Coeval with Heaven and Earth

In an instant, the spiritus reserves that had been on the verge of overflowing suddenly burned away. The ten thousand hands spread wide, breaking free of gravity's shackles, reaching toward the vault of heaven and down toward the earth. Brutally, they shoved the closing sky and ground apart once more. The frantic thumping of the Heart of Decay dimmed the silver brilliance and stiffened the ten thousand hands. As the peals of the bell swept over, the infinite quicksilver struggled to sustain its operation, instead rapidly dissolving and spilling toward the earth. Gravity raged, detonating. Yet behind the rapidly shattering palms, a single hand followed Ji Jue's motion, reaching back into the core's vortex. When it withdrew, a magnificent radiance manifested between its five fingers. That was a blessing! [Foundation of Repulsion]! Displayed bare and unreserved before everyone. "..." For a fraction of a second, Lin Ke felt as if he were hallucinating: he seemed to hear Andrei screaming and shouting. The thought made him laugh at himself—could that rock talk too? Only then did he hear Ji Jue's voice, brimming with genuine perplexity: "—Don't your workshops come with self-destruct mechanisms?" Ji Jue clasped his ten fingers together. The ten thousand hands churned and closed over it—an immense volume of spiritus compressed and surged, pouring in without holding back. Disregarding the blessing's turbulence and fracturing, within a mere snap of the fingers, he forced it to expand several times over, overloading it completely. Cracks surfaced from within. At last, as everyone's face drained of color, from behind the countless overlapping fissures, a speck of blinding light flared to life. DETONATE!!! Spurning no cost in burning most of the spiritus provided by Young Master Lou and converting every shred of it, as the blessing ruptured, a terrifying tide of repulsive force erupted from between the ten thousand hands! The vault of heaven, the earth, and everything around them. Everything as far as the eye could see. There was no sound to be heard, no thunderous roar; even the slightest warning sign was annihilated in the expanding blinding light. The vast expanse of dark clouds vanished without a trace. Over the sea, pitch-black water retreated in panic in every direction, stirring up a surging tidal wave that spanned ten thousand li. All of Luye Island violently rocked, wailing and trembling as though it had truly become a solitary leaf adrift on the ocean. Mountains were hurled aloft; the ground collapsed. Within the sudden vacuum, only the invisible tide of repulsion expanded, swallowing everything and unraveling every barrier in its path. Any reaction was too late. Yet in the final instant, a toll of a bell rang in everyone's ears. Like an illusion. Yet so crystal clear. Radiance surged from atop the sanctuary, spreading out and descending upon every workshop, linking and draping over them to form layer upon layer of overlapping scales. Dragon scales manifested! Before the raging tide of repulsion, they mounted a final line of defense. And then, the violent light swallowed everything... Amid the earth-shattering tremor, Lin Ke felt himself flung into the air and hurled back down. The ground rippled ceaselessly like a shaken carpet, and he fell amid falling knots of rope, struggling to pull himself free. He could only hear the ceaseless sounds of fracturing inside his workshop. Walls, floor, ceiling, and even the core crucible... Under the raging shockwave, everything violently shuddered and cracked. But soon, before long, it all seemed to vanish like a phantom. Was it over? In the dead silence, covered in soot and grime, Lin Ke scrambled to his feet and lifted his head from the dust. Hastily conducting maintenance on his workshop, he replaced the external sensors and scanned the outside once more—only to find it hard to breathe. Beneath the cracked dragon-scale barrier, his entire workshop stood on the brink of total collapse. And beyond the dragon scales lay a profound chasm. A hollow depression. Luye Island had gained an enormous crater out of nowhere. It looked like half a watermelon scooped out from the center, slammed onto the ground, shattered into pieces, and flooded with sludge. Surging, turbid sea tides raged, crashing and scouring back and forth. The ground had turned ash-black. And silvery-gray quicksilver fell from the heavens like a torrential downpour. What shocked him even more were the two massive craters beside him—the workshops of Five Flowers and Five Leaves and Tongxie were gone. When the Kunwu Lock and Earth Axis Armillary detonated beneath the repulsive burst, both workshops suffered severe backlash, dragged down as internal devastation erupted within them, leaving them completely unable to withstand the external impact. In the very first second the repulsive force struck, they had evaporated completely. The Hundred-Eyed Giant Workshop was in even more miserable shape; it had collapsed even before then. The rest weren't faring much better. Beneath the fading dragon scales, the surviving workshops teetered on the verge of ruin, riddled with scars. After barely weathering the initial storm, the mist of the Phantasm Realm Workshop completely dispersed, exploding out of control right before Lin Ke's eyes. Eliminated. Even surviving it meant death all the same. Under "Coeval with Heaven and Earth," all things were naturally equal. Especially since that dog Ji Jue, terrified that pure repulsive blast damage wouldn't be enough, had blended in countless fragments of Ex-Wife and Stepmother, along with corruption... Dipping the blade in shit! Even if one survived, they wouldn't outlast the aftereffects. The dead were done with it all, while the living were left to suffer torment... In the dead silence, no one spoke. There were only the panicked gasps of survivors. Lin Ke raised his head, staring into the dancing metallic vapor and toward the core of the explosion amid the dense quicksilver downpour, yet he couldn't see a thing clearly. He was just in sheer disbelief. "Dead?" "Yep—" At that moment, an unfamiliar voice suddenly rang out across their internal comm channel. Offering him a guarantee: "—Guaranteed dead!" The world ground to a halt once more. Amid the swirling metallic vapor, the millions of falling rain-threads abruptly froze in midair. Then, converging out of nowhere, they formed an eerie blade stretching kilometers long. Thrusting forward! It slipped past the precarious dragon-scale barrier, disregarded all the knot-binding sorceries, deflections, and obstructions, slithering and snaking like a living creature to drive deep into the Dragon Heart Workshop through its weakest point. And then, as though an industrial shredder had kicked into gear—tens of thousands of razor-sharp branches branched out, unfurling and violently whirling! Snap! Lin Ke froze where he stood. After a long pause, he gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "Heh... lesson learned." He slumped into his chair, murmuring softly, "There was a trick like this, huh!" Then, his entire being burst into a cloud of bloody mist. Taking the workshop along with him. And before everyone's eyes, the torrential silver rain filling the sky and the quicksilver vapor snapped inward, converging to latch onto a reconstructed base and framework, flowing and collapsing into a vortex! From within the vortex, countless arms unfurled once more! Even though the decay left behind by the curse of the Dragon Heart was difficult to shake off, it showed not the slightest wavering. Amid billowing quicksilver vapor, the looming silhouette shifted continuously as silver radiance churned. Damaged limbs rapidly reconstructed, returning to their former shape. In a matter of seconds, an embryonic silhouette had already taken shape once more. As if completely unscathed. Revived with full health! "It sure is great to be rich, so great," Ji Jue beamed from ear to ear. "Old Lou, my family's struck it rich!" "That's all my fucking money!" Lou Feng's eyes burned crimson. He had been on the verge of death, yet somehow found the strength to curse his lungs out. The previous explosion and the current reassembly had practically drained his workshop dry, inflicting severe damage on Lou Feng himself and cutting him to the quick. That was his wedding nest egg, hoarded since the very start! Too bad both the bride and the nest egg were gone now! And to make matters worse, the culprit was laughing right in front of him, gleefully playing with his spiritus and his workshop, completely thrilled. "Don't be a stranger!" Ji Jue patted his shoulder, speaking with deep meaning: "We're going to be partners for life, after all. Isn't your money my money?" You Ji bastard, you fucking— Crack! The sound of fracturing rang out again. Cracks surfaced across the Construct of Ten Thousand Hands. Ji Jue fell silent, his eyebrows arching. Lou Feng's expression changed. The operation of Fluid Alchemy was being obstructed?! No, rather, impurities had been mixed in. Too much interference and too many irreducible dregs had crept into the internal circulation along with the coming together of the Construct of Ten Thousand Hands. Like fine grit jammed between gears and hubs, it increased friction, jammed operations, and even continued spreading its reach. Like a plague. Tens of thousands of pathogens, sunk deep into the marrow. And they were steadily coalescing... Ji Jue reached in, pulled back, and spread his fingers. Sitting in his palm was a sharp piece of stone. It looked like a shard from some statue. "So that's it." Ji Jue lifted his gaze, looking toward the fissure-ridden sanctuary in the distance. The dome of the hall had collapsed and shattered. Through the cracks, amid the dust and rubble, the silent young man could be seen looking up, watching him. This was the first time Ji Jue and Andrei had faced each other since the exam began. Right now, the silent youth showed neither smugness nor joy; he was merely calm, just like Ji Jue himself. He gave a slight nod in greeting. "I really did underestimate my opponent," Ji Jue sighed softly. "A brilliant move." In the instant of that detonation, Andrei had not only exerted his utmost capability to protect most of his teammates, but had also seized the chance to shatter his own workshop and creations, scattering them in all directions. Suppressing their power, he had blended them into the core of the explosion, only revealing their true essence once the Construct of Ten Thousand Hands rebuilt itself and drew them deep inside. It was practically like grinding his own limbs and soul into paste, blending them into his rival's internal organs, and reforming them there. It locked physical transformations, severed the interplay between spiritus and material properties, and choked off the operation of Fluid Alchemy. Resisting all modification and change. Fixing everything constant. Even if Ji Jue reconstructed everything, he still could not rid himself of this erosion. The decay curse of Dragon Heart clung stubbornly, while Clock Tower's plague of constancy had sunk to the bone. Now, even if he wrung Young Master Lou completely dry, there wouldn't be enough spiritus for another reassembly. Yet even if he did reassemble, it would be difficult to purge Andrei's infiltration and interference. It would only be wasted effort. "Seems like I don't have much time left?" Ji Jue glanced around, sweeping his eyes past the few remaining, heavily damaged workshops as if they were nothing. Finally, his gaze landed on Andrei's sanctuary, filled with curiosity: "What about you?" Andrei's lips moved slightly, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time. Taking a deep breath, his voice sounded a bit dry and hoarse: "I can still hold out for a bit." "Enough?" Ji Jue smiled. "More than enough," Andrei nodded resolutely. Neither said another word. In this fleeting dead silence, amid their quiet gaze, a similar expression suddenly surfaced upon those two entirely different faces. Vigilance, caution, or perhaps anticipation. Though solemn and stern, it almost seemed as if they were smiling. There was no hesitation or unease whatsoever, nor any need for further provocation or mockery. Victory and defeat lay right before them! Within arm's reach! In that instant, between this shattered heaven and earth, a colossal roar reshaping all things suddenly erupted. Unknown how long he had been scheming and preparing in secret, towering obelisks suddenly rose from the ruins of the surrounding workshops. Without the slightest courtesy, he utilized the wreckage and foundations of his "teammates" to manifest his own creations upon them, not even sparing the survivors. The tolling of bells rolled outward like a mighty wave. The flowing light from the sanctuary spread across the earth like a cage, like chains, locking down all flow! Bringing all things to a state of constancy. Alas, it struck empty air. The center of the sealed earth was already empty. Above the broken vault of heaven, the sun that had briefly emerged vanished once more, disappearing as if swallowed by some colossal entity. Only a pitch-black shadow rapidly expanded across the ground! The Construct of Ten Thousand Hands soared into the heavens. Toward the highest point of the sky. Until it took the place of the blazing sun itself, reigning supreme over all creation!