I, Cheng Shi, the Clown

Old Man had been terrified just moments ago. Now Cheng Shi felt exactly the same.

Killing a god's chosen in front of that god was already blasphemy. The problem was, the Clown had accused Old Man of blaspheming Deception!

Just listen to that: a follower of Time had been executed for blaspheming Nothingness, on the turf of Existence!

Looking across the entire history of the Grand Inquisition—no, the entire history of the Isle of Hope—there were few trials more absurd than this one.

Cheng Shi knew he was framing Old Man. But the other guy had started it: Old Man had played dirty and slandered him and the Fire Keeper first. So Cheng Shi figured his actions counted as self-defense at most.

Even if it was excessive, you had to admit it was still self-defense, right?

Besides, he hadn't invented the charge of blaspheming Deception on a whim. He'd had a purpose.

Given the situation with the Faith Fusion today, his Lord of Grace, Deception, had undoubtedly communicated with Time. Otherwise, Deception wouldn't have appeared as Destiny merely to "guide" him. Perhaps He'd also appeared as Time to give him confidence.

Cheng Shi had no idea how the God of Merriment had managed to get Time on board. But he knew that in this Faith Fusion, Deception had more say than Time. It had to be Deception who'd smoothed the way for the fusion to proceed despite the Faith Opposition.

More importantly, although Deception belonged to Nothingness, He wasn't opposed to Time. That gave Cheng Shi a lifeline amid these complicated religious ties: if he dealt with a blasphemer for his Lord of Grace, Deception, then even if his new Lord of Grace, Time, wanted to punish him, wouldn't He have to consider the attitude of Deception, who held the