Cheng Shi quit while he was ahead.
He had a feeling that if he opened his mouth to ask for one more thing, Li Jingming would genuinely abandon the entire expedition and blow up at him.
And while he wasn't particularly afraid of the man's temper, he was curious about whatever secret the Grand Tribunal was hiding.
So, with all the spoils safely in hand, Cheng Shi voluntarily, magnanimously, and very slightly stepped back.
"However, if you want to cooperate with , I have one more condition."
"..." Li Jingming drew a deep breath and raised his hand again, looking as though his patience had finally snapped.
Cheng Shi wasn't fazed. Grinning, he raised his own hand even higher—nearly touching Chernosly's knee—and said cheerfully:
"Relax, I'm not going to make you bleed this ti. But you are Deceit's Chosen, and I now have post-deception PTSD. It's very hard to trust you again. So—why don't we sign a contract?"
He produced the sa sheet of A4 paper that his four teammates had already signed.
One look at this "contract" and Li Jingming's face went darker still.
"Sotis I think you're more Deceit than Fate, Cheng Shi. You can't possibly expect to fool
again with this blank piece of paper that has zero divine energy?"
Hearing that, the corners of Cheng Shi's mouth stretched to their absolute maximum.
"Oh? You think it's fake?
Interesting—then let
show you whether it's fake or not!"
With a sharp rip, he tore the contract in half—the one bearing four signatures.
The instant the paper split, Li Jingming's expression hardened. Both hands swept outward simultaneously as he threw up a spell shield with lightning reflexes.
And yet, as the two halves of the A4 sheet drifted gracefully to the ground, the dungeon... remained entirely undisturbed.
Cheng Shi's laughter grew even louder. He looked at the wary Li Jingming and teased:
"Sharp eyes. It was indeed fake."
"..."
Li Jingming had reached his limit. For the second ti, he felt his normally impeccable temperant being ground to dust by a single player. The first ti had been his initial encounter with Zhen Yi.
'Impressive, Void path. Truly impressive!'
'The fact that Deceit and Fate each have a follower like you is... completely aningless!'
Li Jingming moved—because he felt that if he didn't do sothing, even the most precious mory in the world wouldn't save tonight from being a sleepless exercise in frustration.
He raised one hand. A ring on his finger, swirling with three-colored iridescent light, blazed brilliantly and illuminated the entire dungeon. Then, under Cheng Shi's sowhat guarded gaze, a symbol eerily similar to Order's materialized between them, flickered several tis, and shattered into nothing.
The dungeon went dark again. In barely a blink, Cheng Shi felt as if so irrefusable, special agreent had been forged between them.
Now it was his turn to look displeased.
"What did you just do?"
"A Fair Exchange Accord." Li Jingming's face was cold. "A mory-class contract initiated by , witnessed by Order. I'm required to share a mory with you. If you wish to execute the accord, you can share a mory in return. If you decline, the accord breaks automatically and has no further effect on you."
Cheng Shi froze.
'What kind of deal is this?'
'A one-sided surrender?'
'I provoke him a bunch and he cos running to give
a mory?'
'What a bargain!'
'Wait—did I read this wrong? This isn't the Dragon King's revenge for being humiliated?'
'No... sothing feels off. The way he reacted was clearly a man pushed past his breaking point. He'd never throw out a aningless accord—especially one that appeared to have no downside and might even net a free mory. Things this good don't just happen.'
Cheng Shi's gaze darkened.
When you encounter sothing bad yet can't find the catch—you're already close to danger.
He frowned, raised his hand, and edged closer to Chernosly once more.
"Li Jingming, if you don't explain this right now, not only will there be no mory to explore—this 'friendship' is off the table entirely."
"Unless you're prepared to have your identity stolen, Cheng Shi, I'd recomnd not being friends with him at all."
Before Li Jingming could respond, another voice drifted down from the stairway.
Both n turned in surprise to see Big Cat's dashing silhouette striding straight toward them.
Hong Lin had co down. Completely unscathed. She'd evidently won.
As for who she'd beaten... that remained to be seen.
With Big Cat's arrival, Cheng Shi's eyebrows rose and a happy grin spread across his face. Li Jingming, on the other hand, gave a thoughtful glance toward Yu Mu's direction, then turned back with a slight smile and a courteous nod.
"Long ti no see, Hong Lin."
"Long ti no see, Dragon King Li."
"..."
'Ha—using that title. So these two really are on good terms.'
Cheng Shi was amused, but the smile quickly faded from his face. He turned to Li Jingming with a trace of irritation in his eyes.
"Out of respect for... Hong Lin, release this accord and I'll let you enter Chernosly's mory to find what you're looking for."
Before Li Jingming could respond, Hong Lin frowned: "What accord?"
"The Fair Exchange Accord," Cheng Shi said.
"?" Hong Lin paused, then recalled sothing and laughed. "Oh, I rember now. Isn't that the one where if you both hold off on sharing a mory, you end up sharing each other's location permanently?"
"?"
Now it was Cheng Shi's turn to freeze. 'What the hell—a tracking device?'
'So what? What's the point?'
'It really is useless then?'
'Even if the Dragon King holds out forever and never triggers the accord, knowing where I am accomplishes what, exactly?'
'Unless he...'
The thought was barely half-ford when Cheng Shi's expression locked up, then turned pitch-black.
'He tricked .'
'That damn mory follower tricked !'
The Dragon King hadn't been retaliating at all—he'd been setting a trap. He'd used the exact sa thod as Cheng Shi's torn contract ruse—and conned him right back!
'Fine! FINE!'
'What an actor!'
'The Oscars owe you a statuette!'
Cheng Shi laughed in fury. He turned to Li Jingming, jabbing a finger at him for a good long while, and finally said through gritted teeth:
"Worthy of the Chosen of Deceit. I bow to the master. Well played."
Li Jingming's expression finally looked a shade more pleasant. He chuckled softly and inclined his head: "Likewise."
Cheng Shi gave a self-deprecating laugh, then couldn't resist one more jab: "Tell —does being this petty run in the family? Did you inherit it from your Benefactor, mory?"
At that, Hong Lin blurted in surprise: "His Benefactor isn't Deceit?"
"..." Cheng Shi went numb. He turned speechlessly to Big Cat. 'Sis, you really just said that out loud. Aren't you afraid the Fun God will take back his authority blessing after you call him petty?'
Big Cat looked confused. Li Jingming, however, caught the barb perfectly. His smile stiffened and he looked away, refusing to et the infuriating Fate Weaver's eyes any longer. Brow furrowed, he turned to Hong Lin:
"What's the situation upstairs?
Even though we can be woken by external force during the dream-state, it's best not to be interrupted at a critical mont. Hong Lin—if you left a ss up there, then today's trial will just have to end here."
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