Vermilion glass beads fell onto the snowy ground, their divine radiance flowing like brilliant stars scattered across the earth.
"What is this...?" Chen Yifei was stunned.
"Brother, you know... that red star represents 'theater'," Chen Muxu looked up at the gradually retreating divine path in the sky and spoke slowly, "Since the day I started learning theater on my own, I've occasionally sensed its presence... It wants to take me away, but I don't want to leave.
Every time it moves away, I leave a piece of its fragment behind. I thought that when I've collected enough, maybe I could take you, Mom, and Dad to the place it leads to, to see what lies at the end of 'theater'...
Unfortunately, in the end, I only managed to collect thirty-six pieces."
"Now... I can't go."
Chen Muxu smiled helplessly. He slowly picked up all the vermilion glass beads and forcefully threw them towards the retreating divine path in the sky!
In the next moment, countless divine radiances bloomed from these fragments, quickly intertwining in the air, reforming into a ribbon-like, ethereal divine path, chasing after the retreating one!
"Brother, you have to survive... Can you go and see what lies at the end of the Theater Path for me?"
The two sections of the divine path collided in the air, and brilliant divine light illuminated the sky!
The "Theater Path" was reconnected.
The vermilion star in the sky never expected its divine path to be forcibly retained. The divine radiance trembled in the air, as if trying to pull it back...
At the other end of the divine path, the young Chen Muxu stood quietly. Although his body looked frail and thin, his talent in the "Theater Path" was so powerful, transcendent, and steady as Mount Tai.
He forcibly nailed the starting point of the Theater Path in front of Chen Yifei!
The divine path betrayed Chen Yifei,
But Chen Muxu didn't;
"What's happening??"
Outside the courtyard, the shadowy man and Chu Muyun looked up at the sky in disbelief. Under the vermilion star, a broken path was rapidly repairing itself!
"Why is the Theater Path being held in place??"
"Did it choose Chen Yifei? How is this possible?!"
Even Chu Muyun, who was always calm and wise, couldn't help but widen his eyes. They carefully scanned around Chen Yifei in the center of the courtyard but didn't find anything unusual... In their sight, nothing was visible.
"Wait... This isn't right!"
"What's not right?"
"That Theater Path isn't right. It's twisted... I've never seen a divine path like this."
"What happens if you walk on a twisted divine path?"
"If a road's signs are altered, then who knows where its final destination is? Heaven? Or... Hell?"
"You mean..."
"Quickly stop him!! He mustn't walk on that twisted divine path!!!"
Two figures rushed towards the courtyard!
Chen Yifei stared blankly at Chen Muxu standing on the Theater Path. He wondered if it was just an illusion, but Chen Muxu's figure seemed to be gradually fading...
"Muxu... Muxu!"
Chen Yifei's pupils constricted. He didn't know where he found the strength, but he managed to slowly pull his shoulder out of the bone cage. Sharp bone tips tore through his flesh, and crimson blood dripped down his arm, quickly pooling on the ground.
He gritted his teeth, unable to suppress a groan. It took him over ten seconds to fully escape the cage, stumbling towards Chen Muxu!
"Muxu!" He reached out his hand towards Chen Muxu, but it only lightly passed through the emptiness...
Before, he could touch Chen Muxu.
"Brother, I really have to leave this time," Chen Muxu's face showed a pure and gentle smile unique to teenagers, "This path is different from other Theater Paths... It will make your life twists and turns and rough, but it may also allow you to escape from those things."
"Where are you going?" Chen Yifei's face was pale due to significant blood loss.
"Returning to where I should be... At the same time, I will also become the cornerstone of your divine path."
Chen Muxu stepped backward, fully revealing the divine path to Chen Yifei's sight.
His figure almost faded away, leaving only a voice lingering in Chen Yifei's ears.
"Walk on this path, and the world will belong to you, brother."
"Chen Yifei!! Stop!! You can't take that path!!"
Chu Muyun's voice urgently came, but Chen Yifei seemed unaware.
Wearing a bright red theatrical robe, he stood at the starting point of the divine path, slowly lifting his right foot, and then...
Stepped onto it.
Thud——!!
As his foot touched the ground, the ethereal divine path condensed instantly, turning into a blood-red stairway ascending towards the sky.
In the next moment, this stairway to heaven rapidly shrunk under Chen Yifei's feet, ultimately transforming into nothingness...
That twisted divine path seemed to have disappeared, or perhaps...
It was already under Chen Yifei's feet.
Chu Muyun and the shadowy man arrived at the scene, only to find Chen Yifei standing alone with his head lowered.
"Chen Yifei, didn't you hear me calling you just now?" Chu Muyun frowned and walked forward, intending to say something else, 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 but found that the latter hadn't spoken...
"What's wrong?" Immediately afterward, his own voice also sounded from the front.
Both of them looked forward simultaneously.
A piercing cold wind swept across the snowy ground. The teenager wearing a bright red theatrical robe stood facing away from them, with his neck twisted backward in a strange manner...
"Chen Yifei, didn't you hear me calling you just now?"
"What's wrong?"
"Chen Yifei, didn't you hear me calling you just now?"
"What's wrong?"
"Chen Yifei, I just called you..."
Chu Muyun and the shadowy man's voices alternated from Chen Yifei's throat. At the same time, his face kept switching between the two of them...
Yes, switching.
Chen Yifei's face seemed like a calendar mask that could be torn off arbitrarily. Every time he spoke a sentence, he would transform into the corresponding person's appearance. When the next sentence came, he would automatically tear off one to become another person's appearance.
Eyes, beard stubble, black mole, voice, every detail was perfectly reproduced. The two looked at Chen Yifei's face, which kept switching between their own faces, feeling a chill!
"What... What's wrong with him?" the shadowy man asked blankly.
"Generally speaking, stepping onto a divine path means ascending to the 'First Step,' and every step up automatically grants mastery of a corresponding path skill... His appearance should be the result of the first-step skill of the Theater Path."
"The first-step skill of the Theater Path is changing faces?"
"Block 7 told me that most Theater Path first-step awakened skills are [Thousand Faces], an extension of the basic disguise ability of actors... From the description, it's very similar to Chen Yifei's current situation."
"Why does he seem unclear?"
"His divine path was twisted, so the awakened skill should also be twisted... If nothing unexpected happens, he was counterattacked by his own skill."
"I see... No wonder he kept mimicking us just now."
"But he's not mimicking now..." Chu Muyun looked at Chen Yifei, who suddenly fell silent, and frowned, "I suddenly have a bad premonition..."
Before the shadowy man could ask what the premonition was, Chen Yifei lifted his head again...
A layer of skin was torn off his face.
Above Chen Yifei's neck, a huge black gun barrel was aimed at the two of them.