That's Just How Artisans Are

Ji Jue kept his perception anchored on the perimeter, quietly observing for a long time. He didn't send the spiders any further inward. With his current capabilities, slipping past Kanemoto's eyes and ears to reach the engine was simply impossible. The moment a spider crept inside, it would likely be discovered, yielding nothing while alerting the enemy. One had to eat one bite at a time. Even the Evil Transmutation Cult hadn't been built in a day! Getting a promotion today was already not bad. Pulling back his gaze, Ji Jue directed the spiders to crawl around the perimeter. He chose three spots around the workshop, dug small pits, and buried them in the earth. Then, he opened his eyes once more. Taking out a sheet of paper, he began to write. Once finished, he slipped the envelope into his toolbox. Finally, he looked toward the corner of the office. President, who had been lying on the floor, sprang up immediately, grinning with tongue lolling, tail wagging briskly. *Done with work? Want to give pets?* *Can you play with me now?* "Sorry to trouble you, but make one more trip, will you?" He rubbed President's head and slipped the toolbox handle into the dog's mouth once more. "Drop it off when you get there, and after half an hour, just bring the stuff back." President blinked, looking somewhat wronged. A couple of whimpers slipped from its throat. Soon, however, it obediently clamped its jaws on the toolbox, turned, and disappeared. Ji Jue let out a long breath and sank back into his chair, marveling at how convenient President was... Unfortunately, a dog's mouth was just a bit too small. Otherwise, it could have clamped right onto the engine and hauled it away. Everyone could have saved the trouble and gone home, and by now, he would probably be sipping morning tea in Yacheng. Why make things so complicated? He closed his eyes, listening to the unending, almost hallucinatory wails and cries in the distance, and gave a silent sigh. Quancheng. Before long, he drifted off into a deep sleep. An hour later, the alarm anima preserved within his soul woke him right on time. Opening his eyes, he saw the toolbox sitting back on the desk, with President seated beside it, looking at him eagerly. "Back already? Good boy, that was hard work, wasn't it?" Ji Jue smiled and patted its head, heaping on the praise. "Who's the best dog in the whole wide world? Our President, that's who! President is the greatest..." Providing emotional value to leadership was also part of a subordinate's job. Having finally finished buttering up President, the Celestial Rail Group's sole temporary worker sighed and popped open the toolbox. Resting on top inside the toolbox was a reply letter: [Letter received. All is well on our end. Stay safe. At 7:30 tonight, I will execute according to the plan you laid out. Enclosed are two Hands of Delusion and one page of the Book of Correction. Deep Pockets additionally sends two Blades of Flowing Light. Safety comes first; preserving yourself takes priority. —Plant] Ji Jue looked down at the crammed toolbox and grinned. He whistled silently. Old Tong the Vegetable really was reliable! *** "Tell me, isn't this getting a little ridiculous?" Meanwhile, across the city in Lou Feng's temporary workshop, Tong Shan stroked the stubble on his chin, filled with bewilderment. "In less than a single day, he's already clawed his way into a managerial position over on the Profound's side, tracked down Lou Feng's aunt, and brought back all this intel? "How on earth did he pull that off?" Had he not known Ji Jue so well and placed absolute trust in him, Tong Shan would have sworn that bastard had jumped in bed with Kanemoto at lightspeed the moment he arrived and was now angling for them! Yet, if he could drop a toolbox right in front of them without any of them noticing, why bother with all that trouble? Sending a bomb or just dropping down from the sky with Profound divine armaments would have been far easier. "Could it be that we've had the wrong idea all along..." Xu Guan broke a long silence, full of curiosity. "Is undercover work actually really easy?" Tong Shan started to speak, then stopped, ultimately left with nothing to say. Only Old Tom, silently wolfing down his food in the corner, raised his head and held up a hand. "Is there a chance he didn't transform himself into an undercover agent, but finally got to unleash his true self without holding back?" At once, the silence deepened, everyone exchanging speechless looks. How should they put it? Absurd as this efficiency and progress were, given how downright demonic Ji Jue was, it actually felt quite normal. "After all, that's just how artisans are," Jiang Xuan said. He had already learned to blame everything weird and demonic on Embers. Beside him, Lou Feng felt increasingly sickened, almost coughing up blood. If this kept up, what would become of the artisan profession after Ji Jue ruined its reputation! Why hadn't Embers hurled down a bolt of lightning to strike him dead yet? Still... he *did* find Lou Feng's aunt. At the thought, Lou Feng's heart softened slightly, and he sighed. *Don't strike him now. Strike him in two days. Strike him dead, and I'll pay for a lavish burial.* *Snap!* A faint sound stirred in the room. The air flickered, and a sheet of paper materialized out of thin air, fluttering down into Tong Shan's hand. "Well? Well?" Ji Liu leaned in. "Did the outpost say anything?" Tong Shan glanced at it, gave a cold sneer, and handed the dispatch over. "The same old drivel. Encouraging us to look at the big picture, not spare our lives, and proactively contribute to Haizhou." "What kind of dumb bullshit is this?" Ji Liu took one look and ripped it to shreds. Fuck their 'big picture'! Why were they still skulking around Quancheng like rats if not to risk life and limb for Haizhou? And while they were working with their heads tucked into their waistbands, those bastards had the nerve to tell them to throw their lives away and draw fire for their half-baked schemes! To hell with all that! Who the fuck did they think they were? Using some rubber stamp from the outpost to churn out scrap paper? Over the past two days outside, Tong Shan hadn't been idle either. After going through immense hardship, he had finally established contact with the main force. Unfortunately, everything they sent back was a pile of bullshit. Not that Tong Shan cared. Without Lord Tao's or Lyu Yingyue's official seal, they ignored every word. A general in the field wasn't bound by every order from his sovereign. Besides, you aren't even my direct superior! If you've got the guts, drag me before the Tianyuan Tribunal once this battle is over! As for Lyu Yingyue's orders, she hadn't instructed them to do anything at all. She simply told them to preserve themselves and act when the time was right. What time that was and how they acted was entirely left to their own judgment. With effortless grace, she took on all the responsibility and the blame. Sometimes, whether the workload was full or the task difficult was secondary; working under a leader who could shoulder the weight made life truly comfortable. With Tong Shan's assistance, Old Tom had now been successfully cleared, turned into an undercover informant planted by the Security Bureau inside the Evil Transmutation Cult. His past criminal record in Haizhou was wiped clean. Nowadays, aside from what to eat each day, his only lingering preoccupation was those thirty-plus respawn coins reserved specifically for Fourth Granduncle. "We may be taking action in the coming hours," Tong Shan warned seriously. "Everyone, get ready. Mr. Tang, don't look at me like that. You've already filled up three latrines. As long as you're willing to dig your own latrines, there'll be plenty of food... In short, be prepared to move at any moment." And so, as the minutes and seconds ticked away, Lou Feng finally finished meticulously maintaining and reshaping the banner. Once it was placed in his hands, Tong Shan hesitated no longer. Turning under the protection of candlelight, he left the hiding place. The repaired banner was reasonably responsive, and the craftsmanship was flawless—one could scarcely find a trace of where it had once broken. Yet it lacked the effortless fluidity and smooth harmony of moving like an extension of his own arm that it had possessed before, prompting Tong Shan to sigh inwardly. He only felt an empty ache inside. It was like the melancholic longing of losing an irreplaceable love, only to seek her shadow in everyone else. Every trace felt like her, yet in the end was not her... Once the Quancheng matter was settled, should he place a custom order with Tide Sound? If he named Ji Jue specifically, would Master Ye feel untrusted, causing friction for Ji Jue in the workshop? And would bluntly offering money make Ji Jue feel insulted? Hmm, he would have to think about that carefully later. He would need to give Ah Hua a word of advice as well. She and Ji Jue seemed to get along well, so she shouldn't spend every day being a ditz who just ate melon. Even if his sister's airheaded level ruled out taking things further, she at least excelled at maintaining good relations. Being good friends was plenty fine! For now, Ji Jue's safety didn't appear to be an issue. And after signing the Covenant of Tianyuan, Old Tom was relatively low-maintenance. Ji Liu's injuries, however, were still quite severe. If the curse on the wound wasn't purged, it would leave lingering damage over time. He had to hurry... Walking along, tangled thoughts kept surfacing in his mind. True to his longstanding habit when alone, he turned over their current predicament, potential threats, and possibilities again and again. Though he always seemed decisive and resolute before his team and subordinates, he was well aware of the indecisive, dithering streak in his nature. Tong Hua called it "being a fussy mother hen." Even though he was hailed as an exceptional talent of Tianyuan, unlike veteran powerhouses like Lord Tao who had nearly fused completely with Tianyuan, the closer Tong Shan drew to Tianyuan, the more vividly and distinctly he could feel the part of himself that did *not* belong to it. Every senior had warned him to be careful. If he failed to balance the relationship between self and order, between reason and rules, any clash between them could invite corruption. Yet he didn't care. In fact, it brought him a quiet joy. His grandfather had once told him: *Suffering is like an engraver's knife; through the friction of worldly trials, when you finally look in the mirror, you will understand the shape of your soul.* It was precisely in the crevices between rules and order that this tiny speck of selfhood shone so distinctly, letting him feel his own existence—even if it often brought pain, bewilderment, and loneliness. He had chosen rules and order for himself, like iron bands shaping a sapling, hoping that one day he might grow into the form he desired. No matter the suffering, even if he fell midway, he would never waver. At this moment, standing atop a dilapidated high-rise, he looked in the direction indicated by the map. "Are you ready, Ji Jue?" Tong Shan murmured softly, watching the time on his wristwatch tick steadily down toward zero. The instant it reached zero, he took a deep breath and raised the banner once more. Boundless spiritus surged and expanded, no longer concealed, rolling like a tide that soared into the heavens. Amid the sudden crash of thunder, crisscrossing totems of lightning manifested across the banner. The hues shifted, turning from orange-yellow to crimson, then to indigo, and finally to jet-black. The violent torrent of spiritus condensed into a single beam in an instant. With a sweep of the banner, it left behind trail after trail of pitch-black scars in the air. Paying no heed to the rainbow lights sweeping across the sky above or the rapid approach of numerous spiritus fluctuations, Tong Shan opened his mouth in a soundless roar. Cracks fractured across the banner in his hands once more. He thrust it forward into the distance! The night sky shuddered violently, as if a razor-sharp blade had torn through it. The entire world dimmed for a fleeting instant; under the blazing light that vanished as quickly as it had appeared, all things lost their color, trembling and shaking. And in the very next instant... Amid the sound of countless things shattering, above the illusory workshop at the heart of Quancheng, a pinpoint of blazing light howled past. Heading into the distance. Yet at the same moment, around the workshop, the three mechanical spiders buried deep in the dirt suddenly shuddered and detonated. Fragmented spiritus fluctuations flared, sending out a call. And so, without warning, the blazing light took a sudden, sharp turn. Straight down. Like divine retribution descending, it struck ruthlessly against the invisible defense. Then, destructive power compressed to its absolute limit suddenly burst forth, erupting into a deluge of endless lightning that showered downward. Faint membranes of light flickered and vanished in midair, trembling violently. As the shockwave expanded, ruins groaned and collapsed under the impact, and the earth rippled and shook. Inside the workshop, rocked by the earthquake-like shock, everyone staggered, struggling to keep their footing. "What's going on?" "An earthquake?" "No, it's an enemy attack!" "The Security Bureau is attacking!" Amid the spreading chaos, piercing sirens blared, flashing red lights illuminating bewildered or terrified eyes. "Well done, Tong the Vegetable!" Smiling, Ji Jue pushed open the door and stepped out. Casting aside the crutches he used for disguise, his steps were light and nimble. Just like that, he blended into the panicked crowd. Like a single drop of water merging into the sea.