Horror Story

Dead silence. Within the event simulation of the Tower of Myriad Transformations, inside the vast hall, aside from ragged breathing, the indignant shouts and noisy complaints from earlier could no longer be heard. Only bursts of thunderous crashes and rumbles echoed from the floating light projections. Whether it was a mountain of the dead built by aggregating and reconstructing countless corpses, a fortress of ruin ringed by massive spiritus cannons, not to mention a Bloodslaughter Formation where countless blades were commanded as one mind, or a void labyrinth constructed by combining the essence of the Eternal Gate and Embers... Creations far beyond the imagination of the mediocre were manifested within the floating projections. The same amount of time, the same foundation, the same conditions. Some possessed myriad methods and boundless ingenuity; some cleared through brambles and rebuilt everything from ruins; while others had already met their end before they even began. Now, as many of the battles were drawing to a close, almost everyone's gaze converged on the center, upon the largest projection of floating light. In the suffocating silence, all that could be felt was a bone-chilling dread and terror. It was practically a horror story. Spiritus giant Longbo, Soul-Hunting Cavalier Valhalla, and the Shadow of the Throne—three weapons of ruin that even artisans would struggle against—had now been reduced to a state where they couldn't even survive without ganging up. And what was even more terrifying was that a single person was taking on all three at once without falling behind in the slightest. In fact, he had turned the tables and was beating them down! From start to finish, apart from some negligible explosives and blockades, he had not even mobilized his workshop's true core sequence! Behind the generalized emblem of Tide Sound Workshop, there was only a name never before heard. [Ji Jue] *Boom!* When Valhalla shattered into pieces under his trampling foot, countless people instinctively gasped. Awestruck by that tyrannical bearing! It was neither due to ignorance nor disbelief; it was simply that no one had ever seen such a ferocious demeanor in an artisan. Relying purely on a suit of power armor, he had clashed head-on against three alchemical creations that would be rated Rank-A or higher even in the Association, and had pounded the invaders into the dirt... Where did this Swarm and White Stag maniac come from?! "Huh?" In the crowd, someone murmured in bewilderment, "Isn't his... last name Zhou?" In a moment of silence, everyone turned to look at that dumbfounded face as if looking at an idiot. The workshop and name were written right there plain as day—are you illiterate? "Ah, I remember now!" Someone said in sudden realization amidst their confusion: "You're that fool who challenged him to a fight on the leyline disk today—*cough, cough*—that expert!" For a moment, the sound of sharp gasps was endless. Then, everyone instinctively shifted aside, leaving an eye-catching empty circle around him—what if that monster charged out of the screen later looking to tear a living person apart for fun? Even if the probability was low, it wasn't zero. What if! *Stay back, don't let his blood splash on me!* The candidate who had been recognized instantly went deathly pale, shaking his head frantically: "I didn't! That wasn't me! Don't talk nonsense! The one I challenged was clearly named Zhou, how could it be him!" Terrified that no one would believe him, he gritted his teeth and stamped his foot: "Zhou and I cannot exist under the same sky! How could I possibly mistake my own enemy! The moment I get back, I'm going to kill him!" Now, even if his enemy wasn't named Zhou, he had to be! It had to be Zhou Cheng! As for asking whether he had made a mistake, that the guy was actually surnamed Ji and was the monster on screen—cut the crap, bro, that would get someone killed! Thank goodness he hadn't announced his own name or workshop back then. Otherwise, if he were targeted by a homicidal lunatic who seemed to have crawled out of the Swarm, how would he ever survive! "Tide Sound Workshop? Never heard of it. That shouldn't be," someone muttered in confusion. "Is it a new workshop established in recent years?" "No idea. Seems like I've seen the name somewhere?" "Oh, I heard about it. Apparently, some workshop changed its name when it relocated." "Who is the artisan? Surely at least a Grandmaster?" Amidst the crowd's whispers, someone sighed in utter resignation: "Stop asking. It's Ye Xian." For a moment, the crowd seemed to split into two distinct camps. Some asked those beside them in bewilderment, "Who is Ye Xian?", while the other half sucked in a breath of cold air in unison, instinctively stepping back several paces and trying to pull others in front of their chests to gain some negligible sense of security. In the brief chaos, someone who had inhaled too sharply choked and coughed twice, giving an awkward laugh: "Th-that... no wonder then..." "Fa—famous masters produce fine disciples!" "Right, right, exactly!" Under numerous bewildered stares, a group of people laughed uncomfortably, dodging the subject, while others straightforwardly left the hall. As the low buzz continued, someone finally had enough of the noise. "Shut up." The candidate at the very front of the floating light projections widened his eyes, subconsciously holding his breath. "Here it comes—" In that instant, within the projection, only blood-red crimson remained. Everything in sight was engulfed and smothered by crimson mercury pouring down from above! As if the shackles binding a ferocious beast had finally been loosed, the cracking sounds had no time to spread before they were overwhelmed by the roar of surging torrents. Amidst the sea of crimson, two rays of flame brighter than fresh blood burst from the armor's visor! Under the overloaded drive, scorching steam vented from every seam across the armor. As countless streaming lights rose and converged in a torrential rush, behind the armor, limbs of abominations unfurled and rose into a grotesque tree, extending hands to grip the flowing spiritus circuits. Two merged into one! In the deepest part of the workshop, the furnace of bones shuddered violently. Flames flared, and in an instant, a third of the total spiritus reserves was siphoned and channeled forward! Spiritus far exceeding the load limit surged through the spiritus circuits and the abomination hands into the armor, instantly heating the alloy plating red-hot. It was like instantly falling into hell. Or perhaps, returning home... Drawing a deep breath of the scorching air and savoring the scent of blood and sulfur within, Ji Jue sighed with relish. "Finally... I can take this a bit more seriously!" At that moment, ignoring the gravity vortex, Valhalla's spatial flickers, and the crystal golem's spiritus bombardment, he reached out his hand once again. Toward everything before him. And so, the downpour of mercury filling the sky came to an abrupt halt! As if time had halted and all creation was frozen! Shifting gravity, fractured space, and even brilliant, dazzling arrows of spiritus hung motionless in the void, incapable of movement. In that fleeting spectacle, only dead silence remained within the hall outside the simulation. Cold sweat drenched their backs. It was impossible to tell what kind of creation could produce such a terrifying effect. The Eternal Gate's time stop? The Desolate Ruins' Stasis Zone? Tianyuan's All-Creation Freezing? The White Stag's Super-Sense Acceleration? Or perhaps Entropy's Zero Domain... Or perhaps, something simpler... Reflected upon those strands of blood-red mercury suspended in the void were countless incorporeal contours entirely invisible to the naked eye. Hands! Hands! Hands! Hands! Hands! Hands! Hands! Hands! At this very moment, everywhere the eye could see, everything was seized in the grasp of formless, invisible, countless, infinite hands! "Is this... Non-Offensive?" Gustav's expression froze slightly. Raising his lowered eyes, his composure broke, followed by sudden realization: "No, not Non-Offensive. It's the workshop." Or rather, this was what should have originally been part of Non-Offensive... With Fluid Alchemy as the foundation, constructing a workshop, establishing all measures and variations—its sole core could only ever be one thing: the existence of Non-Offensive! Even stripped of Non-Offensive, by relying on the workshop's immense scale and siphoning vast quantities of spiritus, Ji Jue had still reproduced its true essence with his own hands! All things flourish, wrought by these hands. All that exists in the world, crafted by ten fingers. As long as both hands and ten fingers remained, what could not be recreated? "Truly the inheritor of the Sage..." In the dead silence, he sighed softly. There was no need to watch further. The moment Ji Jue activated the workshop, the dust had already settled. When Ji Jue reached out his hand, everything fell under his absolute control. And now, as Ji Jue released his grasp, everything that had been halted began to move once more, returning to its proper course. Returning to the course ordained by him! In the core of the workshop, the furnace shook violently. In a mere snap of the fingers, Ji Jue's spiritus reserves plummeted by another thirty percent! Immediately following, the storm of incoming spiritus bombardments—the saturation barrage unleashed by the crystal golem running on overload—bizarrely shifted direction, howling toward the Shadow of the Throne like falling stars. The savage gravity vortex deflected, plummeting toward the crystal golem's position. Meanwhile, the Soul-Hunting Knight that was supposed to have torn through space appeared in the armor's outstretched right hand as if delivering itself to his doorstep. Delivering its neck straight into Ji Jue's palm. Then, with a cold tightening of his fingers, iron cracked, twisted, and collapsed into a solid ball of metal. Like an artillery shell, it launched through the air and slammed into another surviving Valhalla. Tearing a gaping hole right through its chest. Two soulstones collided, shattering into dust. Deafening roars boomed without pause. Amidst the splattering bursts of spiritus light, fractures spread across the Shadow of the Throne as its shadows dissolved into ruin. The crystal golem, abruptly hurled into the gravity vortex, had no choice but to disperse into spiritus once again before its body cracked apart... Right in front of Ji Jue! Without even needing to fully mobilize the workshop's power as before, Ji Jue simply waved his hand, and the falling rain of mercury reversed against gravity, surging upward. Fluid Alchemy reversed; Solid Alchemy manifested once more! In an instant, it tore through the crystal golem's main body, violently forcing it out of its spiritus state. Its massive form was already broken into pieces, covered in cracks. "The components are right, but too bad your technique is still far behind Old Lou's." Ji Jue raised his foot for a final farewell. "Go practice some more!" *Boom!* Under his stomp, the final core shattered into dust. The first one down! Next, the iron giant turned back, his two flame-burning eyes casting a glance toward the remaining Soul-Hunting Knights clinging stubbornly to the fight: "Jumping all over the place, an absolute eyesore. Where did you clowns come from? "After all, tools meant for harassment and disruption were never suited for breaching fortified positions, were they?" At that moment, reshaped by countless hands, spearlike lances erupted from the ground. Countless blades emerged anew from the metal storm, crisscrossing and piercing through armor like a cage, shackling all resistance. Then, suppressed by Solid Alchemy, they were frozen into riddled metal statues. The second down! Finally, the ferocious armor, burning as if engulfed in flames, raised its head to look at the surviving Shadow of the Throne. The creation, untouched by fear or hesitation, was now riddled with fissures. Yet the gleam in its eyes remained blazing. As it turned its gaze upon him once more, gravitational shifts surged forth, only to dissipate into nothingness. The scepter rose again and again, all in vain! Between the fissures across the Shadow of the Throne's body, crimson mercury had seeped in without anyone noticing. Like a living creature, the pervasive mercury penetrated every minute gap into the core, tangling itself around the spiritus circuits, eroding and disrupting them, cutting off all operations. The countless minuscule noise-points formed by Solid Alchemy had long penetrated into the bone. No matter how it channeled its power or ran self-diagnostic purges, they could not be cleared. Now trembling violently, the Shadow of the Throne could only watch helplessly as Ji Jue approached step by step, reached out... and roughly dragged the figure down from the throne. "Times have changed, Your Majesty." Ji Jue bent down, whispering softly into its ear: "Do you hear the people sing?" Just like that, humming a famous anthem from the Imperial Revolution hundreds of years ago while stepping on the puppet of the throne, he drew his sword once more, raising it high— Slash! Goodbye and good riddance! After a crisp crack, a head flew upward, tumbled, and fell to the floor. The third one down! Soon, like an image exposed to blazing sunlight, the shadow construct rapidly dissipated, crumbling into dust. Leaving behind only the ornate chair forcefully locked in place by Solid Alchemy. "Like I said, what's wrong with letting me take a seat?" Ji Jue sat down without hesitation. He shifted his body, metal scraping against shadow with a shrill screech. Finding a more comfortable posture, he crossed his legs and looked at the spectacle he had forged with his own hands. Surging crimson mercury like blood, spiritus crystals strewn across the floor, broken and struggling macabre metal statues... Truly a pleasing, magnificent sight! Inside the workshop, outside the simulation. There was only dead silence. For a long time, no one spoke. Only a soft sigh emerged from the floating light: "This chair is terrible." "Too damn hard on the back..."