Chapter 174: Knowledge Is Power
Cloud City.
When the first beam of red light appeared, it seemed that only the Federation was affected. Cloud City, protected by a certain barrier, remained completely undisturbed.
Except for Xu Zhi, who had been leaning against the little aberration — she suddenly sensed something and opened her eyes.
For the past while, she had been immersed in synchronizing her extraordinary ability, [Authority], with the Shard. But it was far more difficult than she had expected.
The shard seemed to dislike her [Moth]-attribute power, resisting a complete fusion with her extraordinary energy. Xu Zhi couldn’t help but wonder — how had she even managed to consume this shard in the first place?
Still, through endless adjustments of the form and flow of her energy during the synchronization process, Xu Zhi’s understanding of [Authority] deepened immensely.
She faintly sensed that this ability was not as “simple” as she had thought — that perhaps, as her level rose, the ability would finally reveal its true form. It wasn’t the ability that was limited — it was her level that was too low.
But in this world, extraordinary advancement was locked. Xu Zhi couldn’t ascend at all.
Still, she had a strong intuition: when [Authority] finally merged with the shard, something unimaginable would happen.
She trusted that intuition completely.
Even though the fusion was still incomplete, months of work had made her far more attuned to herself. All the knowledge stuffed into her mind had been fully digested. Xu Zhi could feel her brain operating at a level of “clarity and reason” she had never reached before.
In the field of mysticism, knowledge truly is power — for within knowledge lies truth.
It’s said that when knowledge accumulates beyond a certain threshold, one can approach a godlike state — where even spoken words become truth and law. There exists a rare class of extraordinary beings who cultivate through the pursuit of knowledge and secrets. They start off frail and powerless, but once their minds gather enough knowledge, a qualitative transformation occurs.
The knowledge Xu Zhi now possessed came from the shard — vast, ancient, and profound — far beyond anything the naive Federation Transcendents could imagine. Some of it didn’t even match the world as it was now.
For instance, in the Federation, no extraordinary being cultivated through knowledge alone. Because in this world, there was too little “knowledge,” too little “truth.”
Thus, Xu Zhi — who already held more knowledge than all Federation Transcendents combined — could faintly sense the shift in the world’s extraordinary energy. At the instant the red light erupted, a subtle sense of dread jolted her awake from meditation.
She didn’t need the Narrator to tell her what had happened.
She simply lifted her gaze toward the direction of the Federation. Her [Eye of Secrets] opened — and through the heavy fog, she saw a pillar of crimson light piercing the heavens.
Though the distance was too great for her to see details, the mere fact she could perceive the red light from within Cloud City’s barrier was already extraordinary.
Then, she looked away and picked up her handheld console.
The black cat had awakened several days ago. It seemed to have grown a little — but something was still holding it back.
Xu Zhi glanced at its status panel and understood immediately.
It was stuck at Level 49.
Halfway to transcendence — but halted midway.
Its spiritual power had surged, and its extraordinary ability had evolved. Now, [Nightmare] could construct dreams with far greater precision — and anything that occurred within those dreams could manifest into reality.
Of course, there were limits. She couldn’t dream the end of the world and expect it to literally happen.
But the potential was there.
The limitations lay in the difference between its power and the target’s strength — and the amount of extraordinary energy it could expend.
For example, it could make a victim trapped in a [Nightmare] believe they were dead — and in turn, cause their real body to die. Or, it could make a stone appear on an empty patch of ground — because in the dream, that stone existed, and so reality mirrored it.
In short — a power that defied logic. If it ever grew to its full potential, perhaps it could ignore causality itself — resurrect the dead, or erase the living from existence.
After all, in dreams, everything is possible.
Of course, that was only the potential Xu Zhi could see for now. At present, [Nightmare] could easily kill other Transcendents — but it couldn’t, for instance, erase the cultists’ ritual by making it vanish in a dream and thus disappear in reality.
During this period, Xu Zhi had also received more ritual fragments from Zhong Lingfan.
And when she gathered enough of them, she made a new discovery:
The array wasn’t a defensive one — It was an attack formation.
“Who does He intend to attack?”
Who was so feared that even He didn’t trust His own strength — needing to sacrifice countless lives for a single devastating strike?
[Indeed. That was His purpose all along.]
The Narrator sounded unsurprised.
“You knew?” Xu Zhi narrowed her eyes slightly.
[Yes. I’ve long suspected it. His goal could only be this.]
[I simply don’t understand why He chose this approach. There are far better ways.]
[But you know… I can’t say too much.]
After all — if the true Archbishops were to emerge, the Federation would have no hope of resistance. There’d be no need for such elaborate secrecy and ritual preparations.
“In any case, whatever the reason, the answer will reveal itself soon.”
Xu Zhi leapt lightly from the tree. Though she had been sitting more than fifteen meters high, her descent was graceful — as if she had simply stepped off a stair. She landed without even a sound.
Half a month ago, Xu Zhi had upgraded her blade. Then Zhong Lingfan had borrowed it, claiming it was for research. Xu Zhi hadn’t minded.
And though she remained in Cloud City, it wasn’t just to study the [Authority] and the shard.
The truth was — The Midnight Rift had grown restless.
A month ago, the sealed rift began to stir — as if the creatures within could no longer endure confinement, constantly testing the barrier’s limits.
Fortunately, the little aberration was strong enough. It had fended off every wave of assault.
But Xu Zhi didn’t think it was over. She suspected the attacks were merely probes — perhaps even deliberate distractions.
Several times, she had considered going to the Midnight herself — but after glimpsing the maddened spirits swarming the rift, she gave up the thought. She realized their frenzy might even serve to prevent her from entering.
Now, the moment the red light shot skyward, the once-frenzied rift suddenly fell silent.
And as the saying goes — unnatural calm foretells disaster.
Combining this with what she’d learned from the black cat’s true form, Xu Zhi realized —
perhaps the sacrifice within Midnight had also begun.
