[Maximum audience expectation for this performance: 83%]
[You have obtained one designated draw attempt.]
[After use, you may designate a specific character from all roles that appeared in this performance and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of obtaining rare skills is related to the comprehensive audience expectation of this performance.]
In the void before him, sheets of paper materialized out of thin air, rapidly assembling into a script.
Chen Ling flipped through a few pages before casually placing it on a wooden shelf nearby. Perhaps because the timeline of this performance was relatively long, its thickness was twice that of previous scripts. However, the content remained unchanged—it was still everything Chen Ling had experienced.
Chen Ling picked up a pen, intending to write down the name of the character he wanted to draw from this time, but the tip of the pen hovered mid-air, hesitating... This time, he was uncertain.
Originally, Chen Ling had planned to continue drawing from "Han Meng." After all, he had witnessed the power of [Judgment of Sin] firsthand, and replicating the entire [Judgment] path was one of his goals.
But the question was: did he urgently need this skill at this stage?
If he were outside Aurora City, Chen Ling wouldn’t have hesitated to draw [Judgment of Sin]. But now that he had entered Aurora City, surrounded by dangers, his priority was no longer just combat—it was infiltration and concealment... Moreover, for someone at the second tier, the fourth-tier [Tribunal] was already more than sufficient. Even if he drew [Judgment of Sin], his current mental strength wouldn’t allow him to wield its full power.
Perhaps... he could take a gamble?
His luck had already been terrible with the last draw—Chen Ling refused to believe it would stay that way. This time, he would choose a different character to draw from.
After steeling himself, Chen Ling lowered the pen and firmly wrote a name on the paper.
—Bai Ye.
The other cards on the table instantly vanished, leaving only ten cards lined up in a row. Among these ten cards, three were white, four were blue, and three were purple... representing three ordinary skills and seven divine path skills spanning the first to seventh tiers.
As the cards flipped and shuffled, they eventually all turned face-down, lying quietly and neatly before Chen Ling, awaiting his selection.
Chen Ling closed his eyes and randomly picked one based on intuition.
A flash of purple light streaked past.
"Skill: [Heart Python]"
"Affiliation: Path of the Thief, [Moon Borrowing] path, Sixth-Tier."
"Character: Bai Ye."
The moment Chen Ling saw this skill, his heart skipped a beat—followed by a surge of delight!
Regardless of anything else, obtaining a sixth-tier skill from the Path of the Thief was an absolute win. As expected... luck wouldn’t stay bad forever. This time, Chen Ling had gambled correctly.
As the card merged into Chen Ling’s body, his expression gradually turned into something...
This skill was likely the "memory theft" that had left the deepest impression on Chen Ling. On the Frozen Sea’s ship, Bai Ye had used this ability to toy with the three enforcers effortlessly. Moreover, "memory theft" seemed to be just one manifestation of [Heart Python]—its eerie and formidable nature far exceeded Chen Ling’s imagination... But the problem was, the consumption of this skill was equally terrifying.
A sixth-tier skill, no matter how weak, wasn’t something a second-tier could wield proficiently. Chen Ling worried how much of its power he could actually unleash in his current state. If he drained all his mental strength and still couldn’t activate it, the skill would be practically useless.
"I’ll have to find an opportunity to test it..." Chen Ling mused, standing on the stage.
---
The ink-like night enveloped Aurora City as a figure strolled down the deserted streets, hands in pockets.
By day, this was one of the city’s busiest commercial districts. Nearly every shop along the street bore a shimmering emblem of clustered stars—a symbol of their owner, one of the most powerful organizations in the city: the Stellar Chamber of Commerce.
The figure’s destination was the grand building at the end of the street: the headquarters of the Stellar Chamber of Commerce.
As he approached, the guards stationed at the entrance soon noticed this mysterious man loitering in the dead of night, his face shadowed beneath a duckbill cap. Wariness flashed across their expressions, and one immediately demanded, "Who are you? Don’t you know this is—"
"Scram."
The brim of the cap tilted slightly, revealing a pair of lazy eyes that swept past the guards. In the next instant, their bodies stiffened, pupils visibly dilating.
Like puppets stripped of memory and purpose, they stood dumbly in place as Bai Ye walked past them. By the time they regained their senses, the figure had already vanished through the entrance like a ghost.
Bai Ye meandered through the headquarters as if it were his own backyard. The Stellar Chamber of Commerce’s proud security system was nothing more than a joke before this Thieving Saint.
He didn’t wander aimlessly. After entering, he headed straight for a specific direction, eventually stopping in a desolate courtyard.
His gaze fell on the small, square windows embedded in the ground. Beneath this thick layer of earth lay the Stellar Chamber of Commerce’s dungeon.
"So the target’s here..." Bai Ye murmured to himself.
---
Meanwhile on the dungeon.
With a low creak, several figures carrying oil lamps traversed the dim corridor, halting before a silent cell.
"Jian Changsheng, your time is up," the leader announced leisurely. "The soul-crushing dissection table is ready. Chairman Yan has given the order—you will be erased from existence... Shall we?"
Pale moonlight seeped through the skylight, spilling onto the dungeon’s uneven floor. Clad in tattered clothes, Jian Changsheng sat bathed in that light, his eyes eerily calm.
"You can’t take me."
The man scoffed. "What nonsense are you spouting? This is the Stellar Chamber of Commerce’s dungeon—a forbidden zone even the enforcers can’t search. Do you really think you have a way out?"
The corners of Jian Changsheng’s lips curled slightly. He glanced at the moonlight above and replied unhurriedly, "If they’ve already sent me a message, they won’t let you dissect me... So this time, you can’t take me."
The man’s frown deepened. He had no patience for Jian Changsheng’s ramblings and motioned for his subordinates to unlock the cell.
But the moment the key turned in the lock—
A flash of white light erupted inside the cell.
Before everyone’s eyes, Jian Changsheng’s figure vanished into thin air.
"Wh—what?! How is this possible?!" The group froze, then frantically rushed into the cell, searching every corner... but Jian Changsheng was nowhere to be found.
"How did he do that?!"
"Damn it, we’re in trouble!"
"Sound the alarm! NOW!!"
As chaos erupted, Jian Changsheng had already phased through the ceiling, landing steadily on the ground above...
He stood dumbfounded in the Stellar Chamber of Commerce’s courtyard, alarms blaring around him.
"Not bad—your confidence, I mean."
A voice drifted over. Under the moonlight, a figure in a duckbill cap leaned lazily against the wall and drawled, "You want to live? We’ll give you that chance... But whether you survive from here on out depends on you."
"Bet your life... and prove your worth to us. Maybe then, we’ll offer you a new opportunity."