Chapter 49 The Price of Advancement

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

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

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

Chen Ling walked on the deserted snowy path, his breath floating in the darkness. His right hand rubbed the USB flash drive in his arms, and his pupils flashed with unprecedented brightness.

"Restart..."

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

With a clear goal, the shadows brought to him by the "audience" seemed to be diluted a lot.

What if I am an actor on the stage? What if my life is interfered with? Unless you kill me, I must go back... Even if I die, I have to die on the way home.

Before that, he must grow up as soon as possible and cover up his identity as a member of the Twilight Society... Becoming a law enforcement officer seems to be a good choice.

The Dusk Society did not object to its members joining other organizations, and even encouraged them, because it meant that members could better hide themselves, and even use their positions to help other members.

"I become, I participate, I make trouble, I run away... This policy is really correct." Chen Ling laughed at himself.

He returned home and lit the kerosene lamp on the table. The orange candlelight illuminated the empty house, and 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 help of the light of the lamp.

"Infiltrate the ancient military treasures and steal the fragments of the military foundation?"

Chen Ling raised his eyebrows in surprise.

This piece of letter paper detailed a part of the regional map of the ancient military treasures, and marked it in red in a corner. If nothing unexpected happened, 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 a law enforcer, and he has just passed the assessment as the first place and is qualified to enter the ancient collection of the military path... At the same time, he also has the skill of [No Appearance].

Except Chen Ling, no one else has the opportunity to enter the ancient collection of the military path.

But why does the Dusk Society need the fragments of the foundation of the military path?

Chen Ling continued to read on. The Red King did not explain this in the letter. He just told him that a member of the Dusk Society would meet him at that time, coordinate his whereabouts, and cover his retreat.

After reading all the content, Chen Ling thought for a moment and then handed the letter to the candlelight.

The letter curled up, and the bright firelight reflected Chen Ling's face, beating silently in the dark...

...

That night, Chen Ling fell asleep and did not enter the theater.

He had a dream.

He dreamed that he returned to the era before the catastrophe, returned to the familiar door of his home, stood in the elevator, and looked at his mother holding his portrait and crying.

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

"Mom... I'm not dead." Chen Ling murmured as he walked out of the elevator, wanting to hug the family member he cared about the most.

"Mom, I'm still alive, I want you all to be alive..."

Just as his feet were about to step out of the elevator door, the elevator car fell down with a bang!

A strong sense of weightlessness enveloped Chen Ling. He struggled helplessly in the car. The elevator shaft seemed to become infinitely long. In the endless fall, he could only see the home that belonged to him going away madly...

Bang——

Chen Ling fell to the ground.

It was an endless darkness. The lights belonging to "home" seemed to have turned into stars, dotted on the unreachable sky. Chen Ling stood in the darkness, like an ant that was demoted to the abyss, reaching out his hand foolishly, trying to touch the starry sky.

Just when he was in despair, a bloody sacred road extended from under his feet, spreading all the way to the stars that were out of his reach...

That was his way home.

A twisted, weird, scarlet road... On both sides of the road, countless pairs of scarlet eyes were staring at him, full of teasing.

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

Chen Ling was stunned... He looked down at his feet and found that there was a line of small words written crookedly on this stone step.

[Complete a performance with at least fifty people, and ensure that no one survives after the performance]

The moment he saw this line of words, Chen Ling's doubts became more and more intense.

He looked back and suddenly found that there was also a line of small words on the steps he had walked on:

[Lose the person who loves you the most, and become him]

A line was drawn on the surface of this line of small words, like a list of completed performances, which was stepped on by him.

Chen Ling seemed to understand something. He looked back at the twisted road leading to the sky, with fear in his eyes...

This is a living road, a monster-like road!

The next moment, everything around him fell apart...

At midnight, Chen Ling woke up from his sleep.

He stayed in bed for a moment with a pale face, 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 was afraid of forgetting:

[Complete a performance with at least 50 people, and ensure that no one survives after the performance]

"Is this the price of advancing on the twisted Shinto? Or... a condition?"

Chen Ling muttered to himself.

Chen Ling knew that everything just now was not as simple as a dream. He did not enter the theater after falling asleep today, which was an abnormality in itself... Maybe this dream was a hint from his own Shinto? Or... was it A Yan?

"This road is different from other Shinto roads... It will make your life tortuous and bumpy..." Chen Ling recalled what Chen Yan said before he set foot on the twisted Shinto road, and fell into deep thought...

Other Shinto roads should not have such a price, otherwise Chu Muyun should remind him today, so these small words on the stone steps are unique to his twisted Shinto road?

Is this the "twists and turns" mentioned by Chen Yan?

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 can he 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 with a pen:

[Ancient Treasures of the Military Path]

Then he wrote a "?".

The pen tip was fixed at the last point of the question mark, the dark ink spread on the paper, and Chen Ling sat there like a sculpture, motionless.

The aurora was surging in the sky outside the window,

Chen Ling did not notice that at this moment, in the theater in his mind, the countless black shadows sitting in the audience seats had their mouths slightly raised...

like they were smiling.