[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-gods-foolish-game":3,"chapter-the-gods-foolish-game-the-gods-foolish-game-chapter-969":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Gods' Foolish Game",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2362097,4617,"Chapter 969: Xiao Shi, Heaven Is Going to Destroy You!","the-gods-foolish-game-chapter-969",969,"\u003Cp>Xiao Shi, heaven is going to destroy you!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Du Qiyu is an unquestionably excellent hunter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After becoming familiar with the item’s function, he quickly used the hunter’s keen sense of smell to track Cheng Shi’s traces and followed them relentlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He first returned to the charred battlefield; when he discovered that Jing Gong was nothing but a pile of ash, the beast tamer stood there and sneered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a legendary great bow, a weapon suspected to be a divine relic, it could never have been reduced to ash by a rain of fire—so this scene before him was surely fake, a deliberate deception crafted by Xiao Shi to trick him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It seems Jing Gong has fallen into Xiao Shi’s hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s no wonder Du Qiyu thought this, for the residual aura traces Cheng Shi left behind were overwhelmingly strong—he could even reconstruct the scene from them, as if seeing Xiao Shi standing right before him, smiling as he picked up the great bow he had long desired, just after Du Qiyu took the emotion-absorbing item, and then faked the entire scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Excellent—now I have one more reason to hunt Xiao Shi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Xiao Qi isn’t foolish; he knows the opponent is almost certainly hunting him too, since anyone who lost such an item would want it back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he carefully concealed his true form, tamed several unremarkable birds to serve as his eyes, and traced Xiao Shi’s aura step by step—until he saw Cheng Shi standing outside a cage woven from [Decay] dust, face ashen, sighing heavily, and realized that not only had he encountered the Envoy, but Xiao Shi had also become aware of His presence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the opponent’s situation is far worse than his own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“There’s no way out—my Thunder can’t break this cage.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheng Shi paced anxiously, rubbing his forehead, and, refusing to believe it, unleashed another bolt of Thunder—yet the Thunder passed through the decaying dust and nearly struck Sun Miao inside, terrifying the sage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Impatience is a foolish act that leads to self-destruction, Vice-Chairman Cheng. I know your Thunder is powerful—no need to demonstrate it again.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“...... Am I demonstrating? I’m trying to save you. If you’d just bowed your head before Him, lowered your nose, would you have ended up locked in here?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sage, you say I’m impatient—how can I not be?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The Fear Core was taken by Xiao Qi—he can return at any moment in peak form. Even if I’m confident I can hold him off, you’re still my insurance, do you understand!?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Now look—you’ve gotten yourself trapped. Is this what a sage does? How can someone who gets himself into such peril be called ‘wise’!?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thankfully, He’s Yuge, the most cowardly of them all—whenever there’s the slightest stir, He flees. Otherwise, He , I’d have buried you here beside the battlefield like Chun did.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“......”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Miao had no rebuttal—or rather, he was simply too exhausted to argue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, letting Du Qiyu overhear this conversation wasn’t something that could happen at just any random time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To make everything seem natural, Cheng Shi first released Sun Miao, had him deploy every possible silent method of detecting approaching enemies around the area, then retrieved Chun’s relics to trace Xiao Qi’s location, and finally erected a new cage and locked the sage back inside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He altered the cage’s state so it no longer blocked sound, and intensified the swirling dust so outsiders couldn’t see Sun Miao inside—thus, the stage was set.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the most troublesome problem remained: with a skilled hunter like Du Qiyu, Cheng Shi and Sun Miao couldn’t guarantee their detection devices would work—if even a single flaw appeared, it could mean fatal trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, to lure the opponent into this meticulously staged trap, Cheng Shi began a performance lasting twenty hours.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, the night before Xiao Qi’s arrival, Cheng Shi had already begun sighing before the cage—he performed nonstop for an entire night and half a day, never repeating a line or a gesture, all to ensure Xiao Qi, when he crept closer, would witness with his own eyes their “accidental” predicament!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Xiao Qi hadn’t come today, Cheng Shi’s performance would have continued—though the frequency of Thunder strikes would have decreased; so far, he’d only fired two bolts, one per day. Yet fate had it that Xiao Qi arrived today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the two had anticipated, the skilled hunter triggered none of their alarm systems—so the two actors remained unaware that the enemy had already drawn near.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And cautious Xiao Qi wouldn’t risk acting on a sudden, unexpected opportunity—he observed silently for a full half-day, until he saw Cheng Shi abandon his attempts and instead begin setting traps around the area, only then confirming the other side was truly in trouble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is heaven’s gift to me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Shi, Xiao Shi—since the moment I stole your fate, [Fate]... has never favored you again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Du Qiyu moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He chose the moment when Cheng Shi was least alert—just as Cheng Shi finished drawing a magical array on a tree with chaotic, scribbled lines, sighed deeply, and turned to leave—a swift arrow, silent as wind, suddenly shot from the dense forest, striking straight for Cheng Shi’s face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The arrow came from Xiao Qi’s true body—he had no choice; to swiftly subdue his enemy, he had to unleash his full power. The opportunity couldn’t be missed, and he had never underestimated this Xiao Shi he so often belittled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Indeed, Cheng Shi’s reaction matched Du Qiyu’s respect for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the first sound of the whistling arrow, he narrowed his pupils, instantly crushed the smoke bomb in his hand to obscure the attack, and inwardly rejoiced—he realized Xiao Qi had finally revealed himself; all his sleepless, endless rehearsals had not been in vain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Du Qiyu never intended to kill with this strike—it was merely a feint. Behind the smoke, his other perfectly crafted human-shaped beast had already crept up beside Cheng Shi and unleashed a barrage of thunder-and-fire arrows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t know how strange the smoke’s defense was, but brute force always worked—when you couldn’t find the enemy, just overwhelm him with sheer volume and blast him to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cheng Shi sensed the danger, slipped away from the edge of the smoke, and instantly fired a bolt of Thunder—not at the nearest beast, but, guided by instinct, he raised his hand and struck the direction from which the arrow had come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt it must have been Xiao Qi’s own arrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was right—but the Thunder missed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without Fear, Xiao Qi could no longer charge the Death-Lover, Cheng Shi frowned, lowered his head, and retreated. Xiao Qi snorted, fired a rapid succession of arrows, relentlessly pursuing Cheng Shi as he tried to escape, while the birds watching from above mocked him:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where’s your courage, Xiao Shi? Why run? Let me see the strength that defeated the false god Zainjier.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I know you’ve got Gao Lisi behind you—why not call Him out to help?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is He busy!?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Xiao Qi’s assault was relentless, he himself remained hidden, carefully wary of everything around him. With his beasts reduced to single digits, his strength was more than enough to win this battle—and even if he lost, escape was still assured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Du Qiyu soon realized he couldn’t possibly lose this fight, because Cheng Shi’s so-called backup plan seemed to have failed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coupled with what he’d just overheard— He , Xiao Shi, was your feint to scare off the [Decay] Envoy really just summoning Gao Lisi?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let me think—summoning an Envoy, an ability nearly equivalent to cheating, must have a cooldown. How could an Envoy be summoned at will? Is your greatest advantage now useless!?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Praise [Decay]! So you weren’t manipulating the battlefield—you were truly running away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Waiting for the cooldown?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He , dream on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Your time is up!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Shi, heaven is going to destroy you!\u003C\u002Fp>",1307,"2026-06-21T06:05:16.216Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","305ddd6dc2bf75d7b206d28adef03d7abc6d48d5c8cffd6b7cadee0157d67037","the-gods-foolish-game-chapter-970","the-gods-foolish-game-chapter-968",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-gods-foolish-game-cover.jpg"]