Chapter 122: Entering the City Center
Xu Zhi tried on the cloak. It fit even better than she expected, and it seemed to wrap itself around her body automatically after she put it on. Though it enveloped her entirely, it was still loose and spacious—not tight-fitting at all—and very lightweight, so it didn’t hinder movement in the slightest. Even the hood didn’t obstruct her vision. It was remarkably convenient.
With the cloak completed, Xu Zhi didn’t plan to set off immediately. She had something else in mind.
She took out her game console, navigated to the Spirit Body interface, and used a basic core to teleport to a previously recorded location: the city center.
She needed to verify whether the city center remained unchanged and whether the exotic creatures were still silently watching the core.
After experiencing the same instant death as before, Xu Zhi confirmed that the situation at the city center remained stable.
Then, without rushing, she completed her final preparations. She stored some daily supplies, weapons, and other gear in her warehouse. After greeting Zhong Lingfan and handing over the items at hand, confirming there was nothing urgent requiring her attention, Xu Zhi finally set off toward the city center.
By now, the “Midnight Aftereffects” lingering in her mind had mostly faded—just a little remained, and she figured it would be completely gone by the time she arrived.
This time, she didn’t drive herself. Instead, she let her dog carry her. Its massive size and speed now far surpassed that of an average car.
It wasn’t that Xu Zhi didn’t want to wait until she fully recovered to handle the issue of the [Cup], but rather that she had noticed how Yu Shenwei’s blood had completely triggered the [Cup] attribute inside her. These past few days, her emotions had been in turmoil. Even the smallest things could irritate or even enrage her. She was starting to understand why Yu Shenwei constantly felt [jealousy]—it wasn’t an emotion one could control.
If she delayed any longer, she might really turn into someone who found fault in everything and got mad at the slightest thing!
That absolutely couldn’t happen.
Realizing this change in herself, Xu Zhi knew she couldn’t postpone any further, so she set off in a hurry toward the city center.
As she neared the city center, she immediately sensed something unusual.
The fog—it seemed denser.
Cloud City’s black mist was already heavy on a normal day, casting a dim shadow even in daylight. But the closer she got to the city center, the darker it became, as if she were walking from day into night.
At a certain point, a small Level 30 exotic creature poked its head out of her pocket, tugging on her clothes, and expressed the emotion: [Danger].
Xu Zhi realized then that she couldn’t let her dog carry her any further.
She gently stroked its reluctant head and said, “Be good and wait for me at home. If Zhong Lingfan or Shen Jinwen need help, assist them if you can. Wait for my message—then come pick me up, okay?”
The dog gave a low “woof” in acknowledgment. Xu Zhi nodded. “Go home.”
Then she retrieved the cloak from her warehouse, threw it over herself, and walked into the deepening black mist.
Xu Zhi’s current physical stats made her incredibly fast. With her [Strength] balancing her body, her endurance was equally impressive. She had long since stopped needing food—her body could survive just by absorbing transcendental energy. Even her followers could absorb energy to nourish her.
Strange, yes—but this was a world of mysticism. Anything was possible.
As for why other transcendent beings couldn’t do the same?
Xu Zhi chalked it up to them not being powerful enough—and lacking her game console cheat.
After all, zealots no longer needed regular food either, and special beings like Yu Shenwei, like her, didn’t need to eat—only blood or [Cup] attribute cores.
So it seemed that even among transcendent beings, there were differences in physical constitution.
As she ran, the black fog thickened. Whether it was just an illusion or not, even the daylight seemed to dim. It felt like the sun itself was avoiding the city center’s ominous power.
“This is… a bit extreme.”
What exactly was in the city center?
The black mist had become almost tangible. Each step Xu Zhi took felt like parting a dense, suffocating cloud. She could even feel faint resistance in the air.
Fortunately, Xu Zhi’s eyes weren’t like an ordinary transcendent’s. With the bonus from [Eye of Secrets], even without actively activating the ability, her vision far exceeded most others’. Even in fog so thick you shouldn’t be able to see your hand, she could still make out things within about 500 meters.
Any farther, and she’d have to activate [Eye of Secrets].
But she didn’t dare do that lightly—not when she didn’t know what was lurking in the city center. What if there was something she wasn’t yet capable of gazing upon? She didn’t want to blind herself.
By now, she had reached the outskirts of the “city center.” A river ran through Cloud City, and the city center lay on the other side. There were five bridges leading across, and Xu Zhi chose the one known as Chengming Bridge, or Bridge Three. Once she crossed it, she would officially be inside the city center.
Such bridges were quite dangerous—if something attacked, escape routes were limited, there was no cover, and the terrain wasn’t exactly open either.
But this posed no problem for Xu Zhi now. Cloaked, she moved like a ghost through the mist, completely undetectable.
Her only concern was whether the thick fog would interfere with Zhen’s sight.
Before stepping onto the bridge, she checked her game console. Though Zhen’s vision was affected, it was still much sharper than hers and could track her from the sky. Only then did she step onto the bridge with confidence.
She didn’t feel anything unusual at first—only a little tension in her own chest. Bridge Three was about 25 meters wide and nearly 400 meters long. Around the halfway point, Xu Zhi finally saw her first exotic creature—aside from the experimental one that had been captured.
She paused slightly in her stride. But the creature didn’t seem to notice her at all; it was entirely absorbed in its meal.
It appeared to be eating… another exotic creature?
The corpse had already been half-devoured, so it was hard to tell what it originally was. It didn’t look like a mutated animal, and it certainly wasn’t human.
Aberrations… could eat each other?
This was Xu Zhi’s first time seeing such a thing.
The Federation’s past reports had never mentioned this—only that exotic creatures had a strong aggression toward living beings, especially humans. No one had said anything about them attacking one another, let alone eating the dead of their own kind.
What surprised Xu Zhi even more was that the feeding process was oddly “quiet.” Perhaps that wasn’t the best word, but the creature was eating very cautiously—chewing softly, as if afraid of making noise.
Afraid?
Was there something in the city center even aberration creatures feared?
