Recaps

Cheng Shi uncovered new threats tied to Memory, the gods, and the Scholarly Council while navigating a trial centered on the nature of truth. The trial left him confronting Galiusha’s plan to strip truth from the masses and continuing Meng Youfang’s test as its invigilator.

• Cheng Shi and the jesters entered Memory’s Archive, where he found that the Foolish Play Mask was missing its eyes and nose and later discovered that the Mask fragments called to Memory’s painting.
• Cheng Shi accepted Truth’s Special Trial, teamed up with Hu Xuan, and met Wei Zhi, Meng Youfang, and other players amid the deaths of the Scholarly Council’s Grand Scholars.
• After Chen Yi attacked him, Cheng Shi escaped with Hu Xuan and used a disguise and the Vessel of Chaos to direct the Twilight Church’s forces toward the Scholarly Council.
• Cheng Shi and Hu Xuan investigated Pelaya’s laboratory, where Square and Round reported that the Desolate Walker and several scholars had vanished.
• Pelaya revealed that Warren held the Truth Ritual, which could reorganize faith cores using people as raw materials, and suspected the Scholarly Council planned to rewind time and erase the consequences of her betrayal.
• Cheng Shi impersonated the Great One before the Twilight Church’s rulers, ordered them to intensify chaos in Tusnat, and then confronted Galiusha.
• Galiusha proposed destroying the world and explained that she wanted to remove truth from the masses to prevent human suffering, while an unseen observer mocked her.
• Cheng Shi told Meng Youfang that he was Folly and could end the trial, but Meng insisted on continuing until he reclaimed his divine throne, and the Order ring confirmed Cheng’s role as invigilator.

Cheng Shi repeatedly reset the fabricated regression experiment to uncover why Galiusha survived and learned that the Grand Scholars and Warrent had manipulated the trial. He allied with Galiusha to confront the Grand Scholars, while the struggle over the Truth Limit drew in Wei Zhi and the gods beyond the trial.

• Cheng Shi used repeated time resets to investigate the regression experiment, learning from Pelaya’s memories that she loved Galiusha and wanted to live with her in the past.
• Cheng Shi sent Chen Yi into the past to kill Galiusha, but she survived every attempt, and he uncovered signs that the experiment and its Grand Scholar puppets were targeting the players.
• Galiusha revealed that the reconstructed Tusnat and experiment were products of the Truth Ritual, while Warrent and the real Grand Scholars watched from outside and waited for the players to become fuel.
• Cheng Shi freed Galiusha and fought the Grand Scholars, but Wei Zhi killed her, so Cheng Shi reset time and returned to the Three-Day Truth Tower.
• Galiusha explained that the Truth Limit powered the experiment, and Cheng Shi ordered the Twilight Church to search for it while asking the Bellringer Knights to bring back his teammates and leave Wei Zhi behind.
• Galiusha revealed that Kainlaur had arranged her meeting with Pelaya and that Melina had died, while Cheng Shi regrouped with his teammates and Hu Xuan left to investigate a friend.
• Cheng Shi confronted the Grand Scholar puppets with Galiusha and his teammates, but Wei Zhi emerged and defended his plan to merge with one of them.
• The Grand Scholars and Galiusha attacked Wei Zhi, but attempts by Square and Round and Cheng Shi to use their powers failed as Destiny caused the void to collapse and declared it would divert destiny for its believer.

Cheng Shi uncovered Truth Limit and used it to restart the experiment, where he learned from another version of himself that the gods and mortals had once lost everything. Truth’s experiment brought the universe to the brink of destruction, but Time rolled it back, leaving Cheng Shi in Tusnat at the experiment’s beginning.

• Cheng Shi tracked Truth Limit to Pelaya’s laboratory, where Pelaya restored Wei Zhi before Cheng Shi killed him and the Grand Scholars closed in.
• After Pelaya was exiled to the past, Galiusha gave Cheng Shi Truth Limit, and he used it with the power of Time to recreate Tusnat and return to the Door of Falling.
• Cheng Shi met a scarred version of himself, who described a world consumed by prosperity and urged him to investigate Folly’s authority and the gods’ fate.
• Truth interfered with Cheng Shi’s experiment and revealed that she had been siphoning the power of Time to pursue answers beyond the universe.
• Truth’s final oracle led the gods to vote for Birth, while War defied the others and summoned countless versions of herself to attack the Source.
• As the universe collapsed, Hong Lin rescued Cheng Shi, who realized Truth’s unprotected believers might let him claim the Truth Ritual’s creation.
• The Source extinguished War’s forces, and Cheng Shi saw his counterpart’s bloody mockery before freezing spacetime as he fell into Nothingness.
• Deception relied on Time to reverse the destruction, and Cheng Shi woke in Tusnat at the beginning of Truth’s experiment, still haunted by the Bloody Mockery.

After the false trial ended, Cheng Shi navigated the gods’ shifting plans, helped his allies pursue divine authority, and prepared to investigate Time’s secrets. The arc left him confiding in Afros about a second world and Time’s threat while still concealing the truth about the Decay Container.

• Cheng Shi exposed Galiusha’s identity, negotiated for compensation, and later learned from Hu Xuan how she had changed her trial to help him.
• Cheng Shi received a C rating for the Special Trial, then learned that Deception had impersonated Truth and that Time’s reset had preserved selected gods’ memories.
• Lord of Grace gave Cheng Shi Prosperity’s Abundance for Big Cat and fused a wisdom crystallization with his Clown Substitute, creating a shadow double.
• Cheng Shi gave Big Cat Prosperity’s authority and shared his knowledge of the gods with Hong Lin, who began organizing The Fated and sought to grow stronger.
• Cheng Shi gave Sun Miao the Decay Container for the Fire Keepers’ plan to create a god, while considering whether he could retrieve War’s lost authority.
• Cheng Shi investigated the Doctor’s concerns and the Dragon King’s disappearance, then traveled to Dolgo with Wei Zhi and Galiusha to meet Afros.
• Cheng Shi told Afros that Time planned to destroy another world to preserve Its uniqueness, and claimed Deception and Yug had revealed the scheme.
• Afros trusted Cheng Shi’s account and asked about Yug’s Decay Container, but Cheng Shi withheld its location and mistakenly assumed Afros meant Lele’er’s container before Afros clarified he meant Tria’s.