I Am a Rune Engraver, Carrying a Knife Makes Perfect Sense-Chapter 43 - Catastrophe! The Heart of Reversal!

—

As the heart exploded, it was as if the entire void fell silent.

The next moment, visible gray ripples spread outward from where the heart had been, covering the entire living area in an instant. The waves pulsed like water ripples, one after another, expanding endlessly.

Dong Tianming, upon contact with the ripple, immediately turned pale and let out a low growl. His body plummeted to the ground, trembling uncontrollably as he coughed up blood—blood that was streaked with gray!

His skin began to writhe unnaturally, as if something was moving beneath it. Veins bulged grotesquely, pulsating with an eerie rhythm.

Dong Tianming was faring better than most.

Everyone else in the living area collapsed unconscious the moment the gray wave passed over them. They fell where they stood, powerless to resist.

No—there was one exception: Xu Shen.

His eyes widened as he watched everyone around him fall. His face turned deathly pale as blood, tinged with gray, began to seep from his nose, ears, and eyes.

“What the hell is going on?!” Xu Shen shouted as he dashed to Xu Wei’s side, propping him up.

The moment he touched Xu Wei, Xu Shen felt how unnaturally cold his skin was—like that of a corpse.

“The Heart of Reversal… it’s trying to… transform everyone…” Xu Wei rasped weakly, using all his strength to speak before falling unconscious.

Xu Shen checked his condition and found that Xu Wei was still alive but deeply comatose. His body seemed to be locked in a fierce battle against the invading gray mist.

—

“You’re still standing? How is that possible?” Chang Kai’s voice rang out from above.

In the air, Chang Kai’s body was in terrible shape. Blood poured from his seven orifices, his skin was rotting in places, and half of his once-black hair had turned white. Clearly, activating the Heart of Reversal had come at a great cost to him.

But when he saw Xu Shen standing there as if nothing had happened, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The calm demeanor he had maintained earlier was completely shattered.

“What are you trying to do?!” Xu Shen growled through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

“What am I doing? Isn’t it obvious? I’m transforming them,” Chang Kai replied with a bloody cough, his gaze cold yet oddly sincere. “Xu Shen, join us. You’ll understand everything.”

“Stop this madness! I’ll join you if you stop!” Xu Shen snapped, his voice icy as he glanced at the fallen people around him before glaring at Chang Kai.

“The Heart of Reversal cannot be stopped once it’s activated,” Chang Kai said with a shake of his head. “Whether they survive depends on their own strength. I’m merely the catalyst.”

—

“Fuck you!” Xu Shen roared as the ground beneath him cracked from the sheer force of his rage. His body erupted with power as he launched himself toward Chang Kai in the air.

Weapon Rune, Nine Observations of the Nether Immortal, and Battle Art—all activated to their limits!

The black blade appeared in his hand instantly. Without it, he knew he couldn’t even scratch someone of Chang Kai’s level.

But to Xu Shen’s shock, Chang Kai remained unfazed. With a casual wave of his hand, an overwhelming force descended upon Xu Shen like a mountain falling from the sky.

Before Xu Shen could even close half the distance between them, he was slammed into the ground with such force that it created a massive crater.

PFFT!

Xu Shen spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling as though every bone in his body had been shattered. He glared up at Chang Kai with unyielding defiance.

He was too strong—terrifyingly strong. Only now did Xu Shen truly grasp the gap between their levels. A mere gesture from Chang Kai had nearly crushed him to death.

—

“Xu Shen, I don’t want to kill you,” Chang Kai said with a hint of regret in his voice. “I don’t know why you’re unaffected by the Heart of Reversal’s aura, but I suspect you might be one of us.”

“You’ve piqued my curiosity even more,” he continued. “As your cultivation grows, you’ll begin to see the truth and understand.”

“Xu Shen, I look forward to you joining us.”

“This world is far more exciting than you can imagine…”

With a faint smile, Chang Kai wiped his face with one hand. In an instant, his appearance changed—his rotting features were replaced by those of a strikingly handsome young man with long, deep-purple hair.

“And by the way,” he added with a smirk, “my name isn’t Chang Kai.”

“It’s Qu Zhixing.”

“We’ll meet again.”

With that, he produced what looked like a mirror-like piece of paper. As it shattered in his hand, the space behind him cracked like glass. Qu Zhixing gave Xu Shen one last meaningful look before stepping into the void and vanishing.

—

Xu Shen crawled out of the crater slowly, coughing up blood mixed with bits of what felt like internal organs. Ignoring the searing pain coursing through his body, he rushed back into the building.

“Qu Zhixing! If anything happens to my friends… I’ll kill you!!” Xu Shen roared, his bloodshot eyes filled with fury as he sprinted through the halls, checking room after room.

Everywhere he looked, people lay unconscious on the ground without exception.

Xu Shen didn’t know how long the Heart of Reversal’s effects would last—he only knew he had to find Wang Qingqing and the others as quickly as possible.

—

BANG!

Xu Shen kicked open a door to find Wang Qingqing sitting cross-legged inside. Ghostly energy swirled chaotically around her as she focused intently.

“Wang Qingqing! Are you okay?!” Xu Shen rushed over and began checking her condition frantically.

To his relief, she was still conscious and able to circulate her energy. Though her face was pale, she didn’t seem severely affected.

“The gray wave had little effect on me,” Wang Qingqing said weakly. “As long as I activate my rune for a while, I can expel it.”

“But everyone else seems to have collapsed,” she added with a strained voice.

Xu Shen nodded grimly. “Keep purging it—I’m going to find Yang Dian and the others.”

“Be careful,” Wang Qingqing said softly before closing her eyes again.

—

Xu Shen continued searching until he found Yang Dian, Zhang Zhuangshi, and Xu Guang in a lounge room. The three were not fully unconscious but hovered in a semi-conscious state.

“Yang Dian? Yang Dian? How are you feeling?” Xu Shen asked as he gently slapped Yang Dian’s face.

Yang Dian’s eyes fluttered open slightly, looking groggy. “Boss… I feel so sleepy… but whenever I try to sleep, those runes you engraved for me heat up like crazy.”

“I want to sleep but can’t,” he mumbled weakly.

Beside him, Zhang Zhuangshi and Xu Guang nodded faintly in agreement, their bodies twitching slightly on the floor. Xu Shen noticed that the runes he had engraved on them were glowing faintly as if resisting the gray mist.

Relieved that they were holding on for now, Xu Shen spoke firmly: “Don’t fall asleep—whatever you do, stay awake!”

The three nodded weakly but didn’t respond further.

—

Leaving them behind for now, Xu Shen rushed back to Wang Qingqing’s room. She hadn’t received any rune engravings from him yet was somehow more resistant than Yang Dian and the others. Was it due to her ghostly attributes?

“I’m completely unaffected… Is it because of my Weapon Rune? Or Nine Observations of the Nether Immortal? Or maybe Battle Art—or even the black blade?” Xu Shen wondered aloud as he ran through the possibilities in his mind.

Before he could think further, the entire building trembled violently. At the same time, his black blade began vibrating intensely at his waist.

“No way…” A sense of dread washed over Xu Shen as he hurried to a window and looked outside.

On the snowy plains beyond lay a massive swarm of dark figures charging down from the mountains—so dense they seemed endless. The tremors were caused by their sheer numbers!

—

Without hesitation, Xu Shen grabbed his phone and sent an urgent message to Wu Yun and Jiang Youyi:

[Moon Cult has used Heart of Reversal at Changbai Mountain frontline—everyone is unconscious! Immediate support needed!!]

After sending the message, Xu Shen bolted outside in nothing but his hospital gown. He couldn’t let those monsters reach the living area—not when everyone was incapacitated. If they breached the safe zone, it would mean total annihilation for everyone here—and complete loss of this territory!

Right now… only he was awake.

As he stared at the approaching black tide in the distance, Xu Shen’s face twisted into a grimace. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye—a figure crawling out from under some rubble nearby.

“Commander Dong?! You’re alive?” Xu Shen exclaimed as he rushed over to help Dong Tianming up.

“Xu… Xu Shen… run…” Dong Tianming rasped weakly. “Qu Zhixing used Heart of Reversal… The Blood Ape King will notice.”

“Even if we don’t transform… they’ll devour us anyway,” Dong Tianming said hoarsely. His eyes were nearly pitch-gray now; his face twisted in pain as he clung tightly to Xu Shen’s arm.

“You can’t die here—you must leave!” Dong Tianming shouted desperately when Xu Shen didn’t move.

A faint roar echoed across the plains—a sound so distant yet chilling that Dong Tianming’s expression grew even more horrified.

“Third-tier… Two third-tier peak ghouls are coming! Xu Shen—RUN!!!”

Even though Dong Tianming could barely move anymore, his spiritual senses still detected their terrifying presence growing closer by the second.

—

Xu Shen shook his head and pried Dong Tianming’s hand off gently but firmly.

“I may not be a good person,” Xu Shen said quietly. “But if I leave you all behind… wouldn’t that make me worse than an animal?”

He turned toward the exit of the living area with determined steps.

“Ten years ago, I watched my parents die horribly because I was powerless.”

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

“Now… I may not be strong enough yet…”

“But I won’t let that happen again.”

“And besides…” A wry smile spread across Xu Shen’s face as he glanced back at Dong Tianming one last time.

“I’ve always been a bit of a crazy.”

tln : i got this tootache and it hurts my head, the pain so so much more on night. i can’t even do things right… expect a slower release