Chapter 30: An Untouchable Level

As time passed, the crimson sphere grew larger and larger, eventually expanding to the point where its boundaries were no longer visible. At the same time, various uneven circular craters became discernible across its surface, resembling satellite photographs of the moon, except that every hue was dyed in blood-red.

Thud!

Qian Cangyi crashed heavily onto the surface of the crimson blood-moon, yet he felt no pain. He climbed up from the ground and looked around.

"This place..." Qian Cangyi took a couple of steps. "Is this the crimson blood-moon? I've actually ended up on the moon."

Everything around him was blood-red, with a sea of crimson extending as far as the eye could see. Just as he intended to wander about, a hand suddenly shot out from the ground, grabbed his ankle, and dragged him beneath the surface.

"What is happening?!" Qian Cangyi flailed his arms wildly, thrashing like a drowning person.

Just as his head was about to sink completely into the ground, he suddenly felt himself enveloped by a gentle force. Following that, his body began to break free from the earth and floated upward slowly.

Qian Cangyi looked down at the ground, feeling utterly lost and bewildered by the turn of events. He had no idea what was happening, nor why it was unfolding this way, but he sensed that this was a level far beyond his ability to interfere.

This was a clash between gods.

When Qian Cangyi's body reached a certain distance from the crimson blood-moon, it stopped ascending, yet a heavy sense of hypergravity still weighed upon him.

At this moment, he was not stationary; rather, his speed of moving away from the crimson blood-moon matched the speed at which the crimson blood-moon pursued him.

A bizarre thought surfaced in Qian Cangyi's mind.

Could it be that the Moon God sensed the presence of the Hell Movie and intended to investigate? Yet the Hell Movie wished to remain undiscovered.

The more Qian Cangyi thought about it, the more he felt this conjecture was the truth.

A few seconds later, the pristine, dazzling moon occupied half the sky.

Qian Cangyi blinked and found himself back where he started, except that the Moon God had already turned away. He looked down at his own hands and lifted a foot; everything was just as it had been before.

However, a chilling voice echoed once more in his mind.

"Look up at me."

Accompanied by the figure was a dazzling red light, one that even overshadowed the pure white radiance of the bright moon.

When the red light finally dissipated, Qian Cangyi found that the Moon God had inverted, with its head pointing upward and the crimson sphere facing down. The next second, he caught sight of his own legs, making him realize that it was not the Moon God that had turned upside down, but rather that his head had been severed from his body.

After hitting the ground, his skull produced a hollow thud and then rolled down into a massive pit.

The severed heads inside the pit laughed hysterically and screamed, teetering on the brink of madness.

Qian Cangyi felt the world spinning violently. His skull did not stop rolling until it crashed against a hard object.

Have... have I died?

Looking at the countless severed heads and corpses before him, a deep sense of despair welled up inside Qian Cangyi's heart.

Compared to their previous wanton mockery, the large pit was now dead silent. It seemed that once Qian Cangyi's head was separated from his body, the heads in the pit lost all interest in him; the only thing they had anticipated was the very moment of his death.

No, I am not dead yet. I still have consciousness. As long as I can leave this place, even if I am reduced to just a head, any injury can be healed once I exit the movie. But without a body, how am I supposed to escape? Besides, can I even escape? River Styx, Mastermind—will they come to save me?

Speaking of which, earlier I made a wish to the Moon God, but it had no effect at all. At least, the Moon God showed no reaction whatsoever, and instead seemed interested in my soul. Does this mean this place is not the Moon God's altar, nor is it a place for wish-making? The real place for making wishes must be somewhere else—much like the difference between a company's front desk and its offices. Wishes should be made at the front desk, which would be the Moon God's altar. This place provides no such service at all.

Although he had lost his body, Qian Cangyi's thoughts raced. He did not even dare to stop thinking. At this moment, a paralyzing fear gripped his heart, born of the worry that the moment he stopped thinking, he would truly and completely perish.

He did not want to die.

Suddenly, Qian Cangyi recalled the forest of severed heads in front of the palace. Whether it was the heads impaled on bloody stakes or those littering the giant pit, they all exuded an atmosphere of frantic madness and despair. This atmosphere acted like dye in a vat, warping the vast majority of people into the exact same mold.

Sarcasm and curses—as time went on, both the heads stuck to the wooden poles and those left in the pit were left with nothing but endless resentment and jealousy.

"No, I have to do something. Even if they want to save me, they have to find me first. Otherwise, amidst so many severed heads, they simply won't have the time to search."

A glimmer of light appeared in Qian Cangyi's eyes, but it immediately dimmed.

Now that he lacks a body, relying solely on a head makes movement impossible.

"Wait, I don't necessarily have to stay in a special spot. I just need to narrow down the search area, making myself distinct enough so that when they arrive at the pit, they can pinpoint my location at a single glance."

"Sound—that's right, I can use sound. But there's a problem: if they reach the perimeter of the pit, it means the heads inside the pit will also be making noise, and it won't be quiet at all. Even if I scream at the top of my lungs, I'm afraid I won't be able to attract any attention. As for staying silent, with so many heads around, it's certain to go unnoticed either way."

Qian Cangyi fell into deep contemplation.

His muttering caught the attention of a head nearby—that of a young man.

The young man looked at Qian Cangyi with curious eyes and asked:

"What are you thinking about? This is what it'll be like from now on. Nothing will ever change, and we'll just stay like this forever."

"Until the next unlucky fool wanders in here, and then things might liven up just a little bit."

At this moment, another bald man chimed in:

"He's still hoping someone will come rescue him. How could anyone possibly come? He probably just died and is still holding onto false hopes!"

"The more you yearn for someone to show mercy, the less likely it is to ever happen."

The bald man seemed to recall his own past; after speaking those two sentences, he said no more, closed his eyes, and paid him no further mind.

Qian Cangyi ignored what the two heads had said. At the very least, he felt he was still somewhat different from these severed heads. After all, the Moon God had mentioned earlier that there were two souls within his body, which meant he was very likely not truly dead yet.

Furthermore, self-pity was utterly meaningless. Whether Mastermind and River Styx came to his rescue or not, there was nothing he could do actively. At the same time, he finally understood why those heads would curse loudly whenever they learned a living person had arrived: it was out of sheer jealousy.

Suddenly, an idea struck Qian Cangyi.

Crying out for help at the top of his lungs would only be drowned out by other noises. However, if he refrained from shouting and instead used coordinates to indicate his position—and once his rescuers drew close, directed them using temporal or spatial directions—

Qian Cangyi closed his eyes and emptied his mind. He could not afford anxiety now; he had to keep his composure and wait for any possible window of rescue to arrive.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Because Qian Cangyi remained silent and ignored the taunts of the heads around him, it was not long before those heads completely lost interest and gave up on him as well.