"She was in too much pain. I gave her a temporary release — now we've got three units of manpower.
What a sha about that ball of yarn, though. Bit of a waste.
Why are you looking at
like that? I've always been this kind. No need for complints — offer all your praise to our Benefactor instead. It was His guidance that led
to do this.
Let's go, my friends. Now we have the most efficient arrangent.
As for you, Alo Manni — I trust you'll be a good girl, stay here, and help us gather whatever useful information you can. Right?"
Alo Manni was terrified out of her mind. Ashen-faced, she nodded like a frantic chicken pecking at rice.
"I like the Shanty Area. The people here are really easy to communicate with."
'Is that really how you asure communicability?'
The Blind One sighed helplessly, shaking her head: "Every ti my impression of you begins to crystallize, you promptly demolish and repaint it. Cheng Shi, are you always this guarded?"
"Guarded? About what? Is there an enemy here?"
"...Never mind. Perhaps you've always been this cautious. But the Torchbearers aren't worth expending so much ntal energy over. Qin Xin — let's go."
With that, the Blind One took the lead and stepped out of the shanty. But after only two steps, she suddenly turned back and asked Cheng Shi with a puzzled expression:
"Oh, by the way — why didn't you use Death's mory this ti to verify the things you just asked about?"
Cheng Shi blinked, then a knowing smirk tugged at his lips: "Why show off in front of a master? There's a mory follower right here — and he hasn't made a move. Who am I to embarrass myself? Wouldn't you agree, Qin Xin?"
Qin Xin gave a faint smile, glanced at the Shi Lolin in his hands, and shook his head: "No need to waste the effort. I trust our friend. Your questioning was thorough — mory had no role to play."
With that, this ti it was he who led the way out of the shanty. The Blind One raised an eyebrow and followed close behind.
Watching the scene, Cheng Shi furrowed his brow as well.
This mory follower was growing more and more mysterious. From the start of this trial, it seed... he hadn't once used mory's power.
Of course, what Cheng Shi ant by "used" was personally wielding the power of his faith — not borrowing so mory artifact.
But that wasn't even the strangest part. The strangest part was the Blind One's attitude. The question she'd paused to ask didn't look like it was aid at him at all.
'Hiss—'
'Does she also have doubts about Qin Xin's identity?'
'Could the Torchbearers' founder and the Fire Seeker still be keeping little secrets from each other?'
Cheng Shi was amused. He quietly filed this away, then picked a random direction and headed toward the deeper reaches of the Shanty Area.
But the mont he stepped through the door and lifted his foot, he suddenly realized he'd almost lost track of ti. He quickly checked his watch and found that — what perfect timing — the hour mark was just seconds away.
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened. He instantly looked up and saw the Blind One already far ahead, about to round a street corner. He called out to stop her, tapped his wrist, and said: "You two — be careful."
The Blind One understood. She nodded with a hint of appreciation. But when she turned to find Qin Xin, she discovered their leader had already rounded the corner and departed without a care.
It seed there was no danger here.
She smiled faintly, made a quick divination, then continued forward — carrying a die showing two — with a peculiar expression.
'Seems like I picked the wrong direction?'
Cheng Shi couldn't see any of this. He imdiately sprang into action as well, retracing his earlier path back to the Shanty Area's periter. Enduring the vile, raucous chaos surrounding him, he dropped his dice one after another at the entrance of every shanty he passed.
Yes, he'd retreated from the center and decided to re-explore the edges instead.
Two Torchbearers were plenty for the core district. What Cheng Shi cared about more were the sentry-like mud-and-earth houses ringing the Shanty Area's outskirts. These structures were like tentacles extending beyond the shanties, maintaining close contact with Falling Gate's other districts, factions, and people. Investigating here would clearly unravel more networks and expand the web of leads.
So he set his target and began canvassing the Shanty Area's outermost ring.
He'd assud that no matter how debauched, how depraved, how devoutly Corruption-worshipping the Shanty Area was, the watchtower-like outposts would at least have a few people doing actual work.
After circling halfway around, Cheng Shi discovered he was wrong. Dead wrong.
The outside was no different from the inside. Revelers — check. Drinking buddies — check. Whip-crackers — check. Willing recipients — check. The sheer variety and volu of activities was staggering.
These Extre Desire Brotherhood mbers didn't treat these posts as guard stations at all. They'd turned them into novelty experience zones offering ambiance different from the standard shanty fare.
Look at that — even during shift rotations, they could still serve clients. What dedication.
"..."
Cheng Shi felt numb. He walked along, rinsing his eyes with water as he went, thinking that the Corruption faith truly was sothing you couldn't touch even a little.
Fortunately, he held firm to his convictions and would never bow to desire.
After exploring a while longer, Cheng Shi reached the Shanty Area's opposite side. A bit further northeast from here lay the cell where Ad Ric had been detained. He figured that if this search yielded nothing, he might as well swing by and bring Shi Lolin's brother back — controlling two local power brokers at once might smooth things out for the next few days.
But just then — precisely when Cheng Shi had all but given up on the Shanty Area — the anomaly appeared.
Just as Shi Lolin had said: when everyone's getting beaten and you're the one who isn't, you're the anomaly.
And inside the mud-and-earth house before Cheng Shi, there were exactly two people who "weren't getting beaten."
It was far too quiet in here. While everyone else was busy with "extracurriculars" during working hours, these two were... actually working?
Cheng Shi grinned. He felt he'd finally found sothing interesting. After dropping a die outside the door, he knocked and stepped inside.
The two reasonably burly n inside both froze at the knock. When they saw Cheng Shi's unfamiliar attire, their eyes lit up. They rushed over in a single stride, seized his hands without preamble, and practically vibrated with excitent:
"Mr. Mo Rabic? Three days — we've been waiting three whole days for you! If you hadn't shown up soon, I'd have lost all my regulars!"
"???"
What?
Cheng Shi was dumbstruck.
He suddenly found himself conflicted about whether to play along or not.
Under normal circumstances, whenever soone mistook him for another person, he would imdiately slip into that identity and pump them for information.
But today, he was facing two n from the Shanty Area — quite possibly Extre Desire Brotherhood mbers. In front of people like these, was it safe to put on that disguise?
'They wouldn't strip
down along with the disguise... would they?'
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