Cheng Shi had indeed co — though a small episode occurred before he reached 0221's experint site.
After eting Hong Lin, he handed over all his divinity. All of it, that is, except the Deceit divinity.
Not because he didn't want to — Hong Lin hadn't asked for it.
According to her, Wei Mu never used Deceit divinity in his experints or replications, because it most likely couldn't guarantee reliable results.
Understandable as that was, Cheng Shi couldn't help laughing for a good while when he heard the reason. Apparently, the Fun God's reputation for being "universally annoying among the gods" was now trickling down to His followers.
He'd hoped to use this opportunity to et the Road to Ascension's top-ranked player, but Wei Mu proved even more enigmatic than Cheng Shi had imagined. He never appeared in person, communicating with Hong Lin solely through a dead-fish-eyed puppet at long range.
This Behind-the-Scenes Puppeteer seed inexplicably committed to never stepping out from behind the curtain — playing his class description's role to the letter.
So when Cheng Shi learned he was supposed to hand all that divinity over to a marionette, the prudent Clown was flabbergasted. He kept turning to Hong Lin, asking again and again whether this was a scam. Hong Lin, however, was utterly certain — she simply dumped all the divinity into the puppet without hesitation.
"You trust him that much?" Cheng Shi asked, curious.
"No. I trust myself. I'm betting he doesn't dare cross ."
"..."
Cheng Shi felt helpless — but he had to admit, Hong Lin's bet paid off.
Lucky-girl's luck was still going strong.
Nobody expected Wei Mu to work that fast. In just a single day, he'd converted every last piece of divinity into admission tickets, and — in a feat that defied comprehension — optimized 0221's divinity fusion sche, slashing the divinity cost of each teleportation component to the bare minimum.
On top of that, he'd thoughtfully handled the ticket distribution himself, informing Hong Lin and Cheng Shi that all tickets had been delivered. At least a third of the recipients were obsessive enthusiasts of the Tower of Logic's various experints. Their presence would maximally disrupt 0221's work, since every single detail inside would be worth endless scrutiny and study to these people.
Another third were friends Hong Lin had called in, plus a number of capable, motivated peak players who wanted a piece of the action. They had the strength to cause 0221 serious trouble, creating enough openings for Hong Lin's rescue.
The remaining third were pure cannon fodder. A grand show couldn't do without extras, Wei Mu insisted — and Hong Lin and Cheng Shi weren't in a position to argue.
Cheng Shi's only request was to save a ticket for the Dragon King. Wei Mu agreed, saying he could forget anyone else but never Li Jingming.
Cheng Shi wasn't surprised the two knew each other. He was simply curious how the man had pulled all of this off so quickly. In a single day, the Folly Chosen had paved every road, and that road led straight to the Truth Chosen's real-world experint.
Hard to say personal grudges hadn't played a part, but as long as the job was done.
Now they only needed to wait for the appointed ti, and every player holding a divinity ticket would enter 0221's experint simultaneously, letting Hong Lin complete her "rescue" amid the chaos.
Wei Mu had made one request: that Hong Lin take his immobile marionette proxy along.
This was hardly an unreasonable ask, so she naturally agreed. After collecting the tickets belonging to herself and Cheng Shi, the two settled in to wait for the transmission ti.
In the interim, Cheng Shi prepared multiple contingencies. He couldn't help worrying that the whole thing was a ruse by Wei Mu — especially the possibility that Wei Mu and 0221 were in cahoots. But Big Cat didn't overthink it. She simply handed the puppet to Cheng Shi with a reminder:
"Protect yourself. I'll bring Tao Yi back as fast as I can."
"But have you considered — what if the tickets don't work?"
Hong Lin's gaze hardened as she stared icily at the puppet in Cheng Shi's hands. "Either Tao Yi lives, or Wei Mu dies. There is no third option."
"..."
That shut Cheng Shi up. He could see it plainly — the Prosperity Agent's fury had reached the breaking point. All Big Cat needed now was a playground to rampage in.
And the mont the teleportation activated...
"ROAAARR—"
Cheng Shi felt his body go weightless. Before he could even open his eyes, the ground beneath him was caving downward at a terrifying rate, a howling gale nearly knocking him off his feet. When his eyes snapped open, he realized it wasn't so spell — it was the shockwave of air rippling outward from a colossal bear launching itself off the ground!
Big Cat had moved!
Within this shared experint site, she had finally sensed that Tao Yi was alive.
The instant her feet touched down, she shifted into her bear spirit form and bolted in a single direction. Days of worry and rage transford her into a rampaging siege engine, smashing forward with devastating force toward wherever Tao Yi was.
Nothing could stop Big Cat in her near-frenzy state. Whether it was tentacles dense as curtains of rain or immovable reinforced concrete, everything was torn to shreds in the wake of her fury-fueled charge.
In the ti it took Cheng Shi to steady himself, a perfectly straight "tunnel" had appeared before him — unobstructed, running all the way to the end. And beyond the tunnel...
Rivers of blood, mulch of flesh, nothing but ruins.
Even the puppet in his hand, witnessing this, clacked its jaw open and shut in utmost admiration:
"It seems Fate has smiled upon this Druid. Interesting. Perhaps drawing closer to the Void truly is the answer?"
"?"
Cheng Shi frowned and glanced at the puppet in his hand. That remark didn't sound like it was about Hong Lin — more like it was probing him.
He didn't take the bait. Instead, he began carefully surveying his surroundings.
This was clearly a rged city-center district. Skyscrapers towered on every side, and every building was draped in writhing tentacles.
Anyone suddenly confronted with this nightmarish sea of tentacles would probably feel their scalp crawl. Cheng Shi, however, not only felt no fear — he actually experienced a faint sense of familiarity.
Because he recognized what these tentacles were at first glance!
Birth!
To be precise: newborns influenced by Birth's power. These particular newborns had all grown together, making them look even more grotesquely twisted, but in essence they were no different from the things he'd delivered back in Dolgod.
'Old friends, these tentacles.'
And the mont Birth crossed his mind, Cheng Shi recalled everything the Dragon King had told him. So 0221 really was replicating the Stars Dagger here?
He'd even matched the original's divinity selection to the letter!
The only question was: how had he fabricated the Corruption pseudo-god that was supposed to contest the Eternal Sun for Authority?
Still, for such a massive, covert operation, wasn't it strange that the mastermind placed no restrictions on who entered via divinity ticket?
If everyone charged in like Big Cat did...
Even without Big Cat's raw power, if every individual caused a bit of havoc, how could the experint possibly continue?
Cheng Shi frowned in suspicion. His eyes swept the area, searching for traces of arrays. Seeing his expression, the puppet in his hand chuckled and spoke:
"No need to look. The arrays here have already been destroyed by the divinity tickets I modified.
That was the easiest thing to reverse-engineer. If I were running this experint, I'd definitely set traps to prevent anyone from leaving — to stop the experintal material from exhibiting changes I didn't want to see.
So when crafting the tickets, I'd already accounted for that. Within my improved spliced divinity, I embedded two teleportations. When the first teleport initiates, a redundant divinity bomb arrives here a step ahead of you. Stimulated by the various arrays, it... 'boom' — annihilates every array-trap in the area. Only then are you transported in.
Furthermore, to guard against multiple contingency chanisms on his part, I offset the teleport coordinates slightly, making each ticket's destination unique. While this risked sending so people outside the target zone...
It maximizes the preservation of the entrants' strength. And I trust that regardless of how quickly or slowly your rescue goes, you'll need their help — at the very least, to cause disruption.
I'm a smart man who values efficiency. I always think a few steps further than everyone else.
Good plan, no? From what I can see, it's going rather smoothly."
"..."
...
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