Chapter 367 | The One Who Devours All

“What did he say?” the middle-aged man continued to ask.

“Some bewitching words.” Yu Duanhong made an effort to look like he was reminiscing, recounting what Yue Shi had said.

“How did you react at the time?”

“I was scared, but I was also a little moved by what he said,” Yu Duanhong confessed. There was no point in hiding it; he really had been tempted at the time.

“Later, when the ghost knocked on the door, I was so scared I forgot everything. I just wanted to survive.”

“Have you had any contact with him since?”

Yu Duanhong paused.

He remembered the previous meetings, how the mysterious long-haired man had promised to help him get revenge, and how the guidance for the second ghost he controlled had come from him.

But, could he say that?

If he spoke, it would be equivalent to admitting he had a deeper connection with that man, and he might even be identified as an accomplice.

If he didn't speak? Since the people from the headquarters could find him so accurately, did they already have some clues? The risk of lying was even greater.

In the blink of an eye, Yu Duanhong made his decision.

“I’ve had... a connection that wasn't quite a connection,” he said, weighing his words.

“Before, I seemed to have had a very realistic dream where I saw him again. He asked me if I wanted revenge, if I wanted to gain more power...”

He omitted the bloody conversation where Yue Shi asked him how he wanted his enemies to die, as well as his own vicious thoughts at the time. He only kept the core part that could not be denied.

The middle-aged man's expression did not change at all; he simply recorded something calmly.

“Do you know who he is?”

“I don't.” Yu Duanhong shook his head. This time, it was the truth.

“I only know he is very strong and mysterious. He doesn't seem like a normal person. He knows everything like the back of his hand, but his purpose is unclear.”

“I thought he was some powerful independent abnormal entity or a more supernatural existence. It wasn't until just now that I realized the General Bureau was also tracking him.”

The middle-aged man stared at him for a few seconds, seemingly judging the truth of his words.

The air in the room seemed to freeze. Although the two people at the door didn't move, Yu Duanhong could feel their attention focused on him.

“Yu Duanhong,” the middle-aged man's voice remained steady.

“The person you contacted is extremely dangerous. He has been listed as the highest priority wanted target by the Bureau headquarters.”

Yu Duanhong had already guessed that the long-haired man's background wasn't simple, but he hadn't expected him to be a top-tier wanted criminal.

“Your situation is very special,” the middle-aged man continued.

“You are one of the few known individuals who have had direct contact with him and survived. Furthermore, due to his intervention, you have become an extremely rare supernatural abnormal entity.”

“The General Bureau needs you to provide every detail about him—his behavior patterns, his ability manifestations, and his possible goals.”

“I will cooperate. I’ll tell you everything I know,” Yu Duanhong immediately stated without any hesitation.

He knew very well in his heart that a small figure like himself had no capital to play tricks in front of a colossus like the Bureau headquarters.

The only thing he could do was show absolute cooperation and strive for the position of a cooperating witness rather than a suspicious accomplice.

As for the consequences of telling the truth, such as being under stricter surveillance or even being used as a research sample?

That was still better than being suspected and disposed of.

At least for now, the two ghosts in his body that kept each other in check might give him a bit more value as a research subject.

The middle-aged man seemed satisfied with his attitude and nodded slightly.

“Very good. Next, we will conduct a more detailed inquiry. Regarding the ghosts in your body, a comprehensive detection and evaluation will also be required.”

“In the meantime, you will stay here temporarily. Do not use your abilities, and do not contact any unrelated personnel.”

Yu Duanhong nodded in silence.

Just then, a dull roar suddenly came from beneath his feet.

It was as if the structural frame of the entire building was being violently shaken from the outside by some massive force.

Rumble!

A violent tremor followed immediately.

The light tubes on the ceiling flickered and burst, with shards falling like rain.

The table slid across the floor, making a piercing grinding sound.

Cracks spread across the surface of the walls.

“Is it an earthquake?” the female investigator at the door cried out, but her body remained as steady as a rock, clearly well-trained.

But the middle-aged man's face changed drastically, his pupils shrinking. “No, it’s not an earthquake!”

“The building structure is collapsing! Evacuate immediately!”

The moment the command was given, more terrifying sounds of snapping rang out from all directions.

The load-bearing walls burst, and the entire building began to tilt and cave in.

“Go.” The middle-aged man grabbed the still-dazed Yu Duanhong, while the other young man kicked open the already deformed door.

The corridor was already a scene of apocalypse.

The lights were out, leaving only the green glow of the emergency signs.

Debris fell like rain, dust filled the air, and terrified screams and running footsteps mixed together.

Whole sections of the ceiling kept falling, burying the fleeing figures.

Yu Duanhong was pushed by a great force, stumbling along as he ran wildly with the three headquarters investigators.

He instinctively wanted to use the power of the ghosts to protect himself, but he forced the urge down.

At a time like this, it was better to cling to the coattails of the headquarters investigators.

He grit his teeth, dodging the concrete blocks falling from above, and followed the three agile figures ahead toward the stairs.

The elevator couldn't be used; entering it in this situation would be extremely dangerous.

The stairwell was also collapsing, but the structure was relatively simple. They stepped over the ruins of falling steps, nearly getting buried alive several times, and finally burst through the last twisted door, rolling onto the street outside.

Dust-filled air surged into his lungs.

Yu Duanhong slumped to the ground, coughing violently.

He looked up at the scene before him, his mind going blank.

The building of the Forging City Anomaly Management Bureau had collapsed, and the surrounding buildings were also destroyed, leaving only a pile of ruins.

Thick smoke billowed up, perhaps from fires triggered during the collapse.

Wails and sobs came from every corner of the ruins.

The street was unrecognizable, the ground covered in cracks.

But that wasn't the most terrifying part.

Yu Duanhong's gaze was involuntarily drawn to the sky.

It was already dark. The night sky of the Deep Red Continent should have been pitch black, with nothing there.

But now, high in the firmament, hung a moon.

It was unnaturally huge, occupying nearly half the sky, emitting a pale, gloomy, and ominous light.

The moonlight spilled down, adding a touch of deathly silence to the ruins below.

Even more hair-raising was that on the surface of that eerie moon, as the light and shadows shifted, the outline of a blurry human face was vaguely traced!

Just looking at it from a distance sent a shock through one's soul, as if boundless malice was rushing toward them.

The blood in Yu Duanhong's entire body ran cold.

“What is that thing?” the young headquarters investigator cried out, his voice trembling.

The middle-aged man's face was as dark as water as he stared deathly at the sinister moon in the sky, his teeth clenched.

At that moment, the moon in the sky suddenly flickered.

A visible wave of spatial ripples centered on the moon and spread out silently.

Wherever the ripples passed, the remaining buildings below that hadn't completely collapsed suffered a secondary attack.

The ground rose and fell like waves, and the cracks widened further.

Some people who had fled to the street and were still in shock were swept by this invisible impact; before they could even scream, they were turned into a mist of exploding blood.

An indiscriminate attack!

“Scatter! Find cover!” the middle-aged man roared, a pale gold light shield rising from his body, barely protecting the people around him.

But the shield flickered under the impact, and a trace of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

Then, he saw an even more soul-shattering scene.

The cultivators sent by the headquarters were all flying in the sky.

They were no longer transcendent and elegant; instead, they seemed to have gone mad.

“Aaaah! Demon, how dare you!”

“Give me back my ██ quickly.”

Some had bloodshot eyes and hair standing on end, recklessly driving their flying swords and treasures, bursting with a piercing brilliance that far exceeded their usual level, hysterically attacking that moon.

Sword energy crisscrossed, thunder and fire joined together, and various techniques of staggering power poured down like a rainstorm.

But in the next second, one of them froze in mid-air, letting out a shrill scream as their neck elongated inch by inch, as if a giant force was clutching their head and pulling it outward.

Amidst the incredibly miserable wails, a head connected to a spine was yanked out, flailing wildly in the air, a truly sanity-draining sight.

The headless corpse fell. Seeing this, some people seemed to fall into a mad illusion, dancing wildly in the air, attacking the air randomly, and even starting to attack their companions, babbling nonsense, laughing wildly one moment and weeping bitterly the next.

Others had a mix of extreme anger and fear on their faces, attacking while roaring at the sky.

“Yue Shi, you can't do this to us! If you dare kill people from the Bureau headquarters, the headquarters will never let you go! To the ends of the earth, though you are far, you will be executed!”

The next second, the skin of the person who had spoken the threat, along with their clothes, was peeled off. The skinless corpse began to wail, falling rapidly.

“Stop! We can talk! What do you want? Resources, status—the Bureau can give it all to you!”

“No, no, no! Don't kill me!”

“Bah! Coward! To beg that scoundrel for mercy, you aren't fit to be my peer.”

Begging, cursing, threats, and bribes—all kinds of voices mixed together, filled with a sense of hysteria.

Yue Shi liked it very much. He simply couldn't stand to see others doing well; he wanted to see the look of pain on others' faces.

Yu Duanhong saw a white-haired old man sacrifice an ancient great seal, which turned into the size of a mountain, carrying the momentum of suppressing all things as it smashed toward the moon.

The corner of the mouth of the face outline on the moon's surface seemed to curl up slightly.

In the next moment, the space around the old man distorted strangely, and that incredibly powerful seal actually reversed its direction, smashing back into the old man himself at an even faster speed!

The old man only let out half a scream before he was smashed into a blurry mass of flesh by his own treasure, falling from the sky.

Another cold and elegant woman turned into thousands of sword lights, forming a sword array to strangle the moon.

The moon simply blinked an eye, and all the sword lights were reflected back through the mirror, instantly rolling back.

The woman was horrified, desperately dodging and parrying.

Originally, she could have blocked it, but at the critical moment, another version of her appeared behind her, entangling with her.

The woman was pierced by her own sword light, falling like a flower butterfly.

There were also those who tried to plead; before they could finish, their bodies were flattened by space, turning into meat pies. Bones pierced through skin, and internal organs spilled out, forming a bloody painting under the pale moonlight.

Slaughter.

This was a one-sided slaughter.

Yue Shi did not hide his cruelty and malice. He didn't even truly move; that evil moon hanging high in the sky seemed to be just a projection, a symbol.

What was truly killing people were the ubiquitous spatial distortions, mirror reflections, and Destiny's Curse, as well as that surge of extreme malice that grew and eroded sanity.

The initial anger and pride of the cultivators quickly turned into bubbles in the face of absolute power.

Whether it was using the Bureau's reputation to intimidate, or using interests to entice, or humble begging—everything was useless.

When Yue Shi was in a killing state, he could not be communicated with normally.

That moon watched it all; wherever the moonlight reached, death followed like a shadow.

Yu Duanhong simply lay on the ground pretending to be dead. In any case, his current physical state was no different from a dead person's, though he still trembled slightly.

He saw with his own eyes that the people flying around in the sky were pushed to a dead end, forced to activate some kind of joint secret technique.

A spell that condensed the remaining power of everyone shot toward the moon.

The face on the moon's surface showed a mocking expression.

There was no sound, but everyone saw a spatial vortex appear in the sky.

That powerful joint secret technique was like a clay ox entering the sea, sinking into the vortex without even causing a ripple.

And the cultivators who had launched the attack were instantly swept away, their whereabouts unknown.

Absolute dominance and crushing power.

Witnessing all this, Yu Duanhong only felt his whole body shuddering, both afraid and excited.

He also wanted to possess such power, the confidence to face the Bureau headquarters head-on.

The evil moon seemed to have played enough. The moonlight condensed again, as if it were about to launch a terrifying attack sufficient to wipe the entire Forging City off the map.

At the edge of Yu Duanhong's vision, in the distant direction, a point of exceptionally condensed light suddenly lit up in the pitch-black night sky.

That light trailed a dazzling wake, like a meteor traveling in reverse, tearing through the night sky at a speed that exceeded the limits of visual capture, shooting straight toward that eerie moon in the sky!

The light pierced the air, carrying a power that could kill everything.

Yu Duanhong's eyes widened, his heart in his throat.

What was that?

The light seemed to be an arrow, moving extremely fast. Just as Yue Shi reacted, the arrow had already reached him.

That arrow ignored spatial distortion and mirror reflection; it seemed to ignore all rules, possessing an effect that ensured it would hit.

The moon rapidly shrank and retreated, but no matter how it changed direction, that arrow always pursued it relentlessly.

Pfft.

The arrow hit the bullseye.

Witnessing this scene, the surviving people from the Bureau showed expressions of joy one after another.

Yu Duanhong also showed a smile, but in his heart, he felt a bit of loss.

That You-Know-Who, defeated just like that?

I thought he could...