Chapter 520: Undercurrents Surge

——

The Black Card reached Sai Men's throat in an instant.

Jiang Yuan didn't hold back.

The Dark Shadow Court's throne insignia was compressed to the limit on the card's face; the ebony-black blade was thin enough to sever concepts, even the wind was shaved into discontinuous fragments.

Chen Shao's Demon Eye was still burning.

The Mad Wolf's claws clenched tightly around Sai Men's shoulders, two bone spikes snapped, and blood trickled down from the fur.

Three people, a killing game bought with their lives.

Sai Men, however, did not dodge.

Beneath the gray stone mask, a low laugh first emerged.

Then, that laugh grew louder and louder.

"Haha...... hahahaha!"

The Mad Wolf's forehead veins bulged, its fangs almost shattering.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

Jiang Yuan's pupils contracted.

Wrong.

Too smooth.

From the start of the battle to now, this madman has been dodging, toying with them, and twisting their rhythm into a tangled mess.

But now, the most dangerous strike has reached his throat, and he instead abandoned all defenses.

That Eyeball Staff hung at his side.

No recoil was absorbed.

No card was consumed.

No misalignment.

Not even the mask shifted slightly.

Chen Shao also sensed the abnormality; the patterns of his Demon Eye frenziedly reversed, and black blood dripped down his chin.

"Jiang Yuan, retreat!"

Too late.

The Black Card had already pierced half an inch into Sai Men's throat.

No blood.

No sensation of flesh being cut.

The feedback coming from Jiang Yuan's wrist was strange.

It didn't feel like striking a living thing.

It was more like reaching a hand into a boundless nightmare.

Sai Men lowered his head and glanced at the Black Card at his throat.

"Shadow Lord."

His voice was light, even tinged with relief.

"This strike of yours passes."

Jiang Yuan's complexion shifted abruptly; he exerted force with his palm, trying to press the Black Card all the way in.

Sai Men, however, opened his arms.

The Mad Wolf's claws still gripped his shoulder, Chen Shao's telekinesis still held him suspended in midair, and the Dark Shadow Court's killing formation still sealed off all directions.

But he was like an actor standing center stage, finally waiting for the moment the audience screamed.

"Then."

"The revelry begins."

The words fell.

Sai Men's body surface, gray patterns emerged in concentric rings.

Not resentment.

Not a Weird Domain.

Not the rules of a weird tale.

Jiang Yuan had witnessed too many fluctuations of weird energy levels: D-rank, C-rank, A-rank, Quasi‑S-rank, and even the S‑rank oppression from the Shadow Ghost subdued within his own body.

None of those were this.

This thing isn't on the rating chart.

It doesn't follow logic.

It doesn't follow procedure.

It doesn't negotiate with the world.

The gray patterns surged up from beneath Sai Men's skin, crawling along his dark‑red shirt over his entire body, then drilling into the space beneath his feet.

Click.

A clear cracking sound.

The air beside Jiang Yuan split open a fine line.

Click click click.

The second.

The third.

The internal structure of the entire Dark Shadow Court was rewritten from the underlying rules by some domineering thing.

Space shattered into countless transparent facets, each reflecting Sai Men from a different angle.

Sai Men wearing a mask.

Sai Men with his head lowered.

Sai Men laughing.

Sai Men pierced in the throat by a black card.

Jiang Yuan felt a chill run through his heart.

A gray surge rolled out from within Sai Men's body.

It was not an impact.

It was the world itself rejecting them.

The first batch of Chen Shao's telekinetic chains broke.

That was a lock forged by a Quasi‑S demon eye burning its life, able to hold space for half a second, but before the gray chaos it was as fragile as paper paste.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

One after another, the invisible chains shattered.

Chen Shao threw his head back and spat black blood; the triple pupils in his right eye instantly cracked into a spiderweb, and his whole body toppled backward.

"Chen Shao!"

Jiang Yuan had just reached out when his chest was struck by that surge of rules.

The Dark Shadow Court emitted a sound of being unable to bear the strain.

Hundreds of shadow cards flipped up simultaneously, the throne insignia on each face blinking out one by one.

Jiang Yuan's black card lodged in Sai Men's throat, yet could not be pushed forward even an inch.

Sai Men raised his hand and lightly tapped the edge of the black card with his index finger.

"Not a bad card."

"Too bad, the table is mine."

Crack.

The black card split open.

Jiang Yuan's palm and wrist burst open with lines of blood.

The Shadow Ghost's essence roared within him, the Dark Shadow Court straining to contract, trying to drag its master back into the shadows.

But the gray rules would not allow it.

It even snatched away the shadows.

Crushed.

The mad wolf was closest and bore the brunt.

Its body over three meters tall was pressed by the gray surge, bones jangling, the collapsed wound on its chest bursting open again, blood mist spraying from between its fur.

"Howl!"

The mad wolf went berserk, digging its claws deeper, forcibly carving two deep grooves into Sai Men's shoulders.

Sai Men lowered his head and looked.

"Wow."

"Friend from North America, your persistence is moving."

The mad wolf, mouth full of blood, snarled: "Cut the fucking artist act!"

He bared his fangs and lunged to bite Sai Men's mask.

He was about to succeed.

The living eyeball atop Sai Men's staff suddenly turned toward the mad wolf.

No red light.

No warning.

The mad wolf's muscles all went out of control at once, as if pressed by countless invisible hands; his fangs halted less than half a finger's breadth from the mask.

Sai Men lifted his leg.

His leather shoe kicked the mad wolf's abdomen.

The motion was graceful, like kicking aside a chair in the way.

The mad wolf was flung backward, smashing through the bell tower's edge wall, his body tumbling up a hundred meters into the air.

Jiang Yuan couldn't hold on either.

The Dark Shadow Court was overturned from within by the gray chaos, the murky sky splitting into large remnants.

He was swept out of the bell tower whole, his waist pouch exploding, shadow cards scattering across the sky.

The feeling of falling tugged at his five viscera.

Around him were the howling wind, blood mist, and the distant echo of battlefield gunfire.

Jiang Yuan gritted his teeth, fingers curling, trying to summon his shadow.

But the surrounding space was still breaking apart.

Every shadow that began to form was swallowed by the gray fissures.

"Damn it......"

Chen Shao was worse off than them.

The Demon Eye's backlash shattered his nerves, his eyes turned white, and his body slipped from the inner side of the bell tower toward the edge.

His left hand clutched a protruding Reinforced Steel Bar, and his entire arm was pulled dislocated.

His finger bones scraped the steel bar, flesh and blood smeared.

He made no shout.

Nor did he call for help.

He bit his tongue with his teeth, forcefully pulling his chaotic consciousness back.

At the top of the bell tower.

The gray fissures faded.

The Dark Shadow Court was gone.

Jiang Yuan's royal court was dismantled from within.

Sai Men stood on the shattered edge, with no support beneath his feet, yet he hovered steadily in midair.

The wind lifted the hem of his suit.

The Eyeball Staff spun once in his palm, and he casually slung it over his shoulder.

He lowered his head, watching Jiang Yuan falling, the blood‑spitting wild wolf, and Chen Shao hanging from the steel bar.

"Gentlemen."

"The hot zone is over."

On the distant battlefield, the Federation's advance rhythm was disrupted at that moment.

Someone, using a tactical scope, saw the scene at the top of the bell tower.

Jiang Yuan was knocked down.

The wild wolf fell.

Chen Shao teetered on the brink of losing control.

And Sai Men was unscathed.

In the communication channel, chaotic breaths came first, then someone, suppressing fear, spoke.

"Shadow Lord… Shadow Lord has been shot down!"

"Repeat, Shadow Lord has been shot down!"

The ground line showed a brief disorder.

Gospel Church believers lunged forward like wild dogs that smelled blood, eyes reddened.

Sai Men spread his arms, the Gray Mask facing the Blood Moon.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

"Please do not blink."

"The real show has only just begun."

He tipped his staff downward.

In the bell tower's shadows, dozens of gray fissures spread along the wall, crawling toward the entire battlefield.

Under the same moonlight.

On the other side of Earth.

In the Federation's Qiu Ce Yuan underground ultra‑secret zone.

The red alarm lights rotated in circles, casting the Corridor in flickering light.

Two‑thirds of the monitoring probes that had been lit on the wall were now blacked out.

The remaining few still operated, but only captured the empty Corridor.

The elite guards stationed every three steps were all down.

Someone lay on the watch desk, forehead pressed to the keyboard, the communication earpiece still hanging at the ear.

Someone collapsed beside the Alloy Door, fingers on the gun holster, yet the gun did not draw.

No blood.

No struggle marks.

Everyone seemed to have been plucked from consciousness, sleeping in perfect unison.

At the corner at the end of the Corridor, the elevator doors slid open silently.

A tall black silhouette stepped out.

Doctor's Lab Coat.

Senior Researcher's Badge.

The mask covered the lower half of the face.

The eyes behind the Protective Goggles were dimly weighed down by the red alarm light.

He carried a silver medical case, its edges sealed with the highest‑risk bio‑sample seal.

With each step, the soles of his shoes avoided the floor's sensor lines.

Half a second before the first monitoring probe on the left turned, he halted.

When the second thermal scan swept in, he raised his hand to press his chest badge.

The badge emitted a fabricated body‑temperature curve.

On the screen, he became an on‑duty doctor pushing a medical cart.

The on‑duty doctor walked toward Area A in the footage.

The real black silhouette had already slipped into a blind spot, turning into the sealed Corridor of Area B.

This level of familiarity was not a temporary infiltration.

He understands the security logic of the Institute of Devious Schemes too well.

He knows every camera's patrol interval, every access door's delay, and what identification module lies beneath each seemingly harmless floor tile.

In the middle of the Corridor, a guard suddenly moved.

The man wasn't fully unconscious; his finger reached for the alarm button, and a vague gasp escaped his throat.

"Who......"

The dark silhouette halted.

No turning back.

A transparent syringe slipped out from the cuff of the Doctor's Lab Coat.

The word "needle" shouldn't appear, so it was called a fine tube instead.

The tip of the fine tube lightly touched the guard's neck.

The medicine was pushed forward.

The guard's pupils dilated, his finger was only two centimeters from the button, yet it completely drooped.

The dark silhouette withdrew the syringe into the sleeve and kept moving forward.

The movement was clean.

Professional.

Not a single excess.

At the deepest part of the highly secret area stood a black Alloy Door.

The door had no handle.

Only a triple-permission lock.

Fingerprint.

Iris.

Live brainwave.

The plaque read:

Special observation target, Lu Yu.

Danger level, S Ji preparation.

Contact prohibited without director-level authorization.

The dark silhouette stood before the door and glanced up at the plaque.

Behind the protective goggles, there was no ripple in the eyes.

He took an Insulated Glove from the medical box and deliberately put it on.

Then he took out a tiny transparent chip.

Within the chip was sealed a pulsing strand of red data.

The dark silhouette pressed the chip into the permission slot.

The access system flashed a glaring red light.

"Permission error."

"Permission error."

"Permission......"

The third prompt hadn't finished when the system voice stalled.

The error text on the screen began to reverse.

The red light turned green.

Fingerprint identification passed.

Iris identification passed.

Brainwave identification passed.

The whole process was absurd, like a backstage admin opening the door personally.

Click.

The first lock disengaged.

Click.

The second lock disengaged.

When the third Alloy bolt retracted to the sides, the corridor's alarm lights dimmed for a second.

Behind the door, a cold white medical light glowed.