Long Jing's desire to fuse Existence was hardly new.
He was a smart man with a clear growth plan. Every faith had its rits, but Existence and Void undeniably represented the pinnacle of the arcane, wielding extraordinary power.
So the mont he'd learned about faith fusion, he'd started plotting how to rge his Deceit with Existence. And since he wasn't sure opposing faiths could fuse, his first target had always been Ti.
An acrobat renowned for agility paired with a Pointer Knight fad for seizing the perfect mont — the combination was enough to set one's blood pumping.
He'd even been positioning himself near the mysterious Ti Chosen, Lao Deng.
Tragically, before the plan could advance, Lao Deng died. Nobody knew how. Long Jing lost his path to Ti. But Fate's wheel turned again, bringing him back before Lord Yu Xi — and this golden opportunity.
On stage, Cheng Shi hadn't seen this coming either. He thought: 'Now I genuinely must praise Fate. I don't even need to explain — I can straight-up send Long Jing to Ti.'
As for how to arrange it...
Lord Yu Xi — no, Cheng Shi — suddenly went rigid. Then an aura eerily close to Theirs erupted from his body. The intensity made Zhen Xin and Zhang Jizu, standing closest, shudder. Even the illusory Cheng Shi flickered from the overwhelming density of Deceit's essence.
Zhen Xin and Mi Laozhang exchanged grave looks, each reading shock in the other's eyes. Then both looked up at "Cheng Shi." In that instant, through the mask's eye-slits, they glimpsed a pair of "utterly inhuman" laughing eyes.
Sothing was wrong with Cheng Shi's Yu Xi. In this mont, it was as though a real Yu Xi had possessed his body!
This terrifyingly potent Yu Xi swept his gaze — frigid and eerie — across all four players, stage and audience alike. Then He looked at Long Jing and chuckled:
"A Void walker eyeing Existence. Good — guiding Existence toward Void is indeed your duty.
I happen to know a very dull old friend. Long Jing, I can give you an opportunity — take you to et Him. If you can persuade Him, I believe busy Ti may not refuse Deceit's approach.
After all, mory has already fallen. Ti's compromise is rely a matter of ti."
Every face in the room changed color. Everyone furrowed their brows, parsing the layers of aning — everyone except Long Jing, who was simply overjoyed.
"My Lord — this old friend of Yours is...?"
"Shi Zhen. You may call Him Shi Zhen.
He is the first clock hand that Ti personally crafted after descending. While Ti's attention wanders from the present, Shi Zhen devoutly marks every mont's temporal footnote for his Benefactor."
"Shi Zhen..."
Long Jing repeated the na, internally stunned. It sounded like an Envoy's na. So Ti also had an Envoy?
Why hadn't anyone known? Why were Envoys of Void and Existence suddenly appearing in droves?
Was the Faith Ga changing?
He looked uncertainly toward Dragon King — whose brow was knotted even tighter.
If the Yu Xi who'd winked at him earlier was definitely Cheng Shi, then whatever now inhabited Cheng Shi's body... was genuinely uncertain.
Impersonating soone wasn't hard. Fooling a crowd wasn't hard. Mimicking a deanor wasn't hard. What was hard: a mortal radiating an aura rivaling a true Servant God's.
The initial Cheng Shi had a similar feeling, attributable to the Secret Peeping Ear's influence. But now?
An existence this reminiscent of a deity — could it still be called acting?
Not just Li Jingming. On stage, Zhen Xin and Zhang Jizu were also thinking. Especially Zhen Xin — she was nearly certain Cheng Shi had been replaced. She was too close, bathed in that Deceit-grade divine aura.
If Yu Xi hadn't descended personally, she couldn't imagine Cheng Shi mastering this level of perfect impersonation. To date, the universal player consensus — the ga's fundantal rule — was that no talent could generate divinity from nothing. Even with three Deceit creations, Cheng Shi couldn't possibly have this power.
Because once he had it, he'd stop being "him" and beco "Him"!
At that point, whether he was Cheng Shi or Yu Xi wouldn't matter — he'd have transcended playerhood into sothing indistinguishable from a Servant God!
Moreover, if Cheng Shi already possessed such power, he'd have no need to sche with the group. No need to write scripts to fool a dispensable Long Jing. He'd simply have revealed it to her earlier and seized far more through "commands."
But he hadn't.
So... what had changed on stage?
'The Jokers' performance caught the real Yu Xi's eye — drawing His attention!?'
'If He'd been watching all along, what was this sudden descent for!?'
'Or had the three assembled artifacts awakened Him, seizing Cheng Shi's body?'
The situation turned complex. Every liar present was stunned.
Only Cheng Shi continued his flawless performance. Secretly elated, outwardly impeccable — because this was always part of his script. A yin-yang script designed to fool everyone again.
The surface script: end the trial, divert trouble, and close San Dales' farce with a satisfying question mark.
But beneath the script he'd shared with Zhen Xin and Mi Laozhang, he'd embedded a one-man show all his own.
Its purpose: deepen one impression in everyone's mind — Yu Xi truly exists. And He is right here!
Cheng Shi had found the perfect thod of playing Yu Xi. With this thod, he was certain that barring the sixteen true gods in person, he could fool even dual-Envoys like Aph Ros.
Because he'd uncovered this trial's greatest secret. One no other player knew — one even Mi Laozhang hadn't noticed:
The faithless deity!
Rember the faithless god behind the stage curtains?
It hadn't vanished. Cheng Shi had pocketed it imdiately.
Rewind to the mont Cheng Shi kicked open the Joy Theater doors. When he'd charged the stage and helped Mi Laozhang abduct the real Crown, he'd noticed the anomaly behind the curtain.
It looked exactly like Crown. But it radiated an unknown divine glow that prevented imdiate identification.
Regardless of what it was — if Cheng Shi found it, it was Cheng Shi's.
So the clown shoved "Crown" into... the Molten Coffin.
A perfectly logical move. Facing a humanoid non-living entity, the Molten Coffin was its only ho.
But the instant he touched it, "Crown" disintegrated — dissolving into a ripple of nothingness that sank directly into Cheng Shi's consciousness.
Terror. He feared parasitic contamination. But when the thing slowly solidified inside his mind, all fear evaporated. What remained was... boundless shock and indescribable elation.
Because in that mont, he finally understood what Hu Xuan had ant by "Container."
Yes — what had entered his consciousness was a Container.
A Container tinged with the color of Deceit!
...
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