When Chen Yifei emerged from Xiaofang's grocery store, the sky had already darkened.
Chu Muyun waved to him and walked straight in the direction of Aurora City, while Chen Yifei stood at the entrance of the store, watching him leave before heading off in another direction.
The heavy snow had stopped, but what followed was the bitter cold as the ice and snow melted.
Chen Yifei walked along the deserted, snow-covered path, his breath floating vaguely in the darkness. His right hand rubbed the USB drive in his pocket, and his eyes shone with an unprecedented brightness.
"Restart..."
Chen Yifei took a deep breath and walked resolutely into the darkness.
With a clear goal in mind, the shadows brought by the "audience" seemed to have been diluted considerably.
What if I'm just 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 must die on my way home.
Before that, he had to grow up quickly and conceal his identity as a member of the Twilight Society... Becoming a law enforcer seemed to be a good choice.
The Twilight Society did not resist members joining other organizations; it even encouraged it, as it meant members could better hide themselves and even assist other members through their positions.
"I become, I participate, I disrupt, I flee... This guideline is indeed not wrong," Chen Yifei chuckled to himself.
He returned home, lit the kerosene lamp on the table, and the orange candlelight illuminated the empty room. Cold wind seeped through the gaps in the wooden walls, producing a whining buzz.
Chen Yifei sat down by the table, took out the envelope given by Chu Muyun, and carefully read it by the light of the lamp.
"Infiltrate the Ancient Treasure of the Weapon Path and steal fragments of the foundation of the Weapon Path?"
Chen Yifei raised his eyebrows in surprise.
This letter detailed a part of the map of the Ancient Treasure of the Weapon Path, with a red mark in one corner. If there were no accidents, that was what Chi Yan Jun wanted him to steal...
Chen Yifei finally understood why Chu Muyun said that only he could complete this task in the entire Twilight Society.
It was because only Chen Yifei was a law enforcer, and he had just passed the assessment as the top candidate, qualifying him to enter the Ancient Treasure of the Weapon Path... At the same time, he also possessed the skill [Shapeless].
Besides Chen Yifei, no one else would have the opportunity to enter the Ancient Treasure of the Weapon Path.
But why did the Twilight Society want fragments of the foundation of the Weapon Path?
Chen Yifei continued reading, but Chi Yan Jun did not explain this in the letter. He only told him that a member of the Twilight Society would meet him and coordinate with his movements, serving as a rear guard.
After reading all the content, Chen Yifei pondered for a moment before feeding the letter into the candlelight.
The paper curled up, and the bright flame illuminated Chen Yifei's face, silently flickering in the darkness...
...
That night, after Chen Yifei fell asleep, he did not enter the theater.
He had a dream.
He dreamed that he had returned to the era before the Great Catastrophe, back to the familiar entrance of his home, standing in the elevator, watching his mother holding his portrait and crying inconsolably.
Chen Yifei felt his heart wrench, even though his chest was empty.
"Mom... I'm not dead." Chen Yifei mumbled as he stepped out of the elevator, wanting to embrace the family member he cared most about.
"Mom, I'm still alive. I want you all to be alive..."
Just as his foot was about to step out of the elevator door, the elevator car suddenly plummeted!
A strong sense of weightlessness enveloped Chen Yifei. He struggled helplessly inside the car, only to see the elevator shaft seemingly becoming infinitely long. In the never-ending fall, he could only watch as his home, which belonged to him, was rapidly disappearing into the distance...
Thud—
Chen Yifei fell to the ground.
It was an endless darkness. The lights of "home" seemed to have turned into stars, dotting the unreachable sky. Chen Yifei stood in the darkness, like an ant banished to the abyss, foolishly stretching out his hand, vainly attempting to touch the starry sky.
Just when he was despairing, a blood-colored divine path extended from his feet, spreading all the way up to the unreachable stars above him...
That was his way home.
A twisted, eerie, crimson path... On both sides of the path, countless pairs of crimson eyes were staring at him, filled with mockery.
Chen Yifei was standing on the first step at this moment. He wanted to ascend higher as soon as possible, but when he was about to take the next step, he found that his foot could not step on the next step no matter how he tried.
Chen Yifei was stunned... He looked down at his feet and found that there was a line of crooked small words written on this stone step.
[Complete a performance with at least fifty participants and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends]
The moment he saw these words, Chen Yifei's confusion grew even stronger.
He looked back and suddenly found that there was also a line of small words on the step he had already walked on:
[Lose the one who loves you most and become him]
A line was drawn across the surface of these small words, like a completed performance checklist, being stepped on by him.
Chen Yifei seemed to understand something. He looked up at this twisted path leading to the sky again, and horror emerged in his eyes...
This was a living path, a monstrous path!
In the next moment, everything around him fragmented...
In the middle of the night, Chen Yifei woke up from his sleep.
He stayed in bed for a moment with a ghastly pale face, then rushed to the desk like a madman, picked up paper and pen, and quickly wrote down the words on the next stone step as if he was afraid of forgetting them:
[Complete a performance with at least fifty participants and ensure that no one survives after the performance ends]
"Is this the price or... the condition to advance on the twisted divine path?"
Chen Yifei muttered to himself.
Chen Yifei knew that what had just happened was not just a simple dream. The fact that he didn't enter the theater after falling asleep today was abnormal in itself... Maybe this dream was a hint from his own divine path? Or... was it Chen Muyu?
"This path is different from other divine paths... It will make your life full of twists and obstacles..." Chen Yifei recalled Chen Muyu's words before he stepped onto the twisted divine path and fell into deep thought...
Other people's divine paths should not have something like a price, otherwise, Chu Muyun should have reminded him today. So, these small words on the stone steps were unique to his twisted divine path?
Did Chen Muyu mean "full of twists and obstacles" by this?
Chen Yifei looked at the line he wrote on the paper with a complex expression... But now he had already embarked on this path, and this path would be the only way for him to get rid of the audience and the only choice for him to return home.
But even so, how could he complete this "horror performance" with at least fifty participants?
Chen Yifei sat at the desk, thinking for a long time.
He seemed to have thought of something and slowly wrote four words behind this sentence:
[Ancient Treasure of the Weapon Path]
Then, he wrote a "?" mark.
The tip of the pen was fixed at the last dot of the question mark, and the black ink spread on the paper. Chen Yifei sat there like a sculpture, motionless.
The aurora swirled in the sky outside the window.
Chen Yifei didn't notice that at this moment, in the grand theater of his mind, the countless black shadows sitting in the audience seats had their mouths slightly raised...
As if they were smiling.