Chapter 65: Starry River

Su Ming's breathing halted.

He had thought.

That the commotion caused by wiping out the Keeper Huai Demon would now make him the focus of the entire net.

On the forums, there should have been posts everywhere about "Jiangcheng Suddenly Witnesses Heaven-Reaching Demon Pillar" and "Mystery of the Black Light".

Some even fearless ones were live‑streaming on the scene.

But reality seemed quite different from what he imagined…

There were indeed posts about "Jiangcheng Black Light".

Yet they were drowned in an even more terrifying wave of blood‑red headlines!

What pierced his eyes was a string of titles thickened in blood‑red.

"Crazy! In Paper‑Stitched Village Fengdu Town, all paper humans and paper horses revived en masse!"

"Damn, they're beating drums in the street, looks like some wedding or funeral!"

"Cowardly, do not enter, contains high‑definition large images!"

……

"Jin Cheng's urban legend comes true!"

"Midnight, Chengnan Xiaoqu Mahjong sounds echo to the heavens!"

"Every household hears it clearly, yet no source can be found!"

"Someone has been driven mad and jumped from the upper floor!"

……

"Apocalypse for deep‑sea phobics!"

"Along the coast of Donghai City, overnight countless giant mutated sea fish emerged, extremely aggressive!"

"Not a single fishing vessel has returned!"

"The beach has been completely sealed off!"

……

"Urgent report from the Western Frontier!"

"All wind‑eroded rocks have come to life!"

"Forming a rock giant‑beast legion, without flesh, impervious to swords and spears!"

"Advancing toward the city!"

……

"Sss!"

Su Ming inhaled a gasp of cold air.

This wasn't over yet!

His gaze swept across the global sections, revealing a horrifying human purgatory.

"Report! Along the Sacred River of the Three Kingdoms, several towns have erupted with massive epidemics!"

"All contacts are doomed, within hours they will mutate into monsters that only know how to devour flesh!"

"At least a thousand civilians are already infected, the quarantine line is about to collapse!"

"Good news! Sakura Country experiences abnormal large‑scale volcanic activity! Ash clouds swirl!"

"According to rumors, a huge living creature seems to be awakening inside the mountain!"

"Residents at the foot of the mountain flee wildly, supplies are all bought up!"

……

Case after case, incident after incident!

Bizarre! Ominous! Terrifying!

"Something's off!"

"Completely off!"

Su Ming clicked open several posts, rapidly scanning their descriptions and images.

They're all real!

These so‑called paper humans, rock giants, mutated sea fish…

They are not like the singular, highly recognizable Calamities summoned by offering Black Light.

But rather…

Just like the Keeper Huai Demon we eliminated at Li Jia'ao!

"So, what I encountered… was never accidental!"

It's all the work of V‑shaped Mutagenic Altars!

Su Ming suppressed the dread in his heart, staring intently at the posts' timestamps.

The earliest were at early dawn today.

The concentrated outbreak occurred this morning!

"So that's how it is…"

Su Ming only felt his scalp tingling.

After the Blood Moon incident.

This world has no Rule as before.

Calm?

Quite the opposite!

That blood-colored cataclysm that swept the globe…

It was more like…

A silent selection!

A terrifying sowing!

Countless brand‑new altars that can merge with the environment and specific objects—mutated altars—…

Like bamboo shoots after rain, they silently surged forth wildly!

This is a vast, boundless, crimson and foul‑smelling breeding ground!

It is birthing countless unprecedented, unknown horrors!

"Must… become stronger faster!"

Creak—!

Outside the courtyard, the truck engine snapped his thoughts.

Su Ming steadied his mind and walked out the Gate.

Boss Wang personally escorted the vehicle.

Seeing Su Ming standing there unharmed, he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"All right, all right… this kid has no Manifestation!"

Twenty minutes later, the Slaughterhouse gates shut tight.

Begin the slaughter!

Blade flashes rose and fell, blood splashed three feet.

Su Ming's hands kept moving without pause.

His mind was equally busy, racing at high speed.

There were too many things, clues too tangled, making it impossible for him to sort them out!

He grew stronger!

But the ensuing worries and threats also multiplied geometrically!

The current trajectory of the world's development.

Not only did it not become clear.

It instead grew ever more elusive and bizarrely unpredictable.

To stand one's ground…

Hard!

"Hm?!"

Suddenly, Su Ming's movement halted.

His complexion turned extremely odd.

"What the hell?!"

"Damn it, blood loss!"

At that moment, that letter written with a secret…

Directly turned into specks of golden light, dissipating into the air!

"We should toss it to the Crimson Throne before it vanishes!"

That is a Legendary Rank Source Blood…

Su Ming's hand movements suddenly sped up severalfold, the blade leaving only an afterimage.

Transform grief into power!!

This 【】 altar is so cheap!

"Back to the point, these altars should have some method to be encountered again, right?!"

Su Ming narrowed his eyes slightly, murderous aura revealed.

Must lure it back!

"Huh!"

4 p. m.

All one thousand chickens have been processed.

"Xiao Heizi probably has no chance today…"

Su Ming shook his head.

【Incubation progress: 88.5%】!

Still a long way to go!

The growth progress of the Soul Dagger, compared to the 【】 points needed for the next promotion, is but a drop in the bucket.

"The body has almost recovered, let's head to Zhao Shu first…"

Su Ming sheathed his sword and dialed Zhao Gang's phone.

This is a crucial part of his plan, intolerable to fail.

The phone rang for a very long time.

"Hello?"

On the other end, the voice was hoarse and hollow.

Like a puppet whose soul had been drawn out!

Su Ming felt a sudden heaviness in his heart.

"Zhao Shu, I'm on my way, where are you now?"

Zhao Gang numbly gave a hospital address and floor.

He said not another word and hung up the phone directly.

Listening to the busy tone in his phone, Su Ming knit his brows.

The situation…

Seems to have become a bit terrible!

Forty minutes later, City Third Hospital.

Su Ming just stepped out of the elevator, and a wave of despair crashed toward him.

At the end of the corridor.

He saw that familiar yet unfamiliar figure.

How long it's been since they last met.

The already weathered man seemed even older.

Zhao Gang's eyes were bloodshot, his hair a tangled clump of dry grass.

He hunched his back, clutching a doctor in a white coat's arm, pleading in collapse.

"Doctor Zhang! Please! Think of another way! There must be a way, right?!"

"Any medicine will do! Whatever the cost, we'll pay! Even a foreign experimental drug, as long as it exists! I'll go buy it right away!"

Beside him, a similarly gaunt woman with swollen red eyes was also sobbing uncontrollably.

It should…

be his wife.

"Please, doctor…"

The doctor's face was full of fatigue and helplessness as he forcefully pried Zhao Gang's hand open.

He shook his head, sighing.

"Mr. Zhao, Mrs. Zhao, we have exhausted all methods."

"The cells have malignant mutations, spreading faster than anyone anticipated…"

"Now, it is no longer a matter of medicine."

He paused briefly, delivering a cruel verdict.

"I'm sorry."

"How could… how could this happen…"

Zhao Gang's body shook violently, nearly collapsing to his knees.

"We clearly have tried so hard…"

"Every day we tended to her cautiously, cooperating with all treatments… why…"

Seeing the near‑collapse of this couple, a flash of compassion crossed the doctor's eyes, yet he still sighed.

"Heaven… not all effort is visible!"

"Nor is every prayer… rewarded!"

"Adjust your mindset…"

Su Ming stood silently in place.

Watching this scene, a mixture of emotions churned inside him.

He slowly walked over, reached out, and gently patted Zhao Gang's shoulder.

Zhao Gang numbly turned his head.

In his blood‑shot, cloudy eyes, after recognizing Su Ming, he forced out a faint spark of spirit.

"Mr. Su…"

He sniffed, introducing Su Ming to his wife.

Then the three entered that door that cut off hope, the room Gate.

On the sickbed.

The little girl was so thin she was almost skin‑and‑bone, her complexion as pale as paper.

At the head of the bed, her name was written—

Zhao Xinghe.

When she saw her parents walk in.

In those dull, lifeless big eyes, a glimmer of light sparked.

She forced, with all effort, a pale smile.

"Dad… Mom…"

Her voice, weak as a candle about to go out.

When her gaze fell on the unfamiliar Su Ming.

This little girl, twisted by illness beyond human shape, still remained quite polite.

"Hello, uncle…"

Zhao Gang's wife could no longer hold back, turned sharply, hunched over the cabinet, her shoulders trembling violently.

Zhao Gang knelt on both knees at the bedside, like a helpless child.

Holding his daughter's withered little hand, tears fell like rain.

The little girl's eye sockets also became wet.

She extended that hand, almost nothing but skin and bone.

Gently stroking her father's tear‑streaked cheek.

"Dad, am I… going to a very far, very far place soon?"

"It's okay."

"I read that good children become stars in the sky."

"Later, I will be in the sky, become the brightest star, and keep, keep watching dad and mom."

"So… if you miss me, look up at the night sky…"

"I am Xing He in the star river…"

"Gate, the doctor who had already been about to leave suddenly stiffened."

"He had practiced medicine for years, considered his heart as hard as iron, and was accustomed to life and death separations."

"But at this moment, he couldn't help but sharply turn his head away, unwilling to look at the girl on the sickbed."

"The warmth of this family, and the cruelty of the fate they bear…"

"Too sharp, too satirical…"

"Su Ming silently watched it all."

"He walked to Zhao Gang's side and patted his shoulder again."

"He half‑supported, half‑dragged the man whose emotions had completely collapsed out into the corridor."

"What's the situation, exactly?"

"Su Ming asked in a low voice."

"Zhao Gang leaned against the cold wall, his voice hoarse."

"The doctor said…"

"Given the current condition, at most…"

"Half a month."

"Su Ming was silent."

"In the corridor, only the man's suppressed breathing remained."

"A long while."

"Zhao Shu."

"Hmm?"

"The damn heavens have no eyes, they can't see your effort."

"But I saw it."

"Zhao Gang slightly lifted his head, meeting Su Ming's pitch‑black eyes."

"I might…"

"There is a way!"