Chapter 164: Midnight’s Corrosion and Secrets
This trip into Midnight seemed, at first glance, to have ended safely—aside from the new mark on Xu Zhi’s hand.
At least, that was what she thought.
But the moment she stepped through the rift, she realized—something was wrong.
She hadn’t left Midnight at all. Instead, she had been sent back to a spot roughly a hundred meters away from the rift’s exit.
The towering figure guarding the crack seemed to sense something as well. It looked around warily, though it didn’t notice Xu Zhi standing motionless in the shadows.
Only after the creature circled the area several times and found nothing unusual did it slowly move away.
From beneath her cloak came the black cat’s low voice, “Looks like you didn’t erase all traces of your presence. That thing noticed something’s off.”
Xu Zhi didn’t answer. She searched her memory for anything that might help her break through.
It was most likely a transcendent ability belonging to that guardian—a power perfectly suited for guarding a rift. But Xu Zhi couldn’t yet identify what kind it was. She even considered activating the Eye of Secrets.
The Narrator had warned her not to use it unless absolutely necessary, but she needed to know what was sealing the rift before she could find a countermeasure.
Just to be sure, she whispered, “Do you know what this ability is?”
The black cat shook its head regretfully. “I don’t know that thing, human. Think of something, fast.”
Xu Zhi sighed softly. There was no other way. She had to first see through whatever was blocking the rift—then find a way to break it.
But if even her previous concealment had been detected, using the Eye of Secrets might leak traces of her transcendental energy. She looked at the black cat. “Cover me for a bit.”
The cat was reluctant, but it had no choice. Under its concealment, Xu Zhi opened the Eye of Secrets.
The instant she looked toward the rift again, the overwhelming flood of information nearly blinded her.
In her vision, everything in Midnight turned into vast, tangled webs of data. The black trees especially overloaded her mind—she had to fight to keep from collapsing.
She forced herself not to look, not to think. If she didn’t try to interpret what she saw, her mind wouldn’t shatter under the weight of understanding.
The sky and the ground were veined with dazzling, intricate patterns of color—so complex she couldn’t bear to gaze at them. After just a few glances, dizziness and nausea hit her hard.
She couldn’t look at the sky. She couldn’t look at the ground. Even the trees along the path had to be avoided.
A pained grimace crossed her face as she struggled to focus only on the rift itself.
Even so, torrents of incomprehensible data poured into her mind. She had to filter it—deciding what was essential and what must be ignored.
Now, at last, Xu Zhi understood what the Narrator had meant by “seeing what should not be seen.”
There was simply too much.
It was as if Midnight itself were a vast vault of hidden truths, and everywhere she looked lay some secret not meant for human eyes.
At a time like this, the Cup-type lamp was a hindrance. If she had the Lamp, her analysis would be much faster—but switching now would expose her. The guardian was still nearby. She’d have to endure a little longer.
Though she had developed some resistance to Midnight’s corruption, she couldn’t ignore it completely.
And it wasn’t just her imagination—since the mark had appeared on her palm, she could feel something strange. It had been faint at first, but the longer she stayed, the stronger it grew.
It was a slow, silent corrosion.
Nothing felt overtly wrong, yet it was as though Midnight had formed a connection with her—a link she couldn’t describe, only sense.
And that connection… was anything but good.
The longer she remained here, the tighter it bound her—like a shadow clinging silently to her back. Invisible. Intangible. Unshakeable.
She had felt something similar once before—in that pure white forest.
But now wasn’t the time to think about that. She focused all her effort on analyzing the transcendental ability covering the rift.
As time crept by, a dull ache throbbed in her head from information overload. Xu Zhi grit her teeth and pushed through the pain.
Finally, the ability’s structure came into focus.
It was a Cup-type transcendental ability. Its function—Reversion.
Unexpected.
Anything that touched the rift—whether a pebble, or Xu Zhi herself, or even the black cat—would be reverted to its state ten seconds prior.
The ability enveloped the entire entrance; it couldn’t be avoided, only broken.
There were many theoretical ways to do that—but most were beyond her reach.
For example, using Time-type abilities to counter it, or using the Lamp-type, which directly opposed the Cup.
But there was still one method she could attempt—a more reckless, brute-force approach.
Transcendent Energy Clash.
In simple terms—a head-on collision.
But unlike the “energy beam battles” in anime, transcendental clashes weren’t about whose power was greater. It was about resistance. Only by matching the structure of the opposing ability could one neutralize it.
Different-attribute energies could weaken or distort each other—but only if you understood exactly how the target ability functioned and where its weak points were.
Simply slapping your energy on top of it did nothing—like oil on water.
But if you knew enough, you could tune your own energy to mirror the other’s structure—then disrupt and distort it.
Normally, only Transcendents deeply familiar with each other’s powers could manage this.
But Xu Zhi had eyes that could see through everything. For her, “understanding” was the easy part.
The hard part was aligning her energy structure under the Cup light’s interference—especially with her head pounding from overload.
After all, this was her first time doing something like this.
Several failed attempts later, Xu Zhi realized she had no choice.
She would have to switch the lamp’s core—from Cup to Lamp—to pull it off.
But once she did, it would be like lighting a beacon in the dark. She’d be exposed instantly.
Should I risk it?
Xu Zhi hesitated for less than a second.
Then she made her decision.
