Chapter 402: Superficial Area

As he followed the jester's trail and pulled open the curtain again, he found himself suspended in mid-air.

Below him lay an ancient stone city-state. Countless figures in golden armor marched in formation, surrounding a radiant golden figure seated on a throne, slowly moving forward. Wherever this procession passed, everyone knelt, creating a solemn and grand spectacle.

"Eeyah—"

The jester, who had just escaped through the curtain, continued his flight across the void. Hearing the sound, the armored figures below immediately blanched. The entire army formed ranks and shouted:

"It's the dwarf who kidnapped the queen and stole the golden flower!!"

— *Cleopatra* (USA), Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963;

Chen Ling's mouth twitched slightly. He pulled open the curtain again, closely following the jester.

The next world appeared alien, with several blue, lizard-like figures soaring across the sky on flying dragons. Upon seeing the jester suddenly appear, they were first startled, then angrily shouted in an alien language Chen Ling couldn't understand:

"&(#*()!" (It's the invader who abducted the Na'vi princess!)

— *Avatar* (USA), James Cameron, 2009;

Good, the source of the third flower had also been found.

After traversing three worlds consecutively, Chen Ling finally broke free from the "thousand-layer cake" of the disc, returning to the Ancient Theatrical Archives. He had now passed through the text and audio sections and arrived directly at the outermost visual section.

He looked at the jester, still fleeing ahead, his gaze complex...

So, the jester hadn't appeared for days because he'd been running through these movie worlds, trying to find flowers to apologize to him? He had robbed the Queen of Hearts, kidnapped Cleopatra, and abducted an alien princess—all to apologize to him, effectively turning these three movie worlds upside down...

But why did this guy always seem to target "queens"?

"Eeyah!"

Seeing Chen Ling still in pursuit, the jester gritted his teeth. With a forceful sweep of the void before him, an even larger curtain automatically opened. He stepped inside, his form vanishing.

Chen Ling closed his eyes, sensing the shifts within the Ancient Theatrical Archives, and eventually pinpointed the jester's direction of departure...

"That's..." Chen Ling's brows furrowed involuntarily.

This time, the jester had entered an area close to the depths of the Ancient Theatrical Archives, a place Chen Ling had never been before. After a brief moment of thought, Chen Ling decided to follow. After all, it wasn't the deepest part of the Archives, and with his authority, nothing major should happen. Chen Ling also pushed aside the curtain with force and stepped inside!

"Oh?"

Just then, the handsome youth, still in Wen Renyou's room, seemed to sense something and suddenly looked towards a particular spot in the void. His senior disciples, who were still discussing how to teach their junior brother, looked over with confusion.

"What's wrong, Master?"

"Fifth Brother has accidentally stumbled into the right place," the handsome youth said, raising an eyebrow.

The others paused, then carefully sensed the situation within the Ancient Theatrical Archives. Wen Renyou spoke up, puzzled:

"The Guise Sector... How did they end up there?"

"Fifth Brother must have panicked and chosen a random path. Only the Guise Sector could shake off our junior brother."

"But that place doesn't seem to be anything special..."

"For you, it's truly nothing special." The handsome youth paused. "However, if Sixth Brother encounters that mirror, things will get interesting..."

"A mirror?" Ning Ruyu seemed to recall something.

"The True Self Mirror?!"

An invisible curtain opened in the void, and a red-clad figure stepped out from it.

"This is..."

Chen Ling's gaze swept across the surroundings, and after taking in the decor, his eyes narrowed slightly. It was a dimly lit dressing room. Its layout was no different from the backstage dressing rooms Chen Ling had previously visited. Several makeup mirrors, encircled with lights, lined the center, and empty chairs were neatly arranged before them, yet no one was present. To the left of the dressing room were numerous clothes racks, mostly filled with performance costumes neatly arranged by their opulence and color. When Chen Ling's gaze shifted to the right, his brow furrowed slightly.

On the right wall hung countless "faces." These were not the painted faces used in opera, but actual human faces—male and female, young and old, of every age, handsome or ugly; every type imaginable.

Chen Ling walked up to the wall and lightly touched it with his fingertips. The countless "faces" before his eyes began to change rapidly! At that moment, Chen Ling felt an immense rush of information. Through the authority of the Ancient Theatrical Archives, he realized he could select the face of any person from any era or region since the dawn of humanity. In other words, every "face" that had ever existed in human history was recorded on this endless wall.

"The Guise Sector... So this is the Guise Sector?"

Chen Ling closed his eyes and began to search through this incredibly vast "face library." Immediately, the human faces on the wall began to "refresh" frantically again. In the space of a breath, faces Chen Ling found intensely familiar appeared on the wall! Chen Ling opened his eyes, and seeing the "faces" on the wall, he couldn't help but gasp.

Every "face" he had ever seen since his birth before the Great Cataclysm was brought forth. The first was the face of the delivering nurse, the second the doctor's face, the third his own mother's... Then came the faces of all his elementary, middle, and high school classmates and teachers, even the old man who guarded the gate... There was also the face of his harsh boss after he started working, and even the faces of hundreds of audience members seated below the stage during his directing performances... These faces scrolled rapidly before Chen Ling's eyes, numbering in the tens of thousands. Most were faces he had only glimpsed once, leaving no impression, but there were also faces of relatives and friends he remembered vividly.

Chen Ling selected the face of the exceedingly harsh leader from his time as a director, held it in his hand, and gently swiped it across his own face... The next moment, his form rapidly changed. His height began to shrink, his skin aged, and a smooth patch appeared in the center of his hair. Once the face perfectly adhered to his, Chen Ling had completely transformed into the "leader's" likeness.

He walked to an empty makeup mirror and sat down. The dim lights around the mirror frame illuminated his face. Chen Ling looked at himself in the reflection; he was indistinguishable from the leader in his memory. Even minute details he barely recalled, such as the exact placement of freckles and moles, were perfectly replicated.

In the Guise Sector, Chen Ling could become anyone who had ever existed in human history, simply by willing it... Even if he had never seen them before.

"Wait... doesn't this mean..." Chen Ling suddenly turned his head to the wall, as if a realization had struck him.

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