Chapter 820: Shattered Hopes and Unleashed Fury

This…

The Black-clad Bishop’s act of shredding the playing card was brutally decisive.

And it was so fast that Lu Xin’s mind suddenly went blank.

In that instant, the black particles in his eyes froze as if solidified.

Even though he saw the scene, he couldn’t believe what was unfolding. Only after two seconds did he realize it had happened—then an unprecedented shiver surged through his heart. His entire body turned ice-cold and waves of dizziness hit him. In terrified rigidity, he turned and saw that the blood-red eyes floating beside him had all vanished.

Mom stood silently by his side, watching him.

She wore an elegant white dress and a finely crafted wide-brimmed hat, looking less like an ‘Ultimate’ and more like a refined woman enjoying a life of luxurious style in a modern city—proud yet gentle.

It was a breathtaking scene.

But now, the image was beginning to show signs of tearing apart.

Mom’s shadow had started to crack, with each separated fragment gradually fading away.

Yet her expression remained calm, even showing a hint of relief.

She had broken the connection solely so that, when uncovering the abyss’s secrets, nothing could stand in her way.

However, the destruction of her Mind Palace left her consciousness without refuge.

Moreover, she had always been pushing herself beyond her limits.

Whether it was under the First Researcher’s control, meticulously arranging things piece by piece, or in Flame City, risking everything and defying the fear of other Ultimates with her intricate designs to secure the Pale Hand for Lu Xin.

Or perhaps taking Lu Xin to see the Primordial to help him understand these matters.

Or maybe even joining him to reclaim authority for Father.

In many ways, she had been painstakingly searching within fate’s overlooked crevices for even the faintest glimmer of hope.

Such actions naturally came at a high price.

Even with her formidable power and will, collapse was inevitable.

Just like now…

……

……

“Looks like I need a break…”

She looked at Lu Xin with gentle precision, slowly extending her hand.

Just as before, she caressed his cheek and said softly, “From now on, you’ll have to face everything on your own.”

Lu Xin felt her hand grazing his cheek.

He could even sense that the touch was gradually turning from real to unreal.

“No…”

A surge of intense reluctance and regret flooded him, and in a hoarse voice he reached desperately for her hand.

The yearning inside was so overwhelming that he could only muster feeble words to try and hold her back.

“You must not go…”

“…”

“I’m not leaving—I just need to rest for a bit…”

As Lu Xin held her hand, Mom’s shadow grew increasingly faint.

It was as if a breathtaking painting had been soaked in water. Every brushstroke, every drop of color, was vanishing rapidly. That treasured masterpiece, imbued with countless emotions, was fading away. There was no catastrophic outburst of collapsed spirit or wild howls—only a quiet dissipation, like wind slipping through one’s fingers…

At that moment, Mom remained exceptionally composed, with only her final parting words betraying a trace of reluctant sorrow.

“I’m still a bit worried about you—you know, a mother can never truly let go…”

“But I still choose to believe in you…”

“Remember, you are you—the pillar of our family and our rock…”

“In this world, many will try to impose their fate upon you, but that’s not right…”

“No one’s destiny should be stripped away; being yourself is a remarkable achievement…”

“The most important thing is…”

Her final trace of color slowly faded into space, along with her last words:

“Hope…”

“…”

That word went from being clear and whole to blurry and fragmented.

When the final syllable disappeared, Mom’s figure had become nearly invisible, suddenly dissolving into the air.

Lu Xin’s face was struck with despair.

His body collapsed like a structure missing its keystone, as if all the strength holding him together had been snatched away.

High above, the Red Moon quietly watched over humanity, witnessing the final ebb of spiritual strength.

It also observed the many hopeless souls below.

……

……

In distant Heichao City, the envoy of the Terrifying Demon King had met with merchants and politicians with various demands. Yet now, with a heart full of despair, he was headed to the newly built sanctuary in Heichao City to report to the King of the Night.

Unlike the previous times when entering the sanctuary was immediately accompanied by a chilling, rasping laughter…

This time, after kneeling before the fearsome statue for a long while, there was no response.

“Huh?”

Gecko couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Uncle, can’t stand loneliness again? Off chasing some girl’s dream, are you?”

Just as he considered leaving work early to change and mingle with the locals, a soft sound of sniffling echoed from the deep darkness around him.

Gecko’s scalp tingled. He wasn’t sure if it was real—could that grim elder truly cry?

Had something gone wrong?

“She…”

As Gecko shivered, he heard a soft, rolling sound from deep within the darkness:

“She always said I wasn’t smart enough, that my vision was too short…”

“But isn’t it the ultimate folly for someone who can foresee fate to stand against it?”

“…”

“…”

Deep in the abyss, an old man clutching a sheepskin tome sighed softly as he absorbed the primordial aura surging from its depths. Looking up at reality, he sensed another faint thread of spiritual energy fade. After a long moment, he slowly closed the tome and turned toward another part of the abyss. At that moment, his figure seemed to age even further.

“It will end…”

“Kuimeng, your resolute spirit makes me believe that this cycle will finally come to an end…”

“…”

“…”

In Qinggang City, a child clutching a pillow sat on the window sill, waiting quietly—a routine that had become normal for the kid.

Suddenly, she sat up a little straighter.

Her eyes began to glisten, and two tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Oh dear…”

A nanny team carrying a cup of honey water, intended to persuade the child to rest early, were instantly shocked by the sight.

Why was the kid crying?

“He’ll be heartbroken…”

Hearing the nanny team’s surprised voices, the child turned with reddened eyes, “I will be too…”

……

……

On the northern side of the Sleeping Mountains, within a sacred site protected by the Nomadic Tribe and hailed as the dwelling place of ‘God’,

a woman in black court attire with a thorn crown stood silently under the Red Moon. Suddenly, her body trembled; for a moment, she seemed blurred, as if a mix of pride, madness, arrogance, and exhilaration flashed across her face.

But finally, when she looked into the glass opposite her, all she saw was her own sorrowful reflection.

“You’ve lost…”

“But why is it that you ended up with the outcome you pursued yourself?”

“Sister…”

“…”

“…”

Under the Red Moon, various faces showed different emotions due to the disappearance of an Ultimate.

Yet closest to that vanished Ultimate, Lu Xin sank into the deepest despair and rage.

“How could this happen?”

He muttered in hopeless disbelief.

“How dare you do this?”

He roared in anger.

The black particles in his eyes, which had frozen inexplicably at the moment his mother disappeared, now surged upward with even more violent tremors. An indescribable fury sprang from deep within him, linking directly with those particles—fueling an overwhelming will to destroy aimed at the Black-clad Bishop.

“How dare you commit such acts right before my eyes?”

At the same moment, as his hatred reached its peak, he sensed another powerful resonance within him.

This power lay buried deep in his consciousness, awakened just as the abyss’s primordial force had been shattered. When the black particles exploded, the two forces seemed to synchronize…

“You all sure have some nerve…”

Both forces roared within Lu Xin’s body, fixated on the Black-clad Bishop.

“Kill them, kill them, kill them, kill them…”

“Shred them to pieces, lock them deep in the abyss, and torment them cycle after cycle…”

“…”

It was as if a swarm of ants had suddenly crawled across his cerebral cortex, chattering and shrieking in a crazed frenzy.

Then, the black particles burst out from Lu Xin’s body, creating dark ripples that surged around him.

Circles upon circles spread out, carrying a haunting, uncanny rhythm.

……

……

“Eliminate everyone present.”

“And destroy that container sealing the remnants of the Primordial Consciousness!”

At that moment, the Black-clad Bishop, who had just shredded the playing card sealing Kuimeng’s Mind Palace, showed no change in expression. Instead, he coldly discarded the card and activated all the surrounding anomalies, including the Abyss Worm, the Tyrant Legion, and an endless array of bizarre forces. Though forced out of the abyss, they still held the ultimate trump card.

“The Unique Consciousness is no longer the priority.”

At the same time, beside a Jeep in the distance, the First Chief Researcher murmured, “Our immediate task is to return and repair the Energy Matrix of the Underground Palace, and to restore the damaged Genesis Hard Drive…”

“…”

The Black-clad Bishop bit his lip and looked toward the direction where Lu Xin was, his expression filled with deep reluctance.

“No need to worry.”

The First Chief Researcher, his earlier warmth long gone, responded coolly, “Unique Consciousness is not something for people of his caliber. Without Kuimeng’s suppression, he’d only become polluted…”

“A polluted him could actually benefit our experiments!”

“These kids… foolish children will one day realize just how laughable their sacrifices are.”

“…”

Finally, these words swayed the Black-clad Bishop. He turned and prepared to walk toward the Jeep.

“Who allowed you to leave?”

But at that very moment, Lu Xin’s low, overlapping shout resounded:

His voice now seemed to contain two different tones, clashing in a way that made one’s ears ache.

The black particles in Lu Xin’s eyes surged to an extreme.

They swirled so intensely that onlookers saw not Lu Xin, but someone else entirely.

That other figure had pitch-black eyes and a grin stretching almost from ear to ear.

His body contorted like a mechanical puppet, grotesquely rising to his feet before labored steps carried him forward.

“I’m gonna tear you all apart…”

His voice held hardly any sorrow—only a twisted, cruel resolve:

“I told you long ago that I’d tear you all to pieces…”

“…”

“Bzzzzz…”

At the Black-clad Bishop’s command, an eerie tide of grotesque beings surged forward like a swelling wave, filling half the sky.

Strange tentacles and distorted forms—an army of bizarre creatures using unique methods of pollution and their own distinct traits paired with spiritual power—charged directly at Lu Xin. Chaotic energy coalesced into massive vortexes, like storm clouds descending before him.

Faced with this terrifying, uncanny horde, no one could avert their gaze.

In that moment, Lu Xin simply raised his head, and the black particles erupted wildly, distorting the air around him.

“Whoosh!”

A visible ripple, like a surge of flesh, swept through the space in an instant.

“Shh shh shh shh shh…”

A rapid series of delicate, relentless sounds of destruction rang out, turning everything in the air into tiny fragments.

Broken claws and shattered faces fell bit by bit from above, disintegrating into even finer debris before reaching the ground until every last piece vanished—leaving only fine spiritual remnants swirling in mid-air.

Lu Xin felt as if he were wandering through a dense fog.

All the mist receded to the sides, carving a path for him.

Up in the sky, the Red Moon dimmed as if instinctively avoiding him.

Lu Xin’s body twisted as he staggered forward in a bizarre, uneven gait.

Everything around him began to warp, saturated with an unstoppable sense of destruction.