"You... playing Yu Xi again?" Zhen Xin stared at Cheng Shi, her gaze unreadable.
Hearing the word "again," Zhang Jizu's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "When did you impersonate Him before?"
"..." Cheng Shi's expression stiffened briefly.
'Too many tis. Which one are you asking about?'
But Mi Laozhang wasn't done. "I recall you encountered Him at the end of month four. So you've impersonated Him since then?"
'End of month four?'
The specific date froze both Cheng Shi and Zhen Xin.
Zhen Xin had Cheng Shi's trial mories from his first six months. She could easily deduce that any encounter with Yu Xi could only have occurred in the most recent two months. Zhang Jizu's tiline was impossible.
Cheng Shi was even more baffled by why Mi Laozhang had suddenly fabricated this lie. It couldn't resolve Zhen Xin's curiosity or form a coherent story. The only explanation: Old Zhang had helpfully helped... and made things worse.
He didn't know Zhen Xin had Cheng Shi's mories, so the lie leaked. And the leak might trigger a chain reaction.
Cheng Shi's heart lurched.
'Bad. Walk along the river long enough and your shoes get wet. But I never expected the water to seep up from inside the shoe itself.'
'Now what?'
Despite the awkwardness, Cheng Shi held his composure. He shot Zhang Jizu a hollow smile. And when he caught a glint of scrutiny in those slitted eyes, he realized: Mi Laozhang's remark wasn't accidental. He was probing.
'Does Mi Laozhang know sothing?'
Cheng Shi was too sharp. He imdiately thought of the War Supervisor — who'd vanished from this trial — and the identity he'd exposed before her. That let him recalibrate "end of month four" to "end of month three."
He rembered telling Mi Laozhang that Yu Xi had guided his personality split. So if Mi Laozhang had obtained the tiline from the War Supervisor, then from his perspective, the split had already happened by the ti Cheng Shi fooled Ai Si.
But that was fake.
Zhen Xin also knew it was fake.
If this wasn't resolved today, the Yu Xi tiline would conflict, and two sharp allies would detect holes in his Yu Xi cover story.
'Too many lies. Impossible to patch them all.'
He sighed inwardly.
'Can't hide it from Mi Laozhang anymore. My hesitation just now was probably already noted. Priority is no longer two-way damage control — it's sealing Mi Laozhang's lips and letting him think whatever he wants, as long as Zhen Xin doesn't get suspicious.'
So Cheng Shi imdiately flashed Zhen Xin a "liars understand" smile, signaling he'd rely told Mi Laozhang a harmless white lie in an ergency. Then, while Zhang Jizu retreated into composed silence, he addressed Zhen Xin's original question.
"Ms. Magician — what do you consider devotion?"
"?"
'What does that have to do with Yu Xi?'
Zhen Xin frowned but didn't waste ti debating. She gave him a "go on" look.
Cheng Shi didn't hold back, reciting the ntal draft he'd long prepared:
"For any deity, devotion should an faithfully executing Their will.
Therefore, when we practice Deceit's art, it is naturally the greatest offering to Him.
Especially since Lord Yu Xi is the existence closest to Him. Acting in His na to commit deception is itself an enormous act of piety.
Of course..."
Mid-sentence, Cheng "Steady" patched a safeguard against the magician — or the magician's sister — borrowing his logic.
"This devotion requires one condition: Yu Xi's consent.
When I first t Him, I asked: What can I learn from You?
Lord Yu Xi was very generous. He said I could learn whatever I wished.
So by that reasoning, imitating His appearance should be... not wrong?"
"..."
Zhen Xin had grown up steeped in sophistry. Rarely did brigand logic surprise her. But right now she had to admire Cheng Shi's shalessness.
He was absolutely a clown — and one with supre trolling ability.
She didn't fully buy it though, especially after Mi Laozhang's reaction. The eting between Yu Xi and Cheng Shi likely had more to it. But as a newly minted ally who'd just exchanged innermost secrets, there was no need to call him out on the spot. So she agreed, adding only one question:
"You want to use that identity to pressure Long Jing into spilling sothing?
Smart angle. But... how will you impersonate Yu Xi?
Long Jing isn't Poison. Without real tricks, he won't blindly believe you."
Cheng Shi gave a mysterious smile.
"Relax. I have a clever plan."
...
The two Dragons had, naturally, been played.
When Li Jingming stopped and told Long Jing that the "Cheng Shi" they'd been chasing ahead — pursuing Zhen Yi and Mi Laozhang — was a fake, the Acrobat still refused to accept it.
Perhaps he'd spotted the flaw ages ago. But being strung along was simply too humiliating. He couldn't bring himself to "expose himself."
Because he knew: by the ti you realize you've been fooled, the scales have long tipped toward soone else. No point scrambling for ti anymore — and no need to confront his own foolish act.
But Li Jingming was different. He hadn't just now realized the chase was a decoy. He'd been playing along with Long Jing's charade the entire ti. His true focus had never been on this illusory pursuit — it had remained on the stage where Crown was torn apart!
Though physically absent, he'd been monitoring that stage all along. How?
Praise the power of mory.
Rember how Li Jingming had rearranged body parts to cover Crown's corpse before leaving the stage? During that mont, he'd slipped a tiny mory artifact into an unidentifiable NPC's remains. Even after departing, he could track every developnt on stage.
The technique wasn't flashy — but it was silent and hard to detect. The only drawback was transmission delay: only when the present beca the past did events convert into mory.
So when Dragon King received every mory from the stage and "witnessed" Cheng Shi ultimately besting Zhen Xin, he decided it was ti to return and find his teammates.
He hadn't managed to snatch the Secret Peeping Ear from Cheng Shi. But the clown's swap trick had given him a genuinely fresh idea.
'What a brilliant mory that was.'
As for this embarrassing chase...
Who was truly embarrassed remained debatable. At the very least, it was an amusing mory — one about an overeager Acrobat who'd lost part of his judgnt in his enthusiasm.
Long Jing stood still, studying Dragon King's aningful expression, his own face a riot of emotions.
He felt he'd been duped again. Not just by Cheng Shi and the never-appeared Zhen Yi, but potentially by Dragon King himself.
Yet in every other trial, he was always the one doing the duping. Even in this trial — hadn't he strung that 2,400-point War Supervisor around like a puppet?
Think about it: in this Faith Ga, which player dared impersonate an Envoy — a Servant God?
His genius impersonation had elevated the art of Deceit to historic heights. A feat worthy of the Deceit hall of fa. And yet, despite such "perfection"... he'd ended up the clown.
'Why? They're the clowns. I'm just an acrobat.'
His emotions churned. Sothing like "if only you'd never been born" gnawed at him.
He'd already guessed the answer. The truth likely lay in Crown's body on that stage. His obsession with Lord Yu Xi's ear had caused one misjudgnt — and that single error cost him everything, with no chance to recover.
A loss was a loss. Long Jing didn't dwell on it. Now he just wanted to slightly restore his image the next ti he t Lord Yu Xi — at least rescue evidence of his efforts. Let the Lord know that one of the ears used to resurrect Him had been found by His most loyal follower, Long Jing.
What he never expected was how soon that "next ti" would co!
When the smirking Dragon King and the dejected Long Jing re-entered the theater, they found the stage's victor hadn't left. But the current scene far exceeded all expectations.
Because on the stage stood a tall, gaunt, masked man — wearing an eerie grin and emanating an imperious aura — looking down at the three players beneath him.
...
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