"Were you wondering why the Anomaly Suppression Bureau—or rather, Inspector Yue—allowed the Moon-Worship Cult to drain the blood and life force of so many people across Linhe's three counties to set up this vile Life-Force Extraction Ritual Array, and even waited until it was in operation before making a move?
Chen Mo fell silent for a moment. He didn't answer directly, but Yue Shan had clearly seen the confusion in his eyes.
Yue Shan took a deep breath and gazed at the increasingly grotesque Blood Moon in the distance. His voice carried a weariness unlike anything Chen Mo had heard before. "Because we're out of options."
"Do you think the world today is still what it was a hundred years ago, before the Red Moon appeared?
"Do you think the United Government is still the colossal power that could suppress the four directions and rule over all the land?" Yue Shan turned to Chen Mo, his gaze blazing. "Let me tell you: the United Government is now a ramshackle house with holes all over, barely kept from collapsing by a single supporting beam!"
"That supporting beam is the government's only Martial Saint, Xiao Pojun!" Yue Shan's voice trembled. "But his lifespan is nearly at an end."
Chen Mo's pupils contracted sharply!
A Martial Saint!
Near the end of his lifespan!
"The Martial Saint holds the center, intimidating all beneath heaven. That's what keeps those demons and monsters from acting too brazenly and gives the wolves and tigers overseas pause. But the moment the Martial Saint falls..." Yue Shan left the rest unsaid, but the chill in his unfinished words sent a shiver down Chen Mo's spine.
"Do you know what's happening out there right now?" Yue Shan gave a cold laugh and began listing things off. "The three northeastern provinces, the White Mountains and Black Waters—they're no longer part of human territory!"
"After a fully realized Yellow Immortal died, its resentment lingered. Combined with the baleful yin of the earth's veins, it turned into a calamity-class great specter. For a thousand li in every direction, not a living soul remains. Even our Anomaly Suppression Bureau's experts have only a one-in-nine chance of making it out alive!"
"In the heart of the Central Plains, a statue calling itself the Thousand-Hand Blood Guanyin has taken over an ancient city and gathered incense offerings. Everyone who enters the city must offer it blood sacrifices. Otherwise, it drains them of their blood and essence, leaving them as dried corpses!
"The government has tried to purge it several times, losing men and suffering defeat each time. Unable to do anything about it, they can only draw a boundary around the area for now and tacitly allow it to remain!"
"In the southwestern borderlands, there's also the Heavenly King Temple. They practice heretical Buddhist arts and seek to establish a Buddhist kingdom on earth! They've long coveted the Central Plains' fertile lands, but they haven't acted because they fear the Martial Saint's might."
"And then there's overseas!" Yue Shan's tone grew even colder. "The Truth Society, the Sun Cult, and all those other churches preach extreme purification. They see anyone who isn't one of their believers as filth to be burned in holy fire! Their tendrils have already reached in here!"
"Threats within and without, enemies on every side!"
Yue Shan's voice rang out with unshakable resolve. "In a situation like this, if a little of the blood and life force from the people of three counties can give the Martial Saint a sliver of life and stabilize the situation, then it's worth it!
"That's the thinking of Inspector Yue, and of the higher-ups above him!"
He looked at Chen Mo, his eyes holding an almost brutal clarity.
"Even if it only extends his life by three to five years, that could buy the United Government precious time to catch its breath!"
Yue Shan patted Chen Mo on the shoulder, his hand heavy. "I know it's cruel and heartless, but that's reality."
"At the Anomaly Suppression Bureau, you have to learn to look at things from the perspective of the bigger picture. When the survival of our species is at stake, personal ideas of good and evil, and our sense of morality, sometimes... have to give way."
Chen Mo was silent for a while before nodding. "They only need a little of the people's blood and life force? They're not going to sacrifice everyone?"
Yue Shan whipped his head around, looking astonished for the first time. "Where'd you get that idea?"
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. No wonder the kid had packed up his whole family and tried to run the very next day. He'd been afraid they'd be dragged off to fill the ritual's core.
"Even if the Anomaly Suppression Bureau were completely deranged, it would never sacrifice all the hundreds of thousands of people in Linhe's three counties."
He shook his head, his tone softening. "The array the Moon-Worship Cult set up isn't very powerful. Its strength lies in how well it's concealed."
"Those caught in it will grow weak and sick, and may even lose years off their lives, but they won't drop dead on the spot."
"Once the Life-Force Cauldron has gathered enough life force, we can break the array. The damage it causes won't be too great."
"Any clearheaded official would know better than to do this on their own turf, unless they'd gone completely mad or were demons themselves. It'd be like digging their own grave."
Yue Shan pointed toward the Mass Grave Mound. "The Anomaly Suppression Bureau's tacit approval is certainly cold-blooded, but at least it ensures that the vast majority of people will survive.
"Once we take the Life-Force Cauldron, if we can extend the Martial Saint's life and stabilize the situation, there may still be ways to make up for what these people have lost, or compensate them in other ways."
Yue Shan's comparison left Chen Mo speechless. Only then did he realize how ignorant his earlier question had sounded.
Damn it, he'd read too many demonic-cultivation novels in his previous life, where people were always massacring villages and razing cities. It had made him worry for days.
"Time's almost up. Get ready. Send out your Paper Puppets and keep a close watch on the Mass Grave Mound."
"Yes!"
Chen Mo said no more. He took out the two specially made Paper Puppets he'd prepared earlier, infused them with a wisp of pure Taiyin Qi, and blew gently.
Like ashes caught by the wind, the Paper Puppets rose soundlessly and drifted through the night toward the outskirts of the earthen slope where Zhao Tie had set up the array.
Deep in the Mass Grave Mound, on a circular clearing more than a hundred zhang across, over a dozen black-robed figures mixed pale bone powder with some kind of blood-red mineral and sketched the lines of a huge array across the ground.
The lines formed layer upon layer of interlocking patterns. At the very center hovered a three-legged round cauldron, three chi high and dark gold all over!
Its surface was covered in ancient, mysterious cloud patterns and beast-face carvings. Pale golden light and mist rose from within, emanating a surging wave of life force.
This was the Life-Force Cauldron Yue Changkong was determined to obtain!
Around the array stood forty-nine pitch-black stone pillars, arranged in precise positions. At the top of each pillar was a fist-sized, ghostly green crystal.
Gray-white threads of light stretched between the pillars like a spiderweb, linking every pillar to the array's central core.
Ten Moon-Worship Cultists in dark-red robes stood motionless like stone statues at key points throughout the array. Their hands formed strange seals as they chanted under their breath.
Their chanting swelled and ebbed like the tide, resonating with the faint light radiating from the array's lines.
At the very front of the array stood a black-clad man with a deep, steady aura, his hands clasped behind his back. It was Master Liu.
He had removed his mask. His high cheekbones were exposed, and he stared fervently at the Life-Force Cauldron in the center.
The hour of the rat struck, and the Blood Moon hung overhead.
The dark-red moon suddenly blazed brighter, as if it were about to drip blood!
"Blood Moon, bestow your blessing! Let all living things return to their source! Let the array rise—!"
Master Liu raised both hands over his head, his voice feverish!
"BOOM!!!"
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