Chapter 735: How Should This Humble Follower Address You?

The Void was treacherous to traverse today.

Deng Sui's journey had been harrowing. First, terrifying spatial stasis. Then the Void itself shattered, plunging him into the deep nothingness where nothing existed.

He'd already been critically wounded by the enemy. Now, battered again and again by the Void's "abuse," he was barely holding on.

Fortunately, he had one final lifeline: half a God Audience Contract from Time believers on the Land of Hope. Legend had it that after the Memory faithful used a mirror to gain their Benefactor's audience, Time's relatively few followers had gathered devoutly to attempt the same.

They prayed to a contract drawn in blood, hoping to attract their Benefactor's gaze. They'd just begun to sense a deity's descent when — one of their number succumbed to greed and lunged for the contract, wanting to monopolize it.

He seized it and opened a Time gate to the past, hoping to go back and claim the honor of first audience alone. But nearby believers reacted fast, grabbing the contract. In the tug-of-war, they tore it in two.

Half vanished through the Time gate. The other half changed hands countless times before ending up with Deng Sui.

Naturally, anyone who possessed such a thing was no ordinary player. Deng Sui was a Time follower too. His ID in the Faith Game was...

Lao Deng.

Left with no choice, he produced the contract, poured every last drop of his remaining Time power into it — fully prepared to gamble with his life. But instead of his Benefactor's gaze arriving, the contract shattered into a corridor. A corridor to the unknown.

Normally, Deng Sui would have run countless extrapolations before daring to enter. But his current death-trap left no room for choice. So, gritting his teeth, he dragged himself in.

The warped space-time corridor spat him out beneath a sea of breathtaking stars he'd never seen before.

As he descended, his form gradually materialized, drifting down toward a vast jade-white platform beneath the starry sky.

He recognized it immediately. This had to be Time's temple. And that platform wasn't truly a platform — it was a twisted, colossal clock face, constructed from imprisoned temporality and stacked time, embedded with countless dials of every size!

And right now, standing at the center of that clock platform, a single unadorned clock hand turned slowly to track his descent.

Deng Sui's heart lurched — then leapt with joy!

Anyone could see it: the only being that could stand here — in Time's own temple, attending the deity Himself — had to be His Envoy. He could think of no one else.

But did Time have an Envoy?

Apparently not. Even he — a devoted Time chaser — had never heard of one. But "never heard of" didn't mean "definitely didn't exist." Even if this clock hand wasn't the Benefactor's Envoy, it must be something deserving worship.

So the instant Lao Deng's feet touched ground, he wisely and devoutly bowed to the clock hand:

"Time flows through cracks; I drift like the wind.

Praise be to Time. The devoted Time follower Deng Sui pays his respects to all great existences."

Deng Sui was shrewd. Not knowing how to address the entity, he used "all" and "existences" — avoiding any uninformed title that might give offense, while conveying his devotion to the Existence faction.

He thought his greeting was flawless. If not for his critical wounds and disheveled appearance, he'd have given himself a perfect score.

But he didn't need to score himself. Cheng Shi had already given him full marks.

That clock hand was, of course, Cheng Shi — disguised via Chaos Acting. Since this player named Deng Sui had appeared, Cheng Shi had been studying him closely.

He could tell the man was powerful. Grievously hurt. And the profile of "a severely wounded Time believer" instantly brought to mind the person the Blind One had mentioned... Lao Deng.

This wasn't baseless speculation. The timing was simply too convenient.

In the trial, the Blind One had said Lao Deng was about to die — no surprise there. Yet moments after the trial ended, a critically injured top player appeared in Time's temple?

No matter how you looked at it, this had to be Lao Deng — the one who'd defied the Torchbearers.

'He's... Lao Deng?'

'This young?'

'Where's the "old" in Lao Deng? This is more like Little Deng!'

'The Torchbearers botched it?'

Cheng Shi furrowed his brow. He didn't dare confirm the identity immediately — but identity-testing was well within his expertise. He didn't even need to probe; the upcoming "audience" would supply all the information he needed.

But one thing Cheng Shi had to figure out first: why had this person arrived here?

The Blind One — Destiny's Chosen, not one for exaggeration — had declared Lao Deng would die. There should have been no way for him to escape.

So was his appearance here an accident... or a summons from Cheng Shi's new Benefactor?

'He doesn't have time to see me, but He has time to rescue His follower?'

Cheng Shi's guard tightened. He decided to talk first — at least determine who this person was and what had happened to him.

So he spoke. And his opening salvo was pure veteran-charlatan pressure:

"Existence is the entanglement of Memory and Time — not Time alone.

If you don't wish to fuse with Memory, you'd best correct who you're paying respects to.

Young one — remember: devotion split between two is no devotion at all."

This barrage rattled Deng Sui badly. He immediately bowed his head in penitent submission and addressed the largest hand on the clock face, barely able to muster his voice:

"My Benefactor above — please forgive Your ignorant follower.

This is my first time being honored with Your summons, and my excitement has left me somewhat incoherent. All I meant to express was devotion — not to Existence at large, but absolute devotion to You."

With that, Deng Sui rattled off two quick prayers, then looked respectfully toward Cheng Shi:

"How should this humble follower address You?"

'First time?'

'Got it.'

Cheng Shi arched an eyebrow. Delighted. He cleared his throat with a light cough and laughed: "What — do I not resemble the Benefactor you imagined?"

"!!!???"

Hearing this, Lao Deng turned ghastly pale. "THUD" — he dropped to his knees, broken body and all.