As the final mber of Civilization — Civilization's endga — War was a god of complex will.
On one hand, He constantly obeyed order and suppressed His true nature, refusing to make a single transgressive move. On the other, He sheltered His belligerent War followers as they waged conflict everywhere.
This vicarious-thrill-seeking behavior was genuinely baffling. Cheng Shi had likewise slapped a question mark on this deity — unable to categorize a god whose words and deeds were in complete contradiction.
The bright side, compared to Oblivion, was that War at least wasn't an enemy combatant. And His transformation had a traceable origin.
When that ancient god war erupted, He and Order had stepped into the Sea of Desire together. Afterward, both of Civilization's champions lost their chance to reshape civilization. Order split into three; War curtailed His fighting spirit.
So the picture was clear: if he could figure out what had happened in the Sea of Desire, it would imdiately reveal the positions of the two question-marked gods — Corruption and War.
The Fun God was probably thinking along the sa lines. Cheng Shi was beginning to grasp His intent, yet felt equal parts curiosity and dread about uncovering these historical truths.
Curiosity about why the Sea of Desire was so terrifying. Dread for the "grand entertainnt" the Fun God had to be plotting!
He feared this final spectacle would be the Fun God's own interpretation of His fear — His answer to Origin. And knowing his Benefactor, Deceit was probably planning to flip the table right in front of everyone... to face that being beyond all universe slices.
So the question beca: if the Fear Faction boss personally led the charge and flipped the table, then as the Fear Faction's sole underling — and the only mber who could be scapegoated or held accountable — how was Cheng Shi supposed to handle this crisis from his own boss?
He didn't think he could handle it yet. That was why he regarded these divine secrets with both alarm and reluctance.
Next ca Chaos' Path.
Chaos needed no further comnt — He was now Deceit.
For who knew how long, the Fun God had sched to shunt the real Chaos into Order's seat, then openly usurped the throne and seized Chaos's authority.
The more Cheng Shi experienced, the more certain he beca that his Benefactor's move was about concealing His secret plot — using the intertwined divine power of Deceit and Chaos to mask His expression of fear toward Origin.
Fear itself needed no concealing. Every one of the fifteen other true gods in this universe knew He was distancing Himself from Origin. But none knew what the Fun God was preparing. So whatever He was planning was likely the true nature that lay hidden beneath the facade.
As for Folly...
Honestly, Cheng Shi felt he wasn't qualified to critique this one. He even needed to run through various scenarios before daring to comnt on Wei Mu in his Cheng Shi persona.
This wisest god in all creation was like a genuine prophet. Beyond His single inability to vary the contemptuous tone in which He addressed all living things, there was truly nothing He might not know.
He was unquestionably Approach Faction. And the proof of this wasn't His own behavior — it was Fate's forr wholehearted alignnt with approaching Origin.
If Fate could cut ties with even His sibling deity Deceit, it ant He'd never put stock in the Fear Faction's future. There was no universe in which He'd align His will with a Fear Faction mber.
So Folly was definitely Approach Faction. Yet this particular Approach deity didn't seem to pose much of a threat.
Compared to Fate, who actively opposed the Fear Faction, Cheng Shi figured Folly's attitude toward them amounted to little more than asking "Do you really think your foolish acts will yield results?" a few more tis...
But then again — if Folly, the one hailed as the universe's wisest, had no answer to that question... how could anyone else?
Right, Ultraman? Shi Zhen? And... Yu Xi?
After much deliberation, Cheng Shi erased Folly's Approach tag and moved Him to Neutral. Perhaps only that classification fit a will that scorned all things regardless of identity or status.
Silence had originally been another Neutral deity but had been reclassified by Cheng Shi into the Approach Faction's hostile camp.
He couldn't fathom why a god with virtually zero presence — yet simultaneously omnipresent — would attempt to assimilate him. Perhaps only a god opposed to the Fear Faction would make such a move?
But then his Benefactor, Fate — also Approach Faction — had rescued him from Silence's grasp, which had confused Cheng Shi for a long ti. Until he realized: the Approach Faction was never of one mind. Each god approached that existence in His own way. So Fate and Silence weren't at odds in ideology — they diverged in thodology.
This faction sorting gave Cheng Shi a splitting headache. Other Silence followers might not matter, but The Prisoner... this number-one Silence ranker who was still a Torchbearer — what did he represent?
If the Fun God hadn't factored this in, He shouldn't have exposed the Torchbearers to Silence's line of sight. But if He'd known Silence's stance all along, then why had Silence co looking for Cheng Shi?
After racking his brain without finding the connection, Cheng Shi reluctantly stamped a question mark on this Chaos finale as well.
So, excluding the overly familiar Existence and Void, a total of four gods had received six question marks.
If one question mark ant Cheng Shi didn't quite understand a deity... then a god wearing three question marks wasn't necessarily incomprehensible. Maybe He just wasn't a god at all — maybe He was... a lunatic?
Cheng Shi pursed his lips, set aside the tangled thoughts, and turned his attention back to the current Ti container.
Though this was the "third" container in his possession, the rate at which it dripped divinity was clearly the slowest.
The na "Shi Zhen" was known to only a handful of people so far. Even once they spread this classified intel, it would take ti. And high-level secrets naturally spread slowly and narrowly — just like Yu Xi. No matter how he perford the role, the faith condensation rate could never match that of Ultraman, the Chaos Envoy who'd appeared in recorded history.
At this thought, Cheng Shi scratched his head in resignation. His first complete batch of divinity was destined to go to Ultraman. What a waste of perfectly good nas like Yu Xi and Shi Zhen...
'I should've put more thought into naming myself back then.'
With a sigh, he switched the container's color back to Deceit. After observing for a mont, he noticed the drip rate of Deceit divinity was slightly faster than before.
But only a single day had passed!
Yu Xi's na had already gotten fresh exposure?
'That doesn't seem right. The speed is TOO consistent. Has sothing gone wrong?'
Cheng Shi's brow tightened. Sothing in him felt that his right eyelid was itching to twitch.
'Who's been furiously spreading Yu Xi's faith?'
'Poison, Qu Yan, Ai Si... or Long Jing?'
'Beyond those few, there didn't seem to be any other Yu Xi "fanatics"...'
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