"Are you okay? Your face just went really pale." The cosplayer beside her asked with concern.
【Farshore】's heartbeat was deafening. She'd already completely lost track of the outside world—what those ordinary people were saying, she didn't care.
What to do—what to do?!
The Demon God was here. What about her plan?!
If her plan was to succeed, it would inevitably affect the living people in the venue. But the Demon God was here—
What would His reaction be? What would His opinion be? What was His attitude?
'Calm down. Calm down.' Farshore told herself.
The plan had to proceed. If they were captured by the Nightwatch now, the Leader would very likely discard them as expendable pieces. The Leader was already extremely displeased that Yiluoqi's exposure had brought the Tianli Sect to the Nightwatch's attention. To suppress further information leaks, the moment they failed to escape and were captured, the Leader wouldn't give the Nightwatch the chance to interrogate them.
Every single one of them had a bomb implanted in their heart. Their lives and deaths were all in the Leader's hands.
That Farshore had survived this long was partly due to her powerful ability, but more because she could weigh pros and cons and maintain calm judgment during crises about what she should do.
Right now, the most critical thing to assess was the Demon God's attitude.
Farshore forced herself to calm down, even though her hands were still trembling.
What kind of being was the Demon God? They knew nothing about Him. But fortunately, He'd been appearing frequently in that manga lately.
'He gives special treatment to the protagonist, but He doesn't spare a second glance for anyone else. Yiluoqi was only able to summon Him because of the protagonist, Yanmo.' Farshore's mind raced.
The Demon God wasn't a normal person. From what the manga's plot had shown, He wasn't a person at all.
Even if He behaved in very human-like ways, deep down He had never regarded humans as His own kind. No one could enter His sight—everywhere His gaze fell, all were mere ants. He was a moon suspended at the highest point, and no one was worth His lingering attention.
He was the supreme strongest, the omnipotent god.
Who knew what stroke of luck the protagonist Yanmo had stumbled into to earn His favor? As far as things stood, the Demon God was only interested in him.
Farshore took a deep breath, her chest heaving continuously.
The Demon God appearing at the convention was unexpected, but in truth, it was her own bad luck. After all, this particular being liked having Yanmo take Him out to play, as shown in the manga. He maintained an interest in current society and was willing to try new things.
But if anyone truly believed He was experiencing normal human life because He wanted to be human—that would be laughable. He had never treated humans as His own kind. Even standing among them, He was distinctly inhuman.
He simply enjoyed amusement—it wasn't that He actually liked humanity or wanted to be their guardian deity.
If not for Yanmo, He wouldn't have killed Quick Blade. If not for Yanmo, He wouldn't have killed Yiluoqi either. The Demon God fundamentally didn't care what these ants wanted to do. Only Yanmo would make Him intervene in mortal affairs.
So even if every person in the world dropped dead, the Demon God wouldn't care.
'I have a box with a cat inside—alive or dead, unknown.' Farshore thought.
The Demon God's attitude most likely depended on Yanmo. If the Demon God was here, Yanmo might be here too. Yanmo would certainly stand with the Nightwatch—her opposition.
But could Yanmo determine the Demon God's actions? He couldn't.
When all was said and done, Yanmo was just the Demon God's toy. When Yiluoqi attacked him yesterday, the Demon God hadn't appeared. When Boulder had him imprisoned, the Demon God hadn't appeared either.
He'd watched Yanmo's breakdown with cold indifference, and when Yanmo begged, He still hadn't shown up.
Maybe it was because Yanmo's answer at Jinse Bar had displeased Him, or maybe He simply didn't feel like it. Either way—Yanmo wasn't that important either.
A human's love for an ant was scattering breadcrumbs when in a good mood, and pouring boiling water when in a bad one.
The Demon God's treatment of Yanmo was probably the same.
Happy—come over and tease him a little. Unhappy—who cared if he lived or died.
So Farshore's only lifeline right now was—
The Demon God choosing to watch from the sidelines this time too.
Watching the ants cry. Watching the ants laugh.
Inside the box was a cat. Open it, and there was a fifty-fifty chance of life or death. But Farshore had to open the box—if she didn't, she could only wait to die.
'Gamble on it.' Farshore thought.
Plan unchanged. She'd bet that the Demon God would choose to observe this time too.
"Excuse me? Are you alright?" A stranger asked with concern.
"I'm fine." Farshore said. She surveyed the entire scene. This place was about to become a living hell.
The spider lilies would bloom—the scent of death crept ever closer.
...
"Still haven't found them?" Fuhuajin's prayer beads slid down to his elbow, becoming some inexplicable ornament.
He followed You Shuo in a brisk sweep around the venue's exterior while checking in with his team about whether they'd located the targets.
The Tianli Sect members had most likely planned evacuation routes long ago. Mixed in among these distinctively-dressed crowds, they were like fish that had returned to the sea—nearly impossible to distinguish by sight alone.
His only option now was to catch his targets as quickly as possible, then withdraw with his people.
The problem was—if they were that easy to catch, would he have needed to request a barrier?
"Yanmo, should I drop the barrier first?" Fuhuajin asked. "Does the great one hate barriers?"
"Can't drop it." You Shuo said.
With the barrier in place, even if ordinary people saw something abnormal, they wouldn't register it, much less stampede in panic. If the barrier came down, they'd not only have to find the Tianli Sect members among the crowd but also spare personnel to manage civilian unrest.
And without a barrier, if someone happened to start a livestream, that would be a serious dereliction of duty for Fuhuajin.
"Fine, I'll defer to you—you know Him better than I do." Fuhuajin anxiously rolled his beads at high speed. "I haven't done anything particularly good in my life, but I haven't done anything bad either. I'm just a wage slave. No ambitions to climb the ladder—law-abiding, self-disciplined, introspective. Never used my position or ability to oppress anyone. Only took my base salary, never amassed wealth. Showed up every day, rang the bell, did my job and nothing more. I've been law-abiding my entire life—how did this kind of problem suddenly land on me?"
This was the Demon God! He was just a lowly A-rank—why should he have to handle a Demon God-level case?
When Zhi Tianming did that divination, hadn't he foreseen a potential calamity?
Fuhuajin looked at You Shuo. You Shuo was still holding the sign, searching through the crowd for any trace of Bi Xi.
At times like this, you couldn't help but admire Jinli City's Yanmo. The Nightwatch was divided into several major districts, but only the Jinli City branch was plagued by disasters—the previous captain had died under mysterious circumstances, leaving a teenager to shoulder the squad leader role right from the start.
Before, Fuhuajin had thought it was simply bad feng shui. Now that the manga was out, he understood—perhaps this was heaven testing the one it had chosen for great tasks, forging them through endless hardship into the person they needed to become.
Look at You Shuo: not only could he take on headquarters' unreasonable demands, he could fulfill them admirably. If it were Fuhuajin, he absolutely didn't think he could appease the Demon God.
This was a monster that could kill him at any moment. Trembling with dread would be putting it mildly.
Only someone like You Shuo could make contact with the Demon God without batting an eye—keeping his fear hidden, emotions controlled, the Demon God kept stable.
"Is there intel on their leader?" You Shuo asked.
Fuhuajin didn't bother with the fact that You Shuo technically shouldn't be involved in Nightwatch operations—headquarters had stripped his position, and so on. Fuhuajin was someone whose bottom line was especially flexible; staying alive without embarrassment was the priority. You Shuo asked, so he answered: "【Farshore】—the name appeared in the manga. She destroyed critical files when she withdrew. Based on two brief encounters, I'd estimate she's an A-rank spatiotemporal-type ability user, leaning toward spatial."
Spatiotemporal-type abilities were the combined abbreviation of time and space. Because both temporal and spatial powers were formidable, ability users of this type were highly sought after across all organizations.
That was precisely why the spatiotemporal-type ability user Yiluoqi had been able to join the Nightwatch directly under the pretense of being a victim, brought back by the Old Captain. Capable ability users thrived wherever they went.
You Shuo lowered his gaze. Pebbles on the asphalt were trembling faintly. Soon the trembling intensified—as if the pebbles had turned into rubber bouncy balls, each bounce higher than the last.
The earth was shaking. As though something deep underground was approaching, about to burst through the surface.
The anomaly struck suddenly. Fuhuajin's bead-rolling hand stopped. Connected to plants through shared senses, he felt an intensely nauseating pressure.
If the flourishing trees and plants represented the hope of life, then the presence spreading up from the earth's depths was death.
"It's a Domain." You Shuo said.
Red liquid seeped from the ground—as if the earth itself was bleeding.
The 'blood' seeping out grew and grew, gradually merging into pools of red. The water level rose slowly, creeping over their heels.
Ordinary people out enjoying themselves splashed through the red liquid as they ran and jumped, kicking up crimson spray. Under the red barrier, they continued laughing and talking.
A Domain ability—an ability user could create a separate pocket dimension, or within an enclosed space, fuse their Domain with reality.
The convention venue within the barrier was the perfect enclosed space.
The breath of death spread from the blood-water. The first to suffer were the surface plants—their roots turned red, withering at visible speed.
Next were the people. The red liquid seemed to drain their vitality. The more contact, the paler their faces became.
The opposing A-rank ability user had deployed their ability.
"Are they insane? Don't they know the Demon God is here?" Fuhuajin exclaimed in shock.
Putting himself in their shoes, he'd absolutely be curling up like a quail right now—
They actually dared challenge the Demon God's mood?
"Get away from ground level." You Shuo said.
His voice seemed to materialize into red threads spanning the sky, threading into every person's ears. Thousands of ordinary people inside and outside the venue froze mid-expression, then moved toward higher ground.
He'd only been running a normal distance yet was already somewhat winded. After speaking, he coughed several times, then raised his hand and casually wiped the corner of his mouth with the back of it.
This was merely a stopgap. The red water level continued rising. The venue had no second floor, so most people remained circling in place. At this rate, everyone would eventually be submerged.
Without a swift resolution, every living thing within the Domain would perish.
"Yanmo, I'm feeling unwell." Fuhuajin's face was pale. He leaned against a nearby tree, its trunk already being overtaken by red climbing up from the roots.
Blooming flowers withered. The very air was thick with the stench of death.
"Find 【Farshore】 first." You Shuo said. He walked in one direction—he thought he'd seen Bi Xi there just moments ago.
But Bi Xi had vanished again. Gone.
An ominous premonition rose within You Shuo.
...
Good thing she'd sent the puppet today. If it had been the main body, her cover would have been blown.
You Ling directed the puppet out of You Shuo's line of sight. Her control over the puppet overrode You Shuo's Decree.
'Running two at once is really exhausting.' This was the first time You Ling had sustained control of a puppet for this long. At her main body in the distant library, a bead of cold sweat trickled down her forehead.
The aura of fear still hadn't vanished, but her ability required face-to-face proximity.
For her, the strategy was simple: capture the king first. The problem was she didn't know who the king was.
But even that wasn't difficult for her.
She followed the trail of fear to the nearest ability user.
This one wore a white lab coat, apparently disguising himself as a cosplay of a mad scientist. While everyone else was being overwhelmed by the death aura, his complexion remained ruddy, seemingly unaffected.
Obviously on the same side as whoever was using the ability.
The instant he saw her, the ability user's eyes went wide—he seemed about to scream. But faster than him were those golden threads. They pierced into the ability user's body in a flash, and You Ling directly stimulated his brain.
All she needed was the information inside his head.
Fragmented scenes from memory flickered rapidly past. You Ling mercilessly intensified the stimulation until the image of a red-haired woman in black appeared before her.
Found you. She thought.
Red blood-water spread across the ground. People stood in place collecting group photos and chatting. They couldn't see the barrier above their heads, nor the red that had already soaked through their shoe soles.
Naturally, they also couldn't see the green-eyed monster in the distance glance their way—and the man in the white lab coat beside them melt before their very eyes.
...
The plants were dying. Farshore hid among the oblivious ordinary people as they continued chattering: "Where'd you buy your wig? Do you have the shop link?"
Her heart pounded violently. She tried to stop her eyes from darting around.
She just had to stay hidden for a while. Once all the plants died and Fuhuajin lost his combat capability, it would be their moment to counterattack.
All she needed to do now was hide—
First minute: she was so tense she could barely keep her hands from shaking.
Second minute: her breathing was rapid, but with effort she could still manage deep, steady breaths.
Third minute: she thought—the Demon God really did seem to be watching from the sidelines, just as she'd predicted.
Fourth minute: her suspended heart began to lower. Perhaps, this time, she'd won—
"Hello there."
Her eyes flew wide open. An icy breath exhaled against her neck, raising goosebumps.
Before her eyes appeared a pair of sharp, black arms draped over her shoulders, hands dangling casually.
"Can I get your contact info?" The chattering ordinary people were still talking. They seemed completely unable to see the 'person' who'd suddenly appeared behind her.
This kind of 【anomaly】 automatically vanished from ordinary people's perception.
He pressed against her from behind—like a cold serpent, enveloping her entire body within his embrace.
In that instant, she understood what Yanmo went through on a daily basis.
Her heartbeat instantly broke free from her brain's control. Her entire being felt as though it had plunged into the depths of true hell.
"Don't be nervous. I just had a question I really wanted to ask, so I came over." The Demon God rested his chin on her shoulder, speaking very softly, very gently—like an intimate whisper.
"I just want to know if you people are," the Demon God said with a smile, affectionately, "not taking me seriously?"