Chapter 26

So you are an Executioner

The fog had not yet dispersed; one could not see one's own fingers.

Cheng Shi had only taken two steps while carrying her when he heard A-Ming's anxious shout from ahead:

"Sister Fang, Brother Cheng, where are you?"

Cheng Shi pricked up his ears and listened carefully for a while, discovering that the noisy human voices around them seemed to have vanished. He looked with some surprise toward the direction of A-Ming's voice, feeling that this little assassin's methods were truly efficient.

In just this short time, he had killed everyone.

Fortunately, these poor ghosts who had died without ever meeting were not the memory entities.

"Over here."

Cheng Shi shouted, then lowered his body and left the spot on tiptoe.

A-Ming followed the sound, but seeing no one, his internal alarm bells rang loudly. Just as he was about to leave, Cheng Shi grabbed his arm.

"Who!? Eh? Brother Cheng?"

"Yeah, I was afraid you'd been swapped, so I had to test you. I didn't expect it, Comrade Assassin, your skills are quite agile."

A-Ming rubbed his head in embarrassment, looked at the unconscious Fang Shiqing, and asked:

"What happened to Sister Fang?"

"Nothing, small problem, I saved her. Where are the others?"

"Probably behind. As soon as I woke up, I found several berserk dwarves. They went for the kill the moment they attacked. I couldn't react in time and had no room to retreat, so I could only... fight back with my life.

Fortunately, they weren't very tough; they just had some divine power of 【Filthy Corruption】 on them."

The people were dead, but the memories hadn't shattered. The players were lucky; these dwarves were not the memory entities.

Cheng Shi looked at A-Ming, lost in thought.

"Are you hurt?"

"Lucky, no."

"Hmm, that's good. Wait for the fog to clear; the War Fog can't last long."

"Oh, okay. Do you need help?" A-Ming reached out, wanting to help Cheng Shi support Fang Shiqing.

Cheng Shi smiled and refused him.

The two sat in a corner, chatting intermittently.

"How many of them were there?"

"Six."

"Six people dealt with in such a short time? Impressive." Cheng Shi did not spare his praise, leaving A-Ming stunned by the compliments.

"After all... I am an assassin, and the foggy environment is advantageous to me."

"Hmm, since you could do it so quickly, why did you arrive so late when going to the circus in the second act?"

Cheng Shi asked, holding the unconscious Fang Shiqing, seemingly casually.

This question stumped A-Ming.

A-Ming's expression suddenly stalled. Before he could speak, Cheng Shi added casually:

"And why hasn't Uncle Huang arrived yet?"

A-Ming's expression worsened, and he stammered in reply:

"It's not like we're missing him; isn't it better that he didn't come?"

"Are you afraid he'll cause trouble too?"

"Yeah."

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"So you also know he's a Lawless Musician? Oh~ I get it, so you're an Executioner."

Lawless Musician, a Singer of 【Chaos】.

Executioner, an Assassin of 【Order】.

【Order】 and 【Chaos】 are mortal enemies with opposing faiths.

A-Ming's movements stalled for an instant. His gaze swept quickly over Cheng Shi, sharp and irritable, but it only lasted a moment before he returned to his awkward, stammering self, rubbing his head and not knowing what to say.

The fog remained, and Cheng Shi hadn't captured his facial expression, but he already had a good idea in his heart.

"Alright, opposition is opposition, what's the big deal? An ancient person once said that the opposition of faiths isn't something we caused, so there's no need to carry such a heavy burden."

Cheng Shi smiled indifferently, but as he spoke, his hand reached toward Fang Shiqing in his arms.

A-Ming's perception in the fog was clearly stronger than Cheng Shi's. He clearly saw Cheng Shi's hand reach into Fang Shiqing's bosom, but he only frowned and didn't say a word.

Not long after, new sounds came from the fog.

"Sister... Sister Fang?"

"Ya~ Big Boss, help!"

One voice was trembling, the other was seductive.

It sounded like they hadn't run into any trouble.

As soon as these two female voices arrived, the awkward atmosphere between Cheng Shi and A-Ming was instantly shattered. He stood up, patted his butt, and smiled:

"Everyone's here, let's regroup."

Just at this moment, the fog slowly dispersed.

A-Ming also stood up and looked to the side, only to see that Fang Shiqing, who was in Cheng Shi's arms, had opened her eyes at some unknown point.

"Sister Fang, are you okay?"

"..."

A flash of anger crossed Fang Shiqing's eyes, but she immediately nodded with a smile:

"I'm fine, thanks to Cheng Shi for saving me in time."

She was saying nice things, but they sounded somewhat gritted-through-the-teeth.

The matter of the Fire-Passers couldn't be discussed in front of others, so even though Fang Shiqing had reservations about Cheng Shi's method of refusal, she couldn't blow up right now.

Fighters crawling in the darkness are cautious; any unexpected flicker of light could illuminate their tracks and cause all their efforts to be wasted.

Cheng Shi clearly knew this, so he immediately turned back and smiled:

"Don't you still owe me a 'thank you'?"

"You..."

Fang Shiqing almost lost her composure. She gritted her teeth hard, quickly adjusted her facial expression, and then forced an extremely reluctant smile.

"Thank you, I will remember you."

"No problem, just a small favor."

It was indeed a small favor; a hand-blade only requires raising a hand.

The fog gradually cleared, and the two groups of people, not far apart, immediately discovered each other's figures.

The group walked together, and halfway there, they saw the inhumane massacre scene all around.

Six dwarves, each of their heads had been severed on the spot. Blood flowed all over the ground, gathering to vaguely draw the pattern of a guillotine.

If Cheng Shi hadn't known A-Ming was an Executioner, he really wouldn't have been able to tell what this pattern represented.

This was a common bad habit of the Executioners of the "Grand Court of Judgment"—using the blood of death-row prisoners to depict the tool that killed them.

It was just that the blood guillotine on the ground was drawn crookedly, clearly not very practiced.

"Tsk, such ruthless methods."

Xu Lu and Bai Ling also shuddered at the sight. Only Fang Shiqing looked at A-Ming thoughtfully and said nothing more.

"Where are we?"

The place where everyone was located was a very large room. On the left were a dozen beds side-by-side, on the right were various toolbenches, on the long rack in front hung clothes of different sizes, and behind were several small, independent rooms.

The place where Cheng Shi and Fang Shiqing had met was clearly one of them.

Fang Shiqing glanced at Cheng Shi a few times, and seeing him still playing dumb, she simply turned the page on the matter, frowning in thought:

"It looks like a servant's quarters, but it's a bit too big; this could house over a dozen servants. I've never seen such a large servant's quarters before. To ensure safety, we should change our clothes first and then go out to explore, so as to avoid conflict with the people outside."

Everyone had no objections, chose a set of clothes to change into, and followed the "thigh" out of the room.

After confirming the surroundings were safe and encountering a few real servants, they figured out that this was indeed a servant's quarters.

And there was more than one servant's quarters this large.

Because this was the estate of Duke Brooks, and the Duke was currently hosting a grand banquet.

"A banquet?"

The hypnotized servant answered excitedly:

"Yes, the Duke has invited all the nobles in town and is preparing to announce a new refugee bill at the banquet. All refugees from Gasimela will be expelled. Our food will no longer be scarce, and our work won't be as heavy!"

"So, the memory entity of the previous act was a servant of the Duke's estate?"

"Eh? Don't you know? York is the Duke's coachman," Cheng Shi added helpfully.

Hearing this, Xu Lu frowned and complained:

"Why are you only saying useful information now?"

Cheng Shi was stunned and asked in return: "Did you ask?"

"I..."

Xu Lu was furious but said nothing, only stepping lightly to move closer to Fang Shiqing.

"Then as refugees, why would the dwarves appear on the Duke's estate?" A-Ming interrupted the two's bickering in time and asked.

"The Duke wants to expel the refugees, and the refugees naturally don't want to be driven away, so their purpose in coming here isn't obvious, right, Big Thigh?"

Cheng Shi said, looking at Fang Shiqing, but Fang Shiqing didn't want to deal with Cheng Shi at all right now.

She had a feeling in her heart, certain that Cheng Shi definitely wouldn't tell anyone about the Fire-Passers, but she still didn't understand why Cheng Shi could refuse so decisively.

You have to know, the 'Moving Heartstrings' talent isn't just about simply listening to the music of inner voices; it can even vaguely sense the other party's wishes and inclinations.

The voice in Cheng Shi's heart clearly inclined toward accepting, yet he had actually refused.

What exactly is this person thinking? How can he go against his own instinctive heart?

She didn't understand, and she didn't have time to figure it out.

So far, nearly 5 hours had passed, and the countdown had 7:14 left. They had to hurry, because there were still several scenes of memory to go through, and they had no idea what they were.

"A private estate is different from a public place; acting recklessly will quickly cause a disturbance, especially since this is a Duke's estate.

We must have an appropriate identity. While the identity of a servant is convenient, there are still many places we can't reach.

Next, everyone will split up and hide yourselves well. See if you can get a new identity. At most 1 hour, meet over there."

As she spoke, Fang Shiqing pointed to a small corridor.

"Remember, stay away from the servant's quarters. We haven't dealt with the corpses inside, and it's very likely to cause a chain reaction. The closer you are, the easier it is for abnormalities to be discovered. Now, start moving. Good luck to us."

Everyone dispersed. Before leaving, Fang Shiqing took one last look at Cheng Shi.

Unfortunately, Cheng Shi wasn't looking at her; he was looking at A-Ming.

He watched A-Ming walk away in the direction furthest from the servant's quarters.

After a good while, when there were no more teammates in sight, a playful smile curled on Cheng Shi's face, and he paced back to the place where they had just arrived.

The one everyone was staying away from...

The servant's quarters.