That's right. The Keinlaur from monts ago had indeed been Cheng Shi.
He and Sun Miao had arrived at the left-flank camp a step ahead of everyone by walking the Void. Of course, neither Cheng Shi nor Sun Miao had torn open the Void themselves. That had been Chun.
The mont Cheng Shi learned Keinlaur's location, he sensed the opportunity to set a trap and imdiately contacted Chun.
He hadn't left behind any thod of reaching Chun, but he wasn't worried about losing touch with her. He knew that as long as Sun Miao remained curious about that "deconstruction curse," she would never let a subject under observation slip out of her sight.
Sure enough, the instant Sun Miao heard Cheng Shi's request, she called Chun back.
The forr [Prosperity] Chosen was practically at Cheng Shi's beck and call by now, and when she learned the trap was aid at Lin Xi, she didn't hesitate for a second. She tore open the Void and ferried both of them directly to the left flank, compressing what would have been an overnight march into just a few hours.
Upon arrival, Cheng Shi's group quickly located Keinlaur. His timing was much like Du Qiyu's, both seizing a lull between commands to spirit away the real body. The difference was that Cheng Shi's approach was far more aggressive: he switched straight back to [Deceit] and transford himself into Keinlaur, entering the ga in person to see just what those two teammates who'd been absent all day were plotting.
But entering the ga in person didn't an throwing himself into danger. Before the disguise even went on, Cheng Shi had already calculated every possible outco.
Chun was lurking near the camp. If Lin Xi approached, no warning would be needed. She'd catch the stench of rot on him instantly and throw herself into a fight.
And if Xiao Qi approached? Even less cause for worry. Even if Xiao Qi arrived first, it would never be in his true body. This wasn't an overestimation of Xiao Qi's caution. It was simply that no Beast Tar would expose themselves when a tad beast could do the job.
So when he thought it through, the worst-case scenario for this deception was encountering one of Xiao Qi's tad beasts. And if that was all there was to fear, then what was there to be afraid of?
If a certain soone couldn't even handle a Beast Tar's thrall, forget being mocked by the Fun God, Cheng Shi could find a block of tofu and bash his own head in.
And so, without hesitation, Cheng Shi stepped into Keinlaur's place and beca the commander of the Grand Tribunal's left flank.
That said, none of those brilliant tactical maneuvers had actually been his own work. For soone who was still cramming the history of the Land of Hope like a slacker student, asking him to command a large-scale military operation he'd never experienced was a bit much.
Everything he'd demonstrated in the camp had been Keinlaur's own words, relayed verbatim.
Indeed, Keinlaur truly was an exceptional war commander. On this point, Cheng Shi and Xiao Qi found themselves in remarkably rare agreent.
Because it was Cheng Shi who had "persuaded" Keinlaur to help him carry out this disguise, ostensibly to keep outsiders from further disrupting the Grand Tribunal's arrangents. And Keinlaur, without even hearing or seeing how the battle would unfold, had drafted a series of military orders based purely on his own judgnt, instructing Cheng Shi to simply read them aloud.
For one person to possess such insight and control over a localized battle was almost unthinkable. It was so impressive that when Cheng Shi first received those orders, he'd actually questioned whether the man's surna was Zhao.
But the well-traveled Vice President Sun of the History School, after glancing over those directives, had said this to Cheng Shi:
"While I'm no expert in military strategy, I can see that if these defensive tactics are executed properly at the front, they may not be enough to repel the enemy, but they would certainly hold the line without issue.
And so, Lord Keinlaur, I'm quite curious. With military insight and command ability this exceptional, how exactly did you lead the Grand Tribunal to its decline?"
Keinlaur, who had been "invited to sit" in a chair, said nothing. After furrowing his brow in thought for a mont, he suddenly spoke:
"What I find more curious is that you strangers always seem to see the future.
I don't know what kind of power this is, nor which heretical god granted it. But I'd like to ask: can you see the Grand Tribunal's future?"
Cheng Shi was about to step out of the tent to play the role of Keinlaur when he heard this. He turned back with a smile. "Are you asking about the Grand Tribunal's future, or... [Order]'s future?"
Keinlaur froze. Those sharp eyes flashed with piercing light, and he answered in a deep voice: "Both."
Cheng Shi chuckled softly, assud Keinlaur's appearance, and pushed aside the tent flap as he walked out, speaking over his shoulder:
"The Grand Tribunal has no future. As for [Order]'s future... it's probably with ."
His words fell, and his figure vanished.
Keinlaur stared intensely in the direction Cheng Shi had disappeared, carefully mulling over his words.
'[Order]'s future is with him?'
'But he had just taken on my appearance. Does that an [Order]'s future is with ?'
'If so, then this path... was perhaps not a mistake after all!'
Keinlaur's gaze grew even more resolute.
Noticing this shift, Sun Miao shook her head and typed on her electronic beeper:
"Don't let him bewitch you. Everything that man says has a kind of magic that makes people want to believe him. But the mont you actually do, you've lost, Lord Keinlaur.
Before you know it, you'll end up like : a 'beggar' who can't stop waiting for him to let so scrap of hidden knowledge slip from his mouth."
Keinlaur raised his head slightly, regarding the woman holding the strange device.
"Then what insight can you offer , madam?"
Sun Miao paused, then typed rapidly: "The things I know are far too many to list. If you wish to purchase intelligence, please first present your price. Regardless of whether it's high or low, as long as it's fair, I'm open to trade."
...
anwhile, on the other side.
After scaring off Xiao Qi, Cheng Shi slipped away from the camp and stood alone at the edge of the high ground, gazing into the distance under the moonlight, lost in thought.
He had indeed captured one of Xiao Qi's tad beasts, using the Molten Coffin that Xie Yang had given him.
Of course, anything shoved into the Molten Coffin was certainly dead by now, and whether it would yield any clues to Xiao Qi's true body remained to be seen. But Cheng Shi wasn't thinking about any of that right now. He was reflecting on his relationship with Xiao Qi.
Admittedly, Xiao Qi had used a lie to deceive him and stolen the "fate" that should have been his.
But...
Honestly, everything Cheng Shi had experienced since, and those irreplaceable mories of warmth he carried, was probably the fate he truly wanted to have.
If he could do it all over again, he would let Xiao Qi deceive him willingly. Because all he wanted was to wait for that old man who pretended to be awkward to co and adopt him one more ti.
But life never offered second chances.
And so, Cheng Shi's feelings toward Xiao Qi weren't bone-deep hatred. He wasn't even sure it qualified as hatred at all.
Back when he was a child left behind at the orphanage, watching that Director Du lead Xiao Qi away before his very eyes, Cheng Shi couldn't say he'd felt much hatred then either. At the ti, he'd been imrsed in his epiphany about "how to use lies," and hadn't felt much of anything else.
Perhaps it was later, the snide remarks from teachers and the indignant protests of his little friends, that planted so seed of regret in Cheng Shi's heart. But at most, it was the disappointnt of losing a fun playmate, an irritation at Xiao Qi's betrayal of their friendship. As for the rest, well, this kid had simply never been the type to dwell.
Even if all those vague, conflicting emotions could be called hatred, that hatred had long since evaporated the mont Old Jia hauled that crate of cola back ho.
So by now, in this reality where even the gods had beco real, Cheng Shi had long since let go of that so-called friendship, that pointless sentintality.
Friendship was never one-sided. If one party betrayed it, it wasn't really betrayal. It ant the friendship had never existed in the first place.
With that mindset, Cheng Shi looked at Xiao Qi more like a stranger who had happened to walk beside him for a brief stretch. A stranger who'd also tricked him once, who'd "gotten the upper hand." But from his observations of Xiao Qi during this trial, the other man clearly didn't see things the sa way.
'His obsession runs deep.'
And that raised an interesting question. If Xiao Qi truly lived the privileged life he'd described, with plenty of food and clothes, studying abroad, graduating from a prestigious school, inheriting the family business, then why was he so hostile toward a childhood companion he'd once toyed with and "defeated," soone who'd been "picked up" by a scrap-collecting old man?
'Wouldn't freedom, money, and ti smooth over any scar in the world? And even if there were scars between them, shouldn't they be on my body, not his...?'
So this old friend who once deceived him with lies had probably told another lie about sothing.
'Tch. He walks the path of [Deceit] with real devotion, I'll give him that.'
'I just wonder, with all that devotion, is he happy?'
...
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