The Second One?

"[Judgment]'s aura has disappeared."

"Calamity's aura has disappeared too."

"Unless something unexpected happened, Brother Meng should have succeeded."

"Han Meng was too fast. Even if we wanted to share in the credit, we couldn't catch up..."

Under the rainy night, four figures in black trench coats sped toward the wilderness battlefield. They were the remaining Law Enforcers of the Third District.

Their gazes swept over the devastated wilderness, and they were secretly alarmed.

Just how fierce had the battle been to blast this place into such a state?

"This Calamity seems like quite something..."

As they spoke, they looked toward the other side of the battlefield and saw a blood-soaked figure lying flat on the ground, motionless like a corpse.

"Brother Meng?!"

One of the Law Enforcers immediately rushed forward, lifted Han Meng from the ground, and nervously checked his breathing.

The other three Law Enforcers remained where they were and exchanged glances, strange gleams flickering in their eyes...

"Is he dead?" one of the three Law Enforcers asked.

He was Ma Zhong, the second-ranked Law Enforcer of the Third District.

"He's not dead! He's still alive!"

A trace of disappointment flashed across the three men's faces, so slight it was nearly imperceptible. Two of them looked toward Ma Zhong, who hesitated for a moment before shaking his head at them.

"Where's the Calamity? Why isn't there a corpse?"

"It ran away?!"

"If there's no corpse, it probably ran away..."

They immediately searched the surrounding area, but the rain had washed away nearly every clue. The Calamity that had been fighting Han Meng here not long ago had vanished completely, as though it had evaporated into thin air.

"Brother Ma! Brother Ma!!"

At the same time, an Enforcer in a black-and-red uniform hurried over from the distance.

"What is it? Why are you in such a rush?" Ma Zhong asked, raising a brow.

"We just received intelligence from the Second District... Last night, a Calamity attack also occurred in the Second District. Half a street was massacred, with thirty-six deaths in total."

"What?" Ma Zhong said in surprise. "Was it the same one?"

"They said the one that attacked the Second District was a Level Three Calamity, so it probably wasn't the same one."

"Two Calamities crawled out of the same Gray Realm Convergence at once? That's not a common situation..." Ma Zhong mused. "Was it killed?"

"No. They said that after the Calamity finished killing people, it headed toward the back mountain... It's possible that it crossed the back mountain and entered the Third District.

The Second District also hopes we can send some manpower... They suffered too many casualties, and their Enforcers are overwhelmed."

"Understood. Leave this to me."

The Enforcers carried the unconscious Han Meng and swiftly headed for the hospital. Ma Zhong's gaze fell on the battle-scarred ruins and the silhouette of the back mountain hidden in the night, his expression thoughtful.

"Two Calamities from the same Gray Realm Convergence... Interesting."

"Brother, aren't we running?"

As night deepened, the two boys followed an empty path straight toward Frost Street.

"Why should we run?" Chen Ling asked in return.

Chen Yan froze, scratched his head for a long time, and seemed to want to say something but held back.

"Besides, even if we ran, where could we go?" Chen Ling said helplessly. "The Aurora Domain is only so big. There's one city and seven districts. Ordinary people definitely can't enter Aurora City, and among the other seven districts, the Second and Third Districts are sealed off..."

"Then how about we find some ravine and hide?"

"Even hiding would be useless. Sooner or later, they'd find us. We can't just keep retreating." Chen Ling gave a vague rebuttal.

In truth, Chen Ling also wanted to find somewhere to hide, but he couldn't do that!

Although he had regained control of the "stage," the Audience Expectation was still stuck at 20%. If he did not do something to raise the Audience's expectations soon, his body would be taken over again and he would turn into a monster.

Chen Yan vaguely felt that something about that logic was off... but he did not think too deeply about it. Since his brother said they could not hide, he must have had his reasons.

"A-Yan."

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you afraid of me?" In the darkness, Chen Ling turned to look at him. "You should have seen it. Just now... I turned into a monster."

Chen Yan lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.

"Brother, becoming a monster isn't such a big deal, as long as... you're still you."

"How do you know I'm still me?"

"It's just a feeling..."

Chen Ling looked deeply at him. In the darkness, the boy's expression was indistinct.

"By the way, how's your body?" he asked. "Shouldn't you need a long period of recovery after a heart transplant? Is it really okay for you to be running around outside like this?"

"That doctor seemed really skilled. I recovered very quickly."

"Oh..."

Chen Ling suddenly remembered that this world seemed to possess supernatural powers. Otherwise, without even electricity, it would have been impossible to perform a heart transplant... Perhaps there were methods for rapid recovery as well?

Chen Ling's gaze fell on his smooth neck, as if he had remembered something. "Right, where's the protective talisman I gave you? The one you usually wear around your neck."

Chen Yan froze, reached up to feel his chest, and discovered that it was empty.

"I don't know... Maybe it fell off while I was running back."

"...It's fine. I'll make you another one when we get back."

"Okay." Chen Yan spoke again. "Brother... Are you really not going to wash up? If you walk onto the street looking like this, you'll scare people to death."

Chen Ling froze and instinctively touched his neck. It was slick and sticky, and his hand came away covered in blood.

Strangely enough, after he had emerged from the Red-Paper Monster's body, the wound on his neck had healed exceptionally fast. In just half an hour, most of the flesh had already rejoined. Still, it looked like a crimson mess, and he resembled a demon that had crawled out of hell.

With no other choice, Chen Ling found a nearby stream, casually took off his bright red opera robe, and began washing the blood off his body.

"Brother, there's something I've wanted to ask since earlier..." Chen Yan said in confusion.

"Why are you wearing my opera robe?"

"I... don't know."

Chen Ling blankly looked at the robe on his body... He remembered that when he had been hacked to death with an axe, he had not been wearing this thing.

Thinking carefully, he had also been draped in this bright red opera robe when he came home that night. Judging from what Chen Tan and Li Xiuchun had said, it seemed to be the clothing they had casually used to wrap his corpse after murdering him.

But why had they not put it on him this time? And why had the opera robe returned to him on its own?

Chen Ling could not figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it. Ever since he had transmigrated into this world, strange things had been happening more and more often...

He had wanted to burn this unlucky opera robe, but when he saw Chen Yan's pitiful gaze beside him, he still sighed and silently washed the robe along with himself.