The Weeping Serpent (XI)

Volume Two

Title: Chapter 144: The Weeping Serpent (XI)

As Ewan’s furious roar subsided, the world fell utterly silent.

It was as if nothing had transpired.

Yet, upon the spectral blue moon, within its myriad crimson, grotesque pupils, a flicker of profound, almost human fear suddenly emerged.

The moon, of course, did not fear lingering souls or mere ants.

What it truly feared was…

****

Boom—

The silence shattered abruptly, rent by a cataclysmic roar that heralded the end of the world!

Infinite power, originating from beyond the world’s barrier, guided by the lighthouse, descended upon this very spot in an instant.

The void trembled violently.

At the edge of Ewan’s vision, behind the blue moon, space fragmented into countless razor-sharp, pitch-black fissures.

Then, from within those cracks, a scorching light surged forth.

It was like a magnificent sun rising on the other side of space, its blinding majesty outshining Ewan’s small lighthouse a thousand, even ten thousand times over.

****

Boom—

The void vibrated once more.

It was as if an iron fist relentlessly pounded a fragile door.

More light flooded into the expanse. Under this ineffable radiance and heat, the Dark Moon Mist, which had been boiling like agitated water, was violently ripped apart, revealing several gaping fissures.

Leveraging his adaptability to the crimson flames, Ewan finally opened his eyes amidst the boundless light. He then clearly saw that beyond the fissures, where space had been crushed by immense power, a colossal, more monstrous eye than all of Silent Moon’s crimson pupils combined, was fixed upon this place, casting an excited and fervent gaze.

It was like a parched beast that had finally found the delectable lamb it had coveted for so long.

The Evil God, Withering King, had descended!

****

Crack, crack.

Before Ewan could even greet this old acquaintance, he heard countless sounds like shattering glass.

One after another, withered, charred hands, as if burned by fierce flames, slowly extended from the other side of the spatial rift.

Like a predatory sea anemone, these hands swayed with eerie regularity, opening and closing in succession. They reached out like countless tentacles, grasping towards the spectral blue moon.

****

Roar—

The moon let out a silent roar.

Its myriad pupils spun wildly, and the moonlight, cold and eerie, resisted the approaching withered hands.

Though no sound reached him, Ewan felt as if his very soul was being torn apart by the invisible shockwaves.

Fortunately, the crimson flames within him, as if suddenly fueled, burned even more fiercely the moment Withering King appeared, helping him to counteract most of the adverse effects.

Still, Ewan grimaced, then promptly flipped the moon the middle finger.

“Finish it, Withering King!”

[Hmph.]

Ewan faintly heard a cold snort.

Suddenly, crimson flames ignited upon those withered, charred hands.

Though the flames appeared no different from his own, Ewan could distinctly feel that the crimson flames on those hands were infinitely more terrifying than his.

As the crimson flames burned, like boiling oil poured into clear water, the spectral blue moonlight intensely trembled. The withered, charred hands drew progressively closer to the blue moon’s true form.

Without a doubt, Withering King held the absolute advantage.

Although this was merely a projection of Silent Moon, Withering King had certainly not arrived in their true body either.

Evil Gods cannot descend upon the mortal realm in their true form; this is a definitive rule. Otherwise, Silent Moon would not have been forced to abandon their divine position and body to forcibly descend.

However, even as projections of equal standing, Withering King had been continuously accumulating power prior to this. Even their evil cultists had fallen silent during this incident.

Silent Moon, on the other hand, had done the opposite. In pursuit of a retreat, they had constantly stirred up trouble, unknowingly expending an immense amount of their power. In such a state, even as a projection of the same divine rank, how could they possibly be a match for Withering King?

As if to validate Ewan’s thoughts, countless withered hands had already seized the blue moon itself, relentlessly dragging it towards the other side of space.

Combined with the excited, enormous eye on the other side of the rift, Ewan envisioned a burly man grinning menacingly, grasping a small blue-haired loli and forcefully yanking her out.

‘Come out and play something fun with Uncle…’

This scene was inexplicably amusing.

Ewan twitched his lips, suppressing the strange thought, and remained vigilant.

‘The moon wouldn’t give up so easily.’

Indeed, amidst Withering King’s ‘tentacle play’—no, that wasn’t right—amidst the dragging of Withering King’s myriad withered hands, Silent Moon’s lunar essence surged. With a violent tremor, it briefly broke free from Withering King’s grasp.

Then, a terrifying power converged, striking… Ewan.

Ewan’s eyes widened instantly, and the death premonition buzzed loudly in his mind again.

He had never imagined that, at this very moment, when Silent Moon was about to be literally devoured by Withering King, it would not turn to fight Withering King but instead attack him?

‘What kind of grudge is this?!

‘So what if I accidentally let the Black Book tell Withering King your weakness, causing them to hunt you down?

‘Is it really that serious?

‘I didn’t do it on purpose!

‘If you want to blame someone, go find the God of Love!’

Ewan bristled like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his face paling.

But he couldn’t sit idly by. Under Withering King’s restraint, Silent Moon couldn’t unleash its divine might as recklessly as before; its current power was only a small fraction. Therefore, if he fought with all his might, there might still be a glimmer of hope!

With this thought, Ewan gritted his teeth, allowing the nascent crimson flames within him to burn even more fiercely.

‘Just for a moment, if I can just resist for a moment.’

Withering King would surely seize this opening and deliver a fatal blow to Silent Moon!

Yet, just as Ewan held his breath and braced himself, that wisp of faint moonlight, imbued with the power of an Evil God and ethereal as mist, suddenly veered in mid-air.

It did not attack Ewan but instead fell upon… Anna, who was beside him.

Silent Moon’s target was Senior!

Ewan’s expression instantly turned savage. He had never expected that in such a short time, Silent Moon had learned his tactic of ‘attacking the east while striking the west,’ and had even put it into immediate, practical use!

Silent Moon’s killing intent had been too real, even triggering his death premonition, causing Ewan to completely overlook this possibility.

‘Damn it!’

Ewan recklessly turned and lunged towards Anna behind him.

With the help of Isor’s phantom earlier, he was right beside Anna.

But this mere half-meter distance felt like an insurmountable chasm to Ewan at that moment.

The moonlight descended, gently covering Anna and lifting her once more.

Ewan’s eyes widened abruptly, bloodshot, crimson flames surging around him. He was actually preparing to collide his flesh-and-blood body head-on with that cold moonlight, which contained endless destructive intent.

‘Having come this far, how could I let you take Senior away again!!’

Ewan roared madly in his heart, instinctively closing his eyes, preparing to welcome the impending agony, or even death.

However, the expected despair did not arrive.

In that flash of lightning, amidst the myriad cacophony, Ewan seemed to hear the sound of something tearing through the air once more.

It was like a sharp weapon ripping through the very fabric of the air.

‘Eh?’

Ewan, as he wished, embraced the delicate body that was no longer soft at this moment.

He looked up in confusion, then saw.

At the very center of the colossal blue moon, an inconspicuous… arrow was embedded.

The arrow, crafted from crystal, shimmered brilliantly under the moonlight, exquisitely beautiful.

Yet, the moment it pierced the blue moon, tiny, blood-thread-like patterns instantly spread outwards from its tip.

It was like… a potent venom.

A potent venom carrying the intent of ‘certain death.’

Under that venom, the endlessly falling, cold moonlight began to gradually dissipate!

‘That is… the Stone of Truth!’

Silent Moon’s myriad crimson pupils abruptly swiveled, all looking towards the rift torn in the Dark Moon Mist by Withering King’s power.

Through that rift, an elderly man covered in age spots could be seen, holding a crossbow, a brilliant crown atop his head. From the periphery of the endless mist, with the near-divine power of a crowned one, he had pierced through the layers of influence from the corona and lunar essence, firing this unerring arrow.

“How does it feel, Moon?”

The old man, with his murky eyes, stared at Silent Moon through the rift, smiling as he said, “My long-suppressed resentment and fury, from an old man with one foot in the grave, are quite potent, wouldn’t you say?”