Chapter 460: If You Just Charge at Me Like That, I Might Really Freak Out
After countless tests, Bai Feng finally got a handle on this strange occurrence—maybe it was because Chu Chu’s cultivation was rising, and her Celestial Eye gained a few more tricks. Or maybe her Illusion Art just got more complex. Whatever the reason, Bai Feng was starting to understand her game a little better.
The main thing, of course, was emotions—those tricky little beasties. And Chu Chu’s Celestial Eye could express her feelings in three different ways: First, she’d absorb her own negative emotions—nothing shocking there, kind of like a built-in emo sponge that had existed since before her eyes even recovered. And, thanks to her shaky mastery, sometimes these feelings would unintentionally spill out and affect others nearby.
Second, she could draw out the negative emotions lurking inside everyone else, even affecting those close to her. And third? She could directly impose one or multiple negative emotions onto someone else. Talk about a mood swing.
The rest of her abilities mainly helped boost her illusion techniques, which sounded grand and fancy.
“Honestly, I’m kinda glad I chased after you back then and brought you back,” Bai Feng muttered, cracking his jaw with a vaguely proud expression.
Chu Chu’s Celestial Eye looked unimpressive, but the damage it could do was no joke. If she ever went dark mid-mission, it’d be a disaster for the world. Imagine her hiding in the city, turning The entire place into a sea of despair with a flick of her eye—mental breakdowns flying everywhere, suicides skyrocketing. Yeah, all that bad news.
Chu Chu shook her head. “If not for you, my eyes wouldn’t have recovered.”
“Maybe,” Bai Feng said with a sideways glance. He wasn’t exactly in the dark about her identity as the Child of Destiny—her fate was written in the stars, and even without him, her Celestial Eye could probably be restored someday. Just might take some twists and turns.
“Alright, let’s keep going,” he said, activating the Array again. “This time, try combining some illusion techniques. You’ve dabbled in illusion magic, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve learned a little,” Chu Chu nodded. After all, her Cultivation Method involved Spirit Refinement, which already contained some illusion elements. Plus, she’d studied additional illusion books just to maximize her Celestial Eye’s potential.
“Good, let’s get started.”
Bai Feng closed his eyes, turning his body slightly to the side to look elsewhere. Even so, he ‘saw’ a pair of pitch-black eyes—like a swirling vortex pulling him in. He could break free if he wanted, but he didn’t. Instead, he wanted to see what happened when the Celestial Eye cast its illusion.
Suddenly, he found himself lying on a soft bed—though his arms and legs were tightly bound. The room was pitch black, with no windows in sight, like he’d been locked in some underground dungeon nobody knew about.
“…”
If the mattress beneath him wasn’t soft but a cold metal slab, that’d probably be horrifying. But honestly? Even now, it was pretty scary.
He then heard the slow creak of a heavy metal door. A figure wrapped in bandages, blindfolded, entered from the shadows, walking straight toward him.
“Chu Chu?”
“…Sorry,” she mumbled.
Chu Chu instinctively tilted her head away. She didn’t quite understand why her illusion looked like this—she’d thought it would be something else, something darker. She remembered the dark thoughts flashing through her mind just moments before, causing her head to lower even further.
“No, I think this illusion is quite clever and frightening—certainly enough to intensify negative feelings,” Bai Feng complimented gently. “If you hadn’t spoken earlier and just charged at me, I’d have genuinely been startled.”
“But that wouldn’t be very nice, right?”
Chu Chu shook her head. Actually, she’d had similar thoughts, but as soon as Bai Feng called her by name, she suppressed them. She didn’t want her suppressed darker side to scare him off or make him hate her.
“It’s just a test; what’s wrong with that?”
Bai Feng smiled. In some ways, Chu Chu and Little Qi (Xiao Qi) seemed alike—they both carefully ‘manage’ their relationship with him, wary of pushing him away. But really, they were just different inside.
Little Qi wanted to be a obedient, well-behaved little sister, eager to respond to his expectations. Chu Chu, on the other hand, had a past full of danger, leading her to feel insecure about everything new. That lingering sense of danger made her a little guarded around him, even scared of being disliked.
He guessed this might be one reason her Celestial Eye had changed.
“Maybe next time, we’ll do it differently,” Chu Chu nodded softly.
“Alright, next time,” Bai Feng clapped his hands. “But for now, let’s continue.”
“Don’t dissolve the illusion just yet,” he added, before Chu Chu could say anything. “This test—you can do it anywhere.”
“Okay.” Chu Chu nodded seriously, ready.
“The goal’s pretty simple,” Bai Feng looked at her, “Chu Chu, let your emotions out and see how they affect your Celestial Eye. And how strong that influence can be.”
“…How do I do that?” Chu Chu looked puzzled.
“Basically, sometimes we all feel like venting. You probably do too, right? Just like earlier—let your feelings out.”
“That kinda thing…”
Chu Chu lowered her head. It wasn’t just sometimes; she felt like that every single day. That’s why she was painfully aware of how intense her emotions and desires were…
Though she usually appeared normal on the surface, someone who could harness her Celestial Eye to gather murderous intent and absorb it—that’s not normal at all.
She didn’t want her emotions to govern her or let others see her like that.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch,” Bai Feng assured her.
From observing her and recalling her past, Bai Feng understood there was something contradictory or even special about her. Her Celestial Eye suggested she was a personality with strong emotions. But perhaps her past fleeing and living in peril had forced her to be rational, suppressing her unstable feelings deep inside.
Yet, those intense emotions didn’t just vanish because she tried to suppress them—for her Celestial Eye to have amassed such murderous intent in the past, they must have been strong.
His purpose was to see the connection between her emotions and her Celestial Eye, to prevent her from losing control if she suppressed her feelings too harshly.
Chu Chu was silent for a few seconds before shaking her head. “I don’t think I can do it.”
“Then let’s start simple,” Bai Feng said with a gentle smile.
He could sense her resistance, but the more she resisted, the more he worried. He was afraid she might become a ticking bomb—an emotional powder keg ready to explode should some trigger shatter her fragile mind.
“Simple?”
Chu Chu looked confused.
“Yeah, you don’t need to release all your feelings—just go with the flow for a bit. Like this…”
He slowly raised his right hand, showing her, “Come on, put your hand on mine.”
Chu Chu’s face still carried doubt, but she followed his instruction, placing her hand on Bai Feng’s palm.
