Nine days remained, but the trial was far from over.
Cheng Shi and Sun Miao had long confird that the trial's key figure was Keinlaur — King Delvo, the War Monarch. The remaining ti was essentially spent waiting for him to fulfill his life's ambition: clear the battle lines and declare the founding of the Kingdom of War atop this scorched earth and piled corpses.
But wars didn't end easily. Fortunately, Delvo's preparations were extraordinarily thorough. Even without the players' help, he could succeed on his own. So neither of them planned to get further involved.
Their sole remaining thought was to wait for the "newly improved" Xiao Qi to co hunting them.
When Xiao Qi didn't show up right away, Cheng Shi followed Sun Miao away from the battle lines, and the two wandered the battlefield's periphery for a long while.
Sun Miao remained convinced that without desire or emotion, the Beast Tar would definitely hide and wait out the trial's end. But Cheng Shi firmly believed Xiao Qi would co find him. So, once again conceding, the wise man found ways to occupy himself, because the Fate Weaver beside him had already started spacing out with nothing to do.
"Aren't you going to make so preparations for the hunter's arrival?
Underestimating your enemy is never a good strategy."
Every ti the wise man reminded him, Cheng Shi would give a perfunctory nod, then continue doing absolutely nothing.
Seeing the Fate Weaver's indolence, Sun Miao could only assu he'd already devised a foolproof plan. But what puzzled him was this: even if Cheng Shi was one hundred percent confident he could defeat Du Qiyu, how could he guarantee the man hadn't left so resurrection contingency outside the trial?
Sun Miao raised the question again, and Cheng Shi's answer was thought-provoking.
"Wise man, you're the one who told
this: when a person loses the drive to keep living, they naturally won't go on.
So, the one who kills Xiao Qi won't be . It'll be himself."
"?"
'This Fate Weaver actually wants to drive soone with such powerful desires and emotions to suicide?'
'How is that possible?'
'Especially after the man obtains the Fear Heartwood and loses his desire and fear. With his shrewdness restored, how could he possibly make such an unwise choice?'
This ti, even a [Folly] believer couldn't analyze it. He regarded Cheng Shi thoughtfully, feeling certain this Fate Weaver harbored the most alluring secrets in the entire universe.
But he couldn't extract those secrets at the mont, so he settled for what was available: secrets that could still be gathered during the trial. For instance... that sudden concentration of [Decay] energy that had appeared near the Forest County side of the Boro Highlands.
When Sun Miao proposed investigating the dense [Decay] aura, Cheng Shi actually wanted to refuse. Instinct told him danger lurked there.
But he still needed the wise man as backup when dealing with Xiao Qi. After careful deliberation, he decided to accompany Sun Miao, though he'd keep his distance and not walke alongside him.
Sun Miao had no objections to this arrangent. The two quickly changed course and headed behind the battlefield.
They weren't worried about Xiao Qi failing to follow. After all, for a hunter, tracking was the bread and butter of the trade. Cheng Shi's only concern was that Xiao Qi's arrival would coincide with the wise man's investigation. If facing unknown risks at the sa ti, he genuinely didn't know whether his planned strategy could still play out smoothly.
Fortunately, fate favored Cheng Shi once more. When they arrived at the area indicated by the Corpse-Eating Vine, there was no danger around, and Xiao Qi hadn't appeared to cause trouble.
All they found in a stretch of dense forest were so residual traces of [Ti] energy and large swaths of withered trees. Sothing had clearly been here, but whatever it was had left behind nothing except widespread decay.
Sun Miao found this fascinating. He ventured alone into the river valley forest to observe and investigate, while Cheng Shi stood on a hillock at the outskirts, keeping watch.
This ti Cheng Shi wasn't slacking off. His own safety was at stake, so he was fully alert.
But what he didn't expect was that despite watching all directions and listening to every sound, soone had still managed to stand behind him right under his nose.
Cheng Shi didn't even notice at first. Not until he reflexively glanced at his own shadow did he realize that what should have been his mirror image had sohow grown a full size rounder!
Cold sweat poured down his body instantly. But he didn't panic. His first move was to fling lightning behind him with one hand while crushing a smoke bomb with the other.
BANG!
The noise startled Sun Miao, who was investigating clues in the forest. Seeing a cloud of smoke erupt at Cheng Shi's position, his heart lurched. He spun to help, but the mont he tried to shadow-leap to Cheng Shi's side, the dead-silent [Decay] trees suddenly ca alive. One rotten trunk after another exploded, sending clouds of decaying dust into the air like prison bars, trapping Sun Miao in place.
"Not good!" Sun Miao imdiately pulled out a tool, held his breath, and began deconstructing the cage's weaknesses.
But as he worked, he discovered that while the cage did have flaws, the [Decay] power contained within it was far beyond anything a player could contend with.
aning: whoever had trapped him and ambushed Cheng Shi possessed strength far surpassing Lin Xi's. The two weren't even on the sa level.
Lin Xi had already been [Decay]'s number one. So the only being who could exceed him would be...
"An Envoy!?"
Sun Miao's pupils contracted violently. His cry of alarm rang out.
But the cage of rotting dust didn't just trap his body. It sealed his voice too. His shout identifying the attacker never reached Cheng Shi. All Cheng Shi heard from within the smoke was a different, raspy voice:
"Don't. I an no harm."
As those words faded, Cheng Shi made out the ambusher's face through the mist.
He was certain he'd never t this person before, yet oddly found the face familiar. He couldn't imdiately place where the familiarity ca from, but at minimum it ant the person's rank couldn't be too high. After all, Cheng Shi would never forget what a true god or an Envoy looked like.
But... was that really true?
That thought lasted barely a second before Cheng Shi contradicted himself, because he suddenly rembered where he'd seen this face. It had been on a painting hanging on a bedchamber wall in the empty Rosna Court — a portrait of the emperor who had abandoned his city and fled with his nobles and ministers.
Later, Cheng Shi had also learned this man's na from Aph Ros.
Yu Go. A survival expert who'd been elevated to Envoy by [Decay] in the previous era.
At this realization, Cheng Shi's shock was imnse.
"!!!"
'That's Yu Go!?'
...
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