God Said, the Moonlight Remains Tonight

The man had a robust build and stood at least six feet tall, with a sharp-cut crop of short hair.

His face was chiseled, his brows and eyes sharp as lightning, and his features well-formed. He wore a fitted black shirt and dress pants beneath a black overcoat.

He was the one who had just spoken those ghostly words behind Su Yang.

Seeing Su Yang's astonished expression, the man parted his thin lips, and his resonant voice reached Su Yang's ears once more.

"The instant I spoke just now, your limbs tensed, the hairs on your back stood on end, and your body released a surge of adrenaline. You became highly alert... In short, you're afraid of me."

After hearing the man speak, Su Yang's tense heart eased a little.

Thankfully, judging by the way he spoke, the man seemed normal enough. He probably wasn't some lunatic who had escaped from a mental hospital.

But damn it, if someone suddenly said "I've been waiting for you for a long time" from behind you in the middle of the night, who wouldn't be scared of him?! Especially in a cemetery out in the wilderness.

A few cicadas chirped in the woods beside the cemetery, and a few gentle breezes drifted past. With no moon out tonight, the atmosphere was especially creepy.

In a setting like this, it was only natural that Su Yang had just been scared out of his wits.

The man went on speaking to himself. "But that's a good thing. Just the right amount of fear is often the key to advancing a Sequence Ability."

The man's words left Su Yang utterly bewildered.

Sequence Ability? Advancing? What the hell?

And what did he mean when he said he'd been waiting for me for a long time? Was he waiting here specifically for me?

Did the Dead Man's Book want me to meet a living, breathing person this time? Not an undead spirit?!

A string of questions surfaced in Su Yang's mind. After hesitating for a long while, he finally asked.

"Who exactly are you? Why are you here... waiting for me?"

Su Yang watched the man warily as he discreetly opened the emergency call screen on his phone.

If the man made any suspicious move, Su Yang would press the emergency call button without hesitation!

The man in black continued to watch Su Yang without expression, his gray eyes giving him an air of utter indifference.

The next moment, the man in black uttered a few words, one at a time.

"Do not seek me. At the boundary between light and darkness, at the birthplace of blood and song, when the old order is destroyed and a new order is born, I shall reveal myself."

Su Yang's pupils contracted sharply. The words were like a dagger, swift and precise as it plunged into his heart.

Those were the words his parents had left him before they disappeared!

Like a drowning man clutching at a life-saving straw in the midst of his struggle, Su Yang threw all thoughts of danger to the back of his mind in an instant!

He rushed up to the man in black and shone his phone's light on his face.

"Do you know my parents? Where are they?!"

Su Yang's voice was so loud that it startled the birds resting in the woods awake, sending leaves falling as they burst into flight.

This was the first time in five years that Su Yang had heard anything about his parents from someone else!

Maybe... maybe this mysterious man who appeared out of nowhere knows where my parents are.

"Su Yang, I'm sorry! I don't know exactly where your parents are either, but I can tell you for certain that they're both still alive and well."

"Five years ago, they simply left me those words and told me to use them to earn your trust."

"But for the past five years, some very important matters held me up. I've only just managed to free myself to come find you. It's my fault, and I'm very sorry..."

The man in black's words shattered the hope that had just risen in Su Yang's heart.

He doesn't know where Mom and Dad are either?

Even so, Su Yang quickly composed himself.

The upheaval five years ago had given Su Yang a maturity far beyond his peers.

Although he still didn't know where his parents were, learning that they were safe was already a huge gain!

The trip hadn't been in vain!

It was just that the Dead Man's Book had led him to meet an acquaintance of his parents in this cemetery, which was truly unexpected.

"I came here today to give you something your parents wanted you to have... Oh, right, my name is Gai Fengyan."

With that, Gai Fengyan took a square piece of jade, black as ink, from his black overcoat and pressed it into Su Yang's hand.

When Gai Fengyan's palm touched his, Su Yang distinctly felt that it was unusually cold, too cold to belong to a living person.

But Su Yang paid it no mind. All his attention was fixed on the jade pendant Gai Fengyan had handed him.

"This is... something my parents left me?"

Su Yang rubbed the black jade Gai Fengyan had given him, then turned it over in his hand and found several lines engraved on the back in regular script:

"Sword-Bearer of the Soul-Reaping Bureau, Su Yang."

"Wield the sword of the gods and walk the world. Remember that the glory you bear at this moment comes from the support of countless people!"

Gods?

When Su Yang saw that word on the jade pendant, he froze.

He raised his head and looked at Gai Fengyan, his eyes full of confusion. "What does this mean?"

Seeing the confusion in Su Yang's eyes, Gai Fengyan showed a rare hint of a smile—it was the first expression Su Yang had seen on his face since they met.

Gai Fengyan didn't answer Su Yang's question. Instead, he asked him one.

"Su Yang, do you like moonlight?"

"Yes."

"So do I! Sometimes, I think we're like moonlight. When everything is plunged into darkness, only we can drag it back out... So perhaps living in the night is our fate."

Gai Fengyan looked up at the sky as though he were gazing intently at something, but there was nothing there except thick, black clouds.

Su Yang was speechless.

Why is this man so cryptic, going on about gods and fate...?

Su Yang frowned and said to Gai Fengyan, "The weather forecast said there wouldn't be a moon tonight."

But the very next moment, something happened that left Su Yang dumbfounded!

Gai Fengyan spread his arms, closed his eyes, and chanted softly.

"God said, the moonlight remains tonight."

As Gai Fengyan softly uttered those syllables, the thick, black haze in the sky dispersed completely!

A beam of clear moonlight fell on Gai Fengyan's face.

Wh-what was going on?!

Towering waves surged through Su Yang's heart! He stared fixedly at the moon that had appeared so abruptly in the sky.

The moon really had emerged from the clouds!

Was this... Gai Fengyan's doing? Just because of what he'd said?

"Tomorrow, you'll receive a sum of cash. Hmm... You can think of it as a Sword-Bearer's monthly salary. Take your grandmother to the hospital for a checkup! Don't put it off any longer!"

"The Soul-Reaping Bureau will come looking for you soon! You might find clues your parents left for you there... I don't have much time, and I still have a lot to do, so I'll be going!"

"Oh, right! Your parents also left you a message—'Xiao Yang, we quite like that girl named Ren Yexue. Don't leave yourself with regrets about your youth!'"

Ren Yexue?

How did Ren Yexue come into this too?!

When Su Yang turned to look at Gai Fengyan, he found that there was no longer any trace of him in the cemetery.

Su Yang's eyes were full of shock, and he opened his mouth silently.

After a long while, he finally muttered to himself.

"How did Mom and Dad know about Ren Yexue?"

"Could there really be gods in this world?"