Chapter 1178: Accidents Pile Up, Falling Into a Stalemate

Unexpected developments kept arising, and the situation ground to a stalemate.

【Memory】's ability to cast an abstention rather than a vote against the topic championed by 【Deceit】 already proves that someone influenced Its choice.

However, the will of the gods does not shift with the myriad things of the cosmos; even if some mortals can leverage circumstances to influence a true god's decision, that is still a true god's own choice made after various considerations — it would absolutely never mean the god truly heeded the opinions of certain mortals.

【Fate】 excepted.

Of everyone present, the one most uncomfortable with 【Memory】's abstention was none other than Cheng Shi.

It wasn't that he felt 【Memory】 had broken a promise — after all, the other party had never promised anything — but if this vote wasn't secured, then among those yet to vote only 【Decay】 and 【Silence】 remained.

For the topic to pass, neither of these two gods could cast even a single dissenting vote.

Whether 【Decay】 voted or not was still up in the air, but 【Silence】... This god had once even attempted to assimilate itself!

Such an unaffiliated deity — could my lord's lobbying possibly succeed?

The moment he thought this, the barely noticeable 【Silence】 directly cast Its vote — an approval.

Cheng Shi's spirit lifted, and he immediately looked toward where his boss 【Death】 sat, only to see that enormous skull seemingly looking back at him as well.

He bowed in salute, thinking this was my lord comforting his heart, unaware that at this moment 【Death】 was in an endless daze.

Don't forget — the one who summoned Cheng Shi to the false Fishbone Hall was not the true 【Death】, but 【Deceit】!

Whatever 【Deceit】's considerations were — perhaps simply wanting a good show — It had not breathed a single word of this to 【Death】!

In other words, when 【Justice (Order)】 pulled 【Death】 into the assembly, my lord still thought 【Deceit】 had finally come up with a plan and was scheming to seize 【War】's divine seat.

But when 【Justice (Order)】 stated that this motion was Luo Luo Bosi's intent to inherit 【Oblivion】's divine seat, this ancient true god from 【Life】's domain felt for the first time that It had grown old and could no longer keep up with the times.

The true god had not died, nor been imprisoned — how could a divine seat be inherited?

Just as It was puzzling over this, a voice within Its cranial cavity actually answered for It, uttering that loophole of a line that treated the rules as nothing.

At this, It understood completely.

Where this voice came from needed no thought to guess — even though the enormous skull contained no brain, It knew it must be 【Deceit】 borrowing Its identity to set up the game, and seizing the chance to drag It into it.

But this game was set up...

Most pleasing to My heart!

Setting everything else aside, 【Oblivion】 was about to suffer misfortune, and as long as the opposing side suffered misfortune, It would raise both hands in support.

So It quickly cast Its vote, and afterward kept watching the movements at 【Void】's seat, especially Cheng Shi's reactions to the gods.

It wasn't hard to see that this cunning employee must have played a vital role in this "usurpation" motion — otherwise 【Deceit】 wouldn't have brought a mere mortal like him to the Divine Convention Assembly — so 【Death】 wondered whether Cheng Shi had orchestrated all of this.

And that glance happened to fall at the moment 【Silence】 voted, leading Cheng Shi to misunderstand, thinking his boss 【Death】 had gone all-out to successfully lobby 【Silence】.

They all say 【Silence】 knows the secrets of the cosmos — what secret did my lord trade away?

【Silence】's vote cast, only the last god remained on the field.

【Oblivion】 looked at the sibling god beside It barely clinging to life, and the light of victory already gleamed in Its eyes.

It looked again at 【Deceit】 and at Luo Luo Bosi beside 【Deceit】, and sneered:

"Facts will tell you all that schemes and tricks are utterly meaningless — I am 【Oblivion】, and only I am 【Oblivion】. Your plotting has failed. What follows is the household matter of I, 【Oblivion】. Everyone, be off!"

"!!!"

Hearing this, Luo Luo Bosi's form trembled. Without even looking at the last god yet to vote, It turned with nervous and resentful eyes to look first at 【Deceit】 beside It, and asked anxiously:

"You lobbied 【Decay】, didn't you?"

That complex tone sounded less like a question and more like a plea.

【Deceit】 gave a contemptuous snort and did not respond. Instead, Cheng Shi, in order to stabilize "morale," nodded and said:

"Yes, I lobbied 【Decay】."

Luo Luo Bosi's eyes flew wide, and It turned back in disbelief, exclaiming:

"You?

With your status, how could you sway 【Decay】, who is also of 【Depravity】!?"

"..."

Why wouldn't I be able to sway them?

I'm still the proxy of a Faded Authority, after all.

Cheng Shi couldn't possibly deal a blow to his side's morale at such a critical moment. Though he didn't know how 【Decay】 would vote, he still put on an air of absolute confidence and said:

"What status of mine?

Oh right, forgot to tell you — actually I am..."

"Abstain!"

Before the words were finished, the barely-alive 【Decay】 made Its choice.

"!!!"

The gods present once again fell into astonishment; even 【Oblivion】 stared fixedly at this dying god, Its eyes filled with suspicion and disbelief.

It seemed unable to accept that a sibling god of the same Path had actually shifted Its stance and not cast that dissenting vote.

Although dissent and abstention have the same effect on this motion, what the gods see extends beyond the present — They would speculate what caused 【Depravity】 to no longer be united.

And why did 【Decay】 show no concealment of this before the gods?

But as for who among those present could least accept it, it was undoubtedly still Cheng Shi.

The moment 【Decay】 cast that vote, his mind went blank for an instant, and he nearly lost the ability to think.

It's over. All of it is over.

Luo Luo Bosi, unable to believe the result had failed, stood frozen on the spot, looking at the grim eyes of Its patron and feeling fear rise in Its heart.

It was at this moment that Cheng Shi, who had not moved, continued to open his mouth and said:

"·...... clown."

"..."

Brother Mouth, you're here to finish me off too?

Cheng Shi laughed self-deprecatingly, rubbed his nose, and nodded:

"Indeed, I, Cheng Shi, am nothing but a clown."

All attendees had finished voting. 【Justice (Order)】 personally notarized the validity of the votes. The current result was 8:2:4 (for: against: abstain), just one vote short — the "usurpation" plan had failed at the last moment.

Seeing this outcome, 【Oblivion】 sneered without end, 【Fate】 stared intently, and 【Fraud】 no longer giggled.

Under the rigid Justice, 【Void】 seemed to have conceded.

But!

【Void】 conceding — what does that have to do with me, Cheng Shi!?

The hand Cheng Shi had been rubbing his nose with suddenly stopped. He began to laugh out loud, the laughter growing louder and more distorted, at one point interrupting 【Justice (Order)】's announcement of the result and drawing the gaze of every deity present.

Even Xiang Honglin, who had been pretending to sleep, uneasily cracked open an eyelid.

She suspected Cheng Shi was unwilling to accept the result and was about to cause a huge scene!

This was undoubtedly the craziest decision, yet Xiang Honglin had not once thought about how to wrap things up. Yes, in her mind there simply was no option to refuse or back out; her whole body was taut, ready at any moment to join a battle she had absolutely no chance of winning.

But beyond that, she had one more thought — how to protect her friend in the coming free-for-all among the gods.

【Oblivion】, seeing the instigator had gone mad, mocked:

"I finally understand what 【Folly】 meant by a foolish act. Speaking of which, in this regard It truly walked ahead of us. When I personally witness a folly come to a close, the feeling is quite pleasant. A mortal — I can accept my divine seat falling to another. But can you accept that you are about to lose your life?"

As 【Oblivion】 spoke and prepared to act, before Its figure could even move, the boss 【Death】 opposite drew out that massive scythe condensed with who-knows-how-much divinity.

It spoke not a single word, yet said everything.

For a moment, looking at the eager 【Void】 and the cold-eyed 【Death】 opposite, 【Oblivion】 sullenly sat back down.

And just as 【Justice (Order)】 thought the matter was concluded and prepared to announce the result again, Cheng Shi interrupted It once more.

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping past his two 【Void】 patrons, the boss 【Death】, and every deity who had supported the motion, finally settling on 【Oblivion】, and said with a smirk:

"When you say you can accept your divine seat falling to another, you'd better be telling the truth."

Then he looked again at that flowing-light scale, and with great solemnity fixed his gaze on 【Justice (Order)】, who represented the 【Covenant】, and asked word by word:

"There are clearly deities who have not yet voted — how can the matter already be concluded?"

Author's note: The event is about to end. Check in for seven consecutive days and your points double!

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