difficulty was never in solving the puzzle. It was in... the cognitive impact.
You never knew what kind of twisted [Birth] ideology you'd encounter in His trials, nor what reality-shattering revelations awaited.
The history of the Life Era was far from as civilized as the Civilization Era. The insane, the fanatical, the bizarre, the uncanny—every story about "birth" and "growth" was like a bottle of indelible ink. Once it accidentally seeped into a player's lake of consciousness, no matter how pure that lake had been, it would be irrevocably muddied.
That was what players truly feared about [Birth]'s trials.
Though the terror wasn't entirely unknown—everyone anticipated that reality-breaking revelations would revolve around "birth and growth"—the most absurd part was that it always managed to shatter your worldview from so completely unforeseen angle, tearing at your fragile nerves and leaving you slack-jawed in shock.
But His trials weren't all drawbacks. There were upsides.
The upside was that, setting aside players' mutual suspicions and personal sches, His trials rarely presented lethal risks. At most, there was so... pregnancy risk.
Cheng Shi couldn't fathom why his [Prosperity] prayer had beco a [Birth] trial. But since he was already here, he might as well clear the trial and grab so points. Plus, the location was his extrely familiar "ho turf." So he decided to lead the team in a speedrun.
A genuine speedrun.
"Where are we heading?"
The group followed Tour Guide Cheng like a package-deal tourist group, asking curious questions. Cheng Shi didn't just barrel ahead according to his own plan—as he led the way, he quietly observed his teammates, occasionally posing questions to assess their capabilities and reasoning.
To achieve a speedrun, you needed to understand your teammates well enough to put every bolt in the right socket and maximize the team's potential.
So Cheng Shi walked and smiled: "Think about the trial objective. I'm taking you sowhere that'll easily yield clues."
The little assassin and the shy Scavenger trailed behind without saying much. Most of the talking ca from the bold-natured Gou Feng exchanging ideas with Cheng Shi.
The trial objective wasn't difficult, and Gou Feng had long ford his own theory. Combined with observations along the way, he ventured a guess:
"The objective clearly wants us to ensure the birth of a life that shouldn't have been born."
"If I recall, brother, you said this place's Theocracy of Growth exists to serve procreation?"
"And from what I know, among my Benefactor's followers, the Conception faction and the Birth faction have completely different ideological platforms."
"The local church guarantees citizens' right to conceive and be conceived. So this church worships 'conception'—not 'birth.' Am I right?"
As expected of a [Birth] follower—he had so knowledge of the history of His era.
Cheng Shi gave Gou Feng a thumbs-up, then explained rapidly:
"Exactly. The Theocracy of Growth has 'growth' in its na, but what it truly worships is 'conception.'"
"They believe all conception is His blessing, and every follower should enjoy this right. But the outco after conception depends on each person's devotion. If soone becos less devout during pregnancy, then the life she births will inevitably be undevout as well."
"The Theocracy of Growth will not allow the birth of such blasphemous infants. So there's an institution within the church specifically responsible for identifying and handling these cases."
"That institution is called the Evil Infant Inquisition. We should be able to find plenty of useful information there."
After a long walk, Cheng Shi stopped the group before a building enclosed by towering walls. He turned around, threw his arms wide, and bead brilliantly.
"Dear tourists—last stop, the Evil Infant Inquisition. We've arrived."
The group was montarily infected by Cheng Shi's cheerful energy, then smiled and began surveying the area.
"These walls are way too high. Feels like they're even taller than the outer city walls we saw earlier?"
"They have to be. This job is incredibly dangerous. Because once a staff mber determines that a citizen's unborn child is an evil infant, it's practically a verdict of blasphemy against that citizen."
"Think about it—if she really is guilty of blasphemy, fine. But in the case of a misjudgnt, the enraged citizens would never let off a church worker who tried to kill their child—or even them."
"Walls this high exist solely to protect the staff."
At this, everyone was stunned.
Squinty-eyes finally caught up. Hearing this, he smiled: "There are misjudgnts? So the thod they use to make determinations isn't a tool bestowed by Him, but manual evaluation?"
Cheng Shi was honestly puzzled about that too. But all his knowledge ca from things pregnant won—or pregnant n—had told him during deliveries. He hadn't verified any of it. Today would be his first ti investigating in person.
"Trying to understand the past from the present always has limitations. Prior research wasn't thorough. But I expect today we'll be able to uncover the truth of this history."
"Tearing away history's veil with your own hands is quite fascinating, don't you think?"
The little assassin glanced at Cheng Shi with an expression that was both approving and odd:
"Well put. But big bro, that speech sounds a lot like sothing a follower of [mory] would say. Are you really a Necromancer?"
Everyone turned to Cheng Shi—only to see him spread his hands and shake his head: "Who told you I was a Necromancer?"
"Huh?"
Several teammates were baffled.
They'd all been assuming their tour guide was a Necromancer. But now that they'd arrived, he'd denied it himself.
"You're not a Necromancer?"
"Impossible—you can't be a Wood Elf?"
"Bro, you don't look like a [Prosperity] person at all. You're ssing with us, right?"
'A Wood Elf?'
'Ha—what about him looks like a Wood Elf?'
Just as Zhang Jizu was sure Cheng Shi had argued himself into a corner and was about to reveal his true identity, he heard Cheng Shi nod with a face of utter sincerity:
"Correct—I am indeed a Wood Elf."
"What did you think I was eating that cake for? Even starving, nobody eats like that. It was an Oracle Act—an offering to my Lord!"
"..."
'What a boldface liar!'
...
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