In another distant street, another murder of crows erupted, but this time they were crimson red. They released vast amounts of crimson mist carrying intense heat that swept over the ghosts like a tidal wave. Countless ghosts burst into flames upon contact, struggling in the sea of fire.
In the sky, countless black ripples exploded in various places, pushing forward dozens of meters. Space continuously twisted and shook under the force of these ripples, until the entire sky was trembling, space itself wavering like an earthquake.
The ghosts swayed unsteadily from the tremors.
"Eliminate."
As this authoritative voice echoed through the sky, the ghosts on the ground truly vanished without a trace, just as the command had ordered!
Lamp Realm! Laws of Reality!
Su Ze was utterly shocked. He never expected that the person coming to relieve him would be a Lamp Realm expert who commanded the Laws of Reality!
The Laws were a force that could alter everything in existence - the power of gods, the power used to create the world!
Uesugi Akizuki in his arms burrowed deeper like a hamster, pulling in her feet and curling up tightly while trembling.
Su Ze sensed someone's presence and sharply turned his gaze toward the tallest building in the distance.
Under the blood-red moonlight, a figure was dancing atop the building in the bitter wind. The movements were elegant and sweeping, with the crimson moon as their backdrop. Watching the dance, Su Ze could almost see the figure's bewitching smile.
As the dance ended, the figure bowed toward Su Ze's location, and in that forward-leaning motion, plummeted straight toward the ground!
Just before impact, they suddenly exploded into a flock of crows that soared upward.
Su Ze turned his head to see a disheveled young man with a sickly complexion walking toward him with a smile. He looked exactly like a yandere character from a novel, especially with the two fangs visible in his smile. He was handsome, but gave Su Ze a very dangerous feeling.
"Huaxia Ghost Officer, Mo Ziang greets you."
"Merry Christmas Eve."
As he came closer, Su Ze could see him more clearly. The young man was very handsome, wearing a black coat that danced in the wind. His face was pale with an unhealthy whiteness, with redness around his eyes like someone just recovering from a serious illness.
"Huaxia Forerunner, Su Ze returns your greeting. Peace be with you."
Mo Ziang gazed at the sky rolling his eyes lost in thought, curiously examining Uesugi Akizuki in Su Ze's arms. After pondering for a while, he asked seriously with his pale, sickly face, "So... what's it like keeping a ghost? I want to catch one to raise too."
Su Ze was taken aback, "How would I know?"
Mo Ziang pointed at Uesugi Akizuki, "How could you not know?"
"You mean... she's a ghost?" Su Ze frowned at Uesugi Akizuki in his arms.
Uesugi Akizuki trembled and tried to curl up even smaller, attempting to squeeze her entire body into Su Ze's embrace.
Mo Ziang left it at that without saying more. Instead, he drew the long sword from his back and, like a conductor in a grand opera house, used it as a baton to elegantly direct the tens of thousands of crows in the street, eliminating all ghostly beings.
Su Ze tilted the umbrella backward, allowing the red moonlight from the crimson moon to shine directly onto Uesugi Akizuki in his arms.
In the next moment, red ghostly energy rose and surrounded her body. A pair of sharp horns, red at the base fading to white at the tips, appeared without warning, even piercing through Su Ze's clothes. The girl's pupils also turned crimson.
This was a characteristic of the ghost race - under the blood moon, ghosts would become very powerful, and also more aggressive.
Su Ze used the umbrella to cover her from the blood light again, and the girl returned to normal.
"Thank you for your hard work today. Peace be with you."
Su Ze left with Uesugi Akizuki after saying this.
Mo Ziang hummed a melody, slowly spreading his arms as if trying to embrace the crimson blood moon. His body began to dance slowly, his elegant and beautiful movements twirling beneath the blood-colored sky, his sickly face maintaining a bewitching and maniacal smile throughout.
As he danced, waves of seemingly endless ghosts in the street were eliminated.
As he smiled, tears began to fall. His sickly face was covered in tears yet still smiling as his dance became increasingly elegant and intense, his sweeping movements cutting through the fierce wind, his coat flapping loudly.
Countless ghosts vanished within his dance.
In the living room, Su Ze and Uesugi Akizuki stared at each other for a long time.
Uesugi Akizuki knelt on the sofa, blinking her innocent eyes while clutching Su Ze's hand.
Su Ze patted her head and used his spiritual power to sense her gene lock, which though unopened, had loosened somewhat. If he was willing to use his spiritual power to assist in adjusting Uesugi Akizuki's breathing, she could open her gene lock, though the process would take ten to twenty hours, or even a day or two.
Some people spend their entire lives unable to loosen their gene lock, while others merely need to attempt activating it for it to loosen, and more incredibly, some open it immediately upon trying!
The realm achieved after opening the gene lock isn't necessarily the lowest Firefly Realm - it depends on talent. Some people start at the lowest Firefly Realm, while others might directly reach the pinnacle Lamp Realm upon opening their gene lock.
The opening of the gene lock might also accompany the awakening of supernatural abilities. Those who awaken abilities become Ability Users, while those who don't become Transcenders.
Transcenders might still awaken abilities during future realm breakthroughs.
Given the strength of the girl who had fled with Uesugi Akizuki, she could have done this too, but she seemed to have no intention of opening Uesugi Akizuki's gene lock.
Su Ze rubbed his temples dejectedly. Whether Uesugi Akizuki was a ghost or human didn't really matter to him.
Huaxia was currently quite tolerant of newly appearing races, as long as they didn't harm Huaxia's interests.
In fact, among the Ghost Officers and Night Watchers, one-fifth of the members came from other worlds, though most of their races were human variants from those other worlds.
Looking at the girl's innocent and pure eyes, Su Ze sighed and pinched her soft, cute cheeks, "Go to your room and sleep."
Uesugi Akizuki nodded and pulled Su Ze toward the bedroom.
Su Ze had wanted to go smoke, but seeing her determined attitude, he gave up resisting.
Since he had seen the strength of his replacement, he had no more concerns. This person was stronger than him and Shen Qingsheng combined.
Meng Xingyao and Uesugi Chigenki were fighting a fierce battle against the ghosts in District Six's streets, with blood and corpses creating a grand yet horrifying scene under the red light.
Meng Xingyao stood in the center of the battlefield surrounded by ghosts, clutching a long sword wound on her abdomen, her head slightly tilted and gaze somewhat dazed, blood flowing from her mouth.
"Stop spacing out! If you can't handle it, stay back!" Uesugi Chigenki defended against the ghosts attacking Meng Xingyao while accumulating more and more wounds himself.
The third day's blood moon had clearly produced stronger ghosts than the previous two days.
The ghosts from the first two days had mostly remained at the Firefly Realm stage, the lowest realm, with only one or two Candle Realm ghosts occasionally appearing, which hadn't posed much threat to them.
But now, they were encountering one or two Candle Realm ghosts every couple of hours.