Chapter 65: The Tall Building

The Blood Bat Syndicate member had only the thrill of impending success in his eyes. Utterly unaware of anything unusual, he grinned hideously and swung the bone club in his hand toward Lin Wan.

However, the exact moment his combat boot came into contact with that wispy trail of gray vapor, a bizarre scene unfolded!

Formless and intangible vapor gathered beneath his foot...

The edge of his durable, heavy-duty combat boot began to decay and turn fragile at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was as if it had endured hundreds of years of weathering and rot, turning to flying ash at the lightest touch.

"Go to hell, you bitch!" the burly member sneered viciously, his fan-like, oversized hand already on the verge of grabbing Lin Wan's slender neck.

Right at this critical juncture, a strange, paralyzing sensation rippled through his right ankle. Immediately following, an indescribable heaviness rose from the sole of his foot, as if his combat boot had been instantly filled with lead.

The supportive force that had originally propelled him forward at high speed vanished by more than half in a fraction of a second!

"Huh?" Shocked, he tried to forcibly steady his posture, but his body completely refused to obey.

With a loud thud, right at the crucial moment of lunging at Lin Wan, his legs inexplicably turned to jelly, and he collapsed onto his knees!

His immense momentum sent him tumbling forward in an ungainly fashion. Not only did the sneak attack fail utterly, but he also crashed headfirst into another accomplice who was moving in to coordinate the assault. The two of them immediately rolled together into a tangled heap, causing a brief moment of chaos.

...

"Watch out!" Lu Ming's pupils constricted as he let out an involuntary cry of alarm.

Lin Wan felt a fierce gust of wind rush toward her face, the shadow of death nearly swallowing her whole.

Instinctively, she leaned backward, the burly man's claws brushing right past the tip of her nose.

Seizing this fleeting window of opportunity, she executed an awkward roll, barely managing to dodge any subsequent attacks. Cold sweat soaked her back, and her chest heaved violently.

Catching Lin Wan's perilous situation in the corner of his eye, a blaze of furious rage surged straight to Lu Ming's brain!

"You're courting death!" he roared, unleashing his ice-attribute supernatural energy as recklessly as if it were worthless.

Dozens of ice spikes and blades, thicker and sharper than before, tore through the air with a piercing shriek. They blanketed the area toward Blood Xiao and his surrounding subordinates like a torrential rainstorm, temporarily forcing Blood Xiao back several paces and buying Lin Wan a chance to catch her breath.

"A bunch of useless trash!"

Seeing his subordinates fail one after another—nearly failing to handle even a single woman—a fierce glint flashed in Blood Xiao's eyes. The next instant, he barked:

"Get them, all of you! Kill them!" Licking the blood at the corner of his mouth, he issued an even more brutal order.

Seeing this, Lu Ming furrowed his brow tightly.

He held nothing back any longer, unleashing his Tier 2, Three-Star ice-attribute ability to its absolute limit!

"Crack... crack..."

Centered around him, a terrifying torrent of freezing air swept wildly in all directions. The moisture in the air condensed instantly, and a thick layer of frost formed rapidly across the ground, gleaming with a chilling, steely light.

The charging Blood Bat Syndicate members felt their bodies stiffen, their movements instantly becoming sluggish and leaden, as if they were sinking deep into a quagmire. Their offensive momentum was checked dead in its tracks.

He wasn't afraid for himself, but if this continued, the subordinates he had brought along would likely lose their lives here... And if that happened, how could he possibly compete for the "Key of the Red Moon" afterward?!

"Fall back! Retreat into the building!"

Seeing the situation take a drastic turn for the worse and suffering heavy casualties among his men, even though unwillingness burned fiercely in his heart, he knew he had run into a tough opponent today. Moreover, his abilities were not suited for long-range combat, leaving him constantly at a disadvantage.

Continuing the fight would yield no benefits; retreating to conserve strength for the upcoming contention was the wiser choice.

This was only the beginning...

With that thought, he let out a harsh shout, fixing a venomous glare on Lu Ming and Lin Wan.

"The Key of the Red Moon—our Blood Bat Syndicate is determined to have it! Just you wait!" With that, he ordered his remaining subordinates to provide covering fire for one another, and like a pack of stray dogs, they retreated in disarray toward the towering, ruined skyscraper behind them.

Lu Ming's frigid gaze swept over the fleeing backs of the Blood Bat Syndicate members, finally coming to rest on the gloomy entrance of the towering building.

He knew all too well that a cornered beast should not be pursued relentlessly, especially since the interior of the building was a complete unknown; blundering in blindly in the face of a potential ambush would only make things much trickier. He did not give chase immediately, choosing instead to take a deep breath to calm the surging power within his body.

"Hoo... hoo..." Lin Wan finally exhaled a breath of relief, her legs turning to jelly as she nearly collapsed to the ground.

She hurriedly retrieved two pale-blue recovery potions from her spatial ring, drinking them down in one gulp. Then, taking out a small bottle of medical spray, she walked over to Lu Ming, handed him a recovery potion, and said softly, "Lu Ming, your arm is injured."

Carefully tending to the bloody scratches on Lu Ming's arm left by Blood Xiao's claw-wind, her voice carried a lingering trace of fear and exhaustion.

Xia Tong's glass-like cat pupils flickered with a thoughtful gleam. Following a brief rest, both Lu Ming and Lin Wan cast their gazes unanimously toward the towering skyscraper the Blood Bat Syndicate had escaped into.

"I didn't expect to run into the Blood Bat Syndicate here. Be careful once we're inside; there's no telling if other enemies are lurking in there," Lu Ming and Lin Wan exchanged a grave look as they spoke in solemn tones.

"In any case, we have to go in... This is a mission assigned by superiors."

After treating their wounds and whispering a few more cautious words, the two decided to venture into the skyscraper to investigate.

After all, the "Key of the Red Moon" was of monumental importance; they could not simply give up because the Blood Bat Syndicate had shown up.

The two humans and one cat stepped cautiously into the towering building.

The lighting inside the building was exceptionally dim, with only a few bleak rays of daylight filtering through shattered windows, barely enough to make out their surroundings.

The walls and floors were blanketed in thick, slick moss, while thick vines coiled and wound around the pillars and ceiling like dead pythons.

Some even burst through cracks in the walls, dangling down to block their path, leaving behind only a chaotic mess of footprints on the ground.

These were presumably left by the members of the Blood Bat Syndicate.

The air was heavy with the rich scent of decaying vegetation. Absolute silence surrounded them, yet it exuded a creeping, unsettling sense of strange "vitality."

At that moment, the cold notification chime of the "Source Core" rang once again in Xia Tong's mind:

[Special energy field detected. Energy fluctuations inside the skyscraper are exceptionally complex, causing severe interference. Warning: The higher the level, the denser an unknown, pure energy becomes. Suspected spatial rift?]

Just as expected!

Xia Tong felt a surge of certainty. It seemed they had come to the right place after all; the upper echelons of the base certainly knew what they were doing to pinpoint the location with such accuracy.

...

Inside this bizarre skyscraper, Lin Wan's mental perception suffered interference far more intense than outside. It felt as though an invisible barrier was obstructing her detection, making it nearly impossible for her to effectively sense subtle movements in her surroundings.

Subconsciously, she tightened her grip on the small black cat in her arms, lowering her gaze from time to time to observe its reactions.

Through her observations over this period, she had discovered that this little black cat seemed exceptionally sensitive to plant-based auras. In this environment, it might just provide some unexpected assistance.

"Lu Ming, this place... feels very wrong. My mental strength is being heavily suppressed," Lin Wan tightened her hold on Xia Tong, a trace of unease in her voice.

"Yeah, be careful," Lu Ming replied with a grim expression, forming a thin blade of ice in his hand as he scanned their surroundings with sharp vigilance.

The two of them made their way upward along the slick, treacherous stairwell.

The higher they climbed, the clearer and more distinct the pure energy fluctuations in the air became.

Finally, after a lengthy climb, they reached the thirteenth floor.