Nangong's bewildernt wasn't an act.
Cheng Shi casually glanced at her and could practically see smoke rising from her head.
'CPU fried, little lady?'
He chuckled softly, stepped around the motionless Nangong, and picked up the Gift of Sores that lay at a distance.
The unknown breeds fear. The mont Dizel learned it was facing a genuine Prosperity hunter, it lost all will to resist.
As a Herald's soul, it shouldn't have submitted so easily. But Dizel's situation was far too complicated — its own machinations had cost it virtually every source of protection. There was no one left to back it up.
Especially once it realized that this fellow Herald, Yu Xi, even had the credentials to partake in dividing Prosperity's authority — it surrendered completely. Absolutely and utterly.
Cheng Shi hadn't expected the process of subduing this dagger to go so smoothly. He quickly wrapped the Gift of Sores in the Tongue of Eating Lies and stowed it away in his personal space, then turned to deal with the aftermath.
But just as he was about to "wake up" the little priest before him, Nangong seed to co back to herself. She looked at Cheng Shi with an indescribably complex expression, her mouth opening and closing for a long while without producing a single word. In the end, she pressed her lips together and managed only:
"I'm sorry..."
Cheng Shi blinked. "What do you have to be sorry about?"
Nangong didn't answer his question. Instead, she raised her hand, staring at the fresh cut on her wrist, then at the dagger that had vanished from her grasp, and at the contractual bond that no longer existed in the void. She murmured in disbelief:
"It's really... broken?"
"Yes. It's really broken." Cheng Shi smiled. Looking at the bewildered, dazed little priest before him, he thought for a mont and pulled out another bottle of cola.
At the sight of it, Nangong's entire body shuddered. She instinctively retreated a step.
Cheng Shi's pranks ended there. He laughed softly and produced a second bottle.
"Don't be afraid. This ti it's real.
Talk to , Nangong. I'm guessing you've been through quite a story. The wind is harsh and the snow is heavy today — perfect weather for drinking cola indoors and listening to stories."
With that, he pressed the cola into Nangong's hands, then crossed his legs on the floor, relaxing like two old friends catching up. He downed his own bottle in long, eager gulps.
He genuinely wasn't lying this ti — the cola was real.
But Nangong didn't dare believe it.
She gave the bottle in her hands a strange look but didn't open it. Instead, she pressed her lips together and knelt down, her gaze drifting toward the battlefield where Cheng Shi and the Gift of Sores had just clashed. Her eyes grew hazy and distant.
"You're probably wondering why this dagger — the one every assassin dreams of — was in my hands.
Heh. When I say it out loud, it actually sounds unbelievable. I obtained it very early on. Even before many assassins had heard of it.
So early that it happened during my very first special trial...
Right here, in Kannar City of Rosna!"
"?"
Cheng Shi froze. He truly hadn't expected the story to begin so absurdly. So a dagger of this caliber had been picked up in the very first week?
'What?'
'The story of how I'm a beginner priest who found a divine artifact at the start of the ga — is that it?'
And yet... why did this plot feel strangely familiar?
Despite wanting to interject badly, Cheng Shi kept silent and continued listening. He could tell that this Decay priest desperately wanted to share her story.
"It was a trial of Decay. Perfectly normal, right? Everyone's first special trial is bestowed by our Benefactor.
Our mission was to find a less-than-devout Decay believer here in Kannar City and make them devout again.
That trial was complete chaos. Since it was everyone's first special trial, six players all distrusted each other. There were people wanting to lead, people who refused to cooperate, people screaming about killing — I was terrified, so I slipped away when they weren't looking.
All I wanted back then was to find sowhere to hide until the trial ended.
But one player among us was extraordinarily perceptive. I don't know how he beca so familiar with this divine ga after just one week, or how he could generate all sorts of bizarre ideas about the trial scenarios.
He was a follower of Folly. He was brilliant, and he was the one who found the Gift of Sores... the one in your... in your hands now..."
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. "You an the first person to discover it wasn't you?"
Nangong pressed her lips together and nodded:
"That's right — it wasn't .
He found the dagger and treated it like a priceless treasure. He even declared he would use it to restart the Rosna Empire's entire faith.
Of course, I only learned all this later, at the Recruitnt Square in Kannar. Because just like the black-robed figure I encountered today, he stood at the center of the square, holding a dagger, and re-forged the devotion of the Rosna Empire."
"!!!" Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. His brow furrowed tightly. "You an... you witnessed this piece of history? No — history had already been rewritten?"
"Yes. History was rewritten.
There was also a mory singer in that trial — just like my teammate today. When he saw the Folly player's heroic act, he was so moved with admiration that he wrote what he'd witnessed into the historical record."
"..."
Cheng Shi was speechless. So the history they knew, the past they understood, even the treasure map Poison had used to trace her way here — all of it had been altered long ago!
Everything they'd experienced today was rely a reenactnt of the previous alteration. The truth of history had long been painted over with graffiti, and today's overwrite was nothing more than a new layer of inverse-colored graffiti slapped on top of the old one.
Amid Cheng Shi's shock, Nangong's narration continued.
"But that wasn't the end...
The Folly player was extraordinarily driven. He believed that returning Rosna to Decay wasn't the finish line — rescuing Kannar City from the World Destroyers before the trial ended was the real perfection.
So he rallied every devout citizen in the city, led them in a counterattack, and charged out beyond the walls."
"..." Cheng Shi blinked, then suddenly laughed. "I think I know how you ended up with that dagger."
"..."
Nangong awkwardly tried to smile but couldn't quite manage it.
"It's exactly what you're thinking. They died. All those teammates whose heads had been clouded by Folly's passion — they died on the high wall.
But I didn't know that at the ti. I hadn't dared to join the battle. I stayed hidden in the city. But when I thought about how my teammates had won us the trial while I'd contributed nothing, the guilt was overwhelming.
So..."
"So you climbed the wall wanting to fulfill your duty as a priest, only to find them all dead. And then you suddenly beca the body-recovery team.
And Dizel — that's when it found you, right?"
"..." Nangong nodded, her eyes laden with complicated emotion. "You're as smart as that teammate of mine."
"..."
...
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