Chapter 1278: Just How Important Is Yu Xi?

Foolish Game of the Gods

It was certainly possible—but it was also utterly mind-boggling.

Hu Wei stood frozen. Zhen Xin pressed on:

"Actually, I met another world's Cheng Shi quite some time ago. The name 'Origin' was something I first learned from his lips.

At the time, he—much like the Fun God who bestowed this trial—harbored certain hopes for our world's Cheng Shi. Coupled with the attention Fate had cast upon him...

It isn't hard to imagine that Cheng Shi is the answer that Void wants in this era—or in this game.

The Creator stands high above, having constructed a universe-slicing experiment that mortals can't comprehend. This experiment must have a purpose, yet no one can know what that purpose is. But if we analyze the behavior of Void's two gods, isn't it possible that the experimental outcome Origin seeks... is connected to Cheng Shi?

I don't necessarily mean Cheng Shi the individual—only that our world's Cheng Shi happened to catch Void's gaze and became that person."

After receiving this flood of information, ordinary people would struggle to shift perspectives immediately—elevating their vantage point all the way to the Real Universe and the Creator. Even Hu Wei fell silent for a moment, needing to process the meaning of their world's existence.

But Wei Mu was different. He seemed to have guessed long ago—every guess just lacking a piece of evidence. And today, that evidence had arrived.

Or perhaps "evidence" was too strong a word. It was more that one person's partial perspective had been supplemented by other partial perspectives, firming up conjectures that had been floating like rootless duckweed.

The puppet nodded, connecting everything he knew. Before long, he delivered a calm analysis:

"My Lord lost His authority. I've always wondered why He surrendered His own authority. Now it seems highly likely that He glimpsed where Deceit came from, and through that discovered the truth of the Real Universe—whereupon Deceit set a trap and swindled away His authority.

An outsider Deceit would necessarily surpass a 'homegrown' Folly in understanding the Real Universe. So my Lord was deceived.

But He wasn't the only one. Every god who could have obstructed Deceit's plan was deceived!

Folly, Time, Memory...

Deceit shattered the barriers between worlds, forcing Time to be 'trapped' in the Real Universe's 'time' just to preserve Existence.

Memory, to prevent the universe's memories from falling into chaos—to keep everything that Exists intact—deliberately forgot this period, or perhaps made certain gods forget it together.

And the key to unlocking that memory is very likely sealed inside Yu Xi's mask!

He should have a mask, shouldn't he?

Just like the Tongue of Eating Lies that Zhen Yi once held, and that terrifying legend of the Secret Peeping Ear in San Dales... they should all be parts of that mask?"

"..."

After hearing all this, Zhen Xin couldn't help but fall silent.

Everything Wei Mu described was as though he'd personally eavesdropped on the Joker's assembly, laying bare secrets the members had never shared with outsiders.

'Surely this doesn't count as me "leaking" information, right?'

'But then again, leaked or not—what difference does it make?'

The puppet continued: "So the gods, faced with the outsider Deceit's 'invasion,' were passively split into two camps. One: the 'foolish-act gods' kept in the dark, utterly unaware of what happened. Two: the 'foolish-act gods' who once knew everything, then quietly forgot, trying to clean up the chaos and keep the world running normally...

And perhaps a third: Deceit Himself.

He wove an entire sky of lies, integrating Himself into this world, all for the ultimate goal of taking Yu Xi away.

So everything I'd thought before was wrong. Void's will isn't contradictory at all—Deceit created all of this merely to sever Yu Xi from the original world!

It turns out the world's answer wasn't given by Deceit. It was given by Fate. Deceit has His eye on Fate's answer!

Does this mean He already knows the purpose of the Creator's experiment?

Perhaps His original world was just one step away from the final success, but because Cheng Shi fell at the threshold of victory, He was left with no choice but to make this decision.

But what exactly is the Creator after?"

Halfway through his deductions, Wei Mu heaved a sigh.

"Not enough.

Too little information to make useful inferences. A frog at the bottom of a well may, by luck, catch a glimpse of the bright moon—but it can never embrace the truly vast sky.

Standing here is already our limit. What the Real Universe actually looks like—only someone who's been there would know.

If we want to understand why Yu Xi is the answer, and what the Creator's true purpose is, we can only ask Yu Xi himself.

Magician, it's your performance time again. How to extract Yu Xi's Real Universe experiences without raising suspicion may well determine which direction this performance goes.

Of course, if we set aside the Creator's will and look only at the facts before us, the Void-wills of different worlds have already told us:

Yu Xi is the world's answer, the game's answer, and in all likelihood, the answer to this grand experiment by the Creator!

If we want to 'win' among the many slice universes, if we want to survive this immense experiment, there's only one path: protect Yu Xi.

We cannot let Deceit take Him away!

The good news: Yu Xi is already wary of Deceit.

The bad news: we can never predict Deceit's schemes. He let us discover all of this, which means He isn't afraid of our efforts."

"It seems this Curtain Call is a battle over the clown. Morning Joy versus the Sunset..."

The puppet paused, his tone turning strange, and suddenly tossed out a suggestion that stunned both listeners.

"Must we necessarily choose the Sunset?"

"???"

At those words, the look Zhen Xin directed at Wei Mu instantly changed.

Even Hu Wei instinctively tightened his grip on his greatsword, his brow low and eyes fixed on the puppet.

Sensing the pressure from both, the puppet broke into a brilliant smile.

"A joke.

The atmosphere was too heavy—bad for thinking.

I'm rational, but that doesn't mean I have no attachment to this world.

Relax. I won't be a traitor."

"..." Hu Wei's cheek twitched twice. He couldn't laugh.

Zhen Xin just rolled her eyes, muttering darkly:

"You can't fool him.

The Fun God bestowed the title of Yu Xi precisely because He recognized Cheng Shi's talent on the path of Deceit.

The moment Cheng Shi realizes we haven't brought Madame Freud back promptly, given how well he knows me and the Grand Marshal... he's probably already guessed something.

We can return to the trial, but we must bring a solution with us. Otherwise, the moment we meet him again could be the moment the world falls.

Cheng Shi is sentimental. He'll definitely choose the Sunset. What I fear most is that the 'Sunset' I understand isn't really the Sunset at all—but Morning Joy dressed in the Sunset's skin.

As you said, the Fun God isn't afraid of letting us know this. He isn't afraid of us causing trouble.

But precisely because of that, we must disrupt the ending He's written for Yu Xi. This isn't just protecting Yu Xi—it's protecting ourselves."

Zhen Xin's gaze was unwavering. Wei Mu regarded her with a hint of respect: "You care deeply about this world."

"Because this world has people I care about."

Zhen Xin told herself: whether it was the her standing here now, or the her who'd gone to another world—both felt the same.

...