Chapter 23: Divine Favor

A flicker of surprise appeared in Chu Muyun's eyes upon hearing this.

"Oh? Are you also interested in the path to godhood?"

"Somewhat. And I plan to become an enforcer next, so..."

"'Enforcer,' Chu Muyun nodded. 'So, you intend to follow the 'Martial God Path'?"

"I suppose so... Aren't enforcers only able to follow the 'Martial God Path'?"

"Who said that?" Chu Muyun chuckled softly. "Most enforcers—or rather, officers—follow the 'Martial God Path' because it's the only path to godhood known within the Aurora Domain. However, there are also many chosen ones of other divine paths among Aurora City's officers, and they can still become enforcers."

"I don't have any special talents, so I probably won't have the chance to become a chosen one," Chen Ling sighed. "Most likely, I'll have to wait three years after becoming an enforcer to try my luck at the 'Ancient Martial Path Treasury'..."

"Brother, who says you don't have talent!" Chen Yan immediately put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "You're so amazing, surely many of those... divine paths will be vying for you!"

Chen Ling smiled bitterly.

Chen Ling was telling the truth. Since his previous life, he had been an unremarkable drop of water lost in the tide of ordinariness. As a child, his parents did make him learn some arts like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but he mastered none of them and forgot everything after growing up. His academic performance was average, and his physical health was poor. He was the kind of ordinary person who might know a little bit about everything, but couldn't excel at anything specific. This life's Chen Ling was no different.

With two lives of ordinariness compounded, Chen Ling didn't believe he had the potential to be chosen by a divine path.

"Talent is indeed unpredictable," Chu Muyun mused. "Some people might possess a certain talent that simply hasn't manifested yet. Perhaps it will reveal itself at the right moment..."

"If it's the Martial God Path, then how can one know if they have the talent?"

"It's simple."

Chu Muyun's smile slowly faded as he spoke with extreme indifference, "You'll know if you kill someone... If one isn't enough, kill ten, kill a hundred... If you've killed a thousand and the Martial God Path still hasn't favored you, then you can be sure you don't possess that talent."

Chen Ling's chopsticks paused, and the living room fell into dead silence.

"Just kidding," Chu Muyun chuckled, as if ice and snow had melted, and a warm breeze once again swept across the dining table. "If you don't want to kill, then you can only enter the ancient treasury... Three years is a long time, but you're young enough to wait."

Killing... Chen Ling looked at the rice in his bowl, recalling the red paper monster killing the two enforcers that night, and suddenly felt nauseous.

Chen Ling was an ordinary person. Even if he had killed countless people in games in his previous life and watched many gory movies, he still couldn't bring himself to actually take a knife and kill someone. He couldn't cross that internal line, that boundary built by rationality and compassion.

"What then is a 'path'?"

Chen Ling remembered the 'Slaying Dance' he had drawn from Han Meng, which came from the 'Judgment' path of the Martial God Path, but he didn't know what a 'path' truly was.

"You even know about 'paths'?" Chu Muyun looked at him in surprise.

"Let's put it this way: if becoming a god is like climbing a mountain, then besides the main roads, there are also 'trails' on the mountain. Divine paths are the main roads, and 'paths' are extensions that emerge based on each person's unique personality and talent. For example, Han Meng is quite stubborn and has a strong sense of justice, so his is the Judgment path. Accordingly, the abilities he gains when ascending to different ranks might also be different from other paths, more reflective of his personal traits."

Chen Ling mused, "Then how many paths does one divine path have?"

"That's hard to say. Some divine paths are followed by many people, so naturally, more 'paths' have been explored and extended from them. For instance, the Martial God Path, to my knowledge, has seven different 'paths'. But some lesser-known divine paths might only have a few."

"Doctor Chu, are you also a possessor of a path to godhood?" Chen Ling asked curiously, recalling Doctor Lin's assessment of him.

"Yes," Chu Muyun admitted readily. "I follow the 'Medical God Path'."

"The Medical God Path? Is the Ancient Medical Treasury also in the Aurora Domain?"

The moment he asked this question, Chen Ling realized, and he opened his mouth in surprise, "You... you're a chosen one?"

Chu Muyun smiled without speaking.

Although Chen Ling had long suspected that Chu Muyun followed the Medical God Path, he hadn't expected him to be a chosen one. Wasn't this supposed to be rare? How did he just casually encounter one?

"What does it feel like to become a chosen one?" Chen Ling couldn't help but ask.

Chu Muyun mused,

"Hmm... it's hard to describe. It's like suddenly feeling transcendent for a moment, as if a gaze from the unseen is fixed upon you... Then, your surroundings change, and a divine path leading into nothingness automatically appears before you..."

"A divine path? Is it a real, tangible road? Not an illusion?"

"It's real, at least in that moment it's real. But before you step onto it, it floats in the air, constantly swaying, like... like..." Chu Muyun couldn't think of a suitable adjective for a moment.

"Like a ribbon?" Chen Yan, who had been focused on his meal, suddenly spoke up.

"A ribbon?" Chen Ling looked at him in surprise.

"Yes, a ribbon." Chu Muyun's eyes lit up, and he continued, "Then, the moment you step onto it, it solidifies into a physical form and then vanishes... Although you can't see it, it remains constantly within you."

Chen Ling looked at Chen Yan in confusion. The latter shrugged and whispered, "I just heard his description... and said whatever came to mind."

"...Alright."

Chen Ling sighed, "I hope I also have that day when I can step onto a divine path."

After finishing the meal, Chen Yan dutifully rolled up his sleeves to wash the dishes. Chu Muyun pulled out a book from somewhere and sat by the kerosene lamp, reading by its faint light, sometimes frowning, sometimes looking perplexed, lost in thought.

As night deepened, the three of them retired to their respective rooms to rest.

Chen Ling was the last to leave. He blew out the candle on the table, and with a flicker, the room plunged into darkness...

His gaze turned to Chen Yan's room.

Chen Ling slowly walked to Chen Yan's door, took a broken peace talisman from his pocket, and was about to knock when his knuckles paused in mid-air.

"I, I... after my surgery, when I woke up, I was waiting for you all to pick me up at the hospital... Then, I heard outside that a 'world-ending' level disaster had occurred, and I got really worried about you. I sneaked out when the hospital staff weren't looking, and I was on my way home to find you when I saw you hanging from a monster..."

"It seems the enforcers don't have enough people. They only sealed off the outside of Districts Two and Three, but there weren't many people stationed between the two districts, so I secretly ran over."

"Brother, aren't we running?"

"Brother, it's nothing to turn into a monster, as long as... you're still you."

"That doctor seems very skilled. I recovered very quickly."

"I don't know... maybe it fell off when I ran back."

Chen Yan's words flashed continuously in his mind, and Chen Ling's knuckles clenched tighter and tighter... He looked at the peace talisman in his hand, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Ever since he found this peace talisman in the ruins of Ice Spring Street, Chen Ling's heart had been heavy. Even after walking for two hours to return, he couldn't stop thinking about this one thing...

Thinking carefully, many things from Chen Yan's appearance until now were simply unexplainable.

The timing and location of his appearance were simply too coincidental... Could a teenager who had just undergone heart transplant surgery truly pass through an enforcer blockade and walk for over two hours to the back mountain?

Or... was he no longer human?