122: Chapter 122 Cleaning Up

There was no wind, no light, and not even any Spiritual Qi. This was the Spirit-Severing Vacuum.

The rocket continued to ascend on inertia, but its speed was slowing down. The camera lens slowly rotated, aiming at the "sky" above that no one had ever observed from such close proximity.

Zhang Mingxuan held his breath.

A wall appeared on the screen.

It was a wall as black as ink, of unknown thickness and breadth. It was like a black curtain shrouding the entire world. Flowing across that black curtain were countless golden runes larger than mountain ranges. Those runes were not static; they flowed and shifted slowly, as if breathing.

The stars seen by Mortals were merely nodes of spiritual light that occasionally leaked out as these runes circulated.

DeepEye analyzed the data transmitted back in real-time from the Chongxiao sensors:

[Altitude: 128,000 Zhang.]

[Obstacle Ahead: World Barrier.]

[Energy Level Analysis: Unmeasurable.]

In the footage, the rocket was still approaching. One hundred meters, fifty meters, ten meters...

Just as the Heavenly Eye's lens was about to touch that layer of black crystalline wall.

An eye.

On that pitch-black wall, a giant golden eye composed of golden energy, occupying half the screen, opened without warning. It looked at the tiny rocket as if looking at a speck of dust flying toward a fire.

There was no offensive movement.

The screen instantly went black.

"Signal completely severed." DeepEye's cold notification rang out across the deathly silent Gobi Desert. "Final telemetry data shows... the rocket's physical structure instantly reduced to zero before contact with the barrier."

"Fellow Daoist Zhang, can you hear me?" Shen Weilan's voice came through the communication device. "My side shows the signal source suddenly vanished. What did you see on your end? Fellow Daoist Zhang?"

Zhang Mingxuan stood before the console, unmoving for a long time.

After a long while, Zhang Mingxuan picked up the communication device and replied to Shen Weilan: "The shuttle disintegrated after entering the Spirit-Severing Vacuum. There's nothing there."

The image of that giant golden eye, though it appeared for only a brief moment, was deeply etched into his Sea of Consciousness, making him feel a shudder from the depths of his Soul.

That was not the eye of a living creature.

It was more like the manifestation of some kind of "monitoring program."

"This world really is a cage..."

He slowly sat down, his fingers somewhat stiff as he fished a Spirit Stone out of his Storage Pouch and gripped it, trying to dispel the chill at his fingertips.

"And, outside this cage, someone is watching."

He glanced at the ground beneath his feet, then looked toward the direction of the Qingyun Sect in the distance. Those Cultivators who were still fighting to the death for a few Spirit Stones would likely never know that the sky above their heads was actually a pair of eyes watching them at all times.

Back at the base.

Zhang Mingxuan entered the laboratory and watched as the lab doors slowly closed before him. He leaned his hands against the cold alloy door, his chest heaving violently. Even though he had returned to this safe zone he had built himself—which theoretically could defend against Void Refining Cultivators—the shuddering sensation of being watched by that giant golden eye still felt like an ice needle driven deep into his brain.

"DeepEye, lock down all data from the Chongxiao Project. Encryption level: Top Secret."

"Also, initiate the pre-loading of the base's self-destruct sequence... If that eye really follows me here, blow this place to ashes."

While issuing these slightly paranoid commands, he walked toward the lab bench, preparing to inject himself with a high-concentration sedative.

*Shh—*

The extremely faint yet incredibly clear sound of paper flipping rang out abruptly in this secret room where he was alone.

Zhang Mingxuan's footsteps came to a sudden halt.

His first reaction was that Heizhang or Su Li had come in. But that was impossible. Without his authorization, even if a mosquito flew in, the base's defense Formations would instantly incinerate it. On DeepEye's radar, at this very moment, the room showed only one life signal—his own.

"An auditory hallucination?"

He tried to convince himself it was a side effect of Divine Sense overload.

*Shh—*

There it was again.

This time, he heard it clearly. The sound came from the desk behind him, which was piled with core secrets.

An indescribable chill instantly shot from his tailbone straight to the crown of his head. Zhang Mingxuan felt his blood freeze in that moment. He turned his head with extreme stiffness, inch by inch.

Behind that large agarwood desk sat a person.

It was a middle-aged Taoist who looked to be in his forties, wearing a set of faded green robes, his hair casually held up with a wooden hairpin. His features were utterly ordinary, the type that would be forgotten the moment he was lost in a crowd.

At this moment, the Taoist was holding the notebook containing the core data of the [Artificial Spirit Root] and [Huntian], flipping through it with great interest.

There was no alarm.

There were no fluctuations of Spiritual Qi.

Even in Zhang Mingxuan's sensory feedback, the area remained empty.

"Who are you?!"

Zhang Mingxuan wanted to shout the question, but found his throat seemingly gripped by an invisible hand; the voice he produced was raspy and weak. Subconsciously, he tried to mobilize his Nascent Soul power, tried to summon the huntian instrument, tried to activate the Black Tortoise Shield...

To his despair, the Five Elements spiritual power within him was like a pool of stagnant water; no matter how he tried to urge it, it remained motionless. Even the Nine-Turn Golden Core he took such pride in seemed to be fearing something, shrinking and trembling deep within his Dantian.

He was like a Mortal stripped of all power, standing naked before an ancient behemoth.

The Taoist did not look up, merely turning a page gently, his finger tracing over a complex diagram of human anatomy.

"Interesting. To seize the providence of heaven and earth with this method without needing Possession." The Taoist's voice was gentle, even carrying a hint of praise, like a private tutor grading an assignment.

He finally looked up. His eyes were as calm as an ancient well, without a single ripple, yet they seemed to encompass the entire world.

"Young man, having too much curiosity can sometimes cost you your life."

The Taoist closed the notebook, placed it gently on the desk, and fixed his gaze on Zhang Mingxuan's pale face.

"That shuttle... you built it, didn't you? Well done. For a purely artificial creation to fly so high is quite unique in today's cultivation world."

"Unfortunately, you were too impatient. You have no idea what is behind that wall, yet you dared to prick it with a needle."

The Taoist stood up and walked toward Zhang Mingxuan step by step. With every step, Zhang Mingxuan felt the surrounding space compress against him; the sense of suffocation nearly forced him to his knees.

"The World Barrier has a spirit. That prick of yours just now, though it didn't touch the barrier, alerted the 'Inspectors'. If I hadn't sensed the disturbance in the barrier, you, and this land for ten thousand miles around the Southern Border, would likely have been turned to dust by now."

The Taoist walked up to Zhang Mingxuan, reached out, and gently patted his shoulder.

"Just a few breaths ago, I finished cleaning up your mess."