Chapter 735: How Should This Humble Follower Address You

How should this humble follower address you?

Today's void was terribly hard to traverse.

On his way, Deng Sui first encountered a terrifying stasis within the void, and later crashed headlong into a void rupture, plunging straight down into a deep-layer nihility where nothing existed at all.

He had already suffered heavily under the enemy's assault, and now being "abused" by the void again and again, the man was nearly done for.

Fortunately, he still had one last life-preserving trump card: half a Contract of Divine Audience from the believers of 【Time】 on Zhizhou. The story went that, after learning that a believer of 【Memory】 had used a mirror to gain an audience with their patron deity, the few remaining believers of 【Time】 devoutly gathered together, hoping to receive divine guidance in the same way.

They prayed over the contract drawn in fresh blood, hoping to draw their patron's gaze. At first they could feel a god about to descend, but just then one of the believers was suddenly overcome by greed and tried to claim the divine-audience contract for himself alone.

That believer leapt up and lunged at the contract. Under the horrified stares of the others, he snatched it up and opened a 【Time】 doorway leading to the past, intending to travel back and claim for himself the honor of being the first to gain an audience with 【Time】. But the believers closest to him reacted fast — they grabbed the contract and wrestled him for it, and in the struggle the two sides tore the contract apart.

Thus the contract split in two: one half vanished into the 【Time】 doorway, and the other changed hands countless times before eventually reaching Deng Sui.

Of course, a player capable of getting his hands on something like this was no nobody — Deng Sui was also a believer of 【Time】, and his ID in the 【Faith Game】 was......

Lao Deng.

Yes, Deng Sui was Lao Deng. After escaping with his life from the two Torchbearers, he had meant to use the void to put more distance between them, but today's void was truly unquiet, and nearly buried him on the spot.

So, with no other choice, he pulled out this contract. In a do-or-die stance, he poured every last drop of 【Time】 power remaining in his body into it — and to his surprise, his patron's gaze never came. Instead, the contract shattered into a passage, a passage leading to the unknown.

Normally, Deng Sui would have run countless deductions and verifications before daring to step inside, but the death trap he was in left him no choice. He could only try the remedy of a dead horse, and gritting his teeth, crawled in.

Then he was spat out by the warped spacetime passage, and found himself beneath a brilliant starry sky he had never seen before.

As he fell, his form slowly began to take shape, drifting gently down toward a massive white-jade platform somewhere beneath the starry sky.

He could tell — this had to be the temple of 【Time】. And that platform was no real platform at all; it was a colossal clock, twisted together from imprisoned moments and stacked layers of time, inlaid with countless clock faces great and small!

And right now, at the center of this enormous clock-platform stood a plain, unadorned clock hand, slowly turning its direction as he drifted down.

Deng Sui's heart gave a jolt, but soon a grin spread across his face!

Anyone could see it — whoever could serve at the side of a god here, on this temple of 【Time】, had to be one of His Envoys. He could think of no one else it could be.

But does 【Time】 even have Envoys?

Apparently not — after all, even he, who pursued 【Time】 with such eagerness, had never heard of any. But never having heard of them didn't mean they didn't exist at all. Even if the life before him wasn't his patron's Envoy, it was still certainly a being he needed to worship beneath this starry sky.

So the instant Lao Deng landed, he very tactfully bowed his head piously toward the clock hand and praised:

"Time is like a crack, and I am like the wind.

Praise 【Time】. The devout believer of 【Time】, Deng Sui, sends greetings to all great beings."

Deng Sui was unquestionably shrewd. Not knowing how to address the other, he used the words "all" and "beings" — that way he would neither offend the other with an uninformed form of address, nor fail to show the devotion of his 【Being】 faction.

He felt his greeting was absolutely perfect — if not for his grievous wounds and sorry state, he would even have given himself full marks.

But he didn't need to. Cheng Shi had already given him full marks.

That clock hand was naturally Cheng Shi, who had used the Method of Chaotic Disguise to conceal himself. Ever since this player named Deng Sui had appeared, Cheng Shi had been sizing him up.

He could tell the other was very strong, and very heavily wounded. And the label of "a badly wounded believer of 【Time】" instantly made him think of the one the Blind Man had once mentioned...... Lao Deng.

This was no idle association — the timing of this encounter was simply too coincidental.

In the trial, the Blind Man had also said Lao Deng would die, without a shadow of a doubt. Yet the moment the trial ended, a heavily wounded, not-yet-dead high-level player had unexpectedly appeared in the temple of 【Time】.

No matter how you thought about it, it had to circle back to that Lao Deng who opposed the Torchbearers, right?

He...... is Lao Deng?

This young?

Where's the "old" in this? Isn't this just Xiao Deng?

Did the Torchbearers fail?

Cheng Shi frowned, not daring to confirm the other's identity on the spot. But he was more than practiced at probing identities — he didn't even need to probe, because in the audience that followed, he would naturally find the information he wanted.

But there was one thing Cheng Shi had to think through clearly: why had the other come here?

The Blind Man, as the Chosen of 【Fate】, had never been one for exaggeration. If she said Lao Deng would die, there was no reason she would have let him escape with his life.

So was the other's appearance an accident...... or a summons from his new patron?

He has no time to summon me, yet has time to save one of His believers?

Cheng Shi's heart tightened. He decided to chat first — at the very least, he had to figure out who the other was, and exactly what had happened to him.

So he spoke, and the moment he opened his mouth, he put on the pressure of a seasoned charlatan.

"【Being】 is the entanglement of 【Memory】 and 【Time】, not 【Time】 alone.

If you don't wish to merge with 【Memory】, you'd best change the object of your greeting.

Young people should remember — piety that has been split apart is not piety."

This barrage thoroughly spooked Deng Sui. He immediately lowered his head piously to admit his fault, and toward the longest hand on the enormous clock face said weakly:

"My lord above, please forgive your ignorant believer.

It is only because this is the first time I have been so honored as to receive your summons that I grew overexcited and spoke incoherently for a moment. All I wished to express was devotion — not 【Being】, but absolute devotion to you."

As he spoke, Deng Sui quickly mumbled two more prayers, then said respectfully to Cheng Shi:

"How should this humble follower address you?"

First time?

Got it.

Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, amused. He cleared his throat lightly and laughed: "What, you think I...... don't look like the lord you have in mind?"

"!!!???"

Hearing this, Lao Deng turned pale with shock. With a loud "clang," he dragged his overburdened body and dropped straight to his knees.