Chapter 1166: Who Are

"Who" are "we"?

Cheng Shi dragged the corpse backward, vomiting blood as he walked back to the earlier battlefield.

Ji Yue was still dead there—he couldn't just leave her.

Yes, the Fire-Bearer really was dead. That battle wasn't staged; even though both sides were acting, the fighting itself wasn't faked in the slightest. Even Ji Yue's final self-destructing strike was a true trump card she had never revealed before.

Without going that far, they never could have fooled a sharp historian.

It was precisely because both sides were trading blows without holding back that Cheng Shi's grievous injuries looked more authentic—after all, acting can't fake that. Cheng Shi really had been blown apart enough to cough up blood.

He hadn't expected Ji Yue to be so committed to the bit either. The resolve of that final blast was on par with a real enemy fighting to the death...

In the instant he was blasted away by the raging flames, Cheng Shi even wondered if she'd done it on purpose—just to get back at him for deceiving her.

But wasn't she afraid he wouldn't come save her?

Facts proved that, whether Ji Yue was afraid or not, Cheng Shi couldn't get past himself.

He couldn't abandon a teammate who, without even exchanging a single glance with him, had been willing to give her life for his plan.

This really was Cheng Shi's plan. The moment Cheng Shi sensed Zhao Xishi might tamper with his prior memories, he had already worked out the whole thing. The only problem was that, right under the enemy's nose, he'd lost the chance to communicate with Ji Yue. So in the instant their backs pressed together, Cheng Shi silently wrote two characters on Ji Yue's waist with his left and right elbows:

Kill me.

Ji Yue was clever enough to grasp Cheng Shi's meaning on the spot. Though she had no idea how to stage a fight that could fool Zhao Xishi, she knew she had to put on a falling-out and try to kill him—but not actually kill him.

The Priest wasn't dead, so everyone on the field could still be saved.

But once the Priest died, there was nothing left to do but wait for death.

As for how far the falling-out had to go, that depended on how hard the Fate Weaver struck in the infighting to come.

But she hadn't expected that, the instant she received Cheng Shi's plan, Zhao Xishi's plan arrived as well.

The "dead" memories came flooding back, and in an instant Ji Yue found the beam of light that had guided her toward the Fire-Bearer!

Cheng Shi!

That liar whose mouth never held a true word had, with one monstrous lie, tricked her into becoming a Fire-Bearer in a version of events where he didn't exist!

In that moment, Ji Yue was truly furious.

【War】's ferocity amplified her shame and anger, while the Fire-Bearer's reason kept her restrained. But as Cheng Shi struck harder and harder, Ji Yue understood the act had to be convincing enough.

So, seizing the chance the staged fight gave her, she truly "let him have it" once.

Only, from start to finish of that battle, she never spoke a false word, so outsiders naturally had no way to tell real from fake.

Until she saw the thunderbolt descend upon her, closed her eyes in calm acceptance, and her very last thought was:

Just how awkward will the Fate Weaver feel when he brings me back?

The awkwardness had already begun.

Cheng Shi stood beside Ji Yue's corpse, toes curling against the ground.

The chuunibyou of one's youth really is hard to look back on, but who could have guessed that a lie from just a few months ago could give a liar himself goosebumps all over?

If he brought the Fire-Bearer back now, what would her first words be?

Are you Cheng Xin, or Qin Shi?

In Ji Yue's original understanding, wasn't he supposed to be the Fire-Bearer's founder?

A madman who tried to become a god for the sake of the Fire-Bearing...

Sigh, what a sin.

But he definitely couldn't leave her. Cheng Shi took a few deep breaths, then took out the Verdant Crown and pulled Ji Yue back from death.

Watching her tender skin regenerate from the charred ruin, Cheng Shi politely looked away. The moment he turned his head, he heard the Hell Bishop at his feet ask, half-smiling:

"What, are you about to tell me you're another man behind Qin Xin?"

"..."

Why are there so many men behind Qin Xin?

No... what a mess.

Cheng Shi shook his head and sighed:

"Everyone's just trying to survive, and who hasn't been lied to before? If you want to kill me or flay me, just say the word—no need to be so snide.

I don't mind being cursed, but poor Qin Xin is so wronged."

"You actually feel sorry for him?" Ji Yue stood up, casually pulled out a set of clothes and put them on, looked at Cheng Shi's back as if she wanted to say something more, but in the end it all dissolved into a sigh.

"You're really not the Fire-Bearer?"

Cheng Shi shook his head: "My will, you should have seen through long ago—I have no fire to pass on, I just want to live."

"Then all that talk about becoming a god..."

"!!!"

Cheng Shi panicked.

No, sis, why are you repeatedly whipping the corpse?

Yes, I lied, that was wrong of me, but you were in such a rush to be deceived by me—don't you bear any responsibility at all?

Cheng Shi glanced back at Ji Yue, met those still slightly expectant eyes, and the words of rebuttal wouldn't come out. He could only stiffly change the subject:

"Chen Shu is still fighting Mo Shu. As a companion, what you should be doing right now is caring about him."

"..."

Ji Yue fell silent for a moment. Though she said nothing, Cheng Shi still read a single sentence in the flash of awkwardness that crossed her eyes:

If it had been Chen Shu who died, that wouldn't have been unacceptable either.

Even more awkward was that Ji Yue, in the flash that crossed Cheng Shi's eyes, read his agreement with that very thought...

The scene fell silent once more.

A moment later, Ji Yue looked at Zhao Xishi's corpse behind Cheng Shi, her gaze turning cold.

"Did you find anything out?"

"Nothing yet. Can't give the villains too much time, or they'll turn the tables on us." Cheng Shi smiled. "But it's not too late to ask now."

He took out the finger-bone brooch and, facing Zhao Xishi's corpse, asked:

"In what you said earlier — 'we really are quite interested in you' — who exactly is 'we'?"

Cheng Shi was clever. He didn't need to learn the whole truth from Zhao Xishi's mouth; he only needed to know who was plotting against him, and then stay on his guard. That was enough.

If these people truly were enemies, there would come a day when they crossed paths again and the full picture came into view.

Zhao Xishi's limp head, driven by the power of 【Death】, slowly straightened. Green light flared in his eyes as he rasped back:

"Jie Shu, Mo Shu, and a stranger I've never met."

Jie Shu?

Cheng Shi clearly had some impression of this player — at least he'd heard the name — but for the moment couldn't place it, so he looked up at Ji Yue. Ji Yue's brow furrowed slightly as she said:

"Second on the Path of Ascension. By points, there's no real gap between him and the pursuers behind, but there's still a chasm.

More importantly, he's also a believer of 【Folly】, a Folly-Hunter who suddenly rose to fame a few months after the 【Faith Game】 descended.

He claims his idol is Wei Mu, and his only rival is Wei Mu."

"?"

【Folly】 again?

And a Folly-Hunter to boot?

Being targeted by clever people is never a good thing.

For a moment, Cheng Shi suddenly thought of that teammate who'd vanished early on in this trial.

Since Jie Shu considered himself Wei Mu's rival, shouldn't he seize this chance to have Wei Mu go deal with this pursuer on the Path of 【Folly】?

But where on earth had this number one on the Path of Ascension's gap-ranking gone?

And who was that other stranger Zhao Xishi had mentioned...?