Chapter 344: Determination

The luxurious villa atop the suburban hill, isolated from the world's chaos, was tranquil as if it were a paradise beyond the mundane.

In the living room, a man stared at the Federation's official emergency broadcast on the TV screen.

"……Due to the lunar‑earth tidal forces and unknown cosmic radiation, rare Geological Disaster phenomena have appeared in many regions worldwide; they have now been effectively contained. Citizens are urged to stay calm, do not spread rumors, and refrain from entering the officially designated quarantine zones……"

On the screen, the spokesperson spoke with righteous conviction, his expression heavy with sorrow.

Chen Shao looked at this familiar official façade, a cold curve forming at the corner of his mouth.

Fool.

A bunch of fools.

Chen Shao turned off the screen, and the room fell into dimness.

Telekinetic energy flowed slowly within, repairing the horrific wounds left by Jiang Yuan, Lin Fan, and Su Ming's joint assault on the top floor of the TV Tower.

The sharpness of the Spinal Sword, the erosion of the Shadow Legion, the cuts of spatial folding… those forces still clash inside, trying to shred him completely.

Yet the power of the Dominating Demon Eye was more domineering, forcibly suppressing, crushing, and absorbing those alien energies bit by bit.

Chen Shao survived.

At the cost of detonating several Divine Gifts, with Xu An and the Invisible Person's desperate support, he escaped that certain‑death killing scenario.

Though the price was heavy, the gains were equally massive.

His grasp of the rules and his control over his own power both achieved unprecedented breakthroughs in that life‑and‑death battle.

He could feel that he was only one final step away from that higher tier.

But that step demands far too much "nutrient."

Chen Shao slowly rose and pushed open the door of the bedroom beside him.

The doorway opened onto another world.

Warm light, pink wallpaper, a bed crowded with cute plush toys.

A young girl slept soundly, long lashes casting a quiet shadow beneath her eyes, a hint of sweet smile at the corner of her mouth, as if dreaming of something beautiful.

Chen Yao.

His sister.

Chen Shao stood at the bedside, his violent and cold aura fully restrained at this moment.

He reached out, gently pulling the blanket over his sister, his fingertips almost touching her warm cheek, then halted mid‑air and slowly withdrew.

He recalled those zones cloaked in crimson light pillars, the last hint of hesitation and caution in his eyes completely collapsing.

Originally, he had planned to proceed slowly.

Gather those officially rejected anomalous ones, accumulate strength, survive in the cracks, and gradually build a refuge where his sister and people like him could settle.

But he was wrong.

Wrong to an absurd degree.

When the Weird fully arrived, the old order had already become waste paper.

Who is crazier, who has no bottom line, who can survive.

To thrive in the madhouse, the only way is to become the craziest.

And building Eden Garden also requires enough bricks and flesh.

Chen Shao turned around and walked back to the living room.

"Xu An, Invisible Person."

His voice was cold, without a hint of warmth.

"Plan changed."

"We… need to accelerate the expansion of our companions."

On the city's edge, a dilapidated daily‑rental room.

The air was thick with damp mildew and the smell of cheap disinfectant.

Lin Fan sat on the edge of the bed, quietly watching the fake news broadcast on the TV.

The screen's light fell on his face, sharply dividing his left eye's resolve and his right eye's deep blue.

That bottomless deep‑blue flame trembled uneasily with his suppressed breath.

A greater chaos… is coming.

He knows better than anyone what the so‑called "Geological Disaster" on TV actually is.

It is a horror a thousand times beyond Bone City, beyond Blood Moon games—a true apocalypse prelude.

At the TV Tower, Jiang Yuan merged thirteen Divine Gifts.

But the result?

The world did not reset, Xin Yu did not return.

All of them were toyed with by a madman.

That bastard used them to collect all the keys, and finally opened the gates of hell.

Lin Fan clenched his fists, knuckles whitening from overexertion.

A strong sense of powerlessness and anger burned his heart.

At that moment.

A strand of cold yet gentle black hair slipped silently from the shadow behind him, lightly coiling around his clenched fist.

The hair carried a familiar, comforting cold aura, like a silent soothing.

Lin Fan's tense body gradually relaxed.

He turned his hand back, grasping that black hair; the feel was icy and supple.

"I'm fine."

He whispered, as if explaining to her, and also as if speaking to himself.

He knew that Xin Yu was worrying about him.

At the top of the TV Tower, he handed all the Divine Gifts to Jiang Yuan, only for that vague, ethereal hope that could bring her back to life.

After the hope was shattered, he led the exhausted Xin Yu, like a street rat, and hid in a corner of the city.

He was tired.

Really tired.

From Xin Yu's tragic death to his symbiosis with ghosts, he set out on a path of vengeance.

Then being hunted by the Ninth Division, he got tangled in one bizarre incident after another.

He had never known a moment of peace.

He only wanted to take Xin Yu and find a place where no one knew them, to live quietly.

Even if she could forever exist only in a ghostly form.

But now, this world won't even grant them a final peace.

The TV screen switched, and a massive Federation map appeared, with vivid red marks indicating six newly emerged S Ji Weird Forbidden Zones worldwide.

"... These areas have been classified as the highest‑level Life Forbidden Zones; the Federation will impose permanent physical blockades, and no citizen may approach..."

Blockade?

Lin Fan stared at those scarlet marks, and the azure flame in his right eye surged upward.

He thought of Qin Zhixia, of the Ninth Division, and of the Federal Weird Investigation Bureau.

In the eyes of these official agencies, he and Xin Yu were alike—outcasts that needed to be "contained" and "blocked."

Hide?

Where else can we hide?

When the whole world begins to turn into a massive cage, every hiding place loses its meaning.

The black hair coiled around his hand seemed to sense his inner resolve and tightened slightly.

A pure determination radiated from the strands.

Xin Yu, in her own way, supported whatever decision he made.

Lin Fan smiled.

He lifted his hand, placed that lock of black hair to his lips, and gave it a gentle kiss.

The icy touch, however, made him feel the warmth of the whole world.

"Xin Yu."

"We're not hiding anymore."

His voice was soft, yet carried a burning obsession.

"The more dangerous the place, the greater the opportunity hidden within."

"Only by becoming stronger—stronger than everyone, stronger than all the Weird—we can truly have a Sanctuary in this world to come."

He stood up, walked to the window, and gazed at the faintly visible scarlet light column on the distant horizon.

"Instead of waiting to be devoured by this mad world, we'd rather charge in ourselves."

Lin Fan turned his head, watching the familiar figure in a white dress slowly emerge from the shadows behind him, while the azure flame in his right eye burned intensely.

"Xin Yu, let's carve out a path that belongs to us."

The black hair, like a waterfall, danced wildly in the windless room.

The silhouette in the shadows nodded heavily.