Zhen Wu continued his silent observation of the young man, whose every step and decision seemed both deliberate and absurd. The boy Jian, had just saved Liya, the woman who had insulted and beaten him previously.
Using his newfound sword proficiency, Jian had dispatched a group of petty thugs who had cornered her in a dark alley.
"I told you I'd prove myself," Jian said, offering a faint smile as he wiped the blood from his blade.
Liya's expression, however, remained disdainful. "You're still weak," she said, brushing past him without so much as a thank you. "Next time, don't bother. I didn't need your help."
Jian froze, his shoulders stiffening. For a moment, he seemed like he might retort, but instead, he clenched his jaw and silently sheathed his sword.
Zhen Wu, observing from a concealed perch nearby, raised an eyebrow. This boy's patience is both his strength and his weakness. A perfect pawn, molded by humiliation and desperation.
Jian walked away, muttering under his breath. "The simulator said she'd be grateful. Why wasn't she? Did I make a mistake? What did I change?."
As the night deepened, Jian retreated to a secluded clearing, the same one Zhen Wu had found him in the night before. Sitting cross legged, Jian summoned the interface of his mysterious simulator, his fingers moving through unseen options.
"Let's see," Jian mumbled. "I've got to prepare for what's coming."
Zhen Wu settled into a meditative stance nearby, his presence veiled by the Perfect Ghost Technique. He watched as Jian activated another simulation, his body stiffening as he poured all his focus into the screen Zhen Wu couldn't see.
Moments later, Jian's eyes snapped open, panic etched across his face. "A month? I die in a month?" His voice quivered, but he quickly shook his head. "No, that's plenty of time. I'll fix this.
But how did I die?.... "
He ran the simulation again.
This time, Jian gasped as soon as he emerged. "Three weeks?!" His breathing quickened, and sweat began to bead on his forehead. "Why did the timeline shorten? What am I missing?"
Zhen Wu observed quietly, his interest piqued.
Jian initiated another simulation, his trembling hands betraying his growing fear. When he emerged, his face was pale as death. "Two weeks. No, no, no. This doesn't make sense. I didn't even do anything different!...No no I didn't even stand up..."
Zhen Wu squinted his eyes Dangerously, having a guess that unsettled him about the situation in front of him, but he stayed put not acting just observing.
....
The process repeated, and each time, the remaining days of Jian's life dwindled further, ten days, then seven, and finally five.
By now, Jian was visibly shaking. "Why is this happening?!" he shouted into the empty clearing. "Who's doing this?!" His eyes darted around wildly, and for a moment, Zhen Wu felt the boy's gaze linger near his position.
"He's… he's following me, isn't he?" Jian whispered, clutching his chest as though the very act of speaking the words drained him. "That's the only explanation. Someone something, is watching me, waiting for me to fail."
Zhen Wu's eyes narrowed. 'He guessed my presence. Or at least the presence of something beyond his understanding, through this simulation thing maybe... Hmmm."
The problem was that he couldn't understand how this thing bypassed his (perfect ghost) technique, normally this technique will even fool such things as future predictions, since those things weren't accurate to start with, even the Universal will didn't have any means to counter his (perfect ghost), which adds few questions to the problem at hand.
...
Jian stumbled to his feet, pacing in frantic circles. "If it's a curse, I can break it. If it's a person… I'll deal with them. But how? How do I fight something I can't see?"
The young man eventually collapsed to his knees, his breaths shallow and erratic. "Five days," he muttered. "I have five days to figure this out. I can't let it end like this."
....
Zhen Wu's thoughts swirled as he observed the boy, his own mind sharpening.
"The simulator is far more than I had initially thought."
Through his surveillance, Zhen Wu had pieced together a concerning truth. The artifact, the simulator was a treasure unlike any he had encountered before. And its connection to Jian was absolute.
The boy's life force and the treasure were so intertwined that even if Jian were to die, the simulator would just be lost forever. "What kind of treasure is this? It's not just a tool...."
Zhen Wu's gaze grew intense. 'Was the Universe's Will aware of this treasure's capabilities when it placed Jian in this position, or...'
'Could it be that the Will didn't give Jian this power at all? Perhaps it discovered him after the fact, and now, like a dog with a bone, it's using him as a weapon against me. If this is true…'
His expression darkened. 'Then it means the Universal Will cannot even retrieve the artifact. That's why it's trying to use Jian as a pawn. It doesn't want to lose this thing called a simulator.'
As much as Zhen Wu tried to push the thought aside, he could not ignore the implications.
" Void Treasure, this 'simulator' could only be a void treasure."
Void treasures were supremely rare, and always so powerful to the point it defies logic, but their functions and workings were completely random, almost impossible to control, and the will was trying to use it against him by leading this boy by the nose, and from what he had seen so far it wasn't a hard job.
All it requires is a beautiful woman, maybe have him meet with one of his slaves, and the boy will start jumping around like a monkey fighting against himself for Justice and freedom, where even Paragons didn't dare to.
Now armed with this new discovery, Zhen Wu felt enlightened. But there was a complication. He had one method to obtain the treasure, to steal it from Jian and make it his own, when even the Universal will couldn't, but he wasn't sure it it was worth it.
Zhen Wu's expression tightened, and his aura rippled with the weight of the decision. To take the simulator from Jian would require his ultimate trump card, the Eye of Reality.
His fingers curled into a fist as his mind raced. The Eye of Reality was a technique that could manipulate the fabric of time and space. It could warp truth and perception.
The Eye of Reality was a forbidden technique he made, one that could only be used three times in a lifetime.
"Should I use it now?" Zhen Wu pondered.
" If I just kill him here and now, I can unravel this whole web of plots. But if I take the simulator from him then the gamble I was going to take might no longer remain a gamble."
His fingers twitched involuntarily. But at what cost?
After some pondering He sighed. "I can't afford to hesitate."
The universal will isn't paying attention to Jian now, most probably because it was observing him and his reaction to the situation that happened not long ago, but this won't last long.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, Zhen Wu turned away from his hidden position, disappearing into the shadows. " I'll follow him for a while longer. Only then will I make my decision. Just One more day!".
.....
As Jian struggled to compose himself, Zhen Wu vanished into the night, leaving no trace of his presence. His mind churned with possibilities.
He had already planned to use the eye of reality to give himself an advantage in his upcoming plan, but from what he saw the simulator might prove a better option for his plan.
Thinking of his ultimate technique he couldn't help but feel nostalgic falling into old memories.
....
The void of endless space stretched infinitely, a silent and cold witness to the deadly game of pursuit. Zhen Wu had been on the run for days, evading the relentless Paragon known as the Lady of Mystery. Her celestial form shimmered like a silver wraith, her presence commanding fear across galaxies. She was determined to kill him, viewing his existence as a threat to the cosmic balance.
Zhen Wu, though a few stages below Paragon, was far from an ordinary cultivator.
He had spent years crafting techniques that bordered on the impossible, and now, as he fled deeper into the uncharted void beyond the known universe, he worked feverishly on his masterpiece: the Eye of Reality. It was incomplete, a mere concept, yet it held the potential to be the ultimate weapon.
The chase came to an abrupt halt when the impossible occurred. Both Zhen Wu and the Lady of Mystery were suddenly frozen mid-flight, their powerful bodies rendered immobile. A strange phenomenon had trapped them, locking them in place. Even the Lady of Mystery, with all her Paragon might, could not break free.
Zhen Wu's sharp mind quickly assessed the situation. It wasn't an attack; it was a natural phenomenon beyond comprehension. His eyes darted toward the source, a colossal, ancient meteorite drifting silently through the void. Its surface glowed faintly, etched with incomprehensible patterns that pulsed with a mystical rhythm.
The meteorite's presence froze time in its vicinity, yet it allowed thoughts to remain untouched. The Lady of Mystery scowled, waiting for the meteorite to pass so she could resume her hunt. She viewed this as a mere delay. Zhen Wu, however, saw an opportunity.
As the meteorite passed, Zhen Wu's mind slipped into an enlightened state. The patterns on the meteorite spoke to him in ways no mortal could understand. Concepts of time, space, and reality unraveled before his eyes. In those fleeting moments, he completed the Eye of Reality, a technique that had eluded him for centuries. But it was no longer the humble tool he had envisioned, it had become something far greater, a weapon capable of bending the fabric of existence itself.
When the meteorite finally drifted away, releasing them both, the Lady of Mystery prepared to strike. Her spear, forged from starlight, gleamed with lethal intent.
Zhen Wu turned to face her, his expression calm, yet his right eye glowed with an eerie, otherworldly brilliance. "You shouldn't have chased me," he murmured.
Before she could respond, Zhen Wu activated the Eye of Reality for the first time. Time seemed to shatter as a burst of incomprehensible energy surged forth. The Lady of Mystery's celestial form disintegrated in an instant, her Paragon defenses meaningless before the sheer might of the technique.
As her remains faded into the void, Zhen Wu closed his glowing eye, feeling the weight of what he had unleashed. The Eye of Reality had drained him more than he expected, but its power was undeniable. It was a trump card he vowed to use sparingly, a technique born of desperation and perfected in the crucible of survival.
Floating alone in the void, Zhen Wu turned his gaze toward the fading meteorite, a hint of gratitude flickering in his steely demeanor. He had survived, and The Lady of Mystery was gone, and with her death, Zhen Wu had cemented his place as a force to be reckoned with.
From that day forward, the Eye of Reality remained his ultimate weapon, hidden until the moment demanded its use again.