"This is... Jian Changsheng?"
On the Stage, Chen Ling looked at the figure wielding a Long Spear and frantically slaughtering in the red sea behind the Grand Curtain, astonishment surfacing in his eyes.
The Jian Changsheng before his eyes was too different from his impression, especially those black eyes and the grim Killing Intent surging out of his body. It reminded Chen Ling of the giant black sword piercing into the clouds in the Ancient Vault of the Military Path.
But why would such an ancient and grim Killing Intent appear on him?
Chen Ling knew something must have happened to Jian Changsheng. Otherwise, back in the Ancient Vault of the Military Path, he would have been dead beyond dead. After all, the performance condition back then was 'No One Survived'... In other words, the current Jian Changsheng could be considered to have undergone Resurrection.
While paying attention to everything happening behind the Grand Curtain, Chen Ling fully expanded that crack. The crack could now barely fit a palm, and soon the entire forearm, but there was still a distance to completely passing through the Grand Curtain.
"You have to hold on a little longer..." Chen Ling looked at that blood-colored figure and prayed silently, continuing to arduously move his palm within the Grand Curtain.
Within the red clouds, the black-eyed Jian Changsheng seemed to feel that those red papers were endless and too annoying. He took a step into the void, stomping the air to produce a sharp boom!
Thump—!
Killing Intent and lightning intertwined within the Domain, like two super-large millstones rotating in opposite directions, tearing all the red papers attempting to rush into the Domain into pieces. The moment this Domain was propped up, an impassable restricted zone appeared within the churning red sea!
The black-eyed Jian Changsheng held the Long Spear and walked on air. The entire Domain moved forward with his footsteps, forcefully tearing open a gap in the red sea!
In the red sun-like eye pupil suspended high in the sky, the appearance of the black-eyed Jian Changsheng was clearly reflected. That pupil contracted slightly, seemingly able to see faint red flames dancing within it... The next moment, a beam of scarlet light spurted out from it!
The moment this beam of light appeared, the surrounding red sea immediately gave way to a space with a radius of over a hundred meters, as if unwilling to be tainted by it at all. And what that light pointed at was exactly the black-eyed Jian Changsheng standing within the Domain!
The blue veins on the black-eyed Jian Changsheng's palm bulged out one by one. His whole person was as if facing a formidable enemy. Dense lightning burst from the spear body. With a forceful swing, this Long Spear transformed into black electrical light and crashed against the scarlet light!
Boom—!!
At the instant the two collided, an arc-shaped, world-destroying aftermath spread madly high in the sky. A few wisps of scarlet light torn open by the Long Spear swept across the manor, instantly twisting all objects they touched... The stone brick Outer Wall suddenly turned into the outer wall of a Western-style Church. The babbling stream in the courtyard transformed into the pitch-black water of the River Styx. Even the ginkgo tree towering by the road transformed into a cartoon tree hanging with golden apples...
Those few wisps of scarlet light seemed to have twisted reality and fantasy, connecting completely different performance plays with each other to piece together an incomparably chaotic world.
As the aftermath of their collision swept across, a tiny crack began to emerge in the nothingness above the Stars Chamber of Commerce... It was as if an invisible giant dome originally inverted over the chamber of commerce was slowly appearing in everyone's vision.
And at this moment, a wisp of Aura belonging to the red paper monster slowly drifted out from that crack...
...
Beep—!
Beep—!!
Beep—!!!
In the most core area of Aurora City, an ear-piercing alarm suddenly sounded on the top floor of a high tower. Red light flashed madly in the corridors, and countless figures sprinted within.
"What's going on?! Where is the alarm ringing?!"
"It's Laboratory Zero... The Lord of the Aurora's various vital signs are starting to surge. It seems he's about to wake up!"
"The Lord of the Aurora?? He has been asleep for over three hundred years. For no reason at all, why is he about to wake up?"
"His brainwave pattern suddenly became active just now, as if he was stimulated... He should have sensed something. His whole person has entered a state of alert."
"Alert? In this Aurora City, what else could make the Lord of the Aurora alert??"
"..."
In the center of Laboratory Zero, a massive transparent Hibernation Chamber stood towering. Wrapped in an unknown pale blue liquid, a slender white-haired figure was floating upside down within it.
The dense aurora flowed silently around his body, and his ice-and-snow-like white hair drifted noiselessly. He was like a specimen sealed in blue amber, quiet and mysterious.
And at this moment, the white-haired figure's eyelashes were trembling slightly. Tiny bubbles drifted out from his mouth and nose. It seemed he would wake up very soon.
A crowd of researchers wearing White Coats clustered outside the laboratory, watching this scene nervously.
"What should we do now? Should we let him wake up?"
"His time is already running out. Once he wakes up and his bodily functions recover, his lifespan will only drain faster. Increase the Potion dosage! We absolutely cannot let him wake up!"
"Increase the dosage again? But..."
"The current Aurora City is a ticking time bomb. If he wakes up, we'll have even less time to defuse the bomb... No matter what, delay it for now!"
"...Understood."
A large amount of Potion was injected into the white-haired figure's body through the syringe. His skin broke out in an unhealthy ghastly pale. As fewer and fewer bubbles floated up, those slightly trembling eyelashes gradually and numbly returned to peace.
...
Stars Chamber of Commerce.
"As expected, someone is deliberately hiding the Aura here." Chu Muyun's eyes keenly caught the wisp of a crack in the sky above the chamber of commerce, and an expression of understanding appeared on his face.
"It seems reinforcements have arrived..."
Chu Muyun looked around, trying to find the position of the reinforcements. But in the current manor, besides those few lucky guards hiding in the corner who hadn't been eaten by the buildings and trees yet, there were no other figures.
It shouldn't be... To be able to prop up such a large-scale Domain and hide the Aura fluctuations from the clash of those two monsters, the reinforcements should be right inside this manor.
Chu Muyun possessed the Secret Pupil and was quite confident in his observation skills. Yet, after searching for a long time, he just couldn't find any existence suspected to be reinforcements... Eventually, his gaze fell back on those few guards hiding in the corner.
"You can't see me, you can't see me, you can't see me..."
"I still don't want to die..."
"Damn it, is this a dream? How can even buildings and trees eat people!"
"The position we are hiding in seems pretty good. Those few architectural monsters walking back and forth don't seem to have seen us..."
"Maybe we're just lucky."
"..."
These few guards squatted beside a pavilion, their faces already frightened deathly pale. They had watched with their own eyes as other companions were eaten by various strange things. However, they just squatted like this out in the open without being attacked at all, leaving them puzzled in their hearts.
Right at this moment, among them, an inconspicuous figure slowly stood up...
Only until this person stood up did everyone notice his existence, as if they had all subconsciously ignored him before. These guards looked at the standing figure in confusion and asked perplexedly:
"Eh... Who are you? How come we haven't seen you before?"
"Strange, have you been squatting here with us all along? Why didn't I see you just now..."
"I didn't see you either."
That inconspicuous figure didn't answer. He just calmly gazed at that tiny crack in the sky, his eyes slightly narrowing...
"It's time to end this..."
In the next moment, his face changed visibly. Faint blue lines traced upon it, seemingly intertwining into an Opera Mask fitted over his skin.
If Chen Ling were here, he would be able to recognize at a glance the identity represented by the patterns on this person's face. When he studied the traditional opera Stage, he had seen this kind of Opera Mask... That was a profession's Role that had gradually evolved and been forgotten.
The five professions of the Theater Dao—The Secondary Male Role.