Chapter 1349: You've Already Started to Resemble Them

The words weren't wrong. Even the reasoning wasn't wrong. The execution, though, had been extremely rough.

The Flame of Hope hung suspended upside-down in midair, finding nothing to say. Qin Xin let it pass with a small smile, already thinking about how to comfort Nangong afterward so she'd know the Torchbearers had lost nothing to Cheng Shi's visit.

Having briefly relived the simple pleasures of a newbie fishing pool match, Cheng Shi indulged a laugh himself — but he remembered why he'd come, so he quickly settled into focus. His expression sharpened as he laid out his intentions.

"The Assembly of Gods Convention is right around the corner. I suspect the Fun God has something big prepared for me on the other side.

I can't be certain what the path ahead holds — I can only do my best. Qin Xin, I need your vote. Badly."

That vote naturally referred to [War]'s influence within the Convention — so Cheng Shi's meaning was clear: he was urging Qin Xin to inherit everything from [War] as quickly as possible, take the throne, and present himself before the world in a new form.

This didn't conflict with Qin Xin's own goals — but the problem was that the timing for revealing himself had come far too early. Qin Xin had planned to remain in the shadows a while longer, growing in strength and expanding the Torchbearers' scale. At minimum, he had intended to wait until a path toward the future became visible before inheriting that throne and bringing the Torchbearers into the open.

But Cheng Shi's words today were unmistakably pushing the Torchbearers' "God Creation Plan" to accelerate.

It was easy to hear that Cheng Shi's tone was extraordinarily earnest. The Torchbearers also genuinely owed the Fate Weaver a debt. As the founder of the fire-passing mission, Qin Xin had no obvious grounds to refuse.

He would still choose to help Cheng Shi. But before his ascension, the Torchbearers' arrangements might need some adjusting — they could not afford to have the world learn of them so quickly just because he had "revealed himself."

Cheng Shi read the conflict on Qin Xin's face and shook his head.

"By now, no one is paying attention to what kind of organization the Torchbearers are.

The gods' gaze is on me. With a figure like me out front — someone trying to drag them off their thrones — they won't invest much attention in a group of mortals who don't yet pose a threat. And when you become [War], they won't rush to make an enemy of you over a band of mortal resisters either.

The divine beings who stood in the way of [Void]'s era-ending have long since been swept out by the tides of the age. You need to understand: everything the Fun God has done throughout this entire era — all of its scheming — was to clear away every obstacle standing in the Fear Faction's path."

Cheng Shi began with what he knew of [Deceit]'s grand scheme, and told the story all the way through to the false Curtain Call that no one in the universe had any memory of.

He couldn't bring himself to tell Qin Xin about the Final Oracle again. But he did speak of the Flame of Hope turning into the [Fate] Container in order to save him.

The Candle Man's flames flared and blazed for a moment upon hearing that — then fell almost immediately into a hollow dim.

It looked at Cheng Shi in disbelief, listening as Cheng Shi finished the story of that event named "change," until its entire flame-formed body went rigid and still.

Somewhat at a loss, it said:

"It's an outer god — [Fate]?"

"No. It's [Deceit]. The outer god persona was a disguise. I still don't know why it played the role of an outer god — but it is absolutely not an outer god." Cheng Shi's voice was firm.

Or so it appeared to Qin Xin and the Flame of Hope — absolute in its certainty.

But the Flame of Hope had seen through the confusion buried inside Cheng Shi. It was just as lost.

It had questioned its own identity countless times. It had even once believed [Deceit] simply wasn't [Deceit] — that it was the heartless [Fate] who had severed a part of itself. So in its mind, [Fate] was naturally not truly [Fate] — most likely [Deceit] wearing a different identity, having deceived the entire universe.

But that speculation was completely overturned the moment it heard Cheng Shi describe the false Curtain Call. Because in its understanding: if [Deceit] had been playing [Fate], it would never have chosen martyrdom. And if [Fate] was actually [Deceit] all along, it would never have acknowledged being an outer god.

[Fate] wouldn't consider its obsession with Fixed Destiny a kind of sin — and would have no need to dump all that "blame" onto some inexplicable outer god.

Everything in the false Curtain Call had been change. And the Flame of Hope was itself change. It understood change better than anything — it could see through which wills in that performance had been freely distorted, and which had never changed from beginning to end.

So [Deceit] was still [Deceit]. And [Fate] was still [Fate].

But then — why did it feel that particular pull from [Deceit], as if some thread of faith connected them?

Could it be that the Flame of Hope's identity was actually the false one? That it was simply a creation of [Deceit] through and through? That [Deceit] had sacrificed a piece of its own authority, deceived the entire universe, and created it?

If so, what authority had it sacrificed?

And in that false Curtain Call — why, after its own disappearance, had it transformed into a genuine [Fate] Container?

The Flame of Hope fell into turmoil. Its flames swayed violently, betraying an inner state far from calm.

It asked quietly:

"And [Fate]... where is it now?"

"Same as [Deceit]. Gone."

Cheng Shi was also speculating — could [Fate]'s obsession with Fixed Destiny be nothing but [Void]'s performance? Had these two [Void] rulers settled on a plan to welcome the era's end before the era even began — and then staged a grand conflict for the universe to watch?

How else to explain that most of his Fixed Destiny had been driven by [Deceit], with [Fate] raising no objection? Or that the [Fate] of another world had changed its own will and agreed to [Deceit]-Cheng Shi's world-saving plan?

All of it was strange. There was no logical foundation solid enough to build an explanation on.

"Gone?" The Flame of Hope hadn't felt anything from its connection to [Fate] ever since [Fate] severed it. It couldn't use that to locate [Fate]. So it didn't know whether Cheng Shi's "gone" meant gone into hiding, or...

"Is [Fate]... still alive?" The Candle Man asked haltingly.

"?"

What kind of question was that?

Since it had been a false Curtain Call — of course [Fate] was alive.

"Of course." Cheng Shi answered without hesitation. "Though I suspect it may not be free right now. The Fun God has been scheming for a long time — it wouldn't allow [Fate] to disrupt its plan. So I've always felt that the scene in the false Curtain Call, where [Fate] was trapped inside the Mockery and Jeering river, was not a false part at all.

It may really have been imprisoned somewhere — just not somewhere we know how to find.

The era is moving along according to the Fun God's rhythm. But even if it's moving against [Origin] — something still feels off to me.

And that's the main reason I came here to find you.

Qin Xin — before the Fun God reveals its final plan, we must stand united.

The Convention doesn't only protect divine authority. It's also the only foothold mortals have for surviving in any desperate situation.

Only if we secure enough votes to change the universe before the Assembly of Gods Convention can we face the Fun God's plan with any composure — only then will we have the standing to search for a future that belongs to this world..."

Qin Xin listened to the end, then gave a solemn nod.

"Understood."

"..."

The heavy atmosphere was instantly broken by those two words. Cheng Shi looked at Qin Xin with a strange expression — and eventually couldn't stop himself from muttering:

"Figured. You've already started to resemble them."