Chapter 49: The Price of Moving Forward

When Chen Ling stepped out of Xiaofang’s Grocery Store, it was already dark.

Chu Muyun waved at him and headed straight toward Aurora City, while Chen Ling stood at the shop entrance, watching him leave before walking in the opposite direction.

The heavy snow had stopped, but what followed was the bitter cold of melting ice.

Chen Ling walked along the deserted, snow-covered path, his breath misting in the darkness. His right hand rubbed the USB drive in his pocket, and his eyes shimmered with an unprecedented brightness.

“Restart…”

Chen Ling took a deep breath and walked firmly into the darkness.

With a clear goal, the shadow cast by the “Audience” seemed to have faded significantly.

So what if I’m an actor on a stage? So what if my life is being interfered with? Unless you kill me, I must go back… even if I die, I must die on the road home.

And before that, he had to grow as quickly as possible while keeping his identity as a member of the Dusk Society well-hidden… becoming an Arbiter seemed like a good choice.

The Dusk Society did not oppose its members joining other organizations; in fact, they encouraged it, as it meant members could better hide themselves and even provide help to other members through their positions.

“I join, I participate, I cause trouble, I run away… this policy is truly spot on,” Chen Ling chuckled self-deprecatingly.

He returned home and lit the kerosene lamp on the table. The orange candlelight illuminated the empty room, and the cold wind seeped through the gaps in the wooden walls, emitting a low, mournful whistle.

Chen Ling sat by the table, took out the envelope Chu Muyun had given him, and read it carefully by the light of the lamp.

“Infiltrate the Armory Vault and steal a fragment of the Armory Dao foundation?”

Chen Ling raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The letter contained a detailed map of a section of the Armory Vault, with a corner marked in red. If nothing went wrong, that was what the Red King wanted him to steal…

Chen Ling finally understood why Chu Muyun said that in the entire Dusk Society, only he could complete this mission.

Because only Chen Ling was an Arbiter, and one who had just passed the assessment in first place, qualifying him to enter the Armory Vault… at the same time, he possessed the ability 【Formless】.

Except for Chen Ling, no one else would have the opportunity to enter the Armory Vault.

But why did the Dusk Society want a fragment of the Armory Dao foundation?

Chen Ling continued reading. The Red King did not explain this in the letter, only telling him that a member of the Dusk Society would meet him there to coordinate his movements and cover his retreat.

After reading the entire contents, Chen Ling pondered for a moment before feeding the letter into the candlelight.

The paper curled, the bright flame reflecting on Chen Ling’s face, dancing silently in the darkness…

……

That night, after Chen Ling fell asleep, he did not enter the theater.

He had a dream.

He dreamed that he had returned to the era before the Great Cataclysm, back to the familiar doorway of his home, standing in the elevator, watching his mother clutching his memorial portrait, sobbing uncontrollably.

Chen Ling felt his heart wrenching in pain, even though his chest was empty.

“Mom… I’m not dead.” Chen Ling murmured as he stepped out of the elevator, wanting to embrace the family member he missed most.

“Mom, I’m still alive. I want you all to live…”

Just as his foot was about to step out of the elevator door, the elevator car plummeted!

An intense sensation of weightlessness engulfed Chen Ling. He struggled helplessly inside the car, watching as the elevator shaft seemed to become infinitely long. In the endless descent, he could only watch his home drifting crazily away…

Thud—

Chen Ling fell to the ground.

This was an endless darkness. The lights of “home” seemed to have turned into stars, dotting the unreachable firmament above. Chen Ling stood in the darkness like an ant cast into the abyss, reaching out foolishly, trying to touch the starry sky.

Just as he fell into despair, a blood-colored Divine Path extended from beneath his feet, stretching all the way to the unreachable stars…

That was the road home.

A twisted, eerie, scarlet road… On both sides of the road, countless scarlet eyes were watching him, filled with mockery.

Chen Ling was currently standing on the first step. He wanted to climb higher as quickly as possible, but just as he intended to take the next step, he found that no matter what, his foot could not land on the next step.

Chen Ling was stunned… He looked down at his feet and discovered that on this stone step, a line of small, crooked characters was written.

【Complete a performance with at least fifty participants, and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends】

The moment he saw these words, the confusion in Chen Ling’s heart grew even deeper.

He looked back behind him and suddenly discovered that on the steps he had already walked, there was also a line of small characters:

【Lose the person who loves you most, and become them】

A line was drawn across the surface of these characters, as if it were a list of completed performances, now trampled beneath his feet.

Chen Ling seemed to understand something. He looked back at this twisted road leading to the firmament, horror appearing in his eyes…

This was a living road; this was a monstrous road!

The next moment, everything around him shattered…

At midnight, Chen Ling woke up from his dream in a start.

He sat on the bed, pale-faced, for a moment, then rushed off the bed like a madman to his desk, grabbing paper and pen, and as if afraid he would forget, he quickly wrote down the words on the next stone step:

【Complete a performance with at least fifty participants, and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends】

“Is this the price of advancing on the Twisted Divine Path? Or… a condition?”

Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling knew that everything just now was definitely not as simple as a dream. He hadn’t entered the theater after falling asleep today, which in itself was an anomaly… Perhaps this dream was a hint from his own Divine Path? Or… was it A-Yan?

“This road is different from other Divine Paths… it will make your life twisted and bumpy…” Chen Ling recalled what Chen Yan had said before he stepped onto the Twisted Divine Path, and fell into deep thought…

Other people’s Divine Paths shouldn’t have this kind of “price,” otherwise Chu Muyun would have warned him today. So, were these small characters on the steps unique to his Twisted Divine Path?

Was this what Chen Yan meant by “twisted and bumpy”?

Chen Ling looked at the words he had written on the paper, his expression complex… but he had already stepped onto this road, and this road was his only way to get rid of the Audience, and his only choice to go home.

But even so, how was he supposed to complete this “horrific performance” with at least fifty participants?

Chen Ling sat at the table, thinking for a long time.

As if thinking of something, he slowly used his pen to write four characters after the sentence:

【Armory Vault】

Then, he wrote a “?” mark.

The tip of the pen froze at the final dot of the question mark, black ink bleeding into the paper. Chen Ling sat there like a statue, motionless.

The aurora surged in the sky outside the window.

Chen Ling did not notice that, at this moment, in the Grand Theater in his mind, the corners of the mouths of the countless black shadows sitting in the audience seats were slightly upturned…

As if they were laughing.