(School-opening day — 6000 words to ease the suffering~)
Zhang Jizu was a pragmatic man.
Cheng Shi knew this. But he'd still underestimated just how pragmatic.
After the persuasion speech concluded, Zhang Jizu weighed things briefly, then pulled from his storage space a heap of items Cheng Shi had never seen before.
Cheng Shi watched him crouch down and start arranging the equipnt. He blinked. "Old Zhang, what are you...?"
"Whether or not He actually thinks that way doesn't matter. I've suddenly decided your words make a certain amount of sense.
If my second faith were Deceit, then whenever others exhausted themselves agonizing over everything I said, their ntal energy would be silently drained. In terms of self-preservation, it'd add another layer of camouflage.
Since Prosperity has gone silent for so long, at this point, Deceit seems like a reasonable alternative.
Still — given the current situation, I'm worried that once this child is born, sothing truly catastrophic could happen. So I need to prepare.
Gamble? Sure.
But I prefer to add weight to my own side of the scale. That way, even if I lose, I can saddle the winner with enough baggage to sour their victory.
Give
a mont. Before the child's vitality cuts out entirely, I can get this done."
With that, Zhang Jizu took his pile of supplies and began setting up around the die-strewn cell.
Cheng Shi watched, bewildered, as the cetery manager daubed and drew like so ancient priest — a bit here, a bit there. Unable to contain himself, he asked:
"What even is all of this?"
"I don't have your talent for instant teleportation. To be safe, I need to roughly calculate how many escape thods I can deploy before getting instantly drained to death.
This is an ancient totem teleportation array from the Nature Alliance of the Civilization Era. The techniques for carving the totems are extrely complex and the materials are hard to source, so almost no one studies them anymore.
But I'm fond of them — they're stable. Setting them up is a hassle, but triggering them is effortless. Perfect as escape routes during positional warfare.
Also, by adding other items into the totem matrix, you can integrate different powers — including certain resurrection tools. Essential survival gear."
"..." Cheng Shi listened with his jaw hanging. Watching Zhang Jizu work with practiced ease, he swallowed and asked: "Old Zhang, exactly how many tis have you done this to get this good?"
"Three tis per session, on average. Coincidentally, this is also the third ti this session."
"????"
Cheng Shi was floored. "This session?"
"Mm. Set one up outside the Inquisition courtyard before starting the fire. Set one up the night we took shelter in the Inquisition while you all were sleeping. And now — the third ti.
All done. This array currently has two functions. The first teleports
to a random area outside the array. The second indiscriminately resurrects any life-force-depleted being within it and randomly teleports them elsewhere.
Both are escape thods. The first is triggered by pressing a bloody handprint onto the ground. The second is triggered by death.
I hope we won't need the second one. But I'd suggest you open a cut on your hands now, just in case there's no ti to draw blood when the mont cos."
"..."
Cheng Shi was utterly convinced.
'No wonder Squinty Eyes said he couldn't die. You shouldn't be called Zhang Steady — you should be called Zhang Steady-Saint!'
'The Steady-Saint has spoken. Ti to draw so blood.'
Cheng Shi obediently sliced open both palms, then took a deep breath.
"In that case, I'm starting. But first — I need one more item."
Zhang Jizu raised an eyebrow and produced a fresh Symbiotic Ribbon from his storage.
Cheng Shi was stunned. "You guessed?"
"Mm. When you said you could supply vitality, I figured you might need this.
You're not the type to leave danger uncontrolled. If the risk couldn't be managed, I doubt you'd gamble at all.
But now I'm even more curious.
What item could possibly supply that much vitality? And given that the fetus is half-dead, how exactly do you plan to make it 'voluntarily' accept becoming a 'slave' to your ribbon — a shared recipient of your life force?"
Cheng Shi accepted the ribbon with a peculiar look, conveniently ignoring Zhang Jizu's first question. He laughed it off.
"I have a clever plan. Right now, all you need to do is stabilize its condition. Then I'll try to deliver it using my thod."
Zhang Jizu squinted. Seeing that Cheng Shi wouldn't elaborate, he didn't press further. Instead, he gripped Turadin's hand directly, channeled an imnsely concentrated healing spell through her corpse as a dium, and directed it toward the life inside her belly.
"Go ahead. I'm looking forward to your performance."
Oh?
Since the audience was seated, the show could begin!
Cheng Shi's lips curled into a devilish smirk. He crouched beside Turadin's corpse and began chanting so incomprehensible gibberish.
Zhang Jizu listened to these unintelligible sounds — he couldn't even confirm they were human language — and grew even more puzzled. But he had no idea it was all misdirection.
The trick to close-up magic lies in diverting the audience's attention. While Zhang Jizu squinted hard and focused intently on the changes inside Turadin's belly, Cheng Shi's hand — hidden behind his back — suddenly produced a mask. Slowly, he raised it to the nape of his neck, slid it along his jaw, and placed it over his face.
In that instant, this Fate priest silently transford into a...
Fate Thief!
A Fate assassin — the Fate Thief!
Yes — he'd donned an assassin's mask.
The mont Cheng Shi had confird that the baby needed massive vitality to be born, his plan had already taken shape. And the keys were an assassin's mask and the spare Symbiotic Ribbon in Squinty Eyes' possession!
The Symbiotic Ribbon could transfer vitality, but it had a fatal drawback: the recipient had to voluntarily accept the shared link. The child inside Turadin's belly obviously couldn't accept such "aid" right now. Even if it were conscious, survival instinct would never allow it to accept an arrangent that left its life at another's rcy.
After all, in a certain sense, it was no longer an ordinary infant.
This was exactly why Cheng Shi had put on an assassin's mask — to beco a Fate Thief.
True to the na, a Fate Thief specialized in stealing others' fates. Under Fate's blessing, these Fate assassins lurked in the shadows, endlessly scrutinizing the fates of all living beings. When they spotted a fate that interested them, they'd erge to steal it and temporarily play the protagonist in soone else's script.
Simply put: they could temporarily assu another person's identity.
How long and how deeply they could sustain the replacent depended entirely on their talent combination.
Cheng Shi possessed zero fate-stealing talent. But that didn't prevent him from using the most primitive, most basic skill to steal the fetus's fate — to beco, temporarily, even if only for a single instant, that fetus.
And then he could, on the fetus's behalf, "voluntarily" beco the other end of the ribbon — sharing his vitality with himself.
After that, it was ti for the Vitality authority to shine.
The plan was flawless. The execution was smooth. Though the monstrous fetus in the belly had given Cheng Shi quite a fright, there was zero resistance when he assud its identity.
Cheng Shi used Squinty Eyes' item to link his own vitality with the fetus's. Under the fetus's frantic draining...
Nothing happened.
As it turned out, with Endless Life in his arsenal, Cheng Shi was essentially immune to sustained damage.
Before long, Turadin's belly had visibly swelled even fuller. The brimming vitality even began feeding back into her corpse, causing the previously shriveled skin to smooth out sowhat.
Zhang Jizu watched all of this unfold. His pupils tightened. Disbelief was written all over his face.
He was a priest, after all — arguably one of the most elite priests in the entire Faith Ga. Yet he had never heard of any item that could endlessly funnel this much vitality into another being!
Was it an S-rank sacred artifact?
No — he owned sacred artifacts himself, and none produced effects this terrifying.
Could it possibly be an SS-rank quasi-divine artifact? Such items typically contained power on par with a Servant God's relics and were consumable. Using an SS-rank item to save a child who would soon dissolve back into history seed absurdly wasteful.
Unless...
Cheng Shi knew this child would not dissolve into the trial's historical backdrop!
It would continue to live?!
Zhang Jizu froze, then swiftly hypothesized:
'Cheng Shi must know secrets I don't — perhaps even secrets about Them. That's why he's willing to burn an item of this caliber to win this trial.'
'Which ans the child in Turadin's belly might be far more significant than it appeared!'
'Is it truly Corruption's Holy Infant?'
'Did Cheng Shi enter this Birth scenario carrying Corruption's will?'
'Hmm — that would explain things. From the very start, he'd been steering the child toward birth. He broke the problem with Corruption, preached to Turadin, laid every piece of groundwork — all for this mont!'
'But there's still one question: was that Ti accident also part of his calculations? Did he quietly influence the little assassin into making that decision?'
'Doesn't seem like it. That assassin genuinely doesn't seem very bright.'
'Then how could Cheng Shi have been so certain the accident wouldn't derail his plan?'
The more Zhang Jizu thought, the more curious he beca. He stole glances at Cheng Shi — drenched in sweat, not daring to relax for even an instant — and thought:
'Just how many secrets does this follower of Deceit know about Them?'
...
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