Tonight, aboard the Tianbo, at a meeting convened by Mr. Chen of the Yacheng Wild Gathering, Mr. Ji of Haian Auto Works met with Mr. Ling, the representative of the Gray Port Wild Gathering. The two parties held cordial and friendly talks, engaging in a full, candid, and frank exchange of views before arriving at a comprehensive consensus.
All parties raised their glasses in shared celebration, and the meeting concluded amid a round of harmonious and amicable applause.
Truly worthy of congratulations, truly auspicious!
According to the rules of the Wild Gathering, with victory, defeat, status, and life or death decided under the witness of the Chief's seat—and with the White Stag itself descending upon the scene—even if this matter were reported to the General Assembly, anyone spitting on Ling Zhou's corpse would still have to praise it as a fine death, a marvelous death, a death so well-ordered it would make Tianyuan cheer!
Things had reached this point; the dust had settled, leaving no room for reversal.
Even if Ling Liu, the current Dragon Head of Gray Port, flew into a thundering rage, he wouldn't be able to utter half a word of objection.
Sometimes rules were merely a sheet of paper, crumpled and whitewashed at will. But other times, rules loomed larger than the heavens; a slight brush against them meant death. This was especially true in the Wild Gathering, where the rules were few, just a handful back and forth, not even enough to fill a single page. Yet behind every single word lay mountains of corpses.
Unless Ling Liu had lost his mind and barged into the General Assembly to flip the tables shouting, "Fuck your mothers, I'm starting a New Wild Gathering," he had no choice but to swallow this loss. Not just swallow it, but gorge on it bitterly. And once he finished choking it down, he would still have to grind Ling Zhou's bones to ash and curse him as an embarrassing disgrace.
For a while, the Gray Port Wild Gathering would hardly dare approach Yacheng; even if they crossed paths, they would have to tuck their tails between their legs.
This gamble had been won too cleanly—it was beyond reproach.
Afterward, Chen Xingzhou thoughtfully provided Ji Jue with a thorough cleaning service. He cleared off everyone on the ship, not even letting them set foot on the dock. They were loaded directly onto a small skiff cast out to sea with a pair of oars tossed in—row back yourselves!
As for those lackeys who hadn't managed to get aboard and were stranded in Yacheng, they naturally wouldn't be left homeless either.
Mr. Ji had a kind heart; he couldn't bear to see pitiful folk suffer.
He rounded them all up and shipped them straight to Workshop No. 0.
It just so happened that production capacity had been running short lately—how could such a blessing exist under the sun?
During the cleanup, the corpse in the luxury cabin was also discovered and brought before Ji Jue.
Along with it was that broken balance scale.
"A blessed creation of the Path of Aether? If it were intact, it'd actually be a decent gadget."
Ji Jue weighed it in his hands a couple of times, then reduced it to ash with a burst of the Dissociation Art, topping up a chunk of progress for Deus Ex Machina. "Brother Ball, you're awesome."
[Does that even need saying?]
Guigong laughed heartily. [You're getting sharper yourself, kid. Knew I picked the right guy, ha!]
After a round of mutual flattery, both were thoroughly pleased.
Ever since boarding, Guigong had long since deployed its temporary workshop, keeping nearly every change aboard the ship under its surveillance. In stealth mode, let alone Ling Zhou, even a Celestial-Human wouldn't have noticed.
No, perhaps... that Chief who hadn't even shown up in person had sensed something, but even if he did, he couldn't be bothered to expose it.
Why expose it?
Once blows were traded, one naturally resorted to any means necessary. In a life-or-death struggle like this, results and methods were all that mattered. Even if Ling Zhou had cheated today, as long as he won, would anyone have complained?
So long as you weren't caught, it wasn't cheating!
If you couldn't catch your opponent, you deserved to die like a dog.
Not to mention, Ji Jue had kept Deus Ex Machina running the whole time...
Under Guigong's cover, the entire Tianbo had become Ji Jue's home turf the instant he stepped on board!
Ling Zhou had pranced around like a performing monkey for half the night, never suspecting that Ji Jue had already entered every cheat code from the very start.
The ship was his ship, the people were his people, and the referee was his invited referee.
What did you have to fight me with?
The power of friendship and courage?!
As the saying went, a thief never leaves empty-handed—much less an Embers practitioner.
As his teacher's specialized gadget designed for murder, arson, extermination, and looting, it had effortlessly interfered from the shadows, meddling until that old geezer of Aether was dead, and spent the rest of the time watching the show.
Brother Ball was decent after all; it didn't hog all the spoils. True brothers kept it in their hearts. It merely skimmed two blessings as its appearance fee and left the rest to Ji Jue.
Soul fragments driven to death by despair, remains killed by the karmic backlash of a destiny curse... In corruption alchemy, the former was a catalyst where more was always better, and the latter was a precious secondary material for priming the furnace and advancing tiers.
Furthermore, after recovering the matrix, it could be dissociated as fodder to level up Deus Ex Machina.
A Celestial Chosen truly was treasure from head to toe!
Too bad that when Ling Zhou died, the White Stag was still watching the stream, so Ji Jue felt too embarrassed to pluck the god's follower clean; the blessings had returned to the White Stag, leaving behind only a corpse. What a terrible loss.
Still, calculating the money earned tonight...
Grit his teeth and chip in a little extra, and he could secure a set of basic workshop equipment outright. A workshop that originally hadn't even had the first stroke of a character written—wasn't its foundation coming together right now?
Leaning against the deck railing in the breeze, humming a tune and whistling, Ji Jue beamed with delight.
Truly, murder and arson brought in money fast!
Shouldn't he strike while the iron was hot and score some more?
Footsteps sounded.
After wrapping up the bustle and seeing off the invited witnesses, Chen Xingzhou strolled over, puffing on a cigar. "Any plans for this ship?"
"A few ideas."
Ji Jue thought for a moment. "The gambling tables and stuff inside are too much in the way. Could you help me tear them out? Do whatever you want with them."
"What a waste," Chen Xingzhou couldn't help shaking his head. "More than half of this ship's value is in those fittings."
Ji Jue was indifferent. "Useless to me."
And so, Chen Xingzhou nodded.
"We'll do it your way, then."
He had originally planned to say that if Ji Jue wasn't interested, he could hand it over to him to run, receiving a fixed monthly dividend without having to worry about a thing.
Now, however, it seemed there was no point wasting his breath.
From the very beginning, Ji Jue had looked down on such business.
In the gloom of the night, Chen Xingzhou gave a soft sigh.
"As it happens, I hold shares in Yuantong Shipping. I checked the ship's registry—she's only been in the water for three or four years, practically brand-new. Later on, you can register her under them. Daily maintenance and refueling can be done at cost. As for crew... well, never mind, I won't assign you a crew."
After dealing with each other for so long, he had naturally experienced how preposterous Deus Ex Machina was. Let alone having no crew, as long as this damn ship still had an engine, Ji Jue could sail her.
Vehicles drove vehicles; ships sailed ships.
They drove themselves.
Why would he need anyone to worry about that?
Chen Xingzhou shook his head in wonder. "I thought I was here tonight to secure justice for you. Who knew justice was in your own hands all along? And I even got to show my face before the Chief by riding your coattails. If you need any help down the line, just say the word."
Ji Jue thought for a second and nodded. "Actually, I do."
"..."
Chen Xingzhou was momentarily stunned, caught off guard. "You really won't even think it over first?"
Was a favor from him, a Dragon Head, so worthless?
"Think over what?"
Ji Jue glanced back at him. "How far have we even gotten? We've only sent off a bunch of petty grifters who preyed on warehouse stock. We haven't actually accomplished anything yet, have we? Yubo took a beating for half a day in Quancheng for nothing—do you really not plan to vent some anger on your brother's behalf?"
"Heh!"
Chen Xingzhou broke into a grin, his mouth stretching wide as he flicked the half-smoked cigar into the sea.
"Fine," he said. "Count me in!"
With their current and upcoming matters settled, Chen Xingzhou left behind a crew to tidy up and took his leave.
In the dead of night, convoy after convoy rumbled into East Port, packed with dockworkers and related personnel, and set straight to work at a feverish pace.
Ji Jue didn't have to lift a finger.
After a brief chat with Ji Jue to confirm the requirements, the foreman nodded briskly. "Simple enough. It's not a major overhaul, and the plumbing and wiring won't need to be redone. For something like this, we'll have it sorted for you in a week. We'll handle the renaming and registration on our end, but will you be changing the ship's name?"
"Mm, let me think."
Ji Jue pondered for a moment and looked toward the empty air beside him. "How about Prosperity? For the Imperial registration name, let's go with TYET."
The supervisor blinked, wondering who Ji Jue was talking to.
Suddenly, he felt the deck beneath his feet shudder sharply, and from beneath layers of decking into the night came a low resonance like the song of a whale.
And so, it was decided.
Tyet.
It meant prosperity or life, or, under another widely known name:
—The Knot of Isis.
"You don't need to flatter me like this, sir," Isis's voice came through the earpiece. "Giving my name to an unexpected addition to my workload doesn't make me feel rejoiced. It's no different from tricking a child into writing their name on a newly bought workbook, or carving a slave's name onto their shackles. It only makes me realize my tragic plight all the more clearly."
"Then how about the Guigong?" Ji Jue suggested.
Isis fell silent, merely booting up the missile launch radar targeting beneath the auto works' workshop and locking onto "Guigong," expressing her opinion and perspective plainly and simply.
Ji Jue chuckled.
She clearly cared quite a lot!
A distant, cold gaze fell onto Ji Jue's hand, causing Brother Ball to vibrate twice. Muttering "troublesome broad," it slipped from his grip and rolled away with a clatter.
Getting stuck with a pain-in-the-ass woman and treasuring her like that, as if anyone would fight you for her.
Your Lord is going home for maintenance!
"How does it feel, sir?" Isis suddenly asked.
"How does what feel?"
Ji Jue asked, "What kind of feeling?"
"This very moment. Or rather, everything that just happened."
Isis said, "To be honest, I prefer how you are now."
"Why?" Ji Jue didn't understand.
"You are not shaken by anything, nor do you place hopes on things devoid of value. You don't hesitate out of emotion, nor do you feel pity for irrelevant people. Moving toward your goal as a matter of course, using any means necessary to achieve the outcome..."
Isis said, "I think this is very good. At least it isn't hypocritical."
"Indeed," Ji Jue nodded.
His agreement made Isis fall silent instead.
"Perhaps this is what I was all along," Ji Jue said with a self-deprecating laugh. "Still, I prefer my hypocritical self."
Isis remained silent for a long while before telling him, "You will abandon it eventually."
"Perhaps," her master smiled, speaking with certainty. "Perhaps craftsmen detest disguise, and perhaps monsters discard hypocrisy, but Ji Jue will not."
Mercy or weakness might sometimes be utterly meaningless.
Yet the person named Ji Jue was formed precisely because of them.
As long as this stubborn resolve remained, Ji Jue would never turn back.
"The starlight is truly wonderful, Isis."
Leaning against the railing, he looked up and gazed across the vault of heaven. "Tomorrow is bound to be a clear, sunny day."
Inside the workshop, Isis silently raised her head and looked out.
A mechanical arm reached out slowly toward the window. Amid the flickering starlight, moonlight rained down into a palm that could feel no touch.
It was indeed beautiful.
Chapter 339