God's Blessing

At those words, a flash of surprise passed through Chu Muyun's eyes.

"What? You're interested in the Path to Godhood too?"

"A little. And I plan to become an Enforcer next, so..."

"An Enforcer." Chu Muyun nodded. "So you're planning to take the War God Path?"

"I suppose... Aren't Enforcers only able to take the War God Path?"

"Who told you that?" Chu Muyun chuckled. "Among Enforcers—no, among Law Enforcers—most follow the War God Path because it is the only Path to Godhood controlled by the Aurora Domain.

But among Aurora City's Law Enforcers, there are also quite a few God's Blessed who follow other God Paths. They can become Law Enforcers as well."

"I don't have any particular talent. Maybe I won't get the chance to become one of the God's Blessed at all." Chen Ling sighed. "Most likely, I'll have to wait until I've been an Enforcer for three years, then try my luck in the Martial Way Ancient Treasury..."

"Brother, who says you don't have talent?" Chen Yan immediately put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "You're so amazing. There'll definitely be lots of those... God Paths fighting to have you!"

Chen Ling gave a bitter smile.

Chen Ling was telling the truth... Even in his previous life, he had been nothing more than an inconspicuous drop of water swallowed by the tide of ordinary people.

When he was little, his parents had indeed forced him to learn music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but he had never mastered any of them. By the time he grew up, he had forgotten it all. His grades had been average, his physique poor. He was the kind of ordinary person who knew a little about everything, but amounted to nothing when singled out.

The Chen Ling of this life was no different.

With the ordinariness of two lives piled together, Chen Ling did not think he had what it took to be chosen by a God Path...

"Talent is indeed hard to judge." Chu Muyun chose his words carefully. "Some people may possess a certain talent without ever showing it. Perhaps when the right time comes, it will reveal itself..."

"Then if it's the War God Path, how can I tell whether I have the talent for it?"

"Simple."

The smile at the corners of Chu Muyun's lips gradually faded. In an exceedingly indifferent tone, he said, "Go kill someone, and you'll know... If one isn't enough, kill ten. Kill a hundred... If the War God Path still hasn't blessed you after you've killed a thousand, then you can be sure you don't have that talent."

Chen Ling's chopsticks froze in his hand, and the living room fell into dead silence.

"Just kidding." Chu Muyun smiled, as if ice and snow had melted away and a warm spring breeze had once more brushed across the dining table. "If you don't kill anyone, then you can only enter an Ancient Treasury... Three years is a long time, but you're young. You can afford to wait."

Killing...

Chen Ling looked at the rice in his bowl and recalled the scene of the Red-Paper Monster killing those two Enforcers that night. Suddenly, he felt nauseated.

Chen Ling was an ordinary person. Even if he had killed countless people in games in his previous life and watched plenty of bloody films, when it truly came time to take up a blade and kill someone, he still did not dare... He could not cross that bottom line in his heart, the line built from reason and compassion.

"Then what are 'paths'?"

Chen Ling recalled that the Slaughter Waltz he had drawn from Han Meng came from the Judgment path of the War God Path, but he did not know what paths actually were.

"You even know about paths?" Chu Muyun looked at him in surprise.

"Put it this way. If becoming a god is like climbing a mountain, then besides the main road up the mountain, there are also trails. God Paths are the main roads, while paths are routes that branch off according to each person's personality and talent.

Take Han Meng, for example. He's rather stubborn and has a strong sense of justice, so he follows the Judgment path... Accordingly, the abilities he gains upon reaching different ranks may differ from those of other paths and bear more personal characteristics."

Chen Ling pondered this. "Then how many paths can one God Path have?"

"That varies. Some God Paths have many followers, so naturally more paths have been explored and extended from them. For example, as far as I know, the War God Path has seven different paths. But some less popular God Paths may only have a few."

"Doctor Chu, are you also someone who possesses a Path to Godhood?" Thinking of Doctor Lin's assessment of him, Chen Ling asked doubtfully.

"I am." Chu Muyun admitted it openly. "I follow the Medicine God Path."

"The Medicine God Path? Is the Medicine Way Ancient Treasury also in the Aurora Domain?"

The instant he asked that, Chen Ling realized something. He stared in astonishment. "You... are one of the God's Blessed?"

Chu Muyun merely smiled without answering.

Although Chen Ling had long guessed that Chu Muyun followed the Medicine God Path, he had not expected him to be one of the God's Blessed... Hadn't these people been said to be extremely rare? How had he run into one so casually?

"What did it feel like when you became one of the God's Blessed?" Chen Ling could not help asking.

Chu Muyun fell into thought.

"Well... It's not easy to describe. It was probably like suddenly feeling that, in an instant, you had transcended everything. In the unseen, a gaze turned toward you... Then the surroundings changed, and a God Path leading into nothingness automatically appeared before you..."

"A God Path? An actual road? Not an illusion?"

"It was real—at least, it was real in that moment. But before you step onto it, it floats in the sky and keeps swaying, like... like..." Chu Muyun could not think of the right comparison for a moment.

"Like a ribbon?" Chen Yan, who had been eating with his head lowered, suddenly spoke.

"A ribbon?" Chen Ling looked at him in surprise.

"Yes, a ribbon." Chu Muyun's eyes lit up as he continued, "Then, the instant you step onto it, it solidifies into something tangible and disappears... Even though you can no longer see it, it will always exist within your body."

Chen Ling looked at Chen Yan in confusion. Chen Yan shrank his neck and said softly, "I was just listening to his description... and said it offhand."

"...All right."

Chen Ling sighed. "I hope that one day, I can step onto a God Path too."

After the meal, Chen Yan conscientiously rolled up his sleeves to wash the dishes. Chu Muyun somehow pulled out a book and sat beside the kerosene lamp, reading by its faint light. At times he frowned, at times he looked puzzled, as if lost in thought.

As the night deepened, the three of them returned to their rooms to rest.

Chen Ling was the last to leave. He blew out the candle on the table. The flame flickered, and darkness immediately swallowed the room...

His gaze turned toward Chen Yan's room.

Chen Ling slowly walked to Chen Yan's door and pulled a shattered safety talisman from his pocket. Just as he was about to knock, his knuckles stopped in midair.

["I-I... After I woke up from surgery, I kept waiting at the hospital for you to come pick me up... Then, then I heard people outside saying a World-Ending Calamity had invaded, and I got really worried about you.

[I slipped out while the people at the hospital weren't paying attention. I was about to go home and find you, when I saw you hanging from a monster..."]

["It seemed like the Enforcers didn't have enough people. They only sealed off the outside of the Second District and Third District, but there weren't many people stationed between the two districts, so I secretly slipped through."]

["Brother, aren't we running?"]

["Brother, becoming a monster isn't such a bad thing, as long as... you're still you."]

["That doctor seems really capable. I recovered quickly."]

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

Chen Yan's words kept flashing through his mind. Chen Ling's fingers clenched tighter and tighter... He stared at the safety talisman in his hand, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Ever since finding this safety talisman in the ruins of Ice Spring Street, Chen Ling had been on edge. Even during the two-hour walk back, he had kept thinking about it...

Thinking carefully, there were many things about Chen Yan's appearance that simply could not be explained.

The timing and place of his appearance were far too coincidental... Could a teenager who had just undergone a heart transplant really pass through the Enforcers' blockade and walk for over two hours to the back mountain?

Or was it possible... that he was no longer human either?