"A midwife?" Cheng Shi blinked. "Wasn't Lu Xia a man?"
"He was. But his skill with deliveries was extraordinary—an exceptionally high survival rate for the children he brought into the world. Over ti, as his reputation grew, people simply chose to overlook the gender issue.
Moreover, rumor has it that even before ascending to godhood, he could already cure certain types of infertility. So he wasn't a traditional midwife—more like a technically proficient obstetrician."
"...So that's why he was called the Birth Holy Voice?"
"His divine na and his past co from two entirely unrelated mories, so I can't give you a definitive answer. But in my personal opinion—almost certainly."
"In that case, this Envoy of Birth isn't exactly..." Cheng Shi hesitated. He'd thought of Go Lis and nearly used the word "grotesque," but considering his "friendship" with Aph Ros, he swallowed it.
"Isn't exactly what?"
"...A villain?"
Li Jingming paused, then chuckled:
"There's no hero or villain among them—no good or evil either. Such judgnts are rely subjective assessnts colored by personal perspective.
The basis for those judgnts is, more often than not, self-interest.
If a being benefits , it's good. If it doesn't, it's bad.
That's why I often think devotion is never truly pure—desire always runs through it."
'Hss—'
Why did that sound so familiar?
'Excuse , sir—is your full na Li Aph-Ros Jingming?'
Cheng Shi blinked in bewildernt, then silently attributed the déjà vu to the fact that well-traveled people tended to reach similar conclusions.
"Then what desire is mixed into your devotion?"
"Mine?" Li Jingming smiled. "Probably curiosity and mory. For example—I'm quite intrigued by these 'eras' you ntioned."
'Well played—you really know how to squeeze in through every crack.' Cheng Shi snorted and waved a hand. "That's next round. Let
finish my questions first."
Li Jingming's eyes lit up at the promise. He nodded and continued:
"I know relatively little about the Vulture King of Decay. All I can say is that when there was only one follower of Decay left in the entire universe, that follower was finally graced with rcy by its Benefactor. In the battle that nearly marked Decay's extinction, it was elevated to Envoy.
But after becoming an Envoy, it lost the courage it once had. When cornered by Herobos and his World Destroyers, it broke through the encirclent... and fled.
Very few people are interested in it. Even Decay's own followers rarely ntion it. It's hardly a shining example—more like a clown who survived on luck. Uh... apologies. I forgot you're also a clown. I didn't an to imply anything."
"..." 'You better not have!'
Cheng Shi's eye twitched. He thought to himself that Yu Go really couldn't change its spots—across all these eras, its only specialty remained running away.
'Can Big Cat actually catch sothing like that?'
'And even if she catches it—can she beat it?'
He couldn't help worrying about Big Cat's future. But in that mont, he forgot sothing crucial: where had Big Cat ended up?
He'd been so absorbed in the mory exchange with Li Jingming that he'd completely lost track of his other companion's whereabouts.
"Well? Satisfied with this mory?"
"Passable. But I'll need so ti to verify whether what you've said is true. You're a con man, after all—con n don't deal in truth." Cheng Shi clicked his tongue with mild disdain, then raised an eyebrow to signal it was Li Jingming's turn.
Here in this undisturbed pocket of Void, Cheng Shi had ample ti to fill the gaps in his knowledge. At least until those two Benefactors finished their fight, he should be reasonably safe.
Li Jingming could see Cheng Shi was in high spirits for discussion—exactly what he'd hoped. So he smiled and said: "My interest in them is far smaller than in you. If you'd be willing to—"
"Out of the question."
Li Jingming paused briefly, then nodded in understanding: "Very well. Then let's discuss the 'eras.' I'm very curious about how this concept relates to the 'epochs' I already know."
Now Cheng Shi was fired up. This topic could definitely extract sothing major from Li Jingming's vault. So he didn't hide or fabricate—he simply kept things vague:
"Epochs aren't unique. The Civilization epoch you know about has occurred roughly four tis throughout history. The current one is the fourth."
"!!!"
The opening statent alone sent a shockwave through Li Jingming. His brow creased as he dove into his mories. Azure rays of light flickered through his eyes—countless of them—until, after a prolonged silence, he responded thoughtfully:
"I see. So there was one more."
"Hm?" Now it was Cheng Shi's turn to be startled. "You guessed?"
"No—it's just that certain overlapping mories had minor contradictions, which made
suspicious about specific points on the historical tiline.
I initially assud it was like the Ti trials—temporal entanglent sowhere had caused distortions in the historical record.
But now I see that isn't the case. Different epochs of civilization produced different histories.
However, the few overlapping histories in my mory do share similarities. Does that an each ti the Civilization epoch replays, history follows the sa general trajectory—just with minor variations?"
They both froze simultaneously. They looked at each other and said the sa word in unison:
"Fate?"
Indeed—it was too much of a match. Variation within the predetermined was precisely Fate's authority.
But in previous eras, Void hadn't yet descended. In other words, Origin hadn't yet created Void. So where was this overwhelming sense of déjà vu coming from?
Cheng Shi had genuinely never considered this issue from mory's perspective. He mulled it over but, finding no answers, filed the question away for later.
Li Jingming was even more confused—he didn't even know how "eras" actually worked. But leveraging his vast store of mories as a foundation, he'd still managed to piece together certain conclusions. Eager to verify them, he pressed forward:
"Does the 'four' you ntioned correlate with the number of Paths of Fate?"
'Brilliant!'
Cheng Shi had never expected the Dragon King to extrapolate this far from such vague hints. He appraised Li Jingming with visible appreciation, clicking his tongue:
"Not bad at all. Now I actually believe what Hong Lin said—Zhen Yi might not have managed to scam you. But I'm more curious: what exactly did she do to you?"
"If you can explain the full picture of the 'eras,' I don't mind sharing that rather uninteresting mory. Cheng Shi—you should see it by now. I was never Deceit's enemy, and I won't be yours."
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