Lord Tongmu gave no instructions.
He simply opened the doors, leaving Purple Hammer, who had just entered the fortress, completely bewildered, unsure of what he was supposed to do.
Lady Zeno’s power was life and plants.
Lady Feiwan’s power was destruction and fire.
But Lord Tongmu’s power was of only one kind: the Eye.
An unparalleled Pupillary Power. Lord Tongmu’s eyes could see through all illusions and discern all forms of power.
It was the eye of the Lord.
It was the eye of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
Purple Hammer could only follow his intuition, walking deeper into the darkness.
Yet no matter how far he walked, he never seemed to reach the end.
The omnipresent gaze felt like thorns on his back, making his body increasingly uncomfortable.
Just from the gaze alone, he found himself starting to falter; it felt as though his body was being sliced by a thousand invisible blades.
Where was this gaze coming from? Purple Hammer collapsed to his knees and lowered his head.
Only then did he realize there was a faint light beneath his feet.
Kneeling on the ground, he strained his vision, trying to see what lay beneath him.
It appeared to be red, like glass, reflecting his blurry silhouette in the darkness.
No, this was...
Purple Hammer stood up with great difficulty, only to realize that he was standing on a massive, wide-open eyeball!
He was standing right in the center of the eye. Extending beneath his feet was a pupil like the mouth of an abyss, as if it were about to swallow him whole.
This was Lord Tongmu!
Terrified, Purple Hammer scrambled back several steps. He felt a wave of heat flow down his face, and his vision grew increasingly blurred.
He hurriedly reached out to touch his face, only to feel the eyelids of his multiple eyes shriveling.
That heat was the fluid flowing from his eyeballs!
All because he had looked clearly at Lord Tongmu’s eye!
That was the eye of Lord Tongmu, the eye of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
Gazing directly into those pupils brought a backlash that a mere purple-skinned blacksmith could never hope to endure.
Purple Hammer covered his eyes, but he couldn't stop the fluid from streaming out of his sockets.
Even after the eyeballs had completely shriveled and the fluid had run dry, his sockets continued to weep.
Purple Hammer could feel his vitality draining away.
Suppreessing his fear and agony, he reached into his sockets and tore out the shriveled eyeballs one by one, casting them onto the ground.
The shriveled eyeballs resembled clusters of withered, black-and-white fleshy grapes.
Purple Hammer collapsed in agony, and the weeping from his sockets finally ceased.
He leaned back against the giant eye beneath him, not daring to look down again, even though his own eyes had been gouged out.
However, now that his eyes were gone, as he lay upon the massive eyeball, he found that his “vision” was becoming increasingly clear.
He crawled up from the ground. The power of his various blessings had already stopped the bleeding from his wounds.
As his vision cleared, he could see sprouts growing from the shriveled eyeballs he had discarded.
The sprouts grew rapidly, unfurling emerald-green leaves as their stems rose straight up.
Once they reached half the height of a man, a bud formed at the tip of each stem.
The buds slowly opened, and at the center of each flower was an eye.
Members of the purple-skinned blacksmith tribe typically had four to six eyes.
The more eyes one had, the stronger their forging techniques and overall power tended to be.
The number of eyeballs was also a symbol of status.
As the leader of his tribe, Purple Hammer naturally possessed six eyes.
From the six eyeballs he had torn out, six flowers had grown.
However, the stems of these six flowers were interconnected. If he plucked one, it would absorb all the nutrients from the others, causing the remaining five to wither.
Lord Tongmu still had not spoken, but Purple Hammer now understood the guardian's intent.
He was to choose one from the six types of Pupillary Power blessings being offered.
Purple Hammer approached the first flower.
This one had bloomed from the eye at the back of his head; its pupil was black.
Upon lightly touching the petals, Purple Hammer learned the ability of the eye within.
The Healing Eye. It could heal his own wounds or those of others, and it could absorb and store life force.
Purple Hammer was tempted, but this was not the eye he needed. Moreover, he already possessed Lady Zeno’s life blessing and Aclaire’s blessing.
The eye in the second flower was cyan.
The Stealth Eye. It could hide one's presence and even their physical form.
Still not the blessing he sought.
The third was purple.
Clairvoyance. It allowed the user to see scenes from extreme distances.
Purple Hammer didn't dare look at it for too long, fearing he would succumb to temptation.
The fourth was the Penetration Eye.
It could see through stealth and directly perceive the strength of an opponent.
The fifth was silver—the Binding Eye.
It could materialize one's gaze, allowing the user to unknowingly bind and control enemies through sight.
Purple Hammer sucked in a breath. Controlling and binding enemies through an intangible gaze...
Was this the power of Lord Tongmu? How terrifying.
Unlike Lady Zeno or Lady Feiwan, Lord Tongmu’s power had never been fully displayed.
Furthermore, all of Lord Tongmu’s power was concentrated in his pupils, making it less intuitive than the powers of the other two guardians.
This was the first time Purple Hammer had glimpsed even a fraction of Lord Tongmu’s true power, seeing just what kind of might those pupils contained.
This was the eye of the Lord, the eye of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
Purple Hammer walked toward the final flower.
This one was dark red, the most bewitching of all the flowers.
The Eye of Eternal Imprisonment.
The moment he touched the petals, Purple Hammer learned the name of this eyeball.
The name alone was enough to convey the blessing’s power.
This dungeon of the Lord was, after all, named the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
In this place, anything bearing the name of Eternal Imprisonment was worthy of special attention.
And the Eye of Eternal Imprisonment was very likely the core of all the blessings Lord Tongmu offered.
The Eye of Eternal Imprisonment could greatly slow down the perceived speed of its surroundings, making everything appear sluggish and allowing the user to see an enemy’s weaknesses and openings.
At the same time, it possessed the ability of Eternal Imprisonment.
It could seal things within the pupil, allowing the user to gain power from the sealed objects without consuming them.
For example, if a top-grade mana recovery potion were sealed within the Eye of Eternal Imprisonment, Purple Hammer’s mana recovery speed would be boosted to a certain degree.
If a top-grade shield were sealed within, his defense would be significantly enhanced.
One could even seal a living being inside.
Purple Hammer could then draw power from that being to augment his own body.
Of course, to seal a living creature, one first had to defeat it.
Sealing inanimate objects was much simpler.
However, if an object’s power was too great and exceeded the eye’s capacity, the Eye of Eternal Imprisonment would be destroyed.
Once destroyed, it would vanish forever.
The upper limit of power the Eye of Eternal Imprisonment could withstand could also be increased, but it required obtaining more of the Lord’s power.
And as for how to obtain the Lord’s power...
Currently, Purple Hammer knew of only one way: receiving blessings from the guardians.
A guardian’s power carried an extremely dense aura of the Lord. By obtaining blessings from different guardians, one could step-by-step upgrade the Eye of Eternal Imprisonment.
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