The Price of Moving Forward

When Chen Ling came out of Xiaofang Grocery Store, it was already dark.

Chu Muyun waved to him and headed straight toward Aurora City. Chen Ling stood at the store entrance, watched him leave, then walked in another direction.

The heavy snow had stopped, but what followed was the bitter cold of melting ice and snow.

Chen Ling walked along the deserted, snow-covered path. His breath drifted through the darkness as his right hand rubbed the USB drive in his pocket. An unprecedented brightness flickered in his eyes.

"Restart..."

Chen Ling took a deep breath and resolutely walked into the darkness.

With a clear goal, the shadow cast over him by the "Audience" seemed to have faded considerably.

So what if I am an actor on a stage? So what if my life is being interfered with? Unless you kill me, I will definitely go back... Even if I die, I have to die on the road home.

Before that, he had to grow stronger as quickly as possible while concealing his identity as a Dusk Society member... Becoming a Law Enforcer seemed like a good choice.

The Dusk Society did not oppose its members joining other organizations. It even encouraged it, because that meant members could hide themselves better and, through the convenience of their positions, offer help to other members.

"I become one, I join in, I make trouble, I run away... That policy really is spot-on." Chen Ling smiled mockingly.

He returned home and lit the kerosene lamp on the table. The orange flame illuminated the empty house as the cold wind seeped through gaps in the wooden walls, producing a low, mournful hum.

Chen Ling sat down beside the table, took out the envelope Chu Muyun had given him, and carefully read it by the lamplight.

"Infiltrate the Martial Way Ancient Treasury and steal the Martial Way Dao Foundation Fragment?"

Chen Ling raised his brows in surprise.

The letter contained a detailed map of part of the Martial Way Ancient Treasury, with one corner marked in red. If nothing unexpected happened, that was what the Red King wanted him to steal...

Chen Ling finally understood why Chu Muyun had said that, in the entire Dusk Society, only he could complete this mission.

Because Chen Ling was the only Enforcer—and one who had just passed the assessment in first place, qualifying him to enter the Martial Way Ancient Treasury... At the same time, he possessed the skill [Formless].

Other than Chen Ling, no one else could possibly have a chance to enter the Martial Way Ancient Treasury.

But why did the Dusk Society want a Martial Way Dao Foundation Fragment?

Chen Ling continued reading. The Red King did not explain this in the letter, merely telling him that a Dusk Society member would meet up with him when the time came, coordinate with his movements, and cover his retreat.

After reading everything, Chen Ling pondered for a moment before feeding the letter into the candle flame.

The paper curled up. Bright firelight illuminated Chen Ling's face, flickering silently in the darkness...

That night, after Chen Ling fell asleep, he did not enter the Theater.

He had a dream.

He dreamed that he had returned to the time before the Great Cataclysm, back to the familiar door of his home. He stood in the elevator, watching his mother hold his memorial portrait and weep uncontrollably.

Chen Ling felt as though his heart were being twisted in agony, even though his chest was completely empty.

"Mom... I'm not dead." Chen Ling murmured as he stepped out of the elevator, wanting to embrace the family member he missed most.

"Mom, I'm still alive. I want all of you to live too..."

Just as his foot was about to step beyond the elevator doors, the elevator car plummeted with a thunderous crash!

A powerful sense of weightlessness engulfed Chen Ling. He struggled helplessly inside the car, only to see the elevator shaft seemingly stretch into infinity. In the endless fall, all he could do was watch the home that belonged to him race farther and farther away...

Thud—

Chen Ling fell to the ground.

It was an endless expanse of darkness. The lights of "home" seemed to have become stars, scattered across a sky far beyond reach. Chen Ling stood in the darkness like an ant cast down into an abyss, foolishly stretching out his hand in an attempt to touch the stars.

Just as despair rose within him, a blood-red God Path extended from beneath his feet, stretching all the way toward those unreachable stars...

That was his road home.

A twisted, bizarre, crimson road... On either side of it, countless scarlet eyes watched him, their gazes filled with mockery.

Chen Ling stood on the first step. He wanted to climb higher as quickly as possible, but when he tried to take the next step, he found that no matter what he did, his foot could not land on the next stair.

Chen Ling froze... He looked down and discovered a crooked line of small writing on the stone step beneath his feet.

[Complete a performance involving at least fifty people, and ensure that no one survives after it ends]

The moment he saw those words, the doubts in Chen Ling's heart deepened.

He turned to look behind him and suddenly discovered that there was also a line of small writing on the step he had already crossed:

[Lose someone who loves you most, and become him]

A line had been drawn across the words, as though it were an item on a completed performance checklist, trampled beneath his feet.

Chen Ling seemed to understand something. He looked once more at the twisted road leading toward the heavens, terror surfacing in his eyes...

This was a living road. This was a monstrous road!

The next moment, everything around him shattered into pieces...

At midnight, Chen Ling jolted awake from his dream.

His face pale, he sat on the bed for a moment before rushing frantically to the desk. He grabbed paper and pen and, as though afraid he would forget, quickly wrote down the words on the next stone step:

[Complete a performance involving at least fifty people, and ensure that no one survives after it ends]

"Is this the price of advancing along the Twisted God Path? Or perhaps... a condition?"

Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling knew that what had happened was far more than a simple dream. The fact that he had not entered the Theater after falling asleep tonight was itself abnormal... Perhaps this dream was a hint from his own God Path? Or perhaps... from A-Yan?

"This road is different from other God Paths... It will make your life winding and difficult..." Chen Ling recalled what Chen Yan had said before he stepped onto the Twisted God Path and fell into deep thought...

Other people's God Paths probably did not have anything like this price. Otherwise, Chu Muyun should have warned him today. So were the small words on these stone steps unique to his Twisted God Path?

Was this what Chen Yan had meant by "winding and difficult"?

Chen Ling looked at the line he had written on the paper, his expression complicated... But now that he had already set foot on this road, it was his only way to escape the Audience and his only choice if he wanted to return home.

But even so, how was he supposed to complete this "terrifying performance" involving at least fifty people?

Chen Ling sat before the desk and thought for a long time.

As though he had thought of something, he slowly wrote four words after that sentence:

[Martial Way Ancient Treasury]

Then he wrote a question mark.

The tip of his pen stopped on the final dot of the question mark. Black ink spread across the page as Chen Ling sat there like a statue, utterly motionless.

Aurora shimmered across the sky beyond the window.

Chen Ling did not notice that, at that moment, in the Grand Theater within his mind, the corners of the countless shadows seated in the audience rose slightly...

As though they were laughing.