In just a few brief snaps of a finger, the angler and the baited, the backstabber and the backstabbed had traded identities over and over, dazzling all who watched.
Mortals and ghosts alike had put on their full shows.
Only the Sower was getting beaten—and taking a beating still!
Yet the Harvester and the Guide could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded.
Powerless.
Clearly mere inches away, yet feeling as distant as the horizon, always too late.
Pang Pei and Ellis stood like endless walls, insurmountable in every way.
The stalemate between the Harvester and the old director had never broken from the very start.
The Edge of Inevitable Ruin hung motionless.
A strike that would bring inescapable ruin to Sage and Dragon alike should it land could find no purchase whatsoever, pinched dead between those two fingers.
Unable to advance, unable to retreat!
If the Harvester were asked to assess the situation, there would be no word for it other than repulsive.
Disgustingly repulsive!
The old man appeared emaciated to the bone, but in reality he was practically an incarnation of the material realm itself. That calm, effortless pinch had not even touched the Blade of Inevitable Ruin.
Instead, it acted directly upon the underlying logic of the material realm,
forcing everything to undergo endless change—or rather, to cease changing altogether.
Tianyuan Deconstruction.
Beneath those two fingers, all the once-straightforward, vivid common sense, rules, and even processes had become shrouded in fog amid layer upon layer of convoluted shifts, turned entirely foreign.
Rigid, warped, inflexible, sluggish.
At this moment, the death descending upon the blade was unstoppable—
Indeed, quite so.
All things had causes, and all causes had effects. If the effect of death was predetermined, then no one could undo it. But between cause and effect, what else lay in between?
There had to be a process.
Yet right now, wasn't this process taking a little too damn long?
It was as if, all of a sudden, the entire world had transformed into a gargantuan bureaucratic apparatus. Every underlying rule—once so intimately familiar, hailed like a brother—sat behind a service window, processing every procedure and shift with lifeless, cold detachment.
Including everything happening right now.
No matter how one adapted or tried to understand, nothing could survive: "This item doesn't comply with regulations. Rejected. Redo it, redo it again, redo it once more."
Wrong form format; incomplete documentation; sorry, we're closed, come back tomorrow; you're in the wrong place, head to Window One; bring your proof first; how should I know? And even after sweating blood to adjust and accommodate every twist and turn, one finally discovered: this isn't handled here, go to another department.
What? You're here for this procedure? Why didn't you say so earlier—
The strike hadn't failed; its paperwork just hadn't cleared the bureaucracy yet!
Amid his blazing fury, a rambling murmur seemed to ring in the Harvester's ears: "The principle is sound. It's not that we won't do anything. We must do it, but when doing it, one must pay attention to methods and procedures—"
Would this ever end?!
By contrast, things over with Ellis were simple and brutal, so straightforward that it was almost touching to tears.
Who cared about Great Tears, Great Ruin, or Great Explosions? Take them all straight to the face!
A real man doesn't dodge!
Come on, stand firm, trade blows!
If you can't hack me to death, then I'm hacking you to death!
What was even more regrettable was that hardly anyone actually could hack him to death, especially on the battlefield.
As the Earthly Guard, his theoretical defense had no upper bound. Coupled with the Empire's mandate of the Earthly Warden, he could practically be regarded as the synthesis of all the Empire's Nine Provinces and myriad territories—half the material realm.
Countless historical battles had proven one simple truth: against an opponent like this, one could only deploy specialized counters; trying to brute-force stats was an utter nightmare.
Unless you could blow up half the material realm in a single punch, nothing worked.
And even if you could blow up half the material realm—heh, the Lock was still in place. No matter how high your raw numbers were, even overflowing, you couldn't unleash them in full...
The Guide clearly knew this well. He didn't even bother expending real effort, merely dodging around without losing a single hair, casually provoking his opponent's patience.
These two bastards looked upright and forthright, but both were playing dirty as hell!
And Tianlu had been cheating from the very start!
Nonstop!
What decent man breaks a leg and then walks around using a Heavenly Work as a crutch—one specifically engineered to assassinate enemies by tailoring itself to their changing natures at any given moment?
Underhanded didn't even begin to describe it!
No wonder he broke a leg back then and managed to drag that broken leg to this day without being beaten to death—his skill and daring were truly monstrous!
For circumstances to deteriorate like this was agony incarnate.
Dying before tasting victory; if the battle dragged on until other Sages arrived, nothing would await him but being trampled into paste by a circle of enemies.
At this point, the only thing the Sower could do was—
A brave warrior severing his wrist!
Oh, his wrist was already severed.
No matter; he could sever even more.
The instant he realized the cause was lost, the Sower cast one last glance at Tianlu without a word. Reclaiming all his essence and soul, he completely abandoned this mangled husk.
Then came a horrific explosion that engulfed everything!
With his self-destruction, the Eye of Great Sin erupted violently, spewing endless pollution. Terrifying shockwaves rippled through the material realm, utterly obliterating the Border Realm and even blasting open a crack within the Vortex.
By then, the Harvester and the Guide had already vanished without a trace.
Fortunately, the three men present were well prepared.
Seeing the Sower about to flee, Tianlu didn't bother pursuing, pulling back in an instant. Pang Pei raised his finger toward the heavens once more and slashed downward.
In an instant, the exploding cataclysm froze dead in midair.
Holding All Phenomena.
Immediately afterward, the Aspect of Tianlu manifested again, swiftly mending the material realm, guiding chains and lines, locks and wedges,
bringing all repairs to completion.
As for Ellis—
He had thrown himself forward, tanked a blast wave of self-destruction directly to the face to minimize collateral damage, and then ambled off to the side to smoke.
He couldn't help with the rest.
Just here to enjoy the show.
"A rare victory," Pang Pei remarked with a faint, wry smile. "As expected of Tianlu. Devising strategies behind the scenes—truly formidable."
"Merely a twist of fate." Tianlu spread his hands. "Besides, didn't I rely on the cooperation of you two as well?"
"Cooperation wasn't enough, was it?"
Pang Pei sighed, then asked abruptly, "What about the Imperial Seal of the Realm? Was that your doing too?"
Tianlu countered, "Do I have half a copper's worth of connection to the Eternal Imperial Dynasty?"
Pang Pei fell silent at once.
He let out a helpless sigh.
"Look on the bright side. At least it didn't fall into the Sower's hands, right?"
Amid the oppressive atmosphere, Tianlu cracked a joke: "Look, his arm is still right here."
As if falling into Lu Changsheng's hands was any better!
Pang Pei nearly spat a mouthful of old blood in his face, entirely speechless.
Yet with the Border Realm devastated to this extent, attempting to trace any lingering scent or trail would be virtually impossible.
Besides, there was the aftermath to deal with... They couldn't exactly leave the fractures in the material realm unattended just to fetch a Celestial-Human of Aether to comb for clues inch by inch, could they?
"Investigate it," Pang Pei said, smacking his lips and popping a piece of candy into his mouth to soothe the spreading bitterness. "Start by looking into the Evil Transmutation Cult."
Maybe they'd turn something up, right?
A person had to keep some hope alive; one couldn't just stand by and watch enemies set up shop in their own backyard.
Old foes not yet purged, and new headaches piling on.
He'd truly had his fill of these days.
Three Holy Fools were trouble enough.
Looking at where things were heading, who knew—before long, there might be one more...
Even having secured such a rare and resounding triumph, everyone felt a gloom hanging over their hearts.
More trouble ahead.
Setting aside the probing and struggling beforehand and afterward, the clash itself had lasted less than three minutes.
Yet cleaning up the mess was extraordinarily troublesome.
The Border Realm was thoroughly ruined. Left alone, its collapse would mean the loss of a fulcrum, causing the material realm's load-bearing capacity to plummet yet another huge step.
There had to be some support.
Fortunately, plenty of materials remained in the Border Realm, alongside the colossal serpent skeleton and even a severed arm and copious blood generously sponsored by the Sower...
In just a few short quarters of an hour, an illusory yet palpable shadow of a Heavenly Pillar rose from the earth, emerging from the surging tides to thrust straight into the sky, joining heaven and earth.
Soon, spurred by Tianlu's power, it sank entirely behind the folds of space and disappeared from sight.
Then came repeated sweeping and purification to ensure not a trace of latent danger remained.
Having finished all this, Tianlu clapped his hands, gazing at everything restored to normal, and nodded slightly.
A splendid ending, better even than anticipated.
That kid hadn't failed his hints and guidance after all... This way, little A-Xian wouldn't have anything to worry about either, right? As a teacher, one had to be dependable once in a while!
If she knew her teacher had been quietly making sacrifices behind the scenes all along, wouldn't she be moved to tears?
Hm?
Tianlu paused, patted his head, and suddenly realized: Well, come to think of it, did I miss something?
Ah, right. When the Sower self-destructed just now, shattering the Border Realm and tearing open a rift, didn't something tumble down into the Vortex...?
What was his name again?
Forgotten!
Tianlu sighed with regret, only just remembering: before that young fellow tumbled down, he seemed to have waved and shouted for help.
Hoping for a hand to pull him up.
A pity his own reactions were just too slow; he hadn't made it in time.
After all, he was only an old dog with a price on his head—a minor oversight was perfectly normal, wasn't it?
Just like that, he dusted off his hands, sealed the final fissure, turned, and took his leave.
Without taking a single cloud.
Nor taking a dog.
Fend for yourself, kid!
Down beneath the Vortex, clinging to the edge in the darkness and teetering on the verge of plunging, Ji Jue watched the very last wisp of light fade away, his heart turning entirely cold.
In the final instant before losing consciousness, he managed only to raise a middle finger.
"Tianlu, fuck your—"
Snap!
The Vortex shut tight, vanishing completely.
The winds subsided, the waves settled, and the boundless sea met the sky.
As though nothing had ever happened...
"Ah, big brother fell down!"
By the seaside in Yacheng, inside the Tide Sound Workshop, the metallic bird Xiao Jiu Gloria hopping on the table cried out in shock, flapping its wings in panic.
"He went somewhere very, very deep—I can barely see him!"
"It's so dark, so scary—"
"Ah, he crashed into something really tall, smashed through several floors—"
The little bird screamed in terror, "He got caught by a scary old grandpa! Will he get eaten?"
Behind the desk, Ye Xian remained silent, slowly folding her newspaper. A lurking peril and long-standing concern had finally been resolved, yet not a trace of a smile or joy showed on her face; it only grew darker.
That bastard Tianlu!
What unnecessary trouble was he stirring up this time? Dragging her student into it on top of that!
And that bastard Ji Jue...
She shouldn't have pinned a shred of hope on him in the first place!
Last time, when she told him to keep his head down and lay low for a bit, how briskly had he nodded in agreement? And now, how many days had it even been?!
Good news: Ji Jue had finally agreed not to meddle in irrelevant matters, and with her keeping watch, nothing should have gone wrong.
Bad news: he had slipped out right from under her nose to excavate a sacrificial temple...
Good news: Ji Jue truly hadn't borrowed the Ye Clan's banner.
Bad news: he had borrowed the Evil Transmutation Cult's instead...
In barely half an hour, Ye Xian felt her blood pressure subjected to endless torment. Her vision had gone dark over and over, her heart practically failing her. In the end, watching the dust settle upon it all, she was left with nothing but sheer exhaustion.
A long sigh.
"If I'd known, I would have expelled him from the sect straight away—"
Fortunately, it wasn't too late yet.
Consider it mending the fold after the sheep had bolted.
She raised her teacup, finished the last sip of tea, and slowly stood up, pulling out that case from under the desk.
Dusting off the lid, her expression turned solemn.
"I'll be back shortly."
Yet before she could step out the door, a voice called from the sofa.
In front of the television, Ye Chun suddenly turned her head, looked at her, and offered, "How about I go this time?"
"...You?"
Ye Xian instinctively frowned, her expression turning grave. "Are you sure?"
"Can't be helped. Auntie, you already made the old gentleman thoroughly displeased last time, didn't you? If you show up at his door again, you two might end up fighting. If I go, at least I can smooth things over, right?"
Ye Chun thought for a moment and shrugged. "Old folks are stubborn and prideful. They hate when someone puts them on the spot and refuses to give them an out. A kid acting cute won't stir up trouble even if something goes wrong."
"It isn't your turn to call the shots in this family yet," Ye Xian refused flatly.
"I'll have to deal with them sooner or later anyway, won't I?"
Ye Xian fell silent.
For a long while, she gazed into the girl's eyes, wanting to say something, but in the end found herself powerless, leaving only a sigh.
"Very well."
She set down the case. "As you wish."
"Then I'll be back shortly."
Ye Chun set aside her potato chips, slipped on her coat, changed into her shoes, and finally turned back to wave at her aunt. "I'm heading out! If it gets too late, don't bother saving dinner for me!"
Ye Xian merely waved a hand, her expression inscrutable.
And so, Ye Chun pushed open the door and stepped out.
Amid the crisp tinkle of the bell, the door clicked shut.
Under the afternoon sunlight, the space outside the door was empty; her figure had already vanished without a trace.
Only the little bird on the desk cocked its head in a daze.
Why...
did big sister fall down too?
Chapter 461