Chapter 1113

Behind the Mirror: The Labyrinth of 【Memory】

Quiet, unusually quiet, so quiet that only the sounds of breathing and heartbeats remained.

When Cheng Shi's consciousness returned like a tide, the first thing he thought of wasn't where he was, but what the God of Fun wanted to do now.

Why did he send him into the mirror?

For a moment, Cheng Shi even wondered if the God of Fun before him was an impersonation by 【Memory】; otherwise, he truly couldn't figure out why the other party would use him to trade for the Long Wang.

Is this a rescue, or an imprisonment?

It couldn't possibly be a reward...

Carrying this doubt, Cheng Shi slowly opened his eyes. A beam of faint light squeezed into his eyelids first, and then countless complex carvings came into view.

These strange patterns were very familiar. Cheng Shi immediately recalled that they were exactly the same as the patterns on the back and frame of the Mirror of Dreams and Nightmares, just magnified by who knows how many times.

Recalling the scene of the mirror rushing toward his face just now, Cheng Shi wondered if there was an even larger mirror inside this world within the mirror.

He retreated cautiously and looked up, but upon looking, he discovered that it wasn't like that at all.

This was clearly not a mirror, but a wall—a wall of mirror-like barriers that pierced the clouds and reached into the sky, just like the High Wall of True Knowledge, with no end in sight!

And this wall wasn't just the one in front of him; behind him, to his left and right, and even behind the corners he rounded, they were all there!

Cheng Shi was shocked. He observed his surroundings for a moment and reached a conclusion: the place where he was located was like a giant labyrinth, and the spot where he stood was the starting point of this labyrinth.

This was no wonder the Long Wang gave the warning to "be careful of getting lost within it." It turned out the secret within the Mirror of Dreams and Nightmares was hidden in this labyrinth.

It was reasonable, after all, even the trial of 【Memory】 involved finding an exit in a maze of dreams; it didn't seem impossible for a labyrinth to be hidden within a 【Memory】 creation.

But!

The existence of a labyrinth is reasonable, but that doesn't mean the God of Fun's actions are reasonable!

Why did he send him into the mirror?

Originally, he could have waited outside for the Long Wang to come out and learned all the secrets the Long Wang had discovered without any risk. Now, he hadn't heard the secrets yet, and the risk had arrived first.

What is this?

Is it because he desecrated 【Fate】 by praying to the dice, causing 【Fate】 to exert its power and make the God of Fun fall into a disadvantage in the 【Nothingness】 civil war, so he used a reward as an excuse to impose a punishment?

No, Lord Benefactor, isn't your heart a bit too small?

In the past, when I desecrated your sibling god, you weren't like this; you laughed quite happily.

How come this time, when I'm the one in trouble, you've started blaming me?

Can't we learn from the only merit your sibling god has and become a bit more tolerant?

Cheng Shi was numb. His first thought was to "break out of prison." He felt that the talent bestowed by 【Time】 might allow him to return to before he entered the mirror, but this involved another problem: if Shadow Cheng Shi snapped his fingers and went out, would he follow him out?

Likely not, so for the sake of stability, he first swapped faiths with Shadow Cheng Shi, and then snapped his fingers himself.

"Snap—"

Nothing happened.

"..."

Sure enough, in the face of a god's will, human resistance is useless.

Cheng Shi asked Mouth Brother again, but Mouth Brother didn't respond. For a moment, the clown seemed to have lost all his strength.

He sighed helplessly and began to study his surroundings.

Since he was already here, what else could he do? Whether this was a punishment or a so-called reward, under His gaze, he couldn't just let himself die in this mirror, right?

Since safety could likely be guaranteed, he might as well see what secrets were hidden in this labyrinth.

Cheng Shi's fingertips brushed over the patterns on the giant wall, and he raised an eyebrow, thinking to himself that this stone was good; it would be quite nice to move it back and renovate the warehouse.

However, no matter how he hacked with blades, struck with axes, or bombarded with thunder, the wall didn't budge. It simply wasn't something that could be broken by external force. For a moment, Cheng Shi's thought of "breaking out of prison" was finally extinguished completely.

It seemed this labyrinth could only be traversed by walking.

His gaze tightened, and he began to circle the starting point. After figuring out a few forks, he finally discovered what the so-called secret within the Mirror of Dreams and Nightmares actually was.

It was no different from what he had thought before; all the memories of the clowns should be hidden in here!

Because in front of the only seven forks on the outer circle of the starting point, he saw the figures of six clowns, including himself!

It was just that these figures weren't physical entities, but more like dream-bubble memory phantoms. They couldn't notice Cheng Shi's approach at all, each immersed in a scene of memory, performing the past to their heart's content, as if they were pointing the way for those exploring the labyrinth, waiting for the decision of the person seeking the memories.

Seeing this, Cheng Shi knew that as long as he walked down a certain fork, he should be able to glimpse that person's memories.

So, the Long Wang did indeed hide information at the beginning. While the Mirror of Dreams and Nightmares reflects the desires of the human heart, it also leaves behind the memories of the person looking into the mirror, and the Long Wang likely risked his life precisely for these memories.

And he said that if you want to get out, you can only choose one path...

So whose memory did the Long Wang choose?

Cheng Shi frowned slightly, not only wondering what risks lay on this path of memory, but also pondering whether he should try to choose a path different from the Long Wang's to maximize his gains.

And right now, the fork in front of him led to the Long Wang's memories.

He saw the young Long Wang practicing in the temple; the scene before him was exactly little Li Jingming sitting at a table with his master, transcribing the deeds of predecessors.

Reasonably speaking, Li Jingming probably wouldn't look back at his own past; after all, those were his personal experiences, and he had no need to recall them through the Mirror of Dreams and Nightmares.

So choosing this path would absolutely not conflict with the Long Wang's choice.

However... is there any meaning in risking one's life to find the past of a little Daoist priest?

It seems not.

He is not a 【Memory】 believer and does not rely on remembering the past to practice his own will. Thus, Cheng Shi observed for a moment with a strange expression. Seeing the scene repeat itself—little Long Wang finishing a page and starting to transcribe it again—he silently "freeloaded" the content on that page and turned to leave.

Standing in front of the second fork was Zhen Xin.

The Zhen Xin before him was also a child. It must be said that Zhen Xin looked much cuter when she was little, but this scene of memory was not cute at all.

At this moment, little Zhen Xin was lying on the table, frowning in thought, while behind her was the silent, waiting An Jing.

Cheng Shi, who knew this past, immediately realized that this was the day Zhen Xin was adopted, and also the beginning of her suffering.

Cheng Shi suddenly thought of himself. He sighed with an unexplainable expression and turned to leave again.

The following forks held Long Jing, sweating profusely under his parents' instruction; the Doctor, frustrated and unappreciated in the laboratory; and Old Zhang, isolated by colleagues while patrolling the cemetery at night.

Facing the pasts of these clowns, Cheng Shi only glanced at them and noted these scenes, but he never chose to enter any fork and walk it to the end.

Until he arrived, after hesitating and wavering who knows how many times, in front of the labyrinth fork that held his own figure. He watched, with a feeling of homesickness, as Old Jia pointed at that adoption agreement, smiling awkwardly and saying:

"That won't do, that won't do, you have a name, you have a name, I gave you a name."

At that moment, Cheng Shi smiled. Past memories surged like a tide, crashing against a dam called Longing. The tide overflowed, turning into tears.

He was clearly smiling, yet he shed a tear. The tear slid down his cheek, and he and Old Jia spoke in unison:

"Cheng Shi, 'Cheng' from Cheng Jia, 'Shi' from honesty."

This was the first time he had seen Old Jia again outside of the Dream-Peeking Ranger's illusions. Even if the Old Jia at this moment wasn't real, it was enough...

A fleeting glance was enough to comfort his longing.

After watching, the tear fell to his toes, and Cheng Shi turned and left immediately.

If I want to see him, there are plenty of ways in this world. The reason I don't is that I don't want this absurd game to contaminate everything related to him.

Yes, I miss him, but this is absolutely not a "reward."