Chapter 209: Face, and the Characters in the Play

The middle-aged man who emerged from Wen Shilin’s house, the extra performing a monologue in the abandoned factory, the journalist Lin Yan, the stranger with the gluttonous face, the bit-part player in the Ancient Military Tomb, Usurper No. 13…

Dozens of faces were peeled off by Chen Ling. Looking at each shifting identity, Chen Ling felt a sense of numbness. Unconsciously, he had already played so many roles. For a moment, he even doubted who he truly was, what he was. Was he a clown constantly impersonating others, or a desperate character trapped on a bewildering stage?

Finally, when his own face, Chen Ling’s face, appeared in the reflection of the wall clock, Chen Ling’s heart relaxed slightly. It was the face he knew so well, his most authentic appearance. His ‘No-Phase’ ability only went back this far; beneath this face, there were no others.

Indeed, I am me… I am Chen Ling.

Chen Ling took a deep breath, as if to expel all the doubt and fear that had lingered in his mind. The farce was over; it was time to leave.

As Chen Ling was about to turn and leave, he noticed that, along with his return to his original face, the brown overcoat he was wearing had transformed back into the large red opera robe.

“Did everything just revert by accident… I should revert to Yan Xishou’s appearance and leave first,” he murmured. He had just turned and taken one step when he suddenly froze. He stared at his reflection in the wall clock, draped in the large red opera robe. A question he had long forgotten suddenly surged into his mind…

Why was he wearing this opera robe? This robe should belong to Ah Yan… When Ah Yan died, their parents used this robe as his burial shroud and interred it with him… But why, why was it on him?

Ever since that rainy night when Chen Ling first regained his memories, this robe had been on him. But before that, he and Ah Yan were buried underground. When did he put on this robe? And… this robe clearly wasn’t his, so why did it reappear with him every time he died?

The moment this question arose, Chen Ling felt all the hairs on his body stand on end. He stiffly turned his head, looking at his reflection in the wall clock, his pupils involuntarily constricting slightly. As if possessed, he stretched out a fingertip and again reached for his chin. His ‘No-Phase’ ability could only go back this far; beneath this face, there shouldn’t have been another… Yet Chen Ling did it anyway.

His fingertip gently rubbed his slightly rough chin, as if searching for something. Suddenly, the very tip of his finger seemed to brush against an almost imperceptible bump… like a perfectly applied facial mask with a single crease. Chen Ling’s body jolted as if he had received an electric shock! His Adam’s apple bobbed. His fingertip carefully pinched this tiny protrusion, then tore it away with force…

An extremely thin mask slipped from Chen Ling’s fingertips. The humming of the pendulum ticked in the silent room. On the smooth glass, a refined teenage face had appeared at some point… It was a face Chen Ling would never forget. Upon seeing it, Chen Ling’s breath caught.

It was Chen Yan’s face.

Seeing himself in the mirror, Chen Ling’s mind went blank. He stood motionless like a statue. At the same time, the scene before his eyes seemed to distort suddenly. The original study had vanished, replaced by a winding, distorted divine path leading from an abyss towards the sky.

As if remembering something, Chen Ling stiffly turned his head. On the very first step of this divine path, a line of small text he had once overlooked was once again reflected in his pupils:

—Lose the one who loves you most, and become him.

His pupils abruptly constricted!

Then, as if remembering something else, his eyes involuntarily widened, and he burst into laughter, as if seeing through everything: “I know now… It’s you! You’re playing tricks on me again?! I finally had some peace for so long, and all this time you were waiting for me here?!”

“You tampered with the names on the transaction records, and these photos! You even changed my face! Didn’t you?!”

“You saw that Yan Xishou misremembered, and you came up with this idea on the spot! You want to drive me mad with this method… But you can’t tamper with everything! I’ll find a way to prove who I am, I will!!”

The figure in the large red opera robe frantically clutched his hair, pacing back and forth in the room, seemingly racking his brain.

A humming alarm blared outside the window, and numerous figures ran around. Beyond the tightly shut door, heavy footsteps seemed to be approaching. The red-robed man’s gaze fell upon the distant dungeon. An idea flashed through his mind, and his dim, struggling eyes brightened slightly as if finding hope.

“I know now… Soul-shattering evidence! Soul-shattering evidence!!”

“You can tamper with things in reality, but you can’t change the memories etched into my soul… As long as I perform a soul-shattering search on myself! I’ll be able to see exactly what happened that night!”

Like a drowning man who had finally grasped a lifeline, the red-robed man punched through the window without hesitation. His lithe figure, like a fluttering red butterfly, leaped from the fourth floor, gliding directly towards the interrogation room next to the dungeon.

At the same time, the study door shook twice and then exploded inward! The old butler stood outside the door with a dozen people, his expression extremely grim. Behind him, the Puppeteer, carrying a paper figure on his back, and a man in black stood on either side. Had the red-robed man looked back at that moment, he would have recognized the man in black as the powerful ‘Book God Path’ practitioner who had tried to force him into Aurora City after he had slipped out of the Ancient Military Tomb, only to be forcibly stopped by Han Meng on the train.

Now, standing beside the old butler, both men’s faces were as dark as water upon seeing the red-robed figure leap from the window.

“To dare impersonate me… he’s asking for death,” the Puppeteer sneered. The paper figure perched on his back immediately floated out, gliding like a ghost through the shattered window, pursuing the red-robed man. The black-clad man beside him also glanced in that direction, snorted, and his figure dissolved like ink into countless strokes of Chinese characters, rapidly vanishing from the spot.

The old butler hurried into the study, searched around, and soon found Yan Xishou, who had been knocked unconscious inside a bookshelf cabinet. After tremblingly confirming that he was still breathing, the butler finally let out a sigh of relief. His face then filled with anger and chilling murderous intent.

“After breaking out of prison, he dared to come back and attack the Young Master… If he doesn’t die today, the Starlight Merchant Guild will be completely disgraced!!”

“Don’t worry,” the Puppeteer said calmly, standing beside him. “This time, he won’t escape.”