Good times always fly, and the hour comes to say goodbye.
Lord Tianlu's rehabilitation warm-up had ended before it even truly began...
Having sensed the vast disparity between them and vaguely guessed the other party's terrifying nature, after being abandoned first by the Swarm and then by Frenzied Slaughter, and witnessing his own patron surrender to the enemy with his own eyes...
In a single night, first the Bloodwashing Fleet had been wiped out to the last ship, then his base had been swept clean, and now he had fallen into the hands of an old ghost reincarnating in borrowed flesh, unable to live and unable to die.
On top of that, his son had died beforehand, and his dignity was completely shredded...
Forget Pacquiao—any human being wouldn't have been able to take it.
He was completely broken.
He wept and wailed, writhing like a maggot in the mire of gore. Even as Lord Tianlu tortured him repeatedly, he refused to ever pick up a weapon again.
He had stopped just short of crossing his eyes, twisting his mouth, and playing dumb.
Playing dumb wouldn't have helped anyway, or he would have done it long ago!
Until, unable to stomach the pathetic spectacle any longer, Lord Tianlu's expression darkened. Looking around, he could hardly conceal his disappointment.
To reunite with an old friend hundreds, even thousands of years later in a foreign land was such a joyous, momentous occasion. He ought to have found a heavyweight, formidable opponent for a no-holds-barred, exhilarating slaughter. Instead, he had run into such a spineless shrimp.
Killing him would only sully Sheng Xie!
As for the rest...
He glanced at the Hero's Seeds, which possessed form but lacked a soul; glanced at the scattered rabble outside the perimeter; and then up at Yellowbeard and Ji Jue atop the building.
Two craftsmen.
Tasteless to chew on, annoying to look at.
Bad luck.
Had he forgotten to check the almanac when he woke up?
Ever since he opened his eyes, nothing had gone smoothly.
With great difficulty he had seen a Tianjun, yet only half of one; with great difficulty he had encountered Sheng Xie, yet it was an unfinished piece... Even he himself was reduced to these few scattered fragments clinging to the Supreme Good and a heart for conquest.
All things had passed; yesterday would not return.
As he held the sword and looked around, he suddenly threw his head back and laughed toward the sky, full of mockery.
He abruptly realized that such treatment actually suited his current state quite well.
"In the intervals between scattered fleeting dreams, being able to savor the past for a moment isn't half bad." Lord Tianlu grinned. Casting his gaze down, he raised a finger and tapped the spine of Sheng Xie, stirring up rippling waves of crimson.
"A pity. The foundation is decent, but the tempering falls short, and the blessings aren't enough. I am not me, and you, after all, are not it. Go find yourself a good master."
With a flick of his wrist, he tossed Pan Ying back in front of the Dragon Mountain armor.
The blade stabbed diagonally into iron and stone, humming.
As the crimson faded away, it gradually reverted to its original form.
Meanwhile, Tianlu had already turned to leave.
Walking along the unrecognizable street and treading on extinguished flames, he looked around, gazing upon the inscriptions and architecture that faintly bore the vestiges of former days—and even, behind the illusory phantom of Heaven's Mandate, the night sky and firmament that had long since shattered into pieces.
"Since the last time I came out... how many years has it been?"
Old Tom, who had been playing dead until now, finally opened his eyes and answered, "Over two hundred years."
"Heh, truly badass."
Tianlu grinned, offering a sarcastic sigh. "Two hundred years, and it's still the same sorry-ass state. Tui—hopeless!"
Old Tom didn't make a peep. He didn't dare ask, nor did he dare speak.
Until Tianlu stopped in his tracks, yawned as if feeling drowsy, and suddenly asked, "Kid of this generation."
"I-I'm here..."
"Don't act like a sissy. Cut what must be cut, understand? If you can't let go, the line probably ends with you."
Old Tom fell silent for a long time. "What... what if I can't let go?"
"Then keep carrying it."
Tianlu was nonchalant. "The way of the Swarm: the victor lives, the loser dies. For those who lose, no matter how much they say, they're nothing more than petty clowns. And the dead have no right to meddle in the principles of the living.
"In any case, this father killed his fill, had his fun, lived his life, and my brats turned out decently enough. Beyond that, I don't give a damn.
"Do whatever you want. Suit yourself."
For a moment, Old Tom's expression shifted slightly, hesitating as if about to speak.
Yet Tianlu closed his eyes. The beard and scars swiftly dissipated.
Once more, sinking into silence.
Vanishing without a trace.
Leaving Old Tom standing alone in place, lost in thought for a long while. When he turned around, he nearly leapt out of his skin and cried out in fright.
Ji Jue had popped up like a ghost with a whoosh.
Gazing at him with faint, eerie eyes.
"Done with your business?"
Should he explain what on earth had just happened?
The instant he reacted, Old Tom seemed to lose all strength in his limbs, flopping to the ground and wailing loudly.
"Aah, oof, I can't make it! My Heavenly Fiend Disintegration kicked in, I've lost all my martial arts, blood is gushing everywhere! What happened? I don't know anything at all...!"
Sneaking open one eye to peek at Ji Jue, he covered his face again and wailed an addition: "Without twen—thirty gold coins, I'll never recover!"
At this juncture, Ji Jue couldn't be bothered to interrogate him. Time was pressing; he had to hurry and salvage the materials first. He casually grabbed a handful of gold coins from his pocket, shoved them into Old Tom's chest, and urged, "Go play on the side for now. I'll find you in a bit—don't run off!"
Before Old Tom could even process it, he weighed the coins in his hands, checked the purity, and instantly beamed with delight: "Boss is generous! Boss is magnanimous! Wishing Boss great health, waah!!!"
It was like New Year's!
As the saying goes, some rejoice while others despair.
The total amount of happiness in the world is always a fixed sum—or at least, the happiness among the Swarm is fixed.
While one Swarm member was joyfully pondering where to get a foot bath after collecting his final payment, other Swarm members were already barred from ever seeing tomorrow's sun...
Originally, seeing Lord Tianlu turn and leave, Pacquiao had been overjoyed, scrambling and crawling madly outward on all fours.
Unfortunately, before he could crawl even a few li, he was dragged right back by a Hero's Seed.
Yanking him by the remaining half of his left leg like dragging a dead dog, it tossed him back to his original spot.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw the faces of two craftsmen.
One solemn, one gentle; one aged, one young.
Tall, short, fat, lean—completely different in every respect.
The only thing they shared was those two pairs of eyes gazing tenderly upon a fine piece of raw jade, filled with boundless affection—an aesthetic born of treasuring food and refusing to let even a single grain of rice go to waste!
Now, forget Pacquiao's severed limbs and minced flesh; even the spilled blood had been gathered to the very last drop by Fluid Alchemy.
Neatly sorted and categorized, it was laid out all around him.
Yellowbeard and Ji Jue bent over and squatted down, studying the materials awaiting processing, clicking their tongues in admiration: "To think it could be disassembled so meticulously, processed so thoroughly, and still keep every part intact—what a rare specimen!"
"Truth be told, absolutely," Ji Jue nodded, sighing with feeling. "Takes one in the trade to understand another!"
"It's you..."
Gasping his last breaths, Pacquiao struggled to open his remaining eye, glaring with bloodshot intensity at Ji Jue right in front of him, his eye sockets nearly tearing open.
Drawing strength from gods knew where, he thrashed frantically, looking ready to devour someone alive.
Pity that his entire body was bound by quicksilver, his critical points pierced and sealed, without an ounce of strength to resist.
After a bone blade was thrust in, even blinking became an impossible luxury.
All he could do was curse futilely, exhausting every profanity he knew—raging, accusing, roaring—until in the end, only a blood-weeping question remained:
"Why?!"
Pacquiao held his head high with all his might, his mangled face hideous as an evil fiend. "Why the fuck did you do this...?"
Haven't we always kept to our own lanes?
All of this could have clearly been avoided. Why did it have to come to such a fight?
Why of all things...
"Sorry, just a coincidence."
Ji Jue smiled warmly, unbothered by the foul vitriol. Instead, he consoled him patiently, "You're already here, right? Besides, it was just in passing. Taking you out wasn't much harder than dealing with a dog.
"Moreover, when facing life's hardships, one must look on the bright side.
"—Since someone has to die anyway, why can't it be you?"
Someone had to die.
If the wilderness and the seas couldn't comprehend the value of 'tolerance' and 'mercy', then corpses and death could teach them what awe and reverence meant instead.
Ji Jue needed a dead dog to hang above the front gate as a warning sign.
And as it happened, Pacquiao's dog head was the perfect size. This position was practically tailor-made for him!
A match made in heaven, a mutual rush into each other's arms.
And so, naturally, a fight to the death followed.
What else was there to say?
From the instant Tu Sihai set foot in Xinquan, Ji Jue had made up his mind. And from the instant Pacquiao finally stepped into Xinquan, everything had been decided.
Even without Old Tom's outrageous super-evolution, with An Neng of the Wild Gathering and Yellowbeard of the Northern Realm, closing the doors to beat the dog wouldn't have produced the slightest surprise.
Unless Pacquiao made a breakthrough mid-battle and ascended to Celestial-Human, he wouldn't have stood a ghost of a chance.
Yet had there been even a shred of such a possibility... the reinforcements Chen Xingzhou and Ji Jue summoned wouldn't have been limited to An Neng and Yellowbeard.
When that time came, Ji Jue could have set an even bigger table to throw an even bigger feast.
Did anyone really think the Security Bureau had no business quotas, or that Warden Lyu, who had just taken office this year, didn't need some heavyweight achievements to boost his KPIs?
"At this stage, why waste words on this piece of trash?"
Yellowbeard drew his flamberge with impatience. "What are you dawdling for? Keep this up and the spiritus will leak away completely."
With that, he swung his sword downward.
Only to pause in midair.
"Hold on!"
Ji Jue used Solid Alchemy with a flick of his hand, sealing Pacquiao and blocking the blade.
When he turned back to look at Yellowbeard, his smile turned deeply meaningful.
"Spare the blade!"
"Tsk!"
Yellowbeard's brows knit together. "What, looking to renege?"
*I knew it, you naturally wicked Ye Xian brat...*
"Master Craftsman Yellowbeard, our prior deal was that if you dealt with him, you'd naturally get first pick." Ji Jue raised his brow, his smile turning ever more cheerful. "But right now, it seems my side scored a bit higher."
The past was the past, and now was now.
True, they had an agreement before, but the situation had changed.
After all, no one could have anticipated that the jungler who coasted through the entire match would suddenly pop off in the final team fight, go legendary in an instant, and lock down match MVP.
As a result, Old Tom took MVP, while Yellowbeard was reduced to someone carried to victory.
Seeing Yellowbeard's face darken, Ji Jue waved his hand, dispersing the sealing quicksilver, and said with a beaming smile, "Don't worry. The prior condition of splitting the blessings fifty-fifty stands. However, even if it's half and half, out of ten blessings, I get first pick of five.
"Beyond that, the blood belongs to me, and I get first pick of the bones."
"Impossible!"
Yellowbeard flatly refused, displaying not a shred of a master craftsman's poise.
Even blood brothers kept clear accounts—and besides, in a bullshit profession like Embers, did anyone have real brothers? Most didn't even have parents left. So forget respecting the elderly and cherishing the young; squabbling over every penny was standard practice.
Not making a profit was the same as taking a devastating loss!
One brought up site maintenance costs and the hardships of daily life, while the other cited the harsh Northern Realm and the rarity of Heavenly Work; one claimed his fighter hard-carried the fight, while the other argued his Hero's Seeds provided field control.
Leaving the dying Pacquiao ignored on the ground, the two bickered for half an hour before finally compromising on terms they could both accept.
Ji Jue would still choose his five blessings first, but the blood would be split evenly, and Yellowbeard had first pick of the bones.
The soul and the matrix couldn't be divided, so each took one.
Once the agreement was struck, Ji Jue instantly locked in three blessings: [Fierce Fire and Sweeping Wind], [Crushing Ruin], and [Ruthless Extermination]!
The Swarm's classic DPS triad—a signature blessing chain combining multi-hit combos, cleaves, armor-piercing basic attacks, and critical strikes, the core to maxing out damage output.
At the same time, he didn't miss the blessing that had undergone more than three Metamorphoses: [Anticipate the Enemy]. With this, the budget-tier Anticipate the Enemy already in Ji Jue's hands could be replaced and unloaded onto the market.
These four blessings combined were precisely the blessing sequence currently missing from Pan Ying!
It was practically a blessing from Mother Nature!
Ji Jue hadn't even gone looking for them, and they had delivered themselves right to his doorstep!
Beyond those, there was one more crucial blessing related to Sacrificial Inheritance that had to be secured: [Mutual Destruction], which Ji Jue had never paid attention to before!
Under normal use, it merely sacrificed limbs, blood, or spiritus in exchange for explosive bursts. But paired with the secret rites of Sacrificial Inheritance, it produced a qualitative leap, amplifying the efficiency of the Sacrificial Inheritance and the potency of the offerings while ensuring stable resonance with the patron.
Otherwise, the two sets of sacrificial inheritances for Mycelium and Scars in Ji Jue's hands would be completely useless.
Moreover, he was now one hundred percent certain that the Nine Forms inscribed in the Mirror of Contained Forms contained hidden content!
Otherwise, why would Pan Ying's spiritus structure have an empty slot right beside the essential blessing sequence?
Originally, he had thought it was buffer space left behind, room for later successors to improvise, but in hindsight, it might not be that simple.
Otherwise, why would this exact socket happen to match [Mutual Destruction] so perfectly?!
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed off; no matter how he thought about it, something was wrong!
Paired with the sacrificial ritual, Pan Ying's metamorphosis was like swapping an integrated GPU for a dedicated graphics card.
Such an absurd situation, yet the Hanxiang Chapter hadn't mentioned a single word about it... Could the ancestors really have failed to notice or known nothing about it?
With his teacher's character, she might look down on mediocre fools and refuse to teach them a shred, but she would never teach half and withhold half. Besides, the Mirror of Contained Forms was an heirloom passed down through generations of Ye family heads; there was zero possibility of alteration or tampering.
Which meant... had the Ye clan's ancestors withheld a portion of the crucial inheritance?
What were they after?
Or rather, what were they afraid of?
Ji Jue had been haggling tooth and nail with Yellowbeard, but in reality his thoughts were racing, hardly focused on bargaining. He would have to make a special trip to see his teacher later.
As it happened, plenty of doubts had piled up in his mind, and down the road, Pan Ying's tempering and the integration of the blessing chains would also require guidance from a trusted senior.
Having finished the verbal sparring, the two reached an agreement once more.
With a handshake as their bond, Ji Jue wasted no more breath.
Too lazy to listen to Pacquiao's promises and pleas, he bluntly raised Pan Ying, pinned down the man's neck, and thrust the sword downward!
Cut off the dog's head first...
Yet right on the verge of the final strike, an unexpected hitch arose once more.
"Wait!"
Lu Feng, having finally caught his breath, suddenly scrambled to his feet. Rushing forward, he barely managed to grab Ji Jue's hand in the nick of time. "Wait, wait, wait!"
"Hold on a second!"
Watching endless complications breed further complications, Yellowbeard, who had endured for so long, finally couldn't hold back his fury: *First you say wait, then I say wait—what the fuck are you two brothers playing at?!*
Ji Jue's motion froze.
Perplexed, he turned to look at the panting Lu Feng.
The scene right now was an exact echo of that moment before.
Just like inside Mother Lu's minivan back then, only their roles were reversed.
"Hold on a sec, hold on."
Lu Feng made a gesture. Without time to explain, he signaled for him to stay calm, then finally fished his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number.
Seeing Lu Feng speak up, Ji Jue didn't care how ugly Yellowbeard's face looked. He stepped back with hands at his side.
Smiling placatingly, soothing the master craftsman with every sweet word imaginable, he simply refused to drop the blade.
Just waiting.
Beside them, after two rings, the call connected. Before the groggy, newly awoken voice on the other end could speak, Lu Feng jumped right in to take advantage.
"Hey? Grandson, call me Grandpa!"
Lu Feng barked, "Call me Grandpa, and Grandpa will give you New Year's pocket money!"
The other side didn't coddle him either, immediately firing off a barrage of greetings with maximum horsepower.
Once he had vented to his heart's content, he finally woke up and asked, "Calling in the middle of the night just to take advantage of me? Dog, did you take the wrong meds?!"
"Just say whether you'll call me or not!"
Lu Feng sneered. "I'm telling you, this offer expires soon. Ten seconds. Your shot at turning your whole life around is right here!"
"..."
Silence. After a brief, eerie silence, the other end seemed to have finished its internal struggle. Half-doubting, he muttered a muffled, "...Grandpa."
Yet Lu Feng pressed further: "Louder! Grandpa can't hear you!"
"Grandpa Lu Feng!!!"
The other end broke down completely, roaring, "Lu, let me tell you, if you're messing with me today, don't you ever come to the Seven Cities in your life! Come, and I'll kill you!"
The reply was a single, brief name:
"Pacquiao."
"Huh?"
From the other end came the sound of a brain overloading and crashing.
Lu Feng rolled his eyes. "The one from the Bloodwashing Fleet on the Hesitant Sea, that dickhead old geezer named Pacquiao. Alive, still breathing. Just say if you want him or not!
"Place the order now and it's buy-one-get-one-free, plus bonus heads of other officers. Offer expires soon."
As he spoke, he flipped the camera, pointed it at Pacquiao's face, snapped a photo with a click, and sent it over.
Instantly, the other end exploded.
A burst of chaotic noise.
Sounds of someone scrambling up, tripping, and dropping the phone.
When it was picked up again, the voice turned incomparably sweet and heartfelt, weeping tears of gratitude:
"Dad, wait for me a moment, Dad! You must wait for me!
"Wait for me, definitely wait for me, aaah!"
"Dad will wait half an hour for you. Think it through before calling back."
Lu Feng sneered and hung up directly.
Turning around, he explained to Ji Jue, "In the Seven Cities Navy on the Hesitant Sea, there's a grandson I got to know back during joint defense in Mid-Continent. Met him again a few months ago when nabbing that bastard Yin Zhaoyang. Word is he's been stuck at the rank of colonel for years and can't get promoted—all he lacks is a named head and a major combat achievement."
Glancing at Yellowbeard, he added, "Relax, this doesn't conflict with your loot-splitting. They just need him alive; breathing and talking is even better, anything else doesn't matter.
"Once they run through the formalities and send him to the execution grounds, you can carve him up however you want."
For a moment, Ji Jue wavered, but Yellowbeard's expression remained dark:
"Unnecessary complications!"
"His family is rich—fucking filthy rich," Lu Feng said. "Out of the Seven Cities, an entire city belongs to his family."
"Hiss..."
Ji Jue drew a sharp breath, rubbing his chin. "Handling this might be a bit tricky..."
"..." Lu Feng rolled his eyes. "Which brand the Seven Cities Alliance uses for military supplies is up to his family."
"Why didn't you say so earlier?!"
Ji Jue's eyes lit up instantly. If there was really such a massive deal on the table, even if his Haian couldn't swallow it all, didn't they still have Haichao Industry?!
Yellowbeard was also taken aback.
If they could really establish ties through this opportunity, wouldn't trade for the Northern Realm... Don't forget, half of this bastard's dog head belonged to him too!
In an instant, the previously impatient master craftsman became breezy and calm, radiating infinite patience and the refined demeanor of a grandmaster:
"Call in someone from the Vortex lineage. Transmutation won't be troublesome; I'll handle it."
In fact, they didn't even have to wait half an hour.
Just in the time it took Lu Feng to squat on Pacquiao and finish a cigarette, the phone rang from the other end—and the caller had already changed.
Soon, skipping past the flattery and polite pleasantries, after a round of hearty affirmations, an agreement was reached amidst laughter.
Clearly, they had already verified the photo and vetted the intelligence.
The Aether users kept by the family were meant precisely for this.
Once the dust settled, casting a few rune stones for divination wasn't hard at all.
With military exploits falling from the sky, the other side was even more terrified than Ji Jue that Pacquiao would kick the bucket if left untended. Aside from demanding that he had to be alive and able to cooperate by standing trial in court, they didn't raise any other fuss.
"Done. They're willing to pay this much."
After hanging up, Lu Feng punched a long string of zeroes into the calculator. "Aside from that, business cooperation is wide open. Send your own people to negotiate."
"Well done, Brother Feng, well done!"
Ji Jue beamed with joy. Who would have thought that this dog Pacquiao could yield so much residual value?
Forget the losses from the rainy season and the damage from this battle—a sum this large was enough to rebuild two Xinquans!
As the saying went, what was most valuable in this world? Talent! Just selling him second-hand after using him could fetch so much—his value retention and gold content were higher than Teacher Lawrence's!
It was only sparing his life temporarily and preserving his soul; once the formalities were finished, wouldn't he still end up in their hands?
A bit more trouble, perhaps, but a guaranteed windfall!
Having reached an agreement once more, Yellowbeard finally let out a sigh of relief, drawing his flamberge to begin the carving.
Yet this time, before the sword was even raised, Ji Jue intercepted it again.
"I say, Grandmaster... you see, this situation seems to have changed once more."
In the dead silence, Ji Jue bared his teeth in a grin. "If your North Wind Workshop still wants in on this, then... can we talk about the price again?"
Yellowbeard fell silent.
The flamberge creaked in his grip.
Almost unable to hold back...
*Ji, you motherfucker, there's no end to this, is there?!*
Chapter 426