One-Eyed Monster

Kuren was twirling his fingers, his mind finding it difficult to calm.

This must be an accident!

There’s no way his World Setting Technique could have a flaw. This has to be an accident.

Despite Kuren’s disbelief, what was bound to happen, happened. The Treasure Hunters, whom he thought he had under control, discovered a flaw in his World Setting Technique. Although this flaw wouldn’t destroy the entire technique, it did affect its overall perfection.

Kuren pursued perfection and couldn’t tolerate even the slightest flaw. He believed that if there were any errors in the World Setting Technique, the bloodthirsty creature would return to him.

This was the last thing he wanted to think about and also the main reason he so fervently pursued perfection.

Now that these formidable individuals had discovered a flaw, he considered it a contribution toward perfecting his World Setting Technique.

Kuren remained confident, believing that the stronger the opponents, the harder it would be for them to escape this Maze Array. His World Setting Technique wasn’t like other Illusion Spells, where trapped individuals could escape the illusions in their minds merely by regaining consciousness and returning to the real world.

The World Setting Technique didn’t rely on confusing the enemy’s mind and spirit. It depended on deceiving their eyes.

The simplest World Setting Technique was to make the opponent see what they wanted to see, then involuntarily believe that everything happening around them was real. This technique was far more ingenious than a Wizard’s Illusion Spell. A Wizard’s Illusion Spell required confusing the opponent, a passive method of luring them into the illusion. The brilliance of the World Setting Technique, however, lay in transforming this passive reception into active belief.

Those who actively immerse themselves in an illusion do not think they are living in a void; they only feel that everyone around them trying to dissuade them is deceiving them.

This kind of power was hidden within people’s bodies, rarely discovered.

Between willingness and coercion lay a thick layer of dust. This dust might seem insignificant, but when it spread, it possessed surprising power.

At the very least, an accumulation of this thick dust could suffocate a person to death…

Kuren still remembered the Great Mentor, who had discovered this power, uttering a profound statement on more than one occasion: ”Many minor factors can determine success or failure, but those who discover these minor factors may not necessarily possess decisive power.”

At that time, Kuren didn’t comprehend the meaning of this sentence. He always felt that the Great Mentor himself was being modest, not wanting to show off his abilities.

Later, as he repeatedly used the World Setting Technique on Dawn Peak, he gradually understood the meaning of the Great Mentor’s words.

Subtle factors can determine success or failure. The success of the World Setting Technique depended on small details. Each painting had to start with the details. If you drew the fireball of Extreme Summer as the sun of extreme winter, no one would be deceived, no matter how vivid the drawing.

That’s because everyone knows that the sun of extreme winter is warm and friendly; it couldn’t possibly be a volatile fireball radiating heat everywhere…

Such a subtle difference could render the World Setting Technique worthless.

Kuren once again began to stroke the bamboo slips. These slips, which he could arrange and move, represented every corner of Dawn Peak on Guru Mountain. Each bamboo slip corresponded to a painting Kuren had painstakingly created.

He had meticulously observed every corner of Dawn Peak on Guru Mountain. He had indeed discovered many subtle things on Dawn Peak, but he himself did not possess great strength. He lacked not only decisive power but even the strength to change his own fate and escape the bloodthirsty being.

So, Kuren felt another implication in the Great Mentor’s words: some people are destined to be stepping stones for others. All their discoveries and contributions are merely rungs on a ladder for others to climb higher.

To be this stepping stone was the greatest mission of his remaining life.

Therefore, he could not, under any circumstances, allow this group to break through his World Setting Technique.

Especially those from the Alchemy Workshop…

Kuren looked at his own arm and couldn’t help sighing. He wasn’t always like this. If it wasn’t for the Alchemy Workshop…

Now was not the time for sorrow. Seeing the shaking bamboo slips brought Kuren back from his distant thoughts.

The shaking bamboo slips indicated that the opponents had seen through the painting at that location. Although they hadn’t fully emerged from the illusion, doubt would soon seep into their very bones and shatter the trust previously established. When that tower of trust completely collapsed, the painting would disappear, and the corresponding bamboo slip in front of Kuren would fall...

The most basic element of the World Setting Technique was these lifelike paintings. These paintings were not mere drawings of flowers and plants on paper; they were three-dimensional images created by the user of the World Setting Technique with Spirit Power.

These Spirit Energy Paintings were distributed throughout every corner of the mountain according to the World Setting Technique’s arrangement. Corresponding Alchemical Markers were hidden in each of these corners. These Markers were interconnected by similar Spirit Power, and through the intersections of this Spirit Power, they transmitted the information within the Spirit Energy Paintings to one another. In a way, these Markers were like mirrors, constantly reflecting the surrounding scenery to other mirrors using sunlight.

Currently, Kuren’s ’mirrors’ had not been discovered. Instead, the images within the mirrors had aroused suspicion.

Kuren didn’t feel his painting was bad; he had just been overconfident earlier and had misplaced the bamboo slip by a tiny margin.

However, he didn’t feel this slight displacement was of much consequence. He still believed that the disturbance in the Spirit Energy Painting was fundamentally an accident.

If the big fellow hadn’t given up resistance, my painting would show no signs of collapsing. Now, they are brazenly standing on it, apparently no longer believing it’s a cliff…

How can I fix this to restore normality? This accident has affected the entire World Setting Technique. I need to apply a patch, just like patching up a painting.

Although Kuren was trying his utmost to repair the painting, this accident still left him agitated, and he didn’t know how to calm himself. He felt that something was still not quite right.

His Spirit Energy pen dotted and circled the area on the bamboo slip corresponding to the painting. Before long, the loophole was fixed. He mentally added the explanation: The reason you aren’t falling off the cliff is because there’s an Undroppable Vine at the edge. Once this vine touches you, it will never let go, for it is the Undroppable Vine—it will not let you fall.

PHEW. Kuren breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed his frantically beating heart finally showed signs of calming.

At least he had kept the boundary he guarded from being breached…

CLATTER! Before Kuren could recover his composure, two bamboo slips in front of him suddenly fell over…

What shocked him even more was that one of the fallen bamboo slips corresponded to the very painting he had just fixed!

This… this definitely can’t be considered an accident anymore.