Xu Zhi first simply swung the knife's original ability at the rift. But just as she had expected, much like the full moon that had appeared in the city center plaza, attacks striking this red rift only stirred faint "ripples" in the surrounding air and could not harm its true form.
Xu Zhi could guess that the knife's new ability, bestowed by Zhong Lingfan, was probably meant to be used on the "final boss" at a critical moment. But the circumstances were special now. Zhong Lingfan should understand, right?
Since the one paying for the ability was an ordinary transcendent, Xu Zhi activated [Eye of Secrets] to carefully observe the rift before making her move. The instant the transcendent ability activated, the rift in her eyes changed as well.
What had originally been nothing more than a calm red thread hanging in the sky suddenly became a massive blood-colored eye. The enormous eye hung high in the air, its thick, slightly blackened blood-colored eyeball twitching mechanically. Red mist poured endlessly from beneath its eye socket like bloody tears, mingling with Cloud City's fog.
It looked as though its eye was closed, but it was actually secretly infiltrating Cloud City. How insidious!
Standing before the massive eye, Xu Zhi scorned such underhanded tactics. When she saw the eye's "true" form, the contamination of [Cup] began eroding her. Fortunately, Xu Zhi had become quite practiced at resisting this kind of erosion. She only needed to withstand the mental pressure brought on by staring directly at the eye.
After confirming where the eye's "core" was and roughly how much transcendent energy it would take to sever it, Xu Zhi finally began trying to use this power that did not belong to her.
As she used it, Xu Zhi clearly felt the difference between