God's Blessing

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

"What? Are you 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—the vast majority follow the War God Path, because it is the only Path to Godhood mastered by the Aurora Domain.

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

"I don't have any special talent. Maybe I won't have a chance to become God-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 at the Martial Way Ancient Treasury..."

"Brother, who says you don't have talent?" Chen Yan immediately put down his chopsticks and said earnestly, "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 droplet swallowed by the tide of mediocrity.

When he was young, his parents had indeed forced him to learn a little music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but he had never mastered any of them. He forgot it all after growing up. His grades had been average, his physical condition poor. He was the sort of ordinary person who might know a little bit of everything, but amounted to nothing when singled out.

The Chen Ling of this life was no different.

With the mediocrity of two lives piled together, Chen Ling did not believe he had the potential 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 moment comes, it will reveal itself..."

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

"Simple."

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

Chen Ling's chopsticks paused, and the living room fell deathly silent.

"Just kidding." Chu Muyun smiled, like ice and snow melting away as a gentle warm breeze once more swept across the dinner table. "If you don't kill people, then you can only enter an Ancient Treasury... Three years is a long time, but you're young. You can afford to wait."

Killing people...

Chen Ling stared at the rice in his bowl, recalling how the Red-Paper Monster had killed 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 movies, when it truly came time to raise a blade and kill someone, he still did not dare... He could not cross that 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 know about paths too?" Chu Muyun gave him a surprised look.

"Think of it this way. If becoming a god is like climbing a mountain, then besides the main road up the mountain, there are also smaller trails. The God Path is the main road, while paths are routes that branch out according to each person's character and talent.

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

Chen Ling nodded thoughtfully. "Then how many paths can one God Path have?"

"That's hard to say. Some God Paths have many people following them, so naturally more paths have been explored and developed from them. For example, as far as I know, the War God Path has seven different paths. But some less popular God Paths may have only a few paths."

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

"Yes." 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 the answer. He opened his mouth in astonishment. "You... are God-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 God-Blessed... Weren't people like that supposed to be rare? How had he run into one so casually?

"What did it feel like when you became God-Blessed?" Chen Ling could not help asking.

Chu Muyun considered it.

"Mm... It's hard to describe. Roughly speaking, you suddenly feel as if you've transcended everything in an instant. In the unseen, a gaze falls upon you... Then the environment around you changes, and a God Path leading into the void automatically appears before you..."

"A God Path? A real road? Not an illusion?"

"It's real—at least, it's real in that moment. But before you step onto it, it floats in the sky and sways constantly, like... like..." Chu Muyun could not think of a fitting word for the moment.

"Like a ribbon?" Chen Yan suddenly spoke up, his head lowered over his meal.

"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 and disappears... Though you can no longer see it, it will always remain within your body."

Chen Ling looked at Chen Yan suspiciously. Chen Yan shrank back a little and said softly, "I was just listening to his description... and remarked offhand."

"...All right."

Chen Ling sighed. "I hope that one day, I'll be able to step onto a God Path too."

After the meal, Chen Yan rolled up his sleeves and washed the dishes of his own accord. Chu Muyun somehow produced a book and sat beside the kerosene lamp reading by its faint light, frowning at times and looking puzzled at others, 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, and with a flicker of flame, darkness immediately swallowed the room...

His gaze turned toward Chen Yan's room.

Chen Ling slowly walked to Chen Yan's door. He pulled a broken safety talisman from his clothes and was about to knock when his knuckles froze 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.

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

["It seemed like the Enforcers didn't have enough manpower. 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 ran over."]

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

["Brother, it doesn't matter if you become a monster, as long as... you're still you."]

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

["I don't know... Maybe it got away while I was running back."]

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

Ever since finding this safety talisman amid the ruins of Ice Spring Street, Chen Ling had been on edge. Even after walking back for two hours, he had not stopped 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 boy who had just undergone a heart transplant really pass through the Enforcers' blockade and walk for over two hours to reach the back mountain?

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