Le Le'er fell silent. Wisps of bewildernt and confusion drifted from her — She seed wholly ignorant of the outside world, as though She'd been sinking here for countless ages, mired in chaos until this very mont.
Seeing this, Cheng Shi was dumbfounded.
'Sis, please don't tell
the sky's falling out there and you're in here not knowing a thing?'
'Fine, fine, fine — I kept badgering you to do your job, and it turns out you really haven't done a lick of work.'
'Is fear really that delicious?'
'Tasty enough to keep you blissful for all these years without ever bothering to check what's happening outside.'
'Then again, lucky for you that you're growing at the edge of the Sea of Desire — nobody dares co bother you. Otherwise, with your level of sloth, the Envoy seat would've changed hands several tis over.'
Cheng Shi pursed his lips in exasperation. While Le Le'er was still lost in confusion, he surveyed his surroundings once more. He could already hear the faint sound of tides and figured the Sea of Desire must be just ahead.
'If I could just take a few more steps — even just glimpse it from afar — wouldn't that make
the first person in this world... no, the first human in all of recorded history to have laid eyes on the Sea of Desire?'
The thought set his heart ablaze, though he also knew Le Le'er had kept him here for a reason — She had sothing to say. So he urgently called out to her again:
"Hurry up and say what you want to say. You can dawdle all you like, but it won't bring Garuda back.
"Your mother devoured Garuda and then died herself — effectively killing him twice and extinguishing every last hope of his resurrection."
Le Le'er's aura hitched. She didn't pursue Cheng Shi's blasphemous words, but genuinely heeded his suggestion and dispersed all of her offspring.
Countless terror demons shrieked into the air, spreading their wings across the sky of the Sinking Land, plunging the entire realm into darkness in an instant.
Confronted with this rare and terrifying spectacle, Cheng Shi didn't even break a single drop of cold sweat. He rely pulled out a flashlight with a look of distaste and aid its solitary beam at Le Le'er's trunk like a stage spotlight.
"The backdrop's set. The spotlight's on. Ready to talk now, Le Le'er?"
"I'm dying..."
"Yeah, I noticed. Any last words? I can serve as a witness to your final testant and preserve one last trace of you in this world.
"Naturally, the witnessing service cos with a fee — though I've always been fair and honest in my dealings.
"In the human world, we generally respect the deceased, so even when we swindle, we don't swindle too much."
Without an ounce of fear in him, even the tone of Cheng Shi's negotiations had changed. He didn't need to consider the consequences of deception — he simply laid his intentions bare.
"..."
Le Le'er fell silent again. Her monts of lucidity were few; only now, at death's door, had she erged from the ecstasy of ultimate fear. Her only mory of humans still lingered in the Rainforest, back when she interacted with her people.
Those mortals had respected her, supported her, worshipped her — but never feared her. That was precisely why She had stripped Cheng Shi of his fear, trying as best She could to make this mortal, who had stumbled close through sheer coincidence, more like them.
But as it turned out, no follower had ever dared to stare a god in the face quite like Cheng Shi — let alone actually talk back to one.
Of course, the human before her was no ordinary mortal. At the very least, his body carried many familiar scents — and that left Le Le'er even more confused.
Their auras seed to be fusing.
"All things eventually march toward Death. That is the inevitable path of life, and the final destination of all existence in the universe.
"I was closer to Death than most, yet Garuda rejected ..."
"?"
'Wait, hold on!'
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened and he imdiately challenged: "Le Le'er, don't you dare pull the sa stunt as those bastards from the History School with their revisionist chronicles. That Lord told
clearly — it was you who rejected Garuda!"
Le Le'er's swaying branches froze in an instant. Her voice carried a mixture of confusion and uncertainty:
"I clearly separated my most tender branch and fused it with his divinity, sending Garuda the most joyous of invitations — inviting him to bathe in fear with
here. But he...
"Never answered."
"..."
Cheng Shi stood stunned. So the so-called "corruption" of the Dagger of Garuda hadn't been a rejection at all — it was an invitation. But who in their right mind sends an invitation using Corruption's divinity?
'You had the nerve to invite, but did anyone dare accept?'
'Did you even stop to consider what kind of reputation Corruption had among the gods?'
'Oh right — by that point you'd already drowned in the ecstasy of fear, too far gone to think about any of that. But then again, even in a state of brainless bliss, you still didn't forget to invite Garuda to join the party...'
'Tch. Hard to judge.'
'What even is this? A pure, tragic love story where two souls raced toward each other only to pass by, each plumting off opposite cliffs?'
'Whether the love was pure, who knows — but both parties were definitely idiots. Both of them.'
At this thought, Cheng Shi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
'When it cos down to it, the gods' drama is always tastier. Human romances can't hold a candle to the absolute chaos the divine stir up. Truly, the essence of the universe is gossip.'
Listening to all this, Cheng Shi was still debating whether to clarify the misunderstanding for Le Le'er, but he quickly realized — she hadn't actually blad Garuda for anything. She'd pinned all the fault on her mother.
Le Le'er believed it was the Prosperity Mother devouring Garuda that had brought this love to its premature end. And as he listened to Le Le'er's muttered ramblings, Cheng Shi sighed inwardly and ultimately chose not to reveal the full truth to this dying tree.
Perhaps it was better this way. At least in Le Le'er's heart, Garuda's na remained untarnished.
Though he'd misjudged her too — Le Le'er was no temptress. She was just a fool.
"When one grows old, one always likes to bring up the past. So, Le Le'er — what's the point of telling
all this?"
As the swarm of terror demons gradually departed, the Sinking Land brightened once more. The Mother Tree of Fear swayed her branches like the lone "survivor" in this forsaken place, her voice drifting with confusion:
"I don't know either. I've been alone for too long... I just wanted to say sothing.
"I felt my mother pass away. But I don't know — after her fall, are my people... still all right?"
Cheng Shi rolled his eyes, feeling indignant on behalf of Le Le'er's forr followers:
"Oh, so now you rember your people?
"When you flung yourself into the Sea of Desire, why didn't you spare them a thought first?
"A god shouldn't only rember her followers when she needs their faith, Le Le'er. Don't tell
you're trying to use the power of faith to revive yourself?
"Does Prosperity even have that kind of power?
"Corruption certainly doesn't — otherwise you wouldn't look like this."
Every word out of Cheng Shi's mouth dripped with sarcasm, yet Le Le'er didn't take the slightest offense. Or perhaps after fully embracing fear, She had lost certain other emotions — growing here in a murky daze, only regaining clarity on the cusp of death.
...
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