When Chen Ling came out of Xiao Fang's grocery store, it was already dark.

Chu Muyun waved at him and walked straight towards the direction of Aurora City, while Chen Ling stood at the door of the store, watching him leave, and then walked in another direction.

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

Chen Ling walked on the deserted snow-covered path, his breath faint in the darkness, his right hand rubbing the USB drive in his pocket, his eyes shining with an unprecedented brightness.

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

With a clear goal in mind, the shadows brought by the "audience" seemed to have dissipated a lot.

What does it matter if the actors on stage are interfered with in their lives? Unless you kill me, I must go back...

even if I have to die, I must die on the way home.

But before that, he had to grow up quickly, while also concealing his identity as a member of the Twilight Society...

becoming an enforcer seemed like a good choice.

The Twilight Society did not resist members joining other organizations, and even encouraged it, because it meant that members could better hide themselves, and even help other members through their positions.

"I become, I participate, I cause trouble, I run away...

this policy is indeed correct." Chen Ling chuckled self-deprecatingly.

He returned home, lit the kerosene lamp on the table, the orange candlelight illuminating the empty room, the cold wind seeping through the gaps in the walls and wooden boards, making a faint whistling sound.

Chen Ling sat down at the table, took out the envelope given to him by Chu Muyun, and carefully read it by the light of the lamp.

"Infiltrate the Bingdao Ancient Treasury, steal the Bingdao Dao Foundation Shard?" Chen Ling raised an eyebrow in surprise.

The letter detailed a part of the map of the Bingdao Ancient Treasury, with a corner marked in red, which was most likely the thing the Red King wanted him to steal...

Chen Ling finally understood why Chu Muyun said that only he could complete this task for the entire Twilight Society.

Because only Chen Ling was an enforcer, and had just passed the assessment in first place, qualifying him as an enforcer to enter the Bingdao Ancient Treasury...

at the same time, he also possessed the skill of "Wu Xiang".

Besides Chen Ling, no one else would have a chance to enter the Bingdao Ancient Treasury.

But why did the Twilight Society want the Bingdao Dao Foundation Shard? Chen Ling continued reading, the Red King did not explain this in the letter, only telling him that there would be a member of the Twilight Society to assist him and coordinate his movements, and provide support in the rear.

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After reading all the contents, Chen Ling pondered for a moment and then handed the letter into the candle flame.

The paper curled up, the bright flame reflecting on Chen Ling's face, silently flickering in the darkness...

...

That night, after Chen Ling fell asleep, he did not go to the theater.

He had a dream.

He dreamed that he had returned to the era before the Great Catastrophe, back to the familiar doorstep of his home, standing in the elevator, watching his mother holding his memorial photo, crying silently.

Chen Ling felt his heart wrenching, even though his chest was empty.

"Mom...

I'm not dead." Chen Ling murmured as he walked out of the elevator, wanting to embrace the family he missed the most, "Mom, I'm still alive, I want you all to be alive..." Just as his foot was about to step out of the elevator door, the elevator car suddenly plummeted! A strong sense of weightlessness enveloped Chen Ling, and he struggled helplessly in the car, only to see the elevator shaft seemingly endless, in the endless descent, he could only watch his home, which belonged to him, crazily drifting away...

Thud— Chen Ling fell to the ground.

It was an endless darkness, the lights of "home" seemed to have turned into stars, decorating the unreachable sky, Chen Ling stood in the darkness, like an ant banished to the depths, reaching out foolishly, trying to touch the starry sky.

Just as he was desperate, a blood-red divine path extended from under his feet, spreading all the way to the unreachable stars above him...

That was his way home.

A twisted, eerie, crimson path...

On both sides of the path, countless pairs of crimson eyes were staring at him, full of mockery.

Chen Ling was standing on the first step at this moment, wanting to climb higher as soon as possible, but when he was about to take the next step, he found that his foot could not step on the next step no matter what.

Chen Ling was stunned...

He looked down and found a line of small words written crookedly on this step.

[Complete a performance involving at least fifty people, and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends] The moment Chen Ling saw this line of words, his confusion deepened.

He turned back and suddenly found another line of small words on the steps he had already walked on: [Lose someone who loves you the most, and become him] The surface of this line of small words was crossed by a line, like a completed performance checklist, stepped on by him.

Chen Ling seemed to understand something, he looked back at the twisted path leading to the sky, fear appearing in his eyes...

This was a living path, a monstrous path! The next moment, everything around him shattered...

At midnight, Chen Ling woke up from his sleep, his face pale as he sat on the bed for a moment, then rushed down to the desk like crazy, picked up pen and paper, quickly wrote down the words on the next step: [Complete a performance involving at least fifty people, and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends] "Is this the price of advancing on the twisted divine path? Or...

a condition?" Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling knew that what had just happened was definitely not as simple as a dream, he did not enter the theater after falling asleep today, which was already abnormal...

Perhaps, this dream was a hint from his own divine path? Or...

from Chen Yan? "This path is different from other divine paths...

It will make your life full of twists and turns..." Chen Ling recalled the words Chen Yan said before he stepped onto the twisted divine path, lost in thought...

Other people's divine paths should not have something like a price, otherwise Chu Muyun should have reminded him today, so, are these small words on the steps unique to his twisted divine path? Is this what Chen Yan meant by "full of twists and turns"? Chen Ling looked at the line of words he wrote on the paper, his expression somewhat complicated...

But now that he had embarked on this path, and this path would be his only way to escape the audience and his only choice to go home.

But even so, how could he complete this "horror performance" involving at least fifty people? Chen Ling sat at the table, pondering for a long time.

He seemed to have figured something out, slowly wrote four words behind this sentence: [Ancient Art of War] Then, he wrote a "?" afterwards.

The tip of the pen stopped at the last point of the question mark, the black ink spreading on the paper, Chen Ling sat there like a sculpture, motionless.

The aurora surged in the sky outside the window, Chen Ling did not notice, at this moment in the grand theater in his mind, the countless dark figures sitting in the audience seats, their mouths slightly upturned...

As if laughing.