“What kind of sensation?”
Asho felt inexplicable. These sorcerers always came up with new terms he had never heard before.
“He actually succeeded! How is this possible?!” Xilin roared in a low voice, suddenly transforming into a master of cleaning the desk. He forcefully hit the desk, pushing the knowledge screen on the desk to the ground, breaking it into pieces.
Asho swallowed his saliva. “Calm down. Do you want to explain the situation to me? Maybe I can provide support other than practical help—”
The trunk suddenly compressed inward, and Asho immediately felt heavy pressure from all sides. He was almost suffocated and found it extremely difficult to breathe. It felt like he was about to be crushed into a pancake!
I, I can’t breathe!
“Aren’t you going to resist?” Xilin said coldly, making a grabbing gesture with his left hand towards Asho. “Your body is still so fragile. I can easily crush you. I’ll count to three. Three, two, one—”
Is this the end for me?
If I had killed him just now… If I hadn’t come to find Xilin… If…
Facing death, Asho unexpectedly found himself not as strong as he thought. He was filled with regret, realizing that he actually had some attachment to life, contrary to what he believed.
Or perhaps, what he was attached to was not life…
Instinctively, Asho closed his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth, waiting for the final excruciating pain of death.
However, after the countdown ended, the trunk did not crush Asho. Instead, it loosened slightly, allowing him to breathe freely again.
He opened his eyes and saw Xilin stumbling and falling beside the desk. Tears streamed down his face, but a smile appeared on his lips. “You’re not Heath after all. You’re not… Hahaha! He succeeded? He actually succeeded? How could he?”
Asho silently watched Xilin cry and laugh. After a long time, he asked, “What were you testing just now?”
Xilin didn’t care about etiquette at all. He sat on the carpet next to the desk and only replied after a moment, “The real Heath possesses the ‘Key.’ It doesn’t require artificing or even language. As long as Heath activates the Key, he can control any disciple, including me.”
Fear deeply rooted in his face, Xilin continued, “It’s a contamination more terrifying than death, a complete loss of self-control! I have tried to commit suicide, but death is not an excuse for disobedience. I lost control of my body just before I died, and I regained the right to ‘use’ my own body only after completing the tasks he assigned… I can no longer resist any of his commands and can only wholeheartedly carry out his will.”
“Since you held the Heart Sword to my neck, I knew you weren’t Heath. But I didn’t dare to believe, didn’t dare to take the risk—maybe Heath was just acting, or maybe you were a split personality of Heath, or maybe…” Xilin’s voice trembled, “I simply didn’t have the courage to believe that Heath would disappear.”
“I’m afraid you’re just another one of his tricks.”
Asho looked at Xilin’s right hand. “You mentioned the ‘Enchanting Eyes’ just now…”
“You didn’t inherit Heath’s memories?” Xilin raised his right hand, and the hole in his palm was so round, like a missing piece of a puzzle, allowing moonlight to pass through unobstructed.
“This is the hole that Heath personally drilled. It’s the price of the ritual.”
“The Ritual… the Ritual faction?”
“That’s right.” Xilin looked at his hand and said, “To be fair, although the price is not small, the effect of the ‘Enchanting Eyes’ is extremely powerful. Anyone who is stared at through my palm will experience several seconds of mental sluggishness. During this period, the person cannot take any action, not even blink.”
Mind control!
Asho deeply felt the horror of this sorcerer’s control skill. He couldn’t resist the mental sluggishness he experienced just now because he didn’t even have time to think about resisting.
If an ordinary person’s thoughts were like a waterfall, with countless thoughts surging every minute and second, then Asho’s thoughts just now were equivalent to a quagmire. It took a long time for a bubble of thought to emerge due to decay.
“Of course, such a powerful effect also has limitations.” Xilin said, “The ‘Enchanting Eyes’ can only affect each person once because only the first time is ‘enchanting,’ and afterwards, only ‘charming’ remains.”
“I was affected by the ‘Enchanting Eyes’ just now, so you can be sure that I’m not Heath…”
“Heath has already seen my ‘Enchanting Eyes’.” Xilin said calmly, “He has seen all the disciples who have been given the ‘Enchanting Eyes’ within the sect. He won’t allow the disciples to have a means to counter him.”
Although there was no evidence, Asho was currently trapped in a tree. Xilin could make him do anything, even if it meant standing on his head and defecating. Xilin had no reason to deceive him.
However, Asho still found it hard to believe—after all, Heath was just a worthless person who wasn’t even a sorcerer. Without Asho, Heath probably wouldn’t have been able to pass the test of the new killer, Igura, and would have been completely robbed of his contribution, ending up at the bottom of the prison.
If Heath really was a villain with a hidden card, then… where is the hidden card?
I came here to play on behalf of him, and he didn’t even leave me a hidden card?!
So Asho still felt that Xilin was fooling his intelligence. A 200-year-old two-winged elf was actually being controlled by a non-sorcerer human in his twenties? If Asho told this to Sword Girl, she would probably respond with, “Don’t read so many ‘submissive’ magazines at such a young age.”
After a moment of silence, Asho asked, “Why are you telling me all this?””Because I was thinking,” Xilin’s gaze fell to the ground, “how I should deal with you.”
“After all, the last task Heath left me was to kill you.”
Asho was taken aback, “Kill me… wait, but I am Asho Heath, you mean—”
“That’s right.” Xilin stood up, leaning on the desk, “The last task Heath gave me was to kill him with all my might. To completely erase the Heath after the ceremony.”
Asho’s mouth twitched, his pupils suddenly contracted, “So, my capture by the Bloodthirsty Hunter… Wakas… the Blood Moon Judgment… and Jielade’s visit, all of it was…”
“All of it was ‘your own’ will.” Xilin said, “I was just doing my best to carry out ‘your’ orders.”
The one who wants to kill me is Heath?
Even though Asho tried to judge whether Xilin was lying, his heart still beat uncontrollably.
Infinite malice and resentment drowned his thoughts like a deep sea, a bone-chilling cold seeped into his body, and he seemed to hear the mockery of countless people in his daze.
From the very beginning, he was a chess piece that had been clearly arranged.
He couldn’t even determine who the real mastermind was, like a child watching his backpack being tossed around by bullies, not knowing who to hit, so wronged that tears were about to fall.
But for some reason, Asho didn’t ignite the fire of anger to dispel the cold in his heart.
He calmly accepted the truth of his own deception, and could even watch his thoughts churn and boil with indifference, as if he were reading someone else’s Sorcerer’s Manual, enjoying a dramatic plot of stormy waves.
When you can observe pain, you are freed from pain.
When you can observe yourself, you are freed from fate.
Anger, resentment, and regret cannot solve any problems. Only absolute calmness, precise judgment, and mechanical execution can reveal all secrets, understand the truth of the world, and implement self-will.
Don’t let the hormones secreted by your body affect your thinking, don’t let boring worldly concepts constrain your imagination, don’t let the unknown fate destroy your calm.
Asho, you need to watch yourself, you need to transcend reality, you need to think about the correct next step, implement the strategy that maximizes benefits, and utilize all available resources.
Just treat others as tools.
Treat yourself as a tool as well.
Then you can become the untroubled observer, Asho.