Four centuries later, the authority of the Swordsmith descended once more upon this desolate, dead city.
The Sovereign's Hand held absolute dominion over all. The rampaging shadows of the tower paid him no heed—or rather, they actively bent to accommodate everything he set out to do.
Non-Offensive amended and remade all. The spreading Palace-Burning Fire surged among countless cobweb-like spiritus circuits, exulting and leaping, rising without end.
An invisible web was already woven.
To a song that seemed to rise straight out of hell.
"What is this?!"
Duke Wuyou's pupils constricted. The shadow beneath his feet churned like thick mire as puppets and skeletal remains crawled out of it. One soul after another dissolved within the dark sludge, surfacing amid wails of agony, cycling endlessly, demanding answers.
At last, the hollow eyes of a battered skull once known as an artisan ignited, staring blankly at the blurry emblem upon the outer casing.
And with that, long-buried terrors and nightmares seemed to awaken.
"Kane... Kane..."
The puppet shuddered, shrieking in shrill anguish, "Kanemoto!"
*Snap!*
At that exact instant, a crisp sound rang out.
"It's just about time to begin."
Amid the thick smoke and ruins, atop the shattered tower, Ji Jue lowered his gaze to take in everything before him. Finally, he raised both hands, pulling taut the thousands of spiritus circuits.
He brought his palms together!
In a flash, what burst forth from between his clasped hands was the chiming of a bell that rang through heaven and earth.
Shrill and soaring.
The massive Border Realm violently trembled. Tugged by the Law of Tianyuan, the collapsed Tower of Audience knit itself whole once more. From atop the five towers outside the sacrificial temple, brilliant rays of searing light erupted tens of thousands of feet into the air.
It was as if an open hand had slowly splayed its five fingers, seizing absolute control over everything once again.
A piercing hum rose from deep beneath the nine earths. Colossal engines ground back to life, the ruined machinery restored to its original state under the catalytic influence of Deus Ex Machina.
Rebooted!
The earth quaked. Dormant beneath the sacrificial temple, the spiritus stirred upon the edict, churning, surging, circulating, and raging unchecked. A resounding roar like oceanic swells crashed against the ears of everyone present.
Immediately after, beam after beam of somber light vaulted up from the ground like pillars of a cage, enclosing the city where the temple stood and connecting heaven and earth.
Across both sky and earth, grotesque insignia and spectacles suddenly unfolded, ascending into the heavens!
Amid the cataclysmic shift, an endless abyss of darkness tore open from the vault of heaven, like a chasm with no visible bottom. In the crimson deluge that swept forth, broken bones piled into mountains; in the frozen world, nothing remained but pale frost; and writhing flesh that fused countless living beings into one...
They circled the tower's shadow, as though they were born to be there.
The magnificent vision the Eternal Empire had once dreamed of when forging the Tower of Tianyuan now unfolded before the eyes of all the imperial remnants—using Tianyuan to govern Sovereign Good, eternally mastering all.
Only, what appeared at this moment was not Tianyuan, but the brutal shadow cast by an incomplete tower; and what flanked the broken tower was not Sovereign Good, but the far more fitting Great Sin!
"Now that's more like it—"
Shrouded in his soul's reflection, Ji Jue stood bathed in flames, looking down upon the scene, and could no longer hold back a burst of laughter. "Isn't this the very spectacle you so longed for?
"Make the Empire Great Again!"
Amid the vast resonance of the bell, the foundation was reconstructed once more.
The manifestations of Great Sin were fully assembled!
Then, the next step was... anchor the Vortex!
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
The Border Realm shuddered violently once again.
No, to be exact... it was the mortal world trembling, shaking to the distant vibrations welling up from beneath the Vortex!
It was the resonance between the Great Sin and the Vortex.
Beyond the Border Realm, the fathomless black ocean suddenly boiled. A torrent of light that reached from earth to heaven surged from within the Border Realm, shooting straight into the firmament.
Every trace of an aura from this place could no longer be concealed. The power bound within the Border Realm abruptly expanded. With the rumbling of the sacrificial temple, it kicked up a monstrous uproar that rippled across the entire world!
The Federation, the Empire, the Thousand Islands, the Mid-Continent...
The moment that signal emerged, the entity known as the Lock was triggered once more, blaring its alarms.
It was not just the detection from the Lock. At this moment, could any powerhouse with senses and eyes fail to perceive the sudden disturbance erupting in the mortal realm?
Countless people started awake from stupors and slumber, while others spun around in utter shock amid their frantic work. Piercing alarms echoed outward from various institutions.
What happened? What the hell was that?
What the fuck was going on?!
And the moment they detected that torrent of light rising from the Border Realm, a spine-chilling dread seized them all!
The balance between the Vortex and the mortal world had been disturbed and breached. A new fissure was slowly prying open, threatening to drag an entire Border Realm down into the abyss beneath the Vortex!
Wait, hold on, holy fuck, wait!
Why did this signal, this fluctuation, this aura look so damn familiar?!
This very moment was identical to that moment back then.
I am still me, but why the hell are you still you?!
Whether in the Federation's Security Bureau or the Empire's Secrecy Bureau, or even across the numerous organizations of Celestial Chosen, every observer broke into a cold sweat.
Rubbing their stiff faces, their eyes widened as they checked again and again—just over half a year ago, an identical signal had unmistakably appeared once before!
Right in the Federation, right in Haizhou—specifically speaking...
In Quancheng!
After cross-referencing with their historical data and discovering that the match rate reached one hundred percent, everyone's stomach dropped.
No, this isn't right!
This is completely impossible!
Yet no matter how wrong or impossible it seemed, watching what was happening right before their eyes, there was nothing left to say. Only one thing was certain.
The dog-fucking Evil Transmutation Cult was back with a vengeance!
Yes, they were back!
Lu Changsheng was dead, but sometimes he could still be alive, or at least twitch like a corpse coming back to life.
Even if he had truly come back from the dead, seeing this scene before him, he would probably be stunned for a second.
*Is this me?*
*Wait, that really does look like me!*
Because this was the exact, authentic, original layout the Evil Transmutation Cult had used in Quancheng!
It was a patented design developed jointly by the Evil Transmutation Cult and the Profound—uniquely theirs, with no other duplicate under heaven!
The various apparatuses Kanemoto had created in Quancheng, the setups and secret rites the Evil Transmutation Cult had painstakingly developed over decades, were all recreated here in full!
Back when Ji Jue had overseen everything under the watershed-wide surveillance, he had long mastered the key principles and inner workings. As for the necessary theory, Kanemoto had laid the groundwork with his own hands, going so far as to spare no expense in force-feeding it into Ji Jue via the Formula of Illumination.
Even the numerous crucial devices left behind by that old bastard had been swiped into Ji Jue's Storehouse via the Celestial Rail. All he had to do now was run them through a round of Deus Ex Machina repairs—a simple case of a refurbished car reentering the market.
On top of that, the all-important foundation construction could just leach directly off the spiritus circuits and facilities laid down by the ancient Eternal Empire for the sacrificial temple. Beneath the dual authority of the Swordsmith and the Sovereign's Hand, there wasn't the slightest resistance.
He didn't even need the imitation rails Kanemoto had used to replace the Celestial Rail; the genuine Celestial Rail was right there in Ji Jue's hands!
Once the fundamentals and theory were mastered, reproducing it was just a matter of following the blueprint.
There was no difficulty whatsoever!
The most critical aspect—the resonance with the Vortex—had been handled by Ji Jue's soul reflection, the Unformed Demon.
Right now, he was the anchor connecting the Vortex to the mortal world!
In less than ten short hours, the fruits of decades of labor by the Evil Transmutation Cult were unfurled once again in Ji Jue's hands.
It was even smoother, even more complete than before.
The process of communicating with the Vortex and anchoring the Border Realm was completed in an instant.
Brazen and unmasked,
it was like a mandatory system broadcast pushed onto every player's screen across the entire server.
*We, the fucking Evil Transmutation Cult, are back!*
*The spicy, thrilling Vortex orgy is about to kick off~ Now, let's see which good little boy hasn't gotten an invite yet!*
The limited-time event that once premiered in Quancheng had suddenly received an encore rerun!
The Security Bureau, the Secrecy Bureau, the Ring of Taiyi, the Star Core Association, the Cult of Venerable Light—even the Profound, the Wolf Den, the Tianxin Society, and the Wulou Temple...
Every single gaze turned toward this desolate, remote corner of the Sea of Hesitation. In the next breath,
the moment they grasped the situation, they charged forward without a second thought.
The instant the first ripple spread outward, a wild surge that roiled the mortal world had already been born.
Now, no one could remain a bystander.
"Better hurry up, folks,"
Ji Jue murmured, resting his chin on his hand as he looked down at the chaos inside the Border Realm, chuckling silently.
*That's it, that's it, that's the way.*
*How could such a wonderful thing be kept to yourselves? People have to learn to share. Why be so selfish?*
*If you're unwilling, I'm more than happy to lend a hand!*
Before the sacrificial temple, Duke Changle, Duke Anguo, and all the reinforcements who had arrived were frozen in disbelief, confusion, and suspicion. When they looked at one another, they could see the sheer, unadulterated hatred and dumbfounded bewilderment in their rivals' eyes.
There was no need for pretense, nor any room for hypocrisy.
Things had deteriorated to a point where they were completely beyond salvage. Why waste breath on jokes nobody would believe?!
The moment Changle's puppet and Anguo's projection glared at each other, the realization struck them both. They whipped their heads around, staring at the stone-faced Shehri.
Along with Duke Wuyou lurking in the dark far away, the three watched as the prize practically in their hands was suddenly exposed to the entire world. They could no longer hold back their furious roars:
"The Sower!"
At this stage, that old bastard was still pulling strings behind the scenes?!
"What an exquisite scheme,"
Changle squeezed out between gritted teeth, torn between the fury of being played like a fiddle and a grudging, venomous admiration. "The Saint's foresight is truly profound. A single Imperial Seal of the Realm, an object no one has ever laid eyes on, was enough to entice us imperial remnants into tearing one another apart while paving the path for you..."
Under countless gazes that pierced like daggers, Shehri stood stunned, bewildered, and blank.
He was speechless.
After all, even to his mind, who else could pull off something on this scale besides the Sower, the hidden mastermind behind it all?
Now that the dagger was revealed and the presence of the Imperial Seal of the Realm was confirmed, wasn't it the perfect time to drag it straight down beneath the Vortex?
*This... this... it really does seem... No, wait, this doesn't fit the Saint's goal at all!*
*Why?! Why didn't he ever mention this to me?*
At this juncture, only one possibility remained.
An abandoned pawn!
Amid his bewilderment, an unprecedented sense of dread and panic welled up within him: *Could it be that even I am no longer trusted?*
*No, that's not right. I am the Saint's most loyal subordinate and follower. I... I... I, Shehri—*
There was no longer any time to think or discern truth from falsehood.
Amid the panic and chaos, everyone struck simultaneously, showing no mercy!
In the heavens, the Empire's remnant Fangsheng Fleet fired in unison, raining destruction from above. On the ground, Changle barked an order, and his forces swarmed Shehri without hesitation. Meanwhile, amid the chaotic scramble, Shehri sprinted without looking back toward the depths of the sacrificial temple, desperate to carve out a chance at survival and a future.
Right before the open gates of the sacrificial temple, the life-and-death bloodbath ignited once more!
*Boom!*
In the deepest sanctum of the sacrificial temple, inside the palace shrouded in illusory light, a wall collapsed.
The sound of stone fracturing rang out.
What seemed like the crisp chime of jade echoed in everyone's ears.
It was clearly nothing more than the ordinary sound of stones grinding together, yet right here, right now, it held an irresistible allure, driving countless hearts mad with insatiable hunger.
The location of the Imperial Seal of the Realm!
Every pair of eyes burned with ever-growing frenzy!
Ji Jue withdrew his gaze with utter indifference.
He had zero interest.
To hell with the Imperial Seal of the Realm; whoever wanted it could have it!
Even if they handed it to him for free, he would find it poorly weighted for cracking walnuts.
What should have been said, and what shouldn't have been said, had all been spilled clean from the mouths of the visitors who had been processed into crafting materials back in the workshop.
Rebuilding the empire? The Imperial Seal of the Realm? The Law of the Heavenly Pillar? He didn't give a damn about how deep the waters ran, how grand the schemes and calculations of the players were, or how massive the stakes and ramifications might be.
All he wanted was to toss this carefully primed bomb into the water, just to admire how high the splash would erupt and watch the dogs tear each other apart.
And then, when that bastard Sower finally couldn't resist showing his face, Ji Jue would pick up the damn chessboard and bash it right over his skull!
With their final pretenses stripped away, neither Wuyou, Changle, nor Anguo dared to hold anything back.
They mobilized every reserve at their disposal.
Watching the steady stream of light surging in from outside the Border Realm, and the Sin-Bearers scrambling over one another to burrow into the sacrificial temple, Ji Jue waited expressionlessly, entirely unmoved.
*Come on, then. Come, come, come! Come if you want, come one, come all!*
*And then, every single one of you can drop dead!*
Chapter 452