Chapter 535: Nangong, have you ever thought about changing your faith?

Nangong, have you ever thought about changing your faith?

Cheng Shi paused and laughed in anger.

No, no, no, there's no need for such praise, it's bad luck.

Nangong also seemed to realize she had said the wrong thing. Her face turned red, and she hurriedly changed the subject: "But at that time, I didn't know it was some Messenger Dezel; I only knew it was the artifact spirit of the 【Gift of Scars】."

"So you signed a contract of life and death with an artifact spirit?"

"It said it had to be signed..." Nangong shrank her neck.

"..." Cheng Shi smiled politely and rolled his eyes, "So what about now? Why did you come back here again?"

"I never thought about coming back here, and I didn't know I could come back here today. The artifact spirit... Dezel said the game rules had changed, the gods had accelerated the game, and it was impossible for it to keep following me, who wasn't seeking progress, if it wanted to go further.

I also suffered enough from the offerings of 【Decay】 and wanted to get rid of it but couldn't. Seeing it say that, I followed its guidance and prayed for a trial of...

'Change of Master'."

"A trial of Change of Master?"

"Mm, it said it needed an ambitious person, preferably an ambitious person full of desire. I don't care who it wants to change to, I just want it to break the contract with me so I don't have to suffer extra misery...

I have always believed that it wasn't a gift of 【Decay】, but a curse of 【Decay】. Whoever gets it will become unfortunate.

Dezel... it did help me a lot, but my offerings to it far exceeded its help to me. I... don't owe it anymore.

But I owe you one more time, Cheng Shi. Thank you, really thank you."

Cheng Shi didn't exchange pleasantries with Nangong and frankly accepted the opponent's thanks. However, after hearing this, he raised an eyebrow and suddenly realized that just now, when Nangong recognized him but was avoiding him seeing the 【Gift of Scars】, she wasn't afraid that he would expose her secret, but was afraid that the 【Gift of Scars】 would find him!

She was afraid it would harm him.

This kind little girl, even at that moment, subconsciously thought of repaying kindness. She didn't want him to suffer the curse of 【Decay】 like she did, even though she came here this time precisely to abandon this curse!

Looking at Nangong, who was so sincere in front of him, Cheng Shi smiled brilliantly again.

He looked at Nangong with burning eyes and suddenly asked:

"But even if you get rid of it, 【Decay】 still needs your offerings. The core of a Blood-Exchange Priest is blood exchange. As long as you still believe in Him for one day, you will have to keep suffering misery.

Can you still endure it, Nangong?"

Nangong's face paused, and then she nodded firmly: "As long as I don't suffer extra misery, I can endure the price of faith."

"Can endure... I understand. Since that's the case, Nangong, have you considered changing your faith?"

"???"

When she heard this sentence, Nangong's head was full of question marks. She covered her mouth in surprise and looked at Cheng Shi. That stunned look seemed to be asking: Can this be changed too? Can you change it if you want to?

To be honest, Cheng Shi wasn't quite sure either, but he wanted to try.

And the reason he could say such things about changing someone else's faith was naturally because he had a little bit of confidence.

This confidence didn't just come from the protection of 【Nothingness】, but more from his understanding and speculation about 【Decay】.

Just like everything he did today, stripping away the faith of the citizens of Rosna and returning them to freedom, Cheng Shi had been probing the true will of 【Decay】 from beginning to end.

He treated this probing as a key, wanting to use this key he had temporarily forged to open the door to passing the trial!

That's right, the scene where he let Qu Yan play the black-robed man wasn't just to fish for the original black-robed man and his benefactors; he had a third target, and that was... 【Decay】!

He was using a feast of oath-breaking that could be called extreme blasphemy to probe the mind of 【Decay】.

Because he always remembered the sentence the withered giant said when he went to see 【Decay】:

"I summoned you here... just to see if this 【Deception】 believer who made me realize... the uselessness of the past... is like me... also a pitiful person..."

The amount of information in this sentence was actually huge, but Cheng Shi at the time was deep in shock and confusion and didn't discover the deep meaning. Later, after learning more about Him from Avlos, Cheng Shi had a tiny bit of speculation about the true will of 【Decay】.

Avlos had said that He was originally a god without mercy, but as the era progressed, He gradually had mercy.

So what caused Him to have such a change?

Actually, this question also had an answer, because Avlos's warning said that His change was related to that 【Him】 who could not be mentioned!

With this cognition, looking back at what 【Decay】 had said, and thinking about the so-called "pitiful person" He claimed to be...

Pitiful, pitiful—this word means worthy of pity. The object that can make a person beg for pity can only be an existence that is higher than this person in some level.

A beggar won't beg from a fellow beggar, and a poor person won't ask for money from another poor person!

But!

【Decay】 is already a god, one of the sixteen sitting on the high throne. With such a status, almost looking down on the universe, what is He begging for pity for!?

If He is really "begging," the object of begging must be 【Him】, and it can only be 【Him】—that is 【Source】, the omniscient and omnipotent god!

The logic seems to make sense, but what is He begging for? Why is He so pitiful?

Originally, it was hard to think of a result for this matter. After all, Cheng Shi was just a mortal. Even if he had a bunch of identities that could scare people to death, he had to admit the fact that he wasn't one of Them, and he didn't understand Their past.

But fortunately, he had witnessed quite a few things about Them, and his thinking was jumpy enough. He associated it with the scene where 【Prosperity】 died for the prosperity of the universe. Since 【Prosperity】 could carry out Her will with death, then the decay that 【Decay】 advocated... was it carrying out His will?

Not the 【Decay】 will understood by players, but the will that Cheng Shi just speculated about—that "begging" will!

Could He, possibly, want to use a decay of the universe to beg for the gaze of 【Him】?

Just like His believers are begging for His gaze in the same way?

And it was precisely this rotting of body, mind, and soul that made Him become a "pitiful person." Is He using this near "self-mutilation" way to win the attention of 【Him】?

It's not impossible. Although this is a bold and unreliable speculation, it can be seen from the observation of other gods that They clearly have "requests" for 【Him】.

For example, 【Covenant】! ===== CHAPTER 536 =====