Chapter 1116: The Other Shore

The Other Shore

Looks like Brother Mouth got scared by the True Universe too.

From just now on, it stopped talking entirely, and whenever Cheng Shi tried to bring up that existence, it would manually mute him.

But this was fine too—at least it added another layer of insurance.

Cheng Shi kept his head down and pressed forward through the cave. As his pace quickened, the space ahead slowly widened, and soon a brighter radiance appeared before his eyes. After rounding a large cluster of crystal pillars blocking his view, his field of vision opened up at once.

Outside the cave was an even vaster crystal world. Cheng Shi now stood at the cave's edge, like a tiny black dot on a hole in an abyss cliff face.

He looked down at the jagged crystal ocean below, his gaze stretching forward, and in the far distance saw a canyon rift like a natural moat.

On the other end of that canyon rift, memory crystals covered the world as well—only different from this side, the 【Memory】 radiance there was more dazzling, and the flowing breath of memory a deeper blue.

Clearly, the other shore of this memory junkyard led somewhere different.

"Brother Mouth, is that where I'm headed?"

Cheng Shi didn't expect Fool's Lips to respond. His brows knit slightly as he gazed into the endless distance, figuring that if he had to walk there himself, he had no idea how many days and nights it would take.

He wasn't sure whether time here differed from the outside. When the special trial came, could it pull him out of this mirror back into reality?

Probably not. The question was whether he could even take part in the trial inside the mirror.

Cheng Shi shook his head to clear the clutter and began heading toward the canyon rift. He had a feeling the opposite bank was his destination—he just didn't know where it led.

The rest of the journey was as dull as the memories in this crystal world. Cheng Shi did nothing but walk, and to avoid being crystallized again, he never dared linger on any image flashing across the crystals—just plodded on with his head down.

He silently counted the time. In this unchanging space he walked for dozens of hours straight. By his reckoning the next special trial should have arrived, yet he still hadn't reached the rift.

Of course, the trial didn't come either.

This space seemed to cut itself off from everything, a self-contained system—much like a trial, it didn't consume real-world time.

By the end, Cheng Shi was numb. He was nearly forgetting why he was trudging through here. Driven only by a stubborn breath, feeling he couldn't have come for nothing, he dragged his heavy steps and finally reached the canyon's edge.

Below the canyon wasn't a pitch-black abyss either—countless crystals covered it as well, and these crystals were like lotus-root threads, stitching the torn canyon back together. Cheng Shi only had to walk along those crystals, some thick some narrow, to reach this trip's "destination."

But this time he was more cautious, and before setting out he deliberately asked:

"Brother Mouth, I think there's danger on the other side. I shouldn't go over. What do you think?

If you don't speak, that counts as agreeing."

Fool's Lips gave a snort of laughter and paid him no heed.

Yet Cheng Shi had already gotten his answer from Brother Mouth's snort.

"A snort counts as a reply too. You opened your mouth, so you think I should go over.

Fine then. For the sake of you saving my life once, Brother Mouth, I'll listen to you this time."

"·?"

Saying so, Cheng Shi carefully stepped onto the light-bending crystal and walked slowly toward the other side of the rift.

The journey was endlessly long, but thankfully there were no real scares. Several times he nearly slipped and fell, but his today's-brave-hero reflexes pulled him back. Until he was less than a single leap from the opposite bank, he gritted his teeth and leaped over in one bound.

But the moment he landed, he realized he was wrong.

That azure radiance did indeed mean the breath of memory here was denser than the other side—but this brought a problem: the tangled memories were thick as something solid, and the instant Cheng Shi landed they seized him, wrapping him up at once, giving him no chance before trying to drown him.

Cheng Shi's heart clenched. He summoned every ounce of strength to snap his fingers, hoping to use the power of 【Time】—itself an 【Existence】—to turn danger into safety.

But to his surprise, the power of 【Time】 didn't spark against the memories here. Instead, the power of 【Fate】 that leaked out suddenly detonated, blasting him out of the endless memory cocoon.

【Fate】 had stepped in again!

Cheng Shi felt his vision go black, and then lost consciousness completely.

By the time he woke again, he had no idea how long had passed. He found he had long since left that memory junkyard and arrived in an unfamiliar room.

He was lying on a cold floor, one leg still propped inside an open wardrobe door. Beside the wardrobe was a bare-bones plank bed, and apart from that, nothing else in the room.

Where was this?

It's the end of the world—how can anyone still be living in a bare-shell apartment?

The bewildered Cheng Shi snapped to alert in a second. He sprang up and began looking around, and the first thing he saw was a white robe neatly folded inside the wardrobe, and beside it, propped against the cabinet panel, a mirror almost exactly the same size as Dream Me Nightmare.

What a coincidence—he happened to have seen this thing before.

"The No-Regret Dream Mirror!!??"

Qin Xin's room!?

This is the Torchbearer's turf!?

Cheng Shi's eyes went wide at once. And just then, a faintly glowing candle-flame figure dropped down from the ceiling of this bare-shell room.

That candle flame was flickering as if about to go out—compared to the azure radiance inside the memory junkyard just now, it was pitifully barely light at all.

But no matter how it swayed, it never went out. It even used its weak firelight to draw a surprised smiling face, staring straight at Cheng Shi, clicking its tongue as it sized him up:

"How interesting—a life born from shadow."

"!!!"

Cheng Shi whipped his head around and locked eyes with those candle-flame pupils. His mind went boom. Without thinking he blurted out:

"The Flame of Hope!!?"

"You know me?

But I don't think I've ever seen you?

Who are you? Why were you hiding inside the mirror?

And why do you carry the aura of 【Fate】?"

"I'm......" The words died on Cheng Shi's lips. Then, as if suddenly enlightened, he said, "So the Fun God went through all this trouble just to arrange for me to meet you?"

The candle-flame figure's form paused slightly. It frowned and tilted its head:

"【Fraud】?

It was He who sent you?"

Then it's not strange, but it seems I have to reintroduce myself.

I am the Hope-Fire kindled from the smallest spark, a subordinate deity of the Void, a herald of Fate.

You could say I'm connected to the Void, but I have never been arranged by any god — not by Fraud, and not by Fate either.

Now, little dark one, you can tell me what words She sent you to bring. 」

???

No, wait a moment!

Aren't you one of Fraud's people? What do you mean by all this?

Cheng Shi was dumbfounded, but he quickly realized there was a problem with Hope-Fire — and a big one at that!

The other party seemed to have a mistaken understanding of Fraud; She felt the Fun God had nothing to do with Her?

Huh?

But the Fun God didn't say it that way!

Aren't you a creation of the Fun God? How did you start developing independent cognition!?

Could it be that I misunderstood?