Deceit said nothing — yet said everything.
Obviously His words carried hidden aning, because He'd just stated that Deceit's path was about concealing the essence beneath the surface!
So to uncover the essence of that statent, one had to peel back the "surface" layer by layer.
The riddle looked hard, but Cheng Shi had actually already solved it.
Because the hints were generous enough that he couldn't possibly go off track.
The surface: "a little ga crowned with Deceit's na."
Cheng Shi had once had the fortune to play this ga, and from His mouth he'd heard two alarming truths.
Whether those truths were genuine remained debatable. But it was that "debatable" quality that made Cheng Shi grasp what his Benefactor truly wanted to convey.
After all, Deceit's answers could never be verified. So Deceit's ga inevitably ended in deceit — every participant would be deceived.
Following that logic to the question Cheng Shi had asked: did it an that Void's era, when it reached its end, would inevitably beco... void?
A void that no one who lived through the era could escape?!
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. He strung together every past clue. Realization dawned.
So the essence Deceit wanted him to uncover, the fixed future Fate anticipated, and the tragedy Cheng Dashi had experienced — or foreseen — were all the sa thing:
This era would ultimately march into Void!
Void...
"Hoo—"
Cold sweat drenched Cheng Shi. Even though he was in his own rest area, lying on his own bed with no danger in sight, sweat still soaked through his clothes and made him shiver.
Void was not a good thing.
One only needed to look at the Void-Whiskered Swallowing Dolphins tearing and devouring existence at reality's edges to understand — when everything was swallowed into the void, existence ceased to exist.
"So... this is our ending?"
Cheng Shi exhaled heavily and sat up from the soaked bed. He stared deep into his shadow on the floor, touching its fingertips with his own.
As he cycled between faiths, he contemplated what role he played on this "road to Void."
'Fate favors
so much — surely not because I pushed this tragedy forward?'
Then he recalled Su Yida's words upon returning...
'He said I'd risen to a sufficient height. So does that height have sothing to do with the future's ending?'
'Have I beco a key driver of the world's descent into Void?'
Cheng Shi's brow furrowed deeply. He didn't feel like that kind of person. But his feelings were irrelevant — everything he'd experienced seed to confirm that Fate was virtually inviolable.
"Fate... why is it so... peculiar."
His thoughts spiraled outward endlessly. Eventually they circled back to the "Change" that Cheng Dashi had "smuggled back" from the future.
Before, Cheng Shi had assud Cheng Dashi simply wanted Fate to undergo change. But now, viewed against the backdrop of Void's endga, perhaps what Cheng Dashi truly aid for was...
Void itself making a change?
'Could that be the only way to prevent the universe from walking into Void?'
He frowned harder, wondering whether the divergence between Deceit and Fate on the path of Faith Fusion was also re surface.
'Could its essence not be about choosing a fusion path at all, but rather encompass their differing views on the universe's impending descent into Void?'
This wasn't idle speculation. Because one had to rember: Deceit was the patron of the Torchbearers.
You could say it was for entertainnt. But countless organizations sought to defy the gods or seize their authority — each offering comparable amusent. So why had He chosen to shelter an organization whose mission was to build and defend walls around reality?
At this thought, Cheng Shi finally felt that the fog Cheng Dashi had carried back from the future and sown in his heart was beginning to thin.
He had an inkling his guess was correct. Perhaps every effort in the future was aid at preventing the entire world from falling into Void!
Eras!
The word was terrifying. It looked like sothing accumulated across infinite ti, layered with countless mories — yet in the near future, within a human-scale asure of ti, within the brief span in which Cheng Shi could grow into Cheng Dashi, it would write a horrifying conclusion.
"I absolutely must figure out what these so-called 'eras' really are!
If the present is Void and the past was Existence, does that an every Path of Fate has its own era?
Life, Descent, Civilization, Chaos... have these eras already played out? Have they ended? What were their conclusions?
It's ti to go ask Aph Ros."
Cheng Shi pressed his lips together and reached into his storage...
"..."
He'd forgotten. The deluge of information had made him forget that his SS-grade token had been confiscated by Fate. The fire in his eyes froze on his face.
But just as he was about to sigh and give up, he discovered sothing in his storage that hadn't been there before: a bone-faced key he'd never seen!
He startled and pulled out the rough key carved from bone. One look at its stats, and he went rigid.
Key to Despised Gate (SS): Quasi-divine artifact. A door key forged personally by Death, using Gate of Joyous Lust ribbon fragnts as raw material. It contains His great understanding of Corruption's ██ divinity.
Special Effect — Gate of Despised Desire: You may use a corpse riddled with desire-obsession to construct a Gate of Despised Desire, then unlock it with this key. On the other side lies Ti's prison — the true Abyss of Desire.
Special Effect — Desire ██: While holding the key, the pull of Corruption's power on your desires is reduced.
Special Effect — This Is Not a Gift, But a Transaction: Each ti you use the Gate of Despised Desire, you must offer two sacrifices to the noble lord upon the throne.
"!!!"
Cheng Shi was dumbstruck. But what first seized his attention wasn't the key itself — it was...
'Wait — the price went up?!'
'Hold on — why are there censored words in the item description?!'
'Huh?'
'This ga's standards are loose enough that so items' backstories are downright obscene, and even those have never been censored. So why is this key censored?'
'Version update?'
Cheng Shi held up the bone-white key, studying it closely. So the great one atop the throne had taken the token and reforged it.
Whether the original ribbons or the reforged key — both led to Aph Ros's doorstep.
'So the great one was worried I'd be corrupted by Corruption and sink into the Sea of Desire?'
'Strange — I'm actually feeling warmth from a skull. Does that skull even have body heat?'
Cheng Shi's brain wandered through all manner of oddities. Before long, he guessed what the censored text had to an.
'New Authority!'
He'd once heard the great one ntion that the strand of Corruption divinity he'd obtained during the trial was called Corruption's "New Authority." So His understanding of Corruption's divinity must have originated from that very strand!
'So this is compensation for confiscating my divinity?'
'But if He's willing to compensate , then He's not entirely opposed to Squinty Zhang joining Deceit's camp either...'
So, bewildered but grateful, Cheng Shi held up the key and proclaid sincerely:
"Still so rough... No, wait!
Praise the great God of Death!
Your loyal employee Cheng Shi will continue working diligently as ever, looking forward to achieving even more glorious results for You!
Though my neighbor has gone missing recently, so there are no corpses to dispatch as ssengers. I'll just recite the prayer a couple of tis symbolically. You know...
Please understand."
...
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