Chapter 898: Black Moon Organization (2/2, please vote for monthly tickets)

His strength had risen another step.

Power flooded every corner of his body.

Fang Yue's strength had long since surpassed that of martial artists at the same realm, but his cultivation level was actually holding him back.

So in the eyes of other martial artists, cross-realm kills that were nearly impossible were, for Fang Yue, nothing out of the ordinary.

At the same time, because the kills spanned realms, the rewards also skyrocketed geometrically.

With his attributes surging wildly, Fang Yue's strength naturally improved at breakneck speed.

But because his strength had grown too fast, he also clearly felt that his control over his power had slipped somewhat — not as smooth and effortless as before.

This was the consequence of insufficient settling.

Under normal circumstances, one should accumulate thickly and release thinly, with strength and realm rising in steady steps.

But Fang Yue's current situation was a rocket-like surge; his control over power, his cultivation, his mastery — all of it still rested on shallow foundations.

There was nothing Fang Yue could do to fix this in the short term. He could only rely on time to grind it down, to settle it, before he could regain proper control of his power.

After killing You Xiaomao and the Black Blood Guais, Fang Yue did not linger on the spot but headed to the rendezvous point he had agreed on with Tail.

Earlier, when he had been hunted by You Xiaomao, Tail and he had split up temporarily and agreed on a meeting point.

Fang Yue should have gone there long ago after shaking off You Xiaomao, but seeing those Black Blood Guais still running rampant and attacking the common folk, he had cleaned them up on the way.

He hadn't expected that, before he could finish them off, they suddenly seemed to receive some kind of signal and charged in the same direction.

That direction was, unmistakably, You Xiaomao's direction — and then they were eaten one by one by You Xiaomao, becoming You Xiaomao's strength.

Now that You Xiaomao was dead, the problem was solved; no more Black Blood Guais should appear.

The meeting point agreed on with Tail was an inn several streets away from here.

But strangely, when Fang Yue arrived at the inn, all he saw were its ruins and wreckage.

On the ground were many wounded — some pinned under the inn's rubble, some scraped and injured.

Fang Yue had just stepped forward to ask around when someone grabbed his hand.

"Ye Ge, I'm here."

He turned and saw — sure enough — Tail, wearing a black-mist cloak.

"Tail, how is Jingcheng still going through one thing after another…"

"Ye Ge, this isn't the place to talk. Let's find somewhere else."

Tail seemed to know something. Fang Yue didn't hesitate and followed Tail away at once.

When they reached an empty stretch of land, Tail spoke slowly.

"Ye Ge, you know the Fifth Imperial Princess is the one backing my actions, right? I'm not going to hide it from you — those Black Blood Guais today were also her doing. She once showed me the thing. I just didn't expect her to move so quickly."

"The Fifth Imperial Princess? What is she trying to do? Releasing guais in Jingcheng — has she lost her mind?!"

Fang Yue's face darkened. So it really was the gods fighting while the mortals suffered?

If he hadn't been here today, the people on those few streets would probably have ended up in the Black Blood Guais' bellies.

"She said she wants to deal with the Fourth Prince — to use the Fourth Prince as the breach that kicks off the Nine Dragons' Struggle for the Throne!"

"Before, the Nine Great Princes and Imperial Princesses were only squabbling in small ways. Everyone had a bottom line and didn't dare go too far."

"But ever since the 【Heaven-Devouring】 omen appeared, even the most invisible Eighth Imperial Princess and Ninth Imperial Princess have started making obvious moves — let alone the other princes."

"It's obvious they all want to use 【Heaven-Devouring】 to do something. And the Fifth Imperial Princess came to me because she wanted the support of the Extreme Ice Sect. As the price of the deal, she also showed her sincerity and let me see many of her hidden contingencies."

"The Black Moon Organization is one of her hidden assets."

Fang Yue's brow furrowed.

"The Black Moon Organization?"

"Those Black Blood Guais you just ran into — they were originally human believers. What they worship is… the 【Heaven-Devouring】 omen. Normally they're very low-key, only occasionally showing up in Jingcheng so people know an organization like this exists.

But after the 【Heaven-Devouring】 omen appeared, they started becoming active and quickly showed extraordinary influence. Part of that is certainly the Fifth Imperial Princess's maneuvering, but the organization itself is also far from simple."

"How so?"

"Rumor has it that the Moon Lord of the Black Moon Organization — that is, the organization's leader — is very likely someone who survived from the 【Heaven-Devouring】 era. Others say the Moon Lord is actually a powerful guai, and the Black Moon Organization is just a spy network the guai have infiltrated into humanity."

Fang Yue's brow furrowed.

If the Moon Lord was someone who had survived from the last 【Heaven-Devouring】 era, that would be at least two epochs ago!

A thousand years back — back when Meiyu Xianzi was still active and the other closed-beta players still existed.

That… shouldn't be possible, right?

Fang Yue felt the other rumor was more likely. After all, the Black Moon Organization's subordinates had all turned into Black Blood Guais and were still rampaging through the city.

"Ye Ge, before you arrived, I secretly scouted the nearby area. The entire Dongqu we're in is basically in chaos — Black Blood Guais are running wild everywhere. Even though the Green Division has sent people to suppress them, and even the Red Department has dispatched reinforcements, the situation here will probably last at least three to five more hours before there's any chance of clearing out these guais."

Fang Yue's brow furrowed tightly.

Three to five hours — by Jingcheng's standards, that was already very slow.

Still, with such a wide affected area, and the Black Blood Guais able to kill ordinary people and perform Possession on them, it was only natural that dealing with them would be troublesome and time- and labor-intensive.

After all, even though Jingcheng's Green Division had more people, ordinary citizens were even more numerous. When a large-scale incident broke out, manpower would inevitably seem stretched thin.

He pondered for a moment, then asked, "I don't get it. The Fifth Imperial Princess went through all this trouble — crippling half the Green Division, even pulling people from the Red Department, tying up so much manpower — what exactly is she trying to do?"

Tail sighed at his words. "If I'm not mistaken, she wants to… kill the Fourth Prince."

What?!

Kill the Fourth Prince.

Fang Yue's eyes went wide. The Nine Dragons' Struggle for the Throne had already gotten this intense? If things escalated to this point, would the current Emperor really just sit back and let his children run wild?

"That I don't know. Maybe she has other contingencies. As a force on the Fifth Imperial Princess's side, all I can do is wait for her final outcome for now."

Fang Yue's face was ugly. He thoroughly disliked the Fifth Imperial Princess's methods — what right did innocent commoners have to be sacrificed for the struggles of those born above them?

Suddenly, he thought of something.

Something very important.

"Not good! Qi Huang Fu is also within the blast radius, and Jing Yan is still inside Qi Huang Fu!"

"The Seventh Prince's side should be fine, after all he is a prince—experts will be protecting his residence… Forget it, let's go together!"

The two moved quickly, and whenever they encountered anything strange along the way, Fang Yue would step in to deal with it.

Setting aside any talk of helping others for the joy of it, the attribute point rewards alone were enough to keep Fang Yue hooked.

(End of chapter)