Chapter 529: Emperor's Destiny

Choosing Ying Fu was a decision Chen Ling made after careful consideration.

Initially, Chen Ling had wanted to extract skills from the various members of the Ancient Theater Trove. However, upon reflection, his master had no name, only the moniker "Nameless Actor." The same applied to the supporting and clown roles. This left only Ning Ruyu, Luan Mei, and Wen Renyou as viable options.

These three corresponded to the male lead, female lead, and painted-face roles, respectively, and their skills were likely related to these performance types. Although Chen Ling had inherited Chen Yan's talent, he didn't believe he could perfectly adapt to abilities from these roles. Forcibly acquiring an incompatible skill might not be beneficial.

Furthermore, although Yang Xiao appeared in this play, he was just an ordinary person, not the "Aurora Lord." The same was true for Su Zhiwei. Even if they eventually grasped some theoretical power, it was still too rudimentary to be of much use to Chen Ling.

Xiao Chunping's Suzhou embroidery, and the skills of the "Floating Life Painting" members in the Mortal Realm, including the oil-paper umbrella, were also unsuitable for Chen Ling. After eliminating all these, Ying Fu was essentially the only one left whose skills were worth extracting.

Although the Imperial God Path had no offensive skills, the authority it granted was truly terrifying. The mere ability to instantly raise one's rank by recruiting subordinates was enough for Chen Ling to risk trying.

Chen Ling himself possessed numerous offensive skills. If he combined those with the Imperial God Path's authority that could instantly elevate his rank, he would undoubtedly be far stronger than Ying Fu, by more than just one level!

As the words "Ying Fu" were uttered, cards gradually materialized from the void.

"This..." Chen Ling suddenly froze at the sight before him.

There were eleven cards in front of him!

Chen Ling had seen this many cards before when extracting others' skills, but Ying Fu's cards were entirely different. Firstly, there were no gray cards, which meant he possessed no life skills unrelated to the God Path. In other words, all eleven were God Path skills!

Among these eleven, five cards had similar suits, indicating they came from the same God Path. Chen Ling guessed they were likely from Nie Yu's Heavenly Wolf. This suggested that the "skills" of subjects would be copied into the Imperial God Path's skills, entering Chen Ling's "card pool" for extraction.

Among the remaining six cards, there was also a silver one.

Chen Ling had seen this type of silver card before; the Aurora Lord's cards had been silver when he extracted skills from him last time. Silver was likely the exclusive color for "theoretical" skills. The moment Chen Ling saw this card, he thought of Lou Yu.

Lou Yu was also one of the Nine Lords and had formed some kind of cooperation with Ying Fu. When fighting Ying Fu previously, the latter had used skills similar to matter conversion, which seemed to originate from here. However, the difference between him and Nie Yu was that he hadn't submitted to Ying Fu; their relationship was likely just a partnership. Therefore, there was only one card belonging to him here, rather than a complete path skill like Nie Yu's. Was this also one of the Imperial God Path's skills?

Chen Ling's gaze shifted to the last five cards. These five should be the Imperial God Path's exclusive skills, and the authority he desired was among them.

"Hope for good luck..." Chen Ling silently prayed, then randomly tapped on one of the cards. As the other cards vanished, several lines of text appeared before him:

"Skill: Emperor's Destiny""Affiliation: Imperial God Path, Emperor's Path""Character: Ying Fu."

Seeing this, Chen Ling's heart stirred slightly.

He had successfully drawn an exclusive Imperial God Path skill. A five-elevenths chance was decent. However, this skill didn't seem to be the one that allowed rank to float freely.

As Chen Ling absorbed the skill, the relevant information immediately surfaced in his mind.

"Only one person with an Emperor's Destiny can appear in an era. Under this authority, all possessors of God Paths will unconsciously be drawn towards the person with the Emperor's Destiny, driven by fate..." Chen Ling opened his eyes, his expression somewhat peculiar.

He hadn't drawn the rank-floating ability; instead, he got the power to attract other God Path possessors. Chen Ling was speechless, unsure whether this was a good thing or a bad thing at the moment.

By common logic, only one Emperor's Destiny would appear in an era, and that person was originally Ying Fu. Now, by acquiring this ability, Chen Ling had created an era of "dual Emperor's Destinies," unprecedented in history. What would happen when two "vortices" attracting God Paths existed simultaneously in the world?

In any case, with the Emperor's Destiny, more and more God Path possessors would gather around Chen Ling. This meant he would have more characters to choose from for each play, offering greater selection and making it easier to find the skills best suited for him. From this perspective alone, it was undoubtedly a good thing.

After drawing the skill, Chen Ling's consciousness returned to his body, and he slowly awoke from his sleep.

The first thing that met his eyes was a pristine white ceiling. However, judging by the furnishings, this wasn't Chen Ling's own room but Ning Ruyu's bedroom. He propped himself up with his hands, managed to sit up on the bed, and looked to his side.

On the nightstand, a row of items was neatly arranged: a white porcelain vase with red plums, an exquisitely prepared bento box, an ordinary-looking fruit basket, and... a gleaming glass marble.

Seeing these four items, Chen Ling smiled faintly, already guessing that his senior brothers and sisters had visited. He then tried to get out of bed.

His once bloody wounds were now meticulously stitched, and his organs had been returned to their positions. Chen Ling stood up from the bed, leaning against the wall. Although he felt somewhat weak, he could still walk.

"Hmm... I guess I'm not going to die."

After a quick assessment of his physical condition, Chen Ling pushed open the bedroom door. Just as he was about to call for Ning Ruyu, he saw the study door across the hall ajar.

Chen Ling approached, a little puzzled, and found Ning Ruyu sitting at a large desk, facing the window with his back to Chen Ling. The study window was open, and a bird, appearing as if it had red eyeshadow, was perched on the sill, leisurely preening its feathers. A small, empty tube was tied to its leg.

A messenger from the Ancient Theater Trove? This was the first time Chen Ling had seen such a bird. It didn't look like a real-world species; its feathers, under the sunlight, were transparent like amber.

Ning Ruyu held a small note, seemingly extracted from the bird's leg tube. He slowly unfolded it in the sunlight, and after his gaze swept over a line of small characters, his pupils suddenly constricted!

"How is this possible... Did Master's prediction go wrong?" Ning Ruyu's expression was exceptionally grim. It was the first time Chen Ling had seen his senior brother so serious since entering the Ancient Theater Trove.

"Senior brother?" Chen Ling called softly from the doorway.

Ning Ruyu froze for a moment, instinctively hid the note, and then looked back at Chen Ling.

"Junior brother, why are you out of bed??"