Cheng Shi returned with his people soon enough, though this ti he'd resorted to violent ans after all.
Qin Xin and the Blind One heard a muffled crack of thunder from the distance, and before long, a skeleton ca hurtling toward them carrying Cheng Shi and a trembling Shanty Area contact man.
The Blind One didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Qin Xin's jaw nearly dropped. He studied Cheng Shi with great interest and asked with a smile:
"Are you looking to fuse with Death?"
"?" Cheng Shi blinked and hopped off the Screaming Servant. "Why are you always worrying about that? Does controlling a skeleton necessarily require fusing faiths? Can't a man just have a thing for bones?"
"...I suppose there's nothing wrong with that." Qin Xin's expression stiffened briefly, then he smiled and let it go.
Cheng Shi wasted no ti. With the two Torchbearers as witnesses, he resurrected the one-ard Shi Lolin, then set up a friendly confrontation platform for all three parties.
Shi Lolin, Mo Rabic and Allendor, and the Shanty Area contact — all sat facing each other, utterly bewildered.
But what none of them expected was that when Shi Lolin awoke from death and opened her eyes, the first to speak wasn't the shrewd Extre Desire Brotherhood boss herself — it was the panic-stricken contact man.
"Lady Shi Lolin! Save !"
The brawny man lunged toward the still-disoriented Shi Lolin, but he'd barely left the ground before Qin Xin pressed him back down with one hand. The Mirror Person applied only minimal force, yet the big man — who was every bit as tall as Qin Xin — broke into a cold sweat, unable to budge.
Cheng Shi noticed and raised an eyebrow.
Strength, speed — both extraordinary. This Mirror Person seed to be deliberately — or perhaps casually — displaying his capabilities.
Was he trying to intimidate the two Folly wise n?
But what was the point? They clearly weren't fighters.
anwhile, Shi Lolin had erged from her foggy consciousness. Seeing so many people surrounding her, alarm flickered through her eyes in rapid succession. But her powerful composure quickly steadied her, and with lingering apprehension, she looked at Cheng Shi:
"I'm... alive again?"
"You were alive the whole ti, Shi Lolin. That was just a simple trick — a little joke we played." Cheng Shi smiled.
"A joke? I certainly hope so." Shi Lolin gave a bitter, self-deprecating laugh. Her gaze swept across her subordinate and over to the two bewildered wise n nearby. She frowned, seed to recall sothing, and understanding suddenly dawned: "So you ca here for the Divinity? You've set your sights on Mr. Mo Rabic's experint?"
At those words, sharp glints simultaneously flashed through all three players' eyes. Mo Rabic himself, however, was genuinely confused. He pondered for a mont, then shook his head with utmost gravity:
"Lady Shi Lolin, while we have indeed heard your na and do intend to make contact with you, I must emphasize — we only just set foot in the Shanty Area. We haven't had ti to find you yet. So how do you know my na?"
"?" Shi Lolin's brow darkened with displeasure. "We spent three days negotiating the terms of the deal. It was only after you showed
that thing that I agreed to the trade. Have you forgotten?
No — you don't look like you've forgotten. Has soone tampered with your mories?"
Shi Lolin was alard. She looked to Cheng Shi, assuming the only person capable of ddling with these people's minds was the Fate Weaver who'd killed her.
Cheng Shi shrugged, indicating he hadn't touched them, and then asked with a grin: "What exactly did these two Folly followers show you?"
Shi Lolin frowned, increasingly lost. She exchanged another uncertain glance with Mo Rabic, then muttered to herself in deep confusion:
"Folly... what is that, exactly?"
"?"
This remark imdiately ruffled the two wise n. Their faces stiffened and they moved to correct her, but Cheng Shi raised a hand to silence them, his curiosity piqued as he asked Shi Lolin again:
"You don't know the na Folly?"
"Why... should I?
Sounds like the na of so wild god. Besides, they never ntioned anything called 'Folly' when we spoke. I always assud they were followers of so minor wild god. And now that I hear it... yeah, sounds about right."
"..."
Cheng Shi's expression beca a masterpiece of contradictions.
'Lady, you've got nerves. To casually disdain the god of Folly Himself rather than just His followers — you're the first person I've seen do that.'
'Truly worthy of the Extre Desire Brotherhood. When desire runs wild, it runs wild.'
Still, sothing was odd. Even the Shanty Area grunts knew Folly's divine na. How could the person in charge not know?
Even just from aggregating intelligence, she should have heard it ntioned at least once.
Cheng Shi's questioning gaze drifted to the surviving contact man, who sensed the attention and promptly volunteered: "We — oh no, I also only heard about it from outside. It does sound like a wild god..."
He even shot a loyalty-affirming glance at Shi Lolin after saying it.
Good grief — the man had guts!
Cheng Shi grinned. He didn't dwell on these minor episodes and instead had Shi Lolin recount her negotiations with Mo Rabic while having the two wise n retrace their movents for the day.
Both sides' recollections were reasonably clear. Within the scope of their own experiences, neither lied. But the mont the topic touched on the negotiations, the two sides gave completely contradictory accounts.
Shi Lolin was adamant she'd t them. The wise n insisted they'd never set foot inside the shanties. And the contact man's account — claiming the orders he'd received were muddled, saying he'd never even seen these two — sealed the picture. After this round of confrontation, the three players understood.
Sothing was wrong with Shi Lolin's cognition.
But to be safe, the trio decided to go one step further: Qin Xin tracked down every witness Shi Lolin claid had been present at the negotiations and sought testimony. Yet every last one of these supposed witnesses insisted they'd never attended any negotiation.
At this point, all three were nearly certain: Shi Lolin was one of the trial's anomalies, and most likely the future "discrepancy" — because what she described plainly hadn't happened yet.
Mo Rabic and Allendor had only just arrived at the shanties, hadn't made contact with her, yet she'd issued the order to have her people stand by for the rendezvous three days ago. If that wasn't "the future," it was hard to imagine what kind of "discrepancy" could qualify.
And so the trail that began with Alo Manni's identity ultimately pointed to the Extre Desire Brotherhood's boss — Shi Lolin.
This shrewd Corruption follower, without even realizing it, had crossed the boundary of Ti from another tiline into this one, becoming the players' first key to solving the puzzle.
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