Chapter 560: Squ... Old Zhang?!! |
"Deal!
As long as you can restrain him, leave the rest to me."
Cheng Shi grinned: "You've had your eye on him for a while, haven't you? Got a plan?"
"Mm. A hunter's five senses are sharper than any other class, especially one at Yu Mu's score level — his perception is terrifyingly acute.
I don't exactly lack these things, but having another chess piece that can sense the environment is never a bad thing."
"Sounds like you're planning to turn him into a puppet?"
"More or less. Prosperity's treasury has some soul contracts with effects so bizarre even I can't stand looking at them. I haven't tried them yet — perfect test subject.
Speaking of which, Cheng Shi — hurry up and initiate a prayer trial. Come pick up your stuff."
'My stuff?'
Cheng Shi blinked, then immediately remembered. Before stumbling into that Birth trial, he'd originally been planning a Prosperity prayer trial to pick up a spirit-enhancing item from Big Cat.
After all the twists and turns, he'd now completed two trials — and still hadn't collected the item.
"..."
Cheng Shi laughed bitterly, then nodded: "Alright, I'll make the prayer soon. Actually — join me. I want to take you somewhere to introduce you to an interesting new friend."
"Interesting new friend?" Hong Lin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Sounds like this person has a story?"
'Story?'
'If "giving birth to yourself from yourself" counts as a story and not an accident, then yes — definitely a story.'
"You'll see when we get there.
Oh, and — let me ask about someone. Have you heard of a player called Lin Renyu?"
Hong Lin chuckled over the phone and answered at once: "Him? What — did you run into him?"
"So you do know him. Didn't run into him personally — heard the name from someone else. Curious what kind of person he is."
"A Dissonance Zitherist who didn't make the top ten, but is fairly well-known."
'A Dissonance Zitherist!'
'Chaos!'
'Just as expected — this Lin Renyu, mentioned by Da Yi, was also one of Chaos's people.'
'Ha — so the clues pointing to the Grand Marshal being a Chaos follower were buried in these breadcrumbs all along. The fisherman Hu Xuan killed, the Lin Renyu who Da Yi talked about constantly, and then Da Yi himself posing as a Gap Light Iron Thorn... all three were high-scoring Chaos players. That campfire gathering of four was nothing less than a Chaos night meeting.'
'And yet, even if everyone's identity was known, under Chaos's obfuscation, nobody could piece together the clues.'
'Chaos really plays a dazzling game.'
Cheng Shi clicked his tongue in admiration and asked: "From your tone, this 'fame' doesn't sound too positive. Care to elaborate?"
Hong Lin laughed heartily:
"His notoriety came from the Prisoner.
Originally, this guy was low-profile — liked impersonating others. Then he got matched with the Prisoner, who saw through the disguise.
Annoying as the Prisoner was, you have to admit — Silence followers really are masters of observation. He cracked Lin Renyu's identity, then turned the tables by impersonating him instead. He caused mass chaos in Katouting, the Grand Tribunal's capital, to the point where they literally enacted a law putting a bounty on this Dissonance Zitherist.
Coincidentally, there was a Memory follower in that trial too. Under the Prisoner's coercion, that Memory believer even wrote this new law into history...
As for what happened after — you can probably guess. Lin Renyu killed the Memory follower in a rage, but couldn't kill the Prisoner. So from then on, he kept wreaking havoc under the Prisoner's name.
He's quite sharp. Even if he's not among the absolute peak players, you'd want to be careful if you ran into him."
"..."
'A Dissonance Zitherist who likes causing trouble under "the Prisoner's" name?'
'What?'
'Could it be... him?'
Cheng Shi's expression turned extraordinarily complex. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became. He couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Hong Lin heard the laughter and asked in surprise: "What?"
"Nothing. No need to be careful anymore. You'll never run into him again."
"?" Hong Lin froze, unable to process this. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing much. I think I saw him once. He was killed — by someone very powerful. As for who killed him... I didn't get a clear look."
"Oh, I see. And this very powerful person — what's their surname? Same as yours?"
"..." 'Sis, it's kind of cute when you're a bit dim sometimes. Don't be too smart.'
Cheng Shi went numb. He felt he'd gotten too excited and said too much. But it wasn't worth fretting over — so much time had passed, and with the effects of the Floating Dream of the Memory Sea, probably nobody knew who'd killed that Dissonance Zitherist.
Besides, even if someone found out, what could they do? The killer was no longer just a fate weaver. He was also Lord Ultraman — Chaos's Herald, Lord Ultraman!
"Your laugh sounds so smug. Anyway, that's about all the news I've got. It's currently 2:26 — let's sync up. At exactly 3:00, I'll prayer on the dot. The prayer content will be the Prosperity incantation plus a request for a simple trial where I encounter you. Don't stand me up, Cheng Shi. I'm looking forward to meeting this new friend."
With that, Big Cat hung up cleanly.
Cheng Shi smiled at the disconnected phone. He had a feeling the meeting between Big Cat and Aph Ros would spark something new.
His decision to bring Big Cat to meet the dual Herald wasn't solely about dealing with Yu Mu. Simply disposing of one player wasn't worth connecting Big Cat — who'd inherited Prosperity's authority — with an information pipeline. This trip was primarily about finding Big Cat an advisor.
At Big Cat's level, she encountered plenty of secrets, but her questions would multiply just as fast. She couldn't constantly consult a true god, and no god would spare time to answer her queries. So finding her an insider with a similar status — an intelligence window — was crucial.
And Aph Ros, as a temporary "ally," was certainly up to the "job."
Of course, if other options existed, Cheng Shi would've considered them. But the problem was his network of contacts only extended to one prisoner locked up by Time. Beyond that, he had no other Herald "friends."
Hu Xuan was half of one, but her accumulated knowledge was even less than the original Big Cat's.
So meeting Aph Ros was a move born of necessity.
'Sigh — still not enough "friends"...'
'Plenty of Life friends already. Descent's people are hard to approach. Chaos crew are all lunatics. Thinking it through, only Civilization has a few friend slots to spare.'
'But the question is...'
'How come I've barely heard of any servant gods from Civilization?'
'Truly strange. Next time I see Aph Ros, I should definitely ask about this.'
Just as he was pondering, new changes appeared on the rooftop before Cheng Shi.
A small door made of interlocking fine bones suddenly opened in the ink-dark sky. Before long, a pale little skull came bouncing out, tumbling onto the ground. It rolled several times before finally righting itself, then bounced about, fixing a pair of hollow eye sockets on everything around it in careful examination.
The sight left Cheng Shi dumbfounded.
'Wait — more? That lord just summoned me!'
'And how come this little bone servant looks so... lively? Does it have consciousness?'
Just as Cheng Shi was puzzling over what message this skull might be delivering, it spoke up with a dead-serious demeanor:
"Standing high may give you a far view, but you also risk being blown over by the wind. Cheng Shi, why do you live in such an unsteady place?"
"!!!"
Cheng Shi was blown away. He stared at the skull before him in sheer disbelief, jaw dropping:
"Squ... Old Zhang?
You got a facelift? How did your eyes get so big?"
"?"
Hearing this, the little skull instantly stopped bouncing.
...
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