By the time Chen Ling left Xiao Fang's Grocery Store, it was already dark.
Chu Muyun waved at him and headed straight for Aurora City, while Chen Ling stood at the store entrance, watching him leave before turning in the opposite direction.
The heavy snow had stopped, but the biting cold of melting ice followed.
Chen Ling walked along a deserted snow-covered path, his breath forming faint clouds in the darkness. His right hand rubbed the USB drive in his pocket, and his eyes shone with an unprecedented brightness.
"Restart..."
Chen Ling took a deep breath and resolutely walked into the darkness.
With a clear goal in mind, the shadow cast by the "Audience" seemed to fade.
So what if I'm just a performer on stage? So what if my life is being interfered with? Unless you kill me, I will find a way back... Even if I die, I'll die on the way home.
But before that, he had to grow stronger quickly while concealing his identity as a member of the Twilight Society... Becoming a law enforcer seemed like a good choice.
"I join, I participate, I cause trouble, I escape... This strategy is spot on." Chen Ling chuckled self-deprecatingly.
He returned home and lit the oil lamp on the table. The orange flame illuminated the empty house, and the cold wind seeped through the gaps in the wooden walls, emitting a low hum.
Chen Ling sat down at the table, took out the envelope Chu Muyun had given him, and carefully read it by the light of the lamp.
"Infiltrate the Soldier's Ancient Repository and steal a fragment of the Soldier's Path Foundation?"
Chen Ling raised an eyebrow in surprise.
The letter contained a detailed map of part of the Soldier's Path Ancient Repository, with a corner marked in red. That was undoubtedly what the Red King wanted him to steal...
Chen Ling finally understood why Chu Muyun had said that this mission could only be completed by him in the entire Twilight Society.
Because only Chen Ling was a law enforcer, and not just any law enforcer—he had just passed the assessment with the highest score, earning the qualification to enter the Soldier's Ancient Repository... At the same time, he possessed the [Formless] skill.
Aside from Chen Ling, no one else would have the opportunity to enter the Soldier's Ancient Repository.
But why did the Twilight Society want a fragment of the Soldier's Path Foundation?
Chen Ling continued reading. The Red King didn't explain this in the letter, only stating that a Twilight Society member would coordinate with him, cover his tracks, and provide support.
After reading everything, Chen Ling thought for a moment, then held the letter over the flame.
The paper curled, and the bright firelight illuminated Chen Ling's face, flickering silently in the darkness...
---
That night, after Chen Ling fell asleep, he didn't enter the theater.
He had a dream.
He dreamed of returning to the era before the Great Cataclysm, standing at the familiar doorstep of his home, inside the elevator, watching his mother holding his memorial photo, weeping uncontrollably.
Chen Ling felt his heart wrenching in pain, even though his chest was empty.
"Mom... I'm not dead." Chen Ling murmured as he stepped out of the elevator, wanting to embrace the family he missed the most.
"Mom, I'm still alive. I want all of you to live..."
Just as his foot was about to step out of the elevator, the car plummeted downward!
A strong sense of weightlessness overwhelmed Chen Ling. He flailed helplessly inside the elevator, watching as the elevator shaft seemed to stretch infinitely. In the endless fall, he could only see his home receding madly into the distance...
Thud—
Chen Ling fell to the ground.
He was in an endless darkness. The lights of "home" seemed to have turned into stars, scattered across the unreachable sky. Chen Ling stood in the darkness, like an ant banished to the abyss, reaching out foolishly, trying to touch the stars.
Just as despair filled his heart, a crimson divine path extended from beneath his feet, stretching all the way to the distant stars...
It was his path home.
A twisted, eerie, blood-red path... On either side of the path, countless pairs of crimson eyes watched him, filled with mockery.
Chen Ling stood on the first step. He wanted to climb higher as quickly as possible, but when he tried to take the next step, he found his foot couldn't reach the next stone.
Chen Ling was stunned... He looked down and saw a line of small, crooked words written on the step:
[Complete a performance with at least fifty participants, and ensure no one survives after the performance ends.]
Seeing these words, Chen Ling's confusion deepened.
He turned to look behind him and suddenly noticed that the steps he had already climbed also had a line of small words:
[Lose someone who loves you the most, and become them.]
A line was drawn through these words, as if it were a completed performance list, now beneath his feet.
Chen Ling seemed to understand something. He looked back at the twisted path leading to the sky, his eyes filled with horror...
This was a living path, a monstrous path!
In the next moment, everything around him shattered...
At midnight, Chen Ling woke up in a cold sweat.
He sat on the bed, pale-faced, for a moment before frantically rushing to the desk. He grabbed a pen and paper, as if afraid he would forget, and quickly wrote down the words on the next step:
[Complete a performance with at least fifty participants, and ensure no one survives after the performance ends.]
"Is this the price of advancing on the twisted divine path? Or... a condition?"
Chen Ling murmured to himself.
Chen Ling knew that what had just happened wasn't just a simple dream. The fact that he hadn't entered the theater after falling asleep today was itself an anomaly... Perhaps this dream was a hint from his divine path? Or... from A-Yan?
"This path is different from other divine paths... It will make your life twisted and bumpy..." Chen Ling recalled Chen Yan's words before he stepped onto the twisted divine path and fell into deep thought...
Other people's divine paths probably didn't have such "prices." Otherwise, Chu Muyun would have warned him today. So, were these small words on the steps unique to his twisted divine path?
Chen Ling looked at the words he had written on the paper, his expression complicated... But he had already stepped onto this path, and it was the only way to escape the "Audience" and the only choice to return home.
But even so, how was he supposed to complete this "horror performance" with at least fifty participants?
Chen Ling sat at the desk, thinking for a long time.
Then, as if struck by an idea, he slowly wrote four words after the sentence:
[Soldier's Ancient Repository]
Then, he added a "?".
The pen tip paused at the final dot of the question mark, the black ink spreading on the paper. Chen Ling sat there like a statue, unmoving.
The aurora surged in the sky outside the window.
Chen Ling didn't notice that, at this moment, in the grand theater of his mind, the countless shadowy figures seated in the audience were slightly smiling...
As if laughing.