The spiritual pressure swept through the tunnel like a silent hurricane, shattering air molecules before the rocks. Noble Arkon entered, his footsteps echoing with the rhythm of inevitable death. The (Eye of Insight) in the center of his forehead radiated an overwhelming golden light, scanning every particle of energy in the vicinity. To Arkon, the world was a series of thermal flows; the slave stealing his resources should appear as a brilliant flare.
"In the eyes of the ignorant, seeing is truth. But in the eye of a surgeon, sight is merely the processing of light data," Ether thought, crouching directly behind Kai, using the boy's body as both a physical and spiritual shield.
"Where are you, rat?!" Arkon roared, his voice cracking the very walls. He directed his golden gaze toward the corner where Kai stood.
At that moment, Ether activated the (Dark Refraction) technique. He pulsed cold energy through Kai's spine, transforming the boy's body into an "Energy Prism." When the golden beam struck Kai, it did not bounce back; it refracted at a sharp angle, creating an artificial "blind spot" in Arkon's vision.
"Now... your insight has become your prison."
Ether moved. He didn't move like a human, but like a wraith gliding through the voids created by the refraction. Thanks to the (Spiritual Microscope), Ether could see the "optic nerves" of Arkon's eye expanding and contracting, struggling to process the visual error.
The Rank 2 Noble saw Kai as a distorted "black void" and thought there was a flaw in the mine or his phantom. "What is this? The void is swallowing the light?" Arkon hesitated for a fraction of a second.
In the world of cultivators, a fraction of a second is the difference between sovereignty and death.
Ether suddenly appeared in the "blind spot" of Arkon's left eye. He didn't aim for Arkon's heart, for the Dragon-hide armor would have absorbed the impact. Instead, he lunged his blade, saturated with the Frost Raven's ice, toward the (Spectral Tear Duct) directly beneath the golden eye.
"The second rule of Spectral Alchemy: To kill a giant, do not break his leg... sever the thread of his perception."
Ether's blade struck faster than the reaction time of a distracted Rank 2 cultivator. The strike was surgical, precise, and calculated to the millimeter. The goal was not immediate kill, but the "blinding of a god."