Chapter 40: The Twisted Path of the Performer

Crimson glass beads fell onto the snow, their divine radiance shimmering like scattered stars across the mortal world.

"This is..." Chen Ling was stunned.

"Brother, do you know... that red star represents 'theater.'" Chen Yan looked up at the divine path gradually receding in the sky and spoke softly. "Ever since I started teaching myself drama, I would occasionally sense its presence... It wanted to take me away, but I didn’t want to go.

Every time it drifted away, I would keep a fragment of it. I thought that if I saved enough, maybe I could take you, Mom, and Dad to the place it pointed to, to see what lies at the end of 'theater'...

But in the end, I only managed to save thirty-six fragments."

"Now... I can’t go anymore."

Chen Yan smiled helplessly. He gathered all the crimson glass beads in his hand and hurled them toward the receding divine path in the sky!

In the next moment, countless divine rays burst from these fragments, rapidly intertwining in midair and converging into a ribbon-like divine path, chasing after the retreating one!

"Brother, you must live on... Will you go and see what lies at the end of the theatrical path for me?"

The "Path of the Performer" was reconnected.

The crimson star in the sky never expected its divine path to be forcibly anchored. Its radiance trembled in midair, as if trying to pull it back...

At the other end of the divine path, the young Chen Yan stood quietly. Though his body appeared frail and thin, his talent for the "theatrical path" was overwhelmingly powerful, transcendent, and unshakable.

He had firmly nailed the starting point of the Path of the Performer before Chen Ling.

The divine path had abandoned Chen Ling, but Chen Yan had not.

"What’s happening?!"

Outside the mansion, the shadowy man and Chu Muyun both stared in shock at the sky. Beneath the crimson star, a shattered path was rapidly being repaired!

"Why is the Path of the Performer anchored?!"

"Did it choose Chen Ling? How is that possible?!"

Even the usually calm and wise Chu Muyun couldn’t help but widen his eyes. The two of them carefully scanned the area around Chen Ling in the center of the mansion but found nothing unusual... In their vision, there was nothing to see.

"Wait... something’s not right!"

"What’s not right?"

"That Path of the Performer is not right. It’s twisted... I’ve never seen a divine path like this before."

"What happens if you walk on a twisted divine path?"

"If the signs on a road are altered, who knows where it might lead? Heaven? Or... hell?"

"You mean..."

"Stop him!! He must not walk that twisted divine path!!!"

The two figures rushed toward the mansion at full speed!

Chen Ling stared blankly at Chen Yan standing on the Path of the Performer. It might have been his imagination, but Chen Yan’s figure seemed to be fading...

"A-Yan... A-Yan!"

Chen Ling’s pupils contracted. Summoning strength from who knows where, he slowly pulled his shoulder free from the skeletal cage. The sharp bones tore through his flesh, and crimson blood dripped from his arm, quickly pooling on the ground.

He clenched his teeth, but a pained howl still escaped his lips. After more than ten seconds, he finally broke free from the cage and stumbled toward Chen Yan!

"A-Yan!" He reached out to grab Chen Yan, but his hand passed through empty air...

Before, he had been able to touch Chen Yan.

"Brother, this time I really have to go." Chen Yan’s face showed the pure, gentle smile unique to a young boy. "This path is different from the other Paths of the Performer... It will make your life more tortuous and bumpy, but it might also help you break free from those things."

"Where are you going?" Chen Ling’s face was pale from blood loss.

"Back to where I belong... and at the same time, I’ll become the foundation of your divine path."

Chen Yan took a step back, fully revealing the divine path before Chen Ling.

His figure almost completely faded, leaving only a voice echoing in Chen Ling’s ears.

"Walk this path, and the world will belong to you, brother."

"Chen Ling!! Stop! You can’t walk that path!!"

Chu Muyun’s voice rushed in, but Chen Ling seemed not to hear.

Dressed in a grand red theatrical robe, he stood at the starting point of the divine path, slowly raised his right foot, and then...

Stepped onto it.

Thud—!!

The moment his foot landed, the ethereal, ribbon-like divine path solidified into a blood-red staircase ascending to the heavens.

In the next moment, the staircase rapidly shrank beneath Chen Ling’s feet, eventually vanishing into nothingness...

The twisted divine path seemed to have disappeared, or perhaps...

It was now beneath Chen Ling’s feet.

Chu Muyun and the shadowy man arrived at the scene, only to find Chen Ling standing alone, his head lowered.

"Chen Ling, didn’t you hear me calling you earlier?" Chu Muyun frowned as he stepped forward, about to say more, but suddenly stopped.

"What’s wrong?" the shadowy man asked.

Chu Muyun’s voice sounded again.

The shadowy man was startled. He turned to look at Chu Muyun, only to find that the latter hadn’t spoken at all...

"What’s wrong?" Then, his own voice came from ahead.

The two of them looked forward simultaneously.

A biting cold wind swept across the snow. The young man in the grand red theatrical robe stood with his back to them, his neck twisting unnaturally backward...

"Chen Ling, didn’t you hear me calling you earlier?"

"What’s wrong?"

"Chen Ling, didn’t you hear me calling you earlier?"

"What’s wrong?"

"Chen Ling, didn’t you hear me..."

The voices of Chu Muyun and the shadowy man alternated from Chen Ling’s throat. At the same time, his face kept shifting between the two of them...

Yes, shifting.

Chen Ling’s face seemed to have a mask like a calendar that could be torn off at will. With each sentence he spoke, he would transform into the appearance of one person, and with the next sentence, he would tear off the mask and become the other.

Eyes, stubble, moles, voices—every detail was perfectly replicated. The two men watched as Chen Ling’s face continuously shifted between their own appearances, feeling a chill run down their spines!

"What’s... what’s wrong with him?" the shadowy man asked, bewildered.

"Generally, stepping onto a divine path means reaching the 'First Tier,' and with each tier ascended, one automatically masters a corresponding path skill... His current state is likely caused by the First Tier skill of the Path of the Performer."

"The First Tier skill of the Path of the Performer is face-changing?"

"Block 7 told me that most First Tier skills awakened by the Path of the Performer are[Thousand Faces], an extension of the most basic disguise ability of actors... From the description, it sounds similar to what Chen Ling is experiencing now."

"Then why does he seem so disoriented?"

"His divine path is twisted, so the skill he awakened must also be twisted... Most likely, he’s being overwhelmed by his own skill."

"I see... No wonder he was mimicking our speech earlier."

"But he’s stopped now..." Chu Muyun frowned as he looked at Chen Ling, who had suddenly fallen silent. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

The shadowy man was about to ask what he meant when Chen Ling raised his head again...

A mask was torn from his face.

Above Chen Ling’s neck, a large, pitch-black gun barrel locked onto the two of them.