Chapter 682: Blurred

The creaking of the door sounded slowly.

A figure in red walked out of the desolate courtyard alone...

Even though Grandma tried her best to make him stay, Chen Ling didn't linger at Li Qingshan's house, nor did he go inside to rest and wait for Li Qingshan to return... He knew very well what the situation was in the Red Dust Main City. Since Li Qingshan chose to go back, it wouldn't be easy for him to come out;

Or perhaps, he would never be able to come out.

Chen Ling's brow was tightly locked. He didn't understand. Li Qingshan was only a Second Rank; any enemy from the Sorcery Association he met on the road could take his life... What was the point of him risking so much to go back? Could a Second Rank change the entire war situation of the Red Dust??

Li Qingshan was gone, Kong Baosheng had likely returned to the main city, and Huang Suyue still hadn't arrived... In the entire Jinghong Pavilion, except for himself, no one else had chosen to take refuge in Liu Town.

The drizzling rain hit Chen Ling's shoulders. Just as he walked out of the gate, he seemed to notice something and turned to look beside him.

By the side of Li Qingshan's house, a figure was peeking out sneakily, as if eavesdropping. Suddenly seeing him come out, the two made eye contact, and it was suddenly quite awkward...

"Spades, what are you doing here?" Chen Ling asked in a deep voice.

"Oh... I, uh..." Jian Changsheng scratched his head while pretending to look around. "I was looking for a bathroom, couldn't find one... somehow I got lost and ended up here."

“……”

Chen Ling narrowed his eyes. "You're following me?"

"I'm not, I didn't..." Jian Changsheng realized he couldn't argue his way out of it, so he hardened his heart and gritted his teeth. "Yeah, I was following you. So what? Want to fight me?

The matter of you killing me before isn't over. I couldn't beat you the first two times, but if we fight now, you might not necessarily win!"

Facing Jian Changsheng's provocation, Chen Ling had no interest in wasting time with him. He walked through the rain curtain, heading toward the direction of the Twilight Society members.

Jian Changsheng followed closely beside him, hesitating for a moment before speaking cautiously:

"I just heard that your opera partner went back to the main city?"

"...Yes."

"Aren't you going to help him?"

"Why should I?" A nameless fire rose in Chen Ling's heart. He frowned and said, "I told them before that Liu Town was the safest place, but they didn't come and insisted on going back to die! I don't understand what they're doing."

"Actually, it's not that hard to understand, is it?"

"What do you mean?"

"They are people of the Red Dust Realm. They grew up here, and they want to protect their home. What's wrong with that?" Jian Changsheng spread his hands, hitting the nail on the head.

Chen Ling was stunned for a moment.

"No... but they clearly can't change anything... and it's meaningless, isn't it? How can this be right..."

Hearing this, Jian Changsheng's expression became serious. He slowed his pace:

"Hearts... no, Chen Ling. Actually, I wanted to say this before. Ever since that broken painting came out, you've been acting very strange."

The figure in the bright red opera robe also stopped and looked at him with a frown.

"Although you were always cold-natured, you weren't cold-blooded," Jian Changsheng said slowly. "Back in the Aurora Realm, you would get angry when you saw people freezing to death, you would hunt down Yan Shang because you couldn't stand the high-priced coal, and you would turn back to charge into the disaster wave to save Han Meng... You still radiated the light of humanity.

But now... I only see absolute indifference in you, and a disgusting 'theory of meaninglessness.'

If everything is truly meaningless as you say, then wasn't everything you did in the Aurora Realm also meaningless? Han Meng, Wen Shilin, and that brother of yours—are you going to deny their existence along with it?!"

Chen Ling stood frozen in place.

Jian Changsheng walked forward step by step, his eyes almost touching Chen Ling's face. His eyes flashed with doubt and anger.

"To be honest, I don't know when it started, but I feel like your face is very strange... Your features are becoming more and more blurred in my eyes, losing the characteristics that belong to you bit by bit, turning into... turning into something I don't know...

It seems like you're no longer the Six of Hearts, Chen Ling, that I knew."

Face...

Chen Ling's pupils contracted slightly.

He subconsciously took half a step back. As if remembering something, he walked quickly to the edge of a nearby river and looked down at the water surface.

This position, this action—Chen Ling was very familiar with it.

The first time he came to the Red Dust Realm, when he was stained by the Clown's white ash and lost all his skills, Chen Ling had also "looked at his face" here... He didn't expect that after so long, he would be looking at the water surface here again.

But the psychological impact this time was far greater than the first time with the Clown!

The bright red opera robe stood by the withered willow branches. He stared blankly at his reflection in the river... It was a blurred face. It wasn't because the water was shaking, nor was it because the water was murky,

But his face had truly become blurred.

The once-straight bridge of his nose, the willow-leaf-like corners of his eyes, the fine spots on his cheeks... everything had disappeared. The face that belonged to "Chen Ling" was losing its recognizability, even becoming flat, turning into a mass-produced face with no memorable points, like a template!

Chen Ling stared, rubbing that strange face hard with both hands. The feel of the skin and features was very familiar to Chen Ling, exactly the same as before, but for some reason, in his eyes and the eyes of others, his face was just blurred...

Chen Ling's fingertips grabbed his chin and tore hard!

A layer of skin drifted in the air,

In the reflection of the water, there was still a blurred face.

"How could this be... how could this be?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.

He kept changing faces, one layer of skin after another dancing over the river, but without exception, all the faces were blurred and featureless... It was like... like a mysterious veil was blocking him from this world.

He was becoming estranged from this world,

He was transforming from "Chen Ling," who was in the world, into a "spectator" who was alone outside the world.

Was this a side effect of the "Guernica" incident? Was it the result of him being too immersed as a "spectator" and gradually losing his empathy? Was the Fourth Wall becoming thicker, cutting off his connection to this world?!

Just then, that reminder from his master, which he had ignored, suddenly echoed in Chen Ling's ears!

"In any scenario, you are not a spectator, but a 'person' who truly exists."

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

Chen Ling's hands, which were constantly tearing off skin, suddenly froze in the air.

He lowered his head stiffly, looking at the reflection of the blurred face in the water, and muttered:

"Am I... abandoning the characteristics of a 'person'?"