He was back. Finally back.
Lying on the rooftop floor, gazing up at a cloudless sky, letting the blazing sun paint every inch of his skin. Only when the heat verged on scorching did it manage to chase away so of the chill inside him.
Trouble had arrived.
Cheng Shi had never been one to shy away from trouble — but that was contingent on the trouble not coming from a Him whose power far exceeded his ability to handle.
It was just like those first months when Fate had been watching him. When you knew a deity with ill intentions was peering at you from the shadows, you simply couldn't face a trial with ease. The only option was to tighten every nerve and tread carefully.
This feeling had been absent for a while. Ever since fusing all of Void's faiths, he hadn't felt pressure like this.
The "covetous gaze" of a deity...
To cope with his frustration, Cheng Shi even tried consoling himself: looked at from another angle, if he were a Descent Faction mber or a God Worship Society zealot, wouldn't this be the highlight of his entire life?
But fantasy could never truly soothe anxiety. After wallowing for a mont, Cheng Shi sat up, grave-faced, and began thinking about how to deal with this — from his perspective — utterly inexplicable Oblivion crisis.
First, his strength had undeniably improved vastly since the days when Fate had been watching him. He carried four faiths, possessed countless tools, and with the Destined Ones and the Joker alliance, he'd amassed formidable divine resources and most of the intelligence network in this ga.
This should have been enough for the Clown to handle any crisis. Except this ti, the crisis ca from... above. From the very source of certain players' power.
The gap in Status rendered all those preparations aningless.
But not entirely aningless. At least... there was the container.
With that thought, Cheng Shi brought out the container he'd just received. Ever since the Fun God had dyed it, Cheng Shi could switch the container's state by channeling different powers of faith — toggling between Deceit and Chaos.
But only those two. Fate and Ti still wouldn't activate.
So Cheng Shi concluded that "having a god dye the container first" was likely a prerequisite. Mortal faith could switch between colors but couldn't activate new ones.
In its current state, switching to Fate or Ti was pointless anyway.
After all, the container's function was to drip divinity, and the raw material for that divinity was faith — faith directed at the container's holder.
Taking the current container as a reference: when switched to the Chaos state, divinity dripped far faster than in the Deceit state. That forced Cheng Shi to ponder what caused the difference.
After much deliberation, there was only one answer:
The renown of Chaos Envoy Ultraman had spread vastly farther than that of Deceit Envoy Yu Xi. Ultraman was a figure written into history — one who had, in a sense, guided the underground Chaos forces in their counterattack against the surface.
Yu Xi, on the other hand, was just a na recognized by a handful of players.
Combining this with his previous conversations with Hu Xuan, Wei Mu, Aph Ros, and others, Cheng Shi arrived at an exceedingly simple conclusion:
The more people who believed, the faster divinity dripped. It wasn't just about purity, as previously understood — it was about speed.
So the fact that his container had begun dripping divinity from the very mont he received it ca down to one fundantal reason: he'd been walking the right path from the very start.
Unlike Hu Xuan — the Eternal Sun was ultimately a star hoisted into the sky by an experint. Aside from the residents of Far Dusk Town within that experint, no one worshipped her.
But Cheng Shi was different. The Ultraman identity had given him enormous advantages. At this rate, he would soon obtain his first shard of Chaos divinity.
Of course, this "right path" hadn't been one he'd paved himself — the Fun God had laid the groundwork long ago.
Cheng Shi often reflected that given a deity's foresight — their ability to perceive past and future and lay plans far in advance — it was, for an ignorant mortal, effectively just another form of Fixed Destiny.
So it wasn't only Fate who awaited Fixed Destiny. Deceit had been paving that Fixed Destiny well before it arrived.
Yet possessing divinity didn't an Cheng Shi had the strength to fight Oblivion. So far, he was still like a rich man sitting on a fortune he didn't know how to spend — unable to effectively convert divinity into combat power.
Logically, Envoy = one complete set of divinity
the authority of a Proxy Action.
And right now, Cheng Shi equaled: one set of mixed divinity, plus one promising future set of complete divinity, plus two Proxy Action authorities. Nurically, he was worth two Envoys. But in essence... he wasn't much different from an ordinary player.
Aside from a few intimidating titles, he was still a mortal.
This made Cheng Shi anxious. Before, when he'd been matching wits with other players, these impressive facades had been his bread and butter. But the mont his enemy beca one of Them, those sa things beca the Clown's codic props — good for laughs and nothing else.
So to maximize the resources at his disposal, Cheng Shi humbly consulted an expert — well, not a person. A mouth.
He took out the Tongue of Eating Lies and the Secret Peeping Ear, placed them on the ground, and then set down a bottle of tentacle sli drink to represent the Fool's Lips. And there, on this sun-scorched rooftop, he convened a small eting on "Yu Xi" and "divinity."
Seeing the tongue and ear both lacking enthusiasm, Cheng Shi had no choice but to ask Brother Mouth first.
"Brother Mouth, since you were once an Envoy, how about sharing how an Envoy's divinity should actually be used?"
The Fool's Lips detected the probing nature of the question but stayed silent — no comnt.
Out of options, Cheng Shi gulped down a bottle of sli drink with several hearty swigs, placed a fresh bottle in the sa spot, and asked again.
"..."
The spectacle made the newcor ear marvel at the novelty.
"Is this how you two normally communicate?" the Secret Peeping Ear asked curiously.
"This has nothing to do with communication. I was just thirsty."
The mont the words left Cheng Shi's mouth, the ear before him let out a soft hum and began "relaying" the truth hidden behind the lie:
"I don't know if it actually works, but grossing out Brother Mouth at least helps
blow off steam."
"..."
Cheng Shi froze. He stared at the ear in disbelief. "Didn't you and Brother Mouth... rge?"
The Secret Peeping Ear rotated elegantly left and right and shook its head. "We didn't. Brother Mouth normally doesn't let
talk. But right now, there's a seat for
at this table, so I've naturally reverted to being myself."
Cheng Shi's spirits surged. Eyes blazing, he locked onto the ear and probed: "So Brother Mouth is your leader — isn't that right? Maybe it isn't about which organ you are at all. Maybe the being you once combined into was called Yu Xi, and only Brother Mouth kept His na?"
It was a plausible suspicion. But this ti, it wasn't the ear that answered — it was his own mouth.
The Fool's Lips spoke: "Yes. I won't hide it from you any longer..."
But before it could finish, the ear on the ground squird and "contradicted":
"If I'd known the na 'Fool's Lips' would cause this much trouble, I would've called myself the Giggling Lips instead. Surely no idiot would go around calling themselves 'Giggle.'"
The entire rooftop fell silent.
Cheng Shi's eyelid twitched violently. He looked at the ear, then at the sli drink, his expression a masterpiece of conflicting emotions.
'Oh no — there really isn't anyone nad Yu Xi?'
...
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