Chapter 645: You Are a "Human"

The "Fourth Wall" began to waver.

The opera robe had only sung four lines of the ballad, and most of the black cloud around Chen Ling had dissipated, but he didn't continue singing. Instead, he looked at Chen Ling with complex eyes and spoke slowly:

"Old Six..."

"Do you still remember how to sing the rest?"

Chen Ling stood in the black cloud, frowning involuntarily, as if trying hard to remember something.

Past memories flowed before his eyes like movie scenes, but his perspective was like a "third party" watching, familiar yet strange... as if it wasn't him who experienced these, but someone else.

He saw stars flickering under the black sky, the prairie breeze blowing the colorful flags on the roof, and the End-Role with one hand behind his back and a songbook in the other, earnestly teaching "Chen Ling" the correct tune.

Chen Ling pondered for a long time, his lips parted slightly, and he continued the ballad after his master:

"The earth and rose-red are your bed,"

"Frost, snow, and the setting sun are your heavy makeup;"

"I will weave hope into dancing kapok flowers,"

"Until the rocks remember the fragrance of flowers..."

Unlike the master's ballad, this time, the [Requiem Ballad] was sung from Chen Ling's own mouth, without being weakened by the "Fourth Wall," clearly lingering in his ears.

As the ballad sounded, the memories in Chen Ling's mind gradually became clear. He began to substitute himself into the role of "Chen Ling." He saw Ning Ruyu fighting him with a long spear, saw Luan Mei stepping on the cloud-step and walking down from the snow mountain, saw Wen Renyou serving dishes to him, Mo Jiao teaching him how to sing [Requiem Ballad] face-to-face, saw the Clown dancing and gesturing in front of him... as if everything in the Opera Path Ancient Treasury was his own personal experience.

The scarlet pupils in the void behind Chen Ling closed one after another, and the "audience" seemed to lose interest and faded away. The red embers at the corners of his eyes slowly retracted into the depths of his pupils, leaving only a faint black mark, but it still covered the face of "Painted Red Face."

"Oh, crying person,"

"Please gently close your eyes;"

"Wait until the twilight falls in the darkest era,"

"I will promise you the morning glow and the blue sky."

The moment Chen Ling finished the last word, the resentment and unwillingness surrounding him completely dissipated, and the entire "Guernica" was empty, leaving only endless void and silence.

Chen Ling rubbed his swollen and painful temples, feeling that his head was like paste, and his eyes were full of doubt and confusion.

"Just now... what happened?"

Chen Ling couldn't quite remember what had happened just now. He felt that his consciousness had turned into smoke, drifting out of this body and falling toward the sky full of scarlet pupils behind him... This feeling was very strange. He was like a bystander, numb and stiffly watching everything, but couldn't perceive any emotions.

Even now, Chen Ling still hadn't completely gotten rid of this feeling.

"Master?"

Chen Ling saw the curtain in the void and the familiar figure behind the curtain, and immediately spoke, "Master, why are you here?"

"My main body is not here, I just felt something for a moment and came to take a look." The master glanced at the corner of Chen Ling's eyes. "Fortunately, I came, otherwise, all previous efforts would have been wasted..."

Chen Ling was stunned. "What previous efforts wasted?"

The master shook his head and didn't answer, but instead asked:

"Old Six, how do you feel now?"

"It feels... I can't quite put it into words. It’s as if a veil is draped over everything around me. Although I can see everything clearly, it all feels... unreal."

Chen Ling hesitated for a long time before settling on the word "unreal." Beyond that, he couldn't find a more fitting description.

"That’s not a veil; that’s the residue of the 'Fourth Wall'."

"The 'Fourth Wall' from the Ancient Tibetan of the Opera Path?" Chen Ling’s brow furrowed even tighter. "Why would it be on me?"

"Because you are actively turning yourself into an audience member. When you view all things in the world from the perspective of an audience, everything becomes detached from you—it’s just a 'story'... In that moment, the 'Fourth Wall' naturally appears."

"I am actively turning myself into an audience..."

Chen Ling recalled everything he had just experienced. When he was hit by the soldiers' emotional shock, he had indeed been constantly giving himself suggestions to lower his empathy... But Chen Ling couldn't understand: could mere psychological suggestions really lead to such severe consequences?

"Number Six, remember your master's words."

Master stood behind the curtain, his expression solemn as never before.

"No matter the situation, you are not an audience member, but a 'person' who truly exists."

"Your existence is defined by yourself. If even you abandon the characteristics of being a 'person,' then no one can save you..."

After saying this, Master raised his hand and tapped the corner of his own eye with his fingertip.

Chen Ling was stunned.

Subconsciously, he also reached out to touch the corner of his own eye, speaking with a sense of half-understanding:

"...I will remember."

Seeing this, Master nodded with satisfaction. "I have matters to attend to on my end, so I must be going... As for the situation here, follow your heart."

"Master, the Red Dust Domain is in such chaos—will you not intervene yourself?"

"Me?" Master smiled slightly.

"The protagonist of this grand play is not me... However, when the time is ripe, I will come."

Having said that, Master gently flicked his sleeves and turned to walk behind the curtain.

As the curtain gradually closed, Master seemed to remember something, and his voice drifted out once more:

"By the way, remember to keep that flower for me... It is a fragment of the Dao Foundation of the Green God Path. I will have use for it in the future."

The theatrical curtain closed completely, and the next moment, it faded and vanished into the void.

Chen Ling, holding his broken sword in one hand, looked back toward the direction of the soldiers' corpses. In the void of the world, only a small flower floated silently...

"This is a Dao Foundation fragment?"

Chen Ling stepped on the cloud-walking path, moved straight forward, and reached out to grab the small flower...

Now that "Guernica" had been cleared out by Chen Ling, no one could stop his movements. The moment his fingertip touched the stem of the flower, an indescribable sensation surged from his palm into his heart!

Hum—!

In the pitch-black void, the light projected by the relief gate suddenly brightened. Radiant lines descended from the projection, converging into a beam of light that connected with the Dao Foundation fragment in Chen Ling's hand.

The connection between the key and the gate carried a certain powerful authority. As Chen Ling gripped it in his palm, ten thousand rays of light spread within his pupils.

A miniature of a vast domain, hidden within the flower, slowly bloomed in the void before him!

"This is..."

Chen Ling muttered to himself.

……

"Hm?!"

Before the heavy relief gate, the pressure of an Eighth-Order entity crashed against the patterns on the gate like a tidal wave.

The abstract face of the Second Hall suddenly seemed to sense something. It looked sharply at the scroll that was slowly opening the gate, and deep shock emerged within its triangular eyes!

"...How is this possible??"