Huang Bo's Death, and the Final Gate

"It's really you!! Huang Bo!!! Then where's the real A'ming?"

"How could this be?"

"Boss, this..."

Cheng Shi smiled and capped the potion in his hand, a sigh of relief escaping him.

The "Confession of Truth" was, of course, fake.

Besides Cheng Shi, there were only four people present, so the Sacrifice to the Void definitely couldn't be activated.

But that didn't stop it from bluffing out the "truth."

Having substance within emptiness, and emptiness within substance, was the key to victory.

Cheng Shi's scheme had succeeded, and he continued to guess with a tut-tut sound:

"I'm guessing you used some kind of delayed death method or a life-sustaining item to keep A'ming trapped in the Tavern, right?"

Huang Bo no longer hid anything. Wearing A'ming's face, he laughed maniacally:

"That's right, it's the S-rank talent my master bestowed upon me, 'Shared Appearance, United Heart.' Cheng Shi, you're very smart, but you can't do anything to me."

Huang Bo's tone was manic and confident.

"If I live, that little Assassin can live too. But if I die, he'll die along with me! So what if you found me? Doesn't it feel bad to be played with in the palm of someone's hand? Hahahaha, aren't you frustrated? The only thing I underestimated was that this poet could revive you. But so what? I schemed against you, yet you can't..."

"Tch—"

"Cheng Shi!"

"Boss!"

"Cheng!?"

Before Huang Bo could finish speaking, Cheng Shi pulled a knife from who knows where and plunged it directly into his chest.

Feeling the sharp object slice through his heart, Huang Bo looked up in disbelief, gasping in shock:

"...You... you're crazy... he... he'll die..."

Cheng Shi sneered:

"Whether he lives or dies is none of my business. You made me take a stab, so I'll let you taste what it's like to have your heart pierced."

With that, Cheng Shi nimbly pulled out the knife and thrust it into Huang Bo's throat again.

He didn't stop until Huang Bo took his last breath. Then, he skillfully severed the corpse's head, lit a fire, and finally snapped his fingers with a sense of relief.

Dust to dust, earth to earth.

If you can still revive after this, then you're truly something.

The three women watched this all unfold, dumbfounded, their minds in a complete mess.

Fang Shiqing was the first to recover. She looked at Cheng Shi with complicated eyes: "You..."

"What about me?" Cheng Shi asked, wiping the blood from his hands with a smile. "I told you long ago, I'm not a good person."

Fang Shiqing didn't reply. She took a few deep breaths, glanced at the Time on her wrist, and returned to her previous posture.

"With two fewer people, our search work will become extremely difficult..."

"Sister Fang, wait."

Xu Lu suddenly tugged on Fang Shiqing's sleeve.

Fang Shiqing turned her head, and her icy gaze startled Xu Lu. But Xu Lu still mustered the courage to say:

"There's one thing that doesn't add up. Cheng Shi is a Priest, and Bailing is a weak... not as strong, Hunter. With Huang Bo's abilities, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble to kill them. Why would he use an NPC's hand?"

"?"

Indeed, Xu Lu was right.

Cheng Shi was also taken aback. He hadn't expected Xu Lu to be the first to react.

Perhaps it was because Fang Shiqing and Bailing saw him through rose-tinted glasses, making his decisive act of killing have a greater impact on them.

Xu Lu, who had been observing coldly, became the one to break the puzzle.

Fang Shiqing pondered for a moment, as if she had thought of something. She suddenly looked towards the room.

"While Chaos might have ordered Huang Bo to eliminate us, it wouldn't have pointed him to the answer of the trial. So, it's not that he didn't want to act, but that he needed others to help him find the answer. And that answer... is..."

"That guard?"

She looked at Cheng Shi, seeking an explanation.

Cheng Shi clapped his hands in appreciation, then laid out the cause and effect of the situation along with his own speculations.

"Clever. Perhaps he overheard the guards talking to me outside the door, or perhaps he saw the ring long ago and was just waiting for me to solve the puzzle.

I did find an answer. If I'm not mistaken, that guard isn't dead. Huang Bo's next plan is to take him somewhere you can't find him and leave here himself.

Of course, I don't know how he knew this was the final act, or perhaps his benefactor gave him clues to the next act in advance."

Fang Shiqing's eyes held a complex expression:

"You suspected 'A'ming from the very beginning? Even before Mist?"

Cheng Shi smiled. "Just a guess."

As he spoke, he glanced into the room.

Bailing understood and immediately rushed into the room, beginning to check the guard's vital signs.

As expected, a "turbid light" protected the guard's heart, preventing him from dying immediately.

"He can still be saved!"

Fang Shiqing followed closely. She looked at the guard, who was barely clinging to life, and turned to say:

"Cheng Shi, it's your turn."

Cheng Shi didn't refuse. He cast a healing spell on his enemy, the man who had tried to kill him, and as the guard was about to regain consciousness, he cast a hypnosis spell on him.

This time, Fang Shiqing didn't get a chance to speak. Xu Lu anxiously shouted:

"Hey, you, is this a memory? Tell us quickly!"

Such crude guidance made everyone's expression darken, but fortunately, the fragile guard had already lost his clear mind. He was confused for a long time before nodding.

Immediately after, the guard, who had just been saved, exploded with a bang, turning into countless specks of starlight.

The starlight condensed again, forming the Memory Gate.

However, this time, the Memory Gate had a golden frame added to it compared to before.

The Final Gate!

Its appearance meant the trial was about to end.

Stepping through it, everyone would survive and receive a reward.

"I... it's over?"

Xu Lu hadn't expected it to be this simple. They had found the final exit with plenty of time to spare.

It had only been a little over 8 hours since the trial began, with nearly a third of the time remaining.

"Fang... Sister?"

Xu Lu happily turned to look, but was met with Cheng Shi's deeply furrowed brow.

She was so startled she took two steps back.

Would someone who casually killed others, someone with opposing beliefs, make a move against her at the exit?

She didn't dare to think about it, so she wanted to leave immediately.

Xu Lu scanned everyone's positions, gritted her teeth, and charged directly towards the Final Gate.

But just as she was about to jump out of the trial, a strong hand grabbed her arm, yanking her back from the door.

"Ah!!!!"

Xu Lu screamed in terror, instinctively unleashing a Singer skill and striking Cheng Shi.

Cheng Shi didn't dodge. With a dark expression, he endured the negative status effects, then threw her roughly onto the ground beside him.

Seeing this, Fang Shiqing stepped in front of Xu Lu, her anger evident.

"Cheng Shi, that's enough!"

Bailing was stunned. She didn't understand why Cheng Shi wouldn't let Xu Lu leave, but she still moved, drew her bow and arrow, and stood behind Cheng Shi.

Fang Shiqing looked at the scene, her brow furrowed.

"Sister Fang, save me!"

"Cheng Shi, you..."

"Something's wrong!"

Cheng Shi ignored the chaos at the scene, his brow deeply furrowed as he thought:

"Something's wrong! If this leads to the next act, it might be fine.

But if this is the Final Gate, the answer is far too simple.

The clip's prophecy hasn't come true yet. Where is the hand holding the teacup?"

Fang Shiqing was taken aback. Hearing him mention this, she let out a sigh of relief.

It seems Cheng Shi wasn't trying to kill anyone. Was he questioning the correctness of the answer?

But the Memory Maze always has only one Final Gate. How could it be incorrect here?

Xu Lu fell to the ground, trembling. Her eyes were filled with terror and hatred as she stared fixedly at Cheng Shi.

Fang Shiqing glanced back at her, sighed, and quietly explained to Cheng Shi:

"We climbed over the outer wall into the second floor and found the Duchess's room. We did see that cup.

Cheng Shi, what the Prophet sees isn't necessarily a scene from the current timeline. The Duchess might have indeed used that cup.

But I think, rather than pointing to a prophecy, it's directing us here.

To the Duke's crime scene, or to find the Duchess's lover."

Cheng Shi frowned and shook his head:

"Something's not right. Where is the Duchess?

We've wasted almost an hour here. Isn't the banquet starting?

Or is everyone still patiently waiting for the Duke's arrival?

None of the guests seem to have left. Why?

What is the Duchess trying to do to cover up the Duke's death?"

Cheng Shi's doubts grew larger and larger.

Everything before him seemed like an invisible hand shoving the answer into their mouths, impatiently forcing them to swallow it.

But Cheng Shi didn't like this feeling of being slightly coerced.

Where exactly had something gone wrong?

He began to think carefully.

The entire Eternal Night Maze wasn't complicated.

In the first act, they found the Tavern's waiter. He probably recalled the time at the tavern because he saw many of the drinkers he'd met before.

Then, in the second act, they found the Duke's coachman, Yorke.

The reason they found him was because they saw the true face of the service worker, the Orc girl, and saw several Dwarves beneath the beast hide.

Yorke was controlled by the Dwarves and entered a memory. They indeed saw the corpses of these Dwarves in the third act...

Then, he found the guard's token, that ring, and confronted the guard.

The guard admitted to the ring's existence and was led to the Memory Gate.

It seemed like there were no problems.

But...

Did that guard mention the Broker when he admitted it?

A flash of inspiration struck Cheng Shi's mind. He suddenly realized he'd fallen into a blind spot in his thinking!

"That Broker!"