Blood Moon

Blue Star, Linjiang City.

At 11:30 p.m., Fang Gang twisted the throttle, and the old electric scooter let out an overburdened groan as it sped down the empty streets.

He was a night-shift rider for Suda Delivery, on his way to Anxin Funeral Home on the outskirts to deliver a late-night meal marked, "Leave it at the duty room door. Don't knock."

The night wind carried an indescribable chill that bored straight into the cracks of his bones.

Fang Gang hunched his neck and subconsciously touched his thick hair—after eighteen years in this world, aside from a fairly healthy body, it was one of the few things that comforted him.

"This damn weather, it got cold way too fast," he muttered, glancing at the rearview mirror.

In the mirror, a huge full moon hung in the sky, its color... crimson as blood!

Fang Gang slammed on the brakes, and the electric scooter screeched sharply. He looked up, his pupils contracting.

It was no illusion.

High above, the moon that should have been bright and pure was now steeped in thick, ominous blood-red light, casting the entire city of Linjiang beneath a strange dim crimson glow.

The chill in the air suddenly surged, as though invisible ice needles were pricking his skin.

"Blood Moon?!"

Fang Gang's heart raced. Fragmented memories from his previous life, along with the urban ghost stories occasionally spread in this world, flooded into his mind. "This thing actually exists?"

Just then, a pungent stench rushed into his nostrils, like rusted iron mixed with rotting flesh.

Immediately afterward, a short, inhuman scream full of pain and despair came from a nearby intersection!

"Urgh—ah!"

The sound stopped abruptly, as if someone had forcibly crushed the screamer's throat.

Every hair on Fang Gang's body stood on end. He stared fixedly at the pitch-black intersection, cold sweat filling the palm gripping the handlebars.

Reason told him to run, but an indescribable chill and curiosity nailed him in place.

Something seemed to be writhing and chewing in the darkness.

"Fuck!" Fang Gang cursed under his breath. His adrenaline surged as he twisted the throttle, and the electric scooter shot off like a startled rabbit, fleeing the ominous place at top speed.

The funeral home order? To hell with it! Staying alive came first!

His heart still pounded in his chest, while the oppressive feeling brought by the Blood Moon and the echo of that scream replayed endlessly in his mind.

He only wanted to hurry back to his shabby but relatively safe rental apartment.

However, fate seemed determined to oppose him.

The electric scooter had barely gone a few hundred meters and rounded a corner when the deathly pale sign of Anxin Funeral Home and the sinister outline of its building suddenly appeared before him.

Worse still, the scooter gave a few weak coughs before completely dying—it was out of power.

"..." Fang Gang looked at the funeral home gate right in front of him, then turned back toward the darkness behind him, which seemed ready to devour anyone who approached. His face turned green.

He kicked the scooter viciously. "Piece of junk! You had to die on me now!"

Gritting his teeth, he pushed the scooter to the window outside the funeral home's duty room and pulled out his phone to take a photo as proof of delivery.

The duty room window was covered by thick curtains, and everything inside was deathly silent. Following the note, he carefully placed the plastic bag containing fried rice beneath the windowsill.

Just as he was about to stand up and leave, the sensation of being watched crawled up his spine like an icy venomous snake.

Fang Gang froze.

He suddenly turned his head and stared at the tightly shut door of the duty room.

"Thud... thud... thud..."

A dull, slow knocking sound with a strange sticky quality came clearly from behind the door.

That sound... did not seem like knocking. It sounded more like something wet was striking the inside of the door, again and again...

What made Fang Gang's scalp go numb was that, along with the knocking, faint, ragged breathing like a broken bellows drifted through the crack beneath the door.

Hiss... hah... hiss... hah...

That was absolutely not the rhythm of a living person's breathing! It was cold, mechanical, and heavy with dampness, as if it came from something inside a freezer in the deepest part of the morgue.

The Blood Moon's red light filtered through the sparse tree shadows, splashing mottled patches across the funeral home's pale walls and tightly shut door, creating a suffocatingly bizarre scene.

The cold air seemed to solidify, pressing heavily against Fang Gang's chest.

"Run!" The thought had never been so powerful.

He practically scrambled to his feet and turned to flee this cursed place.

"Ding-dong! You have a new Meituan delivery order. Please process it promptly."

At this critical moment, the phone in his pocket rang with an inappropriately crisp notification!

At the silent entrance of the funeral home, the sound was especially piercing, instantly shattering the suffocating silence!

The knocking and breathing behind the door abruptly stopped for a moment.

It felt as if all the blood in Fang Gang's body had frozen. A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head!

He could feel some cold, malicious "gaze" behind the door piercing through the thick wooden panel and locking firmly onto him!

"Damn it!" Fang Gang cursed inwardly, his adrenaline surging again.

Ignoring his phone and the dead scooter, he broke into a sprint toward the only illuminated main road outside the funeral home!

The wind howled past his ears, and his heart nearly leaped out of his throat.

He could feel that the duty room door behind him... seemed to be silently opening! A stronger gust of yin wind, carrying the stench of formaldehyde and decay, swept toward him from behind!

Just then—

Ding! The host's mental threshold has broken through its critical point. Soul fluctuations meet the binding requirements...

Binding the Martial Arts Infinite Evolution Point System...

Binding successful! Novice gift pack issued: Evolution Points +10!

Warning: A low-level yin energy aggregate has been detected nearby! Threat level: E-!

Novice mission issued: First Battle! Kill or drive away the Grudge Aggregate! Mission reward: Evolution Points +5!

A string of cold, emotionless yet incredibly clear mechanical voices exploded directly in the depths of Fang Gang's mind like thunder!

Along with the notifications, a translucent light-blue data panel brimming with technological flair suddenly floated in front of his vision.

Host: Fang Gang

Realm: Mortal (Unranked)

Strength: 0.7 (Feeble)

Physique: 0.8 (Ordinary)

Agility: 0.9 (Decent)

Spirit: 1.1 (Tenacious)

Available Evolution Points: 10

Cultivation Art: None

Martial Skill: None

Status: Yin Energy Erosion (Mild)

Fang Gang stumbled sharply in the middle of his sprint and nearly fell.

The system's appearance shocked him even more than the ghost thing behind him! After eighteen years in this world, had his golden finger finally arrived?!

"Martial arts point allocation? Evolution Points?" The thoughts flashed through his mind, but the bone-piercing malice behind him was already closing in!

"Roar—!"

An inhuman howl full of resentment and greed rang out almost against the back of his neck! The icy yin wind wrapped around his ankles like something tangible!

At the brink of life and death, the ruthlessness Fang Gang had possessed even before transmigrating was completely awakened!

His survival instinct overwhelmed his fear and made him instantly understand the meaning of the system panel!

"Add points! Strength! Put them all into Strength!!" Fang Gang roared wildly in his mind!

Ding! 10 Evolution Points consumed! Strength attribute increased! Current Strength: 1.7 (Beyond ordinary humans)!

An indescribable, explosive torrent of heat surged from the depths of every limb and bone!

It was as if a dormant volcano had awakened inside his body!

His muscle fibers seemed to be instantly torn apart and reconstructed by invisible hands, becoming tougher and denser!

His bones let out faint crackling pops, and an unstoppable sense of power flooded his entire body!

His originally heavy steps suddenly became light, and the sluggishness caused by the yin wind vanished without a trace! Fang Gang spun around!

He saw a blurry, twisted humanoid silhouette made of dense black mist. Its hollow "mouth," as though capable of swallowing light itself, opened wide as it let out a silent shriek and lunged at him! Its cold aura was enough to freeze an ordinary person's marrow!

"Fuck you!" Fang Gang's eyes turned bloodshot. The newfound power gave him courage unlike anything he had ever felt.

There were no flashy moves, no techniques whatsoever. Following humanity's most primal instinct, he poured all his strength, along with his newly awakened and not yet fully controlled violent blood energy, into his right fist!

His fist tore through the air with a dull roar!

Bang!!!

A muffled impact sounded, like a heavy hammer smashing into rotten leather!

Fang Gang's fist struck the "head" of the charging black mist of resentment squarely!

"Aoo—!!"

A shrill, miserable scream suddenly rang out, a hundred times clearer than before!

The humanoid black mist twisted and rolled violently, as if it had been seared by red-hot iron!

The black fog forming its body was violently struck and burned by an aura that was incomparably firm and yang in nature—weak, yet incomparably pure!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Like cold water splashed into boiling oil, the black mist rapidly thinned and scattered! The twisted ghostly face warped in agony beneath Fang Gang's fist before vanishing!

In only a few seconds, the Grudge Aggregate that could easily drain an ordinary person's vital essence was utterly reduced to nothing by Fang Gang's punch infused with blood energy. It became a few wisps of green smoke and scattered with the night wind.

Ding! Novice mission complete! Grudge Aggregate killed! Evolution Points +5!

Ding! Trace yin energy absorbed and converted into Evolution Points +0.1! Current Evolution Points: 5.1!

The system notification sounded again.

Fang Gang remained in his punching stance, breathing heavily.

He looked at his completely uninjured fist, beneath whose skin his blood energy even seemed to be faintly surging, then looked at the place where the ghost had just vanished. His expression rapidly changed from shock and confusion into unbelievable ecstasy and... burning intensity!

"Power... so this is what power feels like?" he muttered. Feeling the force rushing through his body, an unprecedented sense of control and confidence rose within him.

One punch! Just one punch! He had destroyed a ghost that could scare ordinary people insane or even kill them!

This system... was real! Add points, grow stronger! Simple! Brutal! Effective!

He lowered his head and looked at his hands. Then, an extremely faint, needle-like cold sting came from the back of the right hand he had used to strike the Grudge Aggregate.

He raised his hand and examined it carefully beneath the dim light of the Blood Moon.

Under the skin on the back of his hand, an almost imperceptible gray-black thread, thinner than a strand of hair, was slowly spreading upward like a living thing, disappearing beneath his sleeve.

The coldness it brought was faintly opposing the blazing blood energy newly born within him.

"What is this..." Fang Gang frowned. The excitement of killing the Grudge Aggregate faded somewhat, and a shadow settled over his heart. Had that ghost thing injured him?

Just then, the phone in his pocket vibrated again. It was not an order notification, but a text message.

Hello from Cainiao Post Station! Your online purchase, "Vajra Indestructible Divine Art (Edited Illustrated Edition)," has been received by the station. Pickup code: 8-5-666. Free shipping for 9.9 yuan. May you achieve divine mastery!

Looking at the message, feeling the cold sting on the back of his hand, and sensing the power surging through his body, Fang Gang's gaze instantly became incomparably firm, even carrying a hint of viciousness.

He looked up at the main building of Anxin Funeral Home, which appeared even more sinister and strange beneath the Blood Moon. The morgue... was inside.

The trace of yin energy on the back of his hand was like an icy thorn, piercing both his newly gained sense of power and his heart. This thing could not have appeared out of nowhere. Its source... was very likely inside those cold corpse drawers.

"Funeral home... morgue..." Fang Gang repeated softly, the corner of his mouth twisting into a smile devoid of any amusement.

Fear? Perhaps there was still a little.

But at this moment, what he felt more was anger at being violated and a powerful urge... to test his newfound strength!

He touched his still-thick hair and felt the blood energy galloping through his body. A fierce glint flashed through his eyes.

"Whatever demons and monsters are in there..."

"I'm a man who can add points now!"

"Even the 9.9-yuan Vajra Indestructible Divine Art has arrived... why the hell would I be afraid of you!"

He no longer looked at the dead electric scooter. Taking large strides, carrying the fierce bearing of someone who had just gained power, he walked voluntarily toward the pitch-black entrance of the funeral home's main building.

The night wind swept past, stirring several dead leaves. The Blood Moon stretched his figure long as he walked toward the darkness.

Ding! A high-density yin energy aggregation point has been detected in the area ahead. The host is advised to explore cautiously.

Absorbing yin energy can convert it into Evolution Points. Current Evolution Points: 5.1.

The system notification sounded like a cold war drum.