Demon's Eye

So strong! Even as Zhou Tai Three was shocked by how fast Yu Xian had grown stronger, Yu Xian was equally astounded by Zhou Tai Three's rate of growth. If Zhou Tai Three still possessed the strength from when they met at the school, Yu Xian could have finished him off in mere seconds. But now, no matter how he attacked, Zhou Tai Three seemed to foresee everything, evading each strike with ease. Compared to Zhou Tai Five, Zhou Tai Three was clearly far more difficult to handle. "Eat a tree, little brother!" Zhou Tai Three leapt from the ground onto a tree, then bounded from one tree to the next. Suddenly twisting around, he snapped a trunk with one kick, then sent the top half of the tree hurtling toward Yu Xian with another. *Now's my chance!* Yu Xian's eyes lit up. Letting the tree crash against the bubble shielding him, he immediately directed other bubbles to bombard Zhou Tai Three, who was caught midair with nowhere to leverage himself. "Bounce!" Zhou Tai Three's eye sockets twitched. Planting a foot atop one bubble, he used its elasticity to dart cleanly past the others, weaving through them in an instant to land in a tree on the opposite side. *He can see through the properties of my bubbles!* Yu Xian's brow furrowed slightly. He had not expected his little trick to end up handing Zhou Tai Three an opening. The numerous bubbles he produced were not all the hardened variety; hidden among the swarm were sticky bubbles, elastic bubbles, and even corrosive ones. Yu Xian had originally intended to use their varied traits to give Zhou Tai Three a little surprise, yet Zhou Tai Three had seen right through them. He had even pinpointed an elastic bubble with exact precision and used it to his advantage. "I see... So this is how my eyes are meant to be used." Standing on the tree branch, Zhou Tai Three's lips curled upward, his delight bordering on giddy abandonment. In his sight, every bubble looked distinct: some reeked with a vile stench, some vibrated ceaselessly, and some were slick and sticky. When he snapped that tree earlier, it had never been about attacking Yu Xian. He had merely wanted to quietly test the bubbles using leaves and woodchips to discern their different effects. The foul-smelling bubbles were corrosive; the sticky ones possessed immense adhesion, spelling doom if one got caught; and the vibrating ones were elastic. He saw it all clearly! The Demon's Eye! This was the demonic ability he had obtained. It was an ability tainted with intense malice, twisting the world in its user's eyes into something grotesque and absurd. Yet even as it distorted the world, the Demon's Eye revealed authentic information normally invisible to the naked eye. This was what was known as untrue truth. For instance, the monster Zhou Tai Three saw enveloping Yu Xian was false, yet the fact that Yu Xian fed continuously was true; Plato's Republic appearing like a hellscape was false, but that the Republic was born from mountains of corpses and seas of blood was true. Telling truth from falsehood depended entirely on the Demon's Eye wielder's intellect. Evidently, Zhou Tai Three was beginning to adapt to the Demon's Eye, gleaning genuine, useful insights from the myriad distorted visions. "I see it! I see everything!" Zhou Tai Three twisted his waist to dodge a bubble's strike, his mouth splitting open into a grin lined with razor teeth. He spun suddenly, punching a bubble, then lifted his leg to evade a volley of incoming bubbles. Leaning back midair, he drove another kick into the very bubble his fist had just struck. Spin, strike, evade, spin again, strike again. With minimal movements, he cleanly dodged Yu Xian's assault, until amid his relentless counterattacks, Zhou Tai Three shattered one of Yu Xian's bubbles with a single punch. The entire sequence took barely a second or two. In Yu Xian's eyes, Zhou Tai Three had merely spun at high speed, yet he had bizarrely evaded every attack and rattled off a flurry of counterblows, bursting a bubble just like that. "Little brother, now the tables have turned!" Suddenly, Zhou Tai Three darted out from between the bubbles, the scales across his body rustling with a strange sound. *Boom!* Before Yu Xian could react, Zhou Tai Three rushed right into his face. A fist slammed into the protective bubble around him, sending ripples cascading across its surface. Belatedly, Yu Xian's pupils constricted violently. That familiar dread from when Zhou Tai Three had hunted him down at the school came rushing back. His mind raced. His gaze fell upon one of the sticky bubbles, noticing a stray scale clinging to its surface, and he immediately understood how Zhou Tai Three had closed the distance so rapidly. Zhou Tai Three had first used an elastic bubble to accelerate, then sacrificed a single scale to pivot off a sticky bubble and alter his angle of approach. Combining the two, Zhou Tai Three had lunged from an impossible angle, striking so fast Yu Xian had no time to respond. *My own attacks are being used against me...* With a thought, Yu Xian recalled every sticky and elastic bubble around him. A swarm of hardened bubbles surged forward in pursuit of Zhou Tai Three, who was already retreating after landing the blow. "It's no use, little brother. I've seen right through all your tricks." Seeing Yu Xian pull back the elastic and sticky bubbles, Zhou Tai Three laughed, dodging dozens of incoming hardened bubbles effortlessly. It was just as he said: Yu Xian's attacks could no longer threaten him. The hardened bubbles packed immense destructive power, but Zhou Tai Three could anticipate every trajectory. He could even plant a foot atop one of them and let it carry him along. Yu Xian's expression remained calm. He continued manipulating swarms of hardened bubbles to attack from varying angles, appearing as though he had exhausted his options. *Boom!* To prove his point, Zhou Tai Three frequently countered while dodging, his fists hammering into the bubble shielding Yu Xian blow after blow. Unfortunately, his attack frequency was not high enough to break through the protective bubble. Moreover, Yu Xian clearly would not afford him the chance. The moment he attacked, surrounding bubbles closed in to bottle him up. If he didn't pull back, death awaited him; if he did, his effort fell short. The two remained in a deadlock, neither able to get the upper hand. Having adapted to the rhythm of the hardened bubble onslaught, Zhou Tai Three slickly dodged dozens of bubbles incoming from every direction. Pushing off with his feet, he bounded into the air, skipping across several hardened bubbles to shoot directly in front of Yu Xian, throwing a punch straight at the shield. Even if he couldn't break the bubble, this was nothing more than a game to him; as long as he could strike back, he hadn't lost. Yet right as his fist flew forward, Yu Xian spread both hands wide. In a flash, countless silver threads erupted from his fingertips. The two were far too close—less than thirty centimeters apart. Zhou Tai Three's eye sockets trembled. In his crimson gaze, he seemed to see the Grim Reaper sweeping forward with a scythe. Instantly, his body was wrapped in silver threads like a mummy. If it had only been one or two threads, he might have broken free, but now that dense layers bound him from head to toe, he could only squirm like a caterpillar. "What, did you forget I still had this ability?" Yu Xian asked, looking at Zhou Tai Three with a smile. The moment he realized the bubbles were ineffective against Zhou Tai Three, he had devised this scheme. As long as Zhou Tai Three let his guard down in overconfidence, Yu Xian had a ninety percent certainty of capturing him alive. Clearly, he had won this clash!