Standard Truth will. Devout Truth rhetoric.
Though every word Wang Mou spoke was technically true, Cheng Shi privately shook his head — he didn't believe a single one.
He could tell this Truth follower was far from straightforward. He just couldn't yet determine what the man was hiding beneath his generous sharing. Moreover, sothing about the mine itself clearly held secrets he hadn't yet uncovered — secrets that seed to make every teammate who'd explored it co back acting noticeably stranger than before.
Cheng Shi raised his head and gazed toward the mine, his expression both puzzled and deep. While he was still mulling things over, the Blind One had already struck up a conversation with the Investigator nearby.
"Your aura's beco a lot more... lively, Investigator. Did sothing good happen?"
Li Wufang seed surprised that the Blind One would engage him. He shook his head with a grin:
"No — nothing at all.
All I did was lighten the Doctor's load and keep an eye on Ad Ric. Beyond that, I've accomplished absolutely nothing.
I'm not as lucky as the Doctor, finding all these wonderful things. I've got terrible luck — all I ran into was one not-very-attractive man.
This Proxy Hand leader rushed to the mine with great urgency. Seed like he was trying to rally his n for sothing. I didn't bother investigating — didn't want to waste ti. I only knew that if he assembled a force, our mine exploration would get a lot harder. So I went ahead and tied him up.
But — it seems you're all quite interested in this 'mine boss.' Does that an my little contribution to the team counts for sothing?
When we're distributing rewards from all these wonderful things the Doctor found... would there maybe be a share for
too?"
"..."
The Blind One fell silent. Sohow, she caught a whiff of Cheng Shi's essence in Li Wufang's words.
Strange — why was this sunny, cheerful Investigator suddenly acting so much like Cheng Shi?
And it wasn't just the Blind One. Cheng Shi felt it too. For a split second he was almost disoriented, as if he'd suddenly looked into a mirror.
Had the Mirror Person made a move?
Impossible. A Mirror Person's ability was to make themselves mimic others — it certainly wasn't so "mirror" that made others reflect oneself.
Cheng Shi's frown deepened. His gaze at Wang Mou and Li Wufang grew even more peculiar.
Wang Mou, anwhile — seeing that no one had responded to Li Wufang — corrected him with his customary seriousness:
"Finding the Abyss Colorful Crystal wasn't luck. Though I'm an assassin, I've devoted considerable ti to studying Divinity. Long accumulation leads to eventual breakthroughs. Without prior research, I couldn't have found these so readily.
On the road to pursuing Truth, attitude matters, thodology matters, perseverance matters, capability matters — but luck... that's a variable.
An uncontrollable variable can never be important."
Aside from the two wise n who partially agreed with the Doctor's "theory," everyone else's reactions varied wildly.
Qin Xin's lips curled faintly. The Blind One wore an impassive expression. Li Wufang looked like it went in one ear and out the other. Only Cheng Shi... outwardly he appeared admiring, but inwardly he was grumbling.
'How hypocritical!'
He distinctly rembered how deeply moved the Doctor had been at the inn when Cheng Shi had shared his theory about fate. Back then, Wang Mou had put on a whole "Destiny is important too" act. But now that he'd achieved sothing himself, he'd thrown Destiny's guidance out the window.
'Tsk — Doctor, Doctor. Let
tell you: Destiny... isn't always so forgiving.'
'You'd better watch yourself.'
When all the trial's players reconvened, they naturally launched into a second round of discussion about the trial's clues. The Shanty Area team and the mine team each shared their findings, cross-examined each other for several rounds, and arrived at a unanimous conclusion: they'd been lucky enough to identify the "present" and "future" discrepancies on the very first day of a seven-day trial. As for where the "past" lay, and whether additional "presents" and "futures" existed — those would likely beco the agenda for day two.
Because with the Abyss Colorful Crystal right before them, virtually everyone found the conversation drifting — uncontrollably, inevitably — toward Divinity. With such an auspicious start, why not seize this perfect alignnt of timing, terrain, and personnel to grab the Divinity that was practically within reach?
Especially with two eager wise n beside them who could barely contain themselves. So everyone hit it off instantly. They led all the NPCs to the Proxy Hand's only quiet and suitable location within the mine. After "arranging" the trial-related individuals, the players created an absolutely undisturbed experintal space for Mo Rabic and Allendor.
Wang Mou once again laid out the Abyss Colorful Crystal. Cheng Shi, as promised, returned Zangier's finger. Mo Rabic rifled through the Crystal pile, selecting one that felt optimal in both quality and intuition for the "opening act." The irrepressible grin on his face seed to say: never in the Underworld had these Folly followers fought from such a position of abundance.
Allendor was ready too. As the experint's primary operator, he'd reached near-peak ntal condition with the Fate Weaver's help. Everything was in place. The experint seed ready to begin.
But the atmosphere was almost unbearably taut. Never mind the five players all watching each other — even the two experinters wore gravely solemn expressions. The tension made Cheng Shi feel constrained. Fearing excessive nerves would cause another failure, he decided to warm things up and break the ice by asking a question that had nagged him the entire way.
"Mr. Mo Rabic — the Grand Scholar La Biao that the Doctor ntioned earlier... is he your father?"
As he spoke, Cheng Shi glanced at Wang Mou. Wang Mou's subtle nod confird his guess — the portrait of La Biao he'd seen did indeed bear a strong resemblance to Mo Rabic.
Yet, to everyone's surprise, Mo Rabic frowned at the question and shook his head, denying it. And more than that — Allendor, standing to the side, went dark-faced and blurted out an absurd-sounding fact.
"Hmph. Lord La Biao is my father."
"?"
Now it wasn't just Cheng Shi — even Wang Mou was taken aback. He studied Allendor up and down with knitted brows, then shook his head with utmost gravity:
"That doesn't track. The eyes and brow in La Biao's portrait are strikingly similar to Mo Rabic's — no, they're practically a younger copy of him. But you...
I think you more closely resemble another scholar from that experint — Lun Zol's descendant. Your face shape and hair color are much closer to his."
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