Chapter 31: The Death of Huang Bo, and the Final Gate
"It really is you!! Huang Bo!!! Then where's the real A Ming?"
"How is that possible?"
"Big shot, this…"
Cheng Shi smiled and capped the vial in his hand, breathing a sigh of relief.
"Confessing Truth" was naturally fake.
With only four people present besides Cheng Shi, Offering to the Void couldn't possibly activate.
But that didn't stop it from bluffing the "truth" out of him.
Falsehood within truth, truth within falsehood. That was the way to victory.
His scheme having succeeded, Cheng Shi clicked his tongue and continued his deduction:
"I'm guessing you used some kind of delayed death method or life-sustaining item to keep A Ming pinned in the tavern?"
Huang Bo dropped the disguise. Wearing A Ming's face, he laughed maniacally:
"Correct. My Lord granted me the S-Rank talent, Shared Visage and Heart. Cheng Shi, you're very clever, but you have no way to deal with me."
Huang Bo's tone was deranged and confident.
"As long as I'm alive, that little Assassin can stay alive too.
But if I die, he dies with me!
So what if you found me?
It doesn't feel good being played like a puppet, does it.
Hahahaha, feeling frustrated?
The only thing I underestimated was that this Poet could revive you.
But so what? I schemed against you, and you can't…"
"Ssk…"
"Cheng Shi!"
"Big shot!"
"Cheng!!??"
Before Huang Bo could finish, Cheng Shi produced a knife from goodness knows where and drove it straight into his heart.
Feeling the blade slice through his heart, Huang Bo looked up in disbelief, gasping in shock:
"…You… you're insane… he'll… die…"
Cheng Shi sneered:
"Whether he dies or not is none of my business. You stuck a knife in me, so I'm letting you taste what it feels like to have your heart pierced."
With that, Cheng Shi efficiently yanked the knife out and plunged it into Huang Bo's throat.
Only after seeing Huang Bo breathe his last did he expertly sever the corpse's head, set it ablaze, and finally snap his fingers in profound relief.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
If you can come back from that, you're a genuine badass.
The three women watched the entire sequence in dumbfounded silence, their minds in complete chaos.
Fang Shiqing was the first to recover. She looked at Cheng Shi with complicated eyes: "You…"
"What about me?" Cheng Shi wiped the blood from his hand and smiled. "I told you from the start, I'm not a good person."
Fang Shiqing said nothing. She took several deep breaths, checked the time on her watch, and returned to carry mode.
"Down two people, our canvassing work from here on out will become extremely difficult…"
"Sister Fang, wait."
Xu Lu suddenly tugged at Fang Shiqing's sleeve.
Fang Shiqing turned back, her icy gaze startling Xu Lu. But Xu Lu still gathered her courage and said:
"There's something very wrong here. Cheng… Cheng Shi is a Priest, Bailing is a weak… not particularly strong Hunter. With Huang Bo's ability, killing them wouldn't require such an elaborate setup. Why go through NPCs?"
"?"
Indeed, Xu Lu was right.
Cheng Shi was also startled. He hadn't expected Xu Lu to be the first to figure it out.
Perhaps because Fang Shiqing and Bailing both viewed him through rose-tinted glasses, the impact of his clean killing was far more shocking to them.
Meanwhile, Xu Lu, who had been observing coldly from the sidelines, became the one who cracked the case.
Fang Shiqing pondered for a moment, seemingly struck by something. She suddenly looked back into the room.
"[Chaos] might give Huang Bo a divine decree to eliminate us, but it wouldn't point him toward the trial's answer. So he didn't refrain from acting because he didn't want to, but because he needed others to find the answer for him.
And that answer… is…
That guard?"
She looked at Cheng Shi, seeking confirmation.
Cheng Shi clapped his hands in appreciation and laid out the entire cause and effect along with his own deductions.
"Smart. Perhaps he overheard the guard's conversation with me from outside the door, or perhaps he'd already spotted that ring and was simply waiting for me to solve the riddle.
I did find one answer. If I'm not mistaken, that guard didn't die. Huang Bo's next step would have been to drag him somewhere you couldn't find and leave this place on his own.
Of course, I have no idea how he knew this was the final act, or perhaps his patron gave him the clue for the next act in advance."
Fang Shiqing's eyes were complicated:
"You suspected something was wrong with 'A Ming' from the very beginning? Even earlier than the fog?"
Cheng Shi smiled. "Just a guess."
He shot a glance into the room as he spoke.
Bailing caught his meaning and immediately rushed inside to check the guard's vital signs.
Sure enough, a murky glow protected the guard's heart pulse, keeping him from dying outright.
"He can still be saved!"
Fang Shiqing followed close behind. Looking at the guard who had but a single breath left, she turned and said:
"Cheng Shi, your scene again."
Cheng Shi didn't refuse. A healing spell struck the man who had killed him. Just as he was about to regain consciousness, a Hypnosis was slammed on top.
This time, it wasn't Fang Shiqing's turn to speak. Xu Lu directly shouted in panic:
"Hey, you, are these memories, hurry up and say so!"
Such crude guidance darkened everyone's face, but fortunately, the fragile guard had long lost his clear wits. He stared blankly for a long while, then nodded.
In the next moment, the freshly rescued guard burst apart, dissolving into a sky full of starlight.
The starlight reconstituted into a Memory Gate.
Except this time, the Memory Gate had something the previous ones hadn't: a golden frame.
The Final Gate!
Its appearance meant the trial was about to end.
Stepping through it, everyone would survive and receive rewards.
"It's… it's over?"
Even Xu Lu hadn't expected it to be this simple. With ample time still remaining, they had found the final exit.
Only a little over eight hours had passed since the trial began, leaving nearly a third of the total time unused.
"Sister… Fang?"
Xu Lu turned around happily, only to be met with Cheng Shi's tightly furrowed brow.
She recoiled two steps in fright.
A person who casually killed others, a person of opposing faith. Would he make a move on her at the exit door?
She didn't dare think about it, so she wanted to leave immediately.
Xu Lu's gaze swept across everyone's positions. She gritted her teeth and charged straight for the Final Gate.
But just as she was about to leap out of the trial, a powerful hand seized her arm and yanked her bodily back from the gate.
"Ahhhh!!!!"
Xu Lu screamed in terror, instinctively releasing Bard skills that struck Cheng Shi squarely in the face.
Cheng Shi couldn't dodge in time. He metabolized the negative states with a dark expression, then flung her onto the floor beside him.
Seeing this, Fang Shiqing stepped in front of Xu Lu with quiet anger.
"Cheng Shi, that's enough!"
Bailing was stunned. She didn't know why Cheng Shi wouldn't let Xu Lu leave, but she still shuffled her feet, drew her bow, and stood behind Cheng Shi.
Fang Shiqing watched this scene, her brow knit tightly.
"Sister Fang, save me!"
"Cheng Shi, you…"
"Something's wrong!"
Cheng Shi ignored the chaos around him. He frowned deeply in thought:
"Something's wrong! If this led to the next act, there'd be no problem.
But if this is the Final Gate, the answer is far too simple.
The cutesy girl's prophecy hasn't been fulfilled yet. Where is that hand lifting a teacup?"
Fang Shiqing blinked. Hearing him bring this up, she exhaled in relief.
It seemed Cheng Shi had no intention of killing anyone. He appeared to be questioning the answer's validity?
But a Memory Labyrinth only ever had one Final Gate. How could this one be incorrect?
Xu Lu huddled on the floor, trembling. Her eyes were filled with terror and hatred as she glared at Cheng Shi.
Fang Shiqing glanced back at her, sighed, and silently explained to Cheng Shi:
"We climbed in through the outer wall to the second floor and found the Duchess's room. We did see that cup.
Cheng Shi, what a Prophet sees isn't necessarily a scene from the current timeline. The Duchess may have indeed used that cup.
But I think, more than a prophetic image, it served to point us here.
The Duke's death scene, or to find the Duchess's lover."
Cheng Shi frowned and shook his head:
"Something doesn't add up. Where's the Duchess?
We wasted nearly an hour here. Hasn't the banquet started yet?
Or is everyone still patiently waiting for the Duke's arrival?
The guests don't seem to have left. Why?
What exactly did the Duchess go out to do to cover up the news of the Duke's death?"
The doubts in Cheng Shi's mind piled higher and higher.
Everything before them looked as if an invisible hand was delivering the answer right to their mouths, impatiently forcing them to swallow it whole.
But Cheng Shi didn't like this slightly coercive feeling.
What exactly had gone wrong?
He began to think carefully.
The entire Eternal Night Labyrinth wasn't complicated.
In the first act, they found the tavern waiter. He likely recalled that night at the tavern because he saw the many patrons he'd seen before.
Then in the second act, they found the Duke's stable boy, York.
They found him because they saw the true face of the service worker, the "orc girl," and saw the dwarves beneath the beast skin.
York had been controlled by the dwarves into entering the memory, and they did indeed encounter these dwarves in the third act… their corpses.
Then, Cheng Shi found the guard's token, that ring, and confronted the guard.
The guard acknowledged the ring's existence and was guided into becoming a Memory Gate.
It all seemed fine on the surface.
But…
That guard, when acknowledging it, seemed to have mentioned a broker?
A flash of inspiration struck Cheng Shi, and he suddenly realized he'd fallen into a blind spot!
"That broker!"
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