"[Action]"
"This is..."
In The Theater, Chen Ling looked at everything on the screen, shock emerging in his eyes!
Everything in the outside world had already entered some mysterious domain. Everyone except Chen Ling was drawn into it, and right now only Chen Ling's perspective in The Theater could clearly see the entire process.
Lines of text rolled in front of him, continuously deducing forward from the present, like flipping forward from the last page of The Script, encompassing all actions, dialogues, environmental changes, etc., that occurred within this area.
[...]
[Action: Kongwang chops off Tu Tian's head with a "knife" strike]
[Kongwang (Activates Soul Shock): "[Quake]!"]
[Special Effects: [Finger of Breaking Delusions] sweeps across the Old District, cutting open the bodies of Pu Xiachan and the Young Sect Leader, the earth melts]
[Sun Bumian (Expression changes): "Oh no!!"]
[Action: Kongwang is sealed into the rock moon by Li Shengmen]
The text abruptly stopped at this line.
8 seconds...
This Domain, from the moment Chen Ling activated it, had regressed a total of 8 seconds into the past. This seemed to be the limit of this Domain, or perhaps, it was Chen Ling's current limit.
Chen Ling, wearing the Great Crimson Theatrical Robe, stood calmly upon the void. Whichever line of text his gaze fell upon, the surrounding world would be locked on the corresponding frame like edited footage...
He was like a Director-Screenwriter on a Stage. All the "performances" within the Domain were like playthings in his palm.
Finally, his fingertip rested on the penultimate line of text:
[Sun Bumian (Expression changes): "Oh no!!"]
"I negate."
As Chen Ling's hoarse and mechanical voice rang out, this line of text instantly slid away and disappeared. Taking its place, a line of small text began to be recompiled!
It was like the giant hand of fate dropping its pen once again, rewriting a line of script for the world.
[Fate Weaving].
During this process, scarlet fresh blood began to flow out from Chen Ling's seven orifices. Large patches of red began to seep out from beneath his skin, like a massive amount of capillaries rupturing and collapsing!
But Chen Ling, in a state of Loss of Control, didn't have much reaction to these anomalies. Every movement and action was incomparably calm.
Soon, a new line of text replaced the original script:
[Sun Bumian (Suddenly realizing something): "Get down!! He's going to launch [Finger of Breaking Delusions] again!"]
Immediately after, Chen Ling added two more words to the subsequent two scripts respectively:
"Almost", "narrowly".
Tampering with a line of script, and adding two words. After completing these changes, Chen Ling had already turned into a blood man. The fresh blood flowing from his seven orifices made him look shocking to the eye, and his complexion was pale as paper.
Then, Chen Ling raised his palm and lightly snapped his fingers in the air:
"[Action]."
Snap—!
The worldline was instantly reset.
Chen Ling's original state of Loss of Control abruptly stopped. His consciousness, still in The Theater, instantly returned to his body. Chen Ling, who hadn't recovered his senses yet, felt the current state of this body, and the world spun before his eyes!
An unprecedented sense of weakness shrouded Chen Ling's mind. He staggered and almost fell to the ground, only barely able to support his body with both hands, and began to crazily vomit blood.
"Bleurgh—"
Everything around seemed to flow backward, returning to eight seconds ago.
The Old District hadn't yet been annihilated by [Finger of Breaking Delusions]. A massive rock moon suspended in the air. Almost at the same time, Sun Bumian seemed to think of something and abruptly spoke:
"Get down!! He's going to launch [Finger of Breaking Delusions] again!"
Everyone present was stunned, and then rapidly bent down!
Boom—!!!
A black current burst out from deep within the rock moon, instantly blasting a gap in the rock moon, almost piercing through the confident Li Shengmen standing not far away along with it!
This was not over yet. The black current swept across in an extremely short time, drawing a slanted arc, narrowly directly cutting Pu Xiachan and the Young Sect Leader in half at the waist. Fortunately, they both bent down in time, letting the current brush over their heads and fly past, finally blasting onto the earth in the distance!
The earth was annihilated into nothingness under the might of [Finger of Breaking Delusions]. The terrifying shockwave caused almost everyone to vomit blood, flying backward in all directions like kites with broken strings.
Kongwang's figure flew out from the shattered rock moon, charging straight towards the closest Tu Tian, appearing behind the other party like a ghost.
"[Quake]!"
Soul Shock made Tu Tian temporarily freeze in place. Kongwang raised his hand as a knife and dropped it, chopping off the other party's head.
The earth was annihilated beneath Tu Tian. A figure entwined with ancient Killing Intent swept out from the side, but was swatted down into the abyss with one slap by him under his timely switch to the Path of Force.
Feeling the sense of weakness brought by two consecutive [Finger of Breaking Delusions], Kongwang knew he couldn't maintain it any longer. Fortunately, the crowd now was dead or injured, already a loose sheet of sand.
"Ghost gate, close."
The slowly closing ghost gate was resisted by an invisible force. A soul slowly opened its eyes from above him, its purple pupils exposed in the air!
"Thank you for your gift... If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would only be weak enough to suffer an Annihilated Soul..."
"..."
Everything was advancing backward methodically, like a play that had long been arranged. And at this time, the behind-the-scenes director, after vomiting blood for a long time, finally somewhat recovered.
Chen Ling looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar plot development before his eyes, feeling a strong sense of unreality.
Chen Ling had envisioned what his Domain would be, such as singing opera, such as transformations, such as controlling some scenes or similar Stagecraft... But he never expected it would be "Director-Screenwriter".
From [Formless], [Scarlet Trick], to [Fate Weaving], and then to the Singing, Speaking, Acting, and Acrobatics of the Theatre Dao Secret Method, as well as [Paint the Rosy Face]... After undergoing Transmigration for so long, Chen Ling's mastery of "theater" was gradually extending, so much so that he almost forgot he was once a professional Director-Screenwriter.
Regarding this Domain belonging to him, Director Chen was very shocked, and Director Chen liked it very much.
Undoubtedly, this Domain was extremely abnormal. Chen Ling could freeze, Retake, and tamper with the established plot within a certain period of time, but its limitations were also extremely numerous.
First was the consumption of Spiritual Power. Freezing the world and Retaking the plot, these two actually didn't consume much. After all, freezing the world wasn't stopping time. When he called out "Cut", although everything stopped, Chen Ling couldn't affect the world itself. He was merely examining everything from the perspective of a "Director-Screenwriter", and the same was true for Retaking the plot.
But once it involved modifying reality, the consumption was extremely terrifying. Chen Ling merely changed a sentence of Sun Bumian's, adding two words to the latter two lines respectively, and he almost vomited blood to death... This was not only a consumption of Chen Ling's Spiritual Power, but also an extreme burden on his body!
Second was logical closed loops. Chen Ling had to ensure that the modified script was logically sound, such as the sentence of Sun Bumian's that he modified... Sun Bumian himself was extremely familiar with Kongwang's divine abilities. He was able to give advance warning, which completely fit his character setting. But if it was changed to Jian Changsheng saying this sentence, it would be "breaking character", and Chen Ling would be unable to complete such a modification.