Chapter 178: His Gaze
At first, Xu Zhi simply swung her blade with its original power toward the rift. As she expected—just like the crimson moon that had appeared above the city square before—her strike only stirred faint ripples through the air around the red fissure. It didn’t harm the rift itself.
She figured Zhong Lingfan had granted the blade’s new ability for use against the “final boss,” but the current situation was too unusual to wait. Surely, Zhong Lingfan would understand.
Knowing that the one paying for the ability was an ordinary extraordinary being, Xu Zhi first activated [Eye of Insight] to study the fissure carefully.
The moment she opened the ability, her vision changed.
What had looked like a thin red thread quietly hanging in the sky suddenly transformed into a massive blood-red eye. It floated high in the air, its eyeball so thick and dark it was nearly black, twitching in jerky, lifeless spasms. Beneath it, scarlet mist flowed like bleeding tears, seeping into Cloud City’s fog.
It appeared closed, but in truth, it was already secretly invading Cloud City. How deceitful.
Standing before the enormous eye, Xu Zhi sneered at its underhandedness. The moment she saw its true form, the pollution of the [Chalice] began to corrode her mind. Fortunately, she was no stranger to this kind of corruption — all she had to do was resist the mental pressure of looking directly into it.
Once she located the eye’s core and estimated how much energy it would take to sever it, Xu Zhi began testing this new power — one that didn’t belong to her.
Immediately, she felt the difference. Using her own abilities was as natural as moving a finger — effortless, instinctive. But this borrowed power felt like an invisible thread was tied to that finger. She had to move first, pulling the thread, and only then would the ability respond.
It caused a faint but noticeable delay.
That was fine for attacking stationary targets like this, but in a real fight, she’d have to time it perfectly — a single misstep could cost her the chance.
When the foreign power flowed into the blade, its appearance didn’t change — something she appreciated. Then, clean and decisive, Xu Zhi thrust the sword straight into the air — into the blood-red eye’s core.
At the moment of impact, she heard a distorted shriek echo through the void. Though it was “nothingness,” blood gushed forth as if from a wounded creature. A surge of psychic corruption rushed toward her, and space itself twisted, dragging the massive eye along — spinning, contorting—then vanishing.
It was as if the filth had been flushed down a drain.
With the blood-red eye gone, the splattered blood and psychic contamination also faded away.
Seeing how effective the ability was, Xu Zhi couldn’t help but feel impressed. A pity she didn’t have more time — if that girl had survived and continued to grow, her unique power might’ve made her one of the most formidable extraordinaries someday.
Xu Zhi only allowed herself that single thought before moving on to the next eye. Fortunately, there weren’t many across Cloud City.
By the time she severed the last one, she could feel the blade’s energy flow growing sluggish — clearly, the girl’s reserves were nearly spent.
At that precise moment — when the final blood-red eye vanished — Xu Zhi suddenly felt a gaze fall upon her.
It was a presence she recognized — one that had brushed against her before, lightly, almost lazily. But this time, it was focused. Tangible.
It was angry and curious. No longer the distant, indifferent glance from before — now, He was truly looking at her.
In that instant, crushing pressure descended from nowhere. Xu Zhi heard her bones creak under the weight, felt her knees strain as if something were forcing her to bow. Scarlet illusions flickered before her eyes — hallucinations born of overwhelming psychic contamination from the [Chalice].
And yet, Xu Zhi only stood there — smiling.
Her gaze lifted casually toward the empty sky, full of open defiance.
Her expression said one thing: “That’s it?”
So this was the so-called divine pressure? It wasn’t even enough to make her kneel.
The air felt thick as a swamp, her senses warped, and even her internal energy circulation slowed to a crawl — but Xu Zhi remained oddly cheerful. Maybe His true power wasn’t as unstoppable as she’d imagined.
In fact… she could feel that His “presence” was unstable — fluctuating wildly, almost like His emotions.
Perhaps He was furious.
He hadn’t expected her to actually destroy those blood-red eyes.
Realizing that thought made Xu Zhi’s smile widen, even under the weight of that gaze.
Perhaps He understood that without fully descending into this world, He couldn’t truly harm her — but with His plans disrupted yet again and time slipping away, His fury burned all the hotter.
Just before His gaze faded, a strange, twisted voice whispered directly into Xu Zhi’s mind.
Somehow, she understood it.
“Good. Very good.”
“…What, complimenting me now?” Xu Zhi muttered.
Even as she felt an indelible [Chalice] mark sink into her body with those words, she didn’t look troubled.
After all, she’d already offended Him countless times. Mark or not, He would never let her go. This only meant His killing intent toward her had deepened.
Still, she wasn’t arrogant enough to think this was His true power. After all, He was still separated by Midnight.
If just His gaze through that barrier could cause this much pressure—
then if His true form ever descended before her…
Xu Zhi grimaced slightly. She honestly couldn’t imagine any way to resist. The gap in strength was simply too great.
“…Sigh.”
The girl exhaled softly.
The narrator, as if sensing her uncertainty, typed a line of comforting text across the game screen:
[Don’t worry too much. You can avoid facing Him at His full power.]
“Avoid Him? How?” Xu Zhi frowned. “You mean someone else can fight Him instead?”
Perhaps one of the other supreme beings of different attributes? Those who’d stayed silent so far?
But that wasn’t what the narrator meant.
[He wants to reshape Cloud City’s mist — to make it more compatible with Midnight, and thus partially merge the two worlds. That way, His influence in Midnight will extend directly into Cloud City.]
[From the very beginning, His plan wasn’t to break through Midnight’s barrier Himself, but to bring Midnight here — to make it overlap with the real world, turning all of Midnight’s horrors into His own weapons.]
[He’s trying to create a city with an extremely high energy concentration — the perfect place for Midnight to appear.]
