Chapter 56

The shocking truth

"His own?"

Cheng Shi was completely bewildered.

"What do you mean by his own?"

The inn owner explained with great patience:

"Ados's mentor was Zain-Brother Ji Er, the leader of the Creation Alchemy School of the 【Tower of Reason】. This school has very deep attainments and a gap-like technological lead in creation and puppet studies.

Other schools, out of various concerns, assassinated Zain-Brother Ji Er before he could release his latest results, so Ados, having lost his mentor's protection, became a fugitive scholar.

He wandered to the underworld, met us, and joined us."

Hiss—

Why is this passage so familiar?

Big brother, if you end up saying "Are you willing to join us?" to me, I'll go straight back to Fang Shiqing's arms in my dreams.

"With our support, he developed the ability of 'puppet self' and transformed his severely wounded and dying self into a flesh-and-blood human puppet!"

"?" Cheng Shi didn't understand and blinked.

"He became a puppet himself, so who controls him?"

"No one can control him; the only one who can control him is his pre-puppet self. He designed a perfect consciousness for himself to support our actions to the greatest extent."

"..."

AI?

Cheng Shi's brain was buzzing.

Isn't this just a man-made AI?

Turning oneself into an AI?

Why bother?

"What is the point of this?"

"Point? Using one's own broken life to create, creating a puppet comparable to a perfect life form—isn't this the very meaning of pursuing 【Truth】?"

"..."

You make a lot of sense, but my mother told me not to talk to fools.

Cheng Shi's inner desire to complain swelled to the extreme, but on the surface, he still smiled patiently.

How is this pursuing 【Truth】?

Isn't this just pursuing mental retardation!

"Then that person tonight...?"

"Ke Taruo, Ados's junior fellow apprentice; he also made himself into a puppet."

"..."

Double kill!

So what are these people doing this for?

Thinking carefully, they seem more like they were infected by 【Filth-Fallen】 and fell into a state of excessively pursuing personal desires and obsessions.

Since this is the underworld, perhaps they believe in 【Filth-Fallen】?

So Cheng Shi asked suspiciously: "【Filth-Fallen】?"

"Are you referring to my faith? No, no, no, I don't truly believe in any 【Gods】, or rather, the existence I believe in has not yet descended."

"???"

Cheng Shi was bewildered again; he stared at the inn owner's face with a frown and asked in surprise:

"Then where did your 【Filth-Fallen】 power come from?"

The inn owner raised his eyebrows, stretched out a hand, and shook it gently.

With the shaking of his arm, the 【Filth-Fallen】 power on his body began to dissipate, and gradually, a golden power revived and wrapped around him again.

Cheng Shi looked at this familiar power, and he was completely stunned.

【Order】!

It's the damn power of 【Order】!!!

"You, you, you..."

"Incredible, isn't it? Actually, I was originally His believer.

Not only that, I once served in the Grand Tribunal.

And Mo Qiusi...

is my junior fellow apprentice."

"!!??"

Stunned was no longer enough to describe Cheng Shi now; his facial expression management function collapsed directly, and his mouth was open wide enough to fit two light bulbs.

No, wait!

"You are... a judge of the Grand Tribunal?"

"First-rank judge, Chenosli; what a nostalgic name."

"Then what about the 【Filth-Fallen】 power on you? Are you an oath-breaker?"

A so-called oath-breaker refers to a believer who has abandoned their original faith and switched to believing in other 【Gods】.

These believers, having betrayed their original vows, will suffer endless punishment from their previous patron.

Actually, players in the current 【Faith Game】 also have this choice, but after activating 【Oath-Breaking Prayer】, even if they successfully change their faith, a permanent debuff from the abandoned patron will remain on their body.

And the 【Gods】 they switch to will not give extra care to oath-breakers either.

Therefore, making such a decision is extremely difficult.

"Oath-breaker? No, I did not abandon my piety to 【Order】; I simply added piety to other 【Gods】 within this piety."

"?"

Is that even possible?

Good heavens, what a playboy believer.

You want it all, don't you?

The problem is, can the gods you "cheated on" tolerate this?

"I have never heard of such... loving... broadly believing people."

Chenosli laughed out loud, slightly maniacally:

"Before we succeeded, no one realized that faith could be so impure, so reckless!

This is also the reason why we can gather together!"

Here it comes!

Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened, realizing that tonight's late-night talk was finally going to get to the point.

Since this former first-rank judge opposite him is neither a believer of 【Filth-Fallen】 nor an oath-breaker of 【Order】, his return to the heart of the Grand Tribunal must have an unspeakable reason.

And this reason likely involves a deeper struggle of faith.

Cheng Shi had some thoughts in his heart; he guessed that this person might have already started worshiping 【War】!

Because the owner said that his faith had not yet descended!

And at this time, the civil war had just started at the Tower of Reason; He had only noticed the Continent of Hope but had not yet descended.

The believers who follow Him are also still in the stage of perceiving the divine name.

Yes, the descent of 【Gods】 also has an order, and it is basically the order of the destiny.

This point is basically common sense in games above 2000 points.

However, Chenosli's next words blew Cheng Shi's mind directly.

"All of us come from different faith camps, and each one is a divine favored one who should have been watched by their patron.

But even so, we still suffered all kinds of misfortunes and were forced to flee under the oppression of our compatriots and huge injustice.

From that moment on, we realized that our faith was not entirely correct; in the vast universe, there might be a faith more suitable for us, waiting for us.

So, following this vague and hazy perception, we gathered in the underworld.

After decades of 'faith experiments', we finally discovered...

He opened His eyes and looked at us!!!"

Chenosli suddenly became maniacal; his eyes were bloodshot with excitement, his hands waved with fervor, and his whole body was tense and congested, indulging in the satisfaction of this "summoning of the gods."

"We felt His existence and listened to His whispers.

We discovered that only He is the essence of the universe and the source of all things!

We piously bowed at His feet, accepted His will, and prayed for His descent.

But we know that humble prayers cannot gain His appreciation.

So we need a grand ceremony to welcome the descent of my Lord!

Let the flames of war spread to every inch of the Grand Tribunal's land, let the entire Continent of Hope fall into chaos, let everyone wail in the flames of war and cry before death, and then wait for them to awaken in displacement and feel the existence of my Lord!

Finally, let everyone in this world crawl at the feet of my Lord!"