Chapter 348: The Learned Liar and the Steady Teammate

The Learned Liar and the Steady Teammate

(6000 today! Warrior hands on hips!)

"If a Wood Elf no longer drives plants, what else can he do?"

"He can still eat, drink, pee, and poop. There are plenty of things he can do. Why, is there a problem?"

"...... Nothing."

The two looked at each other strangely, tacitly stopping the probing conversation, and then each began to size up the surrounding environment.

When looking from outside the wall, Cheng Shi still felt that this was a well-maintained religious institution, but after entering, he discovered that this so-called Evil Infant Court seemed to have not been taken care of for a long time.

The lawn in the outer courtyard was full of weeds, the water in the pool in the courtyard had long since dried up, and even the two statues of the worshipped god in front of the main hall—a man and a woman with big bellies—had peeled paint and faded, becoming no longer sacred.

At first glance, one would think this place had been occupied by followers of 【Decay】.

"Looking at the growth of these weeds, it seems no one has been here for a long time. It looks abandoned." Zhang Jizu frowned, somewhat puzzled, "Where did you learn the history about this place? Does it say that Doer Gede once banned the court?"

Cheng Shi curled his lips, thinking to himself, if I knew this place was banned, I wouldn't have brought you guys here.

He shook his head and said: "Let's go find clues first. If the Evil Infant Court really doesn't exist anymore, our trial is going to have a big problem!"

Indeed, if Doer Gede in this era no longer had the concept of evil infants, then where would they go to find that so-called life that shouldn't have been born?

Cheng Shi was about to lift his leg to walk to the inner hall, but his footsteps stopped as soon as he took a step.

"Strange, our three teammates, are they moving too fast? Where did they run off to?"

Zhang Jizu, who was following behind him, narrowed his eyes: "They haven't made a sound since just now. The direction of the footprints is the inner hall, but there are only Gou Feng's footprints.

Be careful, there might be something strange inside."

Cheng Shi frowned and walked forward in silence.

As he walked, he discovered some clues. He saw that the weeds in the gaps of several stone bricks on the road outside the main hall were exceptionally sparse. Connecting these sparse places, it wasn't hard to find that this was a small path trodden by people over the years, and on the other side was the tightly closed gate of the court.

It seems people still come here often, just not many, but this also meant that the Evil Infant Court really did have a problem.

He raised his eyebrows and turned to walk into the hall.

Those three teammates still couldn't be seen. Cheng Shi cautiously stepped into the hall and immediately saw a huge conference round table.

It was just that this round table was covered in dust, and the surrounding chairs were broken or shattered. Only the head seat facing the gate still had an intact wooden chair, and the tabletop was wiped shiny, clearly a position someone sat in often.

Behind this round table was a huge stone-carved statue painting, depicting countless men and women, naked, gathered in front of a huge statue of the worshipped god, devoutly sharing the 【Birth】 authority.

The two who had just entered were clearly not surprised by this kind of phallic worship mural. They observed for a moment by the round table and then bypassed the stone wall to investigate what was behind it.

Behind the huge stone wall were several sparse bookshelves. This was probably the cleanest place in this court. Each bookshelf was wiped spotless, densely packed with identically packaged books. Looking at the symbols marked on the bookshelves, Cheng Shi guessed that these were likely court archives arranged by year.

The information he wanted to find might be in these archives.

He walked to the bookshelf, picked up an archive book and flipped through it. Seeing him looking so seriously, Zhang Jizu leaned forward and said in astonishment:

"You understand the language of the Life Era?"

Cheng Shi curled his lips, saying "slightly" on the surface, but laughing secretly in his heart.

I understand my ass, but I have Brother Mouth.

The squinty-eyed man was truly shocked by Cheng Shi this time. There were indeed many people who understood the language and characters of the Civilization Era, especially in the teams of old mages who loved to study game backgrounds, where there were some truly learned scholars. Of course, this also had to do with the fact that the vast majority of trials took place in the Civilization Era.

But trials of the Life Era were too few, and the research directions related to them were even more niche among the niche. One could only say it was just a little bit more than researching the underworld.

So, being able to recognize the language and characters of this era could really be considered a very awesome existence in 【Faith Game】. Zhang Jizu wasn't even sure how many freelance players outside, besides members of the History School, could understand the characters of the Doer Empire.

No wonder this "honest" player could gain the favor of 【Deception】; experts really do have their own specialties.

This seems to be a learned liar.

It's just that he didn't know what kind of interesting person his other personality, that Fate Weaver who was Zhen Yi's new flame, was.

Zhang Jizu, who had become interested, moved closer to Cheng Shi and asked with a somewhat admiring expression:

"What is written in here?"

Cheng Shi was calm on the surface, but actually anxious to death inside. From the moment he picked up the book, he had been constantly begging the mouth, no, begging Brother Mouth.

But Brother Mouth, who was usually very helpful, had no reaction at all today, which made him so anxious he almost wore through his shoe soles.

But even if the Lips of Foolish Play didn't help, this little scene was completely manageable for a liar. Cheng Shi pondered for a few more seconds, confirmed that Brother Mouth didn't want to help, pretended to flip through two pages, then frowned slightly and said:

"This should be a record of the court's past handling of evil infants."

Zhang Jizu clearly didn't feel there was any problem. He nodded in agreement: "Oh? As expected, what is written on it?"

"......"

Cheng Shi curled his toes, coughed lightly, and continued:

"These pages record the methods used by the court staff to handle a certain evil infant. After finding the citizen who was pregnant with the evil infant, they used a palace saw to cut open her stomach, split both the person and the evil infant in two, and then burned them all to ashes with a fire."

"So... simple and crude? There wasn't any ritual of purification or begging for His forgiveness?"

Cheng Shi shook his head stiffly: "It's not written."

Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes and said somewhat suspiciously: "I saw you flip through four or five pages, and it only recorded these things?"

"That... it's a work report, you know, it's all long-winded and smelly. There are also a lot of inexplicable rhetorical devices used to pad the word count. There's nothing worth looking at."

"Reasonable, but what year did this happen?"

"......"

Why are you endless?

Who should I ask if I ask you?

Cheng Shi's face darkened, and he put the book back directly.

"Old news from decades ago. I don't see any recent records here. Let's go find clues elsewhere."

As he spoke, Cheng Shi lifted his feet and left. The squinty-eyed man looked at the bookshelf suspiciously, and although somewhat puzzled, he still followed.

The two continued to walk deeper along the inner hall, and not long after, they saw a long spiral staircase. The steps of the staircase were covered in dust like other places, but there were several fresh footprints on them.

Looking at the outline of these footprints, it should be...

"Gou Feng." Zhang Jizu recognized this footprint immediately, then frowned and said, "The edges of the footprints are blurred, the ball of the foot is heavier than the heel. His steps up the stairs were very urgent, as if..."

"Someone is chasing him."

Cheng Shi's gaze fixed, and a scalpel leaked from his sleeve.

At the same time, Zhang Jizu also leaked a scalpel from his sleeve.

The two looked at the scalpels in each other's hands and were both taken aback, then laughed meaningfully at the same time.

"Why, Wood Elves also like using scalpels?"

"Used for cutting hair when it grows long. But I'd like to ask, why do Gravekeepers also like using scalpels?"

"There are always vagrants coming to steal food in the graveyard. Holding a knife in hand can boost one's courage."

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow: "Gravekeeper management, it really is you."

"Then what about you, Cheng Shi? Should I continue calling you Wood Elf, or should I call you Trickster Master? Or perhaps... Fate Weaver?"

?

Cheng Shi was taken aback, thinking, what the hell is a Trickster Master?

Does he think I'm really a mage?

Interesting, whose friend is this person?

Cheng Shi had many questions in his heart, but he didn't dwell on them, quickly responding: "I don't know what you're talking about. After all, I'm just a Wood Elf who joined the Plant Protection Association."

"......"

"Forget it, I feel like you're a good person. No matter who you found out about me through, friends of friends are friends after all. I'll confess.

That's right, I am a Trickster Master. For the sake of that lord, can I trust you?"

"......"

Zhang Jizu originally really felt that the Cheng Shi in front of him was a Trickster Master, but this confession from the other party made him lose confidence. He looked at the liar in front of him and sized him up for a moment, then said in annoyance: "I should be the one asking you that, right? Believer of 【Deception】."

"Of course you can trust me, because I never lie."

Zhang Jizu's eye corner twitched, thinking, if I hadn't watched you lie through the whole process, I would have almost believed you.

Just as the two were still pulling to the limit about their identities, a terrifying scream suddenly came from upstairs.

"Ah!!!"

This sound was too loud, and the surroundings were too empty, so a creepy echo soon rang out between the two floors.

Hearing this scream, the two's expressions sank at the same time. After looking at each other, they decisively chose...

To retreat.

At this moment, Cheng Steady finally met another cautious player who could be on the same frequency as him: Zhang Steady.

"It's Gou Feng's voice!"

"I heard it. Let's withdraw further away, wait for his emotions to stabilize, and then find an opportunity to go in and see. After all, we are all teammates, and it's not good to just leave him alone. Collecting corpses and such... oh wait, you should be better at that than me."

Zhang Steady glanced at Cheng Steady from the corner of his eye, narrowed his eyes, and nodded in approval. ===== CHAPTER 349 =====