South Palace, Have You Ever Thought About Changing Your Faith?

Cheng Shi was taken aback, then laughed in exasperation.

No, no, no, such praise is unnecessary; it's bad luck.

Nangong seemed to realize that she had said the wrong thing. Her face turned red and she quickly changed the subject, saying, "But at that time I didn't know what kind of Emissary it was, Dizer. I only knew that it was the spirit of the [Gift of Scars]."

"So you signed a contract with a spirit to live and die together?"

"It says I have to sign..." Nangong back.

"..." Cheng Shi smiled politely, then rolled his eyes. "So now, why are you back here again?"

"I never thought I would come back here, and I didn't know I would be able to come back here today. The spirit... Dizer said that the rules of the game have changed, the gods have accelerated the game, and it wants to move forward. It can't keep following me who is not ambitious."

I too have suffered greatly from the offerings of "Decay," wanting to escape it but unable to. Hearing its words, I followed its guidance and made a prayer...

The Trials of 'changing hands'.

"Trials of changing hands?"

"Well, it said it needs an ambitious person, preferably one full of desire. I don't care who it wants to replace, I just want it to break its contract with me and stop me from suffering any more pain..."

I have always believed that it is not a blessing of Decay, but a curse of Decay, and whoever gets it will become unhappy.

Dizer... it did help me a lot, but my devotion to it far exceeds its help to me, I... I don't owe it anything.

But I owe you again, Cheng Shi. Thank you, thank you so much.

Cheng Shi didn't stand on ceremony with Nangong and readily accepted her gratitude. However, upon hearing this, he raised an eyebrow and suddenly realized that just now, when Nangong recognized him but avoided seeing the [Gift of Scars], she wasn't afraid that he would expose her secret, but rather that the [Gift of Scars] would come after her!

She was afraid it would harm her.

Even at that moment, the kind-hearted girl's subconscious thought was to repay a debt of gratitude. She didn't want to suffer the same curse of "Decay" as the other girl, even though she had come here specifically to rid herself of that curse!

Looking at the sincere Nangong in front of him, Cheng Shi smiled brightly again.

He stared intently at Nangong, then suddenly asked:

"Even if you get rid of it, [Decay] still needs your offerings. The core of the Blood-Swapping Priest is blood exchange. As long as you still Faith Him, you will continue to suffer."

Can you still endure this, Nangong?

Nangong's expression froze for a moment, then he nodded firmly. "As long as I don't suffer any additional hardship, I can endure the price of my Faith."

"I understand, I can tolerate it. In that case, Nangong, have you considered changing your Faith?"

"???"

Upon hearing this, Nangong was filled with questions. She covered her mouth in surprise and looked at Cheng Shi, her astonished gaze seemingly asking: Can this be changed? Can it be changed just like that?

To be honest, Cheng Shi wasn't too sure either, but he wanted to give it a try.

The reason he could say something like that he could change someone else's Faith was naturally because he had a little bit of confidence.

This confidence comes not only from the protection of "Nothingness" but also from his understanding and speculation about "Decay".

Just as he is doing everything today, stripping the Faith of the citizens of Rosna of their freedom, Cheng Shi has been trying to figure out the true will of "Decay" from beginning to end.

He treated this conjecture as a key, hoping to use this hastily crafted key to unlock the door to passing the Trials!

Indeed, Cheng Shi's act of having Qu Yan play the black-robed man wasn't just about luring the original black-robed man and his Lord of Grace; he had a third target, which was... [Decay]!

He was using a blasphemous feast of renunciation to test the mind of "Decay".

Because he always remembered the words spoken by the withered giant when he met with "Decay":

"I summoned you here... only to see if this former 'Deception' Believer, whom I have come to recognize as useless... is also a pitiful person like me..."

This statement actually contains a lot of information, but Cheng Shi was Cheng Shi that he did not realize its deeper meaning. Later, after learning about Him again from Afros, Cheng Shi began to have a slight guess about the true will of [Decay].

Afros said that He was originally a god without mercy, but as time went by, He gradually came to have mercy.

So what caused this Change in Him?

Actually, the answer to this question has been found, because Afros's warning stated that His Change was related to that unspeakable [*He]!

With this understanding in mind, let's revisit the words of "Decay" and reflect on his self-proclaimed status as a "pitiful person"...

The word "pity" means that someone deserves pity. The object of someone's pity can only be someone who is superior to that person on some level.

A beggar won't beg from his fellow beggars, and a poor person won't ask another poor person for money!

But!

[Decay] is already a god, one of the Sixteen Divine Thrones. With such a position, He can almost look down upon the Cosmos. What mercy does He still crave?

If He is truly "begging," then the object of His begging must be Him, and can only be Him, the Origin, the all-knowing and all-powerful God!

The logic seems to make sense, but what is He begging for? Why is He so pitiful?

It would have been difficult to come to a conclusion about this matter, since Cheng Shi was just a Mortals. Even though he had a bunch of terrifying identities, he had to admit that he was not one of them and did not know about their past.

Fortunately, he had witnessed many things about them and his thinking was far-fetched enough. He thought of the scene where [Prosperity] sacrificed itself for the Cosmic Prosperity. Since [Prosperity] could fulfill its will by dying, then the Decay that [Decay] revered... was it also fulfilling its His Will?

It wasn't the "Decay" will that the players understood, but rather the will that Cheng Shi himself had Cheng Shi guessed—the will of "begging"!

Is it possible that He wanted to use the Decay of the entire Cosmos to beg for His attention?

Just as His Believer beg for His attention in the same way?

It is this decay of body, mind and soul that has turned Him into a "pitiful person." Is He using this almost "self-harming" method to gain the attention of [*He]?

It's not impossible. Although this is a bold and unreliable guess, observations of other deities show that they clearly have something to ask of Him.

For example, the [Covenant]!