No wonder!
No wonder Zhen Yi knew so much history. No wonder virtually every na she'd ever dropped corresponded to a real entity. She hadn't been making things up at all—she'd been narrating!
Only the characters were real. The stories were entirely fabricated.
So did that an Herobos—a na he hadn't heard before—was also a genuine existence?
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. He leaned toward Hong Lin again: "Have you heard of Herobos?"
"Herobos?" Hong Lin frowned slightly and nodded. "Hand of Purifying Weevil. The Envoy of Oblivion. Why—did you run into him?"
Cheng Shi blinked. 'He really is an Oblivion Envoy?'
"The Hand of Purifying Weevil was the leader of the World Destroyers during the Sinking Era—the one who guided the entire epoch toward annihilation.
He believed everything in existence was nothing more than filthy weevils, ceaselessly gnawing at the primordial universe. And so he annihilated all things, seeking to restore the origin and thereby please his Benefactor."
That narration ca not from Hong Lin but from the Dragon King, launching into another miniature history lecture.
Hearing this, Cheng Shi's entire being jolted. His complexion shifted visibly. He recalled the World Destroyers outside Kannar City in the previous trial—the leader they'd encircled—and wondered whether that was Herobos himself.
But that wasn't the sole reason for his shock. What truly stunned him was that Li Jingming had ntioned the word "primordial."
Though "primordial" wasn't quite the sa as "Origin," weren't the implications uncomfortably close?
Was the Dragon King probing on purpose because he knew sothing? Or was the concept simply embedded in Herobos's story?
Cheng Shi didn't dare voice the question, so he could only mask the shock in his eyes and redirect his attention to Chernosly.
Li Jingming noticed that Cheng Shi hadn't followed up on his thread. He raised a thoughtful eyebrow.
He enjoyed discussing history with others. Only through extensive conversation could he continuously fill in the gaps of the past. During trials, he never hesitated to throw out topics.
But it seed this Fate Weaver's guard against him remained far too high.
The three players fell silent once more. Inside the dream, Chernosly was still conferring with Moxius on how to bypass the Supre Court and confront the Iron Law directly.
The Supre Court's defenses weren't as airtight as the Howling Iron Prison's, but the Iron Law Knights' patrol and shift-change schedules weren't public knowledge either.
As First-Class Inquisitors who hadn't yet served on the Supre Court, the two could only reconstruct the knights' guard schedule from mory and pick an optimal window to infiltrate.
Chernosly's plan was for Moxius to stand watch at a critical shift-change point on the outer periter while he slipped through the gap in coverage and headed straight for the Supre Court's inner sanctum.
He did nearly all the planning himself, refusing to let Moxius speak—determined not to drag his junior disciple into this. But Moxius clearly cared about him, punctuating key junctures with a telltale cough as a hint.
The planning process was excruciatingly dull. Before long, Cheng Shi's mind drifted.
Though dream-ti didn't match the trial's real clock, this was still burning trial ti. He wanted to nudge Li Jingming—whose mory powers could control the dream's pace—to hurry things up. But the Dragon King was plainly fascinated by every fra of the mory, so Cheng Shi pursed his lips and let his mind wander.
Hong Lin was in the sa boat—even more impatient, in fact. But she knew the Dragon King better and understood that rushing would accomplish nothing. She'd already closed her eyes and was dozing off.
Sensing their restlessness, Li Jingming's eyelid twitched. Perhaps to liven the mood—or to pick up the earlier thread—he suddenly asked Cheng Shi:
"You encountered Herobos?"
Cheng Shi had been counting sheep. The sudden question made him lose his count entirely. He shot the Dragon King an exasperated look: "You owe
a sheep."
"?"
Li Jingming was baffled. The word "compensation" now triggered sothing akin to a trauma response. The instant Cheng Shi spoke, that fire he'd been burying deep surged upward.
Cheng Shi had only been needling him offhandedly—he wasn't seriously demanding paynt. But he didn't answer the Dragon King's question either. Instead he asked one of his own:
"Narrator Bro, which era did Herobos ascend to godhood in?"
"?"
'Narrator Bro?!'
At the nickna, Li Jingming's eyelid spasd. Worse, Hong Lin, who'd been dozing nearby, bolted upright and seized Cheng Shi's shoulder, eyes razor-sharp as she scanned him from head to toe.
"Who are you?!"
Cheng Shi's body went rigid, eyes flying wide—but he grasped what had happened almost instantly.
'Damn—I used the sa nickna as Zhen Yi!'
'She called Li Jingming "Narrator Bro" too!'
'Bad luck's mother opened the door for bad luck—and bad luck's ho.'
But he didn't need to explain himself this ti, because he knew Big Cat was simply reacting on reflex. She'd figure it out soon enough. So he put on an expression of wounded exasperation—the look of a man whose perfectly innocent joke had been blown out of proportion—and turned to Big Cat with pure mockery in his eyes.
"Sis, I was just poking fun at him. How'd that trigger your fight-or-flight?"
"..."
Hong Lin had indeed been triggered. Her face flushed with embarrassnt, but then she scrutinized Cheng Shi one more ti, replaying every action he'd taken in this trial and back in Dolgod. Only after she was truly satisfied did she release his shoulder with a casual air, bluffing confidence:
"Triggered? Who's triggered? I was testing your reflexes—checking if you were cautious enough."
"..." Cheng Shi laughed in exasperation.
'Fine, fine. I'm not cautious enough.'
'Even the least cautious version of
wouldn't rip the Howling Iron Prison's door off its hinges and imdiately go punch a Supre Inquisitor!'
Seeing Big Cat turn away in embarrassnt, he let it go and redirected his attention to Li Jingming, repeating the earlier question.
Because he'd noticed sothing: when the word "era" ca up, the Dragon King—for once—hadn't answered.
The man's silence wasn't entirely because of that irritating nickna. It seed... Cheng Shi had hit a blind spot in his knowledge.
"Fascinating. I knew you'd carry unique mories." Li Jingming chuckled, his expression brightening. "Let's make a deal, Cheng Shi. Tell
what these 'eras' you ntion are—whether it's what I think it is."
Li Jingming genuinely didn't know about the eras. But after accumulating an enormous volu of mories, he'd noticed that certain historical recollections were anomalously chaotic—varying wildly depending on the perspective.
He'd never understood why—until he heard Cheng Shi's question today. A sudden realization hit: those chaotic mories might not be linear at all.
Eras... which era... it sounded like parallel tilines. Could mories also be parallel, which would explain why different recollections seed contradictory and jumbled?
Li Jingming's curiosity was thoroughly hooked. He turned to Cheng Shi with blazing eyes, his desire for new mories written plainly across his face.
And Cheng Shi... declined the deal.
He'd never intended to tell the Dragon King anything. He'd deliberately said "era" to make Li Jingming squirm with curiosity...
Well, that wasn't the whole truth.
His own intelligence-gathering speed was limited. To learn more about the eras, multiple people working in parallel was the way forward.
Cheng Shi had originally considered reaching out to the History School. But now that he'd learned its founder was Zhen Xin, he was starting to think twice.
The reason... was self-evident.
So his gaze drifted back to the Dragon King. Under normal circumstances, cooperating with a mory follower was a hard sell. But the man was nominally a follower of the Fun God.
And partnering with a player who routinely blasphed the Fun God—wasn't that entertainnt in its own right?
If so, it could count as an offering to Him!
Emboldened by this "justification," Cheng Shi acted. He tossed the man a small crumb of a hint.
Only a hint, of course. Given how little he actually understood about the eras, he certainly couldn't satisfy the Dragon King's insatiable appetite for mories.
If his own ignorance were exposed, today's carefully cultivated mystique would beco tomorrow's rug burn on his face.
That kind of blunder was not an option.
"I have no interest in deals. I'm only interested in compensation.
It seems Narrator Bro's knowledge base is a bit thin. I suggest you go back and do more research."
"..." Li Jingming's smile froze. He frowned—then nodded thoughtfully.
It seed he understood.
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