Chapter 196: The Ascending Staircase and the Conspiracy
Although Xu Zhi had “seen” the rules, she couldn’t comprehend them. It was as if someone who had never learned a thing — who didn’t even recognize numbers — was suddenly handed a complex problem in advanced mathematics.
Forget about solving it — she couldn’t even understand what the problem was.
It was the same now, facing these profound and unfathomable rules.
But this was worse than a math problem. You could look at an equation and simply not understand it — but peeking at a rule without the proper qualification came with a price.
Only now, Xu Zhi was clearly no longer someone “without qualification.”
She didn’t realize that she now possessed a special kind of qualification — but she could sense something different.
The glimpse she had caught at midnight had once filled her with crushing dread — like a presumptuous ant daring to look upon something divine, knowing that one more glance would get her obliterated by nameless pressure. Now, however, that sense of “unbearable to behold” was gone.
But… she still couldn’t understand what she saw.
It was as if she had obtained an “entry pass” to see the rules — but not the level required to comprehend them. Let alone touch or control them.
Still — if it was a rule that had already broken and lost its power…
The Narrator told her to open her eyes. Surely, it wasn’t just to make her look, right?
Xu Zhi wasn’t some peerless genius, but neither was she stupid. It didn’t take long for her to realize why the Narrator had chosen this moment to tell her to open her eyes: not only could she now see the rules, but her [Authority] had also changed because of its fusion with the fragments.
Once, [Authority] could only control the mist over Cloud City. Now, anything her [Authority] could touch or connect to — she could attempt to control. She couldn’t command the rules themselves — not yet. But maybe… she could do something with a damaged fragment?
With that thought, faint golden light shimmered in Xu Zhi’s pale-gray eyes. She slowly raised her hand and caught one of the golden fragments falling from the sky — then tried to seize it with her extraordinary power.
Normally, rules were formless — untouchable. But Xu Zhi had the [Eye of Secrets] to see them, and the [Authority] to connect to them. And in that moment, she did what someone of her level should never have been capable of doing.
As the golden shard melted into her palm, it was as though she resonated with this shattered world.
When that higher-tier “energy” entered her body, the extraordinary energy that had long been gathering and surging inside her — unable to find a way forward — finally found its guide.
It all rushed toward that fragment. Even though the shard was slowly disintegrating, it served well enough as a temporary link — a golden rope stretching upward.
Xu Zhi’s power surged along that glowing path. In an instant, she felt herself breaking through the old constraints of her rank, ascending to a higher realm.
But the feeling was… different.
Like rising into the air — standing on clouds without solid ground — light, unsteady, and unreal.
Was it because she hadn’t followed the proper advancement process? Or was it a flaw of the world itself?
Either way, advancing was a good thing. Her extraordinary rank and capacity had both grown. Even if this promotion felt a bit like a castle in the sky — it was better than no progress at all.
And it had been so easy this time.
No illusions.
No dreamscape.
No mysterious forest.
But precisely because of that, Xu Zhi knew this advancement was likely temporary. She hadn’t truly ascended — only borrowed the connection to rise for a while.
It was a violation of the rules — but in a world like this, rule-breaking was hardly rare.
With her promotion done, Xu Zhi did not shut her [Eye of Secrets]. Instead, she boldly turned her gaze toward Him and the [Watcher].
What she noticed first was not His wavering form, nor the exhausted [Watcher] — but rather…
Deep within His body, amid the bombardment, a faint crimson staircase that was beginning to crack.
That staircase — Xu Zhi knew it all too well.
She had once climbed it.
And destroyed it.
The path of the [Chalice] — the foundation of an Archbishop.
How can that be…?!
Impossible!
The Narrator’s voice in her mind was filled with shock — the most shaken it had ever been.
Xu Zhi kept her gaze fixed on the staircase without speaking, while the Narrator murmured to itself in disbelief:
The Archbishop’s Staircase?
Why… only the staircase?
Who made a mistake?
Then, as if something clicked, the Narrator’s tone grew feverish.
So that’s it! That’s it!
It’s fake…
He never truly fell — He’s still alive!
No wonder… no wonder! The transcendents outside were fooled — they locked away a fake, one who merely pretended to be Him!
The meaning wasn’t hard to grasp. Xu Zhi’s expression shifted slightly — so that’s why.
No wonder they couldn’t create a real Archbishop — it wasn’t that they wouldn’t, but that they couldn’t.
And no wonder the pressure from His “true body” was weaker than she’d imagined — because He wasn’t the real one at all.
A puppet. A disguised existence.
It all made sense now.
Still — if that was the true extent of an Archbishop… Then those fake “Archbishops” from before were nothing more than ants.
As for this one trying to escape now — was it simple self-preservation, not wanting to remain imprisoned? Or was it His will?
Judging from the fanatic devotion of the [Chalice] followers, if the same held true outside… Then it was probably the latter.
Xu Zhi, the Narrator’s voice grew stern, Once you’re out — you must hide your identity. Don’t tell anyone you come from this world.
I can’t remember what the outside looks like, or what’s happened there — but I know this: the Federation was built as a prison for Him.
If things have deviated like this, it must be His doing. He let the Archbishop take His place for centuries — He must have already set His new plans in motion. Your existence threatens Him. You must stay hidden.
I don’t remember what made Him the enemy of all, but… be careful. The world outside is not at peace.
Xu Zhi nodded. The Narrator’s warning was understandable. If He learned that someone alive had escaped from this place, He’d immediately suspect His secret was exposed — and Xu Zhi would become a thorn in His side.
To survive out there, she’d have to hide where she came from.
She didn’t yet know how she would do that — but for now, what mattered most was escaping this place…
…and killing this Archbishop.
Things were finally starting to look up — at least for her body.
