Chapter 602: I Didn't Break My Oath—I Fused |
Among the peak players, a handful knew the secret behind Zhen Xin and Zhen Yi. The Blind One was one of them. The Dragon King was another.
He'd exchanged memories with Zhen Xin. When the former Chosen of Deceit had told Li Jingming the truth about herself and her sister, the shock had been immense. At the time, he'd even assumed that gaining a second faith in this game required splitting into a separate personality.
Thankfully, a later audience with Deceit had clarified that it needn't go anywhere near that far. Zhen Xin and Zhen Yi had merely been a little experiment the god had whipped up on a whim.
So when Cheng Shi said he'd fused Deceit and Fate, Li Jingming believed it immediately. Not only because he knew Deceit had once intended to fuse with Fate, but because he knew something else... Fate had personally summoned Cheng Shi!
This was a fact attested to by many eyewitness accounts, and a truth Cheng Shi himself had admitted within the Mediocre Person Society.
This mysterious second deity of the Void—Fate—had never summoned even its own Chosen, yet had singled out a Fate Weaver with no ranking. That fact alone was enough to spark endless speculation.
Li Jingming's epiphany clicked into place. No wonder this Fate Weaver was so skilled at deception—he was a con artist to begin with.
But before Cheng Shi could respond, the Dragon King's brow creased slightly: "Hmm. The memory I gave doesn't seem valuable enough to match what you shared. Let me think about what else I should offer..."
"?" Cheng Shi blinked. He hadn't expected his gambit to yield a bonus.
Cheng Shi wasn't genuinely playing the heart-to-heart game. He had his own calculations.
First: the more peak players he encountered, the more inevitable it became that his dual-faith identity would be exposed. No matter how seamlessly he acted, concealed, and disguised, he'd told too many lies. Those lies would eventually contradict each other.
When all those "landmines" finally detonated at once, no explanation would be believed.
So what he needed to do now was plant the endpoint of all those lies in the Dragon King's fertile soil of Memory—letting Memory's reputation anchor a single, authoritative "truth."
And that truth was: Cheng Shi had fused with the Void. Regardless of how he'd done it, the fact remained that he'd fused.
Later, when others learned of this through the Dragon King, his credibility would lend weight to the claim. Those scheming peak players would then review their own memories of Cheng Shi, match every inconsistency against the dual-faith explanation, and complete the logical self-persuasion on their own.
This was Cheng Shi's effort to cover his tracks.
The dual Void faith had been his trump card—a hidden ace he logically shouldn't reveal. But a trump card that's been shown too many times ceases to be a trump card. It becomes common knowledge.
In truth, Cheng Shi hadn't planned to reveal it this soon. He still hadn't found a replacement—a new hidden card to buy himself lying room.
But now he had one.
The unexpected Chaos fusion had dealt him a fresh ace. With that in his pocket, he could afford to push the Void dual-faith out into the open as a new identity marker.
This should have been done more subtly—his original plan was to have Mi Laozhang be the one to "reveal" it. Not because of friendship, but because Mi Laozhang already knew about his dual faith and was an honest man. People trusted honest men.
But "unfortunately," Cheng Shi had conned Mi Laozhang into joining Deceit—so the honest man had lost his honest label and was no longer credible.
So Cheng Shi had been searching for a new candidate. Running into the Dragon King this trial gave him a perfect target. And he was confident this secret could fetch something even bigger in return.
So he confessed.
Half-truthfully confessed.
But regardless—he hadn't actually lied, had he?
Cheng Shi smiled and waited for the Dragon King's response. And Li Jingming didn't disappoint. He revealed a secret of his own—a secret about faith.
"Cheng Shi, I'm sure you've noticed I still wield considerable Memory power. Everyone's been curious about it, but I've never explained.
Today, given your honesty, I choose to exchange this memory of faith with you.
I didn't break my oath. I fused Deceit and Memory."
"!!!"
Cheng Shi's eyes went wide with shock. Though this intelligence wasn't entirely fresh—the understanding had simply shifted.
Everyone had assumed Memory hadn't inflicted an oathbreaking curse on the Dragon King—had even left him some unusually strong oathbreaker talents. But now it turned out every guess had been wrong. He'd fused?
How could the Fun God possibly choose to fuse with Memory?
What did this mean? Had eons of faith opposition ended today?
Followers on both sides had been at each other's throats for ages—and the two gods sitting on their Divine Thrones had shaken hands?
But if the Fun God truly intended this, why had he issued a divine decree during a trial ordering his followers to harvest Memory's followers?
And if opposing faiths could fuse, then how did Aph Ros...
Wait!
Who said Aph Ros didn't count as a fusion? Even if its faith was two sides of one coin rather than a true merger, having two faith powers in one body was, in a sense, already a form of fusion.
But that opposition had evolved into genuine fusion in the Dragon King's case!
So the Existence era had shown the early signs of fusion, while the Void era had fully resolved the problem of opposing-faith fusion?
Was this why the gods had agreed to sign the Convention?
Had the Fun God used this breakthrough to persuade the gods into the Convention?
Was this a truth discovered by Truth, or a change ushered in by the Void era?
Cheng Shi's brain was mush.
Li Jingming didn't know Cheng Shi was pondering such lofty matters. Sensing his shock, he assumed Cheng Shi was wondering how opposing faiths could coexist, so he smiled:
"I don't know how he convinced my Benefactor. But the fact is, I fused two opposing faiths."
Cheng Shi's expression became spectacularly complex. He'd assumed he was the one ahead of the curve—but looking back, Li Jingming had left Memory and joined Deceit several days before he had.
'So the Dragon King really had been the Dragon King all along!'
Li Jingming read the bewilderment and gently shook his head:
"I wasn't as lucky as you might think. The fusion was a long process—so long that I endured a great deal of ridicule under the Deceit banner. It's only recently that Deceit's power has started manifesting in me.
I finally understand now that this is what fusion is."
'Right—Hong Lin also mentioned that Li Jingming had only recently started impersonating people. So his fusion really was recent—even after Hong Lin's!'
"But then... why did you come to Deceit? Shouldn't faith fusion keep you in your original faith?"
"I don't know. But I suspect it was one of the Fun God's conditions.
He does enjoy making people into entertainment, doesn't he?"
'Yes! Absolutely yes—that's utterly irrefutable.' But still...
Cheng Shi furrowed his brow: "You don't know? Didn't he tell you anything when he summoned you?"
Li Jingming recalled the audience and shook his head with a bitter smile: "He said something—but it was the same as saying nothing.
He asked me: 'Do you want to fuse a second faith?'
I said: 'Yes.'
And then the audience ended. My faith inexplicably switched to Deceit, but I had no Deceit talents at first—only my original Memory talents.
God knows I never imagined I'd be fusing with Deceit."
"..." 'Your conversation was surprisingly straightforward. How come the Fun God wasn't this easygoing when he summoned me?!'
But regardless, it felt like the Dragon King had been played by the Fun God.
Mi Laozhang seemed to have been played into it too.
The god just loved playing people.
Cheng Shi was numb. He pursed his lips:
"Fine. Since you've been so generous, I can't be stingy either. Go ahead—ask your questions.
You've been interrogating me nonstop. Now it's your turn.
Dragon King, make the most of this. I know far more than you'd expect."