In accelerated time, everything slowed to a crawl. By the time Ji Liu carved out a path of blood, the outermost blocker, cleaved straight down the middle, had not even had time to collapse to the ground.
Ji Liu didn't look back; he gave himself no time to catch his breath.
The blood-flames surged once more.
Crashing through the wall before him, his halberd drove forward through layer after layer, crushing all in its path.
Not until he felt a colossal spiritus reaction inches away, as if slamming into an invisible wall, did wild joy surge through him—found it!
The outer ward of the ritual hub!
In that slowed time, he had no leisure to mind the chaos and attacks behind him. Entrusting all faith and his very life to his companions, he charged forward without looking back.
Raising both hands, every torrent of blood and flame tangled onto his battle-axe and halberd. In the end, not a trace of blazing light remained—only mottled flecks of crimson rust coating the edges.
Ruin and destruction were entirely invested within.
Eyes widening in fury, a scarlet gleam ignited within his pupils, erupting in silent flame.
"BREAK... FOR... ME!!!!"
In that instant, an ear-splitting boom rang out that not even telekinesis could block. Countless streaks of scarlet manifested from the swing of his axe, converging, and at the end of a sweeping whirl—cleaved!
A sound like a popping bubble seemed to ring out.
Screams, chaos, terror.
A spiritus barrier manifested out of thin air, only to fracture. Another arose, yet proved just as futile. Under the impact of Battle-Tempered Edge unleashed at the cost of his own flesh, the defenses of the ritual hub shattered on contact!
Cracks abruptly webbed across Ji Liu's entire body as scorching blood mist erupted outward.
He felt wind brush past him.
Two silhouettes had already rushed past into the interior without looking back.
Only in passing did someone pat his shoulder.
"Thanks, bro."
"Tch..."
The corner of Ji Liu's mouth twitched slightly. Only at times like this did she act like a real sister.
A silent chuckle.
He braced his body back up and turned around.
Looking at the figures finally reacting or already charging forward in fierce assault, he raised his chipped axe and notched halberd once more. With a manic laugh, Ji Liu lunged out.
And behind that fissure—which had opened for a fleeting instant before swiftly sealing shut—inside a chaotic workshop, the artisan had only just realized what was happening, lunging instinctively toward the pillar-like hub.
He wanted to trigger the alarm.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
As the sixth second in the real world quietly slipped by, at the tail end of the accelerated minute, Ji Xue's figure stumbled and collapsed to the floor, all enchantments dissipating in an instant.
Blood seeped from her nose and mouth, her spiritus exhausted.
Yet in that final split second, her full-strength acceleration had already poured into Ji Jue's body. At the same time, the monstrous strength forged from years of beating each other up with her brother erupted, swinging Ji Jue up and hurling him toward the massive pillar.
Like an artillery shell.
—Tenfold acceleration, one second!
A fleeting streak of light—in a flash, Ji Jue dropped from midair, his left hand pressing onto the artisan's meticulously crafted master control of the hub. Then, without a second thought: Deus Ex Machina!
Bang!
The moment spiritus poured in, it was bounced right back, utterly ineffective.
The hub stood firm. As an alchemical creation wrought by an artisan, it repelled foreign intrusion; any spiritus input lacking the verification sequence had no effect on it!
Unfortunately, Ji Jue's right hand was already coming down right behind it.
—Dissociation Art!
In an instant, spiritus ripples spread out, and intricate structures and modules surfaced in Ji Jue's mind. But none of that mattered anymore. What Ji Jue sought to unleash right now was absolute destruction against all spiritus structures and alchemical creations!
In time accelerated a hundredfold, even the faint hum caused by vibrations turned into a piercing screech like glass being scraped as it passed into the outside world.
In a mere fraction of a second, the sound of cracking burst forth.
Amid the hub's complex structure, the outermost circuits and wards were ruthlessly smashed open by Ji Jue, and then—Deus Ex Machina, channeled straight inside!
And thus, everything inside the entire bank flooded into his vision—
When the artisan finally lunged and slammed his hands onto the console, countless error alerts flared across the projection, offering zero response.
His authorization had been completely revoked.
In a single snap of the fingers, the internal credentials had been wiped clean, falling under Ji Jue's control.
Dazed, he looked up at Ji Jue, who was drenched in sweat.
Ji Jue looked up as well, smiling at him.
"Well now, didn't expect that."
Browsing through the hub's functions, Ji Jue raised an eyebrow and remarked, "You even set up smart home automation?"
Doesn't this just...
make things way too convenient for me!
Click!
With a crisp click, under the control of this ritual hub, the light-membrane defense reversed direction in an instant—from facing outward to turning inward, locking everything down tight.
Next, every sealed doorway swung wide open; internal defenses, disengaged.
Immediately after, within the hub's detection and sensory feeds, every signal representing friend or foe abruptly inverted.
The colossal pillar of the hub roared into full overdrive.
All spiritus supply was severed completely.
Matrix suppression and blessing interference swept through the entire bank alongside chaotic ripples of dim light.
"You're clear, Plant," Ji Jue's voice sounded over the completely cleared, interference-free channel, filled with delight. "Go all out."
"Understood," Tong Shan replied.
In his hands, the Vortex Manifestation on the banner contracted endlessly. Pale turbulent currents surged out of nowhere, converging and compressing until, atop the finial of the staff, they condensed into a ghastly white spiral.
Fragile as a bubble.
And then, the storm condensed to its very limit was unleashed at that moment!
Straight downward!
Descending from the sky alongside him, crashing through every barrier!
The altar shattered, blood mist boiled, crimson spreading.
Tong Shan didn't even need to wreak further havoc; the underground vault was already a shambles, everyone still shaken out of their wits. And the priest, who had just exerted every ounce of strength to finally drive off the aberrant Hungry House, hadn't even had time to react.
The Burning Star Manifestation blazed into view.
The staff finial, sharp as a blade, came thrusting through!
***
As the strike team charged into the bank, a ceaseless succession of tremors and muffled booms erupted.
Guarding outside, Lou Feng grew increasingly anxious.
Unable to tell what was happening or make sense of the chaos inside, he rubbed the grip in his hands repeatedly until the heavy sniper rifle shuddered in discontent.
*Pervert, keep your filthy hands off me!*
Sensing this displeasure radiating from the firearm, the corner of Lou Feng's eye twitched, an itch to curse surging through him—sure enough, weapons reflected their makers; not a single thing crafted by Ji Jue was normal!
At that moment, the sniper rifle rested motionless on its bipod mount, but Lou Feng was beside himself with restlessness. Subconsciously using Deft Craft, he processed the bullets, pressing them one by one into a magazine.
Until all four spare magazines were packed full, yet hardly any time had passed.
"Don't panic. No news is good news," Xu Guan consoled him, yet Xu Guan hadn't even noticed that the record tome clenched in his own hand had crumpled out of shape.
Lou Feng sighed, at a loss for words.
Or rather, every curse in his heart was dedicated to Ji Jue.
Shoving this thing into his hands out of nowhere—what on earth was he thinking?
He cast a glance at the sniper rifle before him, utterly baffled.
Even with only a rudimentary grasp of firearms, he knew that different fields were worlds apart. What was more, he had at most practiced some small-caliber pistol shooting for self-defense when spiritus was depleted; how to handle a sniper rifle was something he didn't know the first thing about.
"Never learned? Even better! It's simpler that way. Here, look: this is the trigger, this is the bolt. Pull this to cycle a round. Here's the safety—ignore it, it's fine to leave it off, it won't misfire.
"Aiming? No need to aim! Just listen to it. When you hear the BGM, just start spinning and you're golden!"
What the hell?
What kind of fucking user manual was that?!
BGM? Spin? Was that some kind of technical jargon? Why couldn't he understand a damn thing?
Lou Feng was at a total loss. Racking his brains for any relevant instructions from memory, he realized in despair that there were none. Could that bastard Ji Jue be setting him up? Just looking for an excuse to blame him for dragging down the team? No, that wasn't right—he hadn't offended him recently, had he? Was it because of that Border Realm incident last time? He'd already been kidnapped and extorted for a huge sum, alright?! Could that bastard really hold a grudge to such an absurd degree?
Dying himself wouldn't matter much—the family wouldn't miss him anyway—but what about his aunt? At this point, he could only yield. He couldn't hand over his teacher's secret teachings, but he still had plenty of shares inherited from his mother. If push came to shove, he could first...
In his distracted, soul-searching daze, cold sweat had soaked his back before he knew it, and he hadn't even registered Ji Jue's voice in the comms. But right then, the sniper rifle before him suddenly gave a crisp *ding*.
Jerking his head up as if waking from a dream, he heard the tiny speaker hanging from the mount suddenly vibrate, followed by fierce drumbeats bursting forth alongside ear-splitting electronic music.
The tacky DJ remix compilation copied from Lu Feng abruptly blasted!
Through the garbage audio quality mangled by the corrupted environment, amidst static and synthesizer screeching, a high-energy voice roared out: "Pa-pa-pack-packed up my bags..."
Tacky! So incredibly tacky! It was tacky as hell!!!
No matter how many times he heard it, Lou Feng's face instinctively scrunched up into a grimace under the sensory assault. But the moment his reflexes kicked in, he grabbed the sniper rifle from its mount and squeezed the trigger.
BOOM!!!
The bullet roared out of the barrel, punched straight through a wall, and vanished from sight. Yet in the Aether perception relayed by Xu Guan, a red outline abruptly burst apart.
Vanishing into silence.
Lou Feng reflexively pivoted the barrel. It felt as though he was grappling with an enraged, thrashing dragon, fighting with all his might to keep the weapon stable while instinctively flexing his finger.
BOOM!!! BOOM!!! BOOM!!!
Thunderous blasts paired with unrelenting recoils cascaded one after another. In the Aether perception, red silhouette after red silhouette disintegrated under the brutal ravages of the alchemical rounds.
In less than a few seconds, an entire magazine was spent. Flustered, Lou Feng slammed in a fresh magazine and resumed firing.
The stock hammered relentlessly against his shoulder under the immense recoil, yet he barely felt the blooming ache. Amid this unprecedented focus and euphoria, an exhilarating, dizzying rush suddenly swept through him.
All earlier tension and bewilderment had vanished without a trace.
Replacing them was an unprecedented sense of certainty and conviction!
—Spin to win!
It wasn't him spinning—the world was spinning around him!
Laughing like a madman without even realizing it, Lou Feng bobbed his head to the explosive DJ beat, spontaneously belting out the lyrics with sheer abandon.
He was spinning!
Chapter 216