Chapter 368: Chen Ling's Unique Path

"Old Xiao, checking out!"

Just as Chen Ling was secretly observing the distribution of the ants, several figures came down the stairs.

Hearing these four words, Chen Ling's pupils contracted slightly. After looking up and confirming that their gazes were fixed on him, a smile appeared on his face.

"Checking out so early?"

"Sigh... it's not that I'm complaining, Old Xiao, but really, not many people dare to stay in your inn anymore." The leading man spoke helplessly. "Everyone upstairs is discussing whether some serial killer is staying here; the rumors are getting quite bizarre... You know, we're all merchants traveling outside, and safety is our priority. We'd better switch to another inn for now."

Behind him, several others were also carrying bags of various sizes. They seemed to have been quite frightened by the explosion just now and nodded in agreement with the man's words.

"This..."

A hint of bitterness welled up in Chen Ling's eyes, but he still nodded. "Alright."

After he spoke, the group didn't move but stood quietly in front of the counter, looking at Chen Ling.

"What's wrong?" Chen Ling suddenly had an ominous premonition.

"Old Xiao, you should at least refund us the room fees for the next few days, right?"

"Yeah, we paid a deposit for several days at once when we arrived. Check how many days are left and refund the difference for the days we haven't stayed."

"We've been old friends for so many years; you can't just pocket this money, right?"

“……”

As everyone chimed in with their complaints, Chen Ling's heart sank to the bottom.

Damn it... the situation he feared most had occurred.

Although he had taken over the innkeeper's identity, he didn't know any of these people. If he didn't refund them, the matter would inevitably escalate, raising the suspicions of the ant's master. But if he did refund them, he couldn't even match their faces to their names; how could he calculate their room fees? Wouldn't asking them directly be equivalent to exposing his identity?

Chen Ling's brain worked at high speed. He looked at the people in front of him, his face turning livid, and he slammed the table!

Bang—!

"Fine! Fine, fine, fine..."

"You want a refund? Fine, I'll refund you all!"

Chen Ling yanked open the drawer, took out all the coins inside, and slammed them onto the table, the veins on his neck bulging one by one!

"Take it! Take whatever you're owed yourselves!! Damn it, I'm just trying to run a business, and my building gets blown up! Now you're all here crossing the river and burning the bridge... Take what you're owed! If you're capable, just take my shop too!! Fuck!"

Chen Ling turned and walked into the lounge, slamming the door shut. The air suddenly fell into a dead silence.

"This..."

Everyone was stunned by Chen Ling's sudden outburst of anger. They looked at the pile of coins on the counter, feeling at a loss for a moment.

After an unknown amount of time, someone sighed:

"Indeed, Old Xiao has had it hard enough..."

"After all, it was his own inn that got blown up. I took a look; that floor was destroyed too severely, and the repair costs won't be cheap."

"In the end, it was a completely unprovoked disaster. Anyone would be unable to take it. Old Xiao's temper is already quite good..."

"We were the ones who went too far... Let's just forget about the room fees for the remaining two days. It's not much money anyway; consider it our apology to Old Xiao."

"What does that have to do with us? We didn't blow up the room. What should be refunded must be refunded... Move aside, I'm going to take my money."

“……”

Some of them had a good relationship with the innkeeper and ultimately didn't take the money, while others walked straight to the counter, counted out the refunds they were owed, and walked out. But among these people, not one noticed anything strange about the innkeeper.

In a short while, the inn was more than half empty.

Chen Ling leaned against the wall in the lounge, hearing the commotion outside, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He had managed to muddle through this crisis, but under the surveillance of the ants, there was no guarantee he could succeed every time. He was, after all, just an imposter. If someone with a close relationship with the innkeeper appeared, the possibility of exposure would be high.

Just as Chen Ling was thinking about how to leave quietly, a commotion came from outside. Chen Ling looked out from the edge of the window and saw that the guests who had just left were being stopped by a group of police officers, who seemed to be questioning them carefully.

"They have a backup plan?" Chen Ling knew that those police officers were mostly there to screen him.

Now that the inn was monitored by ants everywhere, he couldn't even change his face to blend into the crowd. The situation seemed to have reached a complete stalemate... Chen Ling's only choice now was to continue playing the role of the innkeeper well until the three from [Floating Life Painting] lost patience and gave up monitoring this inn.

But doing so carried a significant risk of exposure, and he couldn't hide in the lounge forever without seeing anyone.

"Do I have to go out and face them head-on now?"

Chen Ling paced back and forth in the room, listing combinations of skills in his mind to see if he could find a way to break the deadlock.

Just then, as if he had thought of something, a strange brilliance flashed in his eyes:

"Speaking of which... what exactly is this skill?"

Since Chen Ling stepped into the third tier, he had never used the skill brought by his own Twisted Opera Divine Path. Moreover, compared to the previous [Faceless] and [Scarlet Trick], this skill felt very vague to him, so much so that he still didn't understand what it meant.

"Designate a role, and to a certain extent, influence reality with the sense of belief during the performance..." Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Compared to [Faceless], which specialized in disguise, and [Scarlet Trick], which deceived vision, this skill seemed to have more selectivity. But Chen Ling didn't understand what the so-called "sense of belief" meant. How could it influence reality?

Chen Ling had heard Han Meng mention before that for multiple paths under the same Divine Path, some skills in the first three tiers might be the same. For example, the first tier of most Soldier Divine Paths is [Iron Armor]. But after advancing to the fourth tier, the domain characteristics are determined by different paths...

In other words, as the tier increases, the differences in skills between different paths will become greater and greater. In the later stages, even for the same path, the skills of different owners will differ, which is determined by individual characteristics.

Is it possible that this third-tier skill of his is the manifestation of Chen Ling's "specificity"? Will it determine the direction of all future domains and skills?

At this moment, the figures of Mo Jiao and Plum Blossom K appeared naturally in Chen Ling's mind.

These were the only two people he had come into contact with who belonged to the Opera Divine Path, but even though they were both of the Opera Divine Path, their abilities were completely different. Each of the "Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou" roles was worlds apart... But he had never been exposed to Peking Opera performances and had no understanding of them.

What would the "specific" path belonging to Chen Ling be?

Chen Ling's brows furrowed tighter and tighter. He felt as if his vision was filled with fog; in the haze, he seemed to have arrived at a very important crossroads.

Just as he was racking his brains, a beautiful youth walked to the counter outside the door and asked, puzzled and innocently:

"Huh? Where's the boss??"