The Greatest Evil in the World

Frederick had finally seen through his opponent's true nature. This guy was exploiting the rules right down to the bone. If the two had still been somewhat distinct before entering, then after descending into Frederick's simulated world, those clumsy movements and sluggish reactions were nothing more than a disguise... The enemy artisan's true aim was to offer his own simulated mirror image as a sacrifice to his weapon! He wouldn't even spare his own reflection! At this moment, the two were completely fused as one. Through the preparations and spiritus circuits laid down from the very moment of creation, Ji Jue's blood, life, and soul had thoroughly melded with the sinister blade in his grasp. The intruder now was more an appendage of the blade, a mere tool to swing it. Only because of this could he share so intimately in the spiritus and life plundered by the weapon to replenish himself. Otherwise, the initial gravitational acceleration alone would have scrambled Ji Jue's brain into tofu pudding, to say nothing of the vital piercings and the wrathful lightning called down from the workshop! The armor had been baked red-hot. Even with buffer layers, the internal heat should have roasted the pilot into a crispy duck. How could he still be leaping around, hacking and slashing with wild abandon?! As an unconventional sacrifice and an appendage of the blade, so long as the supply of blood energy and spiritus from the weapon continued, he could not possibly die so easily. Unless he was utterly vaporized in an instant! Or... left alone. Simply ignored. Frederick could just dispatch swarms of inorganic puppets to grind him down, reinforcing the workshop's defenses to stall for time. A blood sacrifice had to end eventually. The moment external nourishment failed to keep up, the sinister weapon would turn on its wielder, sucking him dry like an empty milk carton. Yet the opponent had thoroughly anticipated even that. Folks, just look at that armor, practically bristling with unholy battery packs... Frederick was rendered completely speechless. God only knew how long the bastard could hold out, and god only knew if Frederick could outlast him! Besides... —Did he really have to run?! Why should he?! *How could the North Wind fear the might of blade and spear? Know that my raging flames surpass the keenest edge!* Deep within the ramparts, Frederick pushed himself up from his massive seat, hesitating no longer. He had issued the challenge, and his opponent had come to answer it. There was no longer any need to dawdle or stall. As an artisan facing a formidable foe, was he supposed to flee his own workshop?! The day to wash away his shame was today, at this very moment. Right before his eyes! In that instant, the tattoos covering Frederick's body suddenly flared with blazing radiance, coursing across his skin and billowing upward in thousands of filaments that reached in every direction. They merged into one with the entire workshop. Flames erupted from the Crucible, billowing outward to engulf the entire rampart. Ubiquitous and absolute, the fire incinerated corpses, debris, and every speck of inconsequential dust. It cast everything into an eternally burning purgatory of molten stone! Deep within that terrifying inferno, boundless light gathered as vast tides of spiritus surged. The silhouette of Valhalla manifested for a fleeting instant, and the phantoms of all regenerated heroes, berserkers, War Giants, and Soul-Hunting Knights melted entirely into the flames. They merged into Frederick's body! At this moment, he was no longer the fragile artisan of before, but the true sovereign of this realm. A frenzied spirit who squandered boundless fire, incinerated all mighty foes, and reduced the Nine Realms of the North to ash! The second of the Three Supreme Seats of the Valhalla Sequence— —Surtr, Lord of Incineration! "Come!" Amidst the roar of flames, the burning giant manifested out of thin air before Ji Jue, tearing through the sky. In his hands, a greatsword forged of surging molten iron and magma cleaved down! *Boom!* The blood blade collided with the flame sword. Vast swathes of scarlet billowed and burst beneath the incineration of raging fire, repelled for the very first time! No, cracks even surfaced along its edge! Transformed by numerous blessings, having offered an artisan's body as a sacrifice, the Lord of Incineration qualitatively overpowered the sinister blade born of blood sacrifice! Just as Ji Jue had made himself a sacrifice to the long blade, Frederick had forged himself into Surtr. The flame sword in his hands was the very incarnation of destruction, coalesced from all the power within the workshop! A tide of blood surged, coiling around the scorching red armor. The notched long blade rapidly restored itself, growing even more savage. As the seals of Solid Alchemy unraveled step by step, the vicious malice and venom previously bound within burst forth. It was a battle between devils, a clash between destruction and destruction. Blood and fire collided in deafening, ceaseless roars. Their outlines and forms blurred beyond recognition. There was only a frenzy of dancing crimson and a torrent of blazing fire clashing violently, the piercing screech of grinding steel ringing out without pause. Now, not only were the eliminated contenders outside the simulation left slack-jawed and speechless, but even Jiang Tongguang before the floating projection couldn't help clicking his tongue in marvel. Rivers of blood! Hell yeah! So fierce, so powerful, so imposing, so brutal! *This* was what he had come to see! "If this footage were clipped and sent to that Lord of Soldiers in the Mid-Continent, he'd probably give two thumbs up and praise: 'Another two fine seedlings have sprouted from our Swarm!'" He stroked his chin and sighed in genuine admiration. "I mean, the disciple of that bearded fellow from North Wind Workshop having nothing but hack-and-slash on the brain is expected. But where did Ye Xian unearth such a gem? Look at that fighting stance—not giving an inch of ground..." "As for the beard comment, I'll be sure to pass it along to Yellowbeard," Gustav said, glancing at Jiang Tongguang's familiar antics before reminding him, "And don't forget Ye Xian's origins..." "That doesn't add up either, does it?" Jiang Tongguang frowned, his expression turning slightly serious as his voice dropped instinctively. "You mean *that* one? But that's not his style either." Gustav could hardly resist rolling his eyes. "I mean *before* that—" The Thousand Islands Ye Clan, scions of the Mid-Continent's true quintessence, inheritors of the legacy of Ganjiang and Moxie! Centuries ago, during the Second White River War, the Ye Clan of the Thousand Islands Alliance had crossed blades in earnest with the King of the North! To say nothing of a thousand years of renown as sword-smiths stretching back to the era of the Eternal Empire! Though they had fallen to the point where Ye Xian was the sole survivor, and Ye Xian could hardly be bothered to bring those things out anymore, one couldn't simply pretend his family legacy didn't exist! "Didn't they say the succession had broken? The flow of the spirit of the Sages within the Worldly Tapestry was severed." "A collateral branch can still rekindle the orthodox line... If Ye Xian has the mind to do so, virtually every faction would recognize it." "Must be nice having a good student," Jiang Tongguang sighed. "If you're so envious, take an apprentice yourself," Gustav said. "There are plenty of apprentices and artisans lining up outside waiting for pointers from 'Tianyuan Tongguang.'" "Forget it, too much trouble." Jiang Tongguang shook his head without a second thought and sighed. A dull student was a headache to teach. A smart one was even more of a headache. And if he had the misfortune of running into someone like Ji Jue... who knew how many lifetimes of trouble that would bring. *Crack!* A fracturing sound rang from the floating light. In the simulated projection, fiery radiance sprayed like blood. Surtr staggered back a step. Upon the giant's chest, forged purely of intangible fire and molten iron, a savage wound opened. Right opposite him, the scorching red armor stood tall. In its hands, the long blade was bathed in blood and savagery, while a short sword flickered like a phantom. "A short sword?!" Frederick cried out in bewildered agony. At this moment, Frederick and the outside spectators were not the only ones frozen in shock; even Gustav was taken aback. This exceeded all expectations... He had a *second* one of those cursed things?! When on earth had he made it... "Speaking of which, we haven't gone through the standard procedure yet," a pre-recorded voice rang out from within the glowing red armor. "Convention dictates that at a moment like this, one ought to introduce their masterpiece to earn some cool points and style! Surely you're dying to ask right now: what on earth is this wicked thing?" "To be frank, this is the brainchild of my two and a half years studying alchemy—a stroke of sheer genius!" The artisan's mirror image spread its arms. The long blade swung while the short sword was held in a reverse grip. Beneath the swirling blood light and toxic curses, it radiated sheer monstrosity. "You've already had a deep taste of its savagery and malice. Though far from a Celestial Craft, as a blessed creation, I doubt it has many rivals in the same rank. That is why I named them after the two most terrifying things in the world—" As the artisan spoke, pitch-black inscriptions emerged beneath the coursing crimson on the spines of the blade and sword, revealing their names! "This long blade is called 【Ex-Wife】!" Over the loudspeaker, accompanied by a rousing, explosive drumbeat, the artisan solemnly declared, "And this short sword is called 【Stepmother】!" 【???】 For a moment, everything plunged into dead silence. Not a sound remained. Inside and outside the simulation, above and below the floating light, an indescribable chill rose without warning in everyone's hearts. Expressions froze on their faces. People instinctively wanted to dig out their ears, doubting what they had just heard. What the hell did you just say?! Even Frederick, transformed into the fire giant, froze in place, forgetting where he was. If Assault Niuma seized the opportunity to strike now, he probably wouldn't even have reacted in time to avoid being hacked into mincemeat. Yet the opponent, having finished his announcement, seemed to have shifted entirely into showcase mode, brandishing the blade and sword in a series of stances to demonstrate his work. "Terrifying, isn't it?! Frightened?" The voice through the speaker babbled incessantly, launching into a detailed introduction. "As the name implies, Ex-Wife boasts a fierce, heavy blade that cleaves through anything. It specializes above all in plundering spiritus and dividing assets. Every cut hurts to the bone—even a billionaire will be stripped down to their underwear and end up penniless on the street! "And Stepmother is even scarier! Not only is it light and deceptive, finding every crack and gap with peerless speed, but it comes fully loaded with curses and toxins. Where the blade passes, it leaves no mark; the victim simply rots from within, killed without spilling a drop of blood! A mere scratch cuts to the marrow, leaving trauma for a lifetime..." Faced with such terrifying power, who wouldn't shudder in fear?! No one! Absolutely no one! Even if every iron-blooded hardass in the world pooled all their backbone together, seeing such a horrifying combination of blade and sword would probably bring tears to their eyes! "Too bad I didn't have enough points," Ji Jue sighed with genuine regret. "In my original plan, I intended to make a pair of gauntlets. The left called Carrot, the right called Big Stick! Together, invincible—" *BOOM!!!* Without warning, boundless flames erupted. Surtr, Lord of Incineration, roared. The giant sword expanded massively as it cleaved down toward the ceaselessly chattering opponent before him! He had had enough! "SHUT! THE! HELL! UP!!!"