But for Cheng "Steady" Shi, even with the answer right in front of him, blatant copying was off the table. Sa answer, different handwriting — in a world full of change, nothing stayed constant.
So for insurance, he didn't bet everything on the Muddied Waters talent. Instead, he built an extrely steady double-insurance plan to make better use of it.
The plan: con the local scavengers into strapping smoke devices to themselves and charging into the fog.
Once enough smoke saturated the fog, even if his talent couldn't rge with the mist, the blanket of smoke should let the clown "smuggle" himself to the other side one step ahead.
Cheng Shi was pleased with his sche. The scavengers were easy marks — the mont he proved he could revive them, these loose acquaintances beca blood brothers, swearing to bring a new dawn to a San Dales carved up by four factions.
Then...
They failed.
The assault plan rattled the South Stronghold slightly, but nearly everyone died near the Devout Land. They couldn't even smoke-blanket the area.
And it wouldn't have mattered — because Cheng Shi, who'd also approached the fog, discovered that within its range, his Muddied Waters talent simply didn't work.
He couldn't cheat his way to a perfect score.
'Of course. The fog isn't a cheat-code highway — it's a special counterasure against clowns.'
Cheng Shi stood awkwardly outside the wire fence, completely stumped.
That was when his "eyes" told him: the teammates behind him were getting closer.
Eyes — literally.
Credit to Big Cat again. Her generosity had expanded Cheng Shi's operational space considerably.
When Cheng Shi first entered the South Stronghold, he'd already planted an "eye" along the route.
The Tree Spirit Prayer Contract!
This item — which let the user bind a plant as a tree spirit and share partial vision — Cheng Shi had slapped onto a mutant plant dangling from an icicle. When that eye showed three other "Cheng Shis" approaching, he knew ti was running out.
This trial had suddenly beco a "Cheng Shi Civil War."
'Hilarious. Fine — since you all love making trouble, let
make it bigger.'
Cheng Shi moved. First he scanned the stronghold inside and out, locating a scavenger whose shifty eyes and furtive movents scread "carrying a secret." That person was Pro To.
Cheng Shi treated the pitiful scavenger well — then extracted the secrets about Well Si from his mouth.
But ti was too short for Cheng Shi to personally explore Well Si's underground weapon sche. So he used Chaos Acting to beco Pro To, quietly killed Well Si, and hid inside the South Stronghold as an NPC, waiting for the Players to arrive.
The rest was straightforward. The fake Cheng Shi began questioning Pro To's identity. And when he forced "Pro To" to say, "I am Zhen Xin" —
Brother Mouth stepped in.
The Fool's Lips had ignored Cheng Shi the entire way. But at that mont, Cheng Shi struck a deal to keep the performance going.
He promised: if Brother Mouth truly didn't want the Secret Peeping Ear, Cheng Shi would withdraw from the trial entirely and let the three fake Cheng Shis have it.
But if Brother Mouth did want it, then after obtaining the ears, Cheng Shi would follow all of Brother Mouth's arrangents — including acknowledging the Fool's Lips' "supre elder brother" status.
Whether the flattery hit Brother Mouth's sweet spot, or whether Brother Mouth simply wanted a family reunion — the Fool's Lips accepted the deal and spoke for Cheng Shi: "I am Zhen Xin."
And so, right under two Chosen Ones' noses, Cheng Shi slipped through. He joined the trio and descended into the underground tunnels.
Later, when Mi Laozhang sent Ai Si away over the Truth faith issue, Cheng Shi wasn't actually knocked unconscious by a low-level priest. He faked it, lying on the ground at zero cost, and listened to the entire No-Faith Experint's cause and effect crystal clear.
Let's not forget — he'd once seen through the Blind One's faking unconscious trick. That made him an expert faker himself. Whether or not he'd fooled Zhang Jizu, he'd at minimum fooled the "Cheng Shi" present.
When Mi Laozhang dragged him back to the surface — when the trio discovered the smoke assault was a hoax — the most brilliant and seamless mont arrived.
Zhang Jizu finally confird: this Pro To was Cheng Shi. He promptly stabbed him to "death" — though during the process, Mi Laozhang not only kept Cheng Shi alive, but also slipped a Silence-inscribed page into his pocket.
All because Pro To, played by Cheng Shi, had said one helpless line in front of everyone: "I won't say a word about any of this."
Saying nothing equals silence.
Mi Laozhang caught the hint. Delivered the assist.
From there, the Death Chosen took control of the ga's tempo, becoming the new "director." He led the trio back to the stronghold — buying Cheng Shi enough ti to enter the Devout Land first. All his subsequent suspicions and challenges to the others were simply delays for the real Cheng Shi.
As for how Mi Laozhang identified Cheng Shi...
Simple. Cheng Shi had left plenty of breadcrumbs.
Look back at the abandoned Player corpse from the opening.
First: a priest's body — pointing suspiciously at Cheng Shi's class.
Second: a dead follower of Order. And it just so happened that on Cheng Shi's one and only visit to Mi Laozhang's graveyard, the two of them had stood before Order's grave — whether Order the Chosen One or Order the deity herself, it was still Order.
Third: the cause of death was Oblivion. The only one present who had ties to Oblivion was Oblivion's opposite number — Death's Chosen, Zhang Jizu.
Fourth: the corpse had been hollowed out by Oblivion — an empty shell. Now, if Mi Laozhang hadn't fused with Deceit, he wouldn't have thought twice. But from Deceit's perspective, a body that existed on the surface but was void inside — wasn't that the very definition of illusion and falsehood?
So upon seeing the corpse, the sharp-eyed Zhang Jizu had already ford a hypothesis about the missing mber. But with so many "Cheng Shis" running around, he couldn't be certain.
Under normal trial conditions, Zhang Jizu wouldn't have looked deeper — he'd have pegged Cheng Shi as the hidden seventh person imdiately.
But this trial's "Cheng Shi Situation" was absurdly complex. It took him a long ti to verify that the one who'd "escaped" wasn't so Zhen sister, but Cheng Shi himself.
And Cheng Shi's request to Big Cat for that corpse had always been about leaving a trail for Mi Laozhang. He wasn't sure he'd be matched with Zhang Jizu, but the setup was the sa regardless — hit: massive win; miss: no loss.
Before the trial, the only people he trusted were Zhang Jizu and Big Cat. Expecting Big Cat to decode these breadcrumbs was... wishful thinking. The hints were ant for Mi Laozhang from the start.
And Mi Laozhang hadn't let him down. At the most critical mont before entering the Devout Land — the sprint for position — the sharp-eyed Joker delivered a decisive killing blow, buying Cheng Shi a lead on everyone.
The Steady faction took the opening move.
...
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