The Long Night (I)

Half an hour earlier, Yacheng, Longhai District. The last trace of twilight faded into the darkness of night, only for an earth-shattering roar to erupt from the elevated highway. Amidst violent tremors, massive amounts of wreckage collapsed and plunged into the sea, churning up murky patches of water. Flames roared, and gale-force winds swept outward. Out of the chaos, the burning blaze parted to either side, revealing a figure emerging from the blast center. His pure white suit was pristine, without a speck of dust, with only his greying long hair snapping fiercely in the wind. "Brother Xing!" The subordinates, who had descended into panic, had their eyes light up with relief and cheers. Only a select few wore grim expressions. To avoid assassination, the boss's movements were strictly confidential, and the decision to visit Lei Wuye at the hospital tonight had been an impromptu whim known only to a handful of people. How could something like this have happened? Cold glares swept back and forth through the crowd, showing undisguised suspicion and aloofness as they met each other's eyes. That was until Lei Yaoxing swung his arm, dumping the figure he had dragged out of the blast onto the ground. Scorched by fire and explosions, the man was already battered beyond recognition, hanging by a thread, his original features almost impossible to discern. Yet at this moment, the young man showed no gratitude. He merely strained to stiffen his neck, opening his mouth toward Lei Yaoxing. *Ptui!* A mouthful of bloody spit landed on Lei Yaoxing's leather shoes, making his gaze turn even colder. "Xiao Ye, I haven't treated you poorly. After your father passed away, I raised you to adulthood, put you through school, brought you into the business, and placed the company in your hands..." Lei Yaoxing sighed softly. "In this place, everyone has the right to be a turncoat—except you." "Except me?" Coughing and choking, Xiao Ye let out a raspy, derisive laugh, his voice screeching like a night owl's. "Eleven years ago, on the high seas, how did that ship capsize? Do I really need to remind you?! "How my father died—do you dare tell me!" Lei Yaoxing said nothing. In the dead silence, he gazed indifferently at that sneering face. After a long while, he shook his head with regret. "A wolf cub truly can never be tamed." From Xiao Ye's battered remnant of a body, spiritus erupted violently, shattering his limbs. Yet his torso suddenly sprang up from the ground, lifting his broken left arm. Pouring out over a decade of concentrated hatred, the sharp jagged bone fragment thrust toward Lei Yaoxing's throat. Regrettably, it was still entirely in vain. Lei Yaoxing merely waved his hand casually, and the young man's body froze in midair as if turned to ice. Then, in the scorching wind, it disintegrated into thousands of crimson strands, blood gushing forth. It was as if ten thousand cuts had been inflicted in an instant, grinding the rebel thoroughly into dust. In the protracted silence, no one dared to speak another word. Everyone kept their heads bowed, not even daring to breathe aloud. "Tell me... how did I end up reduced to this?" In the stifling wind, Lei Yaoxing gazed at the blaze before him, and at the flickering neon lights of the distant city. It was so unfamiliar. Clearly, he had already gained an absolute advantage in the underworld struggle of Yacheng. Even if all the opposition brought in outside help regardless of cost, they were nothing more than clay chickens and pottery dogs. Clearly, victory was already within his grasp... Yet he suddenly felt that sense of powerlessness gradually seeping from the marrow of his bones. The twists and turns of recent days, the life-and-death struggles before his eyes, the betrayals, alliances, takeovers, and purges... all of these things that had defied his original expectations fell upon him thread by thread, string by string, like spiderwebs drifting down from the darkness. By now, he actually felt that events were slipping beyond his control. Things shouldn't have been like this. Clearly, his adoptive father had gradually begun handing over power to him over the years. Clearly, everyone should have naturally looked to him as their leader. Clearly, it was only natural that he should stand at the very pinnacle of this wilderness... But why had everything begun spinning out of control from the very moment his adoptive father fell gravely ill and withered away? The rules that should have endured were shattered. The ironclad laws that should have been observed were cast to the back of everyone's minds. And when tracing the source behind all this chaos, through the tangle of countless threads and clues, it always came back to the same person. A glove used to launder money for the boss, an assistant casually chosen by Lei Wuye, an unforeseen stumbling block, a player who had long since been disqualified from the game, a chess player whom everyone had pushed to the back of their minds. "Chen Xingzhou, is it you?" At that moment, Lei Yaoxing murmured, his dark eyes gazing toward distant Yacheng. "Where is he now?" "Mercy Hospital," replied the elderly man who had remained calm throughout. "Word is the resuscitation succeeded, but he hasn't regained consciousness yet." "Still alive, eh..." Lei Yaoxing couldn't help clapping his hands. "Quite the lucky survivor." Immediately following that, the old man heard Lei Yaoxing's next words: "Take some men, finish him off. Don't spare his younger brother, either. Kill anyone connected to him—leave none alive." "But..." The gaunt old man froze slightly, instinctively wanting to dissuade him. There were too many buts. Chen Xingzhou was no longer a threat. It was inside the Church of Chongguang's hospital. It went against the rules. And after killing him, who would ever dare trust your promises again? "To hell with 'buts'!!!" In sudden fury, Lei Yaoxing looked back, his eyes reflecting the flames in an expanse of scarlet. Yet he could no longer hold back a smile from spreading across his face. It was as though he had finally broken free of his shackles... The moment he made the decision, he felt an unbelievable lightness throughout his entire body, so much so that even the wind blowing against his face felt gentle. To hell with the rules! To hell with 'cannot'! To hell with threats! The instant he resolved to shatter it all, what he felt was a freedom he had never known before. "Heh, hahaha, hahahaha..." Unable to contain himself, he laughed in self-mockery, rocking back and forth. "To think that in the end, the one wavering back and forth was me." Having already chosen contention and slaughter, why bother caring about rules? When did beasts in the wilderness ever concern themselves with shame? Since when had he allowed himself to be bound by these invisible shackles? In a daze, he seemed to see the surging blaze, the sky scorched red, and between the churning darkness and neon lights, the silhouette of a White Stag looking down upon this place. Eternally indifferent, eternally serene—that was eternal, lofty freedom. Yet very quickly, that distant phantom silently dissipated. In the dead silence, Lei Yaoxing drew back his gaze with regret, turned around, and asked one final time, "Do I need to repeat that order?" "I-I'll go at once." Drenched in cold sweat, the old man bowed his head, raising no further objections. And so, the shackles were completely unlocked from this moment on. Not just here, and not just Chen Xingzhou. North Mountain, Longhai, Nanlu, Xihe... At this moment, following Lei Yaoxing's command, the last of the rules was shattered. The famished predators rushed out, gorging themselves greedily on blood and prey, devoid of all restraint. Blood and fire rose from the darkness alongside the bright moon. Beneath this endless, sprawling night, it engulfed everything... *** Under the same night sky, the cliffside villa on the outskirts of Yacheng was brightly lit. In contrast to the bloodlust and life-and-death struggles overflowing Yacheng in recent days, beneath the gentle warm lights, there was actually a touch of peaceful domesticity. Just as Ji Jue was once again checking the signals on the transmitter tower and servers, the sound of running water from the bathroom gradually stopped. Soon, Xiao An, having changed into a T-shirt and shorts, came out shuffling in slippers, drying wet hair with a towel. "Brother Ji Jue, I'm done." "Oh, okay, good." Ji Jue yawned, standing up to head toward the bathroom. Yet the moment they brushed past each other, his movements paused for an instant. He turned back in confusion, his nostrils flaring slightly. It was a scent different from memory. Xiao An looked over, puzzled. For a brief moment, Ji Jue felt an inexplicable urge to ask: *Bro, did you change your body wash? Bro, you smell so good...* *Bro, your hands look so small...* *Bro, br—* *Smack!* Without hesitation, he raised a hand and slapped himself across the face. For who knew how many times over the past few days, he reminded himself: *Men, we're both men! We've pissed together in the Border Realm! Ji Jue, you can't go on like this!* Yet that puzzled face leaned in closer, staring blankly. "What's wrong, Brother Ji Jue?" Xiao An asked. "You seem a bit strange." Ji Jue stayed silent, stiffening as he held his breath. He strained to scoot back a bit, and then a bit more. He suddenly felt like he had arrived at an unprecedented crisis in his life, as if standing on the edge of a cliff where a single misstep would lead him astray... "Big brother is about to come out!!!" On the windowsill outside, Gloria, looking like a metallic hummingbird, suddenly flew up and shouted toward him at the top of her lungs. Ji Jue turned pale with fright, waving his hands frantically. "I'm not! What nonsense are you spouting, kid!" "There is! There totally is!!!" Flapping her wings in panic, Gloria shrieked, "Xiao Jiu saw it! Something! Something huge is about to come out! "Very bad, very awful, very dan—" She shouted in a frantic, disjointed scramble, unable to describe exactly what was happening. But before that, the moment Ji Jue registered her panic, he raised his hand without a second thought. —[Deus Ex Machina]! Resonance began; sensory projection engaged! The visual feed originating from Gloria instantly flooded into Ji Jue's mind, nearly causing his head to burst. He had no idea what preset module had been triggered, nor how many vicious tricks the Prophet had crammed into her tiny body. What had normally been simple, ordinary optical vision was now skyrocketing and shifting at a terrifying speed. Resolution magnified without limit. Distance, scale, length, weight, and material composition all fell into view. Then came material penetration, the infrared spectrum, the flow paths of spiritus, and finally, what filled his vision was a boundless, immaterial net! That inexplicable power and perturbation translated within his sight into a dense, intricate grid covering the sky, the earth, and the entire world. Yet right now, in the villa's courtyard, the originally peaceful grid was bulging in a bizarre manner, continuously writhing and tapering into a sharp point... It was as if from the void behind the grid, something was slowly exerting force, tearing at the weave here, on the verge of breaking through! Around the 'bulge,' various shifting readings had already turned crimson. And right at the center was a Sovereign Virtue insignia that Ji Jue recognized all too well. In that split second, Ji Jue sucked in a sharp breath of cold air as a spine-chilling realization dawned upon him. He finally knew what this was... This was an observation of Sovereign Virtue power—or more precisely, an observation apparatus crafted by Quicksilver in the past to achieve his goals, meant to convert changes imperceptible to ordinary senses into visual perception. And its object of observation was the Sovereign Virtue that governed the mighty power of space and time: the Eternal Gate!!! Setting aside the absurd hypothesis that *in the future after Chen Xingzhou dies, Chen Yubo falls into darkness, becoming an arch-villain who commits every evil imaginable and plunges the world into misery, prompting the resistance to use a time machine to send a mechanical warrior into the past to eliminate the culprit*, only one possibility remained— —[Someone was about to slam a teleportation gate right into their faces]!!! In an instant, an ear-splitting alarm resounded throughout the entire villa, startling everyone awake from their tranquil, peaceful slumber. They looked around in bewilderment, having no idea what had happened. "An attack is incoming!" Ji Jue's voice boomed over the intercom. "Everyone, get ready! Enemies are about to tele—" Before his words could finish, an unprecedented blast erupted, engulfing the entire cliff and shaking the sea. Gravity itself seemed to vanish for an instant. In the gorgeous, dignified courtyard, all past beauty was ground to dust in a split second. An invisible maw bit down, carving a perfect circle out of the void. Immediately after, amidst the twisted 'grid,' a cross-shaped rift surfaced right in the center, unfolding on all four sides! Figure after figure strode out from within. "Kill them all." The gaunt old man raised his eyes, brilliant light bursting from his pure white pupils. "Leave none alive!" The gate slammed open, and in the darkness behind it, a horde of beasts surged forth! Surging with explosive momentum— Only to step right onto a landmine. *Ding—* *** Mercy Hospital. In the inpatient lobby, which remained busy late into the night, the elevator doors slid open. "Excuse me, passing through, thank you." Carrying late-night snacks, Uncle Lin squeezed into the packed elevator, nodding genially to the hospitalized patients in their gowns and their visiting families. Beneath the pale fluorescent lights, everything appeared withered and cold. Even the most lively, spirited eyes had been steeped into weariness and numbness by the smell of disinfectant. Yet the moment the elevator doors closed, pair after pair of eyes within the crowded car turned crimson. Darkness surged like a tide. Engulfing everything. *** Inpatient building, sixteenth floor. The doors to the intensive care unit slowly shut. The nurse, still pushing her cart, arrived before the bed. She looked down at the patient hanging by a thread, his face pale, a frail wisp of breath struggling to continue. Colorless liquid was drawn into a syringe. Facing the light, the nurse flicked the barrel, expelling the air inside. Then, rolling up Chen Xingzhou's sleeve, she located the indwelling catheter. The steady needle smoothly approached the port. Yet, it came to an abrupt halt. Her wrist was seized by the patient's hand, gripping it like an iron vise, astonishingly forceful. Beneath the oxygen mask, Chen Xingzhou's eyes strained open a crack. He stared at the assassin before him, devoid of panic or wavering, entirely calm. He locked down her wrist in a death grip, keeping his life firmly in his own hands. Until the 'nurse' let out a helpless sigh. She released her grip on the syringe. "Wouldn't it be better to find release in a dream?" She slowly shook her head. "I originally wanted to give you a quick death..." A dagger was drawn from beneath the white coat. Without hesitation, it plunged into his abdomen, and crimson blood spurted out. *Beep—!!!* The monitors in the corner suddenly blared an alarm, alerting the guards outside. But immediately following that, the sounds of vicious fighting broke out through the heavy doors. Behind the doors, the room remained tranquil. Amidst the echoing alarms, only the faint sound of blood dripping onto the floor could be heard. Expressionless, the nurse pulled out the blade and stabbed down once more. One strike, then another! Crimson pooled and shifted, reflecting the flickering pale light. Outside the window, the night was long. A burst of fire flared abruptly into the sky, followed quickly by another. Chaos had consumed the world.