anwhile, on the other side.
After everyone was dragged into Go Lis's Grudge, every face turned grim and serious.
This was clearly a terrifying control-type [Birth] artifact. Its ability to hard-crowd-control so many people simultaneously spoke to its devastating power. By any reasonable estimate, this had to be at minimum a Servant God relic!
Fortunately, the Servant God relic only restrained— it didn't cause harm. So these peak players weren't panicking to the point of cold sweat.
For ordinary people, such a situation might be genuinely terrifying. But for these paragons among paragons, puzzle-solving was second nature.
Just as it was now: every trapped peak player was carefully searching for a way out.
This particular predicant was rely tainted by so [Birth] aura that nobody particularly wanted to touch, but when survival was at stake, nothing was unbearable.
Beyond that, during their monts of respite, each of them was also wondering where "Zhen Yi" had obtained a Servant God relic of this caliber, and whether the relationship between [Deceit] and [Birth] had shifted yet again.
However...
Whether Zhen Yi actually possessed a relic of this grade was sothing others might not know— but Zhen Xin certainly did.
Even she hadn't expected Cheng Shi to wield this kind of power, capable of sweeping up every player present in one move.
Honestly, wide-area control artifacts weren't unheard of among peak players, but very few dared to use them directly against others. One misstep in explanation and you'd invite a collective beatdown.
Zhen Yi, on the other hand— Zhen Xin had deliberately avoided acquiring such mass-aggro items to keep her sister out of trouble. Yet in the end, "Zhen Yi" had found one on her own!
But this "Zhen Yi" was not that Zhen Yi!
This Cheng Shi, wearing her sister's na, had just created a spectacular ss for her!
She thought she'd taken this [Deceit] colleague seriously enough, but he'd still handed her a "surprise" of this magnitude.
Of course, the true "surprise" ca not from Cheng Shi, but from her own sister Zhen Yi!
Because a violent emotional spike had occurred the instant she was dragged into Go Lis's Grudge, the Zhen Yi she'd personally sent to sleep suddenly found a window of opportunity— a chance to fight back against her sister. And so, the instant Zhen Xin sank into the dark mire, Zhen Yi...
Woke up.
She laughed gleefully as she shoved her sister back to sleep, then set about cracking the little puzzle Cheng Shi had so graciously delivered to her doorstep.
A [Birth] puzzle naturally required a [Birth] key. The brilliantly clever Zhen Yi imdiately thought of the whistle that little Cheng Shi had "returned" to her.
The Night Curtain Spring Whistle.
She'd seen this whistle before. From its exterior, it looked like an ordinary Night Curtain Spring Whistle. All such whistles were more or less identical, making it impossible to confirm whether this was truly the one Hu Xuan had given Cheng Shi.
Zhen Yi was sharp as a tack. She never believed Cheng Shi would willingly part with the real whistle. Then again, she didn't think the little clown was foolish enough to use Sacrifice to Nihility to casually forge one to placate her.
So she concluded it was simply an ordinary whistle— one Cheng Shi had prepared in advance for exactly this kind of scenario.
After all, in this clown's mories, such things were abundant. Virtually every tool in his personal storage had a useless replica counterpart.
The clown's contingency preparations were impressively thorough. Zhen Yi silently applauded his foresight.
She gleefully retrieved this ordinary Night Curtain Spring Whistle from her storage, running her fingers over its shell again and again, unable to suppress her grin:
"Dishonest little liar. You had such a fun toy— why didn't you tell
sooner?
"You must have been planning to capture all of us from the start, which is why you gave
this fake whistle just to ss with . Making
know exactly what the answer to escape is while being completely unable to use it.
"Aww, the little liar's gotten naughty.
"But...
"Since you love seeing
flustered so much, of course I'll give you what you want.
"Oh, I'll give you plenty!
"Hee~"
With that thought, Zhen Yi struggled to lift the whistle to her lips, then with all her might, blew into it with sheer delight.
She hoped the whistle's note would pierce through the viscous darkness and reach Cheng Shi's ears. If it did, perhaps the clown would be overjoyed that his sche had worked. And the mont she heard Cheng Shi's laughter, Zhen Yi's own entertainnt would begin.
When a clown played the clown once more, the audience would roar with delight.
Such was the true essence of the circus!
Zhen Yi was already praying— more devoutly than she'd ever prayed in her life. She prayed that Cheng Shi would hear this preditated whistle note and that she would hear his laughter in return. Then she could stand on her perch of superior logic and mock the clown down below to her heart's content.
'This is too perfect. Fun God, help
out here!'
As it turned out, devout prayers often proved quite effective, because Cheng Shi did hear the whistle.
Not just Cheng Shi— everyone heard it. The piercing note carried trendous penetrating power, which ant that although they'd been imprisoned separately, they weren't far apart within Go Lis's Grudge!
Their teammates were right nearby!
This undoubtedly "comforted" the trapped peak players, though since no one knew what the whistle signified, they remained still and silent, each wearing a different expression.
As for Cheng Shi: the instant he heard that familiar note, he hadn't yet fully extricated himself from Go Lis's Grudge.
But in that mont, he froze— and then his grin stretched as wide as it could possibly go!
'Zhen Xin actually blew the whistle?'
'That doesn't seem like sothing she'd do!'
But regardless of whether it seed like her or not, she'd blown it. And the mont she did, it proved his calculations were flawless. Zhen Xin had at this very mont replaced him as the clown!
Because that whistle...
Was absolutely real!
Whatever her motive, in the end, the beneficiary of blowing that whistle would always be him. Because Hu Xuan recognized Cheng Shi the person— not so Night Curtain Spring Whistle!
Moreover, Hu Xuan had once told him that the Night Curtain Spring Whistle couldn't sustain her descent dium for long, and she'd been aning to switch to sothing new. It was precisely those words that had sparked a bold idea during the standoff.
He'd planned to bait with the real Night Curtain Spring Whistle and let Zhen Yi eat another silent loss!
And that silent loss was this: the "fake" whistle she'd blown with her own lips would beco the true key to saving Cheng Shi!
Summoned by its call, Hu Xuan would descend to rescue the very fraud who'd stolen her identity!
Better still, the mont Cheng Shi t Hu Xuan again was the mont this whistle would lose its function.
And to further improve his margin for error— in case Hu Xuan couldn't respond to the call— Cheng Shi had already transford himself into an Offspring Priest and begun extracting himself.
This way, even if Zhen Yi's whistle failed to actually save him, Cheng Shi would still claim it had, and use the fact to mock the outwitted Master of Trickery!
Perhaps such a maneuver wouldn't cause Zhen Yi any serious harm. But based on Cheng Shi's understanding of her, making her eat crow was already the deepest wound one could inflict on this Master of Trickery!
What Cheng Shi hadn't anticipated was the mid-performance actor swap— Zhen Yi being replaced by Zhen Xin.
He couldn't be sure Zhen Xin would blow the whistle as he'd hoped. But as it turned out, the sisters were quite united in the end...
The Night Curtain Spring Whistle had been blown.
And so...
The instant that note rang out, in the infinite Void, within Go Lis's Grudge, a blazing sun— fierce as fire— slowly rose.
The Eternal Sun, Hu Xuan, had descended once more.
And when the giant sun's radiance pierced through the viscous darkness to illuminate the eyes of every trapped player, the crowd was bewildered and confused. Only Zhen Yi's smile...
Froze on her face.
She held the whistle at her lips, and in a sudden, terrible mont of clarity, realized she'd been played.
Standing on the second level, she'd been tricked by a clown performing from the third.
But she wasn't devastated. Gradually, she kneaded that rigid expression into an even wider grin.
"Hee~
"The clown seems to have gotten smarter.
"Now this is... truly entertaining."
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