Long Jing was going all in.
He wagered that the Fun God was watching this spectacle. After all, this fiasco had been orchestrated by His favorite top-ranker on the Ladder of Ascent.
If so, the most entertaining vantage point would be to see how he— the number-two— would crack this dilemma.
So he figured the lon-eating passage might be right under his feet. And so he'd called for the Grand Marshal to strike!
Hu Wei had been itching to act. Were it not for allies all around him, he'd have long since shattered this Void inch by inch, combing through the blackness for the escape route.
Seeing Long Jing point at the ground beneath him, the front-line warrior's eyes sharpened. With a thunderous roar, he channeled every ounce of muscle to redirect a river of fire and blood to Long Jing's feet.
Then everyone heard a detonation-like hum as the Void beneath Long Jing instantly fractured and collapsed, revealing within it...
Another expanse of Void.
The Void was inherently layered— emptiness within emptiness, nothingness within nothingness.
Mo Li's face sank when he saw that Mockery and Jeering wasn't under Long Jing after all. His heart lurched.
At that very mont, the giant tentacle-shadows swept down once more. Hu Wei was livid but helpless. He could only leap skyward and tank it head-on, swinging his sword in spiraling walls of fire to resist Go Lis's lashing assault.
But those fire walls— barriers that other players would consider impenetrable— were pathetically fragile before a true Envoy. A single strike punched through them. The tentacle shadow cracked across Hu Wei's body like a whip, sending him crashing down in a spray of blood.
Everyone else was doing their part. Hu Xuan continued to suppress the [Birth] aura, forced from her mage role into a pure support. Mo Li's chanting never ceased— he frantically dispelled the fear in everyone's hearts while precisely layering each person with refreshed buffs.
Long Jing, guilty for wasting the group's opportunity, leaped up to join Hu Wei in taking Go Lis's phantom attacks head-on.
On the brink of death, this team of players had inexplicably fallen into perfect synergy— no longer scheming against each other, but twisting every ounce of survival into a single rope.
But where so fought, others freeloaded.
As for who could coast through a squad of peak players unnoticed... that probably didn't need spelling out.
Cheng Shi had his reasons for slacking, though. He'd already established the appearance of spiritual exhaustion. Under Mo Li's enhancents, all he did was toss out the occasional healing spell. But against the damage Go Lis was dealing, his heals were like hooking up a saline drip for an ICU patient— couldn't exactly say it was useless, but it certainly wasn't saving lives.
Mo Li quickly noticed the Fate Weaver's oddity. In his experience, a peak-level priest should have been working the hardest of anyone— burning themselves out to heal teammates, presenting at bare minimum an appearance of giving everything.
Eyes and posture couldn't lie.
Yet this supposedly brilliant Fate Weaver who'd allegedly outwitted Zhen Yi wasn't even watching his teammates' positions. He was looking down, glancing around aimlessly, and loafing.
Mo Li found this puzzling.
Yes— puzzling, not infuriating.
At this level of play, there were no diocre players. In life-or-death monts, everyone pulled out creative tricks to survive. The experienced Mo Li didn't suspect Cheng Shi of slacking. Instead, he wondered: how was this Fate Weaver planning to nd their seemingly shattering fate?
And just as his confusion deepened, Cheng Shi raised his head.
He smiled.
Truthfully, this wasn't in his script. His original ending had Hu Xuan deploying a desperate secret technique at the critical mont to suppress Go Lis once more, then tearing open the Void to send everyone out. That way, Hu Xuan could make a clean "exit" while leaving every Chosen One owing her an enormous favor.
This was the benefit he'd plotted for Hu Xuan— a core principle of seamless cooperation: the one profiting can't hog all the winnings.
Of course, Hu Xuan didn't actually have that kind of power. She was just acting. The one pulling strings behind the curtain was this domain's true master, Aph Ros.
But plans couldn't keep up with changes. Cheng Shi hadn't anticipated Mo Li targeting the Fun God's Mockery and Jeering— trying to escape through that lon-eating passage.
This sparked an entirely new idea. After all, he'd never seen many of these people's "true forms," and given the current situation, Hu Xuan had already won several people's goodwill. She could easily join the Grand Marshal's operation midway, taking the slot vacated by the vanished Yu Mu.
That way, she'd gain sothing tangible from a mysterious trial.
So Cheng Shi rewrote the script on the fly. He'd help Mo Li and the others find Mockery and Jeering.
But to be clear: his earlier loafing hadn't been spent searching for the real Mockery and Jeering. He'd been covertly communicating with Aph Ros— notifying his backstage actor of the script changes. Only after the actor confird receipt did he lift his head and look at Mo Li.
In that mont, his smile was radiant.
'I hear you're looking for Mockery and Jeering?'
'Why even search?'
'If this thing doesn't open right under the clown's feet, then the clown might as well retire from the stage.'
Cheng Shi understood the Fun God all too well. He might not comprehend everything about [Deceit], but he definitely knew how [Deceit] liked to watch its entertainnt.
And so, eting Mo Li's confused and anxious stare, Cheng Shi casually took a step backward, pointed at the spot where he'd just been standing, and shouted at the battered, blood-vomiting Hu Wei:
"Hu Wei— here! Try right here!"
"?"
Seeing the ground where Cheng Shi had been standing, Hu Xuan looked mildly surprised. Long Jing's gaze flickered with sothing like expectation. Hu Wei was bewildered. Mo Li's pupils constricted.
The Chief Grand Secretary poured every last drop into maintaining Hu Wei's condition and asked with uncertain conviction:
"Any basis for that?"
Cheng Shi gave a sheepish laugh: "No real basis. I rolled my dice. This spot ca up a perfect score, so... might as well try a Hail Mary."
Dice?
[Fate]'s dice?
A perfect score?
Mo Li's eyes lit with sudden understanding.
'Of course! He's a follower of [Fate]. And in a situation like this, [Fate] is the only thing that can tip the scales!'
Then again, a Fate Weaver wasn't a Prophet. Could his perfect roll really serve as a prophecy?
But there was no ti to deliberate. He could only pray that [Fate] was full of change, and that this ti, change happened to favor their side. His gaze hardened. He unleashed another cascade of support abilities and roared: "Grand Marshal— strike!"
Hu Wei still had strength left.
Or more accurately— he'd long since grown accustod to enduring pain.
The blood-drenched front-line warrior spun his greatsword in both hands, carving a terrifying ring of fire as a montary shield. Then every muscle swelled, veins bulging, and with a furious howl, he drove his blade into the spot Cheng Shi had pointed at.
The ferocity of that fla and the grandeur of that force made even Hu Xuan's pupils contract.
BOOM—
This was no ordinary front-line warrior's full strike. This was the first Arbiter's full enhancent layered onto the first front-line warrior's full strike.
The blow shattered the Void outright, sending everyone into freefall. But halfway down, a bizarre, kaleidoscopic "river" materialized right before their eyes.
And it appeared directly beneath where Cheng Shi had been standing!
Not a single inch off.
"..."
'Naturally...'
Cheng Shi secretly rolled his eyes. Long Jing's gaze sharpened subtly. Everyone else was overjoyed beyond asure.
The life-saving Mockery and Jeering had finally appeared!
Mo Li silently counted his blessings. He shot Cheng Shi a deeply aningful look and thought:
'As expected of a player who's had an audience with [Fate]. His fortune truly is extraordinary.'
'Can't help but... praise [Fate]!'
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