Cheng Shi's sleight of hand was exquisite.
Under the direct scrutiny of an acrobat, he'd hidden the Tongue of Eating Lies beneath the contract without a single crack in his movents. The fluid motion, the perfect timing of his misdirection — none of it resembled a Fate Weaver. It was more like a seasoned close-up magician.
Add to that the Tongue of Eating Lies— an artifact that shouldn't have been in his possession...
Magician plus the Tongue of Eating Lies. That combination made it very hard not to think of a certain player with the surna Zhen.
And so Long Jing was stunned.
He'd always found Cheng Shi's identity deeply suspicious. The contract just now was his test of this fellow con artist!
The contract was real, yes. The gratitude was real, yes. But the probing was equally real!
Although every aspect of their escape pointed to this Fate Weaver's identity being genuine, Long Jing knew this person was plainly a con artist capable of going head-to-head with Zhen Yi.
So his suspicion and vigilance toward Cheng Shi had never dropped for a single mont.
He was thinking: how could soone who'd been at a disadvantage in a con-versus-con showdown against Zhen Yi — who'd even risked exposing his identity to rope Long Jing in for help — turn around and completely shatter Zhen Yi's [Birth] trap?
Just because that whistle summoned Hu Xuan?
That was indeed a hard point to explain, because Hu Xuan herself hadn't seed to notice anything wrong with this "Cheng Shi"!
Of course, Long Jing didn't know Hu Xuan well. He couldn't tell whether she truly hadn't detected anything off about Cheng Shi's identity, or whether she'd noticed long ago but simply didn't care.
All he knew was that from his own vantage point, this Cheng Shi absolutely had major issues.
In fact, at one fleeting instant — driven by a con artist's instinct — he'd even wondered whether this "Cheng Shi" had already been swapped out by Zhen Yi.
After all, during the ti everyone was imprisoned inside the stillborn infants, no one knew what had happened outside. That brief window of blank ti was more than enough for Zhen Yi to complete a near-perfect disguise.
But one thing he couldn't figure out: if this person was Zhen Yi, what was she doing?
Going through all this trouble to rescue everyone, even heaping "glory" onto the Fate Weaver — all just to join a trial assembled by the Grand Marshal?
That didn't match her style...
So Long Jing couldn't pin down Cheng Shi's identity.
Thus he'd used the Tongue of Eating Lies contract as his probe.
Confrontations between con artists always went this way. Unless one side admitted defeat and flipped the table, peak-level [Deceit] followers kept their fiercest battles hidden beneath a placid surface.
This was the unspoken code among cons.
So Long Jing had never planned to expose Cheng Shi in front of everyone. He wanted Cheng Shi to know that he'd seen through him — so Long Jing could operate from a higher vantage point and harvest this ga's entertainnt.
Exactly the sa pattern as when Cheng Shi had dueled Zhen Yi.
And the test's content was whether the other had the guts to accept a deal tied to Zhen Yi!
Mo Li had been spot on: this wasn't just about the ownership of an S-grade Sacred Artifact. It was a prophecy of an inevitable future conflict with Zhen Yi.
From how Cheng Shi accepted the contract, Long Jing was confident he could read plenty.
And when he saw the other hesitate briefly before accepting — a "cooperative" gesture — Long Jing concluded this was probably a peak-level con artist, not Zhen Yi herself.
But what he never anticipated was this: the other had clearly "hidden" his identity successfully, yet deliberately revealed the Tongue of Eating Lies right to his face!
'If she's not Zhen Yi, then who could she be!?'
Because this was a "divine artifact" capable of shattering countless lies and scams. No con artist would willingly relinquish ownership of it.
Long Jing himself had given it up because it was tangled in too much karma with Zhen Yi. But Zhen Yi? A con artist sitting atop the "bad-luck food chain" — why would she ever surrender such a thing?
So faced with seeing-is-believing evidence, regardless of what he couldn't figure out, Long Jing could only arrive at one conclusion about Cheng Shi's other identity.
'She can only be Zhen Yi. Only then would that statent "I am Cheng Shi" register as truth under Master of Deception!'
And so Long Jing was thunderstruck.
But what shook him wasn't that Zhen Yi would appear here. It was that she'd obviously managed to fool him — yet chose to reveal her "true form" right to his face!
'She was... toying with him again!?'
'Was she addicted!?'
Long Jing was furious. But his rage carried a distinct flavor of "helplessness."
He stared hard at Cheng Shi, his surface smile intact, but his tone grinding through clenched teeth:
"Zhen Yi. You really think I wouldn't dare expose you in front of everyone?
"Breaking your sche would be entertainnt for
too. Even if word got out, I wouldn't be the only one embarrassed!
"Don't push !
"Hah—
"What the hell do you actually want?
"Fine, fine, fine. I, President Gong, bow in defeat. I surrender, alright? Hah—
"We can keep cooperating!
"Just tell
what happened during that trial, and I'll let bygones be bygones. More than that, I'll assist you as much as I can during the Grand Marshal's trial.
"And my only condition: this agreent is voided imdiately. Everything found during the trial goes to you. But the Tongue of Eating Lies... stays mine!
"Deal?"
'No deal!'
Cheng Shi was thoroughly amused. He hadn't expected the other to spin such an elaborate story in his own head — even ignoring multiple facts to cent the idea that "he must be Zhen Yi."
But the thing was, Cheng Shi was no longer interested in playing Zhen Yi.
The sa trick might work, but the clown performing the act had grown tired of the role.
Besides, impersonating Zhen Yi ant having to explain a mountain of things — like Hu Xuan's attitude toward him, or his true form in Mockery and Jeering... Though he could find justifications for all of it, it was simply too exhausting.
Cheng Shi was soone who avoided hassle. So he decided to settle this once and for all.
A lie's hole might require ten thousand more lies to patch. But that's only because the patching lies aren't big enough.
When a lie is big enough to fill the entire hole, a single one suffices to cover every previous discrepancy.
Cheng Shi had found that "big enough" lie. He'd long since devised the perfect thod — one that would spare him from ever needing excuses for his behavior again!
And pulling out the Tongue of Eating Lies to plunge Long Jing into cognitive chaos was rely the first step.
Gazing at the acrobat whose eyes churned with confusion and shock, the clown chuckled internally and took the stage.
He looked at Long Jing with a playful smile, answering none of his questions. Instead, he said with theatrical mystery:
"The rules of the ga: one question each. You've already asked yours. So now... it's my turn.
"And my question is..."
Under Long Jing's slightly flustered gaze, Cheng Shi suddenly paused. His smirk curved even more strangely:
"After personally witnessing the accidental deaths of your parents... why did you still choose to beco...
"An acrobat?"
"!!??"
If Cheng Shi's earlier suspected identity as Zhen Yi could be called "shocking," then these words detonated a nuclear bomb inside Long Jing's mind — and not a small one.
BOOM—
The sky collapsed!
Earth-shattering terror!
Long Jing had never shared his story with anyone. Like Cheng Shi, he'd racked his brains devising countless techniques to counter [mory]. And with his score and abilities, he was confident he'd never leaked his past.
Even when Li Jingming had offered generous incentives, Long Jing hadn't contributed a single mory to that man's [mory] path!
So how did this Cheng Shi in front of him know about this!?
And also— could she still be Zhen Yi? Could he still be Cheng Shi?
To think even more terrifyingly... was it...
Was it truly a player like himself?
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