When Cheng Shi heard the divine na of Folly, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
Just as he'd suspected — it wasn't only Destiny that had been seeking to draw closer to Folly. Folly, it seed, had also been observing Destiny.
Cheng Shi perked up. He leaned forward, half-sprawling across the table, and asked with genuine interest:
"You've even had an audience with Folly — what does He look like?"
Cheng Shi had actually seen Folly before. At that Assembly of Gods Convention when Prosperity had annihilated itself, he'd seen those pure white eyes that radiated the pinnacle of sardonic wit the mont they opened, and the impression had stuck with him.
But he had never been summoned by Folly, so he naturally had no idea what this second god of Chaos — the continuation of Chaos — what His personal domain actually looked like.
'Surely it can't be a tower draped with white-eye wind chis?'
The Blind One pondered for a mont, unsure how to answer. She shook her head, stood up, and walked straight to the door, inviting the bodyguard outside back in. Then she smiled at Cheng Shi:
"If you want to learn about Folly, perhaps you should ask Qin Xin. He's had... an exchange with that one."
"!!??"
Cheng Shi froze, then whipped his head toward Qin Xin.
Qin Xin looked equally stunned. He hadn't expected the two of them to burn through their secret exchange so quickly — he'd barely had ti to catch a nap outside before being pulled back in.
Still... Folly...
At the thought of that existence, Qin Xin's expression grew sowhat grave.
"It could hardly be called an exchange, but...
He seed to know what I was doing."
"!!??"
Cheng Shi was stunned again. He stared at the two Torchbearers before him in shock, barely able to believe it: "There's a Him who—"
But he instantly realized he'd misspoken. His gaze sharpened and he quickly corrected himself: "He knows you're passing the fla?"
When the two Torchbearers saw Cheng Shi's shocked reaction, both raised their eyebrows. Clearly, the half-word "There's a Him" that Cheng Shi had initially blurted out had caught their attention. So the first "Him" in the Fate Weaver's mouth... was that referring to Folly?
A faint gleam flickered in Qin Xin's eyes. He sensed that Cheng Shi might know things they didn't, but he didn't press the matter. Instead, he quickly shook his head in response to Cheng Shi's question:
"I'm not sure. Because at the ti of my summoning, He asked...
'Do you think your foolish act will have an answer?'"
"..."
Hearing this, Cheng Shi's scalp went numb. He could scarcely imagine — beneath the gaze of a god whose every utterance proclaid "all civilization is folly, all life is foolishness," before a deity whose followers revered Him as the supre wisdom of the universe — could a mortal, a player, truly have any secrets?!
Was He asking a genuine question, or was it mockery?
If the latter, then Folly had long since seen through Deceit's lies.
But if the forr — how could one possibly answer in a way that expressed the aning without revealing any cracks?
Cheng Shi mulled it over but found no answer, so he turned expectantly to Qin Xin, hoping for so unexpected, perfect reply from the founder of the Torchbearers.
Qin Xin sensed Cheng Shi's anticipation, but smiled ruefully:
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I never had the chance to answer.
His question seed more like thinking aloud. By the ti I'd fully processed what He'd said, I'd already been dismissed from the Void."
"..."
Cheng Shi blinked dryly. That answer was indeed unexpected.
Sowhat disappointing, but it fit what he knew. Perhaps this second god of Chaos never expected to hear an answer from other gods, let alone from mortals. After all, in His eyes, everything in the universe was foolish.
"So He summoned you in the Void? Not in so divine realm like the Civilization Lonely Tower?"
"Yes. In the Void, there was only a pair of eyes wreathed in chaotic white miasma. The entire audience consisted of nothing more than my praise and His question.
I wasn't sure whether I'd revealed anything, so I..."
At this point, Qin Xin trailed off with an awkward expression. He'd been about to say he'd gone to the Fla of Hope afterward for confirmation, but he suddenly realized that no matter how much he trusted Cheng Shi, he shouldn't expose the mysterious existence that had been shielding them in front of a player who wasn't a Torchbearer. The room fell awkwardly silent.
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow. He could roughly guess what Qin Xin ant. Regardless of who he'd gone to for confirmation, regardless of whether the Torchbearers had so visible entity helping them behind the scenes — in Cheng Shi's understanding, that "person" could only be Deceit. It had to be Deceit.
Because He had said it Himself — it was His concealnt that kept the Torchbearers hidden from the other gods.
But now it seed the question of whether Folly knew deserved a question mark.
Seeing that Qin Xin was struggling for how to continue, Cheng Shi didn't press further. Instead, he considerately shifted the topic, sparing the two Torchbearers from prolonged discomfort.
"I think I understand. Thank you both for sharing — this is extrely important to ."
In truth, Cheng Shi hadn't gleaned much from Qin Xin's account. The idea that Destiny was seeking to approach Folly couldn't be confird by a single audience. What he was really thinking about was asking the Fun God about whether the Torchbearers had been discovered by Folly the next ti he had an audience.
The Fun God might be able to deceive the entire universe, but the other party was the universe's most "wise" being. So when a liar collided with a sage — who would be the one left standing?
He quietly filed this matter away, then picked up the thread of his earlier conversation with the Blind One.
"From what you've said, War was the first god to summon you?" Cheng Shi turned to the Blind One.
At the ntion of War, the two Torchbearers' expressions shifted in different ways.
A bright gleam flickered through Qin Xin's eyes, though no one noticed before it vanished into his gaze. The Blind One's brow furrowed with renewed puzzlent, as if she'd been transported back to that mont of summoning.
"You seem very interested in Their summons. Are you using them to study the gods?" the Blind One asked curiously.
"Don't you study Them?
When you get down to it, whether it's the History School scouring the Land of Hope for historical records, or the veteran mages constantly trading and sharing intelligence — the fundantal purpose behind all the information they harvest from the ga and from fellow players is to understand Them.
The only difference is that the 'ink and brush' they use to paint Their portraits all cos from other people's understanding.
I've simply taken a shortcut."
Qin Xin and the Blind One assud the shortcut Cheng Shi referred to was gleaning information from other people's audiences. How could they possibly imagine that a player existed who regularly received audiences from the gods themselves, extracting first-hand intelligence about Them straight from Their own mouths?
This clown before them was using his performance on stage to amuse the "audience" below — and through that, to observe Their reactions.
This path — no, in other players' eyes it wouldn't even qualify as a path. It was more like a deluded detour aspiring to reach the heavens. And yet sohow, soone had actually walked this impossible detour all the way through.
The Blind One nodded thoughtfully: "I can't fathom your thod of understanding Them, but I can share what I've witnessed, to thank you for helping us again. No — for helping . Thank you for saving , Cheng Shi."
"..." Cheng Shi gave a dry laugh, unable to find the right words.
He desperately wanted to tease her, because honestly, the urge to roast was irrepressible. But out of respect for the Torchbearers, he held back.
'Sis, maybe do a little less divination from now on.'
"About that — War summoned
very early on. The first ti I reached the top of the Ladder of Ascent, He summoned
to a desolate, annihilated battlefield within the Void."
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened: "When was that?"
"The end of the first month after the Faith Ga descended. He seed to be searching for so answer in , but He was disappointed. All I heard in the dawn of that battlefield was a single sigh, and then I was returned to reality."
"?" Cheng Shi frowned, feeling a strong sense of deja vu.
'Mi Laozhang seed to have had the sa treatnt — he'd also spent a night on a blood-soaked battlefield before being sent back. So... what exactly is this third god of Civilization doing?'
'Is He observing Death and Destiny?'
'But His thod of observation doesn't feel very War-like at all!'
'A finished battlefield — doesn't that an the fire has gone out?'
'And combined with His reputation... could it be...'
'Hiss—'
'Has War truly gone cold?'
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