Chapter 523: Holding Back

Lu Yu looked up.

When that dim gaze fell, the entire secret zone went off the alarms.

It wasn't a normal red light flashing.

Instead, all equipment simultaneously entered a runaway state, the parameters jumping on the screens turned into static snow, the pollution index surged from the red zone straight to the black zone, and finally simply dropped to zero.

Zero doesn't mean safety.

It means the instruments have given up.

Qin Zhixia's mechanical left arm emitted a harsh buzz, the Exoskeleton joints heated up one by one, and the Tail-Head Snake barrel in her palm automatically ejected its heat sink.

The Security Captain's Adam's apple bobbed, half his face washed pale under the red light.

"Qin Team, the pollution reading is gone."

Qin Zhixia stared at the half of Xu Chen kneeling in the medicine storage room.

"Step back."

"But..."

"I said step back."

She didn't turn around.

Lu Yu stood at the edge of the blood pool, his Patient Gown soaked through with foul black blood, and red seeped from the sutured spot on his chest.

He raised his right hand, the inky vortex in his palm contracting to the size of a Nail.

The smaller, the more dangerous.

Xu Chen knelt on the ground, his broken body folded upward in prayer, the ash lines on his face already spreading into his bones.

He tilted his head back, a guttural croak forced from his throat.

"Look."

"It has seen you."

"Lu Yu, aren't you trying to avenge the god?"

"Come, look up, greet your enemy."

Lu Yu gave no reply.

He stepped half a pace forward.

The shattered glass and chemicals beneath his feet were drawn up by the black vortex, turning into ash powder.

Qin Zhixia turned her head and glanced at him.

"Don't act rashly."

Lu Yu twitched his lip.

"I'm perfectly rational right now."

"A rational person wouldn't move forward at a time like this."

"Then what does it mean that you stand in front of me?"

Qin Zhixia gave no answer.

She simply swung her mechanical left arm across her front, the silver‑white Exoskeleton interlocking layer by layer, and the shoulder interface spitting out high‑temperature white mist.

Honestly, her current condition wasn't great either.

But she couldn't retreat.

Behind her was Lu Yu.

Further back was the Federation Qiu Ce Yuan.

Beyond that lay the whole of Jiang Hai City.

Xu Chen laughed, his upper body trembling wildly.

"Touching, so touching."

"A former detective protecting a monster, and the monster wants to protect its own ridiculous human identity."

"Your script here is melodramatic, sure, but the logic is a bit off."

Qin Zhixia lifted her gun.

"Shut up."

Xu Chen opened his mouth, still trying to mock.

Lu Yu moved.

Black mist spread from under his feet, crazily expanding along the floor, walls, and ceiling.

It was no longer ordinary consumption.

It was a domain.

Fumo·Xingtian.

The darkness pressed down the medicine storage lights, the eye‑shaped patterns on the walls, and also the high‑dimensional gaze falling on Lu Yu.

Lu Yu raised both hands, his ten fingers as if about to clasp the void.

"You present coordinates using Lu Yu's name?"

He stared at Xu Chen.

"Then I'll tear this name away."

The black mist churned, revealing a headless giant silhouette.

The silhouette wielded an axe‑shield, a massive maw split open at its chest, snapping toward Xu Chen's broken body.

Qin Zhixia's pupils constricted.

This wasn't the first time she had seen Lu Yu's domain.

But this time is different.

Last time in the experimental chamber, the Devil-Subduing Heaven's Punishment came with uncontrolled greed.

Now, it is colder.

It is sharper.

It is more like a rewritten killing program.

Xu Chen was pressed down by the black mist; his upper body emitted a teeth-grating grinding sound, his flesh and skin peeling off layer by layer, and the ash patterns were dragged into the maw.

He finally stopped laughing.

"Do you dare to sever the god's gaze?"

Lu Yu's palm vortex expanded.

"In my past life, I even ate His seed."

"What dish do you think you are?"

The black mist pressed down hard.

Xu Chen's mutilated body was crushed out of shape, his breastbone flipped outward, and his vertebrae popped out one by one.

Qin Zhixia seized the opportunity, the Tail-Head Snake fired successive shots.

Three sealing bullets pierced the black mist and lodged in Xu Chen's neck, chest, and brow.

The silver rune ring burst open.

The domain and the seal locked simultaneously.

Security personnel even ten meters away could smell the burnt odor, and someone couldn't help but curse softly.

"This is secure now, right?"

No one responded.

Because Lu Yu's complexion turned grim.

In the depths of the black mist, Xu Chen's mutilated body was not completely swallowed.

On the contrary, it began to swell.

First the shoulders.

Then the chest.

Then the entire spine.

Pink flesh buds sprouted from the wounds, sticking together, reorganizing, stacking, and in just a few seconds filled half of the medicine storage room.

At the tip of each flesh bud, a dark blue eye split open.

Those eyes had no eyelids.

They all stared fixedly at Lu Yu.

Xu Chen's face was squeezed into the center of the flesh mass, leaving only half a mouth still moving.

"Go on, swallow it."

"Keep swallowing."

"Aren't you a glutton?"

"The god's upgrade package has arrived; won't you accept it?"

Lu Yu's temples bulged with veins.

The giant maw of the Devil-Subduing Heaven's Punishment bit down again.

Click!

Where the black mist touched the flesh buds, it was actually contaminated in reverse.

The dark blue eyes rotated, spreading gray patterns within, which directly embedded into the depths of the black mist.

The domain trembled.

Lu Yu's chest wound burst open, blood surging out from the bandages.

He clenched his teeth and pressed his palms together inward.

"Cut it off!"

The black mist condensed into an axe blade, slicing toward the point where Xu Chen and Gao Wei's lines of sight meet.

But that mass of flesh moved first.

Hundreds of dark blue eyes simultaneously opened to their limit.

Invisible radiation spread from within the flesh mass.

The Devil-Subduing Heaven's Punishment was toppled backward, the wall's metal panels dented, and the ceiling's pipes snapped inch by inch.

Lu Yu felt a sweetness in his throat, and fresh blood spurted onto the ground.

He retreated several steps barefoot, stepping on shards that cut his soles, yet he did not lower his head.

Qin Zhixia rushed forward.

"Lu Yu, fall back!"

She activated the Exoskeleton Overload Mode.

The mechanical left arm's joints all unlocked, high-temperature steam burst from the gaps in the silver-white armor, and the entire arm from shoulder to fingertip lit up with a dangerous red line.

She lunged low to the ground, the Tail-Head Snake's muzzle pressed close to Xu Chen's face at the center of the flesh mass.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Sealing bullets hit one after another.

The flesh buds were torn open, black blood spattered onto the wall, corroding the metal into pits.

Xu Chen's half-mouth was still smiling.

Qin investigator, full courage.

Unfortunately, the version is incorrect.

A tentacle swept out from the side of the meat mountain.

Too fast.

So fast that the security team members didn't even have time to warn.

Qin Zhixia placed her mechanical arm in front of her.

The tentacle struck.

The silver-white armor dented on the spot, internal wiring burst out in a shower of sparks, Qin Zhixia flew sideways, smashing through the medicine cabinet, her back slamming hard against the wall.

She coughed up blood, her right hand still gripping the gun.

Lu Yu raised his hand to catch the second tentacle, his palm opening the black vortex to its limit.

The tip of the tentacle was devoured, but the rear section instantly grew a new azure eyeball.

Those eyeballs stared at Lu Yu's palm.

The black vortex's rotation slowed.

Lu Yu's pupils contracted.

This thing is analyzing his ability.

Xu Chen, no.

Xu Chen no longer deserves the name Xu Chen.

That is a many-eyed monster draped in Xu Chen's remains.

It clung to the wall and crawled out of the medicine storage room, pink flesh buds carpeting the corridor, countless azure eyeballs turning within the flesh walls.

The security team members opened fire.

The bullets struck, but there was no blood.

Only the eyeballs closed and then opened.

The next second, the member who fired clutched his head and collapsed to his knees, black blood streaming from his nostrils and the corners of his eyes.

Qin Zhixia shouted, "Don't look at the eyes! Everyone fall back to Isolation Gate No. 2!"

The security team captain gritted his teeth: "Qin Team, what about you?"

"Execute the order!"

"Yes!"

Team members dragged away their fallen comrades as the isolation doors lowered layer by layer.

In the corridor, only Qin Zhixia and Lu Yu remained.

And there was the ever-growing meat mountain.

Lu Yu wiped the blood from his lips.

"It's not Xu Chen."

Qin Zhixia rose from the wrecked cabinet, her left mechanical arm hanging at her side, two of its five fingers unable to move.

"I can tell."

Lu Yu stared at those eyeballs.

"Xu Chen is merely an interface."

"The one really pulling the strings is that thing above."

He raised his head.

Through the alloy ceiling, through the thick strata, through the very boundary of reality.

He saw it.

Beyond the clouds, there was an enormous eyeball large enough to cover the entire sky.

It had no emotion.

It had no anger.

It had no joy.

The way its gaze fell was no different from how humans view bacteria crawling in a petri dish.

Lu Yu's throat went dry.

He had seen many monsters in the apocalypse.

Man-eating cities, moons filled with mouths, weird domains that rewrite entire streets into stomachs.

That eyeball does not belong to a monster.

It is the source.

It is the hand that pushed the apocalypse onto humanity.

Or rather, Xu Chen's many-eyed monster is merely a toy He casually fashioned.

Qin Zhixia's voice was lowered.

"Lu Yu."

"Hmm."

"Can you still fight?"

Lu Yu glanced at the wound split open on his chest.

"Can."

"How much?"

"Thirty percent."

Qin Zhixia sneered, a trickle of blood at the corner of his lips.

"You geniuses are so annoying to talk to."

Lu Yu turned his head.

"And you?"

Qin Zhixia lifted his mostly ruined mechanical arm.

"One and a half."

"Then why are you still standing?"

"The bureau didn't assign me a program to kneel and wait for death."

Lu Yu was silent for half a second.

"Pretty handsome."

Qin Zhixia muttered, "Stop copying Liang Wen."

At the center of the Meat Mountain, Xu Chen's half‑open mouth suddenly widened.

Overlapping whispers squeezed out from within.

"Lu Yu."

"Return to the container's position."

"Open the door."

"Prepare to be watched."

The darkness in Lu Yu's eyes deepened.

"Get lost."

The Demon‑Subduing Xing Tian unfolded again.

This time the range was very small, covering only a three‑meter radius around him and Qin Zhixia.

It was not an attack.

It was defense.

Qin Zhixia understood his meaning.

The monster was too strong; a head‑on charge would be crushed.

Drag.

Drag to Wei Gong for support.

Drag to Jiang Yuan, Su Ming, Liang Wen—someone there could pull out.

But outside the top‑secret zone, the communication channel was full of static.

The frontline battle had become so chaotic that reinforcement was impossible.

The pale‑blue eyeballs on the Meat Mountain all turned in unison.

The next wave of radiation was coalescing.

Qin Zhixia raised his gun, Lu Yu lifted his palm.

The two stood at the edge of the black mist, before them the shadow cast by a deity.

Just a second before the monster was about to press down, the red dot on the surveillance probe in the Corridor corner flickered.

The footage was transmitted to the other end of Jiang Hai City.

In a medical room somewhere.

Chu Che sat at the desk, his Doctor's Lab Coat so clean it had not a single crease.

A potted green plant sat on the table, its leaf edges dotted with water droplets.

After watching the top‑secret zone footage, he lifted his hand and nudged his Gold Thread Glasses.

The lenses reflected a cold, white screen light.

"Lu Yu's resistance is more interesting than expected."

"Qin Zhixia isn't bad either."

His tone was gentle, as if reviewing a well‑functioning surgical device.

Then he switched the screen.

In the footage, on the battlefield of the Gospel Church leader, the bell tower had collapsed, Blood Mist filling the sky.

Sai Men stood in the center of the gray ruins, the eyeball atop his staff turning.

Chu Che's lips curled slightly upward.

"The side show here is over."

"As for the main course on the front line..."

He picked up scissors and trimmed a wilted leaf from the green plant.

"It should be about time, right?"