"[Fate]... [Fate]..."
Aph Ros tapped the table rhythmically, clicking his tongue.
"No wonder you could guide
toward my own destiny, my brother. It turns out this, too, was your fate."
"?" Cheng Shi was thoroughly fed up with these cryptic fate-related riddles. After a mont's thought, he cut straight to the point: "The first round of information exchange went smoothly. Let's move directly to round two. What I want to know is simple— just one question: who exactly is [Origin]?"
Aph Ros stiffened, then shed his smile entirely.
When discussing [Origin], he was always dead serious.
"Setting aside whether I can answer that question— even if I could, I couldn't.
"A Servant God has no right to approach [Origin]. If you want to learn about Him, perhaps your Benefactor can provide the answer.
"Interesting.
"In your emotions, I taste fear and unease. You keep pressing
about the eras— are you afraid of the [Void] era's end?"
Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. In a rare mont, rather than avoiding Aph Ros's probing gaze, he looked the Envoy dead in those captivating eyes and gave a stiff nod:
"Yes."
"Fear— the finest catalyst for [Corruption].
"I can guess what you're afraid of. Though I cannot answer your question, I can share one conjecture of mine.
"Based on the pattern of previous eras, this one...
"Will most likely conclude with universal [Void].
"In other words, everything will cease to exist— until the next era arrives!"
Both Cheng Shi and Hu Xuan's gazes sharpened.
"There's a next era?"
"Why wouldn't there be? When I died in the first era, I never imagined I could be born again in the second.
"Of course, if you want to carry mories from a prior era the way I do, you'll need to work much harder. At the very least, you'd have to beco sothing like this Eternal Sun before you could potentially...
"Preserve your mories through an era's collapse."
!!!
At those words, a flash of clarity struck Cheng Shi!
He linked together every scrap of information he'd gathered about the gods and arrived at an extraordinarily bold yet sohow logical conjecture.
The gods appeared to be riding the tide of the eras!
Because Aph Ros predicted the [Void] era would ultimately return to void, and [Fate] was convinced its path was fixed destiny— even hinting vaguely that it had long foreseen the coming tragedy. This suggested that [Fate] was inclined to see this era through to its conclusion.
And it wasn't just Him. None of the other gods had shown any excessive opposition to the [Void] era's curtain call. They were simply experinting with every possible thod of faith fusion within this era.
Perhaps their signing of the Convention— their pursuit of becoming an omnipotent god— was precisely to keep pace with these endlessly ending and restarting "eras"?
Just as Aph Ros had said: since becoming a Servant God allowed one to preserve mories across the rise and fall of eras, didn't that imply a higher form of existence could preserve even more?
So what could a true god preserve? Authority?
And what about an even higher god? An omnipotent god!
Was... this their true purpose?
And that omnipotent god they pursued— could it very well be the [Origin] Aph Ros had ntioned!
So— was it He who created all of this?
Paths of Fate, epochs, eras... was everything the creation of this so-called omnipotent god?
Then what was He doing?
If all these conjectures were true... then what was the Fun God— who opposed [Fate]'s views— trying to accomplish?
Cheng Shi felt his brain buzzing. The sudden deluge of explosive divine secrets had left him montarily unable to determine which thread of thought to follow or which direction to pursue.
And so, caught in that tangle, he slipped into a strange state. Part of him wanted to force himself deeper, to reason out the essence of Him. Another part knew that dwelling on these things now was aningless and he'd be better off letting go. Yet the allure of glimpsing the universe's truth pulled at him with mysterious force, as if an invisible giant hand had pried open his skull and was rearranging his brain.
That indescribable sensation sent his consciousness drifting. His pupils dilated. Cold sweat poured out. His limbs went numb. His body locked rigid.
Hu Xuan noticed his abnormality imdiately. She frowned slightly and glanced at Aph Ros. Once she confird this wasn't the [Corruption] Envoy's doing, she acted decisively to save Cheng Shi.
Her thod was simple but devastatingly effective.
She rose, leaned across the table, slowly took Cheng Shi's hand, and parted her lips to say a single word:
"Co."
That single syllable jolted the entranced Cheng Shi awake. His pupils snapped into focus and he threw himself backward in retreat.
The force of his recoil was so violent that it took the chair with him, sending him crashing flat on his back.
The sweat ca even harder. But at least he was conscious again.
First he stared at Hu Xuan's hand in shock, then rapidly blinked down at his own. Trembling, he wiped the cold sweat from his face and gasped with lingering terror:
"Th-thank you."
Hu Xuan lay draped across the long table, her posture alluring. A glint of teasing amusent danced in her eyes as she looked at Cheng Shi.
"So close. What a sha— a mont more and I'd have been the one thanking you."
"..."
'Lady, please spare .'
Cheng Shi shook his head with a wry smile. He knew Hu Xuan was simply lightening the mood. Without his explicit consent, this friend... probably wouldn't be carrying his child.
'[Birth] is terrifying.'
'Good thing. Good thing...'
He exhaled heavily, then fixed his gaze on Aph Ros with grave seriousness, only to find the Envoy watching his predicant with eyes crinkled in amusent.
Cheng Shi's heart clenched. He imdiately realized this hadn't been so ntal breakdown— it was...
"This is why you were reluctant to tell
too much about Him, isn't it?" Cheng Shi asked, his expression heavy.
Aph Ros laughed heartily:
"I've never misjudged you, my brother. You're clever.
"If I hadn't let you experience it firsthand, knowing your personality, you'd probably have treated His existence as just another piece of intelligence to trade."
As he spoke, Aph Ros's own expression grew solemn.
"Rember this: not everything can be ntioned casually.
"Unless necessary, do not speak of the gods.
"Naturally, so gods may not seem like gods. But others...
"I trust you understand now."
!!!
Cheng Shi understood completely. His comprehension of the word "god" had been fundantally rewritten.
After all, in his past life of "being watched by gods and blaspheming as casually as drinking water," he'd never once felt such a horrifying, eerie force.
He examined his own body with utmost gravity, taking long, deep breaths before finally suppressing the lingering panic.
"If Hu Xuan hadn't saved , would I have..."
"I don't know, and I don't want to know," Aph Ros said with a smile.
"Understood."
Cheng Shi nodded and struggled to stand. Halfway up, two puppet servants appeared behind him, gripping his arms and hoisting him to his feet.
He quickly rearranged his expression into a grateful smile and turned to thank them— but the instant he turned, the cold sweat that had just dried surged fresh from his brow once more.
Because the two puppets who'd helped him up had disturbingly familiar faces!
"You two..."
Aph Ros, watching Cheng Shi's shock, grinned until his eyes crinkled into crescents.
"Well? Happy, my brother? This is a special surprise I prepared just for you.
"I could tell you're soone who enjoys making friends. So I thought reuniting you with old acquaintances might bring you joy."
"..."
Staring at the two all-too-familiar faces he'd only just parted from, Cheng Shi ntally scoffed.
'Oh, I'm thrilled. Absolutely thrilled.'
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