Li Zhen's expression changed.
Not because Cheng Shi had opened his eyes—but because the Fate Weaver sitting on the ground had... vanished.
The mont Cheng Shi opened his eyes, he disappeared from Li Zhen's sight. Using the dice scattered across the floor and his Never Lost Gambling Gear talent, he blinked behind his opponent. Li Zhen had been wary of those dice all along, but it didn't matter—Cheng Shi was simply too fast.
The Fate Weaver hadn't spared a single thought for talk, negotiation, or probing. The only thing on his mind was to strike!
The scoffing ambush closed on Li Zhen's back in an instant. Before the man could react, the scalpel was already driving toward the back of his skull—exactly like that initial test.
Li Zhen was hit. His head burst open with a crack, eyes wide with terror as he pitched forward.
But Cheng Shi didn't celebrate the clean hit, because the texture of striking that skull... felt wrong.
Fake—no, not exactly fake. It didn't feel like a Void illusion. It felt more like an Existence artifact—a snapshot of the past.
He'd apparently killed a past version of Li Zhen.
Seeing this, and connecting it with the strange things he'd heard Lid Yara saying, Cheng Shi's eyes narrowed. He realized imdiately that the opponent before him was no follower of Order at all—but a Favored One of Existence, a follower of mory. The enemy!
The Li Zhen who'd just died was obviously a Reflection from the Sea of mory!
mory. Surna Li. Skilled in "deception"...
The instant those keywords aligned, a na exploded in Cheng Shi's mind.
'Could it be him?!'
The thought only made him more excited.
But along with the excitent ca the whistle of an attack from behind!
The enemy had counterattacked—and lightning-fast at that.
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, ducked the sneak attack, and snapped his fingers. He vanished again.
Rather than spinning around to engage, he rapidly disengaged from the center of the dungeon and appeared beside the tree-servant Yu Mu. He hadn't forgotten—he had backup. This bodyguard, commanded by Big Cat to protect him, had apparently been distracted by so trick. If he could get Yu Mu moving again, the situation would tilt sharply in his favor: two against one.
As for how to reactivate him—Cheng Shi had no idea.
But he could try.
He smashed a bottle of Prosperity of Yesteryear against Yu Mu's face, then seized the tip of Yu Mu's own arrow and drove it into his left arm. The instant the point broke through fabric and touched skin, Faded Majesty erupted in full force, channeling a torrent of Decay power that transford his left arm once more into an impossibly hard vine-like limb.
Yes—Cheng Shi was exploiting a loophole again.
To boost his combat power, he'd used Yu Mu's arrow against himself, exploiting the fact that the Faded authority triggered Faded Majesty whenever it encountered a Decay-based attack.
But that wasn't his only purpose. Primarily, he wanted to use the purest Decay aura surging from his arm to try reawakening the tree-servant.
Yu Mu might be a tree-servant of Prosperity, but there was no denying that the source of his power still flowed from the second god of the Descent path—the one currently pursuing its own decay.
The Decay aura washing over Yu Mu from point-blank range "reactivated" the Decay follower in the blink of an eye.
It worked!
Cheng Shi was elated—but didn't relax for a single instant. The next second he vanished from Yu Mu's side, flashing toward the figure across the room.
A Hero of Today bolstered by Decay was about to go head-to-head with the Dragon King—right here, right now!
Indeed, Cheng Shi had already guessed the man's identity: the oathbreaking Dragon King who had forsaken his own Benefactor to join the Fun God's banner, only to keep blasphemously walking the path of mory even there—Li Jingming!
But was that who it really was?
It was.
Li Zhen was Li Jingming.
Facing Cheng Shi's relentless onslaught—combined with Yu Mu's opportunistic sniping from the flanks—Li Jingming showed no fear. But his face was flooded with shock.
He'd seen plenty of aggressive warriors and cunning, suspicious players. He just hadn't expected to run into a... Priest who could fight like this!
He'd noticed Cheng Shi's Decay-infused arm before descending into the dungeon, but he never imagined it wasn't so mind-altering trinket or a purely defensive blessing. It was the hard-hitting weapon of a true warrior!
Dual-class?
How else could this level of combat ability be explained?
Even a mummy shouldn't be this good in a fight!
Every impression he'd stored of Cheng Shi was filed under "cunning." Even before the fight erupted, the feeling had been the sa. But now he knew he'd been wrong.
Judging by this offensive posture, Cheng Shi seed intent on... going for the kill?
Li Jingming frowned. The situation was veering in an unfavorable direction, running counter to his original intentions. He didn't fear combat—but pointless fighting only wasted ti.
And in the few hours that remained, he had much left to do.
So after dodging another of Cheng Shi's attacks with a mory Reflection, Li Jingming drifted backward and raised both hands in a gesture of parley:
"Cheng Shi, I know you've recognized . I..."
"I don't know you!"
Cheng Shi barked a laugh and lunged forward again.
He was having the ti of his life!
The Hero of Today clung to the Dragon King like a parasite on bone, relentlessly devouring every inch of standing room. Combined with a peak Hunter's harassing arrows, not even Big Cat could have erged unscathed from a pincer like this—let alone Li Jingming, who was a Mage.
But he was a leaderboard-ranked player, after all. After tanking a few hits—sporting several bruises and thoroughly shredded clothes—he retreated a considerable distance with a look of cold fury.
Seeing the Dragon King battered, Cheng Shi's eyes nearly disappeared behind his grin.
Was the man strong?
Strong. The Dragon King was undeniably powerful.
He'd been dodging the entire ti, and his few counterattacks had been tentative probes at best. Cheng Shi could tell the man wanted to resolve the conflict peacefully and clear up the "misunderstanding." The problem was, Cheng Shi didn't want to.
Not yet, at least.
Because he was enjoying himself too much.
Of course, Cheng Shi wasn't Big Cat. He wasn't a violence addict. His all-out aggression wasn't because the man was the forr Chosen of mory—it was because he'd already seen through Li Jingming's intentions, understood the man wanted to cooperate. So he was demonstrating his strength to earn more leverage at the negotiating table.
Li Jingming definitely wanted to cooperate. Otherwise, he would've struck while Cheng Shi was "asleep."
The fact that he didn't could only an his deception was purely about observing Cheng Shi, understanding him, morizing him.
And this—right now—was the price the Dragon King owed for that little mory-gathering session.
But pumping up his bargaining chips wasn't Cheng Shi's only motive. More than pressing the advantage, he was using the man's strength as a whetstone—slowly integrating his own diverse combat abilities, honing his fighting technique.
Enemies who fought to the death were easy to find, but battles waged with mutual annihilation as the goal didn't last long. They were great for tempering will but terrible for refining technique. A well-matched opponent, on the other hand, was rare—and this was the perfect opportunity to let loose and give the Dragon King a small dose of... madman shock.
And Li Jingming was, indeed, shocked. He hadn't expected Cheng Shi to co at him as though avenging a murdered father.
No wonder the man had outmaneuvered Zhen Yi. With this brand of ruthless insanity, he could succeed at anything.
Li Jingming dodged yet another attack, his face dark as storm clouds—but still he held back, still trying to defuse the "misunderstanding" with words.
"I didn't set out to deceive you. I was simply too curious about you. You..."
"Cut the crap—stand still if you've got the guts!"
"...Don't you want to know what actually changed about Order?"
'Yes! Obviously yes!'
But Cheng Shi's expression locked down, and he shot back stubbornly: "No."
"Yes you do!"
"Fine, fine—yes I do! I want to chop you! Hold still!"
"..." There was no getting through to this man. Absolutely no communication.
Li Jingming fancied himself rather even-tempered, but under Cheng Shi's unrelenting pressure, even his composure had begun to crack. He dodged one of Yu Mu's shots with a sharp sidestep, then flicked his wrist to pin the tree-servant to the ground with mory's power. His eyes hardened, and his entire aura began to climb without limit.
Li Zhen's appearance and clothing disintegrated off his body in an instant, revealing a face that was austere yet resolute. His hair was pulled into a high topknot, his fra wrapped in rough linen—and from his fingertips, intricate runes materialized from nothing. Were it not for the brilliant azure glow of mory spilling from every line, one might have mistaken him for a reclusive Daoist monk who'd stepped out of an ancient scroll.
A torrent of mory power surged toward Li Jingming's fingertips. He was fast—in the split second it took to disengage, he'd nearly completed the preparation.
But just as he was one stroke away from finishing, the Fate Weaver—who'd been pressing the close-quarters assault the entire ti—suddenly stopped. Ignoring whatever "surprise" Li Jingming had prepared for him, Cheng Shi raised his arm and flashed to Chernosly's feet, extending his hand toward the unconscious First-Class Inquisitor, a taunting smirk on his face:
"You hit , I hit him.
You can't kill . I can kill him.
You lose a mory. I gain..."
He'd been about to say "a good ti," but then realized that right now he couldn't be the Fun God's follower. His mind pivoted on a di, the correction flowing seamlessly:
"...change.
And that is the fate we both face today."
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