The moment Bai Ye saw Painter covered in bandages, he understood everything.
Li Zuo wasn't the backup plan the Chief Judge had left behind. He was... Painter's!
More precisely, he was Fate's.
Fate had kept Li Zuo imprisoned in the Abyss for a hundred years, tormenting him with curses, all to prepare a replacement for the Abyss Eye!
Once Fang Xubai died, Fate would help that replacement take his place.
"Mr. Bai, thank you for helping me kill Fang Xubai." Painter took the insults in stride, his voice indifferent.
A vicious smile curled Bai Ye's lips. "Thank me after I've killed you too."
Painter shook his head slightly. A fierce wind brushed his clothes, gently stirring his pale bandages.
Around him, even the wind seemed afraid to act up.
"You can't kill me."
Bai Ye's smile widened. "Funny. Fang Xubai said the same thing just now."
Painter looked away toward the horizon. No one knew what he was looking at.
"Fang Xubai died because he was foolish enough to fight you. I'm different...
"If I don't fight you, how will you kill me?"
Bai Ye: "..."
That familiar smugness.
"Are you Painter or Fate? Why do you sound exactly as obnoxious as Painter?"
Painter said calmly, "A god such as myself naturally possesses none of humanity's shallow consciousness or thought. Thus, when I merge with a human, I think with that human's mind."
Bai Ye understood. He nodded solemnly. "So you're actually a brainless dumbass, and now that you've merged with Painter, you're just as obnoxious as he is."
It made sense. Fate hadn't even been able to speak human language before. All that came out of his mouth was the incomprehensible Evil God's Whispers. It was hard to say whether he had a brain.
Evil Gods had no human