Chapter 394: Drama

[Audience Expectation +3]

[Current Expectation 52%]

After Ning Ruyu fell, Luan Mei and Wen Renyou also stepped forward one after another, their figures turning into black dots and disappearing beneath the cliff.

Chen Ling was stunned. He looked at this scene, his eyes full of confusion.

"Little Junior Brother, remember to follow."

End Role reminded him thoughtfully, then followed the four, leaping off the cliff at the top of the mountain.

The cold wind of the Gray World swept across the top of the mountain, blowing Chen Ling's red clothes into a messy flutter. He walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Besides the barren black land, there was nothing else...

In the Aurora Domain, Chen Ling had once crossed the Frozen Sea by boat, and he could see the black giant sword standing between heaven and earth from several nautical miles away, and that was only the tip of the iceberg of the Ancient Collection of the Weapon Path.

So in Chen Ling's impression, the Ancient Collections should all be like the Ancient Collection of the Weapon Path—huge, mysterious, and murderous...

But even though they had walked to the front of the Ancient Collection of the Drama Path, Chen Ling still hadn't seen its shadow. If he didn't know the identities of Ning Ruyu and the others, he would really suspect that he had been deceived.

"Could it be that the Ancient Collection of the Drama Path is down here?"

Chen Ling looked toward the bottom of the cliff. It was empty, and even the few people who had jumped down just now were nowhere to be found.

Chen Ling narrowed his eyes, measured the height in his heart, and muttered to himself,

"With [Blood Clothes], even if I fall from this height, I shouldn't die..."

He took half a step back, then kicked off the edge of the cliff with his foot, and his entire body plummeted downward!

The gale howled, and his bright red opera robe billowed in mid-air, like a falling red kite streaking across the sky of the Gray Realm.

Under the intense sensation of weightlessness, Chen Ling watched the ground rapidly enlarging before his eyes, and slowly closed his lids...

Just as his figure was about to crash into the earth,

a curtain automatically pulled open on the surface of the black ground!

Whoosh—!

Chen Ling’s figure vanished into it.

……

"All encounters in this world are reunions after a long separation." (Note 1)

Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes.

He was sitting in front of a snow-white square table. An exquisite tablecloth with intricate carvings draped naturally over the edges. On the table sat a set of expensive tableware, and a steaming steak was emitting an alluring aroma.

Drip, drop—

Fine raindrops tapped against the glass beside him. Outside the retro Western-style storefront was a bustling, lively intersection. In the distance stood a magnificent church, and the buzzing sound of cars approached from afar, whizzing past.

"This is..." Chen Ling looked at his surroundings, stunned.

That’s not right...

He hadn't used an Era Save at all, so how did he end up back in the era before the Great Cataclysm in the blink of an eye... and it looks like he's abroad, too?

Chen Ling clearly remembered jumping off the cliff just moments ago. There were only two possible outcomes: either he died from the fall, or he entered the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path...

But what was going on with the situation before him?

Chen Ling tentatively pinched his own hand. The pain was very clear; he wasn't dreaming.

"Besoin d’ajouter des plats Monsieur?" (Sir, would you like to add any more dishes?)

A man dressed like a waiter walked up to him, leaned over, and asked.

“？”

Chen Ling turned to look at him. Beneath golden, slightly curly hair was a rather handsome face.

Just as Chen Ling was bewildered, the restaurant door opened, and a figure in white walked through the busy aisle and slowly sat down in the seat opposite Chen Ling.

He smiled slightly at Chen Ling.

"Senior Brother??"

Chen Ling pinched himself again. He really felt like he was dreaming... After all, everything before him was just too disjointed, too sci-fi.

"I knew you’d dare to jump." Ning Ruyu’s smile was like warm sunshine.

He took the menu from the waiter and handed it to Chen Ling. "The second, third, and fourth are helping you prepare a place to stay. I came to bring you something to eat first... see if you need to order anything else?"

"No... Senior Brother, what is going on? Aren't we in the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path?"

"That’s right, this is the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path."

Chen Ling pointed at the French restaurant, the intersection outside the door, and the church in the distance, momentarily at a loss for where to even begin his complaints...

"The Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path, opened in France?" That was all he could manage to choke out.

"No, no, no. I’m just taking you out for a meal. Once you’re finished, I’ll explain it to you slowly."

Ning Ruyu pointed at the menu.

Chen Ling looked down; the dense French text was dizzying.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to turn on the subtitles." Ning Ruyu waved his hand, and immediately, lines of Chinese translation appeared beneath the French text.

At the very top of the menu, the massive restaurant name was incredibly conspicuous:

—Balthazar

"Junior Brother, I highly recommend their Rossini steak. I’ve already ordered it for you. If it’s not enough, we can add a portion of monkfish," Ning Ruyu said earnestly.

Chen Ling: ...

"No need."

Chen Ling handed the menu over and silently began to eat the steak on his plate... Although he didn't know what was going on, Chen Ling had been through so much over the past few days that he was indeed hungry.

"Then eat slowly, and I’ll explain it to you slowly." Ning Ruyu took a sip of lemonade, paused for a moment, and asked again,

"Junior Brother, what do you think 'opera' is?"

Chen Ling took a bite of steak and thought for a moment. "Opera is performance."

"Not bad. In the earliest times, opera evolved from military sacrificial rituals. With the development of eras and civilization, it branched out into various categories: musical instrument performance, dance, storytelling, traditional opera... Although it appeared for the sake of entertainment, what 'opera' itself carries is a microcosm of human civilization in different eras."

"In other words, the 'Opera Path' contains the entire evolutionary history of human civilization."

Chen Ling understood Ning Ruyu’s explanation, but didn't understand why he was telling him this. After quickly finishing the steak in a few bites, he took a sip of water and asked in confusion:

"So?"

"The so-called 'Ancient Treasury' is the reality carrier of the Divine Path. It stores all the heritage related to this path since the birth of human civilization... If the Ancient Treasury of the Military Path is the carrier of slaughter and desire in human civilization, then the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path is the carrier of spiritual civilization."

"From ancient times to the present, the microcosm of civilization in every era, and the humanistic spirit of every era, are preserved in the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path."

As Ning Ruyu lifted his fingertips, the surrounding scene began to fold up bit by bit. The church in the distance, the intersection outside the window, and even the cars whizzing past... were like pages of a book constantly flipping, converging toward Ning Ruyu’s palm.

However, this incredibly fantastical turn of events did not make the pedestrians or other waiters feel strange, as if they hadn't noticed the changes in the world at all, and continued to chat and laugh.

Chen Ling just blinked, and everything around him was folded into Ning Ruyu’s palm... turning into a round, flat, slightly reflective object.

Seeing that object, Chen Ling stood frozen in place;

it was a disc.

Ning Ruyu tucked the disc into a transparent plastic case, on the surface of which were clearly written a few large characters:

—《Le Chef》(France), Daniel Cohen, 2012;

This was a movie disc.

Clack, clack, clack, clack—

As the lights overhead turned on, wooden shelves towering into the clouds were exposed to Chen Ling’s view, extending into the distance as if infinite... Every wooden shelf was packed with tens of thousands of disc cases.

Ning Ruyu stood in the center of the endless wooden shelves and smiled slightly at Chen Ling:

"Junior Brother, welcome to... the Ancient Treasury of the Opera Path."

……

……

Note 1: Line taken from the movie "The Grandmaster."