Chapter Sixty-Three: The Second Evil Eye

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Old Tang: How is my brother doing now?
Old Tang: Is he hurt?
Old Tang: Where is that bastard Odin?
Old Tang: ? Where are you?
(28 messages omitted)

Back at the hotel, Lu Mingfei glanced at the panda avatar that popped up with a flood of messages on QQ. He suddenly felt an urge to block Old Tang, but this guy was Norton, after all. Blocking him was out of the question—it wouldn’t be right.

So he enabled “Do Not Disturb.”

Otherwise, with Old Tang’s pace of sending two messages every few minutes, he'd have to become a full-time phone addict on his way home, barely able to look up at all.

Still, this indirectly showed how much Old Tang cared about his own brother—Constantine. His concern bordered on the pathological. If something happened to Chu Zihang, Lu Mingfei seriously suspected Old Tang would go berserk on the spot, risking everything to kill the culprit.

Lu Mingfei: He’s fine for now. He just plans to go after Odin, but hasn’t taken action yet.
Lu Mingfei: Odin’s Nibelungen is suspected to be on the 000 overpass near Shilan Middle School.
Old Tang: How’s my brother’s strength now?
Old Tang: What kind of Word Spirits can he use?
Lu Mingfei: He’s really skilled with Sovereign Flame, but not much else. Probably because his memory hasn’t fully recovered—right now he’s only proficient in Sovereign Flame.
Old Tang: That’s good. Sovereign Flame was always Constantine’s specialty.
Lu Mingfei: Mm-hmm.

After replying twice more, Old Tang stopped sending messages. Lu Mingfei strongly suspected it wasn’t because Old Tang didn’t want to, but because his phone had died—or perhaps he’d run out of credit and couldn’t send messages.

That was good. The world was peaceful again.

Lu Mingfei relaxed on the sofa. The hotel wasn’t his home, but it carried the memories and traces of his hard training. In many ways, it felt more like home than his old house ever did.

“Hoo~”

Thinking of his past efforts, his mind instinctively drifted to the fruit of his labor—Evil Eye—a precious artifact he’d poured so much energy into crafting. Losing the Evil Eye left him with conflicting feelings, but he didn’t regret it; his senior was worth it.

Though he belonged to Kassel College and was tasked with monitoring him, Chu Zihang had never done anything to disrupt his life. On the contrary, whenever Lu Mingfei needed help, his senior would respond immediately, assisting with any problem that arose.

Even when Lu Mingfei whimsically wanted to raise a puppy, his senior would do his best to help. With such a good senior, Lu Mingfei was happy to lend a hand—even at the cost of losing the Evil Eye.

Worst case, he could just make another one!

Thinking this, a relieved smile crept across Lu Mingfei’s face. Though Evil Eye was gone, the experience and memories gained in its creation remained. Making another Evil Eye would be far less difficult than the first time.

Creation.

Evil Eyes of other attributes—are their structures the same as those of the lightning attribute? Can I simply use the same formula?

Probably not. Different elemental attributes have unique properties, and the Eye of God’s elemental structure should vary accordingly. Applying the lightning attribute structure to other attributes might even cause disaster.

I need to observe other attribute Eyes of God or Evil Eyes!

Afternoon nap time

Familiar night, familiar people, familiar sensations returned. The familiar servant still sat on the same bench as before, her heart now completely calm.

One, two, three, four.

She silently counted in her mind. Based on previous experience, Lu Mingfei would kick her out around the count of five, sometimes at four or six—never a fixed time.

The servant guessed that these recent dream summons, though seemingly random and without cause, actually had a deeper purpose. Lu Mingfei certainly had his reasons. Perhaps he was confirming her location and state, or testing her reactions.

He probably didn’t know her exact position or condition, but the invisible mark left by Fennina allowed him to pull her into his dream. Then, through the sensation of the dream, he could share her status with Fennina, helping her to devise a more perfect strategy.

Perhaps that was the truth.

Five, six, seven.

“Hm?”

When she reached seven, the servant suddenly sensed something was off. She slowly raised her head, her eyes flashing with red X-shaped pupils in the darkness, gazing at Lu Mingfei not far away, and softly asked, “Oh? Is there something else this time?”

“Can I borrow your Evil Eye for a look?”

Lu Mingfei asked with a smile.

“Evil Eye?”

Her expression remained unchanged, but her heart was in turmoil. Only her spirit entered the dream, so the Evil Eye she brought was a phantom; yet Lu Mingfei wanted to inspect it, which surely carried a hidden meaning.

Known: He can affect reality through dreams. If I die in the dream, I suffer invisible spiritual harm in reality.

If that’s the case...

If he seals or destroys my Evil Eye in the dream, would my real Evil Eye also be damaged? Is he trying to weaken my combat power?

It made sense. With the true Judgment Day approaching, if he wanted to weaken her now, it was understandable. But if so, then perhaps Lu Mingfei wasn’t as omnipotent as she’d imagined. He might not be able to fully protect Fennina.

“What do you want the Evil Eye for?”

Though she already had an answer, the servant feigned ignorance. Sometimes, knowing too much brings misfortune.

“I want to study its structure. If possible, I’d like to try and make another Evil Eye myself,” Lu Mingfei replied, not bothering to conceal his intentions.

Study the structure?

Make another Evil Eye? Again?

There was a lot packed into those words, but the servant couldn’t tell how much was true or false, nor why Lu Mingfei said it. Was he watching for her reaction or steering events in a certain direction?

Should she let him see the Evil Eye?

He might destroy or seal it...

“Heh.”

After a brief contemplation, she laughed, elegantly crossing her legs and tilting her head as she retorted, “Do you think I have any choice in the matter?”

As she spoke, she glanced around, searching for Fennina’s presence in the dream. Logically, Fennina should also be here in her own nightmare, but she was absent.

Did Lu Mingfei pull her in directly?

Or perhaps he deliberately hid Fennina’s presence to make her think just that?

“There is, of course,” Lu Mingfei replied with a gentle, pure smile. But his next words were hardly reassuring: “You can choose to refuse, and I can choose to take it by force. Don’t worry—we both have a bright future ahead.”

...

The servant stared coldly at him, defining Lu Mingfei in her heart: he could be a celestial beast, a ghost, a tengu, a demon, a dragon king—but one thing was certain: this guy was definitely not human! He absolutely wasn’t human!

After a brief silence, she sighed inwardly and tossed the Evil Eye to Lu Mingfei.

She knew perfectly well that here, her choices and will meant nothing. There was no need to endure unnecessary pain, struggling like a clown only to have the Evil Eye taken from her.

“A wise decision.”

Lu Mingfei took the Evil Eye and examined it closely. Using his Mirror Pupil, he analyzed its construction, pondering its differences from his own Evil Eye and Eye of God, and whether he could glean inspiration.

He cradled the dark red Evil Eye in his palm, and after a brief analysis and deconstruction, murmured, “Hmm, the section that channels elemental power is much like the Eye of God, but the authority it uses seems to carry a curse. If an ordinary person used this, they might die quite quickly.”

“Excess elemental power is toxic to normal people of Teyvat. Using an Evil Eye to channel excessive elemental power, combined with that curse, makes this Evil Eye even more dangerous than the ones I’ve crafted.”

He looked again at the servant and continued, “But for someone like you, the Evil Eye has no side effects. Trace curses and elemental erosion won’t affect you much. To you, it’s more like a superior Eye of God—adequate, I suppose.”

“Is that so?”

The servant replied softly, turning over his words in her mind, pondering—did this guy also craft Evil Eyes? He seemed to know a lot about them.

Next, she witnessed something shocking.

The gray-haired youth held the Evil Eye in one hand, and with the other, gathered crimson elemental power, shaping it into a crystalline form. He watched the Evil Eye as he worked, his gaze occasionally showing disdain, which quickly faded.

Soon, his attention shifted entirely to the new Evil Eye in his hand, focusing on its construction. The original Evil Eye was all but forgotten, just a reference tool.

The new dark red Evil Eye took shape, flame patterns etched across its crystalline surface, surging power pulsing within—it was a true Evil Eye, not just a superficial imitation.

“Done.”

Lu Mingfei casually tossed the original Evil Eye back to the servant, never once looking away from his newly forged Evil Eye, still scrutinizing its structure, searching for imperfections to further improve.

“Snap!”

The servant retrieved her Evil Eye, carefully examining it for any anomalies.

On the surface, nothing seemed amiss. It channeled elemental power normally.

Lu Mingfei appeared to have made no modifications, though perhaps her power hadn’t reached a high enough level to touch the boundary—only in true battle would she sense any abnormality.

Soon, the familiar sensation returned, and the servant was kicked out of the dream once more.

I knew it, I knew it!

(End of chapter)