Chapter 00132: The Long Night, Part 1
# The Long Night, Part 1
Chapter 132
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 132: The Long Night, Part 1
Half an hour ago, in Longhai District, Cliff City.
The last trace of twilight faded into the darkness of night, but a deafening roar erupted from the overpass.
Amid the violent tremors, a large amount of debris collapsed and fell into the sea, stirring up murky waves.
Flames roared, and the wind spread the chaos far and wide.
In the midst of the chaos, the burning flames parted on both sides, revealing a figure emerging from the center of the explosion.
His pristine white suit was spotless, and only his slightly graying long hair fluttered wildly in the wind.
"Brother Xing!" The subordinates, who had been in a state of panic, lit up with relief and cheers.
Only a few of them wore grave expressions.
To avoid assassination, the boss's whereabouts were kept absolutely secret.
The decision to visit Lei Wuye at the hospital tonight was made on a whim, and only a handful of people knew about it.
So why had this happened?
Cold gazes swept through the crowd, suspicion and indifference evident as they exchanged glances.
Lei Yaoxing, however, simply flicked his wrist, tossing the figure he had dragged out from the explosion center onto the ground.
The man was already shattered and barely alive, almost unrecognizable.
But even now, the young man showed no gratitude.
Instead, he struggled to lift his head and spat at Lei Yaoxing.
A bloody glob of saliva landed on Lei Yaoxing's leather shoe, making his eyes grow colder.
"Xiao Ye, I treated you well. After your father passed away, I raised you, sent you to school, brought you into the business, and even handed the company over to you..."
Lei Yaoxing sighed softly.
"Here, everyone has the right to betray me, but not you."
"Not me?" Xiao Ye coughed and laughed hoarsely, his voice sharp like a night owl.
"Eleven years ago, how did that ship capsize in the open sea? Do I need to remind you? How did my father die? Do you dare tell me?"
Lei Yaoxing remained silent.
In the dead silence, he coldly stared at the mocking face before him.
After a long while, he shook his head regretfully.
"A wolf cub like you... truly can't be tamed."
From Xiao Ye's broken body, spiritual energy erupted violently.
His limbs shattered, but his body suddenly sprang up from the ground.
His broken left arm rose, driven by years of hatred, and the sharp bone fragments stabbed toward Lei Yaoxing's throat.
But it was futile.
Lei Yaoxing simply waved his hand, and Xiao Ye's body froze mid-air, as if frozen.
Then, in the scorching wind, it disintegrated into countless strands, blood spraying everywhere.
It was as if a thousand blades had sliced through the traitor, grinding him into dust.
In the prolonged silence, no one dared to speak.
Everyone bowed their heads, not even daring to breathe.
"Why do you think I've fallen to this point?" Lei Yaoxing murmured, staring at the flames before him and the distant city lights flickering in the night.
It all felt so unfamiliar.
He had already secured an absolute advantage in Cliff City's underground struggles.
Even if his opponents sought outside help at any cost, they were nothing more than paper tigers.
Victory was within his grasp...
Yet, he suddenly felt a deep, bone-chilling sense of powerlessness.
The recent twists and turns, the life-and-death struggles before him, the betrayals, alliances, mergers, and purges...
All of it, unexpected and unforeseen, felt like strands of spider silk falling from the darkness, one by one, gradually entangling him.
Now, he felt utterly overwhelmed.
This wasn't how things were supposed to be.
His adoptive father had gradually been handing over power to him over the years.
Everyone should have naturally respected him as the leader.
He should have stood unchallenged at the pinnacle of this wilderness...
But ever since his adoptive father fell seriously ill, everything had spiraled out of control.
The rules that should have been upheld were shattered.
The ironclad principles that should have been followed were cast aside by everyone.
And now, as he traced the threads of chaos, the countless clues all pointed to one person.
A glove used to launder money for the boss, an assistant casually chosen by Lei Wuye, an unexpected stumbling block, a player who had long lost the right to compete, a chess master everyone had overlooked.
"Chen Xingzhou, is it you?" Lei Yaoxing whispered, his dark eyes gazing toward distant Cliff City.
"Where is he now?"
"At Jici Hospital," the old man who had remained calm throughout replied.
"They say the surgery was successful, but he hasn't regained consciousness yet."
"Still alive, huh..."
Lei Yaoxing couldn't help but clap.
"What a lucky guy."
But then, the old man heard Lei Yaoxing's next words: "Take some men and kill him. Don't leave his brother alive either. Everyone connected to him—kill them all. Leave no one."
"But..."
The thin old man hesitated, instinctively wanting to dissuade him.
There were too many "buts."
But Chen Xingzhou was no longer a threat.
But that was in Chongguang Church's hospital.
But this wasn't following the rules.
But if they killed him, who would trust his promises in the future?
"To hell with your 'buts'!!!" Lei Yaoxing roared, his eyes reflecting the flames, turning blood-red.
Yet, he couldn't help but smile.
It was as if he had finally broken free from his shackles...
The moment he made the decision, he felt an incredible lightness, as if even the wind brushing against his face was gentle.
To hell with the rules, to hell with the consequences, to hell with the threats!
The moment he decided to break everything, what he felt was an unprecedented sense of freedom.
"Heh, hahaha, hahahaha..."
He couldn't help but laugh at himself, almost doubling over.
"Who would've thought that the one who couldn't make up his mind was me."
He had already chosen to fight and kill, so why should he care about rules?
When did beasts in the wild ever care about shame?
When had he become bound by these invisible shackles?
In his daze, he seemed to see the roaring flames, the reddened sky, and amidst the swirling darkness and neon lights, the figure of a white deer gazing down upon him.
Eternally cold, eternally calm—that was the eternal, lofty freedom.
But soon, the distant illusion silently dissipated.
In the silence, Lei Yaoxing regretfully withdrew his gaze and turned back, asking one last question: "Do I need to repeat my earlier order?"
"I... I'll go right away."
The old man, drenched in sweat, lowered his head, no longer daring to question.
And so, the shackles were completely broken.
Not just here, and not just for Chen Xingzhou.
North Mountain, Longhai, South Ridge, West River...
At this moment, with Lei Yaoxing's command, the last of the rules were shattered.
The hungry beasts roamed freely, feasting on blood and prey without restraint.
Blood and fire rose with the moon from the darkness.
In this endless, long night, it enveloped everything...
Under the same night sky, at a cliffside villa on the edge of Cliff City, the lights were bright.
Unlike the bloodshed and life-and-death struggles that had filled Cliff City these past days, the warm, soft lighting here created an atmosphere of peace and tranquility.
Just as Ji Jue was checking the signal tower and server signals again, the sound of running water from the bathroom gradually stopped.
Soon, Xiao An, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, came out in slippers, drying his wet hair with a towel.
"Brother Ji Jue, I'm done."
"Ah, okay."
Ji Jue yawned and got up to head to the bathroom.
But as he passed by, he paused for a moment, sniffing the air curiously.
It was a different scent from what he remembered.
Xiao An looked at him, puzzled.
For a moment, Ji Jue inexplicably wanted to ask: "Bro, did you change your body wash? Bro, you smell so good... Bro, your hands look so small... Bro, bro..."
*Slap!*
Without thinking, he slapped himself in the face.
For the umpteenth time in the past few days, he reminded himself—they were all men! They'd peed together in the Rift! Ji Jue, you can't keep thinking like this!
But then, Xiao An's puzzled face leaned closer, examining him with confusion.
"What's wrong, Brother Ji Jue?" Xiao An asked.
"You seem... off."
Ji Jue stiffened, holding his breath.
He tried to inch backward, little by little.
Suddenly, he felt like he was facing an unprecedented life crisis, as if standing on the edge of a cliff, one misstep away from disaster...
"Big brother is about to come out!!!"
On the windowsill outside, Gloria, who looked like a metallic hummingbird, suddenly flew up and shouted at him.
Ji Jue was horrified, frantically waving his hands.
"I didn't! What are you kids talking about?!"
"You did! You definitely did!!!" Gloria flapped her wings in panic, screaming.
"Little Nine saw something! Something big is about to come out! It's bad, really bad, really dangerous—"
She was shouting incoherently, unable to describe what was happening.
But before she could finish, Ji Jue had already raised his hand without hesitation.
—[Mechanical Descent]!
Resonance began, and shared senses activated!
The visual signals from Gloria instantly flooded Ji Jue's mind, nearly overwhelming him.
Some pre-set module had been triggered, and who knew what kind of advanced tech the Prophet had stuffed into her small body.
What was once just ordinary visual perception now skyrocketed in complexity.
The clarity magnified endlessly, distances, sizes, lengths, weights, materials—all became visible.
Then, material penetration, infrared spectra, the flow of spiritual energy...
Finally, what appeared before his eyes was a vast, intangible web!
The inexplicable force and disturbances had transformed into a dense, intricate grid covering the sky, the earth, and the entire world.
But now, in the villa's courtyard, the once peaceful grid was bulging unnaturally, writhing and sharpening...
It was as if something from beyond the grid was slowly exerting force, tearing at the fabric of reality, about to break through!
Around the "bulge," various indicators had turned blood-red.
And at the center was a symbol Ji Jue knew all too well—the mark of Shangshan.
In that instant, Ji Jue took a sharp breath, realizing with horror what this was.
This was an observation of Shangshan's power—or more precisely, an observation device Mercury had created to achieve her goals.
It transformed imperceptible changes into visual data.
And its subject was none other than the Eternal Gate, the entity that governed the great powers of time and space!!!
Setting aside the absurd theory that [in the future, after Chen Xingzhou's death, Chen Yubo would turn evil, becoming a tyrant who wreaked havoc on the world, leading to widespread suffering and rebellion, prompting the resistance to send a mechanical warrior back in time to eliminate the root cause], the only remaining possibility was...
—[Someone was about to drop a portal right on their faces]!!!
In an instant, a piercing alarm blared throughout the villa, jolting everyone from their peaceful slumber.
They looked around in confusion, unsure of what was happening.
"An attack is imminent!" Ji Jue's voice came through the broadcast system.
"Everyone, prepare! The enemy is about to teleport in—"
Before he could finish, an unprecedented explosion erupted, shaking the entire cliff and the sea below.
Gravity seemed to vanish for a moment.
In the once beautiful courtyard, everything was instantly reduced to rubble.
An invisible maw bit down, carving a perfect circle out of the void.
Then, within the distorted "grid," a cross-shaped rift appeared at the center, opening in all four directions!
One after another, figures emerged from within.
"Kill them all," the thin old man said, his pure white eyes glowing with intensity.
"Leave no one alive!"
The gates burst open, and from the darkness behind them, a horde of beasts surged forth!
They charged forward—
And promptly stepped on a landmine.
*Ding—*
At Jici Hospital, in the bustling lobby of the inpatient building late at night, the elevator doors slowly opened.
"Excuse me, coming through, thank you."
Old Lin, carrying a bag of late-night snacks, squeezed into the packed elevator, nodding politely to the patients in hospital gowns and their families.
Under the pale fluorescent lights, everything seemed dull and cold.
Even the most lively eyes were dulled by the smell of disinfectant, turning weary and numb.
But the moment the elevator doors closed, the crowded space was filled with pairs of glowing red eyes.
Darkness surged like a tide, swallowing everything.
On the 16th floor of the inpatient building, the door to the intensive care unit slowly closed.
A nurse pushing a cart approached the bed, looking down at the barely breathing patient.
His face was pale, his weak breaths barely sustaining him.
A colorless liquid was drawn into a syringe.
The nurse flicked the needle, expelling the air, then rolled up Chen Xingzhou's sleeve, finding the IV port.
The steady needle slowly approached the port.
But then, it stopped.
Her wrist was caught in the patient's grip, like a vice, unyielding.
Behind the oxygen mask, Chen Xingzhou's eyes opened slightly, staring at the assassin before him.
There was no fear, no panic—only calm.
He held onto her wrist with all his strength, keeping his life in his own hands.
Until the "nurse" sighed softly in resignation.
She let go.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just let go in your dreams?" she murmured, shaking her head.
"I was going to make it quick..."
A dagger was drawn from beneath her white uniform.
Without hesitation, she plunged it into his abdomen, blood gushing out.
*Beep—!!!*
The monitor in the corner suddenly blared an alarm, alerting the guards outside.
But soon, the sounds of struggle and fighting echoed through the heavy door.
Behind the door, the world remained still.
Amid the blaring alarms, only the soft sound of blood dripping to the floor could be heard.
The nurse expressionlessly pulled out the dagger and stabbed again.
Once, twice!
Blood flowed, reflecting the flickering pale light.
Outside the window, the long night stretched on.
A flame suddenly rose, followed by another.
Chaos reigned.
---
After running between hospitals all day, I'm practically roasted and exhausted.
Begging for monthly votes!!!
(End of Chapter)