An Artisan's Words Are Pure Deceit

Fortunately, he wasn't. Well, probably. It wasn't that Ji Jue underestimated Kanemoto's methods or capabilities, but expecting an old fossil like Kanemoto to stoop to dealing with him like this examiner did was nothing short of a pipedream! That old bastard only knew how to force a horse to drink when it wasn't thirsty, stuff a duck till it burst, or refine fine jade within an inch of its life. He would never bother with so many bizarre antics. Still, if this examiner had nothing to do with the Profound, then the Association's waters were running far too deep, weren't they? Why tell such lethal secrets to an innocent little kitten like him? Ji Jue suppressed his physical reactions, feigning indifference and total incomprehension as he lowered his head to scrutinize his sample. *Mm, this rock really looks like a rock.* And the examiner seemed completely indifferent as well. "...In any case, although something like the Mutual Transmutation of Virtue and Vice sounds extravagant, it doesn't mean it's impossible. It's just that barely anyone can do it. Those who can aren't willing to, and those willing aren't allowed to." "Why?" Ji Jue blurted out instinctively. "Who doesn't install a check valve on their drainpipes? What if the sewage backs up?" The examiner's voice took on a teasing tone. "Imagine if, one day, the Great Sin beneath the Vortex suddenly rose into the mortal realm... Actually, you don't even need to imagine it, do you? Didn't you almost witness that exact scene?" Ji Jue said nothing. The last guy who tried to hammer an open pipeline straight through a fragile fissure in the mortal realm was already dead as doornails. Lu Changsheng! And even in death, his ghost lingered, leaving behind a massive mess that hadn't been cleaned up to this day. Yet even now, the questions in Ji Jue's heart had not been answered. Instead, there were only more. "Could this also be a Lock?" Ji Jue frowned. "What exactly is a Lock?" "That's a good question!" The examiner seemed to offer an appreciative smile. Silence. A long, drawn-out silence. Nobody spoke, leaving Ji Jue craning his neck and waiting blankly like a fool of a dog. Until he couldn't take it anymore. "And then?!" "And then what?" the examiner asked, utterly bewildered. "I said it's a good question." "Then answer it!" Ji Jue's blood pressure was on the verge of spiking through the roof. "Heh." The examiner sounded as if he picked up a lidded teacup, scraped away the foam, blew gently across the surface, and took a leisurely sip before drawling, "I'm not your teacher. Why should I answer?" *You bastard...* The veins on Ji Jue's forehead bulged violently, and he nearly cracked his teeth from grinding them. *Riddler, get the hell out of Gotham!* After glaring daggers at empty air for a long time, he ultimately said nothing. *Save the swearing for after I get out!* Suppressing his rising blood pressure, he lowered his head and plunged back into the simulated world. And then, his blood pressure broke containment completely... From east to west, south to north—relying on time acceleration, his figure flickered across this expanse of sea like a strobe. In just a few days, he traversed every single corner corrupted by the Nether Sea Worm. Only then did he realize just how terrifying a scale he was facing. Even setting aside the minor and moderate contamination zones that had leaked outward, estimating by the most conservative measure, the heavily contaminated zone within the Nether Sea Worm's corruption cycle spanned over five million square kilometers. Length times width, rounded to integers—a simple math problem, yet the answer was despairing enough to make one want to hang oneself inside the Tower of Myriad Transformations' simulation. This vast sea, practically half the size of the Federation, had completely turned into the Nether Sea. It could virtually be regarded as the worm's own body. The corruption within was deeply entrenched, virtually impossible to purge. Inside, the worm was capable of reconstituting itself the very instant it was destroyed. To thoroughly eradicate the Nether Sea Worm, one would have to obliterate this entire five-million-square-kilometer ocean, then thoroughly purify and vaporize it... If Ji Jue actually possessed that kind of power, why would he even need to take a measly artisan examination? Forget the exam; he would drag the examiner out by the hair and slap him across the face a few times. *Teach you to act like a pretentious Riddler!* *Though at first, no one cared about this disaster—it was just a bit of pollution, a minor mutation... but skip the rest—Ji Jue decided to initiate the Wandering Nether Sea Project!* Put simply, use brute physics to carve this entire section of the ocean right out of the mortal realm and launch it into deep space! Wasn't it just snapping off a piece of a biscuit? Pinching off a corner should be child's play! According to step one of the plan, he needed to manufacture a colossal fleet of tunnel boring machines, supplemented by an infinite supply of fusion bombs for directional blasting, to drill straight down through the mortal realm from the perimeter of the Nether Sea. Then, attach propulsion systems and shove the damn thing out into the cosmos. In the end, Ji Jue died of old age. He slogged away until he died of old age, yet he never once touched the bottom of the mortal realm. Even after overcoming ten thousand hardships and excavating over two thousand kilometers downward, no matter how cutting-edge the excavation equipment—even with fusion bombs detonated point-blank—they couldn't advance another inch. "All matter in the mortal realm originated from the Desolate Ruins. In a sense, the Desolate Ruins are the foundation of the mortal realm—quite literally its bedrock," the examiner said with a chuckle, as if patting Ji Jue's head from afar. "Isn't it absurd to try using matter to break the Desolate Ruins? "Well, the thought was commendable. I can give you a 6 out of 10. "Because you're truly slick!" "Haha." Ji Jue gave a polite smile to express his gratitude: *Slick your damn face!* No point wasting words. Time reset, and work resumed... Then Ji Jue died again. He died from overestimating himself, daring to manipulate the Nether Sea Worm's spirit of corruption—truly pitiful and lamentable. This time, the examiner gave him a 9. Aside from the 6, it included 3 points for screaming and holding out for three whole hours before finally killing himself. Time reset. Then Ji Jue died once more. He died from taking a careless misstep and plunging right off his orbital strike satellite, screaming for half an hour before burning to ash in the atmosphere before he ever hit the ground. To that, the examiner awarded 3 points in recognition of how creative the death was. Time reset. Dead. Reset again, dead again. Another reset, another death. Death, death, death, death, death, death. By the end, Ji Jue's mental state had completely shattered. In an explosion of impotent rage, he pointed up at the sky and cursed the examiner out for an entire day. Through it all, the examiner merely chuckled and gave no reply. It wasn't until Ji Jue was thoroughly exhausted from swearing that he slumped to the ground, utterly drained of energy. "You knew from the very beginning that I couldn't possibly succeed, didn't you?" "Hmm? Have a little faith in yourself, young man." Inside a luxurious private lounge, the examiner sat warming himself by a fireplace, sighing softly. "A human's most precious qualities are patience and hope. With an infinite supply of resources and infinite blessings, as long as you find the right approach, you could bury that worm under sheer numbers alone!" Ji Jue laughed out of sheer fury. Bury it under sheer numbers? Easy for you to say—if you're so damn clever, why don't you do it yourself! "Oh, by the way." The examiner paused for a second and sighed with feeling. "I actually did play a supporting role in the campaign against the Nether Sea Worm back in the day. Hmm, you weren't thinking something like 'if you're so clever, why don't you do it yourself,' were you?" *You motherfucker...* Ji Jue's composure crumbled entirely. He was done playing. He fell flat on his back, sprawling out across the sand. "Why don't you just make it quick and kill me?" "What kind of place do you take the Association for?" The examiner sounded scandalized. "We're an artisan regulatory authority. How could we murder an innocent apprentice?" "You just lock innocent apprentices in here and refuse to let them leave, right?!" Ji Jue sneered. "You're a grown adult—can we drop the coy act? Why not just be straight with me: what on earth do you actually want?!" "Hmm..." The examiner seemed to freeze for a moment, falling into pensive silence. After a long while, he let out an enlightened sigh. "Truth be told, I haven't figured that out either!" Ji Jue felt his sanity taking another beating. *How the hell did you manage to say something so brain-dead with such utter conviction?!* "Don't be in such a rush," the examiner comforted him warmly. "I just want to get to know today's young people a bit, find some common ground with the new generation. This is a process of building mutual understanding." Ji Jue fell silent, gritting his teeth, until he finally squeezed words out through the gaps. "If there's something you want to know, just ask!" The examiner asked curiously, "You're an artisan too, so let me ask you: can anyone actually trust the words that come out of an artisan's mouth?" "..." Ji Jue was actually at a loss for words. If the words coming out of an artisan's mouth possessed even a shred of credibility, there wouldn't be so many greenhorn artisans roaming the streets begging for funding and getting treated like con artists. "See!" the examiner laughed heartily. "Facts speak louder than words, and actions speak louder than speech. Ji Jue, people can lie, but their hands never do." "Who says they don't?" Ji Jue retorted, raising his right hand and flashing an OK sign toward the sky. Immediately after, his wrist twisted, and his ring finger and pinky retracted at the speed of light. Then, he watched as his right hand dissolved into a block of digital mosaic blur... "..." Ji Jue's expression twitched; he had nothing to say. "Mm, now they won't," the examiner drawled, taking another sip of tea. "Besides, such a rare opportunity—why let it go to waste? There's no need for all these pointless little tests, Ji Jue. Aren't you having fun too?" "Where am I having fun?!" Ji Jue fumed. "From start to finish, you're the only one enjoying yourself, all right?!" "Let's see. Internal recorded time is over four hundred and forty years, but subtracting the acceleration and save-scumming, from your subjective perception, it's already been five or six months, hasn't it? "If you weren't finding any joy in it, why persist for so long?" The examiner asked curiously, "Even now, aren't you still tirelessly exploring it? The chance to change the world is right before your eyes—what artisan could remain indifferent?" "I don't give a damn," Ji Jue countered. "Whatever happens to the world is none of my business!" "...Fair enough, then." The examiner sighed, sounding entirely helpless. Right in front of Ji Jue, a chair suddenly materialized. "I'm still dealing with a few matters on my end. Have a seat for a while." He promised, "If you don't change your mind, I'll send you out in a bit." *Wrong! There's a trap! Something is definitely wrong!* Ji Jue's instincts flared with warning as he surveyed his surroundings. Even if the chair turned into a bomb the next second and blew him to high heaven, he wouldn't be surprised. Yet nothing happened. Even when Ji Jue braced himself for detonation and planted his backside firmly on the seat, still, nothing took place. A gentle sea breeze wafted past, cool and refreshing beneath the parasol. The afternoon sun shone brilliantly, illuminating the sparkling golden sand and azure sea, radiant and mesmerizing. Like the scenery at a resort, it put him at ease. Ji Jue sipped an iced soda, soaking in the fine weather. Gradually, his vigilance softened, and he even began humming a tune—until, from the distance, a squeaking, grinding sound drifted over. *As expected...* Ji Jue turned with a cold smirk. He knew it couldn't be that simple! And then, he saw... A bicycle carrying a drooling idiot with a vacant grin on his face, creaking and squeaking right toward him. *[???]* *What the hell?* *Snap!* A crisp crack echoed. Right before Ji Jue, the bicycle toppled over, its chain snapped. Taking a nasty spill, the idiot scrambled up from the dirt, screeching and hooting weirdly. In a fit of fury, he kicked the bicycle twice, trying to prop it back up and ride it again. But no matter how hard he pedaled, the bike wouldn't budge an inch; instead, the broken chain jammed even tighter. Under Ji Jue's cold, watching gaze, the idiot finally experienced a flash of revelation and pinpointed the root of the problem. *The bicycle won't move? Just find something that moves!* Promptly, he rounded up two drooling little idiots, tied them to the front of the bicycle like slaves, and cracked a whip. Stung by the pain, the little idiots immediately bolted forward, dragging the bicycle behind them. Having resolved the issue, the idiot stood perched on the bicycle, cackling with triumphant glee. *Utterly absurd!* Ji Jue looked away, only to hear a deep rumbling engine. A pickup truck drove over from the distance, rolling right up to him before blowing a tire. The idiot behind the wheel hopped down, staring at the shredded tire. Clutching a tool, his face was a mask of utter bewilderment. He punched it, kicked it, and bit it with his teeth—all to no avail. Then, looking around, his eyes suddenly lit up! Right before Ji Jue's stunned eyes, he snatched the bicycle over, stripped off one of its wheels, mounted it onto his truck, bound it fast with strips of cloth, and rumbled away. From beginning to end, he didn't spare so much as a single glance at the spare tire mounted on the truck bed! The idiot whose bicycle had been stolen began wailing, shouting in outrage. But soon enough, he too found a solution: he strapped the two little idiots directly onto the empty front axle, cracked his whip, and the bicycle rolled clunkily forward once more... Ji Jue's eyelid twitched. Then he heard another roar. In the distance, black smoke billowed as the pickup truck, having traveled merely a few meters, suffered a catastrophic engine blowout and broke down on the spot. "..." For a moment, Ji Jue opened his mouth, then closed it. He already foresaw what was coming next. Sure enough, before long, the three idiots from the bicycle were hitched to the front of the pickup truck. Under the lash of the whip, they wept and shrieked as they hauled the truck along. The wheels turned, clunking over the ground. Until they were halted by an idiot who looked remarkably sagacious and wise. Draped in ornate robes, the sage spread his arms to block the vehicle, furiously berating his kin for their stupidity before directing the idiots to pop the hood. Ji Jue could tell at a glance: the spark plug was dead. Too much carbon buildup. If you didn't want to replace it, scrubbing it clean would do the trick. If you wanted to cut corners even further, blowing on it twice might even work. *This should finally be solved, right?* Then he watched as the sage pondered briefly, analyzed calmly, weighed the options with utmost prudence, and then decisively hoisted the hem of his fine robes to take a leak straight onto the radiator cap. And right before Ji Jue's flabbergasted eyes, the truck actually... started moving again?! All around, his fellow idiots cheered and roared, praising him with fervent adoration! *I see! Naruhodo! Truly a sage!* Next to take the stage was an entire construction convoy. Idiots of all shapes and sizes drove up in an assortment of chaotic vehicles. Under the direction of their chieftain, they launched into a flurry of fervent construction right in front of Ji Jue. After stringing up two idiots as sacrificial offerings to the heavens, without even laying a foundation, the idiots began pouring concrete on-site using various crude implements. Never mind the disastrous mix ratio; there wasn't even any rebar reinforcement. Under the tug of several ropes, the walls were hauled upright. When fractures opened across the surface? No problem—just slap a couple handfuls of mud over them. If a wall leaned crooked, prop it up with a stick, and it would shelter them from the wind and rain just fine. One crooked, crack-riddled building after another sprang up before Ji Jue's eyes, their construction outpacing the speed of their collapse. A chaotic settlement formed right before Ji Jue, and then another. Soon, the two idiot settlements turned hostile over who deserved a larger share of coconuts. In the end, as the leaders on both sides drooled and screeched wildly on large projection screens, the two mobs of idiots brandished barbed-wire-wrapped rifles like spiked clubs and tore into each other. "Gua—!" "Yeah—!" Amidst meaningless battle cries, Ji Jue's eye twitched furiously. He gritted his teeth and held his tongue, forcing down his reactions. He had vaguely guessed what that bastard examiner was trying to do. A chill gripped his heart. *What on earth did I do wrong to deserve such brain-rotting torture?!* Soon, using a suspended intercontinental ballistic missile as a battering ram, one side's gates came crashing down, and the dumber faction was swallowed up in the war. Which meant everyone had now become equally brain-dead. *Boom!!!* When the entire settlement was blown to high heaven by the idiots' catastrophic incompetence, Ji Jue actually let out a sigh of relief. Drenched in cold sweat, he thought it was finally over. Yet immediately after, another band of idiots migrated from who-knew-where. They futilely repeated the exact same mistakes and blunders, without learning a single lesson—in fact, growing progressively dumber! This time, they didn't even manage to erect buildings. After crushing four chieftains to death, everyone decided to abandon their brain-dead technology and live in shanties from then on, peacefully living out their lives as idiots. Yet before Ji Jue could relax even slightly, through a bizarre stroke of fortune, one of the idiots had a coconut cracked open against his skull, and amidst the severe concussion, he discovered the mysteries of spiritus... Ji Jue's heart sank straight to rock bottom. From that day forth, the idiots went down the path of cracking coconuts with their skulls and never looked back. Centering around the pursuit of cracking more coconuts and forging harder skulls, they developed a series of sacrificial rites, worship, and prayers, ultimately establishing the Church of the Holy Coconut. Every day, they prayed for the coconut to bestow wondrous power upon them so they could crack open even more coconuts! Until a certain idiot priest, struck by a flash of inspiration, discovered that spiritus could interfere with material properties, giving birth to the rudimentary dawn of alchemy... Ji Jue's fists were already clenching tight! *Hold back, hold back, Ji Jue!* *Don't fall for that dog of an examiner's trick!* *You have to endure it!* Yet when this bunch of morons finally began using an appallingly clumsy form of alchemy to replicate Fluid Alchemy and Coconut Dissociation Art, Ji Jue's mental defenses shattered entirely. *No, damn it, I can't take this anymore!* Ji Jue could no longer sit still. Kicking the chair over, he charged forward and delivered two stinging slaps across an idiot's face, snatched the coconut right out of his hands, and slammed it to the ground. With a vicious kick, he sent it flying toward the horizon. *To hell with your damn coconuts!!!* "Oh? We haven't even reached the mechanical engineering segment yet, and you already can't hold back?" The examiner stood behind him, sipping coconut water through a straw. It was impossible to tell when he had appeared. A half-smile played on his lips. "So, does it really not matter what the world turns into, Ji Jue?" He studied Ji Jue's dark face and asked curiously, "If you can't even stand a bunch of morons, can you really accept whatever this world becomes?"