Chapter 1601: The Play of All Sentient Beings

The Play of All Sentient Beings

The toad suspiciously looked at the Chen Ling before it. A moment later, it turned its gaze toward the Bitter Flesh Forest, where a massive battle was taking place.

In the end, it still carried Chen Ling on its back and rapidly charged in that direction.

Between these two Kings, who was real and who was fake would be known once they met... If the one on its back was real, then it could be considered to have followed the King's command. If the one in the Bitter Flesh Forest was real, then it could be considered to have taken the initiative to deliver the enemy right to the King.

At the same time, Bi Yi also carried Wu Tongyuan and the others, directly speeding away in the opposite direction.

[Audience Expectation Value +3]

[Current Expectation Value: 76%]

Two lines of small text swept past Chen Ling's eyes, but right now he had no mind to look at them. His gaze was fixed dead on the gradually approaching Bitter Flesh Forest, his brain working at top speed.

At this moment, there were still over twenty minutes until this Timeline Save File ended... How was he supposed to survive this period of time?

Could it be that he had to die twice again, releasing the complete Calamity of Mockery?

But releasing the complete Calamity of Mockery was easy. How would he take back the initiative of his body afterward? What if the one who returned to the real world wasn't him, but another brutal, complete Calamity of Mockery? Then all of humanity would be finished!

Chen Ling pondered for a long time, closed his eyes, and directly submerged his mind into the Theater within his head.

...

Clack, clack, clack—

The familiar sound rang out from overhead once again. As numerous spotlights were turned on, Chen Ling opened his eyes under the attention of the crowd, his heart fraught with worry.

He walked straight to the screen on the stage and pressed the Treasure Chest icon in the corner.

As a burst of passionate music sounded, when Chen Ling turned around, a familiar long table had already appeared on the empty stage.

Chen Ling still had one chance to extract an ability.

During that earth-shattering battle not long ago, Chen Ling consecutively completed two performances. Later, he only extracted one reward, obtaining the Calamity of Thought's mental invasion ability. He kept the other one in reserve all along, waiting to flexibly use it at a critical moment...

There shouldn't be any situation more critical than the current one.

But whose ability should he extract to give him a chance to break free from the current certain-death situation? Who could help him stall for over twenty minutes against the Calamity of Mockery? Or rather, who could allow him to snatch back his body after the complete Calamity of Mockery was released?

Chen Ling stood in front of the table holding a pen, but hesitated to press it down...

Lord of the Aurora, Yang Xiao?

He already possessed his soul magnetic field ability... But while this ability was fine for Slaughtering the Calamity, it couldn't be used to breach the Fourth Wall.

The Calamity of Thought?

Theoretically speaking, its ability could indeed lead him to fight his way out of the Theater's siege. But that was something the World-Ending Tier Calamity of Thought at the time could only barely accomplish. With his current strength, could it really achieve the same effect?

At this moment, countless names flashed through Chen Ling's mind, but he rejected them all one by one. The anxiety in his eyes grew increasingly intense.

The pressure on him was too great. The name he was about to write down was not only directly related to who exactly the "person" returning to the real world would be, but it would even affect the future trajectory of all humanity...

"Master..."

"Just what should I do?"

At his wits' end, the figure of the Fifth Generation Red King surfaced in Chen Ling's mind, and he couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Chen Ling froze.

"...Master?"

As if he had thought of something, as if possessed, he wrote a name on the table:

—[Chen Yan].

When driven into a corner, Chen Ling chose to place the gamble of fate onto this person who had the most profound impact on him.

With the fall of the final stroke, the paper on the table vanished instantly. At the same time, a neat row of card faces appeared in the nothingness before his eyes... Those were the talents that the Frost Street Chen Yan, who had yet to fully grow up, ought to have possessed. It was also the treasure left behind for Chen Ling by the fifth generation Nameless Actor.

Chen Ling took a deep breath and, following his intuition, selected one of the card faces.

The card face flipped over.

A segment of information entered Chen Ling's mind:

"Skill: [The Play of All Sentient Beings]"

"Affiliation: Path of the Actor, [Ancient and Modern Theatrical Heart] Path, Rank 8."

"Character: Chen Yan."

Chen Ling was stunned.

He sensed the description regarding this ability in his mind. A sharp light first flashed through his eyes, followed by a trace of bitterness and complexity...

"Master... Is this your answer?"

What Chen Ling had extracted was nothing else but the Fifth Generation Red King's ability to write Character Profiles and shape "all sentient beings"... It was also the very ability the Fifth Generation Red King used back then to create the character "Chen Ling."

The past Chen Ling was born because of this ability, and now, he had also become the possessor of this ability.

Perhaps it truly was the guidance of fate, or perhaps this was also one of the contingency plans left behind by the Fifth Generation Red King...

The instant Chen Ling obtained this ability, he thought of a way to break the deadlock.

Since the Red King from back then could use a Character Profile to create him amidst the numerous personalities of the Calamity of Mockery... then why couldn't he, who now similarly possessed [The Play of All Sentient Beings], use the same method to recreate another personality?

Since only by releasing the complete Calamity of Mockery could he confront the complete Calamity of Mockery of this era, then there was no need to agonize over how to confront the Calamity of Mockery. He just had to find a way to turn the Calamity of Mockery personality occupying this body into the personality he wanted...

Recreate another "Chen Ling"?

No...

His [The Play of All Sentient Beings] couldn't portray a character in such minute detail. "Chen Ling's" experiences were too tortuous, and the line between good and evil was only a single thought away. Coupled with the fact that the Calamity of Mockery's personality was inherently evil, he was afraid that even if he recreated himself, before undergoing enough hardships and tempering, before gaining a clear understanding of his goals, his ideological concepts would still be immature...

The worst outcome was that the new "Chen Ling" would also choose to stand on the side of the Calamity; the best outcome was that he would directly become that "him" who had just been expelled by the South Sea Domain, who only wanted to return to the Ghost Mockery Abyss and be quiet by himself.

This new personality had to have an incredibly strong sense of justice and conviction. Even while possessing world-destroying power like the Calamity of Mockery, he still had to be able to maintain his true self...

Moreover, he had to completely trust him, because he had to return to the stage. This meant that this personality would ultimately have to sacrifice everything to fulfill him.

Pages of paper appeared out of thin air in Chen Ling's hands. He was just about to lower his pen and write something when he suddenly paused slightly.

Wait...

It seems he didn't need to fabricate such a "Role" out of nothing?

Chen Ling's consciousness returned to his body. He directly grabbed that great red paper umbrella out of the nothingness and gently opened it... Under the surging aurora, countless souls were bobbing within it. Those were all the departed souls Chen Ling had brought back from the ruins of the Aurora Domain!

Chen Ling's gaze swept across the aurora, ultimately landing on the illusory figure of one of the souls!