Chapter 529: Hunter of the Red Dust

“Can you imagine it?”

“I was still dreaming when I suddenly heard someone knocking. I opened the door and saw Little Junior Brother dragging his own intestines with one hand, covered in blood, smiling while shouting ‘Senior Brother, save me’...”

“Honestly, I completely fell apart.”

“My first reaction was that someone had secretly invaded the Ancient Treasury of Drama, and they had managed to deceive all of us, even Master didn’t notice... I thought at the time that the enemy must be a Ninth-Rank Demigod, and to be able to sneak in silently, it was highly likely to be that Silver King...”

“Just a little more... just a little more, and I would have locked down the Treasury and initiated a state of war.”

Ning Ruyu sat on the grass at his doorstep, rubbing his temples while speaking with a pale face. His eyes were bloodshot, as if he hadn’t slept well all night.

Opposite him, Luan Mei, Wenren You, and Mo Jiao looked at each other, seemingly imagining the scene, their expressions incredibly strange.

“So, how is he now?”

“He’s no longer in life-threatening danger, but he still needs to rest for a few days. His injuries were too severe; even the [Blood Robe] couldn’t heal him quickly.”

“So, the Silver King didn’t invade the Ancient Treasury of Drama... Then where did Little Junior Brother’s injuries come from?”

“He said he got them in an era archive.”

Luan Mei seemed to think of something, a “I knew it would be like this” expression appearing on her face.

“It was the same last time.” Luan Mei sighed. “Before going to the Red Dust Domain, we were walking perfectly fine on the road when he suddenly exploded... If Chu Muyun hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have known how to save him.”

“Little Junior Brother has a bit of ruthlessness and wickedness in him when he does things.” Mo Jiao recalled the scene at the Star Chamber of Commerce manor and summarized.

Wenren You, who was always taciturn, also added:

“This personality is a good thing, but also a bad thing... He might grow faster than others, but if he’s not careful, it’s easy to lose his life. Last time there was the Second Senior Sister, this time there was the Eldest Senior Brother. If one day we aren’t by his side, that would be troublesome.”

The four fell into silence simultaneously.

“What are we to do...” Ning Ruyu sighed repeatedly.

“By the way, how are the people sent to the Wuji Domain? Any news?”

“Not yet... I guess we’ll have to wait a while.”

“I always feel like this matter is a bit suspicious.” Mo Jiao was thoughtful. “According to Master’s prophecy, the next of the Nine Sovereigns to revive should be the Red Dust Sovereign... On this point, Master’s prophecy has never been wrong.”

“So, our arrangements are mainly in the Red Dust Domain.” Luan Mei nodded slightly. “As for the news about the Wuji Sovereign, it’s highly likely a smokescreen thrown out by the Nine Great Domains to deal with us... Sending a few people to scout the situation is enough. If we really commit a large number of people to the Wuji Domain, we might just fall into their trap.”

“I agree with that view.”

The group discussed it briefly and then got up to visit Chen Ling. After pushing the door open, they found that Chen Ling had already fallen into a deep sleep on the bed.

Seeing this, the senior brothers and sisters naturally didn’t disturb him, but each left some things by Chen Ling’s bedside before silently retreating.

As the door closed, the room fell into dead silence once again.

……

Meanwhile.

Chen Ling on the theater stage slowly opened his eyes.

“Phew...” Chen Ling let out a long breath, his gaze sweeping over the many figures in the audience. For the first time, he felt it was good to see them.

Being able to see them here meant he was still alive, and his body hadn’t been taken over by “Mockery”... It seems the Eldest Senior Brother had managed to fish his life back after all.

Chen Ling walked skillfully to the center of the stage and looked at the screen. The last line was still a change in expectation value:

【Current Expectation Value: 60%】

In the corner of the expectation value information, a tiny treasure chest icon was shaking constantly, as if waiting for Chen Ling to open it.

Chen Ling tapped it lightly. With the “ding-ding” sound of dancing lights, all the spotlights converged behind him, and a desk had appeared in the center of the stage.

“Congratulations on completing the play, ‘Hunter of the Red Dust’.”

“Highest audience expectation value for this play: 81%”

“You have earned one designated draw.”

“After using it, you can designate a character from all the characters who appeared in this play and randomly draw one of their abilities. The probability of drawing a rare skill is related to the overall audience expectation value of this play.”

With Chen Ling’s large-scale livestream on the dark web and his successful killing of Nie Yu, the performance conditions for the mid-stage of the Third Rank were completely fulfilled. Lines of text emerged on the blank pages, weaving into a brand-new play.

This play, starting from Chen Ling leaving the Aurora Domain until the killing of Nie Yu, was even thicker than the previous play, “Aurora, Never Fading.” He flipped through the contents as usual, and sure enough, it was exactly the same as his own experiences.

After completing several plays, Chen Ling had become numb to this. Just as he was about to place this play on the bookshelf, a thought suddenly emerged in his mind.

“In a sense... does this belong to my ‘life script’?”

Ever since Chen Ling activated [Zhu Yan] and gained the ability to peek into others’ “life scripts,” Chen Ling suddenly realized that these “plays” born after each performance were essentially the scripts that made up their lives.

The only difference between him and others was that he could see with his own eyes how his own script was produced... Looking at it from another angle, is this some kind of “internal vision”?

Chen Ling pondered in front of the bookshelf for a long time, feeling that his understanding was correct, but it didn’t have much significance... The only significance was that this theater was gradually becoming understandable to Chen Ling, unlike when he first entered and it was filled with mystery everywhere.

The fourth wall separating the audience from the stage, the mysterious script that appeared out of thin air recording everything about him, the phenomena on the stage seemed to be gradually explainable by the theory of the Drama God Path. Chen Ling’s fear and vigilance toward this place were also gradually dissipating.

“Then, it’s time to decide who to draw a skill from this time.”

Chen Ling returned to the desk and stood still, thinking seriously.

After completing each play, determining who to draw a skill from was always a major problem. On one hand, one had to consider the strength of the skill, and on the other, one had to consider one’s own luck—whether one could draw the skill one wanted from that person... After all, the higher a person’s rank, the more skills they had, and the smaller the probability of drawing the skill one wanted.

Chen Ling carefully recalled the characters who appeared in this play. After struggling for a long time, he picked up his pen and slowly wrote down a name:

—Ying Fu.