Chapter 334: A New Hope?
The [Cup] was notoriously tenacious.
Once it reached the “Absolver” stage, even decapitation would not result in immediate death. Severing limbs only caused massive blood loss—and for Cup-attribute believers, the bleeding was even more exaggerated.
Shattering the extraordinary circuit was far more effective than cutting off heads.
The moment an extraordinary circuit was destroyed, any extraordinary would lose the ability to act. They wouldn’t die, but they would fall to the level of an ordinary human. Even if later healed, their physical capacity would plummet.
The Cup was no exception.
The instant its circuit was shattered, it would regress into the lowest-tier believer—mindless and incapable of action.
Only by consuming flesh and blood could it recover.
Right now, this was the best method—and the only feasible one.
A pale golden radiance belonging to [Lamp] surfaced beneath Xu Zhi’s eyes under her deliberate guidance.
Her expression was calm, severe.
She spoke rapidly, precisely identifying the locations of the Cup believers’ extraordinary circuits for her teammates—while nimbly dodging another incoming strike.
There were few safe places to step. Most of the arena floor was soaked in blood.
And the blood was still flowing.
The moment she finished speaking, her teammates moved.
“We can see that Lian City’s first-year student is actually a Lamp-attribute extraordinary!”
“She seems to have said something. After she spoke, the rest of Lian City immediately took action!”
“Surprisingly, the upperclassmen appear to be following her command?”
The livestream chat exploded:
[Did Lian City find a way to deal with these monsters?]
[It’s confirmed now they’re not normal, right?! What normal extraordinary walks around with broken bones like nothing happened?!]
[And they’re not even using some of their previous abilities anymore—new ones are appearing. They’ve definitely turned into Cup!]
[Wait—if you become Cup, does your level increase and you gain new abilities?]
That question appeared suddenly.
For a brief moment, the scrolling comments seemed to pause.
Then they surged back even more frantically.
[What are you thinking?! The officials have warned countless times—Cup is not a good thing! It’s the abyss that lures you into corruption. If you become Cup, you’re no longer yourself!]
Among the flood of rebuttals were scattered remarks:
[I’ve already got no hope. My lifespan’s almost up and my ability’s useless. If I could level up and gain something new, I’d accept it.]
It sounded dangerously like temptation.
Tempting those without hope of advancement.
Tempting those dissatisfied with their abilities.
Come.
Embrace the Cup.
The Cup will give you new hope.
If Xu Zhi could see these comments, she’d probably reply:
“Enough already.”
But she was busy.
Chu Xiaoyue and Shu Yushan moved fastest.
They were the only two primary offensive players.
Chu Xiaoyue’s personal combat strength was overwhelming among students. Even without activating her Domain, her speed alone was astonishing—like a flash of frost cutting across a snowfield.
In an instant, she appeared behind a believer.
The opponent sensed the chill and tried to evade—
But a layer of white frost suddenly spread across his face, momentarily robbing him of consciousness.
Chu Xiaoyue’s blade pierced precisely through the spot Xu Zhi had indicated.
Using the sword as a conduit, she delivered her extraordinary ability [Freeze] directly onto the circuit.
Extraordinary circuits could not be harmed by ordinary weapons.
Only extraordinary power could damage them.
And Chu Xiaoyue’s Freeze was not mere ice.
Everything she froze moved toward extinction and finality.
Even extraordinary circuits.
Until her own will was ended, the curse of Freeze could not be undone.
She withdrew her sword lightly.
The frozen wound produced not a single drop of blood.
The boiling blood was sealed inside the ice, unable to spill.
Still, Chu Xiaoyue noticed—
This target dissolved more slowly than anything she had frozen before.
And the energy cost had been higher than expected.
She had already deduced what Minjiang’s members had become.
Even so, their vitality and murderous instinct were startling.
This had originally been a first-stage Longevity extraordinary.
Yet the energy she expended was enough to handle a first-tier Longevity opponent.
If they had been evenly matched, she might not have fully frozen him.
Through the ice, she could still see his wide-open eyes.
Even beneath the frozen surface, the eyeballs twitched, staring straight at her.
They were filled with frenzy.
Bloodlust.
Violence.
Not a trace of humanity.
Even in dissolution, driven purely by instinct.
So this was the Cup.
Her gaze darkened.
Confirming he could no longer resist, she moved to the next one.
Freeze was powerful—but not a wide-area skill.
With the help of her Domain she might barely spread it, but that would consume enormous energy. Since Xu Zhi had ordered her not to deploy the Domain again, she had no choice but to eliminate them one by one.
Compared to her relative ease, Su Ran and Qiu Hou looked more strained.
Shu Yushan lacked control-type abilities entirely and was engaged in close combat, seeking an opening against a believer.
As for Xu Zhi—
She was locked in battle with a frenzied believer.
The Lamp aura she emitted seemed to agitate him profoundly.
His attacks became increasingly wild.
A weapon originally belonging to [Blade] smashed down again and again.
Xu Zhi calmly raised her saber to block, continuously releasing Lamp energy to disrupt him.
To the Cup, the Lamp was poison.
A stimulant of madness.
A burning flame.
It made them feel scorched alive.
Lamp was the absolute counter to Cup.
Their natural nemesis.
Under Xu Zhi’s interference, his movements grew chaotic.
Though he had gained strength and vitality as a Cup believer, Xu Zhi’s own physical condition was formidable enough to withstand his storm-like assault.
Clang!
Another failed strike.
Blood vessels burst across his eyes from rage and killing intent.
He still retained fragments of rationality—but under Cup’s nature and Lamp’s disturbance, that rationality was crumbling.
Xu Zhi could have used [Cursed Speech] to simplify this fight.
Or released Xiao Yi.
That would end it instantly.
But she knew—
The league would not halt because of this “minor accident.”
The five believers before her were nothing more than disposable pawns on a much larger board.
There was no need to disrupt her own plans for cannon fodder.
All she needed was to display just enough strength to eliminate them—
And, ideally, to demonstrate Lamp’s natural suppression of Cup.
To wash away suspicion.
After all—
Her own “birth” was far from clean.
