After a trial ended, Long Jing returned to the rest area. He imdiately noticed sothing unusual in the theater and bent down in the aisle between audience seats to pick up a white paper airplane.
"Now this is novel. Though the delivery thod is terribly old-fashioned...
Let's see which old friend rembered ."
He unfolded the airplane with great interest. Inside was an invitation letter. His na was at the top. The body contained a gathering invitation and instructions for attending. And the signature was...
Cheng Shi!?
In that instant, even without the invitation specifying the gathering's purpose, the word "Joker" leaped back into Long Jing's mind.
A gathering connected to Cheng Shi might not necessarily be the Jokers. But the only thing Long Jing could think of was the Jokers!
He hadn't learned about them from this world's Cheng Shi, but he knew this world's Jokers had to be connected to him.
However, since the invitation didn't specify its content, the cautious Long Jing worried this was another trap — or worse, soone using the invitation to probe him.
After all, the things Cheng Shi had said during that extrapolation were terrifying. So much so that Long Jing's mindset had shifted in recent trials. He'd begun viewing his teammates through different eyes.
President Gong carried a certain dream of godhood. Or rather, all peak players wanted sothing from this Faith Ga. The only paths to fulfilling their desires were getting closer to the gods — or becoming gods themselves.
Not everyone was as fanatical as the God Worship Society, but undeniably, godhood was the ultimate temptation.
Yet now, knowing that godhood might be nothing more than a soap bubble — that even gods might not truly be gods — he'd begun examining this ga from a new perspective. He'd even started seeing himself as an "observer" hovering outside the world, watching teammates risk their lives in devotion and finding it all... sowhat laughable.
But the most laughable was undoubtedly his past self.
Even with these thoughts, Long Jing hadn't entirely given up on the Faith Ga. At the very least, the Joker organization the other world's Cheng Shi had described still fascinated him.
According to that Cheng Shi, the Jokers were one of this world's few remaining hopes. And because the other world's Long Jing had contributed greatly to the Jokers, this world's Long Jing had been the beneficiary — receiving advance knowledge of "the world's truth."
So after his faith fusion, he'd been searching for any Joker-related information.
That weathered Cheng Shi hadn't revealed who the Jokers were. But the simplest logic dictated Cheng Shi himself had to be one. So Long Jing had been looking for Cheng Shi recently — just couldn't be too obvious about it, and luck hadn't favored him. Over a dozen consecutive trials without a eting.
He was certain an opportunity would co. He just never expected it to co to him.
Actually, the mont he saw the letter, Long Jing had thought of Lord Yu Xi. He hadn't forgotten that Yu Xi had once impersonated Cheng Shi. Could this be an invitation from a god?
But having removed so of his divine filters, his forr fervor toward Yu Xi had cooled.
Still, until he beca one of Them — or could stand against Them — due respect was necessary. Not about devotion; about survival.
Smart as he was, Long Jing didn't jump to conclusions. He examined the invitation repeatedly, searching for clues beyond the text to determine whether this was genuine or a false probe.
Before long, he actually found sothing.
Incense ash!
In the handwriting on the paper airplane, Long Jing discovered several specks of incense ash — nearly imperceptible to ordinary eyes.
Though the ash pressed into the paper by the penstrokes was fine as dust, it told him a great deal.
In today's world where gods had descended, though so people had been assigned to various temples and shrines, the old offerings and incense of the past had long since died out. So this seemingly fresh incense ash beca the crucial clue to determining the invitation's origin.
Who, at a ti like this, would still co into contact with incense? Or even inadvertently press airborne ash into paper while writing...
Many answers were possible, but Long Jing's instinct told him one person was most likely:
The Dragon King, Li Jingming!
So this invitation wasn't from Cheng Shi at all — it was from Li Jingming!
Impersonating Cheng Shi certainly wasn't to continue San Dales's absurd farce. The Dragon King was most likely probing him. As for whether the probe concerned the Jokers or sothing else...
Long Jing chuckled softly and rolled the invitation into his breast pocket.
He accepted this "challenge." That's right — to him, this wasn't an invitation. It was a challenge.
He hadn't forgotten that during the San Dales trial, the Dragon King had deceived him the entire way. Even though their identities were practically revealed by the end, this "vendetta"... if he didn't swindle the man back, how could he justify his newly rged second faith?
'Dragon King, oh Dragon King. Tis are progressing. You think only you possess two faiths?'
'No. I have them too. And it's also [Void] plus [Existence]. So why can't your probe of
beco my probe of you?'
'Since we're all liars, let's settle this through craft.'
...
The appointed ti arrived quickly. Long Jing looked at himself in the mirror — no, at Li Jingming in the mirror — and smiled with satisfaction. Then he donned a black robe and mask, left sufficient revival safeguards in the rest area, and perford the ritual as instructed to enter the so-called eting grounds.
It was a stretch of void. Normal enough — all player etings took place in the void. The only difference was how each host decorated it. And this ti...
'Wait — did the Dragon King bury everyone he's killed here?'
'Where else would all these tombstones co from!?'
'This place is creepy beyond belief!'
Indeed. Creepy. Because what greeted Long Jing's eyes was a vast field of tombstones. Countless headstones stood in orderly rows, filling the entire space. In the endless darkness, faint ghostly will-o'-the-wisps flickered. The sight was bone-chilling.
At the center of the tombstone field lay a circular clearing. A stone chandelier hung above it, its dim yellow light illuminating a single figure. The person's attire was identical to Long Jing's: masked face, black robe. They sat on a front-row tombstone, and upon hearing his approach, slowly turned to look at him.
For a mont, Long Jing's scalp prickled and goosebumps erupted across his skin.
But he'd seen worse. The acrobat quickly regained his composure and cautiously stepped toward the center of the tomb field.
As he drew closer, the distant figure grew clearer. Fully concealed, identity impossible to discern. But Long Jing had already settled on his probing strategy.
Since the Dragon King had invited him, what if he walked up and introduced himself as: "Li Jingming, at your invitation"? How would the host respond?
At this thought, Long Jing was already smiling inside.
...
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