There's Always Someone Dirtier

Amid screeching roars, bloody light violently convulsed. As the Colonel rose once more, a spear woven of blood and bone was spat from his mouth. With a casual flourish, piercing wails materialized from the wind. In an instant, piercing through the endless sea fog, that pair of amber, vertical slits locked onto Ji Jue's position. Right after that, the fishing boat's hull suddenly caved in, tearing open in a gruesome rift, and he blasted outward, ripping right through the vessel! Like a streak of bloody meteor traveling between sky and sea, he pierced through the mist. —Sweeping Clouds! After undergoing two qualitative transformations, this blessing completely ignored terrain impediments. Even the dead, stagnant seawater beneath his feet turned into solid earth, free for him to gallop across. Sprinting with all his might, the howling blood-light crossed nearly half the distance at a terrifying speed barely perceptible to the naked eye. From beginning to end, Ji Jue merely sat in his chair, resting his chin on his hand. Watching in silence. Until the instant that streak of blood-light finally crossed a certain threshold, the Prosperity thundered with a deafening roar. Under the command and transformation of Deus Ex Machina, the deck unfolded like a blooming lotus. Immediately following, towering like spires from the darkness, naval autocannons of astonishing calibers rose straight from the ground. And after them came missile launcher racks glowing with scorching flames. In the blink of an eye, it shed the guise of a freighter, revealing its ferocious fangs. Countless rounds converged into lines of fire, interlacing and locking onto their target as an unequivocal tidal wave of bullets roared forth. Then, plunging from the sky came propelled stars of steel. Missiles inbound! If the Swarm were not so nimble and notoriously hard to track and lead, Ji Jue would certainly have treated him to a taste of the main battery he had only just installed a few days ago... Under this lavish squandering of munitions, machine-gun rounds and short-range missiles produced by the working beasts of countless underground workshops blotted out the sky, lighting up the Colonel's eyes. A momentary freeze. What the fuck... Across that savage visage, his lips seemed to part subconsciously, cursing something vile, yet not even a sound could escape. Only mocking, hallucinatory laughter echoed in the wind. Charging the firepower of a warship all by yourself? Big bro, you sure are brave! In an instant, amidst the firing arcs illuminated by tracer rounds, the bloody meteor charging straight ahead slammed on the brakes. Kicking up countless wild waves, he leaped and stumbled, dodging and weaving like a monkey. Leaning on his near-overloading Anticipate the Enemy and his absurd Swarm stats, he ducked in a sorry scramble, dodging left and right. The concentrated firepower of six twin naval autocannons actually failed to catch him. Even when he could not evade in time, sweeping and twirling the blood-bone spear in his hands was enough to ward off that terrifying barrage. Even if stray bullets hit him here and there, they only left cracks along the scales covering his body, failing to pierce through. He truly was of the Swarm—his raw stats were completely off the charts. Unfortunately, unless he suddenly advanced to Exaltation and unfolded a Domain to wall off all incoming firepower, no amount of marvelous stats could endure this savage barrage indefinitely. Amidst the cold, playful mauling of the strafing run, the Colonel roared in fury. Blood-flames flared again as he planted the spear into the 'ground,' abruptly blasting open a violent gale of air that deflected the streams of metal clinging to him like maggots on a bone. A split-second escape. Immediately after, missiles plunging from the sky detonated in thunderous blasts. Amidst the flames, a figure was hurled outward once again on the shockwave's push. No matter how he twisted, leaped, and dodged, those missiles pursued him like living creatures. Their trajectories swayed provocatively, shifting direction as nimbly as wild hounds, clamping onto him without letting go! Not until he suddenly wheeled around in midair, treading the empty air like a shooting star and stomping down on the missiles while thrusting and hacking with his spear, did he shatter and detonate dozens of closely pursuing missiles in the span of a breath. Nothing more than this! Before the Colonel in midair could even sneer, he saw the missiles right before his eyes suddenly transform. Sprouting wings with the screech of grinding steel, they warped into the bizarre silhouettes of birds and lunged straight at him. Animation! Boom! Fortunately, before the detonation, his blood-bone spear had already thrust out, and the erupting blood-flames preemptively shredded it to pieces. Regrettably, the missiles screeching in once more had also completed their total transformation beneath Ji Jue's fluid hand. Growing ever more nimble, their siege was relentless. The Colonel grew furious, more furious, and utterly enraged. His tyrannical spiritus fluctuations climbed steadily higher, yet he could not shake off those relentlessly clinging monsters. Instead, amidst the rising and falling blasts, his scales cracked and splintered one after another. And right during another violent outburst, a chill ran down his spine. When he whipped his head around, he saw... beneath the cover of the other missile monsters, one that he had ignored suddenly burst apart! Beneath the scattering, erupting shell, iron wings unfolded. Immediately after, a mechanical arm coalesced amid swirling silver light and clenched shut. Beneath the palm, the shackles came undone. The containment of Solid Alchemy shattered, and a bizarre, scarlet blade erupted with hair-raising radiance. Accelerating at breakneck speed, the howling blade left the mechanical hand. —Sever! "You moth—" Taken entirely by surprise, the Colonel's eyes bulged, the corners nearly tearing. He could produce no sound other than a string of curses. The moment he noticed it, it was already inches away. Had it not been for the warning from Anticipate the Enemy, he would not even have known his head was being severed! From the very beginning until now, every single move, every single trick was dirty, dirty, dirty, so fucking dirty... Too dirty! Even if the life-and-death struggles across the Thousand Islands were vile and underhanded, where poisoning and backstabbing were daily occurrences, and ganging up to stomp someone was considered chivalrous and upright, there had never been an opponent this fucking dirty! There was truly an expert behind every dirty trick, each dirtier than the last! Which one of them was the pirate here?! The Colonel's vision blackened from sheer rage. Gripped by a mixture of sorrow and wrath, he wanted nothing more than to roar toward the heavens: Do you have the fucking guts to step out and duel me one-on-one?! Alas, it was already too late. In this clash that lasted less than the snap of a finger, he only had time to reverse his blood spear and hack backward, hoping to stall it for a single instant. But he could not manage even that instant. As the saying went: it takes a hero to recognize a hero, and a peer in the trade to kill a peer in the trade. Pan Ying's effectiveness against the Swarm was nothing short of extraordinary. Particularly after Ji Jue's honing and tempering over these past few days, the scarlet hue upon the blade had been completely washed away. As it swung now, it actually revealed a wisp of dreamlike, shimmering light. A split-second collision gouged a gap straight into the Colonel's spear. Whirling in midair, its momentum unabated, it plunged forward, tearing through that thick layer of scales like crushing dry weeds. Like a hot knife through wax, a single pass cleaved a traversing rift slanting down from his left shoulder. Had he not instinctively flinched away just before that, a head would have gone flying into the sky right then! Paying no heed to the searing agony and impact wracking his frame, before the Colonel could even recover from the horrifying realization that he had nearly been decapitated, he once again felt... a bone-chilling dread. —Surfacing right behind his back! He was on the verge of weeping aloud. Again?! Smack! Pan Ying, whirling outward, had not even flown far before it dropped right into an open, massive mechanical hand. Fingers clenched tight, and then—blood tides surged, and blazing light billowed! The turbulent sea surface was abruptly cleaved down the center as a colossal behemoth that had crept beneath the waves at some unknown point leapt into the air! Through the blessing Spring Currents and Leyline Flow, it diffused its spiritus to blend into the ocean tides, while the blessing Man-Heaven Isomorphism linked its very body with this stretch of the sea into a seamless whole. Finally, it bolstered itself with Solid as Bedrock. Right now, behind the Colonel, rising from the tides cleaved like an abyss, the Dragon Mountain armor emerged. It had been waiting for a long time! Amidst the humid sea breeze and mist, spiritus circuits that had been laid down long ago emerged from the quicksilver fog. Thousands of strands stretched and expanded, entangling themselves around the Colonel. Tugging, hauling, locking down, halting. Then came the sound of popping bubbles. Pan Ying punched straight through! The blade pinned him like a nail, driving through his heart and matrix to sever the resonance among his blessings. Immediately after, it began violently siphoning the life and power belonging to the same Swarm lineage. "Don't... don't... stop... no... AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!" Unprecedented, piercing shrieks rang out, dissolving into weeping and pleading. The Colonel's body rapidly shriveled and withered away. The twin horns atop his head fractured and scales peeled off, leaving him unable to sustain his Regeneration form any longer. Even his Legacy Burnt Offering lost its response. The patron remained indifferent and unmoved. Had the Sovereign Virtue possessed sentience, it might well have slapped him right across the face—You disgraceful piece of trash, if you can't afford to lose, don't play! You were given so many damn chances, and you still managed to lose? And after losing, you dare to bark like a dog?! The instant the rite to wipe out his shame failed, all the injuries previously absorbed by the Lord of Scars were thrown right back onto him. In a flash, he was grievously wounded once more, hovering on the brink of death. Yet what terrified and drove the Colonel to despair at this moment was not death. It was that the enemy did not seem to want him dead at all... Quite the contrary, those myriad silver threads began penetrating deep into his flesh, sustaining his life. Then, with deliberate, unhurried care, they began peeling away his matrix and blessings. Stripping away all his power! Losing one's life merely meant greeting death. Yet if one lost their power, death itself might become an unreachable luxury... Over all these years, amidst the slaughter and plunder across the Thousand Islands, he had witnessed far too many ends like that! Meat pigs, spirit pools, embryos, cysts... The mere thought of degenerating into such a fate stripped the Colonel of every shred of dignity and courage. Tears and snot streaming down his face, he shouted and pleaded, howling desperately, promising everything he possessed and everything he did not, even offering his worthless present and future lives. At last, amidst his tear-blurred prayers and supplications, he heard approaching footsteps. So heavy. Like the judgment of fate. Standing upon the water's surface, hardened and shaped through material property interference, Ji Jue looked down, casting his gaze upon the raw material beneath his feet. In the searing glare of the searchlights, he cast a grotesque shadow. Just like that, he slowly bent down, staring into that terrified, twitching, tear-stained face. After a long while, he suddenly broke into a bright smile. He asked, "Could I trouble you to do me a favor?" Subconsciously, the Colonel held his breath. Twitching with terror yet clinging to that one-in-a-million hope, he nodded his head like a pestle pounding garlic. Thud! A bloody severed head tumbled before him, rolling over to reveal a face twisted in deathly horror... Tu Sihai! "Aside from that, trouble yourself to pass a message to that 'General' of yours." Ji Jue reached out, pressing a hand against his face. Before darkness fell, the Colonel heard only those final, contemptuous words: "—Keep your hands off my things!"