Volume One: Entering the City Chapter Seventy: Exile, Eye Seizure

“I noticed before that your left eye is rather unique. Why not take it out and let me study it?” Andiel said with a smile, stretching out his hand.

The moment Andiel uttered those words, Lu Yi felt a surge of power erupt from his demon eye. For an instant, he was transported back to the moment when the old woman had pointed the Demon Hunter at him.

Lu Yi felt as if he had once again become a mere spectator, unable to move his body at all.

A hand shot out, seizing Andiel’s outstretched arm. Lu Yi slowly raised his head, a cold smile playing on his lips. “You want my left eye?”

As his words fell, a small, circular crack appeared behind Andiel. Blood quickly seeped from the fissure, swirling in the air. In the blink of an eye, a hexagram was formed, traced in crimson.

“Your wound…” Andiel frowned, gazing at Lu Yi.

“That’s right, my wound has healed. But you, I’m afraid, are not so fortunate.” Lu Yi’s grin was sinister.

Andiel at last sensed something behind him. He tried to brush off Lu Yi’s grip and retreat, but at that moment, the hexagram in the air rippled. Pale hands emerged from within, grasping at Andiel.

“What is this! You bastard!” Andiel’s expression changed drastically. The tendrils at his back surged forth, stabbing at Lu Yi.

Lu Yi swayed lightly, dodging the black tentacles while retreating, his face unperturbed. Amidst the barrage of attacks, as dense as a rain of arrows, he moved with an almost leisurely grace.

Lu Yi’s composure shattered the last vestiges of Andiel’s hope. He struggled fiercely, unleashing attack after attack, yet he could not break free of the hexagram’s grip. Even after severing every hand that grabbed him, the hexagram clung relentlessly to his back, ever sprouting new limbs to restrain him.

“I’ll kill you!” Andiel roared. He pressed his palms together, aiming them at Lu Yi while chanting an incantation. As he drew his hands apart, a pulsating crimson sphere formed between them.

“Only now do you get serious? Too late,” Lu Yi sneered, but then his brow furrowed and he turned away.

A beam of white light shot towards him—the Demon Hunter, which had fallen to the ground and watched the battle unfold, now hurled itself at Lu Yi’s left eye.

As the Demon Hunter was about to pierce his left eye, Lu Yi calmly uttered, “Unload equipment template.”

Just before the Demon Hunter reached his eye, it twisted bizarrely and vanished from sight.

With the Demon Hunter gone, Lu Yi turned to face Andiel again.

By now, the sphere between Andiel’s hands had grown to the size of a basketball. He burst into laughter. “So you’re an even deeper darkness than I am. Show me your true strength!”

“Tch. Missed my chance, did I? Looks like this will drag on—I hope you don’t die on me, Lu Yi.” With that, Lu Yi pushed his hands out to either side. When his arms were fully extended, a faint, dark purple vortex spread from his palms.

“Only preparing your spell now? Too late, Lu Yi!” Andiel slammed the blood-red sphere, and an intense crimson ray shot directly at Lu Yi.

Ripples of power spread from the sphere in the opposite direction, obliterating everything they touched.

“Too late? No. Against you, this is enough.” Lu Yi’s hands began to rotate slowly, soon becoming shrouded in black-violet flames that grew ever fiercer.

When one hand was raised above his head and the other pressed to his core, both flames swelled to their fullest. At that moment, the crimson beam, brimming with destructive force, closed in on him.

With a low cry, Lu Yi clapped his palms together, and a surge of violet energy erupted from him. Violet and crimson power collided, intensifying until the space itself was torn asunder.

Outside, the tranquil hospital suddenly flared with two orbs of light—one purple, one red—fused together in a violent struggle, swelling ever larger.

The hospital was soon blasted apart, but still the orbs grew. At last, they reached their limit, and after a moment of silence, exploded with devastating force.

“Haha, hahahaha!” Andiel flexed his limbs, gazing at the deep crater not far away. “Looks like I’m the victor. A hasty spell can’t match my full strength. So what if you’re stronger? In the end, you lose.”

“You claim victory?” Lu Yi’s voice echoed from the crater. A blaze of flame, ten meters high, blasted away the debris covering him. Lu Yi appeared, hands pressed together, palms facing each other as before.

“No… no, impossible,” Andiel was dumbstruck. “No matter who he is, there’s no way his body holds such power. It can’t be done.”

A dreadful realization dawned on Andiel, and his face changed drastically. “You’re burning his life!”

Then his features contorted with joy. “Yes, you must be burning his life! Now this poor soul has only a few days left. How many more times can you unleash such an attack? I wager that within three minutes, he’ll wither into an old man and reach the end of his life.”

A hint of annoyance crossed Lu Yi’s face. “That troublesome dagger—I despise it. If not for it, this fight would already be over.”

He slowly opened his eyes. “But surely you don’t think you’re safe now?”

Andiel stared at Lu Yi. By now, they had returned to the real world. Rain poured down in sheets, howling winds whipping all around. Lu Yi’s hair was plastered to his brow, yet his expression remained perfectly calm.

Andiel frowned, then sneered. “I’m certain you can’t defeat me in three minutes. Your spell’s been broken. You can’t touch me now—if I refuse to fight you, there’s nothing you can do.”

With that, Andiel transformed into mist, attempting to flee. Yet before he’d drifted half a meter, he was forced back into human form. The hexagram clung to his back, its crushing grip returning.

“Did you think my spell failed to restrain you because I couldn’t sustain it?” Lu Yi finally spoke, his tone mocking. As he did, he traced strange symbols in the air.

“Go.” Lu Yi blew gently, and the runes became rings that encircled Andiel, pinning him firmly to the hexagram.

“If you fought me head-on, you might last twenty-five seconds. Try to run? That’s a dead end.” Lu Yi’s face darkened. As his words fell, a bolt of black-red lightning struck the ground behind the hexagram.

The lightning did not vanish, but writhed and twisted, distorting the very air around it.

“No… no, I’m willing to serve you, to obey your commands. Let me stay by his side and protect him—please, don’t…” Andiel’s voice trembled with terror.

“You’re too weak. And too stupid.” Lu Yi spat. “So go repent in a place where time is forgotten. Banishment.”

As his words ended, the lightning slowly split down the middle, opening like a door.

“No, no… my lord, please, have mercy, have mercy!” The hexagram did not move, but to others it seemed that Andiel and the seal shrank ever smaller, receding into the gap between the lightning bolts.

Lu Yi watched coldly. Gradually, Andiel’s voice faded to a distant whisper, as if coming from across a vast void. At last, the hexagram shrank to a point and vanished into the rift.

The twin bolts of lightning merged again, one end receding into the sky, the other sinking into the earth.

A black sphere drifted down, enclosing Andiel’s grimoire. Lu Yi snatched it up, his eyes narrowing in scorn. “You thought I’d change my mind? That’s a meaningless fantasy.”

He wiped his hand across the book, erasing all information about Andiel, then tossed it away as though discarding trash.

“Tch, what a fragile body. Let’s hope you survive until the mission’s end.” With those words, Lu Yi swayed and collapsed to the ground.

“Lu Yi! Lu Yi!” Li Xinran rushed over, shaking him desperately. He showed no response, and to her horror, blood seeped from all seven orifices of his face.

Lu Ningyu bent down to pick up the grimoire. “This is a treasure. He doesn’t want it, but I…” She opened to the summary, but the words died in her throat.

After a brief internal struggle, Lu Ningyu confirmed the book’s contents, then pulled out a small knife and hurried over to Lu Yi, inscribing a sigil on his body.

“Lu Ningyu, what are you doing?” Li Xinran grabbed her arm.

“It’s for the best. It will help us all.” Lu Ningyu’s words did nothing to reassure Li Xinran, who gripped her arm tighter.

“If you want him to live, don’t stop me,” Lu Ningyu urged.

Hearing this, Li Xinran reluctantly let go and stood aside.

Lu Ningyu began chanting softly, then slowly knelt. Although the wind still howled and the rain lashed down, her kneeling seemed to stir something in the air, and Lu Yi’s left eyelid was lifted by an unseen force.

Lu Ningyu stared greedily at his left eye. “This will be mine.” She raised the knife, aiming it at Lu Yi’s eye.

“What are you doing?” Li Xinran lunged to stop her. The two scuffled, and Lu Ningyu snapped, shoving Li Xinran hard.

Li Xinran struck a chunk of rubble and instantly lost consciousness.

“You’ll understand. I’m doing this for everyone’s sake.” Lu Ningyu licked her lips, her eyes hungry, and once more raised the knife toward Lu Yi.