Chapter 56: The Shocking Truth

The Shocking Truth

“His own?”

Cheng Shi looked utterly baffled.

“What do you mean ‘his own’?”

The innkeeper explained with great patience:

“Adros’s master was Zainjil, the leader of the Alchemical School of Creation within the Tower of Rationality, a school with profound expertise and a technological leap in creation and puppetry.

Out of various concerns, other schools assassinated Zainjil before he could release his latest findings, leaving Adros, now without his master’s protection, a fugitive scholar.

He wandered underground, met us, and joined us.”

Hss—

Why does this sound so familiar?

Brother, if you’re gonna end with “Will you join us?” I’m gonna wake up right back in Fang Shiqing’s arms.

“With our support, he developed the ability ‘Puppet Self,’ transforming his own gravely wounded body into a flesh-and-blood puppet!”

“?” Cheng Shi didn’t understand, blinking.

“If he became a puppet, who controls him?”

“No one controls him—only his former self, before becoming a puppet, controls him. He designed a perfect consciousness within himself to maximize our operations.”

“......”

AI?

Cheng Shi’s head buzzed.

This is fucking artificial intelligence!

Turning himself into an AI?

Why bother?

“What’s the point?”

“Point? To use his broken life to create an object, crafting a puppet rivaling a perfect life form—isn’t that the very meaning of pursuing 【Truth】?”

“......”

You make perfect sense, but my mom told me not to talk to idiots.

Cheng Shi’s inner urge to rant exploded, yet his face remained patiently smiling.

This isn’t pursuing 【Truth】.

This is pursuing stupidity!

“Then tonight’s Nawei ......?”

“Caro, Adros’s junior, also turned himself into a puppet.”

“......”

Double kill!

So what the hell are these people after?

Think carefully—they seem infected by 【Corruption】, fallen into an obsessive pursuit of personal desires and fixations.

Since they’re underground, maybe their belief is 【Corruption】?

So Cheng Shi asked hesitantly: “【Corruption】?”

“You mean my faith? No no no—I don’t truly worship any 【Deity】; or rather, the being I worship has not yet descended.”

“????”

Cheng Shi was baffled again, frowning at the innkeeper’s face: “Then how did you get your 【Corruption】 power?”

The innkeeper raised an eyebrow, extended a hand, and gave it a light shake.

As his arm trembled, the 【Corruption】 power on his body dissipated, and gradually, a golden force revived, winding back around him.

Cheng Shi stared at this familiar power, completely stunned.

Cheng Shi stared at this familiar power, utterly stunned.

It was the 【Order】 force!!

“You you you......”

“Unbelievable, isn’t it? I was originally His believer.

Moreover, I once served in the Grand Inquisition.

And Moqius......

Was my junior.”

“!!??”

Stunned was too mild to describe Cheng Shi now—his facial control had completely collapsed, his mouth gaping wide enough to fit two lightbulbs.

Stunned was too mild to describe Cheng Shi now; his facial control had completely crashed, his mouth open wide enough to fit two lightbulbs.

“You’re... a Grand Inquisition judge?”

“First-Class Judge, Chenosli. What a nostalgic name.”

“Then what about your 【Corruption】 power? Are you a Renegade?”

A Renegade was one who abandoned their original faith to worship another 【Deity】.

Such believers, having broken their oaths, suffered endless punishment from their former patron.

Nowadays, players in the 【Faith Game】 could make this choice too, but after activating the 【Renegade Prayer】, even if successful, they carried a permanent debuff from their abandoned patron.

And the new 【Deity】 offered no special favor to Renegades.

Thus, making this choice was extraordinarily difficult.

“Renegade? No—I never abandoned my devotion to 【Order】. I merely added devotion to other 【Deities】 within that devotion.”

“A traitor? No, I have not forsaken my devotion to [Order]; I have merely added devotion to other [Gods] within that devotion.”

You can do that?

Holy shit, a god-tier polytheist.

You want them all, right?

But what about the gods you “cheated”? Can they tolerate it?

“I’ve never heard of such... loving... such devout a person.”

Chenosli laughed wildly:

“Before our success, no one realized faith could be so impure, so chaotic!

This is precisely why we gathered together!”

This is also why we are gathered here!”

Cheng Shi’s gaze sharpened—he realized tonight’s conversation was finally getting to the point.

This former First-Class Judge, neither a follower of 【Corruption】 nor a Renegade of 【Order】, had returned to the heart of the Grand Inquisition for a reason unknown.

That reason likely involved deeper religious conflict.

Cheng Shi had a hunch: perhaps this man already worshipped 【War】!

Because the innkeeper said his deity had not yet descended!

And right now, civil war had just erupted in the Tower of Rationality; He had noticed Star Fall Continent but had not yet descended.

His followers were still in the phase of perceiving His name.

Yes, 【Deities】 descended in sequence, generally following the order of their Paths.

This was common knowledge in any game above 2000 points.

But Chenosli’s next words blew Cheng Shi’s mind clean away.

“All of us come from different faith factions, each of us a chosen one meant to be watched by our patrons.

Yet we still suffered misfortunes, forced to flee under oppression and gross injustice from our own kind.

From then on, we realized our faith was not entirely correct—somewhere in the vast universe, perhaps a more suitable faith awaited us.

Guided by this vague, hazy perception, we gathered underground.

After decades of ‘faith experiments,’ we finally discovered...

He opened his eyes—and looked at us!!”

Chenosli suddenly went mad—his eyes turned bloodshot, his hands flailed in excitement, his entire body tensed and flushed, drowning in the ecstasy of this “summoning of a deity.”

“We felt His presence, heard His whispers.

We realized only He is the essence of the universe, the origin of all things!

We prostrated ourselves before Him, accepted His will, and begged for His descent.

But we knew humble prayers would not earn His favor.

So we needed a grand ceremony to welcome our Lord’s arrival!

Let war spread across every inch of the Grand Inquisition’s land, let Star Fall Continent descend into chaos, let everyone scream in flames and weep before death, then wait until they awaken amid suffering, sensing our Lord’s presence!

Finally, make every soul on this world kneel before our Lord!”

Ultimately, all people in this world shall kneel at my Lord’s feet!