The Second One?

"[Judgment]'s aura has disappeared."

"Calamity's aura has disappeared too."

"If nothing unexpected happened, Brother Meng should have succeeded."

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

Under the rainy night, four figures in black trench coats raced toward the wilderness battlefield. They were the remaining law enforcers from District Three.

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

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

"This Calamity seemed to have some real bite..."

As they spoke, they looked toward the other side of the battlefield. A blood-soaked figure lay flat on the ground, motionless as 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. They exchanged glances, strange glimmers flickering in their eyes...

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

He was Ma Zhong, the second-ranked law enforcer of District Three.

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

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

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

"It ran away?!"

"There's no body, so it probably ran..."

They immediately searched the surrounding area, but the rain had washed away nearly all traces. The Calamity that had been fighting Han Meng here moments ago had vanished completely, as if it had evaporated into thin air.

"Brother Ma! Brother Ma!!"

At the same time, one of the Enforcers 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 District Two... Last night, there was also a Calamity attack in District Two. Half a street was slaughtered. Thirty-six people died in total."

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

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

"Two Calamities crawled out at once from the same Ash Realm convergence? That's not common..." Ma Zhong said thoughtfully. "Was it killed?"

"No. They said that after the Calamity killed everyone, it headed toward the back mountain... It's possible that it crossed through the back mountain and entered District Three.

"District Two also hopes we can send some manpower... They suffered too many casualties, and their law enforcers are overwhelmed."

"Understood. Leave this matter to me."

The Enforcers carried the unconscious Han Meng and quickly headed for the hospital. Ma Zhong's gaze fell on the ruins of the battlefield, then on the outline of the back mountain hidden in the night, and he fell into thought.

"Two Calamities from the same Ash Realm convergence... Interesting."

"Brother, aren't we running?"

As the night deepened, the two boys headed straight for Frost Street along an empty path.

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

Chen Yan froze, scratched his head, thought for a long while, then stopped himself from speaking.

"Besides, even if we ran, where could we go?" Chen Ling said helplessly. "The Aurora Domain is only so big. One city, seven districts. Ordinary people definitely can't enter Aurora City, and District Two and District Three are sealed off from the other districts..."

"Then how about finding some remote mountain valley to hide in?"

"Even if we hide, they'll find us sooner or later. We can't just keep retreating." Chen Ling gave a vague rebuttal.

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

Although he had reclaimed the "stage," the audience expectation was still stuck at 20%. If he did not do something soon to raise their expectations, his body would be taken over again, and he would turn into a monster.

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

"A-Yan."

"Yeah?"

"Are you not 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, there's nothing wrong with becoming a monster, 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 impossible to make out.

"By the way, how is your body?" he asked. "Don't people usually need a long recovery period 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, with no electricity in this world, it would have been impossible to perform surgery like 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 talisman I gave you? The one you usually wear around your neck."

Chen Yan froze and reached for his chest, only to find it empty.

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

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

"Yeah." Chen Yan spoke again. "Brother... aren't you really going to wash up? Looking like this, you'll scare people half to death if you walk onto the street."

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 came out of the Red-Paper Monster's body, the wound on his neck had healed at an astonishing speed. In just half an hour, most of the flesh had already rejoined, though it was still a glaring crimson mess. He looked like a demon that had crawled out of hell.

Left with no choice, Chen Ling found a nearby stream, casually removed the bright red opera robe, and began washing the blood from his body.

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

"Why are you wearing my opera robe?"

"I... don't know."

Chen Ling stared blankly 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.

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

But why had they not put it on him this time? 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 only become more frequent...

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