Chapter 119: The Gaze

Chapter 119: The Gaze

Mo Fei was in the spirit world. His body hadn’t stopped decaying yet. .

The whole spirit world crumbled; the pillars around began to shake uncontrollably as many of them fell to the ground with a loud thud.

The tall structures decayed under the one single gaze of a true God’s Embodiment. The Serpent raised its head and looked around the place, which was slowly breaking apart as Mo Fei was burning.

He flew his hands around, his mouth opened to scream as his teeth fell on the ground, and he clenched his mouth tightly. His eyes went bloodsoaked as he trudged forward. Desperate for balance, his trembling, skeletal hand reached out and gripped one of the twelve sacred seats arranged in the center of the chamber.

Crack!

The moment his fingers, which were now exposed, greying bone, brushed the armrest, the conceptual seat began to break apart and withered into a pile of ancient, forgotten dust, being unable to withstand the corruption coursing through Mo Fei’s veins as he screamed loudly again. "Argh!!"

Thud!!

More pillars fell. The sky turned crimson from light blue. The mist coiled around the realm, flattening into a thinner layer of smoke.

Mo Fei stumbled toward his throne. His nails began to rust and fell on the ground. Then his skin peeled away. One of his Spirit Threads snapped completely, sending a jolt of pure madness directly into his mind. He coughed up blood, his thoughts fracturing.

The protective mist of the spirit world that casually coiled around the realm flattened into a thin, useless layer of smoke, enabling his naked soul to the prying malicious eyes of the cosmos, which invited a fresh wave of maddening whispers that threatened to bring him to the brink of losing control.

With another desperate lunge, Mo Fei staggered forward his mangled body onto the throne. His bony fingers clenched the stone armrests with a hard grip, anchoring his weight against it. He squeezed his eyes shut, forcing his fractured willpower to erect a shield against the cosmos.

The whole realm shimmered, breaking down.

That corruption persisted for more than ten minutes, and after the time passed, the corruption left Mo Fei unable to move for a few minutes as he sat on his ancient throne completely unconscious.

The healing process was agonizingly slow for him as the flesh budded over white bone and the skeletal hands knitted themselves back together. Finally, his severed Spirit Threads reconnected into messy knots.

As his heart began to beat back in the physical world, his astral body gasped for a few moments violently. "Gasp! Gasp!... That was terrifying... was that... the true God’s Descent?"

The Divine Serpent moved through the spirit world, fixing the broken world caused by the small glance of a True God.

Mo Fei tried to swallow, but his throat was completely dry, giving him a small ache. He realized a terrifying truth: the God hadn’t even tried to kill him. It was a mere accident. Just a casual glance from a God was a fatal disaster for a mortal.

As his body healed, he looked around the spirit world and stood frowning. "Something is wrong... In my initial divination, the vision of this place was filled with endless grey fog... but here it only has white mist."

"Divine Serpent, I’ll return now."

"Great Master, your Anchor is too weak... Your spirit threads have sustained severe damage which means you are drifting close to madness."

Mo Fei froze at its warning and looked at the Divine Serpent fixing the realm. "What?"

"You need Anchors, the followers. Furthermore, you must perform an extremely dangerous advancement ritual before the next full moon." The Divine Serpent moved through the pillars as they stood again.

"Where do I get the necessary materials?"

"A hidden mystical artifact rests in the Bloodborne Sea."

Mo Fei’s pupils dilated as he heard the words. "The next full moon..." His eyes widened further. "There are only thirteen to fourteen days left..."

***

Gasps!

His eyes snapped open in his rented apartment, where his body was resting, and he didn’t know how it happened. The pungent scent of iron hit his nostrils as he looked at his bed, where he had coughed up a pool of fresh blood into his bedsheets. The toll of the gaze... he slowly put his revolver inside a wooden box beside a stack of occult books, then walked toward the mirror.

His reflection didn’t mimic his movements; it smiled like a wicked clown. He stumbled backward, the Mirror of Truth artifact was silent now.

His stomach grumbled fiercely. He grabbed a few pennies, and rushed out of the room and walked away to buy food.

Today, the narrow streets of the Ciradyl were choked with yellowish-brown smog. Moving through the narrow streets, he navigated his path through a damp alley until he reached a local bakery, purchasing a few loaves of bread.

Seeking to calm his fried nerves, Mo Fei turned into a side street while keeping his pace, intending to buy a cup of cheap malt beer from a street vendor, but just then, suddenly, a pricking sensation washed over his neck.

Someone is following me.

He looked back.

Standing by a nearby grocery stall was a young man. He had somewhat long, unruly black hair arranged in a casual manner, paired with distinct sideburns. He wore a slightly battered top hat, its brim tilted down to obscure his eyes. He was currently exchanging a few copper pence for a Chelsea bun.

The man casually bit into the pastry, his gaze seemingly sweeping over the crowd without a care in the world. Yet, Mo Fei noticed the man’s left hand briefly brush against his brows; that was when he noticed the ribbon in his hand.

He’s checking my spiritual presence! An Ascended!

Mo Fei’s heart leaped, then he quickly forced himself to look away and walked quickly into a narrow alleyway.

He bit the bread and ate it quietly while being in his true identity, yet the environment around felt weird.

His eyes laid on various animals who sat silently. Stray dogs sat in total silence, their unblinking eyes fixated on his rented room’s door; even the stray cats sat frozen beside them, looking there silently. Overhead, a flock of crows shrieked, who flew by there before scattering into the smog.

From a narrow street, he noticed something move as he stepped inside that street.

Moving through the path, he ate his bread. Yet, he couldn’t move out the feeling of being watched.

He entered another narrow street, moving toward the other road, which was behind his rented house.

Suddenly, the world lost its color. The overflowing dustbin along the alleyway levitated into the air, the whole place turned upside down in ninty degree and froze in one place. He looked around the shifting place, which was still now.

The droplet of murky rainwater stilled centimeters away from land.

He opened his eyes, and the presence finally hit him.

Is that... the conceptual domain!!

Conceptual domain, he had read them before in the Epilogue. A pocket of space that represented the authority for Mid-Ordinals, completely isolated from the real world... someone above Ordinal eight to Seven could learn it.

Mo Fei moved his hand toward the mask on his shoulder, but it wasn’t there; then his brain shifted to his bed where it rested. "Damn it, I left it on the desk!"

He quickly sprinted, avoiding the place where the spirit threads intersected, rushing toward him madly. The suffocating presence of a high Ordinal Authority was expanding toward him rapidly.

With slow movements, the place moved again. The drop fell with a splash as Mo Fei ran.

Step. Step. Step.

His eyes widened as he found himself back in that same alley; just then he turned toward the presence and heard footsteps coming toward him.

Mo Fei looked around; his gaze fell on a window reaching toward his room. He dove inside through the open window and landed with a thud on the carpet.

He grunted, feeling the scent of copper and iron on his tongue as he stood up.

He looked toward the mirror, then his gaze lay back on the bed where his blood stuck to the bed, leaking that smell. His mask lay on a table silently.

Suddenly, he heard a heavy rattle of a knock on his gate.

Knock! Knock!

Mo Fei flinched at the sudden sound and moved quickly.

His gaze lay on the revolver near the book. He rushed and shoved it deep inside a bookshelf, piling it with books and thick dictionaries, then he snatched a dirty towel and rushed toward the mirror, draping it completely over it.

He reached his hand toward his mask and put it behind a dustbin, ensuring it stayed entirely out of sight. Finally he looked at the bloodsoaked bed and yanked the bedsheets off then ran into the bathroom, stuffing them into a bucket, but the faint scent was still there. Although he quickly took a brief scan to see if he forgot something.

Knock! Knock!

The sound came again

Finally, he aggressively ruffled his hair, messing it up to look tired, struggling civilians before letting out a soft cough.

He quietly moved toward the door and grabbed the handle, his heart hammering against his heart as he clenched it tightly before pulling the door open.