Ancient Vault of the Military Path.
A figure covered entirely in blood stumbled out of the vortex and plunged headfirst into the frozen sea.
The bone-chilling cold eroded his whole body. Jian Changsheng forcefully endured the pain and the stiffness brought by the cold, struggling to swim over a hundred meters, and finally climbed onto a two-meter-long piece of floating ice.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
He lay weakly on the ice surface, all the physical strength of his whole body overdrawn. A gust of sea breeze blew past, and the moisture on his body solidified into ice dregs, taking away his last few traces of heat.
Jian Changsheng stared blankly at the black sky and the giant sword gradually moving away. On his ferocious Scarface, there was only numbness.
He survived.
He didn't know how he lived... The last moment of his memory was the image of Chen Ling holding a gun and standing in front of him. He remembered his heart being shot through.
Thinking of this, Jian Changsheng subconsciously reached out to touch his chest. The flesh and blood were still intact, no large hole had been opened by anyone, and there seemed to be something beating inside...
Also, it seemed there was something more in his body... continuously resonating with the black giant sword in the distance.
"That guy... what kind of monster is he exactly?" Recalling that red-clothed figure who had slaughtered his way through the Ancient Vault of the Military Path alone, Jian Changsheng still had some lingering fear in his heart.
Ever since he counter-killed Yan Xicai and slaughtered his way out, his spirit had accumulated to an extremely sharp degree. But unexpectedly, Chen Ling jumped out at the end and crushed his pride into dregs with just a few moves.
The most crucial point was that even now, he still didn't know what that person's identity was... Fire-Stealer? Law Enforcer? Or some other conspiratorial organization?
After resting for a moment, Jian Changsheng sat up from the ice surface. His gaze swept across the boundless frozen sea, and a terrifying thought suddenly surged into his mind...
How was he supposed to go back?
When they came, they took a ship for several full hours. Now he had nothing. Could he paddle the floating ice back with his hands?
Jian Changsheng's expression grew even uglier, because he found that... there really seemed to be no other way besides this option.
Gritting his teeth, his whole person crawled on the ice surface, reaching his hands into the seawater. Relying on astonishing speed and strength, he moved little by little in the direction of Winter Harbor.
Even if beaten to death, Jian Changsheng would never have thought that the previously high-spirited 【Asura】 would now be reduced to a human-shaped motor.
He had to speed up...
Before he starved or froze to death.
...
On the way back to District Three, Chen Ling recounted everything that happened inside the Ancient Vault of the Military Path to Han Meng... Of course, it was a version he had processed.
Han Meng listened in silence. Only after Chen Ling had finished speaking for a long time did he hoarsely ask his first question:
"Jiang Qin... how did he die?"
"Killed by that Fire Usurper Number Eight." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "I avenged him."
Han Meng looked at the coat on Chen Ling's body that originally belonged to Number 8. Pain flashed unstoppably in his eyes. Chen Ling had never seen this kind of loneliness and weariness on his face.
"...Thank you." This time, Han Meng was the one thanking Chen Ling.
Chen Ling didn't accept it, because he felt he didn't deserve this 'thank you'... Jiang Qin was already dead, avenging him wouldn't change anything. If he really had the capability, he should have saved Jiang Qin as well.
As for the other people in the Ancient Vault of the Military Path, although their deaths were all related to him, even if he didn't provoke the hatred between the Law Enforcers and the Fire-Stealers, once the Fire-Stealers finished seizing the Dao Base Shards, the two sides would still fight when they returned to the entrance of the Ancient Vault, let alone the Thief Saint Bai Ye waiting outside.
From the very beginning, when this group of Law Enforcers entered the Ancient Vault of the Military Path, there was no possibility of them leaving alive.
"By the way." Han Meng looked at Chen Ling. "This time, did you step onto the Way of the Soldier God?"
"En."
"Which Path?"
"【Asura】."
A hint of surprise flashed in Han Meng's eyes. He nodded slightly. "【Asura】 is not bad... In the entire Aurora City, there aren't many people who have stepped onto this Path."
"Which Path are you on?" Chen Ling asked, feigning ignorance.
"【Judgment】."
"Is it different from 【Asura】?"
"Of course. 【Judgment】 pursues extreme lethality, but once the Rank becomes high, the main body becomes relatively fragile... Whereas 【Asura】 is the king of close combat. Although the lethality is not as good as 【Judgment】, its survival capability is extremely strong.
Especially the First-Tier skill 【Blood Robe】. You should be able to feel the power it brings you... Unless killed in one hit, the heavier the injury, the stronger the damage. Once this effect is amplified to the extreme, the damage is not even inferior to 【Judgment】."
Chen Ling nodded thoughtfully.
Now he already possessed the third and fourth-tier skills of 【Judgment】, and the First-Tier skill of 【Blood Robe】... Combining the two, he wondered if it could be considered making up for each other's shortcomings?
"Then after stepping onto a Divine Path, how does one undergo Advancement?" Chen Ling asked probingly. "Do I need to fulfill some conditions beforehand?"
"Conditions? There's no such thing."
Han Meng explained, "The Fourteen Divine Paths in the world, although each path is different, their essence is the same... They are all driven by Spiritual Power to climb the tiers. With each Advancement, apart from gaining different skills, it will also trigger a massive increase in Spiritual Power.
In the final analysis, this thing depends on personal talent. For people whose talents are compatible with a Divine Path, their Spiritual Power growth will just be faster, and their Advancement speed will also be faster... If talent is insufficient, Advancement will be very difficult, and ultimately they can only stop at a certain tier, trapped at that rank for life.
Of course, after the Fourth Order, Advancement will become more and more difficult. Sometimes, besides the accumulation of Spiritual Power, some opportunities for breakthrough are also needed."
As expected, other people's Advancement didn't need to be as troublesome as his... Chen Ling let out a long sigh in his heart.
Besides the growth of Spiritual Power, he additionally needed to complete the performance tasks on the stone steps. If he couldn't complete them, no matter how high his Spiritual Power was, he wouldn't be able to enter the next tier. This meant every step of his would be several times harder than others.
"Then generally, how long does it take to advance from First-Tier to Second-Tier?"
"For an Ordinary Person, about two years. If their talent is good, a little over a year can barely advance..."
"That long??" Chen Ling was shocked. "Then how long did it take you back then?"
"Six months."
Chen Ling: ...
No wonder the people in District Three all said Han Meng was a genius of the Way of the Soldier God... Looking at it this way, the contrast was too obvious.
But Chen Ling also felt something was wrong, because it had only been a little over a week since he stepped onto the first tier of the Path of the Actor, and now, the sole of his foot had almost touched the second step...
Chen Ling even felt that in just a few days, he should be able to truly step onto the Second-Tier.
Was his talent extraordinary to begin with?
Or... did the rewards after completing the performances directly save him a massive amount of time?