Chapter 382: When Lian City Falls
If she remembered correctly, the circuit pattern she had created back then based purely on intuition had been obtained from that mysterious fragment. Thinking about it now, the origin of that fragment seemed even more precious… When the [Grail] placed it in the Federation back then, Xu Zhi had assumed they merely wanted to rely on it to open the passageway between the Midnight and the reality. Thinking back now, could they have also harbored the intention of hiding the fragment? She just didn’t know where that deity of the [Grail] had managed to get this fragment from… Although Xu Zhi had some conjectures regarding the origin of this fragment, she couldn’t be one hundred percent certain. If it really was as she guessed, then the deity of the [Grail] would inevitably track her down to try and reclaim it.
But now, the fragment had completely fused with her, becoming part of her flesh and bone. When the time came, given the [Grail]’s style of doing things, if they caught her, they would most likely try to find a way to refine her physical body or devour her to inherit the fragment.
Whichever it was, up until now, no one knew about the peculiarity of the circuit within her body, and she had no intention of revealing it to anyone.
“Is there anyone else who wants to speak?”
She asked once more. The researchers hanging in midair by the Little Mutant all opened their mouths to say they had things to tell, but when Xu Zhi emphasized that if they spoke and it was repetitive or useless she would kill them instantly, most of them lost their nerve. However, their mouths still begged for mercy, imploring Xu Zhi to let them go.
Xu Zhi turned a deaf ear to this. She verified with the Supervisor that all data and backups had been destroyed, and she also managed to extract the information regarding the final defensive measures he had originally intended to activate for the research institute. He additionally informed Xu Zhi of a safety exit that had been set up when it was initially constructed.
After confirming everything was in order, Xu Zhi waved her hand, and the Little Mutant directly devoured all the researchers who hadn’t been lowered yet.
When the researchers who had already “safely” landed on the ground saw this, a hint of lingering, post-terror relief just surfaced on their faces before the three thralls standing quietly by Xu Zhi’s side suddenly erupted. In an instant, they slaughtered these remaining researchers one after another.
Xu Zhi, however, looked with a look of surprise at the Supervisor’s eyes, which remained open even in death, and said, “I swear, I really didn’t lift a finger, nor did I tell them to do this.”
It was merely that her thralls had sensed the worry in her heart and spontaneously made this decision; it had nothing to do with her. She truly hadn’t lifted a finger.
As for the Supervisor’s binding oath circuit, she had naturally tampered with it. How could she possibly actually establish that kind of oath and let a tiger back onto the mountain?
The research institute’s self-destruct sequence initiated once again. Xu Zhi summoned the dog, mounted it, and quickly left the doomed underground facility. As she departed, she concurrently used the [Moth] to kill all the guards to ensure there were no loose ends.
Less than thirty seconds after returning to the surface, the rumbling sounds of earthquakes and explosions echoed from deep underground. Following closely behind were alarmed extraordinary creatures and flying birds. Riding on the dog, Xu Zhi could feel the earth in this region trembling. The ground collapsed, burying this unknown underground laboratory and simultaneously concealing many secrets that had never been known to the outside world.
It wasn’t until she confirmed that this place was completely buried, and even activated her [Eye of Secrets] to scan and find no trace of a single living person, that Xu Zhi finally turned and left.
She reflected that, up to this point, perhaps most events regarding this underground laboratory were proceeding according to the “prophecy.” The purpose of the person who guided her here was likely to destroy the research institute. The only difference was probably that she hadn’t killed Jiang Qing directly, but had instead chosen to let her encounter the encroachment of the Midnight when she only had half a breath left.
Everything discovered inside the laboratory caused Xu Zhi to develop a subtle emotion toward this “prophecy.” She felt a bit fortunate that she was the one who discovered and destroyed these things, but at the same time, she was wary of whether the person who made the prophecy also knew something and whether they would act against her.
Once she got out, she had to think of a way to find out who this prophet was.
After leaving the research institute, Xu Zhi intended to head toward the mid-tier zone of the Lost Lands. Upon reaching the mid-tier zone, the danger would increase, but it still didn’t count as truly dangerous for her. The only thing she needed to watch out for was the night. In the mid-tier zone, the concentration of extraordinary energy in the air was higher, while some rare extraordinary materials and higher-ranked extraordinary creatures would also appear more frequently. She intended to first advance all her thralls—except the Little Mutant—to the Named rank before deciding whether to venture deeper into the Lost Lands or leave temporarily.
During the period when Xu Zhi was raising her thralls’ ranks, down in the bottom tier of Lian City, the cult where her spirit flesh clone resided had finally prepared all the materials and believers required for the ritual.
The owner of the factory district didn’t live here, and almost the entire management team within the factory district consisted of “their own people” now. Therefore, it wasn’t a difficult task for the believers to launch a sacrifice under the cover of night.
The security in the monitored areas had long been replaced by believers, and a certain factory building originally used as a warehouse had also been emptied out early on. Drawn on the ground using a pigment made of blood mixed with extraordinary materials was a bright red ritual circuit. One hundred well-preserved blood meals were placed within the circuit, and fifty believers, their eyes currently covered with cloth and their ears plugged, sat cross-legged at various nodes of the circuit to serve as live sacrifices.
Xu Zhi controlled her spirit flesh clone, still dressed in that large, loose black cloak with a hood that obscured most of her face, to walk with a composed stride into the center of the circuit. Some people looked at her with envious expressions but didn’t dare say much.
Over the past few days, it wasn’t as if no one had tried to do something to Xu Zhi—such as attempting to kill her within a range that would minimize the fallout—but it had all been completely in vain.
Right now, the matter was set in stone, and no one could say anything more.
“Since everything is ready, let us begin.”
Acting as the cult leader on the surface—which was to say, the current priest of the cult—a man holding a book of “doctrines” led the other believers to stand at a distance, looking at Xu Zhi as he spoke.
Xu Zhi had read that book of doctrines; her evaluation was that it was a stitched-together monstrosity plagiarized from all over the place, used purely to keep up appearances for outsiders. Yet, this priest was quite adept at putting on airs, holding this book of doctrines all day long without ever letting it leave his hand.
Seeing that everyone was prepared, Xu Zhi didn’t hesitate. She controlled her spirit flesh clone to use a small knife to slice open her wrist, and fresh blood instantly poured out, dripping onto the bright red circuit.
Logically speaking, a person undergoing the ritual would see the circuit slowly ignite as more blood was lost and more was absorbed. However, the moment Xu Zhi’s blood dripped down, the circuit already began to emit a shimmering glow.
Watching this scene from afar, the expressions of several high-ranking believers turned astonished. Someone even murmured in a low voice, “She is someone favored by the Lord. She will definitely receive the Lord’s blessing!”
Hearing this, the faces of the other high-ranking believers turned even uglier.
“Why does it have to be her?”
“Is there anything special about her?”
“Is she exceptionally good at fighting?”
“…”
“This is too fast. Did the Lord hear her voice and grant her request the exact moment she called out?”
Envious voices kept drifting over, but as the red light of the ritual circuit grew increasingly intense, these voices gradually died out.
Situated in the center of the ritual, Xu Zhi could feel her thoughts gradually blurring, as if she were sinking into a seabed completely filled with blood. The sounds by her ears became muffled, her eyelids grew heavy, and the beating of her heart also seemed to slow down.
Following that, a call and a sense of closeness echoed from the depths of her body, as if coming from her very bloodline. It carried a certain majesty and a high-and-mighty presence that made one involuntarily want to worship it. That entity—whose face couldn’t be seen clearly, and whose voice couldn’t be properly heard either—said something to Xu Zhi. She couldn’t clearly make out the specific words, but she could sense that it conveyed a meaning of satisfaction.
Her emotions involuntarily welled up with a hint of excitement and joy, like a child receiving praise from their mother.
Such a bizarre emotion made the main body residing in the Lost Lands frown, yet she didn’t step in to interfere, choosing instead to continue observing.
The mind of the spirit flesh clone seemed completely out of her own control. Of course, this was also due to Xu Zhi deliberately allowing it, as she didn’t want to expose any vulnerabilities. Amidst the sinking sensation, she seemed to receive a gift from that high-ranking presence. Subsequently, a massive amount of [Grail] aspect energy suddenly flooded into her body, acting as if… this energy was being directly funneled in through her bloodline.
Her [Grail] aspect circuit seemed to receive some kind of nourishment, beginning to expand. Moreover, the appearance of this circuit was completely different from Xu Zhi’s other two; it was likely because this one was generated naturally.
Very soon, her aura broke through repeatedly. After that, she heard that high-ranking entity speak another sentence.
Xu Zhi understood this sentence, but she was also alarmed by its contents.
[The fog is approaching. The time for the fall of Lian City has arrived. Pass the trial, and you shall hold dominion over Lian City.]
Are you serious?
The fog is approaching… this should refer to the bottom-tier fog. After the fog arrives, Lian City will fall?
A trial?
What trial?
Just as Xu Zhi was pondering, the split consciousness of the spirit flesh clone suddenly sank, as if falling in reverse from the ocean into the sky. A powerful sensation of weightlessness hit her, followed by an abrupt stop. Before she even realized it, she was already standing firmly on the ground.
“Opening” her eyes, she was surprised to find herself standing in a place that was both familiar and strange.
This place resembled a hell. The earth was black, and the sky was a sheet of crimson. Every now and then, the scorched earth would churn with lava that looked like liquid blood. The sole existing entity in this entire barren world was the massive, blood-colored stairway before her eyes.
She had seen this stairway before, back in the Federation.
However, the stairway back then was nowhere near as magnificent as the one before her now, nor had it caused Xu Zhi to feel such an intense sense of oppression. It was as if merely looking directly at it required immense courage.
This was the stairway to ascend to the rank of Archbishop.
What a complete joke. This was the second time she had obtained the qualification for a [Grail] aspect Archbishop.
Could it be that she also shared some destiny with the [Grail]?
However, the qualification she obtained the first time was fake, whereas this time, looking at it, obtaining this qualification wouldn’t be easy at all.
But if nothing went wrong, and the former Archbishops hadn’t perished, then the number of Archbishop slots currently stood at seven. Out of the seven, the Little Mutant already occupied one. If she seized another one, good heavens, out of the seven Archbishops, two would be moles.
Now she simply had to take this a bit more seriously!
Looking at the blood-colored stairway before her, which caused waves of pressure to hit her even while she was just standing in place, Xu Zhi reasoned that this pressure was likely targeted at her mental strength and extraordinary energy. As for her physical body, it wasn’t present in this space. Even though her mental strength was currently divided into two portions, a single portion taken out on its own was still stronger than an ordinary Extraordinary of the same rank.
However, it wouldn’t possess the absolute suppression of her whole form, which meant she might find facing this stairway somewhat taxing.
Having prepared herself, Xu Zhi finally walked toward this blood-colored stairway that appeared remarkably close.
Fortunately, this thing didn’t act the way she had anticipated—appearing very close but actually requiring an eternity to walk to. The stairway didn’t seem to intend to make things difficult for people in that regard; she arrived before the steps very quickly.
Looking at it up close, she realized the steps of this blood-colored stairway seemed to be crafted from the finest red gemstones, yet they didn’t appear to be inanimate objects. Within the smooth, gorgeous, deep-red steps, it looked as though blood was actively flowing.
Xu Zhi felt that this shouldn’t be just a visual effect.
Sure enough, the exact moment she stepped onto the stairs, Xu Zhi noticed that the tactile sensation of her foot landing wasn’t the jade stone it appeared to be, but rather a swamp seemingly forged from viscous blood and shredded flesh. Just stepping onto it felt a bit soft, but after lingering for a moment, she discovered that it wasn’t just a soft sensation; her foot was indeed sinking downward.
Xu Zhi climbed a few steps consecutively. She couldn’t speed up, so she deliberately lingered for a moment to gauge it, subsequently finding that every single step was like this.
If no changes occurred later on, it meant that before the ascent concluded, she could not stop on any single step to take a brief rest. She had to either climb all the way to the top in one breath or fail and be devoured by the steps.
Intuition told her that wouldn’t be a pleasant end.
Xu Zhi tilted her head up to look at the seemingly endless stairway, let out a soft breath, and then began to accelerate her ascent.
During the process of moving upward, multiple obstacles like those back in the Federation didn’t appear. It was as if the sole obstacle was the flesh-and-blood swamp beneath her feet. However, the entirely deserted world, the dim sky and earth, the blood-red threads constantly tugging from below, and the stairway that still showed no end even after she had climbed continuously for a long time—every single thing was grinding down her willpower.
Xu Zhi kept track of the time in her heart as she climbed, subsequently realizing that within this space, the flow of time had become sluggish.
She felt as if she had already been climbing in this space for a day and a night, yet less than an hour had passed in reality.
If Xu Zhi hadn’t possessed “two selves” at this moment, she wouldn’t have been able to remain so unperturbed.
Because she knew the process of her climbing wasn’t actually that long in reality, she was able to maintain her patience. If it were anyone else, seeing themselves climb for a day and a night while that distance from the sky still appeared infinitely distant, a hint of volatility would likely have already risen in their hearts.
It appeared as though not many difficulties had been set up, but in reality, the seemingly endless goal and the urgency of not being able to stop for a single instant were enough to drive a person insane.
“Talk about insidious…”
The main body silently complained, while the consciousness of the spirit flesh clone continued to climb relentlessly. As her “physical strength” waned, the terrifying nature of this step cast from a flesh-and-blood quagmire slowly began to manifest. She had no choice but to deploy extraordinary energy as assistance just to lift her already deeply exhausted legs.
Xu Zhi noticed that the body of the spirit flesh clone here was much weaker than the one outside; it seemed it had been nerfed.
Afterward, she slowly realized that a day and a night was nothing more than a beginning.
The long steps seemed as if they would never show an end. Her exhausted body and mind were clamoring for rest, but the crisis beneath her feet ensured she couldn’t stop for a single instant. Xu Zhi began to feel her mental energy and extraordinary power approaching depletion. The main body also couldn’t directly funnel mental energy and extraordinary power to the spirit flesh clone; even if she could, Xu Zhi wouldn’t do so.
Struggling to take another step upward, even as sweat continuously rolled from her forehead down to the ground, Xu Zhi thought to herself that this trial amounted to nothing more than this.
Willpower and resilience—she had never lacked either.
The position of the [Grail] aspect Archbishop—she was taking it for sure.
