Chapter 675: Who Is He?! Who Exactly Is Li Wufang?!

Cheng Shi's cautious nature — his steadiness — had saved him once again.

He'd been puzzling over Li Wufang's inconsistent behavior for a while now, and wariness toward the man had been building silently. So when this baffling remark dropped, his first instinct was to lock down his expression and eyes, refusing to let even a flicker of shock slip through.

He knew the other man was a sharp-eyed hunter. Any abnormal reaction would put him on guard. His face did go slightly colder from the forced control, but fortunately, it stayed within an acceptable range.

His mind, however, had already erupted into full chaos.

The most explosive revelation wasn't what Li Wufang had said — it was that the Master of Deception told him the words were not a lie!

What did that mean? It meant that either the Investigator possessed a Master of Deception Card like Qin Xin, or he was a fellow fraud — a con artist wielding the Master of Deception talent!

Cheng Shi could conceive of no third option.

Moreover, reviewing every interaction with the Investigator throughout the day and tracing the shifts in his behavior, it was clear this fellow fraud's impersonation skills were nothing short of pinnacle-level — even more authentic than Zhen Yi. Had his fabricated persona not contradicted itself regarding its attitude toward Destiny — and had Cheng Shi not been someone who cared deeply about Destiny — he might never have suspected the man was a fraud at all.

But where did a fraud learn a hunter's combat skills and an Order follower's techniques?

Another goddamn Fraud civil war?

Cheng Shi panicked. He had every reason to panic — even now, the memory of that trial at the Montrani Coliseum still gave him chills.

But a con artist always had a purpose. So what was this "Li Wufang's" objective?

From the moment the words were uttered, Cheng Shi had been racking his brain: which fraud would call him "boss?"

After running through every possibility, only one name surfaced: Long Jing.

Was it him? The acrobat who excelled at disguise?

No — it shouldn't be.

Not because Long Jing lacked the ability, but because he lacked the nerve!

Even if Long Jing had determined that Cheng Shi's current identity was "Yu Xi," he would never dare casually address an envoy he'd only met a handful of times as "boss."

But if not Long Jing, then who?!

Cheng Shi's brain kicked into overdrive. He knew he couldn't stay silent forever, so he found a suitable excuse to explain away his earlier test-strike, disguising the probe as precaution:

"We found the trial's leads through Destiny's guidance, which means we can't ignore Time's counterattack. No god would tolerate its rival faith meddling in its own trial.

So we must be even more careful. I wasn't guarding against you — I was proving to you that I'm clean."

Li Wufang's expression turned deeply strange. He shook his head with an amused sigh: "Fine, fine — who could possibly out-argue you? But, boss — hasn't this trial been going a little too smoothly?

Shouldn't we first take him..."

Li Wufang's intimate tone sank Cheng Shi's heart further. He couldn't figure out why, so he could only listen in silence as the other man continued.

Li Wufang gestured at Ger Si and grinned:

"... ide him away? Buy us some time. That way this Time trial won't wrap up too fast.

With the remaining six days, we can take our time looking around — and maybe track down that backstabbing Jiang Chi and bring him back."

"!!!!!"

Who?

Jiang Chi?!

He really wasn't dead?

No, no, no — whether Jiang Chi was dead or alive wasn't even the point. What did Jiang Chi have to do with any of this? How had the conversation suddenly swerved to him??

Cheng Shi's mind went utterly blank. But he quickly sheathed his blade and seized the chance to turn away, letting out a casual snort to mask every trace of his expression. Because if he hadn't, his face — crumbling under the weight of shock — would have been impossible to hide.

And when he turned around, his gaze — laden with seismic alarm — fell upon Ad Ric at his feet. The miner, meeting a pair of terrifyingly dark eyes, was so frightened that his bladder failed him for the third time.

But Cheng Shi couldn't spare a thought for the stench filling the room. Because he'd suddenly realized he'd been wrong.

Catastrophically wrong!!!

This was bad. Very, very bad.

This man wasn't a fraud!

He seemed to be...

No — how was this possible? How could a gods' trial produce such an anomaly? Was this a flaw in the trial, a distortion of Time, or had Prosperity's fall finally ruptured the Convention?

Memory's power does not retroactively affect past trials. Time's divine authority does not impact present-day players. This was consensus. This was law.

In simpler terms: a player could not use Memory to travel back in time and kill other players in past trials. Nor could a player be affected by Time in a way that let them see players from a different timeline.

This had always been an unwritten but universally acknowledged truth among all gods and players alike. But now...

The former had already been shattered by Su Yida's arrival. And the latter... seemed poised to shatter today!

This Li Wufang...

Cheng Shi drew a long breath, his gaze heavy as lead, his expression grim to the extreme.

This Li Wufang appeared to be a player from another timeline!!!

And on that timeline, Cheng Shi — or at least the person sharing his name — was the "boss" Li Wufang referred to!

He, Li Wufang, and Jiang Chi all belonged to the same organization. But something had gone wrong within its ranks, leading Jiang Chi to "defect."

This wasn't speculation. This wasn't conjecture. When Li Wufang uttered the utterly unexpected name "Jiang Chi," countless threads suddenly connected in Cheng Shi's mind.

The meaningful wink Li Wufang had given him on the mountain path, hidden from the others' view. The deliberate way the Investigator had stayed behind rather than walking beside him after leaving the experiment lab. The instant, "obedient" compliance when Cheng Shi had said one word and the Investigator had immediately charged after the intruder...

All of it pointed to one conclusion: Li Wufang was someone's subordinate. And Cheng Shi had unwittingly "deceived" himself — he had never once considered the possibility that he might be someone's "superior."

He had absolutely no frame of reference for that identity.

Or rather: when a normal person noticed a teammate behaving oddly, their first assumption would always be hidden agendas, ulterior motives — perhaps a con artist. Nobody's mind would leap to "this is a person from another timeline."

But now, Cheng Shi couldn't avoid that conclusion. Because the logical foundation for deception had collapsed.

If everything prior had been a con artist's setup, then this moment should have formed the scam's payoff — but there was none. Because even if Cheng Shi didn't understand anyone else, he certainly understood himself. Whether or not he had subordinates was something he knew with absolute certainty.

Beyond temporary alliances in trials, he had never commanded anyone, nor did he enjoy doing so. Of course, "Gongyang Jiao" didn't count.

He wasn't human.

So the instant someone sincerely identified himself as a subordinate, the con lost its last shred of credibility. In a peak-level trial, in the absence of witnesses, no one would voluntarily assume a false subservient identity just to humor a fraud.

Cheng Shi should have realized this from the start. But he'd overthought everything — and in doing so, overlooked the simplest truth.

Now that he'd finally pieced it together, his mind began branching outward into new directions.