Volume One, Chapter Forty-Five: Facing It Together

"Why?" Mo De was taken aback by the reply. "If we keep letting this guy go on, the entire city of Anjie might be swept into disaster!"

"I wouldn't call it a disaster just yet. After all, the military isn't just here for show. Besides, didn't we agree that when I'm by your side, I'm only an observer?" Emulating Mo De's earlier gesture, Mu Qing slipped both hands into her sleeves and, through her tinted glasses, returned Mo De's gaze.

"Is this really the time to be talking about—"

"To me, a promise matters more than anything else," Mu Qing gently interrupted him. "You chose to buy the information, you chose to investigate that transaction, you chose to search that man's residence. I won't interfere with your decisions, so every step you've taken has been your own will. In other words, whether or not I'm here, you would have chased that man to this place and ended up in this predicament all the same." Mu Qing closed her eyes tightly, took off her sunglasses, and wiped them with her shirt. Black flames flickered at the corner of her eyes.

"I'm only the observer who walks beside you. I'll do my utmost to fulfill the duty of an observer—even if that thing fully forms and poses a real threat to my life, or affects this barrier, I will still keep my word."

"So, what about you? Right now, what will you choose? Will you keep seeking shelter from me, or will you use everything you have to stop the approaching calamity?" Putting her glasses back on, Mu Qing tucked her hands into her sleeves again, her tone as light and carefree as ever.

"I have no options left..." Mo De tried to protest, but Mu Qing interrupted him a second time.

"You don't need to explain to me. When danger comes for you, I'm only an observer. If you've truly played every card you have, then why aren't you running for your life?" The corners of her lips lifted in a faint smile, and she fell silent, standing by to watch.

In the distance, troops were already gathering at the military base, hurrying toward their location. The loudspeaker blared, ordering them to stay put and not make any rash moves.

With each piece of the boundary stone ground to dust, the vast net of blood and flesh enshrouding Anjie’s barrier finally ceased spreading. It hung in the sky like a curtain, pulsing slowly as if breathing. Even a glance from afar was enough to instill hallucinations, as though one were staring at the slow-beating heart of a giant beast. The gaze of a recently awakened officer nearby was unconsciously drawn to it; his own heartbeat gradually synchronized with the throbbing rhythm, his face flushing, breath quickening—yet he could not reclaim control over his own heart. Mu Qing flicked a pebble, striking the guard’s heart with precision, and disrupted the resonance with the blood-flesh canopy. Freed, the guard immediately fainted again.

Only the spire of the boundary stone tower remained, and the man was clearly accelerating his absorption and conversion of the boundary force. Mechanical arms and claws rose and fell in a frenzy, and the silver-white light in the flesh-constructed eye was nearly solid. Parts of the exposed flesh, unable to withstand the overloaded machine’s heat, were steaming, enshrouded in wisps of white vapor.

Like falling into a furnace, drinking fire, or walking through hell. The extreme heat and pressure, inside and out, had no effect on Li Xiang’s movements, for most of his nerves had been destroyed during that bio-mechanical transformation. Pain was now his most familiar companion.

The blood-flesh canopy’s color gradually shifted to silver-white, as if about to become a net of light. The ancient, unyielding city barrier of Anjie now rippled at its center, stirred by the blood-flesh canopy.

No matter how Li Xiang scavenged for fragments of the boundary stone, the scattered pieces could only provide a limited amount of power. So, he set his sights on the largest source he could touch—the city-encompassing barrier of Anjie itself.

His plan was to use the stones he’d gathered to resonate with the fully-activated city barrier, thus obtaining and controlling a tremendous, unprecedented power. That was why he’d waited for the appearance of this lunar tide.

Feeling the vast power gradually coming under his control, Li Xiang wanted to speak, but when he opened his mouth, no sound came out—his vocal cords had long since been burned away by the overloaded boundary force within him.

Even he found himself trembling with excitement. He would soon wield this inexhaustible power for the final experiment—his, and theirs.

The force from this spatial distortion would surely be enough to strip away all the disguises from that brittle membrane between worlds.

Yet Li Xiang could not understand why, at the moment his dream was about to be realized, he felt a strange undercurrent of liberation.

Oh, so I’m about to rest at last.

It’s been a long, hard road, but I don’t regret it. His lips moved—Li Xiang’s final words for the world.

In the next instant, threads of boundary force tore through his face, scattering outward. He’d anticipated these losses, for even the body of an Outsider at the peak of his realm would gradually collapse as the experiment progressed. This, he had calculated before undergoing the transformation. It didn’t matter—if there would be losses, he’d simply stockpile more boundary stones. As for irreversible injuries? He’d already chosen to undergo the madman’s transformation; why worry about these consequences?

Seeing the man before him begin to fall apart, mechanical limbs exploding and scattering, Mo De realized the final stage had come—he was out of time. He slipped the black cord from his wrist, ready for one last attempt.

The black cord and copper buckle had both been gifts from Li Changsheng. Ever since that accident after meeting Mu Qing, the copper buckle had vanished, but the black cord remained unchanged, except when it met Mu Qing’s black flames.

"You just won’t act yourself, right?" Mo De turned to Mu Qing for confirmation. With her nod, he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the makeshift barrier.

Only Mu Qing’s sealed black fire could ignite the black cord—and if the fire was truly as corrosive as she’d said, it might be his final chance to break the deadlock.

Mu Qing didn’t resist, letting Mo De lead her forward. They halted before the makeshift barrier. Mo De brushed her cheek, guiding the familiar "fire-passing" technique. Black flames threaded from beneath her sunglasses, flowing down her left arm to his body, then gathering around the black cord in his right hand. The threads of black dissolved into a flaming rope, accepting the torrent of fire.

But as the illusory flame-rope pressed against the barrier, it didn’t burn through as he had hoped—it passed effortlessly through. Mo De could see the dark flames roiling inside the barrier, yet his hand could not follow them through.

So the black fire is strong enough to ignore this shield, but I am not.

A complex emotion rose inside him. Once again, Mo De tasted the bitterness of defeat. The sense of helplessness engulfed him like a bottomless pit. He stopped the fire-passing, stumbling back several steps. Clutching the cord tightly, his nails cut into his palm. Coughing blood, his head drooped lower.

"If I could choose my ending, I’d use my last blow to meet death," Mu Qing’s voice suddenly sounded at his ear. His fading vision steadied; he turned to her side. At some point, Mu Qing had sat beside him, hugging her knees.

"Why don’t you just leave? If the power that guy’s amassing explodes, even you would be seriously injured," Mo De asked softly, wiping the blood from his lips.

"I’m your observer. I have to witness everything about you, so I won’t leave." Mu Qing smiled, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"Besides, even if I ran, the black fire would eventually consume me. Better to let you have the satisfaction—when I kick the bucket, at least you’ll have a beauty beside you for company."

Mo De didn’t answer, sensing she had more to say.

"Once you’re gone, I’ll rush to the nexus and unleash all the black fire, burning that man and the gathered energy together. As long as the foundations remain unshaken, the barrier will repair itself, no matter how big the tear. But during the city’s recovery, the lunar tide will affect the people more or less. Since I chose to keep our promise, I can’t protect everyone else. I truly feel sorry for them." Mu Qing scratched her head apologetically.

She wasn’t cold-hearted—she simply stuck to her choices.

She was an adult, entitled to her decisions and the consequences. The promise to Mo De hadn’t been made on a whim—she knew the pressures she’d face because of it.

At this moment, Mu Qing was no longer the messy, troublesome woman Mo De remembered, but a young lady a little regretful that her choices had affected others.

"We’re both selfish. I chose strength, you chose your promise. Actions have consequences—since both of us made our choices, let’s face the results together." Mo De reached out and patted Mu Qing’s head, suddenly smiling.

"I thought this would be my final trump card, but it fizzled out completely." Mo De looked at the black cord in his hand, resigned. "Since it’s come to this, I’ll take two steps closer—when the blast comes, at least I’ll go quickly. I hate being alone. After you take care of that trouble, don’t keep me waiting too long." He straightened his back and walked again toward the chasm-like barrier.

At this moment, he was strangely grateful—at least, if he died, he wouldn’t become a lonely ghost. He’d have company.

"That’s impossible. Even as a ghost, I’ll outrun you. Won’t take long to catch up," Mu Qing gathered herself, stood, and began channeling the black fire within. Through her amber shades, she watched Mo De’s figure amble ahead, and suddenly asked, "Mo De, have you grown taller?"

"Maybe. I’m still growing, you know—it’s normal to shoot up at this age," Mo De replied, not looking back, mimicking her casual tone.

"So you really have grown up. And become more interesting, too." The words didn’t leave her lips; they flickered briefly through Mu Qing’s mind.