Chapter 393

Audience Expectation: 3Current Expectation: 52

After Ning Ruyu fell, Luan Mei and Wen Renyou also stepped forward one after another, their figures turning into black dots and disappearing below the cliff.

Chen Ling was stunned. He looked at the scene before him, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

"Junior Brother, remember to follow."

Mo Jiao offered a thoughtful reminder, then followed the three, leaping off the mountain peak cliff.

The cold wind of the Gray Realm swept over the mountaintop, causing Chen Ling's red robe to flutter wildly. He walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. There was nothing but barren black earth...

In the Aurora Domain, Chen Ling once crossed the Frozen Sea by boat. From several nautical miles away, he could see the towering black giant sword, which was only the tip of the iceberg of the Weapon Dao Ancient Treasury.

Therefore, in Chen Ling's impression, ancient treasuries should all be vast, mysterious, and filled with formidable killing intent, much like the Weapon Dao Ancient Treasury.

Yet, even though they had clearly arrived before the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury, Chen Ling still saw no sign of it. If he hadn't known Ning Ruyu and the others' identities, he might have truly suspected he was being deceived.

"Could it be that the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury is down there?"

Chen Ling gazed towards the bottom of the cliff. It was empty; even the few people who had just jumped down were nowhere to be seen.

Chen Ling narrowed his eyes slightly, calculating the height in his mind as he murmured, "With the Blood Robe, even if I fall from this height, I probably won't die..."

He took half a step back, then pushed off forcefully from the edge of the cliff with his foot, plummeting down!

The strong wind howled, and the large red opera robe twisted and turned in mid-air, like a falling red kite, streaking across the sky of the Gray Realm.

Under the intense sensation of weightlessness, Chen Ling watched the ground rapidly growing larger before him, slowly closing his eyes...

Just as his body was about to hit the ground, on the surface of the black earth, a curtain automatically opened!

Swoosh—!

Chen Ling's figure disappeared into it.

"All encounters in the world are reunions after a long separation."

Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes.

He was seated at a pristine white square table. A delicate tablecloth, intricately carved, draped naturally. On the table lay a set of expensive cutlery, and a steaming steak emitted an inviting aroma.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter—

Fine raindrops pattered against the glass beside him. Outside the vintage Western-style storefront, there was a bustling, lively intersection, and in the distance stood a magnificent church. The hum of cars grew from distant to near, then whizzed past.

"This is..." Chen Ling stared at his surroundings, completely frozen in place.

Something's not right...

He hadn't activated any 'era archive,' so how had he suddenly returned to the pre-Cataclysm era... and it looked like a foreign country?

Chen Ling clearly remembered jumping off a cliff just now. There were only two possible outcomes: either he'd die from the fall, or he'd enter the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury...

But what was happening before his eyes?

Chen Ling tentatively pinched his hand. The pain was distinct; he wasn't dreaming.

"Monsieur?" A man dressed like a waiter approached him and leaned in to ask. (Sir, would you like to add more dishes?)

Chen Ling turned to look at him. Beneath his slightly curly golden hair was a rather handsome face.

Just as Chen Ling was bewildered, the restaurant door opened. A white-clad figure moved through the busy aisle and slowly sat down in the seat opposite Chen Ling.

He gave Chen Ling a faint smile.

"Senior Brother??"

Chen Ling pinched himself again. He truly felt like he was dreaming... After all, everything before him was too disjointed, too science-fiction-like.

"I knew you would dare to jump," Ning Ruyu's smile was like warm sunlight. He took the menu from the waiter and handed it to Chen Ling. "Second, Third, and Fourth Junior Brothers are preparing your accommodation. I'll take you to eat something first... See if you want to add any more dishes?"

"No... Senior Brother, what's going on? Aren't we in the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury?"

"That's right, this is the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury."

Chen Ling pointed to the French restaurant, the intersection outside the door, and the distant church, for a moment not knowing where to even begin complaining...

"The Performance Dao Ancient Treasury... is in France?" He finally managed to blurt out these words.

"No, no, no, I just brought you here for a meal. Once you're done eating, I'll explain everything slowly."

Ning Ruyu gestured to the menu.

Chen Ling lowered his head and glanced at it, the dense French text making him dizzy.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot to turn on the subtitles." Ning Ruyu waved his hand, and immediately, lines of Chinese translation appeared after the French text.

At the very top of the menu, the large restaurant name was exceptionally prominent:

—Balthazar

"Junior Brother, I highly recommend their Rossini steak; I've already ordered it for you. If it's not enough, you can add a monkfish dish," Ning Ruyu said earnestly.

Chen Ling was speechless.

"No, thank you."

Chen Ling handed the menu back and quietly began to eat the steak on his plate... Although he had no idea what was going on, Chen Ling truly was hungry after days of commotion.

"Then eat slowly, and I'll explain things to you slowly." Ning Ruyu took a sip of lemon water, paused for a moment, then asked again, "Junior Brother, what do you think 'performance' is?"

Chen Ling took a bite of his steak, thought for a moment, and replied, "Performance is acting."

"Indeed. In its earliest forms, performance evolved from military sacrificial rituals. As eras and civilizations developed, it expanded into various categories: instrumental music, dance, storytelling, opera... Although it emerged for entertainment, 'performance' itself carries the epitome of human civilization across different eras."

"In other words, the 'Performance Dao' contains the entire evolutionary history of human civilization."

Chen Ling understood Ning Ruyu's explanation but didn't grasp why he was telling him all this. After quickly finishing his steak in a few bites, he took a sip of water and asked in confusion, "So what?"

"An 'Ancient Treasury,' so-called, is the physical manifestation of a Divine Dao. It stores all the accumulated knowledge and essence related to that Dao since the dawn of human civilization... If the Weapon Dao Ancient Treasury is the vessel for humanity's conflict and desires, then the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury is the vessel for spiritual civilization."

"From ancient times to the present, the epitome of civilization and the humanistic spirit of every era have been preserved within the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury."

As Ning Ruyu lightly raised his finger, the surrounding scene began to fold in on itself: the distant church, the intersection outside the window, even the speeding cars... all drew closer towards Ning Ruyu's palm, like pages endlessly turning.

However, this incredibly fantastical transformation did not strike the pedestrians or other waiters as strange. It was as if they hadn't even noticed the world changing around them, continuing to chat and laugh naturally.

Chen Ling merely blinked, and everything around him had folded into Ning Ruyu's hand... turning into a circular, flat, slightly reflective object.

Seeing the object, Chen Ling froze in place;

It was a disc.

Ning Ruyu slipped the disc into a transparent plastic case, on the surface of which several large characters were clearly written:

— *The Chef* (France), Daniel Cohen, 2012;

It was a movie disc.

As the lights above flickered on, towering wooden shelves, stretching seemingly endlessly into the distance, were revealed to Chen Ling. Each shelf was packed with tens of thousands of disc cases.

Ning Ruyu stood in the center of the endless shelves and gave Chen Ling a faint smile:

"Junior Brother, welcome to... the Performance Dao Ancient Treasury."