Darkness settled over the city like a heavy shroud. Suddenly, seven pale beams of light erupted from the urban core, piercing the sky like silent alarms. Zhang Ming's voice echoed across the cityscape, not from speakers—but as if whispered from the walls themselves:
"Your minds are the seed of chaos." "Formatting will bring true order."
Lu Ye's Eye of the World detected seven distinct "consciousness nodes" scattered throughout the city. Each one was emitting waves of temporal stasis.
Lin Lan's voice was sharp:
"If the ritual completes, the entire city will enter a frozen mental state. Everyone will lose their sense of identity."
Lu Ye's tone was clipped and decisive.
"We've got thirty minutes." "Take out every node. Stop the overwrite."
The squad split into strike teams. Each node was heavily defended by "converted units"—no longer passive husks, but coordinated, responsive, and capable of energy countermeasures.
Chen Mo tore through the first node with his Fist of Shattered Time, punching open a temporal breach and smashing through the defenses.
He Xuan deployed metallic constructs to jam the signal at the second node, forming a disruption grid.
Lin Lan and Qin Hao worked in tandem to decode the third node's neural structure, successfully injecting a reverse command.
Zhao Yang was assigned the fourth node. But as he approached, his blood mist surged violently. His body entered autonomous combat mode—Dark Blood Mechanics activating without command. His pupils deepened to crimson. The mist hardened into a physical domain: the Blood Moon Field.
Ability Status: Dark Blood Mechanics – Blood Moon Threshold Surge Type: Primal ability overload Effect: Blood mist gains memory-ripping properties, capable of erasing cognitive structures Side Effects: Target recognition deteriorates; attacks become indiscriminate; self-awareness begins to fragment
Inside the Blood Moon Field, Zhao Yang moved like a specter. Converted soldiers disintegrated in his wake. But his strikes lost precision—he even damaged Qin Hao's defensive threads by mistake.
Lin Lan cried out:
"He can't tell who we are anymore!"
Chen Mo tried to approach, but the mist repelled him with brute force.
Lu Ye didn't hesitate. He activated Interference Mode on the Eye of the World, severing the mist's expansion path. He stepped into the domain, voice steady:
"Zhao Yang. Come back."
Zhao Yang's pupils trembled. The mist began to retract—slowly, reluctantly.
He growled, voice raw:
"I'm not a monster!"
Lu Ye gripped his hand.
"You're not. You're one of us."
The final node was hidden beneath the Zhang estate. Zhang Ming stood guard himself, surrounded by hundreds of formatted soldiers—blank eyes, flawless coordination.
He looked at Lu Ye and spoke softly:
"You will all belong to me." "Consciousness can be rewritten." "Your resistance is just a delay."
Lu Ye didn't respond. He fired a shot, shattering the control console behind Zhang Ming.
Chen Mo followed with a punch— a temporal fracture ripped through the space, destabilizing the core node.
Zhao Yang, regaining clarity at the last moment, unleashed a Blood Mist Lock, severing the formatting signal completely.
Zhang Ming's figure dissolved into the collapsing room, leaving behind one final message:
"You've won this battle." "But you will become part of me."
The city stabilized. But Zhao Yang's condition remained unstable.
His blood mist now expanded on its own at night. Whispers echoed through his dreams—soft, persistent, and not entirely his own.
Lin Lan's analysis was grim:
"His Dark Blood Mechanics have fused with the edge of his consciousness. We need to locate the Blood Moon's origin to stabilize him."
He Xuan offered a solution:
"We could try building a 'consciousness anchor'—something to lock his identity in place."
Chen Mo's voice was firm:
"If he loses control, we need a plan."
Lu Ye nodded.
"We won't let that happen." "He's one of us."
Zhao Yang stared into the night sky, voice barely audible:
"I saw something… something that doesn't belong to this world." "It's in the blood. In the dreams. In… me."