Dawn is not hope, it's a human hell

As the warm orange sun gradually rose, the Jester Ghost's smile was no longer cunning and sinister, but became fierce. It extinguished the green flames surrounding its body with overwhelming pressure.

Su Ze watched it with hawk-like sharp eyes. The Jester Ghost had found a way to extinguish the flames in the early morning.

The Jester Ghost knew it no longer had a chance to seize the laws. Its large eyes rolled incessantly before its smile turned cunning and eerie once again.

Suddenly, the Jester Ghost charged toward a single-story house, smashing it to pieces, then continued rapidly destroying house after house.

"You gutless beast!"

Su Ze's pupils contracted as his face contorted in rage. He thrust his entire hand into the oil lamp, and flames instantly enveloped his body.

The intense flames burned across his body, causing unbearable pain that twisted his features. Gritting his teeth, his true form weaved through hundreds of clones, as the flames formed a great net in the sky to encompass the Jester Ghost's location.

The Jester Ghost recklessly broke through the fire net, rapidly slaughtering through District Seven.

A shadow flashed past, and Shen Qingsheng stared dumbfounded at his severed arm, which had been crushed to pieces without him noticing. Blood gushed from the wound.

Fortunately, because of the speed, he hadn't yet felt the pain, only numbness. And his sword-wielding hand was still intact. He had no time to think further as he charged back into the tide of hundreds of ghosts.

Su Ze suddenly appeared before the Jester Ghost but was sent flying backward by its incredible speed.

Su Ze gripped the Jester Ghost's neck firmly, the oil lamp floating behind him as flames erupted from his body, engulfing and burning the Jester Ghost.

The Jester Ghost let out a terrifying shriek, throwing punches at him with the desperation of mutual destruction. Cracks spread across Su Ze's body, his skin rapidly breaking down, but he still didn't let go as the flames grew even more intense.

If the Jester Ghost wanted mutual destruction, what was there to fear for a pioneer of China?

The Jester Ghost's skin and tissues quickly burned to ash. Su Ze violently slammed the flame-wrapped Jester Ghost to the ground, his sword striking down in fury like a raging storm. The Jester Ghost's defenses crumbled as wounds multiplied across its body.

Using the laws, Su Ze forcibly overcame their difference in realm, pinning down his opponent and continuing to slash.

The Jester Ghost was now at its last gasp, falling into decline under Su Ze's furious assault.

The dawn's first light rose high.

The spatial rifts that had opened during the blood moon began sucking the ghosts back in. The Jester Ghost seemed to grasp at this chance for survival, desperately punching Su Ze repeatedly to break free before rushing toward the spatial rift.

But its speed was nowhere near as swift as before.

Because the flames on its body kept pulling it back toward Su Ze.

"You bastard, you won't survive." Su Ze's face darkened as he stepped between the Jester Ghost and the spatial rift, his blade crushing it again with mountain-breaking force as he carried it into the air.

As the blood moon slowly set and dawn's light shone upon the Jester Ghost, without the blood moon's protection, its body gradually turned to ash.

The Jester Ghost's throat gurgled as its eyeballs fixed on the nearly-closed spatial rift. Su Ze grimly gripped its neck, "You really want to go back, don't you, you dog?"

"Then hurry up."

Su Ze released its neck.

The Jester Ghost looked incredulous but didn't hesitate, moving toward the spatial rift at extreme speed.

At that moment, Su Ze slashed through the air.

A massive circular blade of light, modified by the laws, crossed a hundred meters in an instant. The Jester Ghost's head separated from its body just before entering the spatial rift, its corpse carried through by momentum.

"You bastard, think you're faster than light?" Su Ze said darkly.

He didn't usually curse, but the Jester Ghost had truly enraged him beyond measure.

The flames on Su Ze's body disappeared. Under the dawn light, his skin was revealed to be covered in cracks, like drought-stricken earth.

Dawn's arrival not only marked the end of the fourth day's disaster but also brought endless sorrow. Houses lay in ruins, families destroyed, devastation everywhere.

"My child... my child..." A mother cradled what remained of her child's torso.

"Dad! Dad, wake up! I don't want you to take me to the amusement park anymore, just please wake up! I'll never make trouble again, please wake up..." A six-year-old child pushed at their bloodied father, crying.

Su Ze watched the residents emerging from their houses at dawn. Their eyes held no relief at surviving disaster, only bewilderment.

Su Ze's anger had dissipated after the Jester Ghost's death. Unable to bear watching this human tragedy any longer, he lowered his head, put a cigarette in his mouth, and flicked his lighter repeatedly. Sparks flew, but no flame caught.

Suddenly, a blood-covered man rushed over and slapped him across the face, grabbing his collar with bloodshot eyes and roaring,

"Why? Why are there so many casualties? Aren't you a pioneer? Why couldn't you protect us? We pay so much in taxes to the country every year, and this is what the country spends our money on? Useless people like you? Answer me! Answer me!"

Su Ze stared expressionlessly into his eyes for several seconds until the man's hair stood on end, and he released Su Ze's collar.

Everyone else turned their attention to Su Ze, their expressions varied.

Su Ze didn't answer. He walked over to the child crying beside their mangled father. "My condolences."

He wasn't good at comforting people, could only speak so stiffly.

The child turned, looking at him through tear-filled eyes, "Big brother, are you the soldier who talked to me before?"

Su Ze recognized him - the child he'd spoken to on the balcony during the first blood moon. He nodded, "Yes."

"Didn't you say no one would die?"

"I only said that about the first night of the blood moon."

The child broke into even more heartbroken sobs.

Shen Qingsheng dragged his battered body over from a distance, his left arm gone, leaving an empty sleeve under which white bone was faintly visible.

He too had lost the people's adoration from when he'd protected them during the second blood moon.

The casualties from the first three days of the blood moon combined were less than two hundred.

But the casualties and damage from this one day were beyond estimation. The Jester Ghost alone had deliberately killed thousands during the battle.

When the casualties in District Seven were tallied, they approached ten thousand. Shen Qingsheng had watched TV dramas before but never truly grasped what ten thousand casualties meant.

Those cold numbers couldn't convey the reality, but when ten thousand brutally mangled corpses lay strewn across broken streets and collapsed buildings, he truly understood what hell on earth meant.

It was even worse for ordinary civilians who lacked a soldier's strong will, leaving them so lost and helpless.

The crowd parted to let Shen Qingsheng reach Su Ze's side. Something caught in his throat as he spoke hoarsely, barely audible, "Brother Ze... I tried my best... I really tried..."

Hearing his best friend's self-reproach, Su Ze's dry mouth opened and closed, at a loss for words.

Shen Qingsheng felt intense guilt, blaming his insufficient strength.

While Su Ze was occupied fighting the Jester Ghost, he had been unable to hold back the endless tide of ghosts, ultimately allowing their numbers to exceed five hundred, leading to such horrific casualties.

Su Ze knew he had truly given everything he had, and everyone in every household had witnessed his efforts.

When the pioneers' logistics team arrived and saw this hellish scene, they were all struck speechless with shock.