Chapter 1164: Falling Out

「Falling Out」

Zhao Xishi hid in the shadows, the corner of her mouth curving slightly.

A peak-level match was never just about raw combat power. So long as the opponent wasn't someone like Hong Lin, whoever came would have to play three rounds of mind games first.

She watched Ji Yue and Cheng Shi slowly approach back-to-back, sneering inwardly:

"Careful, sure. But have you two ever considered that the very distance you're closing between yourselves will one day be written into the ending where you turn on each other?"

Ji Yue knew Zhao Xishi was nearby. She was also wondering what trap the other had laid to dare face two opponents here—especially when one of them had killed her during this trial.

Cheng Shi's nerves were strung even tighter than Ji Yue's. He feared this Torchbearer, in a fit of humiliated rage, might put a bullet in him first. Of course, he knew that as a Torchbearer, the other would absolutely not kill him. But the problem was that one shot could very well sound the charge for the Historian lurking outside, making the two of them even more passive.

So Cheng Shi was extremely vigilant. Shadow Cheng Shi prowled through the surrounding shadows, searching with everything he had for the Historian's trail.

But since Zhao Xishi had set this trap, she wouldn't let herself be exposed so easily.

The distance between the two was still shrinking. Before long, their backs collided against each other.

After confirming each other's rear was clear, Ji Yue did not relax; instead, her brow furrowed even more tightly. Cheng Shi was the same—his expression also grew rather strange.

No matter what the two parties were thinking, Zhao Xishi knew the moment she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

The hidden figure suddenly clapped her hands soundlessly. In an instant, the threads of memory lying dormant in Ji Yue's mind snapped in unison, dragging the discarded memories sunk deep within back into the Hell Bishop's consciousness.

Scene after scene resurfaced, memory after memory replayed—at this moment, Ji Yue finally remembered everything!

She recalled what a true Torchbearer really was, and recalled the face of the Torchbearer Creator who had once stood before her, fired up, declaring, "Among those seated upon that lofty divine throne, why can one of them not be me?"

Her eyes first glazed over in confusion, then surged with overwhelming battle intent. The spear in her hand thrust backward in a violent stab, while at the same moment, an endless rain of 【War】 weapons poured down from the void that had opened above her head.

The Hell Bishop had made her move—but the target was not Zhao Xishi. It was the Fate Weaver!

Cheng Shi jolted in shock, but reacted quickly. He used his scalpel to deflect the spear's butt, then immediately rolled away on the spot, dodging the baptism of 【War】 weapons while cursing:

"Ji Yue, have you lost your mind!?"

Ji Yue's eyes were crimson, a cold laugh spilling from her lips:

"Lost my mind?

Cheng Shi, when you erased my memories, did you ever think this day would come—when I'd get them back!

You dared to deceive me. Die!!"

As she spoke, the blades and spears pouring from the ancient battlefield in the void grew even fiercer. Between the weapons falling like rain there was not even a sliver of space left. Cheng Shi's face changed drastically, looking hideous. Seeing he couldn't dodge, he could only detonate a cloud of smoke to hide in, and cursed at his surroundings:

"Zhao Xishi, you're waiting for me here!?

Good, good, good. Ji Yue, you're a fool too—can't you see this is the Historian's plot!?"

"So what if it is?

If you dare to do something, you must own up to it!"

Ji Yue said no more, only attacking relentlessly.

Cheng Shi's expression instantly turned solemn. Hiding within the remnants of smoke nearly torn apart by the blades and spears flying through the air, he said coldly:

"Since you're so obstinate, don't blame me for raising a hand against you.

I'll deal with you first. Zhao Xishi can die a little later."

As he spoke, Shadow Cheng Shi moved—and the moment he appeared, it was a lethal killing blow.

Just as he had dealt with Zhao Xishi before, he suddenly appeared behind Ji Yue. Two pitch-black hands clamped around Ji Yue's neck, as if the next second he could send the Hell Bishop he had personally resurrected back to the Fishbone Hall.

But Ji Yue was not afraid in the slightest. She bit down hard on her silver teeth, a thread of fresh blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, then her silver hair stood straight on end, refracting a blinding light, and in an instant exploded into a whoosh of roaring flames.

It had caught fire!

Just like Qin Xin back then, Ji Yue burned from head to toe.

It seemed this Torchbearer Creator had not skimped on giving the Seekers of Fire special treatment. Cheng Shi's gaze hardened. He twisted Ji Yue's neck off with force, then immediately retreated—but the fire clung like a bone-borne parasite, burning along those pitch-black arms all the way to Shadow Cheng Shi's chest.

Shadow may not feel temperature, but it must fear light.

The light from the flames nearly burned Shadow Cheng Shi to ash. Cheng Shi broke free from the smoke, saw Shadow Cheng Shi reduced to cinders, and his eyes nearly split with rage. He roared at Ji Yue, who was climbing to her feet:

"Must it be to the death!

Zhao Xishi is right outside. Kill me—do you really think you can survive alone!?"

Ji Yue's twisted neck slowly healed under the nourishment of the flames. Her entire body burned like a furnace, yet her gaze was cold as an abyss. She looked at Cheng Shi and, word by word, with hatred to the bone, said:

"I never asked to live!

Come and fight!"

As she spoke, a roaring storm of flames surged toward Cheng Shi. Shadow Cheng Shi being scorched away had already left Cheng Shi suffered heavy. Even though he dodged with everything he had, the storm still singed half his body.

He was sent flying by the tremendous force of 【War】, crashing hard to the ground, coughing up fresh blood, barely clinging to life.

And at this moment, Zhao Xishi, who had been hiding in the shadows waiting to strike, slightly furrowed her brow.

Something was wrong. Wrong to the ten-thousandth degree.

A Fate Weaver who had carved a bloody path through the 0221 trial ground, where many Chosen had been trapped, could never have so little ability.

To put it nicely, the Hell Bishop was indeed a peak-level player, but in the true peak circle, where was her name?

Even she herself could scheme against her, let alone Cheng Shi, who had carved a bloody path among many Chosen. So the moment Cheng Shi hit the ground, she felt the matter was far from that simple.

That liar must be faking his defeat!

Ji Yue also thought of this. Her steps approaching Cheng Shi clearly slowed, and she cautiously scanned her surroundings, guarding against Cheng Shi's follow-up move.

Seeing the other refuse to take the bait, Cheng Shi, who had been lying on the ground unmoving, simply sat up and spat hard at Ji Yue.

"Getting steady on me now, huh? Ptooey. Showing off in front of an expert."

As he spoke, Shadow Cheng Shi—who had just been burned to ash under everyone's eyes—appeared once more behind Ji Yue, locking her in a death grip. At the same time, Cheng Shi raised his hand, and three bolts of Lei Ting slammed straight into Ji Yue, whose face changed drastically.

The Hell Bishop perhaps saw her own ending, but she did not feel fear. Instead, she faced the Lei Ting head-on and detonated herself without a shred of hesitation. For a moment, thunder and fire clashed, turning everyone's vision in the area white for an instant, and completely leveling the entire block!

Zhao Xishi could not avoid it either. She shut her eyes with lightning reflexes, but was still affected for a moment. So when she forced her eyes open against the sting, she found that in the alley, apart from Ji Yue's charred corpse, there was no trace of Cheng Shi anywhere!

The spot where Cheng Shi had been standing now held only a heavy trail of blood flung backward—and on that blood trail, there was no one left!

He ran!

Zhao Xishi was first stunned, then overjoyed, and eagerly chased after him along the lingering aura Cheng Shi had left behind.

One had to know that, relying solely on that momentary "blindness," she could very well have been in grave danger. After all, this game had countless methods and talents capable of producing wide-area attacks; if the Weaver had followed up with a set of indiscriminate area-of-effect damage at that moment, she really could have lost her life.

But the Weaver didn't do that!

Why?

It could only be because he had also been injured in that thunder-and-fire collision just now, and it was a serious wound that required him to escape danger and save himself first!

He couldn't be sure whether his heavily wounded body could defeat her, so he prudently chose to retreat.

This was completely consistent with Zhao Xishi's understanding of Cheng Shi, so she knew her chance had come. All her arrangements were for this final moment of being the third party that profits — when the snipe and the clam are locked in struggle, one dead and one wounded. How could she let the duck already in hand fly away? This time, she absolutely would not let the Weaver leave this trial alive.

Was what Jieshu said actually true?

Was the Weaver also the key to beyond this world?

Once she got his corpse, every question would have its answer.

"I'm going to catch you, Weaver."