Chapter 1042: Another Failure — A Flaw in the Experiment Parameters? |
"I already killed her!"
The moment those words left his lips, Galusha's eyes turned crimson. She snapped a whip toward Chen Yi, but he was faster — his body flickered into the shadows, reappearing behind her in an instant. Dagger in hand, eyes blazing with madness, he plunged the blade into the small of her back.
That wasn't enough. The instant she crumpled to the ground, Chen Yi ripped the dagger free and slashed it across Galusha's throat without a heartbeat's hesitation.
Panting like an exhausted bull, he hurled the corpse to the ground, held up Galusha's severed head, and screamed at Cheng Shi in raw desperation:
"I killed her — look! I really killed her!
That counts as a success, right? I'm not lying — I really killed her!
Give me the chance to have an audience with Him, just give me one chance..."
His voice trailed off as Chen Yi collapsed to his knees. Clearly, he didn't need Cheng Shi's answer to know — this attempt had failed.
He hung his head, staring at the ground with hollow eyes, muttering to himself:
Everyone watching furrowed their brows in confusion. Hu Xuan, in particular, couldn't figure out how Cheng Shi and Chen Yi had ended up together in the brief time she'd looked away.
Cheng Shi offered Hu Xuan no explanation. His expression grave, he walked over and crouched beside Chen Yi.
"Tell me what happened. We're not out of options yet..."
"Really?!"
Chen Yi grabbed Cheng Shi, but a flicker of suspicion crossed his eyes — the all-too-familiar feeling of being duped by Zhen Yi seemed to creep back. Yet the moment he thought about meeting Him — no, even if it was merely meeting His kindred god, a chance to petition Time for the opportunity to draw closer to Him — Chen Yi chose to believe.
He etched the words 'willing to be a Collection' deep into his heart.
The Memory follower steadied his emotions and quickly recounted everything he'd experienced.
After being carried into the past by the concentrated beam of spatiotemporal energy, his first move was to confirm the exact time period and his location. He discovered he was already inside the Grand Tribunal — right in Katouting itself.
From there, he used his Assassin agility and stealth to locate Keinlaur, and through him smoothly found Selius, who had just arrived at the Grand Tribunal for their meeting.
While the two men were still mid-negotiation, Chen Yi struck without hesitation, killing both occupants of the conference chamber. To eliminate every possible risk, he then killed everyone present in the Supreme Court at the time — though that didn't include the other Supreme Inquisitors, none of whom were on the premises.
After that, he tracked Keinlaur's residual aura to find Galusha and killed the mastermind while she was still a child — a single decisive strike.
Even after all of that, he didn't leave in a hurry. Instead, he stayed inside the Grand Tribunal for some time — long enough to personally witness the state funeral, the burial ceremony, and then dig up the corpses himself to confirm they were utterly, irrevocably dead. Only when he was absolutely certain did he drive his own blade into himself, exiling his consciousness back to this stretch of the present — this period that might as well be called 'the past.'
Chen Yi's account was extremely detailed, and the specifics made it impossible to mistake for a lie. More importantly, in his current state, deception was out of the question — even he couldn't understand why such a flawless operation had still left Galusha alive.
Cheng Shi's brow hadn't relaxed from the moment Chen Yi started talking. He turned the problem over and over in his mind, searching for whatever had caused such a seemingly perfect experiment to fail.
By now all his teammates had gathered. Even Wei Zhi, who'd been hoping to reap third-party benefits, had come closer. He surveyed the obliterated Experiment Ground at the bottom of the crater, rummaged around for a while, found no Grand Scholar corpses, and climbed out looking somewhat disappointed.
"It seems you understand this experiment far better than I do."
His scorching gaze fixed on Cheng Shi — a look that could have been admiration for a worthy ally, or the covetous appraisal of a hunter sizing up prey dripping with treasure.
Cheng Shi ignored the feverish stare. He raised his head, outlined his plan in broad strokes, then asked in a tone that invited critique:
"Head Chief Wei, have I overlooked anything in my experiment?"
Having heard Cheng Shi's account, the others could only marvel that this teammate's intelligence-gathering abilities were nothing short of unthinkable.
While everyone else was still fanning out to search their assigned areas on his orders — while even Wei Zhi had known only where the Grand Scholars were hiding — this man had already seen through every last detail of the Erudition Presidium's and Galusha's arrangements, and begun solving the puzzle?
Wei Zhi's gaze sharpened. A new wariness crept into the way he looked at Cheng Shi. But he didn't refuse the question. After a moment's thought, he probed without the slightest attempt at subtlety:
"You're using trial and error?
You have a means of changing the outcome?"
As he spoke, Wei Zhi's eyes slid toward Meng Youfang. Clearly, he assumed it was this Time follower who had been providing Cheng Shi with help during the Trial.
Meng Youfang knew Cheng Shi's true identity. He figured this was simply a case of Truth's test being too difficult, prompting his characteristically unorthodox old friend to borrow some of His own methods. So he just smiled and said nothing.
In Wei Zhi's eyes, that silence was as good as confirmation.
Cheng Shi took it all in. After distancing himself from the assumption, he pressed on: "Never mind that for now. Where do you think this experiment still has problems?
I can trade you information about Zangier in exchange — and this time I mean it."
Wei Zhi's eyes lit up for an instant. After careful deliberation, he said:
"Perhaps the experiment's framework was flawed from the start, routing Chen Yi's regression into a parallel timeline.
I'm not sure exactly how much of Time's Authority my lord has seized, but He certainly did seize some. And if He can do it, there's no reason Folly can't as well — so that hypothesis isn't unreasonable.
You've said yourself that by the time the experiment launched, Galusha's contingencies were already in motion. Who's to say they didn't tamper with the experiment's parameters amid all the chaos?
So the safest course would be to clear every last person from the Experiment Ground and leave only the Grand Scholars to operate it. That way, the results would be beyond question."
At this point, Cheng Shi also knew that the existence of time resets in this Trial could no longer be kept secret. Then again, after the next reset Wei Zhi wouldn't remember any of this, so he didn't worry about it — especially with a convenient scapegoat standing right there beside him, grinning away. Anyone who saw that would pin the blame on Meng Youfang.
Cheng Shi nodded. 'If that's the case, the next experiment will need another person on the team.'
He walked over to Fang Yuan, who was studying him with obvious suspicion, and smiled.
"President Fang, as a follower of Order, the cost of controlling every person within a given area shouldn't be too steep for you... right?"
Fang Yuan's brow creased slightly. "Meng Youfang reversed time?"
Cheng Shi nodded vigorously and whispered: "Exactly. But it won't affect any of you. You can see for yourself — I'm trying to lead us all to victory in this Trial. So, President Fang, in the interest of saving time on explanations, give me a code phrase — something that will convince you to help when the time comes. That way our odds improve."
Fang Yuan understood what Cheng Shi was asking. After a moment's hesitation, he offered a name:
"Akuan.
Just tell me Akuan asked you for help. That should be enough to convince me."
Akuan?
'Interesting.' Cheng Shi knew that many people set up prompt words for themselves to quickly identify allies inside Time Battlefields. He'd done the same thing himself, so 'Akuan' was almost certainly Fang Yuan's prompt word.
Cheng Shi committed it to memory, then turned to Wei Zhi. "Can you still sense where the Grand Scholars are?"
Wei Zhi shook his head. "I need fresh corpses."
"..."
'What kind of Combat Expert is this guy? He's more like a gourmet connoisseur.'
Cheng Shi was speechless, but his innate caution made him press one more question: "Head Chief Wei, it's not that I don't trust you, but your obvious designs on the Grand Scholars make me uneasy. Humor me — say one lie, just one. Even if you've hidden your Master of Deception card, as long as I can hear you tell a single falsehood, I'll accept it."
Wei Zhi shot Cheng Shi a half-amused sidelong glance but didn't refuse:
"I know exactly where the Grand Scholars are."
A lie!
'Fine.' Even if something went wrong, a couple more resets would sort it out.
Cheng Shi let himself relax for the moment. He waved to Hu Xuan, who had been silent all this time, then snapped his fingers in front of everyone.
Time receded like a tide, and the experiment was about to begin anew.
The seventh attempt.
...
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