"When are you planning to go to San Dales?"
"After the special trial. These specials keep getting harder. I just ca out of one—I can't jump straight into another while this exhausted.
I need to be in peak condition to take the special trial's beating. Besides, the end of the world is here—no need to keep grinding nonstop."
Zhang Jizu nodded with a smile: "That's all?"
"?" Cheng Shi bounced. He threw Squinty a peculiar look: "That's not enough? My mouth is practically dry from all the talking!"
"Human salivary glands are roughly distributed across the sublingual area, the oral mucosa, and the lips—in other words, they're entirely embedded in flesh. And you're just a skull. You don't have those organs..."
"Is your third faith going to be Truth?"
"..." Zhang Jizu was genuinely stunned. His brow twitched. "There's going to be a third faith?"
"Obviously!" Cheng Shi worked his eye sockets emphatically. "Why else do you think the gods are driving fusion? Fusing just two faiths is pointless. What they actually want goes far beyond complentary pairs—they want to deconstruct the very essence of faith itself, to draw closer to—"
He cut himself off mid-sentence. He glanced at Zhang Jizu, then adopted a mysterious air:
"Forget it. Saying more is useless. You haven't reached the right level yet—you wouldn't understand even if I told you."
"..."
Zhang Jizu squeezed his eyes tighter. After careful deliberation, he concluded this didn't sound like a con—more like Cheng Shi dangling higher-tier intelligence to whet his appetite.
He was genuinely curious but didn't press. After all, as he'd said: live long enough and everything reveals itself.
So he fell silent. After a while, when the expected barrage of eager questions never ca, Cheng Shi's jaw clacked against the rooftop twice in exasperation. He gave up the struggle.
'Great—people are getting harder and harder to fool.'
But he couldn't waste this precious pre-trial ti on dead air. So, without a trace of embarrassnt, he pivoted to another topic and asked about Mi Laozhang's situation.
"As a fellow Joker, don't you have anything to... report—er... share with the organization?"
'Report?'
'Now there's a distant word. The last ti I filed a report was back when the cetery was still operational. As for that reporting supervisor in the duty room... he's gone from staff to permanent resident now.'
Zhang Jizu recalled the amusing past and chuckled softly:
"I haven't participated in any trials these past couple days, but I have picked up so gossip. Care to hear?"
Cheng Shi brightened, hopping forward twice: "How gossipy?"
"Unverified. Rumor only." He watched Cheng Shi's eager expression and concluded the man wasn't actually after critical intelligence—he was fishing for juicy gossip.
"First off, I don't have gossip.
Second, building intelligence channels is an essential part of staying safe. The more you know, the steadier your path. So before I'd even reached the top of the Ladder, I'd already joined nurous small organizations—just like the Jokers."
"???" Hearing this, Cheng Shi's face instantly soured. "You're comparing those bootleg clubs to our Jokers?"
"True—they are different. They had more mbers."
"..."
"Here's today's tidbit. It cos from one of those Death-faith organizations called the Undead Salvation Society.
I rarely attend their gatherings, but I get occasional updates. Recently, one mber reported that after their Folly neighbor died, they acquired the deceased's experintal notebook.
The ticulous notebook was filled with experintal conclusions. Among them, one inference—highlighted in bold red—relates to the faith fusion you just ntioned.
It reads: Silence may be unable to fuse with other faiths.
I haven't seen the original notebook, so I don't know how this conclusion was derived. But based on my understanding of Silence followers, they do seem to show no fusion trends.
Even the Prisoner hasn't been summoned by a single deity to this day.
So I'm wondering if this rumor might be true—whether Silence... has no interest in driving faith fusion."
Hearing this, Cheng Shi's expression beca extrely animated.
Not just because the rumor was thin—but because he'd heard of this Undead Salvation Society. Not just heard of it—he knew its founder!
Ji Yue. This Truth follower mad enough to try researching War had left a deep impression.
And co to think of it, this Erudite Scholar was technically the first person to receive his organizational invitation. The na of the organization he'd created was identical to the Torchbearers—born in the river of "Mockery and Jeering."
"You're not surprised. You already know about this—that Silence can't fuse?"
"No," Cheng Shi said, dropping his usual playfulness. He furrowed his brow thoughtfully. "I know Silence can fuse. That inference is probably wrong."
Zhang Jizu blinked, eyes narrowing to razor-thin slits: "Interesting. So even though the Prisoner hasn't fused, you're saying you've actually seen a Silence follower successfully fuse with another faith?"
"Yes. And that's exactly what puzzles .
Folly's people are annoying, I'll grant you that. But under their Benefactor's protection, they're genuinely brilliant.
I saw a Silence follower fuse with my own eyes. That ans Silence doesn't reject fusion. But Folly followers' experints are typically precise—especially when they don't know when they'll die, there's zero reason to fabricate data to deceive themselves before the apocalypse. So...
It really is a thin rumor. What level was the player who made this inference? Was there information loss or distortion in the chain of transmission?"
Cheng Shi didn't bother asking whether Mi Laozhang could be getting conned. He knew the man's caution rivaled that of a Master of Deception—he'd never blindly trust unreliable intel.
The fact that he'd shared this unverified rumor today clearly ant he wanted to discuss the gods' faith fusion plans.
Zhang Jizu shook his head: "The score wasn't low. But I'll look into exactly how much was lost along the way."
"Do that. Laozhang, let
speak from the heart—faith fusion isn't just about the gods. It's a manifestation of the Convention. And how critical the Convention is... I don't need to spell out.
For you, whether you want to see more or simply want to survive, this intelligence matters far more than anything else.
Our competitors may never have been players. And our allies aren't just players either.
Take the Yu Xi I ntioned. Honestly, a big part of why I founded the Jokers was to use it to please that entity.
It doesn't seem as cold as other Servant Gods, yet I can't quite gauge the right boundaries. That's why I want you to co again to San Dales with —hoping for a chance encounter, or at the very least, to let more people learn about it.
When a god is no longer so mysterious, our understanding of it deepens. Don't you think?"
Cheng Shi's words were remarkably sincere—so much so that Zhang Jizu found them the most genuine things Cheng Shi had ever said since they'd t. He nodded thoughtfully, silently committing "Yu Xi" to mory.
Seeing the evening's mission accomplished, Cheng Shi prepared to leave. Overdoing things was counterproductive—saying too much risked mistakes. Better to leave room for others to fill in the blanks.
So the two said their clean goodbyes. Cheng Shi opened the Bone Gate once more and teleported back to his rest area.
Shortly after Cheng Shi left, Zhang Jizu took up his carving knife and returned to the cetery. He strolled past those sixteen tombstones carved with divine nas, studying the unfinished inscriptions, his expression growing increasingly strange.
He stopped and crouched before Order's marker. His hand gently traced the carved letters. Eyes squeezed shut, he murmured as if asking himself:
"His eyes were strange... So what happened to Order?"
Without any intelligence to work with, the Chosen of Death couldn't possibly guess that Order had been compromised. After a fruitless bout of contemplation, he stood, picked up his knife, and walked back the way he'd co.
Zhang Jizu had suddenly changed his mind. He didn't want to keep carving.
'Leave them blank. They might prove useful soday. After all, who says the gods... will necessarily outlive their own Chosen?'
'Besides, this isn't blasphemy. I simply haven't finished the engraving work.'
'There's no rule saying tombstone inscriptions must be completed within a specific tifra, is there?'
'Mm. Reasonable. If any god asks... I'll say Cheng Shi told
to do it.'
'He loves blasphemy. At this point, one more flea won't make the itch worse.'
Naturally, Cheng Shi knew nothing of Squinty's actions or thoughts. He only knew that shortly after returning—the very mont dawn cracked the horizon—the special trial notification blazed into his vision.
[Special Trial (Discrepancy — Ti) Activated]
[Matching teammates (1/6)]
[Trial Objective: Across past, present, and future, ti has never been aligned (7-day ti limit)]
'Ti!!!'
The instant Cheng Shi saw this trial's faith affiliation, he froze completely.
'mory just left and Ti shows up?! You Existence gods are dead set on making my life miserable!'
Still, in fairness, a Ti trial was genuinely tricky.
'Hopefully...'
'Actually—no. No jinxing it.'
'Maybe, without the hopes, the trial will be simpler.'
Cheng Shi took a deep breath, relaxed his mind, and let his vision fade to black.
[Match successful (6/6). Entering trial.]
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