Night Hunt, the Wailing Ghost Descends

Night.

The moment Qin Luo's fingers clasped the Weeping Ghost Mask, the moonlight suddenly twisted into spirals.

In the courtyard, the shadow of the parasol tree contorted wildly, transforming into countless black serpents that coiled around his body.

He raised his hand and pressed the mask against his face.

The instant it touched his skin, he heard the shrieks of malevolent spirits in his ears.

The shadows of the night coalesced, expanding his perception a hundredfold.

"Not enough yet."

With a soft laugh, he drove his fingertips into the mask's eye sockets. Shadow energy, like boiling pitch, gushed from his orifices.

The clouds in the night sky churned into a vortex.

Click!

The power grids of thirty cities surrounding Jiang City tripped simultaneously. Every electronic device erupted with static snow, and darkness, like a living thing, devoured the neon lights.

[Shadow Form: Full Release]

Black flames erupted from his fingers, incinerating his suit in an instant before the shadow energy reforged it into a flowing trench coat.

Dark golden patterns crawled up his fingertips as black shadow-fire flickered around him.

Crack!

The Weeping Ghost Mask suddenly split apart, revealing half of a sinister visage.

His left eye was a swirling black hole; his right eye burned with glacial ghostly flames.

Shadow energy and frost energy—Qin Luo had fused them together, along with the power from Su Muwan's bracelet.

And so.

One of the Shadow Sovereigns.

"Begin."

When Qin Luo spoke, his voice was no longer human—it resonated like ten thousand funeral bells tolling at once.

"Let the Flowers of Sin bloom across the world."

The ground trembled.

Qing'er knelt atop a television tower a kilometer away, her dark qipao fluttering wildly in the gale.

"As you command, my King."

She bit her tongue and spat a mist of blood. Thirty thousand shadow-forged deathbirds surged from beneath her skirt, each beak clutching spores of the Flowers of Sin.

The blood rained down like meteors upon the mortal world.

Swish!

In an instant.

A slumbering plague swept through the streets. The thirty cities fell into an eerie silence.

Office workers slumped over their keyboards, the boba pearls in their milk tea frozen into amber.

Gamers in internet cafes collapsed onto their mousepads, their in-game characters still casting skills as teammates spammed question marks in confusion.

Even stray cats rummaging through trash curled into balls, their whiskers glazed with frost.

Only dozens of golden beams pierced the haze of drowsiness.

Then—

Boom! Boom! Boom!!

Vines of the Flowers of Sin erupted from the earth, growing at a terrifying pace. Wherever they spread, the ground split open in massive fissures. Asphalt roads tore apart like fragile paper, sending rubble flying.

Whoosh!

Qin Luo flickered into the sky.

He traced the cracks on his mask with a finger before releasing it—

A bone-chilling shadow coalesced into a hundred-meter-long scythe in his palm.

The blade reflected the skylines of thirty cities.

Swish!

He swung the colossal scythe, and the shadows of every district in those cities writhed to life, birthing countless shadow creatures.

A tidal wave of darkness surged overhead as tens of thousands of silhouettes rose from the earth.

Shadow Domain + the night's amplification.

At this moment, Qin Luo was an unstoppable force.

"ROAR!"

The Phantom Abyssal Dragon howled, its hundred-meter bone wings blotting out the moon.

Hummm!

One after another, shadow rifts tore open behind Qin Luo.

Every member of the Shadow Organization... had arrived.

"Everyone..."

"The cat-and-mouse game."

Qin Luo's voice dripped with mockery. "Begins now."

As his words faded—

Xiong Ha, Ning Duanlang (Nilin), Huiming (Zhizhu), Zhang Zhenren (Huanmeng), the Bloody Butcher (Blood Asura), Li Xuanfeng (Sword Ghost), Ling Yu (Thousand Illusions), and the rest of the group.

All dropped to one knee in midair, bowing as they chanted: "As you command, our King!"

A piercing black light seeped through the curtains.

"Mmm..."

Su Muwan, curled up in her warm bed, drowsily squinted at the window.

Her gaze landed on the black figure standing ten thousand meters in the sky.

Her toes curled beneath her pajamas. "Luo Luo... you’ll catch a cold dressed like that... snore..."

And she was asleep again.

...

Madness! This had to be madness!

Ouyang Xuan must still be dreaming!

Otherwise, how could he be seeing this?

Inside the Martial Arts Alliance’s [Special Monitoring Division],

Ouyang Xuan stared in disbelief at the sea of crimson dots flooding the screen.

[Warning! Warning!]

[Abnormal spiritual energy fluctuations detected in thirty cities surrounding Jiang City! Multiple unknown energy signatures confirmed—threat level: SSS+!]

[Civilian life signals in disarray—majority of population in unexplained comatose state!]

[Warning! Warning!]

[Anomalous shadow interference disrupting surveillance! Systems failing in 10 seconds!]

[10... 9... 8...]

Pop!

The screen went black.

Ouyang Xuan clenched his fists, pressing his palms against his face.

His eyes were wide with shock.

"What... what the hell is happening?"

This was beyond anything he could comprehend.

A subordinate, pale and trembling, stammered, "S-Sir... look at the screen..."

Ouyang Xuan lifted his head—

And froze.

Displayed across every monitor...

Was a single, weeping mask.

All surveillance data had vanished, replaced by that haunting image.

What in the— Wait!

Suddenly, Ouyang Xuan recalled something. He replayed the earlier footage in his mind.

The epicenter of the anomaly...

It was Jiang City.

He seized the realization and snapped at his subordinate, "How many cities were affected?"

"Uh... thirty—all encircling Jiang City..."

That settled it.

Ouyang Xuan rubbed his temples. This had to be another one of Qin Luo’s—or rather, that man’s—schemes.

Even if not directly, he was undoubtedly involved.

Just as the thought formed—

[Alliance Emergency Alert]

[Dispatch personnel to perimeter of affected cities]

[Do nothing. Just patrol outside.]

Qin Luo’s oddly casual voice echoed in Ouyang Xuan’s mind.

He exhaled sharply. Of course.

In that case...

"Activate an SSS-level alert!" he barked. "Send enforcers to maintain order at the scene!"

He had no choice but to play along with Qin Luo’s theatrics.

Though, really...

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he shouldn’t be enabling this.

...

Drip. Drip.

Bzzzt—!

The sound of water droplets and electrical static jolted Lin Jiu awake.

He blinked blearily at the flickering screen before him.

[God-Level Choice System]

This was the thing he’d obtained half a month ago—the key to his rise to greatness.

Make the right choices, reap the rewards.

For a while, he’d truly believed himself to be the protagonist of this world, its chosen one!

After a few selections, though he still lived in this abandoned building,

His bank account now held 100,000 yuan.

He even got acquainted with the young lady of a prominent family.

She even made plans with him to go to an internet cafe and play games together the next morning.

A young lady from a wealthy family actually enjoys gaming at an internet cafe...

Not only that, she even offered to drive him there in her luxury car...

At the time, he felt like the protagonist of a novel—everything seemed too surreal and perfect.

Every time the system presented him with choices, it always came with generous rewards.

But...

When he clearly saw the options on the panel in the middle of the night...

He froze.

What... is going on?