God Paths Retreat

Amid the vast wind and snow, a black trench coat moved forward at a slow pace.

Black boots left one footprint after another in the snow. Blood trickled from the hem of the coat, dotting the white ground like a fine, unbroken red line.

Scritch—scritch—scritch!

Sparks from the lighter ignited the cigarette. He took a deep drag of the harsh smoke, then slowly exhaled...

"Most of them have been cleaned up. Only the last remnants are left... This time, I'll finish them all in one go." he muttered to himself.

Four faintly glowing silver markings flickered along the bloodstained hem of his trench coat.

Just then, two stars lit up at once in the gray-white sky, and ethereal divine radiance descended upon a distant residence.

Seeing this, his brows rose slightly.

"[God's Blessing]?"

"Judging by the direction, that should be Ma Zhong's residence... There was actually a God-Blessed among those remnants?"

As he muttered to himself, another star lit up, and a third divine blessing poured down...

"Favored by three God Paths?" His surprise finally turned to shock. "What kind of monster is this...?"

He unconsciously quickened his pace.

Snow swirled in the wind, and the cold pierced to the bone. The outline of the distant residence flickered in and out of view.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Three minutes...

His brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

No matter how he walked, the residence remained hazy and distant, showing no sign of getting closer... like a mirage in a blizzard.

At last, he seemed to notice something and turned to look behind him.

At some point, all the footprints he had left behind had vanished.

The cold wind wailed beside his ears. In the endless white world, it seemed as though he was the only person left.

"Who?" he asked coldly.

His voice vanished amid the falling snow, as if swallowed by some monster. An eerie dead silence lingered around him.

"...Playing tricks." A flash of killing intent passed through his eyes. His right hand gripped the handle of the gun at his waist, and an invisible domain abruptly spread out!

He closed his eyes. The cigarette at the corner of his lips burned soundlessly, while his entire body seemed to be carefully sensing something.

Suddenly, he raised his gun like lightning, aimed at a spot beside him, and pulled the trigger without hesitation!

Bang—!

The power of Deconstruction tore through the void, shattering every snowflake in its path.

At the same time, everything around him seemed to catch fire like a paper scroll—the earth, the sky, the snowflakes, the distant outline of the residence... It was as if he had been wrapped within a giant cocoon, and with that gunshot, the cocoon shattered!

The sense of unreality around him receded like a tide, and the distant residence became clear once more.

"Hm?" A soft sound of surprise came from beside the bullet's path.

He turned and saw a boy crouching halfway down in the snow, his face covered by a sheet of white paper. The boy held a branch in one hand and peered at him in surprise through crude holes poked into the paper.

In the snow before the boy was a large circle drawn with a branch. The man stood trapped at its center.

Only, at the spot where he had fired just now, a gap had been opened in the circle.

"I thought you'd need a few more minutes to notice." The boy shrugged. "Looks like I underestimated you... As expected of the legendary genius Law Enforcer."

"Who are you?"

Han Meng frowned at him. He could sense that this boy's aura was even stronger than his own. He had likely already entered the fifth tier!

But Han Meng was already twenty-five... The boy before him looked no more than fifteen or sixteen!

A fifth-tier at fifteen or sixteen?

He had never heard of such a genius in the Aurora Domain.

"My face is covered, and you still expect me to tell you who I am?" The boy pointed at the sheet of paper covering his face. Then, perhaps feeling that it made breathing difficult, he casually poked another hole where his nose was before continuing in a gloomy tone.

"You're so old already. How can your brain be this slow?"

Han Meng's expression immediately darkened.

"Do you know what crime you'll be judged for if you obstruct a Law Enforcer carrying out his duties?"

"A Law Enforcer? Is that supposed to be impressive?"

The boy chuckled. With the branch in his hand, he casually drew across the snow, and a square pattern instantly appeared beneath Han Meng's feet, enclosing him within it.

"When you can walk out of there, I'll admit you're a little impressive... Maybe one-tenth as impressive as me." A smile appeared beneath the white paper covering the boy's face.

Han Meng looked down. At some point, a massive playing card had appeared in the snow beneath his feet...

[Eight of Clubs]

The instant he saw the playing card's face, Han Meng seemed to realize something, and his pupils abruptly contracted.

"...The Dusk Society?!"

Residence.

Chen Ling stared blankly at the third lit star, confusion in his eyes.

He did not recognize this star, nor did he know why he had attracted it... If killing had drawn the attention of the War God Path, then what had brought the other two God Paths here?

Chen Ling could not figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it. To him, the path he chose to step onto was the question he had to face now.

As long as he stepped onto a God Path, he would gain extraordinary power... Perhaps one day, he would be able to rely on his own strength to break free from the Audience!

A person could not step onto multiple God Paths at once, just as one could not split oneself in half to walk down two roads. Looking at the three God Paths, Chen Ling made his decision with almost no hesitation... After all, of the three, the only one he knew was the War God Path.

Moreover, Han Meng's [Slaughter Waltz] had left far too deep an impression on him. He even felt that the War God Path might be the God Path most skilled in combat among them all.

Just as he was about to choose the War God Path, a sudden change occurred!

Behind him, pairs of scarlet eyes abruptly opened in the void, like a sea of writhing shadows!

The Audience began to interfere with the performance!

Thump—thump—thump—thump—

Within the Theater, countless Audience members watching the performance began stomping the floor at the same time. The dull roars rolled on endlessly like thunder!

Countless gazes shot out from the Theater toward the three stars in the sky. At that moment, World-Ending power spilled out alongside the scarlet eyes, as if an invisible, formless colossal beast were silently roaring at the three stars above!!

They were rejecting the God Paths.

They were intimidating the God Paths!

The next moment, the three stars in the sky began to tremble violently!

The divine radiance enveloping Chen Ling shattered inch by inch, like a divine road leading to the heavens collapsing from its very foundation...

The God Paths were afraid.

They saw the monster behind Chen Ling. Once highly favoring him, they now feared his existence. None of them wished to let that monster step onto a road that belonged to them... just as no one would willingly invite a tiger into their home as a guest.

Thus, they severed their own God Paths and withdrew from the danger.

The three streams of divine radiance surrounding Chen Ling shattered, and the Path to Godhood rapidly receded. At that moment, Chen Ling and Qian Fan's group were all stunned...