Chapter 727: Folly Was One Thing — but What's This Now?

The Death Cheng Shi "expected" didn't come. And neither did death itself.

Those sun-sized white eyes gave him a casual glance, scoffed, and tossed the question right back at Cheng Shi — or perhaps, at the Fool's Lips.

"Do you believe your foolish acts will ever have an answer?"

Hearing this, Cheng Shi's body went taut — yet his heart quietly exhaled with relief.

'Getting scolded is fine. Getting scolded means He's not attacking. Means there's still room to salvage this blasphemy.'

There was indeed room. But the direction it turned was the last thing Cheng Shi wanted.

Because the instant Folly finished speaking, the clown's mouth moved on its own again:

"Are you a parrot?"

"..."

'Kill me!'

'Please, Brother Mouth, just kill me outright.'

'I've had enough! Truly enough! What's the point of living every day on tenterhooks, walking on eggshells?'

'Is it so I can survive long enough for you to get me killed!?'

'Hm!?'

'Have mercy. Stop talking. Just finish me off.'

'Otherwise you'll literally scare me to death sooner or later.'

The Fool's Lips' retort was genuinely savage — enough to catch even Folly off guard. Those divine eyes stiffened for an instant. But He quickly realized something, and scoffed once more:

"So what if I am?

Under this universe, I'm not the only one mechanically repeating the same actions. Perhaps aside from the Void, every deity is a 'parrot.' As for whether the Void itself is...

I thought so. But you're telling Me — perhaps not. Am I right?"

"You blather on and on with things nobody understands. You think that makes you clever?"

"I seldom argue intellect with the other deities. Because they don't dare — and they don't deserve to. Truth included.

As for you? Hah.

The wise have no worries; the foolish have no deeds. You're no fool, but you're nowhere near a wise man either.

I've already seen the ending of your foolish act. Boring. Truly boring."

With that, those chaotic white eyes actually sighed — as though They'd genuinely lost interest.

But right then, Cheng Shi — drenched in cold sweat and practically dehydrated — opened his mouth again. With a single world-shaking retort, he stamped a terrifying exclamation mark on this confrontational audience!

"Sure, sure, sure — you're so impressive. If you're so impressive, how'd you manage to lose your own authority?"

"!!!!!"

'WHAT!?'

Cheng Shi was thunderstruck. His pupils shrank to pinpoints. He stared at Folly in disbelief, his brain going "BOOM" — detonating.

'Folly lost His authority?'

'Why?'

'When?'

'If Folly has no authority, how does He shelter His followers? How does He hold a seat under the Convention?'

'Doesn't the Convention protect all divine authority from being lost? How could Folly's just... disappear?'

'How much is gone? Where did it go? Was it proxied through the Convention?'

'Wait — big guy, did You die and come back like Prosperity did?'

Cheng Shi's CPU was overheating and smoking from the overload. His eyes were full-screen SHOCK.

Folly, for His part, didn't seem to mind discussing it. He merely paused His departing step, scoffed one more time:

"The pursuit of knowledge always demands a price. I paid Mine. Don't tell Me you haven't paid yours?

Hah. Foolish.

Glamour is useless. And facades... are merely things you use to deceive yourself.

You're boring. Far more boring than I expected.

But this Void walker, on the other hand..."

Those chaotic white eyes scanned Cheng Shi up and down once more, then glanced at the tower beneath his feet. Tone dripping with mockery:

"Though ignorant and foolish, at least your ridiculous appearance has its uses.

You can entertain an audience, at least.

Wouldn't you agree... clown?"

With that, He vanished — tower and all — dissolving into the Void.

And Cheng Shi, having been inexplicably roasted about his profession, plummeted through the Void in utter bewilderment, internally screaming: 'Wait — Brother Mouth, your argument with Him — what's that got to do with ME?'

The Fool's Lips scoffed:

"Hah. Foolish.

He couldn't out-argue Me, so naturally He could only take it out on you. Is that really so hard to understand?"

"???"

'Great, great! Perfectly understandable!'

'Today I'm not just a clown — I'm a stupid clown!'

'You commandeered my mouth for a fun little roasting session, but the one sweating bullets the whole time was ME. And at the end of it you have to mimic Folly's tone and twist the knife one more time!'

'I don't even want this mouth anymore!'

Cheng Shi snapped. He whipped out two cans of tentacle slime and viciously... rewarded the slime-drink-loving Fool's Lips.

This "kill the enemy for a hundred, lose yourself for ten thousand" move left even the Fool's Lips speechless.

"..."

'When it comes to absurdity, the clown reigns supreme.'

"Blrgh shmo shlah... glug glug glug... dono bla shlah... glug glug glug..."

The slime stuck to the throat, impossible to spit out — forced down the hatch, can and all.

But while punishing Brother Mouth, Cheng Shi hadn't forgotten where he was. He realized he was still falling through the Void. Normally by now he should have already tumbled out and landed back on his rooftop. But now...

'Oh no!'

Snapping out of his rage, Cheng Shi instantly realized today's gauntlet was far from over. He was just about to compose himself and brace for whatever came next — when everything around him changed.

The Void was no longer dark. It shimmered with multicolored ripples.

His descent was slowing. Before long, it felt like he'd plunged into a soft cloud — caught, pulled, sinking, trapped by viscous forces from every direction.

Cheng Shi's heart lurched. He felt like he'd fallen into quicksand. No amount of struggling could free him.

He panicked. Called out for Brother Mouth. But the Fool's Lips — who'd been trash-talking the heavens moments ago — had suddenly turned ostrich and gone silent.

Cheng Shi's heart sank. Brow furrowed, he pulled out his lantern and dice, planning to switch back to Destiny and use the Never Lost Gambling Gear to teleport out. But the instant his lantern flared to life, a current roared past like an undersea volcanic eruption — engulfing him completely, dragging his vision into a dazzling, kaleidoscopic, dreamlike sea of stars.

Cheng Shi was dumbfounded. This domain undeniably belonged to Them. But the problem was — in the clown's understanding, the only places that could be called a "sea" and were connected to Them were either Memory's Sea of Memory... or Corruption's Sea of Desire!

This clearly wasn't Memory's territory. So... this couldn't actually be Corruption's lair, could it!?

'Huh???'

'H-Help! My Lord — save me!'