How it all began

Silence fell over the room.

Even the trembling corpses of the gods around them An Jing down, and everything returned to silence.

Cheng Shi's heart tightened. Based on just that sentence, the other person seemed very much like the lost Gravekeeper, but he still didn't dare to recognize him because it was all too coincidental. He had to confirm it again.

"What happened?"

Steady Cheng asked a universal question.

Steady Zhang squinted, looked the other person up and down, and gave a universal answer:

Nothing happened, I'm waiting for someone.

"Waiting for whom?"

"A Clown who wanted to be buried in Cemetery but couldn't find the Graveyard Management to buy a ticket."

Cheng Shi was taken aback, then said with a half-smile, "What a coincidence, I'm also looking for someone."

"Oh."

Zhang Jizu responded with a sound of agreement and then said nothing more.

"?" Cheng Shi's face stiffened. "Why don't you ask me who I'm looking for?"

Zhang Jizu narrowed his eyes to slits, slowly put away his Scalpel, and said seriously, "I don't want to get scolded, so I won't ask."

"You fucking..."

Cheng Shi pointed at Zhang Jizu's nose, ready to start cursing, but when he saw the smile on the other's face, he couldn't utter a single word of C language.

At the same time, the Gravekeeper reached out and patted Cheng Shi heavily on the shoulder:

You are still alive, and the world still exists.

Very good."

Cheng Shi paused for a moment, feeling the warmth of Squinty Old Zhang's palm, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A living Gravekeeper.

It was him.

But then Cheng Shi's expression changed. He withdrew his index finger, then gave a thumbs-up with the finger next to it, and said Yin-Yang:

"Shouldn't I thank the Gravekeeper for giving me a second life?"

I should award you a medal for being the Cosmos's greatest Gravekeeper.

But before that, I'm curious, why aren't you staying in that world waiting for the bus home? What are you doing here?

You wouldn't be thinking that your merit in saving the world is too great, and you're planning to reward yourself by adding this Gods’ Graveyard to your own Cemetery, would you?

Oh.

The idea is good, but the execution is too shaky. I have a simpler method; would you like to hear it?

"I..."

"You want to? Okay, I'll tell you:"

"Then let's just change the name, change Zhang Jizu to Zhang Origin. Anyway, we're just taking advantage of [Origin]'s nose, so what's wrong with taking a little more?"

"!!!"

Zhang Jizu was shocked, his eyes widened two degrees, and he almost pulled out Scalpel to sew Cheng Shi's mouth shut!

Where am I!?

This is the True Universe, the place where gods fell, and something unknown lurks beneath it. How dare you spout such nonsense here? Aren't you afraid of bringing disaster upon yourself?

This isn't just a matter of being prudent or not; this is downright suicidal!

Seeing Old Zhang's reaction, Cheng Shi understood that the other party still didn't know what was making the sound below.

It's quite remarkable that he dared to inscribe Magic Formation in such a place, without knowing who was above or below, to use sound to repel outsiders and defend the territory. Squinty Old Zhang can be considered both bold and meticulous.

But he still didn't understand why Squinty Old Zhang had come here. Had something really happened in that world?

"What happened?" he asked again.

This time, Zhang Jizu frowned slightly, looked down into the pit of corpses, and when he saw that there was no reaction to Cheng Shi's "blasphemy" below, he nodded as if he understood something, and said in a deep voice:

He's dead.

"???" Cheng Shi's pupils contracted. "Who?"

"Another me, the Gravekeeper inherited the Divine Authority of [Death]."

"!!!"

Cheng Shi's eyes widened as he finally understood why the anchoring on the Pig Bridge had failed. It turned out that not only Squinty Old Zhang had an accident, but another Zhang Jizu had also had an accident.

How did he die?

Zhang Jizu's face darkened, and he sighed, "Using his Divine Authority to die in place of another Cheng Shi, he was atoning for his sins; he died with a clear conscience..."

Cheng Shi's eyes widened even more; he couldn't believe what he had heard, and even thought he had misheard.

"Who did you say died? Cheng Shi died?"

"How could that be? The Outer God is a fake, it's just God of Merriment in disguise. How could He personally kill a Clown?"

"???"

What? The Outer God are fake?

Now, even Zhang Jizu was dumbfounded.

Before seeing Cheng Shi, he had searched for his original world for a long time without success, and even thought that his original world might have already met a tragic end of Nothingness. It wasn't until he saw Cheng Shi and confirmed that this was the Fate Weaver from his own world that he felt relieved and realized that it was the Deception Cheng Shi sacrificing himself.

But now you're telling me that the Outer God is fake, and that it's just a role played by the God of Merriment?

Just because it was a [Deception] Trials?

Zhang Jizu's eyes narrowed instantly.

If Cheng Shi's account is correct, then the death of the other Cheng Shi is indeed somewhat strange.

He frowned, both he and Cheng Shi were shocked, and they looked at each other and asked, "What happened in the subsequent Trials?"

Without hesitation, Cheng Shi recounted the entire story of the False Curtain Call to Zhang Jizu in a deep voice. Zhang Jizu then told Cheng Shi what he had seen and known. Only then did Cheng Shi understand why Squinty Old Zhang had come here.

It was an accident, really.

After the fall of [Death], Zhang Jizu Zhang Jizu eager to confirm the state of the original world. He found a path leading to the True Universe in the [Death] Cemetery and then stepped into the True Universe through that path.

But having just entered the True Universe, he had no idea which way to go until he encountered the enormous, Leaky World Silent Puppet "corpse" that Cheng Shi had mentioned, floating in the True Universe.

Zhang Jizu, as if he had found a guiding light, squatted down beside Leaky World Silent Puppet and wouldn't leave.

Wherever the Silent Puppets drifted, he followed. He followed it like this for a while. Whether it was Zhang Jizu's "method of asking for directions" that worked or Destiny once again protected him, he and the Leaky World Silent Puppet were caught up in a Space-Time Storm.

Then, the Leaky World Silent Puppet disappeared without a trace, and he was thrown into the Gods’ Graveyard.

At first, Zhang Jizu was not excited to see all this. Although Cheng Shi had shared his exploration of the True Universe during the Trials, he had not yet mentioned the Gods’ Graveyard and the Divine Throne to the Clown in the Trials, so Zhang Jizu had no idea where he was.

He was overwhelmed by endless fear, but fortunately there was no real danger here. After getting used to the fear, he began to explore his surroundings.

Then they discovered the voice from beneath the mass grave.

Anyone who hears someone criticizing [Origin] here would probably think of the real [Origin], and the Gravekeeper is no exception.

But unlike some audacious Clown, once he learned that there was life at the bottom of the mass grave, he completely restrained his curiosity, never went down, and resigned himself to waiting for an opportunity to leave.

At the same time, he could not predict whether there would be any external risks intruding, so he used the materials at hand and the new knowledge he learned in the [Death] Zhang Jizu Cemetery to set up traps in this Gods’ Graveyard that could scare away outsiders, which is the scene that Cheng Shi triggered.

Thus began the Gravekeeper's long wait.

Though he called it waiting, Zhang Jizu, who had given up hope, had already regarded this place as his new Cemetery.

He didn't feel any hope would come, just like with the news of Cheng Shi's [Deception] death; he felt he would eventually be buried in this unfamiliar cemetery.

However, no one could have imagined that the very first day after the trap was completed, the outsider he had been so wary of would arrive.

And this outsider is Cheng Shi, the Clown symbolizes all hope.