The Hand Not Held

Yun Jingheng stared at Chen Weitao's outstretched hand for a long time.

The hand was thin, with long, well-defined fingers and neatly trimmed nails, but the fingertips were trembling slightly—a very light, almost imperceptible tremor.

Moonlight streamed in through the broken window, falling on the hand and illuminating the outline of each finger clearly.

He didn't grasp that hand.

Every word Chen Weitao spoke instilled entirely new concepts in him— the Moon Domain, Godhead Fragment, and God Servant.

These words were like nails, one after another, driven into his mind, making his scalp tingle and his temples throb.

He needed time to process, time to discern, and time to confirm whether the person in front of him was friend or foe, true or false, insane or lucid.

But he clearly didn't have the time.

The dark red beam of light in the distance was still surging, and its brightness was even stronger than before. It was so strong that one could feel its scorching and oppressive presence even through the walls of the stone building.

The whole city was shaking, not like the up-and-down shaking of an earthquake, but a low-frequency, muffled tremor coming from the depths of the earth, as if something was awakening.

Yun Jingheng gritted his teeth, "I'll believe you for now."

A complex look flashed in Chen Weitao's eyes. He slowly withdrew his outstretched hand, letting it hang at his side, the trembling of his fingertips even more pronounced than before.

He didn't say anything, just nodded, the movement so subtle it was almost imperceptible.

Just then, Yun Jingheng caught a glimpse of light out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't the beam of light outside the window, but a thin, dark red beam of light, like a blood-red beam compressed to its extreme, shooting from behind Chen Weitao and from the depths of the collapsed ruins inside the stone building.

The beam of light was incredibly fast; it took less than the blink of an eye for it to appear and get close.

Yun Jingheng's body reacted before his brain did.

He shoved Chen Weitao hard on the shoulder, pushing him to the left.

Chen Weitao was pushed and staggered two steps before crashing into the wall with a muffled groan.

Almost simultaneously, Yun Jingheng dodged to the right, his toes barely touching the ground as he flipped halfway through the air and landed behind a pile of broken bricks.

The dark red beam of light passed between the two men and struck the wall behind them.

There was no explosion, no roar, but a hole the size of a bowl appeared in the wall, its edges as smooth as a mirror, as if it had been instantly melted by high temperature.

Gravel fell from the edge of the cave entrance with a soft rustling sound, piling up into a small, smoking heap on the ground.

Chen Weitao straightened up from the wall, pressing his hand against his sore shoulder, his face even paler than before.

If Yun Jingheng hadn't been pushed away, that beam of light would have pierced precisely through his heart.

"Hurry up!"

Chen Weitao's voice was very steady, so steady that it didn't sound like someone who had just been pulled back from the brink of death.

His hand had already pulled the palm-sized compass from his pocket. The compass needle was spinning wildly, then suddenly stopped after a few rotations, pointing in the direction of the window.

"We've been spotted; there are many of them approaching us."

Yun Jingheng didn't ask.

Because he had seen through the broken window that all the Mutant Mutant had been wandering aimlessly in the streets, sobbing with their knees drawn up to the walls, and pacing back and forth on the street had stopped.

As if pulled by the same invisible thread, they simultaneously raised their heads, turned towards the stone building, and opened their mouths.

Yun Jingheng heard that voice.

It's a deeper, more primal sound, like it's being squeezed from the deepest part of the throat, somewhere between crying and roaring.

The sound emanated simultaneously from the throats of dozens of Mutant, overlapping to create a low-frequency resonance that sent chills down one's spine, causing the walls of the stone building to tremble slightly.

Chen Weitao had already run to the door, his black robe fluttering in the night wind.

He didn't turn around to look at Yun Jingheng, but his voice came clearly. "Let's go--!"

Yun Jingheng jumped out from behind the broken bricks, rushed to the door, and ran into the night with Chen Weitao.

Behind them, the stone building began to collapse under the continuous attacks of the dark red beams of light. Debris and dust poured down from the roof, making a dull thud on the ground.

The two ran one after the other through the narrow alley, Chen Weitao in front and Yun Jingheng behind him.

Chen Weitao's familiarity with the city far exceeded Yun Jingheng's imagination. He could make judgments before running to every corner, every fork in the road, and every dead end, never hesitating, never slowing down, and never turning back.

They ran through three alleys, climbed over two low walls, and passed through a courtyard where half the door was blocked by the corpses of Mutant.

When they reached the fourth alley, Yun Jingheng finally saw it.

Countless Mutant poured out from every side road, every alleyway, and behind every broken door and window, surging in from all directions like a tide.

Their steps were no longer the slow, mechanical, aimless pacing of before, but a faster, more unified, and more purposeful movement. It wasn't running, but surging, like water flowing from high to low, flowing from every corner of the city into this alley.

Chen Weitao suddenly stopped, and Yun Jingheng stopped behind him as well.

Under the moonlight, hundreds of mutated eyes glowed in the darkness—dark red, grayish-white, pure black—each a different color, but all eyes were fixed in the same direction.

The mouths of those Mutant were opening and closing, emitting a low-frequency, chilling resonance that reflected, overlapped, and amplified back and forth in the alley, like an invisible wall built of sound waves, trapping them in the middle.

"Depend on--!"

Yun Jingheng took a deep breath, his Soul Power surged from his dantian, and the Moonlight Sword condensed in his hand, its silvery-white light illuminating the entire alley as bright as day.

Four black Soul Ring and one red Soul Ring appeared around him, pulsating slowly. The pressure emanating from the red Soul Ring made the air feel heavier.

Chen Weitao stood beside him and also released his Martial Soul. Six black Soul Ring rose from his feet, making Six-Ring Soul Emperor with a full Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring configuration.

His Martial Soul is a moon, hanging behind him, emitting a cold, eerie light.

Yun Jingheng looked at Chen Weitao.

Chen Weitao took a deep breath. "Let's do it. They're not human anymore."

Yun Jingheng exhaled softly, and his Soul Ring shone brightly.

"Fifth Soul Skill, Tears of the Waning Moon Erosion!"

A crimson light rose from beneath Yun Jingheng's feet, and wherever it passed, the moonlight vanished.

The moon in the sky changed color in that instant.

The originally silvery-white moon began to bleed inwards from its edges, like a drop of blood falling into clear water. The crimson color slowly and irreversibly spread, turning the entire moon a dark red.

The Blood Moon hung high in the sky, its light spilling across the entire alley, onto the Mutant, onto Chen Weitao's moon, and onto Yun Jingheng's face.

His pupils, which were originally black, turned dark red. Something was gathering in his eye sockets, and it slid down his cheeks warmly and slowly—it was moonlight, liquid moonlight compressed to its extreme.

The moment the first tear fell to the ground, the entire alleyway lit up.

The Blood-Colored Wave spread outwards from its point of impact, leaving a dark red film of light on the ground where the ripples passed. Twisted, ancient runes, belonging to a different era, flowed across the film.

The tide engulfed the alley, the base of the walls, and the ankles of the Mutant, turning an area of several hundred meters into a sea of blood.

The Mutant went blind at the same moment; all they could see was a thick, impenetrable dark red.

Their bodies began to tremble violently, and life force was slowly and irresistibly being drained from them.

The Blood Moon Curse are eroding their defenses, peeling away their skin, muscles, and bones layer by layer.

Yun Jingheng stood in the center of the Blood-Colored Wave, the silver-white light on the Moonlight Sword completely replaced by dark red.

He gripped the sword tightly, and the dark red light on the blade grew brighter and brighter, as if a star about to explode had been compressed into the sword.

The Moonlight Sword slashed down.

A dark red sword aura detached from the sword, flew less than three feet in the air, and then split into five.

The five sword energies continued to fly and split, becoming ten, twenty, forty, and eighty more.

Dark red light blades multiplied, spread, and intertwined wildly in the alley, like a blood-red storm woven from moonlight.

Every time a blade of light struck Mutant, the Blood Moon Mark on their chest glowed, and their life force instantly decreased by fifteen percent.

At the same time that Yun Jingheng released his Soul Skill, Chen Weitao also released his Soul Skill.

"Sixth Soul Skill: Full Moon Over Eight Directions!"

His Moon Martial Soul rose from behind him into the air, expanding at an incredible speed under his control, growing from the size of a palm to several meters in diameter, hovering above the alley.

The edge of the moon began to glow, and silvery light seeped out from its center, as if something was tearing it apart from within.

The moon suddenly exploded.

It is a gentle, silent expansion, like petals unfolding.

The fragments of the moon transformed into countless silvery-white rays of light, shooting out in all directions. Wherever the light passed, a semi-transparent, pale silver domain was taking shape, enveloping Yun Jingheng, Chen Weitao, and everything within a radius of several hundred meters.

The moonlight within the realm has changed.

The originally dark red moonlight gained a layer of silvery-white halo within the area. The two colors intertwined, forming an eerie and breathtakingly beautiful color, like the color of blood and milk mixed together.

Yun Jingheng's Moonlight Sword trembled slightly within the domain, and the dark red light on the sword surged, like a heart that had been injected with a stimulant, with the frequency and intensity of its beating increasing by an order of magnitude.

The Mutant, still struggling in the Blood Moon tide, suddenly froze.

The 40% defense-ignoring effect of Full Moon Over Eight Directions, combined with the corrosive effect of Blood Moon Curse, completely reduced their already meager defense to zero at this moment.

Each layer of the Blood Moon Curse weakens their defenses, and now the stacking speed is at least twice as fast as before.

One layer, two layers, three layers—in just a few breaths, the Mutant at the forefront were covered with five layers of erosion. Their defenses completely disappeared, and the Blood Moon Curse began to directly erode their life force.

With the 50% boost from the Full Moon Over Eight Directions in All Directions buff, Yun Jingheng's Crescent Slash became nearly twice as powerful.

The dark red light blades became even sharper and more deadly.

Each strike of the light blade not only caused the Mutant to lose 15% of their life force, but also subjected them to the continuous erosion of the Blood Moon Curse. Under this double blow, the Mutant in the front row fell down one after another like harvested wheat.

But they kept surging forward.

The Mutant in the back row stepped over the fallen bodies in front of them to continue forward. Some of the Mutant who had already fallen were still struggling, using their severed arms to support themselves on the ground and their cracked knees to crawl forward, uttering incoherent roars.

They were not afraid of death, pain, or anything else, because their minds were gone; all that remained was the mad instinct infused by that dark red halo—to approach, tear apart, and kill.