Chapter 1406: Cause and Effect Will Always Close the Loop |
He had landed right in front of Wei Mu!
That meant his identity was inextricably linked to the indisputable number-one on the Road to Ascension.
The problem was that their ages made any biological relationship impossible — so the connection could only be... experimental in nature.
Then who was the test subject?
The answer was self-evident.
Looking at the flash of despair and anguish in Jie Shu's eyes, the puppet nodded, expressionless.
"It seems the experiment will need to be conducted differently.
I've long wanted to throw a proxy puppet beyond the world to witness the wonders of the Real Universe, but I could never find the method.
Today, I not only found it — I even gained a complete set of reusable spacetime experience.
What do you think, Jie Shu?"
"..."
In that moment, Jie Shu found where he came from.
The puppet ignored the increasingly silent Wise Man and continued:
"So everything was ordained all along. Hmm — this may be the first time I've truly felt the wonder of Fate.
Snatching someone from Yu Xi was an act born of desperation. But now, you've given me the opportunity to smooth things over.
I imagine the Master of Trickery was bound to you in exactly this fashion?
Good. If I send you both out of this world, perhaps — considering that the next world's Yu Xi will benefit — the Yu Xi of this world won't hold my impudence too much against me.
In that case, I'd trouble 'Jie Shu' to take this Master of Trickery and set off on a new journey together.
Relax. We'll meet again.
At the end of the next world's era, I'll be waiting for you — in another laboratory."
"..."
Naturally, the original Jie Shu was kept behind.
He was the experimental result sent by a Wei Mu from another world. This Wei Mu accepted the delivery, expressed his thanks, and in turn dispatched a new "Jie Shu."
Traveling with the Wise Man, of course, was the Master of Trickery Su Yida — now reduced to a test subject.
A new cycle of experimentation had begun. Every Wei Mu, at the very moment he launched his experiment to explore the Real Universe, would receive the results of an identical experiment from elsewhere — and then send out a fresh sample.
No one knew when these "stitches" binding countless slice universes together had first started. But the ones threading the needle knew: if possible, they would keep sewing.
...
Elsewhere.
The Jokers departed.
Sometimes, the absence of an answer is itself an answer.
The moment Zhen Xin said "the only thing that can shield an Authority is another Authority," the Jokers had their answer.
Staggeringly unexpected — yet impeccably logical.
How else could one explain Wei Mu's intellect and computational prowess? How else could one explain the chasm between him and every other peak player?
It was only that Cheng Shi had never imagined the thing he'd been searching for had been hiding right beside him all along.
Folly truly deserved the title of the Universe's supreme intellect. Sometimes, He was even more deceitful than Deceit.
The good news: proximity to Folly's Authority had indeed brought answers about the world's future.
The bad news: did this count as a contamination of Wei Mu's will?
When Wei Mu had deduced everything and delivered his so-called Void answer, had he known he was Folly's Authority?
Cheng Shi sank into deep thought.
He felt that regardless of whether Wei Mu knew, the puppet would certainly want to talk. The era had evolved to this point; every path forward would eventually converge. No one could escape the final curtain call, so they would surely meet again — before the future arrived, or before the world ended.
He could sense that Wei Mu wasn't a conservative from the Approach Faction, nor did the puppet bear any ill will toward this world. So perhaps the little puppet wouldn't metastasize into an obstacle?
It was also in this moment that Cheng Shi recalled another person.
Sun Miao!
If the Jokers' suspicion was correct — and Wei Mu really was Folly's hidden Authority — then as a symbol of the old world's divine power, Wei Mu could never approach the "new" Origin and become a "god" in the new world. That meant the seat of Folly would be left vacant.
Which meant someone in reality would need to be found — a follower of Folly close to Fixed Destiny — to inherit everything of Folly and become the new deity.
But among those near Cheng Shi, who had the "qualifications"?
After thinking it over, it seemed only Sun Miao fit the bill.
But actually — no!
Because when it came to proximity to Folly, there was someone far more qualified than Sun Miao: Galusha!
At the very least, her devotion to Folly was beyond reproach.
Yet from Cheng Shi's perspective, a Sun Miao who wholeheartedly believed in Yu Xi was clearly a better fit than a Galusha whose very foundation was madness. So his inclination was for Sun Miao.
That being the case, it was time to pay another visit to the Fire Passer Hall.
Since his showdown with Deceit, Cheng Shi had learned all the truths. That meant the Flame of Hope naturally couldn't be an Envoy formed from the sliver of Change that Fate had cast away — He could only be a "creation" of Deceit's.
Yet when one also considered that the Flame transformed into a Fate Container upon death...
Cheng Shi couldn't help speculating about the Flame of Hope's relationship with the true Fate.
One must not forget: when the real Fate fell, He had brought a thread of Origin's power into this world. Where exactly that power had gone, Deceit still had not revealed.
'Could it be Him...?'
Cheng Shi didn't want to guess and didn't wish to guess. He wanted the Flame of Hope to tell him personally.
Yet his plan fell apart. By the time Cheng Shi contacted Qin Xin, he learned the Flame of Hope had already vanished — and along with Him, the "Vice President" Sun Miao.
"What do you mean, vanished?"
"Can't be found. Can't be reached. Every trace has been erased. Aside from my memories of him and Him, it's as if they never existed.
I didn't dare tell the others. I only said the Flame of Hope was on a classified mission.
But I feel... it doesn't look like He left on His own because the torch had grown stronger. It's more like He deliberately distanced Himself from us."
"..."
Cheng Shi stood dazed before Qin Xin, feeling once more that helpless sensation he hadn't felt in a long time — being swept along by an invisible force.
He could roughly guess that the Flame of Hope's disappearance was connected to Deceit's larger design. But why Sun Miao?
Sun Miao's vanishing cost Cheng Shi his best candidate for the seat of Folly. Fate went round and round, and seemed to have circled back to Galusha once more.
In that moment, he finally understood why he'd been able to pull Galusha — a being who didn't belong to this era — out of a Trial of Truth.
So Deceit had long since corrected the course for the current crossroads.
'Then what is Galusha up to now? Oh, right — she's been frequenting Aph Ros's Dolgod lately, apparently fascinated by the experiments there.'
Cheng Shi fell silent. After a long pause, he nodded:
"Fair enough. Everyone has their own path to walk.
All I can do is bring together the wills that wish to draw close, and let them walk side by side. But if He, he, or she want to forge their own road, I'm naturally delighted to see it.
If it works, we'll be each other's backup plan.
Qin Xin — time waits for no one. Are you ready to inherit everything of War?
This time you won't be alone. Several others will join you, ascending to godhood together."
...
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