Chapter 371: Time and Destiny
The [Eye of Secrets] was still active, and Xu Zhi could clearly see the other party’s volatile extraordinary energy. Two injured Named individuals posed absolutely no threat to her.
She had countless ways to kill them, but as it happened, she wanted to test the capabilities of her [Legacy Domain].
She had already attempted to establish rules for the [Legacy Domain]. Originally, she intended to dictate a direct rule: Only Extraordinaries possessing two circuits can utilize extraordinary abilities. However, she had failed.
Her intuition told her that her current level of power wasn’t sufficient to establish a rule of that magnitude. Thus, Xu Zhi settled for the next best thing and chose: Only Extraordinaries with the ability to create or summon extraordinary creatures can employ extraordinary power.
She had initially wanted to specify thralls, but that didn’t work either. In the end, this revised rule was successfully enacted.
It had to be creation, which excluded those who used contract circuits to forcibly tame extraordinary creatures.
Furthermore, the ability to create or summon extraordinary creatures was possessed by very few. It was an exceptionally obscure extraordinary ability, even scarcer than domain-type abilities.
She had also attempted specific rules that pointed solely to her, such as possessing authority, but none of them were approved.
Evidently, at her current stage, she had to create rules that someone other than herself could theoretically fulfill.
Right now, before the two protecting Jiang Qing could unleash their extraordinary abilities, Xu Zhi acted first. She deployed her [Legacy Domain], enveloping the entire area and drawing Jiang Qing into it as well.
For domain-type abilities, besides the area of effect influencing the amount of extraordinary energy expended, the number of Extraordinaries to be suppressed and influenced within that range was also a factor.
Fortunately, trapping these three individuals within her domain required very little effort from Xu Zhi.
Thus, in the blink of an eye, the vigilant trio watched as the lush jungle before them abruptly transformed into a pitch-black starry sky. Beneath the starlight surged boundless ocean water, while they stood upon a crumbling “earth.” Meteors streaked downward continuously, rendering the surroundings like a scene from the apocalypse.
“Where is this?!”
One of them panicked at first, but immediately snapped out of it, uttering in sheer disbelief, “A domain?!”
Whose domain looked like this?
No, wait!
“How do you have a domain?”
Back during the league tournament, Xu Zhi definitely didn’t possess a domain-type ability!
“Your aura… Have you advanced?”
“Something’s wrong—where is my extraordinary power? Damn it, what kind of domain is this!”
Shock after shock hit them. The two Named protectors could no longer maintain their composure, their faces twisting into snarls.
Xu Zhi listened quietly until they finished, then said in a leisurely manner, “This hardly seems like the time for you to be asking questions, does it?”
The moment she finished speaking, before the two could even react, she directly executed them.
She didn’t believe Jiang Qing’s bodyguards would know more than Jiang Qing herself. Moreover, the domain could only be sustained for three minutes at most and consumed a vast amount of extraordinary energy; she had no desire to waste it here.
As for the information she wanted to know, she could take her time questioning Jiang Qing.
Named individuals couldn’t be thoroughly killed by mere decapitation, so Xu Zhi crushed their cores before deactivating the [Legacy Domain].
When Jiang Qing found herself back in the Lost Lands, her expression was blank for some reason.
It didn’t look like excessive fright, but rather… resignation?
“What, are you just waiting to die now?”
Facing Xu Zhi, Jiang Qing suddenly didn’t seem as terrified as before. Hearing this, she shook her head. “I am no match for you, but I don’t intend to just sit here and wait for death either.”
She seemed to be preparing something, as Xu Zhi could see the extraordinary energy within her body flowing slowly.
“Don’t move. Don’t touch your extraordinary energy either.”
Xu Zhi issued the command, amplifying it through her [Authority]. In the next instant, the extraordinary energy circulating inside Jiang Qing’s body froze entirely.
Jiang Qing’s eyes widened slightly. She knew Xu Zhi possessed an extraordinary ability akin to “Words of Power,” but she hadn’t expected that even though she had now reached the Named rank, Xu Zhi could still control her with such effortless ease.
Following that, a moth appeared before her, gently settling on the tip of her nose. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, Jiang Qing wanted to raise her hand to brush the moth away, only to find that when she touched it, the moth dissolved into a gray stream of light. Yet the moment her hand moved away, the moth resumed its graceful fluttering right in front of her.
Jiang Qing frowned. Just as she tried to channel the extraordinary energy inside her, the stagnation she felt made her realize she had been “sealed” by Xu Zhi.
She spoke up, “You cannot kill me right now. I carry a mark on me; the true form of anyone who kills me will be traced retrocausally.”
“Hmm… sounds troublesome.” Xu Zhi nodded. “But that won’t threaten me.”
As Xu Zhi finished speaking, a look of slight surprise surfaced on Jiang Qing’s face. “You aren’t afraid of being hunted? I am carrying out a vital mission. If something happens to me and it is a man-made disaster, you will not be let off.”
How should she put it? Xu Zhi couldn’t exactly tell her that when you have too many debts, you stop worrying about them, right?
After a moment’s thought, she replied, “That doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that I am not afraid of these troubles.”
She then added, “No amount of trouble can stop me from wanting to know what you were doing just now.”
Hearing this, Jiang Qing let out a sigh. “I cannot tell you.”
“Even if you will die if you don’t speak?”
The young girl across from her nodded. “Yes, even so.”
What on earth was worth someone like Jiang Qing—the favored daughter of heaven and the most promising prospect of Lingzhou’s next generation—risking her life to make this trip?
What exactly did that [Lantern] individual do just now, and how did Jiang Qing…?
Xu Zhi tilted her head and sniffed the air. “You’ve become even more fragrant, do you know that?”
“Ever since the league tournament, I’ve really wanted to devour you.”
“Why do you smell so good?”
Her face was filled with bafflement and curiosity, but Jiang Qing seemed determined to remain completely silent.
Her behavior inexplicably reminded Xu Zhi of someone.
Were all [Lantern] individuals like this?
Never taking their own lives seriously, always having something far more important than life itself that they wished to protect to the very end.
“Alright, I don’t know what you’re hiding, so I can only ask you to die.”
Xu Zhi didn’t let herself get bogged down by it. She shook her head with a look of regret.
“One last question.”
Xu Zhi walked up to stand before Jiang Qing. “During our first meeting at the league tournament, why did I get the feeling that you seemed to recognize me?”
A faint smile appeared on Jiang Qing’s beautiful face. “It can’t exactly count as having met before.”
She said, “It’s just that I’ve seen you through a certain medium.”
“You can understand it as having seen you in a prophecy.”
A series of scenes flashed through Xu Zhi’s mind—the several times Jiang Qing had looked utterly panicked upon seeing her, especially after entering the Lost Lands, where the girl acted as if she had seen a ghost. She arrived at a bold hypothesis.
“In that prophecy, did you know you would be killed at this very moment?”
Jiang Qing was somewhat surprised. A flicker of admiration for Xu Zhi flashed through her golden eyes as she nodded. “Yes.”
Xu Zhi grew even more perplexed. “Then why did you still come? Why didn’t you run when you saw me?”
“It is a matter of time and destiny.” The angelically beautiful girl offered a smile of quiet liberation.
“This is a part of the plan, a link in the chain of fate, and something that both you and I must go through.”
