Chapter 403: The Appearance Area

When he followed the Clown’s trail and pulled open the curtain again, he was already in mid-air.

Beneath his feet was an ancient stone city-state. Countless figures in golden armor were lined up and marching. Surrounded by them, a golden beauty was sitting on a throne, moving forward slowly.

Wherever this procession passed, all figures knelt down, the momentum solemn and grand.

"Eek—"

The Clown, who had just escaped from the curtain, continued his flight by stepping on the void. Hearing this cry, the numerous armored figures below immediately changed their expressions, and the whole army lined up and shouted:

"It’s that dwarf who kidnapped the Queen and stole the Golden Flower!!"

— "Cleopatra" (USA), Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963;

Chen Ling’s mouth twitched slightly, and he pulled open the curtain again, following closely behind the Clown.

The next world was like an alien planet. Several blue, lizard-like figures were riding flying dragons, whistling across the sky.

They saw the suddenly appearing Clown, were startled at first, and then angrily shouted in an alien language Chen Ling couldn't understand:

"&(#*&#(@%)!" (It’s that invader who abducted the Na'vi princess!)

— "Avatar" (USA), James Cameron, 2009;

Very good, the origin of the third flower was also found.

Passing through three worlds in succession, Chen Ling finally broke through the "thousand-layer cake" of discs and returned to the Ancient Archive of the Opera God. At this time, he had already passed through the [Text Area] and [Audio Area] and arrived directly at the outermost [Image Area].

He looked at the Clown still fleeing ahead, his eyes somewhat complex...

So, the Clown hadn't appeared for the past few days because he had run into these movie worlds to find flowers to apologize to him?

Ransacking the Queen of Hearts, kidnapping Cleopatra, and abducting an alien princess—to apologize to him, he had turned these three movie worlds upside down...

However, why does this guy only have it out for 'Queens'?

"Eek!"

Seeing that Chen Ling was still chasing him, the Clown gritted his teeth and pulled hard on the void in front of him. A curtain, larger than any before, opened automatically.

He stepped into it, and his figure vanished.

Chen Ling closed his eyes, sensing the changes within the Ancient Archive of the Opera God, and finally locked onto the direction of his departure...

"That is..." Chen Ling’s brow furrowed involuntarily.

The area the Clown entered this time was a region close to the depths of the Ancient Archive of the Opera God, which Chen Ling had never entered before.

After a brief thought, Chen Ling decided to follow. After all, that place was not yet the deepest part of the Ancient Archive of the Opera God, and with his authority, there shouldn't be any major issues.

Chen Ling also pulled open the curtain with force and stepped into it!

……

"Huh?"

Just then, the beautiful young man still in Wenren You’s house seemed to notice something, his gaze suddenly looking toward a certain direction in the void.

The several Senior Brothers and Sisters who were still discussing how to teach their Little Junior Brother looked over in confusion.

"What’s wrong, Master?"

"Fifth Brother’s blunder actually led him to the right place." The beautiful young man raised an eyebrow.

The others were stunned for a moment. Carefully sensing the situation within the Ancient Archive of the Opera God, Wenren You asked in confusion:

"The [Appearance Area]... How did they end up there?"

"Fifth Brother must have been panicking and lost his way. Only the [Appearance Area] could shake off Little Junior Brother."

"But there doesn't seem to be anything special about that place..."

"For you, it’s indeed nothing special." The beautiful young man paused. "However, if Sixth Brother encounters that mirror, things will get interesting..."

"Mirror?" Ning Ruyu seemed to remember something.

"The [Mirror of True Self]?!"

……

An invisible curtain was pulled open in the void, and a figure in red stepped out.

"This is..."

Chen Ling’s gaze swept across the surroundings. After seeing the furnishings, his eyes narrowed slightly.

This was a dim dressing room. In terms of layout, it was no different from the dressing rooms in the backstage of theaters Chen Ling had visited. In the center of the dressing room were several dressing mirrors, with lights surrounding the frames. Empty chairs were neatly arranged, but no one was there.

On the left side of the dressing room were dense rows of clothes racks, mostly performance costumes, neatly arranged according to their luxury and color. But when Chen Ling’s gaze turned to the right, his brow furrowed slightly.

On the wall to the right hung countless "faces".

They were not the painted faces used for opera performances, but genuine human faces—men, women, old, young, of all ages, handsome or ugly, everything was there.

Chen Ling walked to this wall and touched the surface with his fingertips. The countless "faces" before him began to change rapidly!

At this moment, Chen Ling felt a vast, boundless impact of information. Through the authority of the Ancient Archive of the Opera God, he could choose the face of any person from any era, any region, since the beginning of "humanity".

In other words, all the "faces" that had appeared in human history to date were recorded in this wall of infinity.

"The [Appearance Area]... Is this the [Appearance Area]?"

Chen Ling closed his eyes and began to search in this incredibly vast "face library". Immediately after, the faces on the wall "refreshed" crazily. In the blink of an eye, faces Chen Ling was extremely familiar with appeared on the wall!

Chen Ling opened his eyes, saw the "faces" on the wall, and couldn't help but gasp.

From the time he was born before the Great Cataclysm, all the "faces" he had ever seen were pulled up. The first was the face of the midwife, the second was the doctor’s, the third was his own mother’s... Later, there were all his classmates and teachers from elementary, middle, and high school, even the old gatekeeper at the entrance... and the face of the mean boss he had after starting work, and even the faces of the hundreds of audience members sitting below when he was directing a performance...

These faces scrolled rapidly before Chen Ling’s eyes, numbering in the tens of thousands. Most of them Chen Ling had only seen in passing and had no impression of, but there were also the faces of relatives and friends he remembered vividly.

Chen Ling picked the face of that extremely mean boss from when he was a director, held it in his hand, and gently wiped it across his own face...

The next moment, his figure changed rapidly. His height began to shrink, his skin began to age, and a smooth patch appeared in the middle of his hair. By the time that face perfectly adhered to his own, Chen Ling had completely transformed into the "boss".

He walked to the empty dressing mirror and sat down. The dim lights of the mirror frame illuminated his face. Chen Ling looked at himself in the mirror; there was no difference from the boss in his memory, and even the details he didn't remember clearly, such as the position of freckles and moles, were perfectly restored.

In the [Appearance Area], as long as Chen Ling wanted, he could transform into anyone who had ever appeared in human history at any time...

Even if he had never seen them before.

"Wait... doesn't this mean..." Chen Ling seemed to think of something and turned his head sharply to look at the wall.