Chapter 49 The Price of Progress
When Chen Ling came out of Xiaofang Grocery Store, it was already dark.
Chu Muyun waved to him and walked straight to the direction of Aurora City. Chen Ling stood at the door of the store, watched him leave, and then walked in the other direction.
The heavy snowfall has stopped, but what follows is the intense cold as the snow and ice melt.
Chen Ling was walking on the deserted snow-covered path, breathing misty in the darkness. He rubbed the USB flash drive in his arms with his right hand, his eyes shining brighter than ever before.
"Restart..."
Chen Ling took a deep breath and walked firmly into the darkness.
With a clear goal, the shadow brought by the "audience" on him seems to be diluted a lot.
What about being an actor on stage? What if your life is interfered with? Unless you kill me, I must go back...even if I die, I will die on the way home.
Before that, he had to grow up as quickly as possible while concealing his identity as a member of the Twilight Society... becoming a law enforcement officer seemed to be a good choice.
The Twilight Society does not resist members from joining other organizations, and even encourages them, because this means that members can better hide themselves, and even help other members through their positions.
"I become, I participate, I make trouble, I run away... This goal is indeed correct." Chen Ling smiled mockingly to herself.
He returned home and lit the kerosene lamp on the table. The orange candle light illuminated the empty room. The cold wind seeped through the gaps between the wooden boards on the wall, making a humming sound.
Chen Ling sat down at the table, took out the envelope given by Chu Muyun, and read it carefully with the light of the lamp.
"Sneak into the ancient treasure of the art of war and steal the fragments of the foundation of the art of war?"
Chen Ling raised her eyebrows in surprise.
On this piece of paper, a detailed map of a part of the ancient military treasure trove was drawn, and one corner was marked in red. If nothing else, that was what the Red King wanted him to steal...
Chen Ling finally understood why Chu Muyun said that only he could complete this task in the entire Dusk Society.
Because only Chen Ling is the law enforcer, and he is the law enforcer who has just passed the assessment as the first place and is qualified to enter the ancient military treasures... At the same time, he also has the skill of [Shadowless].
Except for Chen Ling, it is impossible for anyone else to have the opportunity to enter the ancient treasure of the art of war.
But Dusk Society, why do you need the fragments of the foundation of the military path?
Chen Ling continued to read. The Red King did not explain this in the letter, but only told him that a member of the Twilight Society would be with him at that time to coordinate his whereabouts and conduct a breakup.
After reading everything, Chen Ling thought for a moment and then handed the letter into the candlelight.
The letter paper was curled up, and the bright firelight reflected Chen Ling's face, beating silently in the darkness...
…
That night, after Chen Ling fell asleep, she did not enter the theater.
He had a dream.
He dreamed that he was back in the era before the catastrophe, back at the door of his familiar home, standing in the elevator, looking at his mother holding his photo, crying.
Chen Ling felt that his heart was cramping, even though his chest was empty.
"Mom...I'm not dead." Chen Ling murmured and walked out of the elevator, wanting to hug the family member she cared about the most.
"Mom, I'm still alive, and I want you all to be alive..."
Just when his feet were about to step out of the elevator door, the elevator car suddenly fell!
A strong sense of weightlessness enveloped Chen Ling. He struggled helplessly in the car. The elevator shaft seemed to be infinitely long. In the endless fall, he could only see the home that belonged to him. Go crazy...
Boom——
Chen Ling fell to the ground.
This is an endless darkness. The lights belonging to "home" seem to have turned into stars, dotted on the distant sky. Chen Ling stands in the darkness, like an ant who has been relegated to the abyss, stretching out infatuatedly. Take action, hoping to reach the stars.
Just when he was despairing, a bloody divine path stretched from his feet to the stars that were out of his reach...
That was his way home.
A twisted, strange, scarlet road... On both sides of the road, countless pairs of scarlet eyes were staring at him, their eyes full of teasing.
Chen Ling was standing on the first step at the moment. He wanted to climb to a higher place as soon as possible, but when he was about to take the next step, he found that he could not step on the next step with his feet.
Chen Ling was stunned... He lowered his head and looked at his feet, and found that there was a line of small characters written crookedly on the stone steps.
[Complete a performance with at least fifty people participating, and ensure that no one survives after the performance]
The moment she saw this line of words, Chen Ling's doubts became more intense.
He looked back behind him and suddenly found a line of small words on the steps he had walked:
[Losing the person who loves you most and becoming him]
A line was drawn across the surface of this line of small words, like a completed performance list, which he stepped on.
Chen Ling seemed to understand something. He looked at the twisted road leading to the sky again, fear appearing in his eyes...
This is a road to live, this is a monster road!
The next moment, everything around him was shattered...
At midnight, Chen Ling woke up from her sleep,
He stayed on the bed for a moment with a pale face, then rushed out of bed like crazy and came to the desk, picked up a pen and paper, and quickly wrote down the words on the next stone step as if he were afraid of forgetting:
[Complete a performance with at least fifty people participating, and ensure that no one survives after the performance]
"Is this the price of advancing on the twisted path of God? Or is it... a condition?"
Chen Ling murmured to herself.
Chen Ling knew that what just happened was by no means as simple as a dream. He did not enter the theater after falling asleep today, which was an anomaly in itself... Maybe, this dream was a hint given to him by his own divine way? Or...is it Ayan?
"This road is different from other Shinto ways... It will make your life tortuous and bumpy..." Chen Ling recalled what Chen Yan said before she set foot on the twisted Shinto way, and fell into deep thought...
There shouldn't be anything like a price in other people's Shinto, otherwise Chu Muyun would have reminded him today. So, are these small words on the stone steps unique to his twisted Shinto?
Is this the "twisting and ups and downs" that Chen Yan calls?
Chen Ling looked at the words he wrote on the paper with a complicated expression... But now he has embarked on this road, and this road will be his only way to get rid of the audience and his only choice to go home. .
But even so, how should I complete this "horror performance" with at least fifty people participating?
Chen Ling sat at the table and thought for a long time.
He seemed to have thought of something, and slowly wrote four words behind this sentence:
【Bing Dao Ancient Collection】
Then he wrote a "?"
The pen tip was fixed on the last point of the question mark, and the dark ink spread on the page. Chen Ling sat there like a sculpture, motionless.
Aurora surges in the sky outside the window,
Chen Ling didn't notice that in the big theater in her mind at this moment, the corners of the mouths of the countless black figures sitting in the audience were slightly raised...
Like laughing.