### Chapter 348: Future Plans and Mingyue’s Concerns
The Dragon Lady had been pondering when this sc*m Game would finally come to an end. One by one, her “old friends” were dropping like flies, and even that Nightmare character was out of the picture. What were they all really chasing after?
On the bright side, she and Bai Yu were on the winning side, able to continue pursuing the life they wanted. All they had to do was deal with the Dark Moon God, and they’d be free at last. Just hang in there, they were almost there!
But she didn’t know how badly Bai Yu was injured or how long it would take for her to heal.
After dealing with Nightmare, they had just bought themselves a little time. Within this month, they had to get rid of the Dark Moon God behind the Ghost Gate, or else they’d be out of chances.
As the car drove on, Zhao Mingyue was unusually quiet, her hands nervously gripping the edge of her clothes.
“Mingyue, that Nightmare was tough. Taking her down came at a cost. As for Bai Yu, she just needs to win and stay alive. She can recover by devouring other evil ghosts or gods. Worst-case scenario, she’ll go hunting for a few more. Without Nightmare around, Bai Yu can feast to her heart’s content.”
The Dragon Lady turned her head, both reassuring Zhao Mingyue and herself. Just let Bai Yu munch on a few more evil gods, and they should be able to take on the Dark Moon God, right?
“Don’t worry; we’ll be there soon. Just try to look a little happier when we arrive.”
At these words, Zhao Mingyue let out a small sigh. “I’m not worried, just…thinking about some stuff.”
“About your store manager?”
“Yeah.”
It was pretty evident that Li Tianan was a goner.
What a pity. To her, he seemed like a good guy, a bit of a sad sack who was used till his last breath and wouldn’t get to hear his daughter call him “Dad” one last time.
At the heart of it all, this tragedy stemmed from the Ghost Gate and the Gatekeeper.
The Gatekeeper looked like he had racked up too many sins. Difficult blows kept striking them, as if heaven itself was targeting them. After tonight, it seemed this organization would crumble, only to be taken over and rebranded as something new.
Far off, they spotted Bai Yu on the open road, holding onto a girl.
They parked by the side of the road, and the Dragon Lady and Zhao Mingyue hurried out.
“Bai Yu!” Zhao Mingyue didn’t even stop to check who the girl was; she grabbed Bai Yu’s wrist. With Twin Souls activated, she could sense Bai Yu’s state.
“I’m fine, just a bit drained—I’ll bounce back,” Bai Yu replied softly. She planned to tidy things up while finishing the salvation tasks for those game participants, hoping to recover along the way.
If that didn’t cut it, she might need to call on Chen Yunshi for help with a few more evil gods.
Finally, Zhao Mingyue and the Dragon Lady let out a sigh of relief; the heavy stone in their hearts had been lifted.
“Who’s this girl?” the Dragon Lady asked, looking at the girl in Bai Yu’s arms, already suspecting the answer.
“Li Tianan’s daughter, the one Mingyue mentioned—Li Xuener. The Ghost Gate inside her is the original one, likely existing in the Ghost Domain. Nightmare used the Dark Moon God’s power to exploit her.”
Bai Yu walked to the front of the car, and Zhao Mingyue pulled open the back door, while Bai Yu gently placed the girl in the seat and buckled her in.
“There’s nothing else here now; Lu Liangting has been rescued. We can discuss details on the way back.”
“Oh, by the way, Mingyue, Li Tianan is dead. Nightmare used him as a vessel and stuffed him with three evil gods. If I didn’t take him out today, he’d have exploded into a gory mess tomorrow. Because of this, he can’t even leave behind his soul.”
To put it bluntly, Li Tianan couldn’t come back as a ghost for a second chance. From tonight onward, he would completely vanish from this world, just like Nightmare, with no soul left behind.
“Sigh, what a shame.”
Zhao Mingyue didn’t know what else to say. Li Tianan had been kind to her; without him, she wouldn’t have survived these past two years.
“Let’s get in the car.” Bai Yu settled into the passenger seat, leaving Zhao Mingyue to take the back.
On the way back, Bai Yu recounted the entire sequence of events—how she saw Li Tianan recruit the Gatekeeper members, how he started killing people, her intervention to stop him, and the showdown with Nightmare.
She barely went into detail about the battle but explained how Nightmare wielded the Dark Moon God’s power, what that power was like, how destructive it was, what kind of strength Nightmare had tapped into, and the details of the formations involved.
“No wonder the Dark Moon God is so strong,” the Dragon Lady remarked after listening.
The Dark Moon God’s abilities were absurdly powerful; her authority over strength was impressive, allowing her to assimilate and absorb at will. Just those two traits were enough to trump any defense an enemy threw her way.
The really outrageous part was how assimilation and absorption also doubled as defense mechanisms for her.
If someone attacked with magic, she could just absorb it; with physical attacks, she could use the moonlight barrier to trade hits — she might even assimilate the enemy’s essence entirely!
The absorption trait guaranteed the Dark Moon God’s longevity; she wasn’t afraid of prolonged battles or tireless assaults.
If they couldn’t take her down in single combat, any assault tactic was likely aimed right at the Dark Moon God’s weaknesses; mass attacks would hardly wear her down when she could unleash massive AOE damage without any cooldown.
The only two strategies the Dragon Lady could think of to effectively deal with the Dark Moon God were either to overpower her abilities or to have equipment resistant to assimilation and finish her off quickly.
“So that’s why you were so keen on getting that sword?” the Dragon Lady figured out Bai Yu’s intentions.
“Yep, but I only get one shot.”
The Dragon Lady nodded, falling silent.
Bai Yu meant that her sword was so powerful it could counter the Dark Moon God’s assimilation—but that would severely deplete its durability. By the end of this battle, win or lose, the sword would be kaput.
But that was fine; if they won, Bai Yu’s strength would mean she didn’t need the sword for anything else. If they lost? Well, then having the sword would mean nothing.
“By the way, how does the Dark Moon God manage to absorb the world?” Zhao Mingyue asked, puzzled.
She had heard earlier that the Dark Moon God could absorb the world’s power.
“That’s not too hard to explain. In simple terms, the world also possesses vitality—a somewhat abstract concept. You can think of it like this: the Dark Moon God can leverage this vitality to slowly seep into the world and continuously absorb its life force. It takes a long time, and in the initial stages, there’s hardly any visible change.”
The Dragon Lady glanced sideways at Bai Yu, “I’m understanding this right, aren’t I?”
“Absolutely. That’s how she absorbs the world’s power, and it applies to the Ghost Domain as well. However, now that she’s injured, her absorption rate has significantly slowed down, and we can’t determine how long she’ll be in the Ghost Domain.”
The Dark Moon God couldn’t drain a world in a short time. It would take her a long, long period to siphon all life from a world because, after all, a world is capable of self-repair.
For the Dark Moon God, time was of no consequence. With her almost endless lifespan, spending a few hundred years absorbing a world was like taking a nap.
One could argue that the Dark Moon God wasn’t even a complete entity yet. Bai Yu suspected she was in an immature state, roughly as mature as a fifteen-year-old in human terms, so she still had a way to go.
Put differently, the Dark Moon God had not yet reached her peak strength. She needed to absorb many more worlds to attain that level.
“As things stand, it looks like the Dark Moon God has been absorbing the world’s power for some time now; whether that’s been years or decades, it’s hard to say.”
A month wouldn’t heal the Dark Moon God’s injuries, but it would be long enough for her to channel her power through the Ghost Gate into the real world.
The reality was much larger than the Ghost Domain; once that happened, the Dark Moon God’s recovery speed would accelerate rapidly, making it much more challenging to k*ll her.
“Since you’ve defeated that Nightmare already, is our next step to tackle the Dark Moon God too fast?” Zhao Mingyue asked Bai Yu, clearly concerned.
“For now, we’re not going to confront her. We have less than a month left—and during that time, we need to complete some redemptive tasks.”
“Redemptive tasks?”
“Right. I’m working with Shen Shuyun; I’ll help her save Lu Liangting, and she’ll help me find people who can be redeemed.”
“Why save them, though?”
“Well, there are benefits to be gained.”
Zhao Mingyue nodded, no longer probing deeper. A month was better than rushing off to the Ghost Domain.
A month should be enough for Bai Yu to prepare, right?
Zhao Mingyue hesitated to say something, but just then the car turned, causing Li Xuener to slump against her shoulder. She gently propped the girl back up and sighed again at how small and fragile the girl looked, being only thirteen years old and much smaller than her peers because of her health.
“Should I call Sister Li now? She must be worried sick about the kid.”
“Ugh, I just don’t know how to break the news to her.” Pulling out her phone, she hesitated as she opened up Li Qingtang’s contact.
At least they found the daughter, which was a silver lining, but the tragedy was that Li Tianan had died.
“You can just tell her straight up. She doesn’t seem like the kind of woman who would crumble under the news, so no need to beat around the bush.”
“Alright then.”
The call connected, and Li Qingtang’s voice came through. “What’s up, Mingyue?”
“Sister Li, I found your daughter, but some things happened. The store manager teamed up with people from the Ghost Domain but got betrayed. Bai Yu wanted to help, but it was too late, and the store manager… he…”
“He’s in trouble, right?”
“Yeah, he couldn’t help it and had to partner with the Ghost Domain. He absorbed the powers of three evil gods using his body.”
There was a long silence on the other end, “I understand. Is Bai Yu alright?”
“Bai Yu is fine; she rescued your daughter from the grasp of the Ghost Domain. She’s right here in the car with us, and I wanted to let you know about this.”
“Thanks, I’ll be there to pick her up.” Li Qingtang’s voice sounded a bit subdued, as if she were holding back her emotions.
“Um… if it’s inconvenient for you, I could go get her.”
“No need, just tell me the address.”
After Zhao Mingyue relayed the address, she ended the call.
The Dragon Lady noticed her sigh and said, “You’re just a young girl, but you’re sighing like an old lady.”
“Nah, I’m just thinking. I play a part in how Li Xuener ended up like this. If I hadn’t opened that Ghost Gate, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess. Bai Yu just said that Nightmare’s rush to act was because I pushed the door open.”
“That’s true, but don’t fret; you couldn’t control it. Who knew touching that ghost door would open it?”
The Dragon Lady attempted to comfort Zhao Mingyue; she wasn’t typically the type to brood.
“Why do people have these weird traits? Like that Feng Xi girl, the store manager exploited her strengths for a foundation.”
“Li Xuener has a similar issue with her traits.”
“And what about me? Why me? I was born in this world! How am I connected to the Ghost Domain?”
“What’s my situation, exactly?”
Zhao Mingyue was upset. She didn’t want this chaotic trait, but she also sensed it could help Bai Yu.
It was confusing—especially since she still didn’t understand what this trait genuinely did.
She saw no benefits and plenty of drawbacks.
“Alright, alright. If you want to know, after Bai Yu’s done, let her take you to investigate it. If she doesn’t want to, just go for the tears and drama!”
That reminded Zhao Mingyue, as she gripped the edge of Bai Yu’s seat.
“Bai Yu~ Sister Yu~”
“Come on, it’s worth a shot! What if my identity brings you benefits? I mean, I pushed the Ghost Gate open so easily; maybe I can close it too!”
Zhao Mingyue knew Bai Yu meant well and wanted to keep her out of too much trouble.
She was just thinking she could be helpful—at least contributing somewhat, right?
—
Please vote, sniff sniff, two more chapters to go!
