Fusionist

"He should have gone back to find A-Yan."

The rickshaw rolled along the gravel road. Chen Ling sat inside, his expression incomparably grave.

He had no idea which part had gone wrong for Han Meng to suspect him so quickly, even going so far as to pay out of pocket to send him away just so he could question Chen Yan alone.

But the problem was that every path available to him had now been blocked.

Even if he turned back to find Chen Yan, setting aside whether he could reach home before the Enforcers, the moment he left the rickshaw, Han Meng would know soon enough. At that point, it would be even harder to clear himself of suspicion.

All he could do now was see how Chen Yan handled things...

Still, Chen Ling had already made up his mind. If his identity was exposed, he would flee straight out of the Second District. After all, Han Meng would still need time to get there from the Third District.

As for Chen Yan, he was an ordinary person. He did not know Chen Ling was a Fusionist, nor did he even know what a Fusionist was... Even if something happened to Chen Ling, Chen Yan would not be implicated.

"Brother, you said you didn't have money." The man hauling the rickshaw turned back as he panted. "Even Law Enforcer Han Meng is reimbursing your travel expenses. You must be someone important."

"Heh. I am indeed someone important."

Han Meng's face surfaced in Chen Ling's mind, and he felt a knot of resentment lodge in his chest. He then asked, "How much longer until we get there?"

"Soon. Maybe another ten minutes or so."

"No need to go that fast. Circle this street a few more times."

"...Huh?"

"Run when I tell you to run. He's paying by the distance traveled anyway." Chen Ling sneered. "Isn't he rich? I'll spend some of it for him..."

"Then... then I'm really going to run?"

"Head where there are lots of people. Let them see you, so he can't refuse to pay."

"Got it!"

The man hauled Chen Ling around the busiest streets of the Second District for more than ten laps. The man was clearly thrilled too; the extra distance alone was enough to earn what he would normally make from two or three days of passengers.

When Chen Ling got off, the man's grin stretched from ear to ear. He practically wanted to kowtow on the spot to this god of wealth.

Since he was the only one who had been "forcibly dispatched," Wu Youdong would not arrive for several more hours. Chen Ling could only head alone to Ice Spring Street and meet up with the Second District Enforcers patrolling there.

The moment he reached Ice Spring Street, Chen Ling frowned.

Yellow caution tape had nearly sealed off the entire street, and the air still carried the lingering stench of blood. The short, dilapidated buildings on both sides stood empty, without a soul in sight. Only several scarlet bloodstains were splashed across the white walls, a horrifying sight.

Chen Ling ducked beneath the caution tape. Broken stones littered the ground beneath his feet, as if some vicious beast had once appeared here and slaughtered the entire street.

"This is..." Confusion rose in Chen Ling's eyes.

Several figures in black-and-red uniforms moved through the distant ruins. When they saw Chen Ling step past the caution tape, they walked straight over.

"A Reserve Seat from the Third District? Why are you here so early?"

Chen Ling handed over his transfer order and shifted all the blame onto Han Meng, saying that Han Meng had ordered him to leave as soon as possible.

The Enforcer nodded. "Early is good. We're short on manpower anyway... My name is Qian Fan. I'm the Enforcer currently in charge of Ice Spring Street. You'll work with me for the next couple of days."

"Alright." Chen Ling paused. "Brother Fan, what exactly happened here?"

"You haven't heard?"

Qian Fan spoke in surprise. "The night before last... the day of the Gray Realm Convergence, a Calamity entered the Second District and killed people across half the street."

Chen Ling froze. "The night before last?"

"That's right." Qian Fan nodded. "Didn't Law Enforcer Ma Zhong from your Third District tell you? This Gray Realm Convergence may have released two Calamities... one Level Five and one Level Three.

"The one that appeared in your Third District was Level Five, but it did not seem particularly destructive, and the casualties were few... Our Level Three one in the Second District might not have been high-level, but it was truly bloodthirsty..."

By this point, Chen Ling's mind had stopped working.

He had always believed that the one in his mind was the only Calamity that had escaped from the Ash Realm... But now there was another one?

"What about that Level Three one? Was it caught?"

"If it had been caught, would so many of us still be working here?" Qian Fan sighed. "After killing those people, the Calamity vanished... But an Enforcer witnessed the direction it left in. It should have gone toward the back mountain."

The back mountain...

Chen Ling remembered that it lay between the Second and Third Districts.

"You have to admit, these two Calamities are strange. Usually, after a Calamity arrives and causes a huge commotion, it gets caught quickly. On one hand, they're huge; on the other, they can't restrain themselves from continuing to kill... But these two Calamities disappeared at the same time, as if they had vanished into thin air!"

Chen Ling's heart stirred, and he asked casually, "I heard there's some kind of people called... Fusionists?"

"Fusionists..." Qian Fan shook his head. "Do you think fusing a Calamity with a human is that easy? To fuse with a Calamity and survive, you need to meet three conditions... First, you have to ensure that Calamity does not kill you. That alone rules out ninety-nine percent of Calamities, because most of them have no self-control.

"You could first beat it to the brink of death, of course, but then comes the next problem: you have to make sure your constitution is compatible with it... There's simply no way to predict that.

"A human and a Calamity are not even the same species. For the two to be compatible, the odds are as slim as casually picking up a stone and discovering that its natural grain happens to spell your name.

"Even if you are truly lucky and meet the first two conditions, you still have to make sure that after fusing with the Calamity, you will not be driven mad by its will... As far as I know, most Fusionists are lunatics, and they do not live longer than a few years."

Chen Ling asked, "Then by your reasoning, the chance of a Fusionist appearing is close to zero?"

"That's right." Qian Fan nodded. "But I heard that someone in the Fusion Faction has already begun researching ways to improve the success rate of fusion... I don't know how far they've gotten."

Chen Ling had always thought he was a Fusionist, but after hearing Qian Fan's description, it no longer seemed quite right...

His connection with the "Audience" had been built entirely upon the Theater. There did not seem to have been any fusion process like the one Qian Fan described... Though these "Audience" members did indeed occasionally drive him mad.

At the same time, a thought flashed through Chen Ling's mind.

Since he was not a Fusionist...

Was it possible that he, too, could master a Path to Godhood of his own...?