Chapter 316: The Outcome

Federal Weird Investigation Bureau Headquarters.

Combat Command Center.

The main screen projects an overhead map of Jiang Hai City.

The entire city is shrouded in dense red light.

The green light representing the Investigation Bureau's Special Operations Squad is rapidly diminishing.

Wei Gong sits on the frontmost leather seat.

He holds a white porcelain teacup in his hand.

The tea is already ice‑cold.

He does not drink it.

In the lower right corner of the screen.

The vital‑sign data representing Hawk Squad captain Lei Yu.

has turned into a glaring straight line.

Zeroed out.

No one speaks in the entire command center.

Only the faint hum of the equipment operating.

The clatter of keyboard typing has completely ceased.

The intelligence officers stare at the screen, their eyes bloodshot.

Lei Yu is a veteran in the bureau.

And that's it—gone.

Wei Gong slowly places the teacup on the desk.

The porcelain collides with the solid wood, emitting a crisp crack.

"Report the situation,"

Wei Gong's voice is deep, revealing no emotional fluctuation.

The intelligence officer stands up and opens the file folder in hand.

"Director, the situation is terrible,"

"After the Blood Moon Game erupted, the Weird Domain Shield over Jiang Hai City developed a breach,"

"Chen Shao's 'Eden Garden' has fully intervened,"

"The hyenas from overseas that came smelling the scent have also entered,"

"The North American Union and other countries' Weird mercenaries are all scrambling for the Divine Gift,"

"Our people are inside; a single log cannot support it,"

"Casualty rates have already exceeded thirty percent,"

The intelligence officer quickly reads the data and closes the folder.

Wei Gong leans against the chair back.

Closes his eyes.

In his mind flashes Lei Yu's face, always bearing a simple smile.

And also the Family Photo on Lei Yu's desk.

For the greater cause.

Someone must fill the fate.

This is reality.

Wei Gong opens his eyes.

In those cloudy old eyes, a hawk‑like sharp edge shines through.

"Transmit my orders,"

"Activate the Highest Level Contingency Plan,"

"Have Jiang Yuan prepare to intervene,"

The words are spoken.

A suppressed gasp rises in the command center.

The intelligence officer becomes frantic.

"Director, the Blood Moon Weird Domain Internal Rules are in extreme chaos,"

"Jiang Yuan is our only trump card; if something happens to him inside..."

"There is no 'if'."

Wei Gong interrupts his words.

"The Divine Gift must never fall into the hands of those with ulterior motives,"

"If Chen Shao obtains those items, the consequences would be unimaginable,"

"Jiang Hai City is now a meat grinder,"

"Conventional forces thrown in cannot even splash water,"

"Only monsters can be used to counter monsters,"

Wei Gong stands up.

His posture is upright, like an insurmountable mountain.

"Notify the Aviation Department, take off in ten minutes,"

"I will personally escort him."

Scene switch.

Inside the Blood Moon Weird Domain.

On the rooftop of the tallest skyscraper.

At the place closest to that scarlet Blood Moon.

A gale howls.

The torrential rain stopped long ago.

The air is filled with a foul, fishy scent of blood.

Sai Men stands at the edge of the lightning rod.

He wears a well‑tailored vintage black suit.

The collar of his dark‑red shirt is slightly unbuttoned.

On his face is a deep‑gray stone mask with no features, only two deep eye holes.

He leans on a black staff in his hand.

A living eyeball is set into the top of the staff.

The eyeball still rolls wildly, greedily surveying this mad world.

Sai Men's left hand toys with a faintly glowing trinket.

It is a Divine Gift.

An antiquely styled bronze pocket watch.

Through the mask's eye holes, Sai Men looks down at the chaotic city.

Flames and fighting rage everywhere on the streets.

Humans, vying for power, act uglier than monsters.

Sai Men stops fiddling with the pocket watch.

He slips it into his suit pocket.

"Since this is a game, there has to be a disruptor for it to be fun."

The words hang in the air.

Someone kicks the iron gate at the rooftop entrance open.

Three blood‑splattered men walk out.

They form a half‑encircling formation, blocking Sai Men at the rooftop's edge.

All three are Folk Uncanny Practitioners.

The leader is a bald man, half his face covered in teal scales.

He carries a firefighting axe smeared with shredded flesh.

One of the others has an arm mutated into a tentacle; the other's eyes are pure whites.

The bald man stares at Sai Men, then glances at the pocket where he just hid the watch.

Greed seeps out from the gaps in the scales.

"Hey, you pretender."

"Hand over the Divine Gift."

"I'll leave you a whole corpse."

The bald man grins, showing a mouth full of yellow teeth.

Sai Men turns around.

The mask faces these three uninvited guests.

He tilts his head.

The staff lightly taps the cement floor.

Thud.

Thud.

The rhythm eases, as if marking a waltz beat.

"Robbery?"

Sai Men's tone carries exaggerated surprise.

"You actually intend to rob a gentleman?"

"That's terribly rude."

The bald man is angered by his flippant attitude.

"Cut the damn nonsense!"

"Kill him!"

The bald man roars.

His legs suddenly surge, crushing the cement beneath his feet.

He leaps into the air.

The firefighting axe in his hand whistles through the wind, heading straight for Sai Men's head.

The mutated strength makes the strike capable of cleaving an armored vehicle.

The other two launch their attacks simultaneously.

The tentacle coils around Sai Men's legs like a poisonous snake.

The white‑eyed man opens his mouth, spewing a cloud of green toxic mist.

A kill‑or‑die situation.

Sai Men stood in place.

He didn't even make a dodging motion.

He even used his empty left hand to straighten the hem of his suit.

Just when the firefighting axe was less than five centimeters from his mask.

Sai Men raised his right hand.

The eyeball staff lightly poked forward.

The tip of the staff touched the bald man's chest.

There was no earth-shaking movement.

Also no scene of blood splattering.

The bald man's motion stopped.

His ferocious expression on his face remained as before.

Immediately after.

Starting from where the staff touched.

The bald man's upper body, together with that firefighting axe.

As if erased from this world by an invisible eraser.

Left no trace.

Not even a drop of blood flowed out.

The bald man's remaining lower half lost balance.

Plopped onto the rooftop.

The cut surface was extremely smooth, with the cross-section of organs and bones clearly visible.

Yet it was sealed by a weird force, not a drop of blood leaked.

The tentacle man and the white-eyed man who rushed up from the side.

They abruptly halted their steps.

They looked at the half-body on the ground.

Their brains crashed.

What rule is this?

Completely incomprehensible.

Beyond their cognitive limits.

"Ah!"

The tentacle man collapsed first, letting out a shrill scream.

He turned and ran.

The white-eyed man also scrambled and crawled toward the stairway entrance.

Monster.

The guy wearing the mask is a real monster!

Sai Men watched their fleeing backs.

He let out a pleased light laugh.

"Since you've come, why rush to leave?"

"Stay and play with me a bit."

He took off his top hat.

He elegantly bowed, performing a standard gentleman's salute.

With his movement.

The two fleeing people's bodies suddenly stiffened.

Their bones began to emit a grating cracking sound.

Their flesh quickly dissolved and reassembled.

In just a few seconds.

Two living people.

Turned into two plump meat worms, half a meter long, their bodies covered in tumors.

The meat worms writhed wildly in the pooled water on the rooftop.

Emitted a weird sound like an infant's crying.

Sai Men put his top hat back on.

He walked up to the two meat worms.

He raised his polished leather shoes.

He stepped on the head of one of the meat worms.

He applied slight pressure.

*Pfft*

Yellow-green juice splattered everywhere.

"So fragile."

Sai Men disdainfully rubbed the sole of his shoe against the edge of the rooftop.

He turned around.

He faced that huge, scarlet blood moon.

The eyes beneath the mask burst with an ultimate fervor for the great melee.

"The stage is already set."

"Actors, please delight me to your heart's content."

He spread his arms.

As if embracing the entire mad world.

Federation Investigation Bureau, Underground Helipad.

A gale, carrying rain threads, blew into the open arena.

A specially modified Black Transport Aircraft had already started its engines.

The rotors churned up a violent airflow.

Jiang Yuan wore a brand‑new Black Combat Suit.

His posture was upright.

He walked with a light step toward the boarding stair.

A special Card Bag hung from his waist.

Inside lay Dark Playing Cards whose edges glowed with a metallic chill.

Wei Gong stood beside the stair.

The wind made his graying hair a bit disheveled.

Yet his back remained straight.

"Director."

Jiang Yuan halted, and respectfully bowed.

He was still the young man who felt a little restrained before his elders.

Wei Gong looked at the ace before him, one in whom great expectations were placed.

He reached out and patted Jiang Yuan's shoulder.

"Come back alive."

Just four words.

Heavy as a thousand pounds.

Jiang Yuan lifted his head.

In those clean, clear eyes settled the hunter's pinpoint focus, as if locking onto prey.

He was no longer that inexperienced newcomer.

He is the Shadow Lord.

A monster hunter who can tear a way to life in a desperate situation.

"I guarantee to complete the mission."

Jiang Yuan turned and stepped onto the stair.

He entered the cabin.

The hatch closed slowly.

The transport aircraft rose from the ground into the night.

Heading toward the Weird Domain shrouded in blood.

It flew at full speed.

Inside the cabin.

Red tactical lights flickered rapidly.

Jiang Yuan sat on a metal bench.

He unfastened the Card Bag at his waist.

His slender fingers drew out an Ace of Spades.

The card flipped deftly on his fingertip.

On the face of the card.

A mass of pure black shadow roamed restlessly.

Jiang Yuan slipped the card back into the bag.

He looked out the porthole.

The distant city had been completely devoured by a crimson blaze.

Like an ancient beast with its massive jaws gaping.

Waiting for prey to walk into the net.