Chapter 881: The Gods Who Watched

The chase through the void continued.

Amusingly, Oblivion could have easily retreated into His own world to escape Fate's pursuit in the present reality — but He didn't. Instead, He kept expanding the conflict's impact across the void, dragging nearly its entirety into the battlefield.

One by one, the gods descended, once again cleaning up the mess left by this eruption in the void. They couldn't allow the universe to collapse, so they had no choice but to join forces and contain the battle's fury.

Meanwhile, the instigator of it all — Oblivion — wove through the void beneath all their gazes, fending off Fate while simultaneously gauging the attitudes of the others.

He was not a pure Approach Faction member. After the authority related to Void had been claimed by Void's own, His desire to approach Origin had cooled.

But neither was He a member of the Fear Faction. He knew everything He had came from Origin — a fundamental truth He could neither refuse nor change. So He had become a self-entertainer who practiced the will of Oblivion, pleasing Himself and incidentally fulfilling Origin's expectations for Oblivion.

Of course, He also harbored a grand ambition similar to the Prosperity Mother's: He hoped the universe at the end of the era would march toward total oblivion — that the curtain would fall upon Oblivion and not upon the Void that no longer belonged to Him.

Challenging the era's dominant ruler was dangerous, so He needed suitable allies. At first, Descent had been His support and Existence His target. But as time wore on, Descent fractured and crumbled into true descent, while Existence itself ceased to exist, drawing ever closer to Void. This shift had nearly "obliterated" all of His hopes.

He often wondered who was directing this script that so clearly favored Void. Fate and Deceit, one openly and one from the shadows, had threaded events together to push the situation to this point. Would Void's authority expand in the next era after this one ended? Would His own authority be nibbled away once more?

Origin's appearance was always a summation of the previous era. If the coloring of Void grew too heavy this time around, then when the next era dawned, no one could predict what kind of result His commentary on this era might produce.

Oblivion didn't want to stand still and become an old god wallowing in a bygone era. He felt He had to make a move in this one — and obliterating the "sacrifice" that Void had been crafting was undeniably the best way to both please Himself and offer something to Origin.

After all, Void's offering was an offering, and Oblivion's offering was equally an offering.

So He waited — waited for the day He could confirm who the true "sacrifice" of Void really was.

Until... a player named Cheng Shi obtained the container that Deceit had hidden during a trial. That was the moment Oblivion decided the time had come.

So He struck. And then He failed — and the "sacrifice" had even blasted Him point-blank with a little firework.

Of course, the failed operation had nothing to do with that "sacrifice" and everything to do with the hot-tempered Fate chasing behind Him. What He truly couldn't understand was this: the player called Cheng Shi was doing everything in his power to defy destiny. Why, then, did he still receive Fate's gaze and favor?

It was precisely for this reason that He began searching among the spectating gods for others who couldn't comprehend this behavior either. He hadn't hurried off because He wanted to identify potential "allies" among the remaining Them.

And so, both participants and spectators were observing.

The first to descend at the battlefield's periphery was a pair of eyes smeared with the white miasma of Chaos. He merely glanced at the fight, left behind a contemptuous remark — "Pointless foolishness, a waste of time" — and departed.

Then Birth, Truth, War, and Chaos descended in succession. Even Silence, who had just been scared off by Deceit, returned once more, locking His gaze onto Fate.

He seemed very interested in this Fate.

Yet no matter how enormous the commotion the two combatants caused, none of the others intervened. They simply maintained the void in silence, propping up the space that was on the verge of shattering, preventing the universe from collapsing.

During the standoff, Truth turned His blazing gaze upon Birth and asked a question that bewildered the others.

"Birth, is your devotion still devout?"

What kind of question was that?

Was there anyone in this universe who would question Birth's devotion?

As long as even a single species continued to exist, it could be counted as proof of Birth's piety. After all, He was the prelude to life, the origin of all things, the first true god acknowledged by Origin, and the universally recognized, unquestioned member of the Approach Faction.

Yet Birth's Divine Pillar offered no answer to Truth's question. He merely silently radiated the aura of Birth, which was enough to make Truth furrow His brow and edge away slightly.

Truth pondered for a moment, then turned to Silence. Although He knew the other wouldn't say a word, He asked anyway:

"What agreement did you reach with Deceit?"

Silence was, as always, silent. He watched Fate intently, unwilling to spare even a sliver of attention for the questioner.

But Truth didn't care about the response. His purpose had never been Silence itself — He wanted to observe the reactions of the other gods to this question. He was like a diligent scholar, head down, tirelessly working to unravel the mysteries of the universe, searching for the thread that Void had hidden.

He was now certain that Void was concealing some secret from the rest of the gods. As for where this suspicion came from...

It was from that earlier transaction with Memory.

He didn't know the contents of the deal between Fate and Memory, but through subtle probing, He had learned one crucial detail from Memory: Memory had voluntarily erased a segment of His own recollections to ensure the fairness of His transaction with Fate.

For an Existence deity, this was practically a self-blasphemous act that betrayed their very will. From that moment on, the seed of suspicion had taken root in Truth's mind.

Beyond advancing Faith Fusion, He had begun quietly investigating the matter. Thanks to His own authority, He quickly discovered that the affair might involve several of Them.

Void, Existence, Silence... and even His own opposite — Folly.

If it were merely a transaction between a few true gods, it might not be a major issue. But the moment Folly was involved... Truth knew His counterpart well. If Folly didn't wish to be drawn into something voluntarily, then no amount of temptation could move this god who looked down on everything.

So whatever this was about, it had to be enormous — enormous enough to pull even Folly into its depths.

And in this entire universe, what could possibly be greater than... Origin?

Had They discovered another source of power that rivaled Origin? Or had They seen through the lie called "Origin"?

Beyond these two possibilities, Truth believed nothing else could compel Folly to enter the game personally.

The "truth" He had tirelessly pursued seemed to be growing more fascinating and more alluring by the day, and that filled Truth with renewed vigor.

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