On the other side.
The instant the teors finished falling, Du Qiyu commanded his surviving tad beasts to brave the searing heat and charge back into the scorched wasteland. His true body, anwhile, lay at the edge of the destruction zone, disguised as a dead soldier, stretching the tethering range of his beasts to its maximum.
Hiding his real body was an art, especially when his temper was spiraling out of control.
Indeed, Sun Miao's deductions about Xiao Qi were essentially spot-on. His emotions were genuinely problematic, forcing him to fragnt his power and intelligence across tad beasts to suppress the backlash.
This issue hadn't always existed. It first surfaced only two months ago.
As for why...
Every ti Du Qiyu recalled the incident, he felt he'd been played for a fool.
He had fulfilled His promise of increasing Du Qiyu's power. But before that, Du Qiyu had never known the upgrade would co at such a steep price: despite growing genuinely stronger, his score had plumted from 2,600 to 2,000.
Du Qiyu hadn't lied. He really had once reached 2,600. But he'd also lied, because that number only existed in the past.
So when he learned at the start of the trial that Xiao Shi held 2,200 points, his emotions beca nearly impossible to contain.
'Why should he score higher than ?'
Carrying that thought, his bias against Cheng Shi deepened and his hatred swelled. Eventually, realizing this emotional turbulence was disrupting his trial pace, he had no choice but to frantically ta every living thing in sight to reduce the emotional backlash. But that ant his power plumted further, until he'd sunk to the level of being sneered at by Lin Xi without daring to talk back.
He'd long since had enough. But there was nothing he could do. His temper grew harder to control by the day. All he could do was ta more people, transferring the pain outward, developing a twisted pleasure in the domination of others.
And just now, yet another batch of tad beasts had died under the teor fire rain. The distributed emotions surged back in, making him even more volatile. So when he charged back into the scorched earth, a subtle error crept into his decision-making.
Based on what he'd observed of Xiao Shi's expression during the ambush, the item that had been knocked from Xiao Shi's hand was clearly important. So he reasoned that Cheng Shi would rush back for it imdiately.
Furthermore, when he last spotted the pair, they were far from Keinlaur's position, which ant Xiao Shi and the horse-faced wise man most likely hadn't noticed where the Startled Bow lay.
And so Du Qiyu made an instant decision: retrieve whatever Xiao Shi had dropped first.
In truth, this decision wasn't logical at all. It was purely emotion-driven. But Du Qiyu couldn't overco his emotions. He'd beco a slave to them. The obsession cultivated since childhood had been amplified many tis over by the emotional surge, ultimately crystallizing into a single bitter conviction: 'I can afford to be bad, but Xiao Shi can only be worse.'
Under these circumstances, Du Qiyu and Cheng Shi "passed each other by." One picked up the container. The other reached the fake bow, now nothing more than a pile of ash.
"..."
Looking at the bow-shaped cinders beneath his feet, Cheng Shi clicked his tongue.
Being fake, it had no resistance to the teor fire rain whatsoever. But with the fake destroyed, how was he supposed to use it to bait the enemy?
Cheng Shi's eyes lit with an idea. He turned to Sun Miao: "Vice President Sun, do you happen to have any experience with forging weapons?"
"...Cheng Shi, I am a [Folly] believer, not so creation-obsessed fanatic who worships [Truth]."
"Oh. So there are things even [Folly] believers don't know."
"..." Sun Miao felt himself getting played. The sensation irritated him, but for the sake of [Folly]'s reputation, he had to prove himself. "Save your provocation. It doesn't work on . Just tell
what you want."
'Doesn't work?'
Cheng Shi could barely contain his grin: "Simple. When Xiao Qi cos, he just needs to glimpse a bow fra glowing with red light. Whether it can actually fire arrows is irrelevant."
Sun Miao surrendered. He'd given up trying to read Cheng Shi's plans. All he wanted now was to lure the Beast Tar in, kill him, vent his frustration, leave the trial, and record everything he'd witnessed into the History School's annals. That was his mission.
"You're sure your plan will work?"
"I may not understand Beast Tars, but I understand Xiao Qi. He'll co."
Yet this ti, they miscalculated again. Because the mont Du Qiyu obtained the [Corruption] container, this emotionally unstable Beast Tar imdiately drove every surviving tad beast into a mad sprint and vanished from the battlefield along with his true body.
Think about it: when an expert afflicted solely by emotional side effects suddenly obtains a tool that can absorb his emotions and desires, what would he think?
'So this is where His guidance was leading?'
'This was His true promise all along?'
What promise could be more satisfying than snatching a self-enhancing tool right out of Xiao Shi's hands?
Du Qiyu had no idea what a "container" was. But the mont he discovered the tool's function, his first instinct was to verify whether this was truly a godsend.
As for the Startled Bow... who cared anymore.
He'd wanted it only because it nourished one's soul using an enemy's fear, which could help offset his emotional backlash. But with this thing in hand, who needed a broken bow?
And so Du Qiyu decisively fled. Under the container's influence, he believed he'd made the wisest possible choice. He needed to find a quiet place free of distractions to study this naless tool. And once he confird it could truly solve his pain point...
'Heh. With all my power restored, perhaps even surpassing what I had before, will you be scared, Xiao Shi?'
Whether he'd be scared was debatable, but Cheng Shi was certainly feeling awkward. As the wise man's gaze grew increasingly sardonic, he let out a hollow laugh.
"Don't worry. What's coming will co eventually..."
...
At the sa ti, deep in the Void.
Rewinding slightly, at the very mont Cheng Shi realized the one who'd "killed" [Order] beside the Sea of Desire was a [War] believer, a pair of eyes painted with star points and spirals quietly opened in the boundless darkness of the Void.
The instant He appeared, He generously praised the pair of eyes before Him, one flaming, one bleeding:
"Should I praise silence as the finest disguise, or lant that beneath honesty lies nothing but deception?
[War], since when have you been coming here to steal authority from my domain?"
[War] showed no reaction. He gave the starry eyes an expressionless glance and rumbled: "You... why have you co?"
[Deceit]. Yes, of course it was [Deceit]. He chuckled lightly and declared with righteous indignation:
"To seek justice for [Order]!"
"..."
[War] seed to have heard the funniest joke in the entire universe. But don't forget: He was endurance incarnate. So He didn't laugh. Instead, He shook His head and rumbled on: "Then you should seek the Convention... There is no justice here."
"Oh? So you admit you're the one who split [Order]?"
"..." [War] half-closed His eyes, as if deflating slightly. "I don't recall... saying... anything of the sort."
"You just said there's no justice where you stand. And if there's no justice, aren't you openly stating [Order] has already fallen?"
"..."
Sotis even gods wished they could call the police.
Unfortunately, the "police" among the gods had already beco the "criminal."
[War] reopened His eyes. He gazed silently at [Deceit], whose upturned eyes belied the unmistakable gravity in His gaze, and sighed with a sudden complexity:
"His schism... has nothing to do with ."
That single sentence made the eyes that had been so breezy a mont ago imdiately contract. In an instant, the star points blazed and the spirals reversed, and with a blink, He summoned a mass of chaotic yellow fog from the depths of the Void.
A great hand representing [Chaos] burst through the fog, flanking [War] from the opposite side, trapping Him between [Deceit] and [Chaos].
And the reason a single sentence had changed [Deceit]'s expression was simple: His authority told Him that [War] had just lied!
[Order]'s schism was absolutely connected to Him!
[Deceit]'s eyes turned profoundly grave, though His tone remained playful:
"Interesting. I've often wondered why [Order] of all gods would fracture at the Sea of Desire, while you, who stood right beside Him, remained wholly unaffected...
Now I see I underestimated you. What a patient god. What a master of the art of no-war-no-conflict.
But I do have a question: how exactly did [Order] split?
And what benefit did you gain from it!"
[War] fell silent again. He glanced behind at [Chaos], as if deep in thought.
Seeing Him refuse to speak further, [Deceit] wasted no words and struck. But the instant both He and [Chaos] moved simultaneously, the entire Void froze without warning!
This sovereign of [Void] seed to lose control of the Void for a single heartbeat, pinned down alongside His avatar on His own turf.
But it ended there. [War] didn't press the attack. He instantly released His hold on the two probing gods and sighed once more:
"Leave. I pose no threat to you. The one I'm waiting for... is not you."
Before [Deceit] or [Chaos] could react, He departed first.
[Deceit], who had lost control of the Void for the first ti in His existence, rolled His eyes toward the direction [War] had vanished. His gaze flickered, and He remained silent for a long while.
Not until [Chaos] also left and the Void returned to stillness did He suddenly let out a delighted "Hee~" and beco cheerful once more.
"What incredible patience. What incredible power.
War, War. At this very mont, you truly live up to your na of [War].
But I still got what I ca for. Hm. Stronger than all of them. Equal to two old bones combined, even.
But it's a sha. What you're waiting for isn't a peer. It's... a 'God.'"
As He spoke, a streak of seven-colored light threaded between the star points in His eyes and vanished, taking those eyes along with it.
...
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