The child didn't die.
Not only was it alive — it had even found its "wet nurse" among the rubble.
Whether it was the Symbiotic Ribbon's pull or Fate quietly intervening, this infant who shared vitality with Cheng Shi had fallen alongside him, buried together beneath the ruins.
The instant Cheng Shi laid eyes on the male infant, his pupils contracted sharply. Ignoring the pain screaming through his body, he reacted like a startled cat and instinctively fired Thundering Judgnt at it.
And then...
BOOM — he fried himself.
"..."
The charred infant tumbled into his arms. The mont they made contact, it raised a pair of brilliant, enchanting eyes and looked at him with a smile.
Can you imagine how horrifying this picture was?
Deep underground in collapsed ruins, in a pitch-dark, suffocatingly tight space, a monstrosity capable of draining a Chosen One of all vitality was lying on your chest — charred black — just a fist's width from your face, grinning at you, staring with unblinking eyes that glowed a faint violet...
"..."
The mont Cheng Shi t those eyes, his brain went white with a thunderclap.
But his rational mind persisted. He forced down the terror, calculated the remaining ti, and when he realized there were still at least several minutes until the trial ended, he... couldn't take it anymore.
'No — this child is too dangerous. Since the life that should not have been born has already been born, it dying after birth shouldn't count as going off-topic, right?'
The thought took root. The more Cheng Shi considered it, the more sense it made. The entire process lasted about one second before he made his decision. He curled a finger at the infant in his arms and activated...
Never Lost Gambling Gear!
He ran!
He didn't dare gamble on whether killing the child via the Symbiotic Ribbon would cause the trial to fail. He'd survived until the final minutes — he couldn't exactly tear down his own stage. So he bolted, teleporting to the surface via his die.
And the die on the surface was the very one he'd slipped into Scorpio's hands when "convincing" him to leave.
When Scorpio saw his Brother Cheng materialize before him — charred head to toe — he felt no joyful relief at their reunion. Instead, pure horror seized him. He whipped out the Arc of Ti Restoration and slashed at Cheng Shi without hesitation.
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. His heart lurched. He was about to dodge when he realized there was still a similarly charred infant clinging to him!
Turadin's child had teleported to the surface with him through Never Lost Gambling Gear!
'This is bad — it's latched onto !'
His heart sank into an abyss. Scorpio's blade struck the child's back but dealt zero damage. Worse, the Ti power imbued in the Arc of Ti Restoration had absolutely no effect on the infant — if anything, it made his smile three shades brighter.
!!!
It didn't fear Ti!
What on earth was this thing?!
Squinty Eyes had never said the ribbon could share movent talents! Yet everything unfolding before him scread that he and this child had sohow beco... one entity!
'No — this ribbon has to go.'
'Even if it ans losing the trial in the final second, I can't leave this trial with sothing unclean attached to .'
Seeing Scorpio's attacks were useless, Cheng Shi clenched his teeth, pinched the Symbiotic Ribbon in his hand, and issued a death decree to the infant on the other end.
A Symbiotic Ribbon "slave's" life or death hung entirely on the caster's will. So when Cheng Shi willed death, the infant should have died.
But it didn't!
Cheng Shi watched in horror as the ribbon crumbled to nothing in his hand. The infant's expression froze, then its smile vanished entirely. Its gaze slowly turned cold. Nothing about this was going well.
His spine went rigid. He imdiately produced the Tomb End Stone from his storage.
He was prepared to use Decay's power to rot this newborn life — to eliminate the danger while it was still containable.
But just as he was about to act, Scorpio lunged forward with a grave expression, producing a dagger, and thrust it straight at the infant in Cheng Shi's arms.
"Watch out, Brother Cheng!"
With the little assassin's explosive shout, Cheng Shi watched as the child clinging to him went "whoosh" — and vanished into thin air.
He stared in shock, looking at Scorpio in disbelief. The assassin was gritting his teeth, watching the dagger in his hand gradually dissolve, his face the picture of painful loss.
That was...
mory's power?!
???
'Wait — you're pulling mory on
at a ti like this?!'
Cheng Shi was shaken. And nobody could bla him — mory had traumatized him one too many tis.
Even though Scorpio was genuinely helping him, the re thought that mory had stuck its nose in at the trial's finale made Cheng Shi's entire body go numb.
"Brother, you'd better explain what that was... so I can ntally prepare myself."
Scorpio seed to read Cheng Shi's concern. He shook his head with a bitter smile.
"Don't panic, Brother Cheng. It's not an item that alters history — it's one that... traces it back."
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. He instantly thought of a profession: Old Hunter — mory's assassin!
"Exactly. It's an Old Hunter's Dagger. It doesn't change history. It simply exiles whatever I stab into the past — into a previous era of history.
Once the target drowns in history's tidal wave, we're safe!
So, Brother Cheng — when you bluffed at the start saying I was an Old Hunter, the reason my reaction was so dramatic was because...
I actually am one."
???
Cheng Shi's brain froze. "You're an Old Hunter?"
'Impossible — Master of Deception told
you were an Another Day Assassin!'
His gaze sharpened. He studied Scorpio with newfound gravity and asked, not entirely certain:
"You... broke your oath?"
Scorpio's face drained of color. He pressed his lips together and nodded.
"...Yes, Brother Cheng. You guessed right. I'm an Oathbreaker. As for why...
It's all in the past. Let's not go there."
'Hiss—'
'This little assassin is sothing else. How did you manage to follow two faiths that both oppose mine and still latch onto my leg?'
But trivial thoughts could wait. There was still a mountain of problems to address.
Even though this ti mory's power wasn't used to record history, Cheng Shi still needed to know where Turadin's child had been exiled.
"Where in history did you banish it?"
"I can't control it, Brother Cheng. I'm not a true Old Hunter. This was just a contingency I'd saved for myself. I can't use it with the precision I once had — only the dagger's most basic function.
That child has been randomly exiled into a fragnt of history. As for which one — nobody knows."
"..."
Cheng Shi nodded. He didn't press further. Instead, he simply said "Thank you" to Scorpio.
Wherever that child had gone, Scorpio had undeniably solved a massive headache for him right there and then.
He could feel it — his connection to the child was fading.
No — it had disappeared entirely.
'Good. As long as I'm not entangled with anything bizarre, the rest... can be left to ti.'
'Just let there be no more surprises in these final minutes.'
And at that sa mont, Zhang Jizu vaulted onto a rooftop nearby.
Cheng Shi turned to look. The two brothers in adversity locked eyes, each reading in the other's gaze the sheer, trembling relief of surviving catastrophe.
'Thank god Old Zhang had that backup. Without it, we'd have been crushed.'
But just as Zhang Jizu was about to close the distance to his protection target — determined to prevent any last-second accidents — he suddenly saw Cheng Shi frown, snap his fingers, and vanish from both their sights yet again.
"..."
Squinty Eyes' face went dark. He stopped mid-step, stood where he was, and sighed. 'What is this restless con man up to now?'
Cheng Shi hadn't wanted to take risks in the trial's final monts either. But Berios's fury felt abnormal. Even if they'd skipped today's treatnt for Go Lis, it shouldn't have been enough to make him deploy Go Lis again to destroy them.
After all, Go Lis's condition was poor. Every ti the Church invoked the so-called "God Descent," it inflicted damage on Go Lis herself.
So Cheng Shi was curious about what had actually happened inside the Church. One snap of the fingers later, he teleported back via a die.
He'd originally planned to sneak into the underground lake and see what had transpired. But before he could even blend into the chaotic Church interior, he spotted the Chieftain — the only one who'd been left behind at the Church — slipping out of the inner hall with a tense, nervous expression.
Cheng Shi's eyes narrowed. 'Could the upheaval have sothing to do with him?'
He imdiately frowned and followed. But after only a few steps, his vision plunged into endless darkness.
[Wish Trial (Born Equal — Birth) Challenge Successful]
[Calculating score and settling rewards...]
[Player: Cheng Shi — Performance Rating: S]
[Item Obtained: Umbilical Shackles (S) ×1]
[Item Obtained: Theocracy History (C) ×1]
[Item Obtained: Dolgod God-Worshipping Wood Carving (A) ×1]
[Item Obtained: Token of the Gate of Joyous Lust: Broken Ribbon (SS) ×1]
[Road to Ascension:
16]
[Ladder of Ascent:
3]
[Current Road to Ascension Score: 2204 — Global Rank: 390,157]
[Current Ladder of Ascent Score: 175 — Path Rank: 38]
[Trial Cleared. Exiting...]
...
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