Half a Blind Cane

"So bright!"

"What is that?!"

"Is there a fire somewhere?"

"How could it be? No fire could be this bright! And Cangnan City doesn't even have any buildings that tall!"

"Quick, quick, quick! Take a picture! Post it on Moments!"

"..."

The pillar of light shooting into the sky was far too dazzling. Half the people in Cangnan City noticed it, and pedestrians stopped in their tracks, excitedly guessing why it had appeared.

Some said it was an explosion, some said it was an optical experiment, and some said a miracle had descended... but only a very small number of people knew what the appearance of this pillar of light meant.

Two minutes earlier, in the old district.

On the deserted street, space rippled faintly, as if someone had lifted a corner of the canvas shrouding the old district. Then, five figures clad in black-and-red cloaks stepped out.

One of them looked around, stepped forward, picked up the "No Entry Ahead" sign from the ground, and folded it shut.

The instant the sign was put away, the silent old district shattered soundlessly like a bubble, revealing the real old district within.

Grisly blood had soaked the aged streets red, and fragmented monster limbs lay scattered everywhere. If Lin Qiye had seen this scene, he would have discovered that the creatures chopped into pieces and strewn across the ground were the very ghost-faced monsters he had faced!

There were at least thirty-four of them!

"The Boundless Void Domain has been recovered." The person carrying the sign spoke indifferently. "We can call the logistics team to clean up the battlefield."

"Where's Old Zhao?"

"He went after the two Ghost-faced Men that got away."

"...We were careless." The injured woman covered her right shoulder, looking somewhat dispirited.

"Don't say that, Hong Ying. None of us knew there was a Ghost-faced King hidden among those Ghost-faced Men." The man beside her comforted her.

"The captain should be fine facing the Ghost-faced King alone, right?"

"Of course he'll be fine. Don't forget, the captain is a powerhouse of the third realm, the 'River' realm. Nothing will happen to him." The man paused. "I just hope... those two Ghost-faced Men that escaped won't cause any civilian casualties..."

The moment his words fell, a blazing pillar of light erupted from another direction and shot into the sky, illuminating half the heavens!

All five turned to look at it at once, their eyes filled with shock!

"That is..."

"A Forbidden Zone has appeared. This energy fluctuation... it's absurdly powerful!"

"Th-this is at least someone in the fifth realm, the 'Immeasurable' realm. No, it might even be the sixth realm, 'Klein'... How could a tiny place like Cangnan City draw such a powerful expert?"

"No, this doesn't feel like a human Forbidden Zone." The man frowned deeply.

Hong Ying froze, then seemed to think of something. "You mean..."

"This resembles a god's Forbidden Zone—in other words... a Divine Zone."

At the mention of gods, all their expressions turned grave.

"Which god?"

"Scorching, sacred, powerful, and carrying the aura of creation. If I'm not mistaken, this should be..." The man stared fixedly at the gradually fading pillar of light and spoke one word at a time:

"God Code 003, the King of Angels, Michael."

Lin Qiye felt miserable.

At the very center of the Golden Pillar of Light, his body had completely slipped out of his control, floating eerily in midair as endless energy surged from his eyes.

Lin Qiye felt as though he had returned to ten years ago, once again seeing those eyes across the boundless cosmos.

He still remembered that supreme, sacred aura vividly.

The difference was that ten years ago, the aura had come from the moon. Now, it came from... his own eyes.

The Seraph's aura and divine might poured wildly from his eyes. His pupils were like two burning suns, as if they would melt everything into nothingness.

Ten years ago, Archangel Michael had met his gaze from the moon.

Ten years later, Lin Qiye opened his eyes, and the lingering power of the Seraph within them erupted completely!

Fortunately, there was not much of the Seraph's power left in Lin Qiye's eyes. After seven or eight seconds, the pillar of light gradually dissipated. Lin Qiye fell from midair and staggered before steadying himself.

The brilliant golden light in his eyes gradually dimmed, leaving only a faint golden glow in the end.

If their previous brightness had been comparable to the sun, then now they were no more than a candle flame.

The golden radiance that had erupted earlier was incomparably powerful, but it did not belong to him. The golden glow now hidden in the depths of Lin Qiye's eyes, however, was something he truly controlled.

A faint thread of the Seraph's power.

Lin Qiye took a deep breath and slowly raised his head.

The pitch-black night sky, the old streets, the grisly monsters, the blood all over the ground... when this far-from-beautiful scene unfolded before Lin Qiye's eyes, he smiled.

He smiled happily.

After ten years, he had finally seen this world once again with his own eyes.

At that moment, in Lin Qiye's eyes, even the blood-mouthed monsters seemed somewhat adorable.

The moment Seraphim Divine Might erupted from Lin Qiye, the two monsters had been pinned hard to the ground by its pressure, nearly crushed into meat paste.

Only after the Golden Pillar of Light vanished did they recover. They looked around in confusion, then fixed their gazes on Lin Qiye again.

Bloodthirsty desire surfaced in their eyes once more.

"Ke—!"

One of the monsters screeched and pounced at Lin Qiye!

Compared to before, Lin Qiye was clearly much calmer now. The instant the monster moved, he judged its trajectory in his mind and threw himself forcefully to the side.

Lin Qiye was indeed far slower than the monster, but his reactions were astonishingly fast. Those few seconds of advance prediction were enough to buy him time to dodge.

It was not that he could foresee the future. Rather, after his eyes had opened, his perceptive abilities had undergone earth-shaking changes.

For one, the range of his mental perception had expanded from ten meters to twenty. Previously, Lin Qiye had needed five years just to reach a range of ten meters, but now it had doubled outright.

The other was dynamic vision.

Within that twenty-meter range, Lin Qiye possessed nearly three times the dynamic vision of an ordinary person. His reflexes were practically monstrous, and in close-quarters combat, he could almost achieve the effect of seeing the future.

As for the other abilities these eyes had brought him, Lin Qiye had yet to sense them.

But in the current situation, he had no time to slowly explore them.

Like an arrow released from a bow, the monster leaped over the spot where Lin Qiye had been standing, smashed down a large section of wall, kicked hard off the debris with its limbs, and shot toward Lin Qiye once more!

By then, Lin Qiye had already rolled away from its landing point. He reached beside him and grabbed the Half a Blind Cane that had fallen to the ground earlier!

Lin Qiye sprang to his feet, crouched halfway down, and fixed his eyes on the rapidly approaching monster, gripping the cane tightly in both hands!

The monster left streaks of afterimages behind it, and the gale it stirred up swept Lin Qiye's black bangs into the air.

Its hind legs suddenly exerted force, launching its entire body into the air!

This time, Lin Qiye did not dodge.

He clenched the Half a Blind Cane and stared unflinchingly into the monster's eyes.

"Ke—!"

The monster extended its claws, slashing directly at Lin Qiye's throat.

Just as it was about to touch Lin Qiye, his pupils abruptly constricted!

The faint golden glow in his eyes seemed to have been fed a bundle of firewood, suddenly blazing brightly like two roaring furnaces!

A thread of divine might used Lin Qiye's eyes as a medium and surged violently into the monster's body.

At that moment, Lin Qiye changed in the monster's eyes. He became a supreme god with six wings, radiating terrifying pressure from his entire body!

Thus, beneath that divine might, its body fell into a brief stiffness.

Within that fleeting moment, Lin Qiye raised the Half a Blind Cane high...

And precisely drove it into the monster's right eye!