Kill Acquaintances First

Bad news always struck without warning. Just as nightmares were bound to cling like shadows. The moment the illumination fell upon that iron beast-visage, armor roared. A seething rumble erupted. Inside the reaction chamber, the abomination battery spasmed violently, letting out a soundless wail. Driven by savage exploitation, its output surged once more in an instant. Scorching, blazing light erupted like wings from the deafening boom of the thrusters. Like a falling star, it propelled forward— In the blink of an eye, it stood before the workshop gates. Everywhere it passed, spiritus pillars snapped and shattered. Innumerable surging, flashing rays of light struck the armor forged from the bones of mutants, leaving behind nothing more than faint scratches. And then... *Boom!* A greatsword leaped from its sheath and into the armor's grip, sweeping through midair on the heels of the charge to carve a seductive crimson arc. *Slash!* A deep fissure instantly tore open across the heavy gate composed of crystallizations and barriers. Spinning around, the armor delivered a horizontal sweep. Amid another resounding crash, crisscrossing cracks spread across the threshold until the gates blew apart in a shower of flying shrapnel. Amid screeching sirens, "Ji Jue" breached the outpost! Time elapsed: two seconds... * Outside the simulation, Gustav glanced back, the corners of his eyes twitching slightly. "Why did you send Ji Jue over to his place?" "Hm? Aren't they on good terms?" Jiang Tongguang listened to the torrent of Federation oral gymnastics coming through the floating light—overflowing with an excessive mother-to-word ratio—and nodded in deep satisfaction. "I figured I'd give them an opportunity to deepen their mutual understanding." "..." Gustav stared at him in silence. Jiang Tongguang gave a pleasant smile. Meanwhile, in the floating projections, wails and alarms rang out in endless succession. The nightmare had begun... Just like the smelting within a crucible. To truly transcend from common earth and stone into gold, one had to undergo boundless torment and suffering. Without the sharpening stone of reality and adversity, how could one ever tell whether the metal being polished was stubborn iron or a legendary blade? The previous tidal wave of corrupted examinees had merely been an appetizer. Using them as catalysts, the proctors squeezed out every ounce of skill and ability from the candidates to gather enough phenomena and data. Only then could they produce... Intruders capable of instilling genuine threat and fear into this pack of pretentious prodigies! Legend had it that long before the Age of Chaos, someone had once remarked: *Let heroes investigate heroes, and let brave men rein in brave men!* Only when peers butchered peers did every cut draw blood. Only when try-hards bit try-hards did every chomp sink to the bone... As association directors and hosts of the examination, Gustav and Jiang Tongguang were venerable masters adorned with countless gold ribbons and sovereigns crowned with glory. Naturally, they could not demean themselves by bullying a bunch of apprentices. Everyone had appearances to uphold. Words like "kindergarten massacre" and "nursing-home purge" sounded far too hideous if leaked. Thus, despite Jiang Tongguang's vehement demand to personally assume this crucial post, Gustav had firmly vetoed it. The only ones truly fit to test the candidates were the candidates themselves. Anyone could fill out a paper exam, and anyone could strut around spouting boastful, pretty words. But who was actually strong or weak, superior or inferior, could only be determined by clashing fists. Embers believed in neither tears nor excuses. The capable rose to the top—that was the eternal truth revered by all artisans! Only... "What did you arrange for Ji Jue's side?" Jiang Tongguang asked out of curiosity. "Trump card against trump cards, naturally." Gustav's face was cold as still water. "Didn't he complain it was too easy? Then let's dial up the difficulty a little." With that, he pointed a finger... Instantaneously, thunderous roars erupted once more over Luye Island beneath the pouring black rain. Outside the underground base, amidst a tempestuous rumble, boundless thunder and mist coalesced, transforming into a crystalline colossus several meters tall. Four arms and three legs. Everywhere it stepped, rain evaporated and the earth scorched and cracked. "The Lou clan's spiritus giant, Longbo." Immediately after, by another entrance, the neigh of warhorses cut through the rainfall as ghostly silhouettes manifested from the void. Apart from their full plate and bladed weapons, the riders and mounts were translucent, veiled in leaping flames and fog like malevolent spirits. "North Wind Workshop's sixteen Soul-Hunting Knights, Valhalla." And behind an opened set of doors, a solemn statue sculpted from shadow emerged. Its mere presence warped gravity and crushed common sense, lifting countless raindrops and shattered stones into the air to swirl into an immense vortex. "Finally, along with them, the shadow of the throne belonging to that imperial trueblood—" Three completely distinct mirror images descended outside the workshop. Without a moment's hesitation, they charged forward in a joint assault... Sensing the rapidly approaching auras of danger amidst the tremors and booming crashes, Ji Jue fell silent. When speechlessness reached its absolute peak, a person usually chuckled. "You absolute bastards..." He let out a helpless sigh. So they were deliberately targeting him now, were they? They weren't even bothering to hide it! * "You really dislike him, don't you?" Jiang Tongguang remarked with a quiet sigh. Gustav looked back impassively. "Where is this coming from?" "Do I even need to say it? Threat ratings of eighty-seven, ninety, eighty-eight... Put those three together, and they exceed his own score by more than double. There's no need to single him out this blatantly from the second round just to eliminate him, is there?" "He won't be eliminated." Gustav shook his head. "At best, it will apply a bit of pressure. "Besides, we should take this chance to sober up those haughty, self-satisfied scions of prestigious clans, ancient lineages, and imperial truebloods." A splash of cold water, a dose of pressure, and a thorough thrashing. While they were at it, let those weaklings who had been eliminated and were now barking and complaining outside see for themselves. Let them witness the vast disparity of this world, the immense gulf between the strong and the weak, the heights separating friend from foe... —And above all, the crushing, despair-inducing chasm that divided them! Within the simulation of the Tower of Myriad Transformations, in a colossal detached hall. Just as the crowd of disqualified candidates were hanging their heads in dejection, brooding with indignation, or angrily shouting complaints to demand an explanation from the Association, multiple projections unfurled in the void. They displayed the fierce struggles and clashes taking place within the simulated phenomena. Right before the eyes of the candidates with single-digit or twenty-to-thirty-point scores, a brand-new ranking drawn up according to the audit sequence expanded. Then, based on developments inside the simulation, calculations and reassessments began anew. The column of figures on the leaderboard shifted once more! Unlike the steep drops in the bottom half and the volatile struggles in the middle tier, the numbers at the absolute top skyrocketed like launched rockets! After clearing the invading hordes of apprentices, the score of the first-place candidate at the very top of the board doubled in the blink of an eye. And it was still steadily climbing... Right in the midst of the suffocating, brutal siege shown in the projection! The instant he sensed the arrival of the attackers, Ji Jue made his decision without hesitation. Every single defense mechanism within the entire workshop was brought online. Surging quicksilver churned as countless hands extended from the liquid metal, swiftly conducting repairs and reinforcements under Ji Jue's command and control. Blast doors dropped layer by layer, halting the deep thrust of the Shadow of the Throne, while all heavy firepower pivoted to suppress the phantom-like advance of Valhalla. Overclocking the armor's engines, he sped forth! An offensive sortie. He bolted straight for the crystalline giant attacking from the other flank! Just as one always picked the softest persimmons first, in a chaotic invasion where skills, tendencies, and strengths were unknown, the top priority was to eliminate threats as quickly as possible, pruning away hazards by any means necessary to secure the upper hand. Lou Feng could identify Ji Jue's handiwork with his eyes closed. In the exact same way, Ji Jue could spot that familiar style at a single glance. They had known each other for so long, having shared life-and-death struggles as well as desperate trials. Aside from their most deeply guarded trump cards and core arts, they knew each other inside and out. Whether Lou Feng was the softest persimmon, Ji Jue didn't know—but against him, Ji Jue had the greatest confidence! They were both artisans. Why pretend to be gentlemen? As if neither had ever plotted out how to dismantle the other in private... Right, my good pal Lou?! *Boom!* A colossal roar erupted as the corridor wall shattered. Amidst the echoing roar of the thrusters, the abomination armor burst through the wall. Preceding it was the blood-crimson edge of the greatsword, lunging straight forward. *Thrust!* *Crack—* Sparks sprayed as the crystal colossus raised an arm. Spiritus coursed through it, causing the crystals to abruptly proliferate and expand, hardening the spiritus into a dense barrier before the incoming blade. A deep fissure appeared upon the massive shield. Screeching friction shrieked as the blade drove forward. At the same time, the spiritus shield detonated! The massive construct instantly disintegrated into countless glinting shards. Unnumbered blades whipped up a tempest, sweeping outward—*Form Dissolution!* By disrupting internal equilibrium and triggering a secondary reaction, the sculpted spiritus crystals transformed and detonated. He could even bestow an entirely new qualitative mutation upon them. It was like a bomb going off right under one's nose. In a split second, countless flashes of lightning surged into a torrent. A vast wave of thunder, mingled with countless razor-sharp crystal shards, completely swallowed Ji Jue whole. Yet immediately after, it abruptly dispersed. A repulsive force erupted! The blessing of the Foundation of Repulsion manifested upon the elongated arms. Like a breakwater, it cleaved the screaming thunder and shockwaves straight down the middle. Then, arm after arm shot forward, relentlessly pursuing and denying the crystal giant any chance to open the distance. Lou Feng had practiced the art of spiritus shaping since childhood; he was far too proficient with it. Even without innate abilities or matrices, he could recreate and exploit it through alchemy alone. Aside from Ascension, the Sovereign Virtue best suited for spiritus shaping was none other than Entropy! If Lou Feng managed to pull away and stall until the other assailants arrived, Ji Jue would be kited to death by this brat. "Now that you're here, where do you think you're going?" The abomination hand ballooned, crossing dozens of meters. Its razor talons carved a deep trench across the spiritus colossus. The spiritus giant reacted just as swiftly. Raising an empty arm, it unleashed a blazing jet of spiritus that swept outward like a blade, forcing the abomination claws back. Only then did it realize it had been cornered into a dead end in the corridor, completely robbed of maneuverability. There was nowhere left to run!