The sky of Yeqiao City is as gray as a dying lung.
At three o'clock in the morning, an explosion occurred in the old city of the South District, and the fire department, special service, and intelligence department intervened simultaneously. The media was blocked, and the public only knew that "the gang conflict was escalating fiercely."
But only the core of the Fallen Council knew:
This was a "man-made" hunting incident.
The target of the hunt was not a traitor, not an alien, but Su Yue.
Su Yue woke up in a dream, with cold sweat on her forehead.
She dreamed that blood fell from the sky and turned into an inverted moon, pressing on her spine and eyes, and a being whose face could not be seen whispered in her ear.
That voice was not human language, but it could go straight into her mind.
"Open your second eye... the blood eye... see through those hypocritical lights."
She stared at the night outside the window.
Ethan pushed the door open and walked in: "Get dressed. Let's go."
Su Yue was stunned: "Where to go?"
"You will be attacked." He said lightly, "Now, right now."
"Who?!"
"Me."
The Council did not hide it - they directly ordered Ethan to implement the "Awakening Plan" and provided a whole team of "cleansers" to pretend to be anti-night hunters to create the life and death limit of "encircling and killing Su Yue".
But Ethan did not report Su Yue's true location. He took her to an abandoned warehouse area on the outskirts of Yeqiao City. There was no surveillance and no sensing equipment here, which was a location that the Council could not track in real time.
"You know what they are doing." Su Yue looked at him, "You still do it?"
"If I don't, they will send someone else."
"Are you willing to see me driven crazy?!"
"I am willing to go crazy with you." He said coldly.
In the abandoned building not far away, a group of fully armed "cleansers" were already in place.
"The target is about to enter the visual area."
"Prepare the engagement procedure and disguise the human offensive biological front."
"Inject the inhibitor to ensure the release of the target's blood mark."
"Ready...fire."
The first shot penetrated Ethan's shoulder!
The blood mist exploded, and he forcibly suppressed the impulse to counterattack and pressed Su Yue into a dead corner of the steel structure.
"They are serious." She murmured, "You...why did you bring me here?"
"Because the power in your body, if you don't awaken, will backfire on you." Ethan gritted his teeth and whispered.
"I will die."
"You won't." He looked at her, "You will 'live'."
Boom!
The wall of the building was torn apart by the bomb, and a team of "hunters" rushed in.
Su Yue finally broke out!
Her eyes were red, and a low hum different from that of humans came from her throat. Silver-white light blades appeared on her fingertips, and the air around her was trembling violently.
The first "moon pattern" appeared on her forehead!
Like an upside-down crescent moon, the blood-red fluorescence was like a burning scar.
Her speed soared, and she instantly penetrated between three enemies. Before the blade came out, blood was already spilled.
"She... started." An observer on the roof whispered.
But this was just the beginning.
In the second round of attack, the Cleaner released the "blood crystal guided bomb" to detonate the "moon factor" sleeping in the blood mark in her body.
She suddenly fell to the ground in pain!
At that moment, Su Yue saw an illusion:
She was soaked in a deep red "moonlight pool", surrounded by countless screaming babies, and the sky was full of drooping blood vessels and eyeballs.
A woman floated up from the bottom of the pool, her eyes were empty, but her face was exactly the same as hers.
"Do you want to open your eyes?"
"You want to live? Then you must see the truth."
"The price is your humanity."
Su Yue screamed, blood gushed out of her seven orifices, but she did not choose to surrender.
Instead, he walked towards the woman step by step in the illusion.
"If I have to lose my humanity to survive... then I would rather take it back with me."
In reality, she opened her eyes.
The third eye opened in the center of her forehead, emitting a strange light of platinum and blood red.
"Awakening is complete!" A remote observation station somewhere exclaimed in a low voice.
"The blood mark is stable, and the identification code is confirmed - the second successor of the Moon System, labeled Yue-2."
"... Pay attention, there is a deviation, her blood mark... is not controlled by the central nervous system!"
She "saw it".
Seeing the true form of the Cleansers who besieged her -
They are not human soldiers, but the special army of the Fallen Council, who are half-machine and half-soul. Their souls have been extracted and embedded in the armor. They are "puppets made by the Council."
She was furious!
The blood blade slashed out, with ripples like space distortion, and directly tore a "puppet" to pieces!
Ethan knew that she was on the verge of going berserk.
If she is not stopped, she will——
"Yue!!"
Ethan shouted, rushed to her, and blocked her next slash with his body!
Blood splattered, and he fell.
At that moment, Su Yue was stunned.
The blood in her eyes slowly faded, and she looked down at her hands, as if looking at a strange demon.
"I..."
"You are back." Ethan smiled weakly.
—
In the end, the hunt that night "failed".
The records received by the parliament were: the Cleansers lost control and were wiped out; Su Yue's blood seal was unstable and sealed himself; Ethan lost too much blood and was sent back in a semi-coma.
They thought everything was "under control".
But they didn't know that Su Yue's real blood seal not only awakened power that night.
It also awakened memory.
She remembered that she had repeatedly awakened in that "Moonlight Pool"——
That was not the first awakening, but the third time. The first two times, she was pushed back into the abyss by the "Hand of the Old God".
And the owner of that hand was one of the true god seats worshipped by the parliament: Cold Moon Judge.
At night, Su Yue sat in front of Ethan's sickbed, looking at his pale face, and suddenly whispered:
"Thank you for saving me."
"You will regret it." He opened his eyes, "You will eventually become their weapon."
"No." She whispered, "Because I have decided."
"What I want to do is not awakening, but - breaking."
"I want to break this game."