Descent of the Virtues

The conversion of dragon blood, once surging and abundant, ground to a sudden halt. A gap lasting less than a snap of the fingers was more than enough to shatter him to pieces! Boom! When Minerva's iron fist came down once more, the destructive tempest blasted away all flesh and blood, overpowering even the unfinished dragon blood and smashing his head completely to smithereens. Driven from above, it collapsed inward, sunken deep into his chest. Lawrence roared. Intricate scales surfaced over his skeletal arms as he forcibly blocked Wen Wen's fist. On the shattered wings behind him, an eye snapped open, looking toward the giant tree. There, he saw Ji Jue, who had awakened amidst the tangled roots, smiling as he raised his middle finger. "Surprised?" Ji Jue offered a gentle greeting. "I told them I knew you, and a bunch of enthusiastic folks helped send me right back!" With that, Ji Jue opened his mouth and bit fiercely into the root right before him. The giant tree shuddered violently. Countless tentacle-like branches squirmed, actually beginning to wither and dry up. "What the fuck are you doing?!" Lawrence's voice trembled in utter disbelief, filled with a terror far greater than Minerva's onslaught had provoked. "Stop! Stop it!" Vortex Planting! The conversion progress of his Vortex Planting had actually stalled?! No, not just stalled... An unprecedented void had opened up from within, hungrily guzzling down the fruits that should have belonged to him, pillaging the dragon blood that was supposed to flow into his heart! How could this be? What happened? How was he doing this? "Stop!!!" Lawrence roared. Ji Jue turned a deaf ear and spread his arms wide. His wide eyes were already flushed crimson. That spiritus of agony and despair flooded his body, stoking hunger and madness. As the receptor of the Vortex Planting, he was actually embracing the erosion of Bloodthirst Syndrome—and propelled by the endless aberrant spiritus, he seized the upper hand, continuously wresting control away from Lawrence! To hell with vessels of disaster, to hell with unpolished gems, to hell with all of it! A person had to eat to live. If there was rice, eat rice; if there was shit, eat shit. Who gave a damn about aberrant spiritus? Eat, eat, eat, eat! And so, he gulped down the dragon blood like molten magma. The agony and despair seemed to drift away; he couldn't care less. Lawrence bellowed, trying to charge forward. Flesh sprouted and reached out like spines to interrupt him, but colossal crystalline pillars erupted from the ground, shielding Ji Jue behind them. Now, the tables had turned. Amidst hisses and shrieks, Lawrence's body swelled further in madness as he attacked recklessly, stripped of all his former ease and delight. It was as though someone was sucking away his life and blood from inside his body with a straw. Now, subject and receptor were bound together through Vortex Planting. Inseparable. Once Ji Jue shook his control, what had been a one-way pump turned into a violent tug-of-war, both sides wrestling for the dragon blood refined through Vortex Planting. The difference was that the suction on Ji Jue's side was growing stronger and stronger! Beneath the erosion and transformation of dragon blood, Ji Jue roared. His eyes narrowed into beast-like slits, and scales faintly sprouted across his limbs only to slough off, like rapid genetic mutations. "Stop, Ji Jue!" Wen Wen glanced back and shouted, "You're not a Celestial Chosen yet! If you keep absorbing it, you'll fall into complete corruption! Stop!" But Ji Jue no longer cared. He only accelerated. Inside his body, the pain and resentment left behind by countless souls surged like an ocean tide, driving him to exact vengeance upon the culprit before him! Devastate! Crush! Tear to shreds! Slaughter! Tear him into ten thousand pieces! "I'm working on it, aren't I? What's the rush?!" Ji Jue gritted his teeth, fiercely suppressing the brutal urges in his soul. He raised his head and looked up at the hollow night sky. And beyond the dim stars, at those blurred silhouettes, those colossal entities looking down in silence. They were watching him. "Celestial Chosen, right? You've been watching for all these years—what are you waiting for?!" Ji Jue waved a hand and roared at them, "Come on, pick, pick, pick! Pick whoever the fuck you want! "Who's going to let me pick?!" Amidst the rumbling, Minerva's expression shifted. Even though the suppression of the matrix had reduced her emotional fluctuations to an absolute minimum—hardening her heart like stone—she was still left stunned and bewildered. She even wanted to pry open Ji Jue's skull to see what insane nonsense he was spouting. Did he think Celestial Chosen picked their patrons? Did he think this was buying cabbage at a supermarket, choosing whatever he fancied? Even if he was an innate awakened possessing talent and potential, it was impossible to just crook a finger and— In that instant, she froze where she stood. Because the sky shattered. Not just above the hospital, not just within this Domain, not even just across Beishan District. From the rippling waters to the verdant mountains, across the entirety of vast Yacheng, spanning a thousand li, every single star faded into nothingness, vanishing as if exiting behind a drawn curtain. In their stead rose vast swathes of radiance invisible to mortal eyes. Solemn, austere silhouettes emerged from within, titanic forms seemingly woven from all myriad phenomena—supreme authorities manifested from every shift and happening of the mortal world! An all-encompassing intangible entity; towering, forbidding battlements; a crown entwined with pale bone and blood; a stag head whose massive antlers bore the corpses of wolves; a vortex woven from countless lives; a shifting face fluctuating between joy and sorrow; a sun wheel weeping blood; kaleidoscopic flames and lightning... "Transcendence, Origin, Swarm, White Deer, Vortex, Cardinal Mind, Eternal Gate, Entropy, Embers, Desolate Ruins..." Of the Twelve Virtues, nine descended! From that fleeting glimpse, Wen Wen stood frozen, doubting her own eyes. The omens of destiny had manifested so abruptly, as if the stars were bestowing their blessings. The supreme tapestries that countless Celestial Chosen pursued for a lifetime yet rarely earned a glance from now filled the night sky, crowding every inch of space! They crowded the firmament, expanding rapidly, jostling and elbowing each other aside with none of their former aloof nobility. Instead, they looked like shoppers waving cash during a supermarket sale, fighting over the sole treasure, clamoring to bestow their blessings... *Shut up and take my money!* In a mere snap of the fingers, all clashes and struggles vanished. As if a victor had already been decided! The other glorious visions faded completely. What remained filling the night sky was like a host of burning stars bursting with brilliant light, as if turning the entire dome of heaven into a colossal furnace. When the blazing stars burned out and the radiant furnace tipped over, flickering afterglow spilled forth, turning into a cascading waterfall from the heavens that swallowed Ji Jue whole. It poured into his soul, igniting his very self. Such a manifestation... —Virtue · [Embers]! Amidst unprecedented pain and fullness, the once faint, dim talent within Ji Jue's soul bathed in the afterglow of the stars, undergoing its ultimate transformation. An emblem took form within the void, orange-red light swirling continuously. Complex patterns surfaced, like overlapping gears and levers, the silhouette of some intricate mechanism... that even Ji Jue could not clearly discern. [Celestial Selection Rite complete!] [Registration status update initiated. Celestial Chosen Ji Jue, login complete.] [Spiritus Reservoir access granted. Error. Error. Error... Please proceed to Central Station as soon as possible to complete formal employee registration!] ... Dozens of notifications flashed across the watch, a dazzling blur. Yet none of that nonsense mattered now. From the burning fire of the embers, Ji Jue grinned. He looked up at the stunned Lawrence. "Hello there." He nodded politely. "A lot of friends asked me to send you their regards on their behalf... But after thinking it over, it's probably better to let them tell you in person." "Are you ready?" Ji Jue raised his hand for a final question—to receive the pain and despair that you yourself created! In that instant, crimson spiritus erupted from Ji Jue's body like a waterfall! Within the dead-silent Domain, the roar of a rising tide suddenly surged! Countless wails and shrieks echoed from every gap, every corner. Steel ground against steel, and engines turned. Amid the rubble of the ruins, dormant machinery roared back to life. From the collapsed sheds where wrecked scooters and motorcycles were piled like mountains, to the intact cars in the parking lot, to the phones dropped on the floors and powered-down computers inside the inpatient building... Every dark screen lit up once more, displaying a crimson like tears of blood, violently shaking as electric motors revved with fury. The remnants of the departed, their resentment and agony, rose once more within Ji Jue's soul, pouring into countless machines to awaken anew! Yet it wasn't enough! Far from enough! Even exhausting all of his spiritus in a single breath could not manifest a fraction of that colossal scale. Amidst the burning agony, Ji Jue reached out, grabbed a sharp crystal shard, and plunged it backhanded into his own neck! Blood surged, spraying violently! Flooded with immense amounts of aberrant spiritus, the watch jolted violently, and a familiar prompt popped up. [Employee Ji Jue detected in mortal danger. Error. Error. Error. Error!] [Standard Emergency Survival Protocol activated—During protocol duration, Celestial Chosen ability will undergo a one-tier qualitative ascension—Dual qualitative ascension complete!] On the watch face, the numbers for the Spiritus Reservoir began leaping frantically, plummeting to rock bottom in an instant, only to skyrocket and refill under the influx of massive external spiritus. Under intense operation, the internal movement seemed to glow red-hot like scorching steel, hissing and sizzling. Yet in this moment, the deafening screech of countless metal parts echoed throughout the Domain. The earth shook. For a mechanical tide emerged from the ruins, surging forth!