# 26
**Chapter 26: Life-Extinguishing Flash Moon**
Zhao Kongcheng was utterly baffled.
In this torrential rain, what the hell was this kid doing wandering around? And with his [Borderless Domain] already deployed, how did the boy even know he was here?
Worse timing couldn’t exist—showing up just as he was getting pummeled into the dirt. If the kid saw this…
How humiliating!!
And he had just sworn to protect the world; if he dragged Lin Qiye in now and something happened to the boy, Zhao Kongcheng would never forgive himself.
“Who cares why I’m out here! I know you’re fighting that ghost-faced thing—let me in, I can fight now too!” Lin Qiye’s voice came again from outside.
“Fight my ass!” Zhao Kongcheng cursed. “This isn’t a ghost-faced man, it’s the Ghost-Faced King! River Realm! Two whole realms above a little Lamp kid like you! You’re a high-schooler—what are you gonna do, head-butt it to death?
Besides, you’ve always been a coward—why are you throwing your life away now?
Get home and eat! I’m telling you, as long as Zhao Kongcheng stands here, that thing won’t touch a single hair on your family’s heads!”
“Times change. I hate dying, but I hate owing people more!” Lin Qiye shouted back.
“We’re in there having a cozy family dinner while you duel the Ghost-Faced King alone? You want to be an unsung hero? Too bad—I won’t let you!
If we eat, we eat together after we kill it!”
Lin Qiye slammed against the air beside the street sign, but an invisible wall sealed domain from world; no matter how hard he hit, it didn’t budge.
Inside, the Ghost-Faced King sent Zhao Kongcheng flying again. He lay crumpled for a long time before levering himself up with his blade.
“Stop wasting strength… cough. I’ve got no realm, but my [Borderless Domain] can still keep anyone below Pool Realm out. Only two ways in:
Either I let you,
Or… I die.
You can’t even crack my domain—coming in here would just be suicide.”
Zhao Kongcheng’s eyes stayed locked on the king, his voice fading.
After those words, the noise outside ceased—no more pounding, no more shouts.
One second, two, three…
A smile tugged at Zhao Kongcheng’s lips.
“That’s right… go home and eat. Leave the rest to us Night Watch…”
He straightened with effort, gasping, blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. Every breath shook his body with pain.
He was at his limit.
Before him, the Ghost-Faced King stood like a rain-soaked hill, old and new wounds crisscrossing its hide—yet still vibrant, still upright. Such was the monstrous vitality of a myth creature.
Zhao Kongcheng gripped his blade with one hand; the other trembled into his pocket and drew out a Coat of Arms.
Upon the badge, two Straight Blades crossed; beneath them, a name:
Zhao Kongcheng.
In a daze he was a rookie again, newly sworn in.
“…Coat of Arms is the life of a Night Watchman!
In faith and in battle!
Inside each badge hides a tiny needle; press the switch and it pops out, tipped with a drug called God-Devil Draw.
Injected, it burns every shred of potential. Those who already possess a Forbidden Ruins will see its power skyrocket.
If you have none, the drug will brutally wring one out from the depths of your life-source—granting a Forbidden Ruins for as long as the drug lasts.
A move of mutual destruction, a last-second reversal, and the only chance for the powerless to feel a Ruin of their own.
Only when death is certain…”
Zhao Kongcheng clutched the badge, swaying. Watching the king approach, he smiled.
“You know… how long I’ve waited for this day?”
Rain poured!
Blood and water ran down his arm, dripping onto the badge.
Whether the king could hear or understand, he murmured into the storm:
“Men dream of power—flying, shattering mountains, bending skies with a thought.
All these years in Night Watch I waited for my Ruin to awaken. Forty-something and still nothing.
Life’s tough without a Ruin. Watching the captain’s flashy fights, I’d feel a pang every time.
So I told myself: if I ever met an unbeatable foe, I’d try God-Devil Draw before I died—see my Ruin, die with a grin.
Thank you for the chance.”
He opened his palm, letting rain wash the badge. A flick of his thumb, and a slender silver needle clicked out.
He drew a breath—
Drove the needle into his palm…
“Damn, that stings…” he muttered.
The instant it pierced, agony ebbed like a receding tide; power flooded in.
Every cell felt drugged with life; his heart pounded like a battlefield drum.
A mysterious field erupted, radiating outward.
His eyes blazed.
Sensing danger, the king roared and shot through the rain, kinetic horror unleashed.
Zhao Kongcheng’s back straightened,
blade clenched tighter,
raindrops rang on the Straight Blade like bells.
He lifted the weapon, eyes blazing—
And slashed.
A four-meter black crescent tore from the edge, slicing the rain without a sound, spanning the space between them in an instant.
Too fast for the king to turn.
A hideous arm spun skyward.
One strike—arm gone.
Zhao Kongcheng grinned up at the storm and laughed:
“Forbidden Ruins Sequence 083—[Life-Extinguishing Flash Moon]!
Hahaha, I knew it—Zhao Kongcheng… is a damn genius!!”