Three days passed in the same relentless cycle.
Zhao Zhiyu could feel it clearly now. Shadow Stalking was close to a breakthrough.
The technique flowed more naturally, his presence thinning almost instinctively whenever he focused.
The experience gain was steady.
The Soul Manipulation and Soul Puppet Technique, however, was different.
It lagged behind.
Still at entry level, barely approaching minor achievement despite the hours he poured into it. The effort-to-progress ratio was terrible.
He had separated fragments of his soul again and again, endured splitting headaches and soul-deep pain, yet the results were minimal.
Sitting alone in his room, he exhaled slowly.
'Maybe this technique isn't meant for my realm or me,' he thought. 'Or maybe it's just… too much.'
Still, he did not stop.
He sat cross-legged, posture steady, and began separating a fragment of his soul again—slowly, carefully. The process felt like pulling a thin thread out of his chest, invisible yet painfully real.
The panel flickered.
The experience counter reached its limit.
He hesitated for half a second, then pressed the advancement.
At first, there was no pain.
Instead, information flooded in.
Not structured instructions. Not corrections.
Concepts.
Meanings without language. Principles layered over principles. Words he had never seen before appeared in his mind, carrying definitions that contradicted logic, physics, and even cultivation theory he knew.
His breathing quickened.
'I don't… understand this.'
The knowledge did not wait for him.
It kept pouring in.
Then the panel reacted again.
[ You have gained an enlightenment! ]
His mind went blank.
[ You have gained knowledge greater than your existence! ]
A sharp pressure crushed inward, as if his skull were shrinking.
[ During the enlightenment, you suddenly comprehended a technique unconsciously. ]
[ You used your past experience as a reference. ]
[ You created a Soul Suspension Technique. ]
Zhao Zhiyu's heart dropped.
'Created… a technique?'
Before he could process that—
[ The technique requires a greater host to stabilize. ]
[ Danger! Your body is unconsciously redirecting soul flow to your eyes to adapt! ]
[ Danger! Permanent blindness possible! ]
Panic surged through him.
His vision blurred instantly. A burning pressure built behind his eyes, like boiling liquid forcing its way forward.
'Not my eyes. Anything but my eyes.'
Instinct took over.
He forcefully tried to redirect his soul, pulling it back inward, suppressing the flow. His control was imperfect, frantic. The soul resisted, already half-embedded in his ocular nerves.
Pain exploded.
A wet, tearing sensation followed.
Pop!
"AAAAARRGHH!!"
Agony consumed him.
His scream never left his throat, strangled by shock. One eye burst outward, vision on that side collapsing into nothing but red and darkness.
The pain was beyond physical, it tore through his mind, his soul trembling violently.
His other eye shook uncontrollably, pressure still building, on the verge of collapse.
He clutched his face, body convulsing.
'I'm going blind... I'm really going blind! Shit!'
Gritting his teeth, he forced every ounce of control he had into stabilizing his soul, compressing it, anchoring it back toward his core instead of his eyes. His vision flickered, the world tilting.
Blood soaked his hand.
His remaining eye throbbed, but the pressure slowly—agonizingly—began to recede.
He collapsed forward, gasping, half-blind, drenched in sweat.
The room remained dark.
He lost unconsciousness.
...
Zhao Zhiyu lay still for a long moment.
His left eye had survived.
When he finally stirred, weakness clung to every limb.
The metallic stench of blood filled the room, thick enough that he could taste it with each breath.
His fingers brushed across his face—dry, crusted blood—and then the floor beneath him, sticky and cold.
He exhaled slowly.
'It stopped… if it hadn't, I would already be dead.'
His surviving eye opened fully.
The pupil reflected faint light—dark blue tinged with violet, deep and unnatural, as if something profound had settled within it.
His vision was strange. Sharper in some ways, distorted in others. He could feel things more than see them.
After steadying his breathing, he summoned the panel.
[ Name: Zhao Zhiyu ]
[ Age: 17 / 110 ]
[ Cultivation Base: Immortal ]
[ Realm: Anointed Realm — 1st Layer ]
[ Body: Anointed Realm — 1st Layer ]
[ Physique: Hundred Poison Body — Unawakened ]
[ Soul Seeing Eye — Awakened ]
[ Strength: 21 ]
[ Agility: 24 ]
[ Endurance: 29 ]
[ Vitality: 21 ]
[ Perception: 26 ]
[ Willpower: 20 ]
[ Condition: Mild Mental Strain, Impaired one eye, Low blood ]
[ Soul Status: Integrated ]
[ Body Compatibility: Stabilized ]
[ Passive Abilities ]
[ Poison Resistance: Minor Achievement (25%) ]
[ Soul Detection: Entry Level ]
[ Techniques ]
[ Tampering Body, Tampering Soul Technique: Perfected ]
[ Shadow Stalking Technique: Minor Achievement ]
[ Po Cultivation Technique: Minor Achievement ]
[ Hun Cultivation Technique: Minor Achievement ]
[ Soul Manipulation and Soul Puppet Technique: Minor Achievement ]
[ Soul Suspension Technique: Entry Level ]
[ Notes ]
[ Reaching the Immortal Realm and consuming a Soul Beast has revealed a latent Physique. ]
[ You learned knowledge beyond your existence. ]
The pain had not vanished, but the results were undeniable.
His hard work was finally paying off—even if the price was an eye.
Thanks to Mei Ling, the poison never came late this past 3 days. True to her word, she quietly passed him several vials: powders, dark liquids, and wax-sealed pellets that smelled faintly sweet and metallic. He didn't ask how she got them.
...
Later, while stabilizing his soul, Zhao Zhiyu finally understood why his cultivation had nearly killed him.
The Soul Suspension Technique was never meant to be used blindly.
Its core requirement was an eye capable of bearing the soul.
The technique didn't merely use the eyes.
When he created it during enlightenment, his soul had instinctively rushed toward his eyes, trying to forge them into a vessel worthy of the technique. It attempted to refine them into something that could truly see souls.
But his mortal-born eyes couldn't endure it.
'So that's it... I have to be more careful even cultivating technique...'
He clenched his jaw.
The eyes were the window to one's soul—this was not poetic nonsense, but an actual fact for this technique.
Through eye contact, souls naturally brushed against each other. Most cultivators never noticed it.
But this technique forced that interaction into reality.
To lock eyes was to halt the opponent's soul for a brief moment.
His breath turned cold.
'That's exactly what Mei Ling did to me. But it's not related to one's soul... Rather it was similar to intimidation.'
---
The knowledge from enlightenment still lingered in his mind.
Too vast and too deep.
He couldn't comprehend it, couldn't organize it, couldn't even begin to cultivate it properly.
But he remembered it.
Every symbol. Every structure. Every impossible concept.
Like a sealed scripture branded directly into his existence.
His fingers trembled slightly.
'Cultivating a technique far beyond myself doesn't just slow me down. It also can kill me in an instant...'
He closed his remaining eye and leaned back against the wall, letting the darkness swallow him.
The conclusion came naturally.
He could stop people—if only for a fraction of a second.
But the price was heavy.
Every time he activated the Soul Suspending Technique, his own soul stiffened in response. His body followed. Muscles locked, breath halted, thoughts slowed as if dragged into thick mud. For a brief moment after using it, he couldn't move at all.
A mutual freeze.
A gamble.
'If I use it wrong, I die first.'
But if used at the right moment—during an ambush, during a killing strike, during an ally's attack—
'…it's worth everything.'
...
Losing an eye weighed on him more than the pain ever did.
Depth perception was gone. Peripheral awareness was crippled. Simple movements required adjustment. Instincts he'd relied on his whole life had to be rebuilt.
He touched the empty socket absentmindedly.
'This will follow me for the rest of my life.'
Then he let out a breath and laughed softly, humorless.
'Life? In a world like this, losing an eye is barely worth mentioning.'
This was a place where souls were eaten, bodies rewritten, and tattoos could explode on command.
If there was a Soul Seeing Eye—
Then there had to be a way to replace one.
Or steal one.
That thought lingered quietly.
He pushed those thoughts aside and returned to what mattered now.
Shadow Stalking.
Hun and Po.
Days blurred together.
He cultivated Hun until the energy moved through him like a second breath, smooth and obedient. He refined Po until his body accepted pain and poison.
Step by step, breath by breath, his presence thinned.
By the time the seventh day arrived—
Major Achievement.
The shadows no longer merely hid him.
Yet even then, doubt remained.
'Major Achievement doesn't mean invincible.'
A cultivator at the Anointed Realm 7th Layer wasn't someone who relied solely on sight or sound. Their perception was layered—spiritual, instinctual, murderous.
'I can't get close...'
Distance would be his lifeline.
...
That night, he tested it again... On Xi Sheng.
He followed him longer than ever before.
Matched his pace. Adjusted to every pause, every turn, every shift in breathing.
Minutes passed.
Then longer.
Xi Sheng suddenly stopped.
"…You've gotten better," Xi Sheng said quietly, not turning around.
Zhao Zhiyu exhaled and let the technique fade, stepping out of the shadows.
Xi Sheng looked genuinely surprised.
"I didn't notice you for a long time this time. But... What the hell happened to your eye?"
Zhiyu nodded. "My skills have gotten better I guess... I just had a little accident..."
Xi Sheng was stunned but didn't pry too much.
Xi Sheng's expression sharpened. "Can you do the same to Liu Qiang?"
Zhiyu didn't hesitate.
"No."
Xi Sheng frowned.
"He's too strong," Zhiyu continued calmly. "If I get that close, I'll be detected. Even staying too long at the edge of his perception is dangerous."
"Then what's the point?" Xi Sheng asked.
Zhiyu's remaining eye narrowed.
"I don't need to stalk him closely. I just need to know where he is. And when... And also when he's vulnerable."
Xi Sheng was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly.
"…We need to plan. Properly. There's only one week left."
"I know," Zhiyu replied.
He turned toward the dark corridor leading back to the others.
This time, there was no hesitation in his steps.