The being might have seen him.
Xu Kai wasn't sure. The original Xu Kai had taken precautions, but against sothing that powerful, those asures would be useless. Like tissue paper against a blade.
But Chen Xi's words hadn't confird whether the original Xu Kai had actually laid eyes on the thing.
Which ant he probably hadn't.
Two possibilities: the creature cast a spell to hide itself, or the original Xu Kai simply couldn't see past the hole to where it was.
Xu Kai's stomach tightened.
'If sothing that strong saw ...'
No. He wasn't in trouble just for seeing. That made no sense. He'd done nothing, taken nothing. The fish, though.
The fish.
If the fish wasn't important, he was free. If it was—
Then he was cooked.
He looked down at the Driftlight Pupil resting on the small table.
'What if this is what the being needs?'
Then being a target wasn't a possibility. It was a fact. He was already being hunted.
By sothing like that...
Xu Kai shook his head hard, forcing the spiral to stop.
'Not the ti to overthink.' Then, imdiately: 'What would sothing that strong want with an eye?'
He sighed, annoyed at himself.
'Of course you don't know. You can't know, not until soone tells you.'
A bad feeling settled into his ribs, heavy and cold.
Sothing might happen. Soon. Probably not now, but soon.
'Or maybe not. Maybe I'm overthinking.'
What would sothing that powerful even need with an eye that when refined would just beco a normal artifact? Sure, it could move when controlled. Let you see from anywhere without being there. But it wasn't exactly god-tier loot.
If the creature truly needed it, why not just walk through the hole and take it?
That was the part that didn't fit.
Xu Kai exhaled slowly, running a hand through his hair. His sleeve caught on the edge of his chair, he tugged it free without looking.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from . Please report it.
If the hole had torn open near the being that killed the fish, why didn't it step through to check? Even if it wanted nothing from the corpse, why not at least glance at the body?
'Maybe it was confident the fish was dead. Or confird it through the hole already.'
That made sense. Both of those made sense. And if either was true, then Xu Kai wasn't getting hunted.
But.
There was another thread.
What if the fish had created multiple holes? Punching through to different locations before finally tearing into this world, and then dying on arrival. Each hole closing behind it as it moved.
That also made sense.
And that would an Xu Kai would be hunted. Because the creature might have wanted sothing from the fish. Sothing it couldn't take. Sothing that was in Xu Kai's possession. Or not.
"Makes sense," he muttered, not realizing he'd spoken aloud.
He didn't know which version was correct. But he was certain he wasn't far from the truth.
The original Xu Kai had probably already worked through all of this. No need to rehash it out loud.
"Master, it's you who analyzed and deduced it." Chen Xi's voice chid in, thick with pride. "Of course it would make sense. Most of your deductions are always right."
Xu Kai's brow lifted slightly.
'So the original Xu Kai was basically an unemployed detective.'
He filed that away.
'That also makes sense.'
Xu Kai pushed up from the chair and crossed to the small table. The eyeball sat there, pale and glassy. It made his stomach turn.
He pointed at it.
"Would I really have to—" His face twisted, like he'd bitten into sothing rotten. "Get used to this?"
Chen Xi stared at the eye a mont too long. Then she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Well, that..."
"Never mind." Xu Kai cut her off. "Nothing you can do about it anyway."
"Huh?" Her brow pinched in an expression he didn't recognize.
He ignored it.
"So can I control it?"
"Yes. It is possible."
His voice dropped, more cautious now.
"Anything I need to consider?"
Last ti, he hadn't asked questions before learning Dry Command. He wasn't repeating that.
Chen Xi shook her head.
"No. Totally safe. Except for the ntal strain, first ti users. Having a separate view isn't exactly pleasant."
Xu Kai's eyes brightened.
'That's fine. I'll just disconnect early.'
"Good. So I just control it, then."
From what he'd read, most artifacts weren't hard to handle. A few were. But those weren't common. The eye probably didn't belong in that category.
Chen Xi confird it. The only real difficulty was the strain of keeping it active for long stretches. And that only hit people who weren't used to it. First-tirs.
He was a first-tir. Muscle mory might help, the original Xu Kai's instincts still lived sowhere in his bones, but he wasn't planning to test that today. He'd stick to the plan.
'Better get to work.'
Xu Kai lifted the eye.
Light. Almost weightless. It sat in his palm like a large marble, cool against his skin. He stared at it for a mont.
It still unsettled him.
'Endure it. It's useful.'
No more thinking.
He let out a single thread of qi, hair-thin, no thicker than a strand of silk, and pushed it from his palm into the artifact.
Nothing changed. Not physically. The eye didn't glow or shudder or hum.
But sothing shifted.
A connection. Thin and taut, like a string pulling at the inside of his skull.
He'd expected it. Read about it. But the reality of it still caught him off guard, that strange, hollow sense of other living in his head. Not unpleasant. Not yet.
Xu Kai commanded the eye to lift.
It rose from his palm without resistance. No puff of wind, no shudder or vibration. Just a clean, unnerving ascent, silent as a held breath.
It hovered at eye level.
He stared at it, eyes slightly wide.
That's not the real test.
He took a steadying breath.
Closed his eyes.
Closing them wasn't necessary, technically. But it would make things easier. Fewer signals competing for attention. Just the eye, and the emptiness waiting inside it.
Xu Kai shared his perception. Dove headfirst into that waiting void.
Then he saw.
The wrongness hit him first.
His vision was no longer behind his eyelids. It was displaced, floating a foot in front of his face, slightly above.
He was looking at himself through the artifact.
User Comments
0 comments from readers