Chapter 656: The Guest Who Waited Three Days

The Guest Who Waited Three Days

Cheng Shi didn't dare take risks, so he chose the more cautious approach—playing the role of Mr. Morabik's contact.

Clearly, the other party didn't know Morabik, otherwise they wouldn't have mistaken him for the man. Since they didn't know him, there was far too much room to maneuver.

Of course, he had an even simpler method—directly blast one of them with the 【Death】 Fun Ring, pick up a shrieking servant-bodyguard along the way, then interrogate the other at leisure amid the fear.

But using lightning punishment on a small fry was a bit like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. More importantly, he was the only player nearby; if the thunderous noise drew some danger, handling it under his current identity as a Fate-Weaver wouldn't be easy. So when he could use his brain, there was no need to always be thinking with his fists.

So he spoke, panic piled onto his face, shaking his head repeatedly:

"No, no, no, you've got the wrong man. I'm not Mr. Morabik, my lord. I'm a subordinate he sent."

Cheng Shi deliberately sidestepped every minefield—what the contact was here to do, his own name—he mentioned none of it. He only vaguely stated an identity, then waited for their reaction.

The two men were stunned too, not expecting that what came after waiting wasn't the target, but the target's underling?

They exchanged a glance, somewhat puzzled: "Miss Xi Luolin didn't say there'd be an underling on the other side. Are you Mr. Morabik's contact?"

Xi Luolin?

They had come on Xi Luolin's orders to wait for someone. Why hadn't she mentioned this just now?

But Cheng Shi wasn't surprised. After all, it wasn't unusual for the spokesperson of an organization to handle external negotiations. Perhaps in Xi Luolin's eyes, everything within her authority was nothing out of the ordinary.

But who exactly was this Morabik?

Cheng Shi thought for a moment, then nodded with perfect seriousness: "Yes, it's precisely Morabik who sent me here. Look, you see..."

"Alone?" The burly man on the left was clearly the sharper one. He glanced outside the door, then walked out for a circuit, and only after finding no one outside did he walk back with a puzzled face, casually complaining, "Really alone, weird. They say you lot don't trust us, yet you won't bring more hands; they say you trust us, yet you send a contact to scout first.

Forget it, never mind all that. Did you bring the goods? I don't see anything outside. You're not thinking of canceling the deal, are you?"

Goods?

What faction was Xi Luolin trading with?

Cheng Shi's brow rose. From the big man's words he picked up a clue—the goods they wanted seemed to be sizeable, at least too big to carry on a person, otherwise the other side wouldn't have said it like that. So he rolled his eyes and hurriedly said: "Something this important naturally couldn't be brought by me. Mr. Morabik, my lord, will come deliver it in person. I'm only here to..."

As he spoke, he craned his neck, looking past the two big men, his expression clearly searching for something.

The two big men got the hint. Exchanging a glance, they snickered: "Don't bother looking, the payment isn't on us. Recently Miss Xi Luolin had a bit of unpleasantness with that bastard Alad, and the other side won't budge. But rest easy, our boss is already working on it—she'll get the Abyss Color Crystal to you soon enough."

Abyss Color Crystal?

And what was that?

Also, the relationship between Xi Luolin and Alad didn't seem as good as he'd imagined. Was there friction between them?

Cheng Shi's brow rose, suddenly recalling Xi Luolin's fiery gaze toward Qin Xin.

Could it be that the spokesperson of the Extreme Desire Brotherhood, that admiring look toward Qin Xin, wasn't lusting after his body, but rather wanting this burly outsider to take out her own brother?

Hiss—that wasn't impossible.

Cheng Shi noted this matter in his heart, but on his lips he went along with the talk, laughing it off: "Is that so? But I heard Alad seems to be Miss Xi Luolin's brother. You speak so poorly of him, and Miss Xi Luolin..."

"So what? I didn't say anything wrong. Alad really was raised by a whore, and so was Miss Xi Luolin, and their mother was one of us from the Shantytown too. What's wrong with that?

But I'm not stating facts to you—that sentence just now was only expressing my emotions. Emotions, get it?

No wonder Miss Xi Luolin said your brains are weird. What normal person would care about something like that?"

"..."

How did it end up being my fault?

Cheng Shi was stunned for a moment, thinking that stating facts was impressive—just saying the man's name could leave him speechless.

But at this point he really didn't know what to say. Fortunately, the big men opposite were rather "helpful." Seeing today's trade might fall through, they asked with some irritation:

"So what exactly do you want to do about this deal? Give us an exact time. Miss Xi Luolin had us waiting here for days, and the one who finally shows up is just a contact. Aren't you being overly cautious?

At this Inverted Gate, who would dare mess with a guest of our Brotherhood?"

"Yes, yes, it's precisely your Brotherhood's reputation that made us willing to do this deal."

The big man sized Cheng Shi up again, smiling: "You don't seem as unreasonable as Miss Xi Luolin made you out to be. Not bad. So what's the plan from here? Where's Mr. Morabik? Does he need someone to meet him?

Let me be straight with you, brother. Don't think our Extreme Desire Brotherhood only controls the Shantytown—at this Inverted Gate, every business needs our matchmaking.

You've got good eyes. Working with us, you'll only grow bigger and bigger. After all, we are the ones who understand desire best.

Oh right, I'm a bit curious too. Miss Xi Luolin was vague about it, and we didn't dare ask more. Now that we've run into the real deal, let me ask—can you really extract divinity from the Abyss Color Crystal?

That thing—can mortals use it?"

"!!??"

What?

Divinity?

Extracting divinity from ore?

Was Xi Luolin trading divinity with some mysterious organization?

Cheng Shi was shocked. His pupils contracted sharply; without time to think, he blurted out: "Of course we can. Without real goods, how would we dare do business with the Brotherhood? But these things are too complicated for a mere pawn like me to understand. I only know it can be done, but the specifics—you'd have to ask Mr. Morabik."

"I can tell you're not lying to me. I like honest people like you." The big man nodded thoughtfully, laughing heartily as he affirmed Cheng Shi's attitude. But just as he said this, his face suddenly darkened, and he said suspiciously, "But if you can extract divinity, why don't you use it yourselves?

Something this good—shouldn't you keep it all to yourselves?"

"?"

You're not dumb, are you?

That was indeed a good question. Cheng Shi was wondering the same thing—if someone truly had the means to extract divinity, why would they want to trade it with others?

But this small scene was no challenge for Cheng Shi. He casually spun a yarn:

"You two brothers are the ones who understand desire best, so I won't beat around the bush. If the mine were ours, no one would get a share.

But as luck would have it, we only have the technique, not the mine. So..."

"Oh~" The big man immediately understood. This was desire at its finest.

"You're not bad. If the rest of this goes through you as contact, I think the two organizations have something to work with.

"What were you called... ah, look at my brain, three days without taking guests, it's almost degenerating."

"?"

What does taking guests have to do with your brain?

Cheng Shi blinked and didn't dare make a sound.

The other burly man beside the big fellow had a decent brain, and he immediately spoke up to remind him: "Foolishness, wasn't it? You even said at the time, where did the fish at the Falling Gate come from—they believe in Foolishness."

The moment these words fell, in Cheng Shi's mind there was a "boom" like a host of thunder splitting the sky, exploding directly.

"!!!"

Foolishness??

Where did this Foolishness come from!?

The current timeline should be the middle of the Civilization Epoch; at this time the War was only watching and had not yet descended, and Chaos was merely just sprouting—how could the divine name of Foolishness already be circulating underground?

Is Its gaze this early?

Could this Morabik... also be a Sprouting Believer?