Chapter 148: Finishing Blow
The wounds on Xu Zhi’s body had already healed. When she looked up toward the place where the other two archbishops had been, there was no one there anymore.
Xu Zhi raised her eyebrows slightly. She didn’t think they had fled. Dragging her exhausted body, she glanced around. Just as her gaze swept over a dead corner of the room, a figure suddenly flashed behind her. Holding a strangely shaped dagger, he stabbed fiercely toward her back.
At the same time, the control of “Sloth”—which had been momentarily lifted while Xu Zhi was mentally locked in combat with Ye Yan—suddenly reactivated, catching her at a moment when she was already drained, and perfectly timed to coordinate with her teammate’s ambush.
Unfortunately for them, none of this escaped Xu Zhi’s perception.
She didn’t even turn around. She simply shifted slightly and swung her blade behind her in a reverse grip, blocking the sneak attack.
A sharp clang rang out as the dagger clashed with her horizontal blade, sparks flying from the force. But this wasn’t the end—just as Xu Zhi blocked the dagger, a shadow slithered from the man’s hand to her shoulder, and like a snake, it slid into the wound Ye Yan had opened earlier.
This was one of his supernatural abilities: anyone tainted by this shadow would have their inner [Lust] wildly magnified, making it impossible to maintain rationality.
The man stepped back, full of confidence, watching Xu Zhi expectantly. But even after a few seconds, her expression didn’t change.
She wasn’t even blushing!
Damn it, does this woman not have any lust at all?
As it turned out, he was exactly right.
Xu Zhi had never received any form of sex education. She hadn’t been exposed to the internet—she didn’t even own a phone. She rarely left home, and her family never discussed such matters. As a result, she was completely ignorant—like a blank sheet of paper. Her understanding in this area was even weaker than the average person’s. More importantly, she had zero interest.
She had never even been curious about these things.
Which meant this supernatural ability had almost no effect on her.
All she felt was a chaotic, incomprehensible mess in her mind—like static on an old television, or the sudden white noise in a radio commercial. It was uncomfortable and irritating, but ultimately caused no real harm.
“…That’s it?”
Though she said this lightly, Xu Zhi didn’t lower her guard. Her stamina had been heavily depleted, and she’d used up most of her supernatural energy to kill Ye Yan. If either of these two entered an “awakening” state like him, she would be forced to flee.
Time for a swift resolution.
Even if a follower’s head was chopped off, they wouldn’t die completely. But regenerating the head took the longest. If she decapitated them, destroyed their limbs, and crushed their heart, even the strongest regenerative follower would be incapacitated.
But to truly kill them, she had to destroy their foundation—their root.
That wasn’t easy—but fortunately, Xu Zhi had experience.
Right now, she didn’t have enough supernatural energy to destroy the foundations of two archbishops. But she could still decapitate them, destroy their limbs, and rip out their hearts. That would render them helpless until she could recover.
With a plan in mind, Xu Zhi began to act.
Her body was exhausted, but she had lived her entire life forcing herself to move even while sick and frail. This level of fatigue was nothing to her.
The real trouble came when she tried to behead [Lust]—the woman representing [Sloth] constantly got in the way.
Her ability was simple: maximum defense.
She could make others feel an overwhelming sense of laziness, causing them to give up on acting—sometimes even on living. She could also short-range teleport herself and others, including Xu Zhi. Even Xu Zhi’s weapons became dull and sluggish under her power, as if “sloth” itself infected them.
“…So annoying!”
Xu Zhi frowned. She figured she should just eliminate this woman first.
Her supernatural power was simply irritating.
While it couldn’t completely erase Xu Zhi’s will to live, it did make her feel weary, drained, and tempted to rest. But Xu Zhi endured it all through sheer force of will—after all, it was her desperate desire to live that had kept her alive through years of illness.
Otherwise, she would’ve died long ago.
Perhaps, all her past suffering was now giving her a kind of strength she hadn’t even realized.
In Xu Zhi’s eyes, the most troublesome aspect was the teleportation ability.
It was absurdly powerful. Even if the teleport range was short, it barely consumed supernatural energy—and the cooldown was only 3 seconds. With no usage limit, as long as she had energy, she could blink endlessly.
“I really want an ability like that…”
But she wasn’t without options.
Cooldowns meant there were gaps—openings for a finishing blow.
Xu Zhi gave her black cat a glance. Thanks to the bond between her and her familiars, the cat understood instantly. As long as they could trick [Sloth] into teleporting at the wrong time, Xu Zhi could strike.
The cat alone wouldn’t be enough. But she also had her moths.
By repeatedly using her moths to confuse and blur Sloth’s sense of danger, she made the woman increasingly tense—ready to blink at the slightest hint of threat.
When the time was right, the black cat created an illusion of Xu Zhi attacking from the left. The overly anxious [Sloth] fell for it and blinked—straight into the real Xu Zhi’s location.
Even if her blade had dulled under Sloth’s influence, brute force could still perform miracles.
As Sloth reappeared, Xu Zhi swung her sword with all her might, slicing straight at her neck.
Sloth’s head flew into the air and landed with a thud, rolling several times across the ground.
Her severed head wore an expression of bewilderment—she hadn’t even realized she’d been fooled.
But even that didn’t kill her.
Her eyes still moved, confused by the strange angle of her view, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
Xu Zhi didn’t hesitate. She stabbed her blade into Sloth’s chest, crushing her heart. Then she hacked off her limbs.
Only then did she allow herself a brief moment of relief.
Now there was only the weakened [Lust] left. Xu Zhi was running low on energy, but that one wouldn’t be able to cause any serious trouble.
Still, determined to finish the job before celebrating, Xu Zhi didn’t rest.
She turned to look for [Lust]—only to be met with surprise.
[Lust] had escaped.
