Chapter 103: Anger
Because she was in her spirit body, Xu Zhi felt somewhat unrestrained.
If she were in Cloud City, she wouldn’t dare so casually step into such a large-scale ritual formation.
As the faint red glow gradually intensified and engulfed her entire body, Xu Zhi’s originally clear vision began to distort. A severe dizziness struck her, her brain buzzing loudly. Vaguely, it felt as if something was trying to infiltrate her mind, attempting to change something.
Xu Zhi’s original spiritual power, constructed by her “Moth” attribute supernormal energy, couldn’t fully block this intrusion. Fortunately, at the most critical moment, some presence she hadn’t noticed blocked the malevolence hidden within the red light, which coveted her.
When this malice faded away, Xu Zhi seemed to have completed a kind of “spiritual appraisal.” If there had been a game console beside her, she might have seen a notification that she had passed the test and was no longer considered a “sacrificial offering” by the red light.
Even without the game console, Xu Zhi noticed the difference.
Her body, unlike the blood and hearts placed in the formation’s center that were slowly disappearing—seemingly consumed by the red light—or like the cultists and mutated beasts in the Cloud City formation, seemed to be… unaffected?
“Could it be that this ritual doesn’t consume spirit bodies?”
But aren’t the flesh and blood of a spirit body still flesh and blood? That’s discrimination!
Although no longer at risk of being devoured by the red light and able to move freely inside, Xu Zhi still didn’t feel entirely at ease.
Waves of nausea, dizziness, and an indescribable mental pressure made her want to lower her head. Xu Zhi wasn’t obsessed with “don’t lower your head or the crown will fall,” but when she tried lowering it, the pressure shifted to her neck, and after a while, it felt like it was about to be crushed. So she had no choice but to raise her head again.
“Maybe the correct posture is to lie down?”
She certainly shouldn’t be standing upright like this.
Also, she seemed to have been overstimulated by the glaring red light, and as if for some reason, hallucinations began to intermittently appear. Like an old TV with bad reception, blurry images flickered before her eyes.
The longer she stayed in the red light, the clearer these images became.
Coupled with the persistent dizziness and mental pressure, Xu Zhi even found it difficult to distinguish whether she was standing inside the building or on a small island surrounded by a sea of blood.
Yes, before her eyes appeared a sea of red. In the center was an isolated, helpless island. A red sun hung in the sky, with a massive flow of blood continuously pouring from the sun into the sea.
Xu Zhi vaguely felt this scene was familiar, as if she had seen it before. But the heavy pressure in her brain made it hard to think about where exactly. When she tried to turn her thoughts around, she could almost hear the sound of being squeezed. It was too difficult, so she gave up trying to think.
Except for the red sun in the sky, everything in this world seemed red—except for the island.
But even just standing at the island’s edge, she immediately noticed the most eye-catching thing on the island: A blood-red celestial ladder.
The steps started at the island’s center and ascended all the way to the sun.
“What does this mean? Is it meant for people to climb up and stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun?”
“Wouldn’t they get roasted to death?”
Xu Zhi’s sluggish brain could only think of this. She seemed to have fallen into a strange state, where most of her rationality disappeared, her memory and thinking ability greatly diminished, relying solely on instinct and impulse.
If Xu Zhi were fully conscious, she would definitely realize that her current state was very similar to those fanatical cultists.
She stood there for quite a while, looking a bit aimless and unsure what to do. Mainly because… that red staircase held no attraction for her. She even vaguely felt like she was being “pushed out,” rejected.
So she was even less willing to make the effort to squeeze through.
But it seemed she couldn’t leave here either, so she just stood there dazed.
After a while of boredom, suddenly, someone appeared beside Xu Zhi.
It was a man around forty years old. The moment he appeared on the beach, he couldn’t contain his wild joy, laughing out loud a few times. After calming down a bit, he began to observe the surroundings. He was shocked to realize there was someone standing next to him!
The man’s expression fully revealed his feelings at that moment: shock, disbelief, confusion, and, on top of that, anger.
He didn’t understand why a second person had appeared in the ritual prepared for him.
Impossible! After the ritual started, every living thing other than him would die!
So this little girl didn’t come here through the ritual?
Could she be the rumored “chosen one,” someone selected who could arrive here easily without many sacrifices?
That was truly infuriating.
Xu Zhi noticed the man the moment he appeared, but she thought he might be mentally unstable. He laughed wildly for no reason, then his face changed strangely when he saw her.
However, since he was looking at her, Xu Zhi thought it would be rude not to greet him, so after some thought, she waved.
“Hello?”
As soon as she spoke, the man’s expression darkened.
With inexplicable anger, he yelled at her, “Get away! Don’t interfere with me!”
Without waiting for her reaction, he hurriedly ran toward the blood-red staircase.
Being shouted at so inexplicably, Xu Zhi’s rebellious spirit flared up.
Oh really? You want to climb the stairs, huh?
You don’t want interference, huh?
Well, I’m going to make sure you don’t climb them today!
So she no longer idly stood by the beach but ran toward the middle-aged man, despite a faint feeling of rejection.
Of course, her goal wasn’t the red staircase but simply to beat the man up.
But the closer she got to the blood-red staircase, the stronger the feeling of rejection became.
It was as if telling Xu Zhi: she didn’t belong here and shouldn’t be here.
Normally, without this, Xu Zhi would have backed off quietly—she didn’t want to do something difficult and thankless. But now, the more she was rejected, the stronger her rebellious spirit grew.
“Reject me but not him? Fine, you’re all in cahoots, huh?!”
Anger began to burn inside the girl’s heart. Her brain was scorched blank; only sharp fury filled her mind.
Just then, that feeling of rejection suddenly disappeared.
With her reason almost entirely burned away by anger, Xu Zhi didn’t notice this.
She only focused on chasing after the man’s back, even her normally light gray eyes slightly reddened.
