Phantasmal Light

[Death] If the world suddenly plunged into darkness, followed by giant, blood-red characters surfacing before your eyes, anyone would be able to grasp their situation properly, wouldn't they? Unfortunately, reality wasn't so kind. So-called death was emptier than darkness, more ethereal, and far more terrifying. Anyone who willingly embraced something like this probably had a screw loose. Then again, if someone's head were on straight, why would they ever become an artisan in the first place? Amid absolute nothingness, Ji Jue could feel his consciousness gradually dispersing, obliterating, just as he had wished. He felt no fear. What ultimately rose from his chest was actually the fulfillment and delight of seeing a theory proven. Ah, ah, just as expected... Smiling, he plunged into that void. Embracing death. The world seemed to die along with him, twisting, collapsing, annihilating... *I think, therefore I am.* The instant observation ceased, everything returned to nothingness. Once again, he felt the Primacy of Mind emphasized by Ascension. *Awake, all things sing in joy; intoxicated, heaven and earth fall silent.* When my consciousness disperses, what meaning does this world have to me? This was the final method, his sole reliance. When perception was mired deep in hallucination, when consciousness was shrouded in illusions, this was the most thorough [Rejection] and [Negation] the self could choose—by drawing boundlessly close to death, achieving an alternative form of 'extinction.' Not a single thought born, not a single thought stirred. Yet compared to that true Supreme Perfect Enlightenment—free of sorrow, fear, grief, and joy—this was undeniably an aberrant path driven by madness. When self-awareness completely dissolved, no illusion or phantasm would have anywhere left to stand, dissipating alongside it. Like drinking poisoned wine and savoring its sweetness, killing the illusion and oneself together. The only difference from suicide lay in the lingering wisp of a chance to recover... Just like that, within absolute nothingness and emptiness, Ji Jue's last vestige of consciousness dispersed without reservation, annihilated until only dead silence remained. In that endlessly protracted, dead silence, how long had passed was impossible to tell, yet the scattered consciousness struggled to coalesce again. Until a stir from an outside force arrived... "Ji Jue, wake up!" Someone seemed to be shouting, so distant and faint, yet it stirred the first ripple in stagnant water, followed by a second, and a third... Ji Jue? Who? What was that...? Oh, right... The spirit of nothingness came to a sudden realization. [Me.] The instant a single thought arose, a chain reaction akin to a soul reconverging took place. Countless shriveled memories churned anew, regrouping like a cosmic Big Bang, radiating outward, revolving around that name, recombining, rearranging. Everything that had fallen apart began to aggregate once more. As the self manifested again, the scattered, surging memories reassembled under observation, reconstructing themselves into their rightful form. Yet there were too many gaps and deficits. Once the false memories formed from fabrications and delirium had all vanished, the blank spaces became glaringly obvious. Crucial blanks! Ji Jue began tracing backward, recalling everything he had experienced: the absurd phantasms, the fragments of struggling and restarting within dreams again and again. Backward, further backward. When had he fallen into this protracted dream? The Huangliang Relic Wen Sheng unleashed when driven to the wall? No, though the old hound couldn't be counted on, he wouldn't sit idly by at a time like this, unless... *I see. Even when I sought help from Tianlu, I was already trapped in a dream?* Which meant it was earlier than that. Even before that, when Sister Wen resigned... No, even before Sister Wen resigned... Ji Jue realized—during that trance-like drunken stupor. A bitter realization welled up from his heart, tinged with faint self-mockery. Heh, the arrogance of Embers... When deciding to make an enemy of Heart Pivot, he should have kept his guard up twenty-four hours a day. Yet, relying on the workshop's defenses, he had let his guard down. Who would have thought that right then, the Huangliang Relic would catch him vulnerable and slip in? But why was he trapped in a dream? He had clearly been careful, never leaving the slightest spiritus or opening for a curse to his opponent, nor was he infected with Dreamloss Syndrome. No, more than that—why were there so many layers of illusory bubbles locking him inside so tightly, like a cage? As if facing a mortal foe! It was almost as if they were afraid of him. But why fear him? Wouldn't it be better to just kill him? Unless... He had no other way. At that instant, amidst consciousness and perception, a wisp of faint light hidden in the deepest depths quietly emerged. Like mist, a looming emblem and sigil illuminated Ji Jue's soul. Was that... what he had ripped out of Wen Sheng's spiritual body?! So this is the answer? "Ji Jue, wake up!" The shouting rang out once more, clearer than before. Ji Jue could feel the gravitational pull of that call within this darkness and nothingness. It was like a strand of gossamer dangling in vain, tugging at him again and again, refusing to let him sink into deeper darkness. Yet by virtue of that pull, amidst the void and dark, Ji Jue finally regained the perception and distinction between up and down. Subconsciously, he lifted his head and looked higher. Instantly, the emblem in his soul vibrated again, bursting with faint light. And so, he saw... That towering entity that seemed to fill the entire void—the great image having no form. Countless rainbow lights surged from bubbles, weaving into one another to sketch the likeness of a high tower, then resembling a bizarre giant tree, soon morphing into withered bones coiled by a giant serpent... Boundless and infinite, vast without edge. Magnificent yet elusive. "So that's how it is?" Ji Jue looked up from the base of the tower, gazing toward the heights. Faintly, at the very summit of the tower, he seemed to glimpse a colossal darkness that felt almost tangible. The darkness writhed, coiling around the tower, binding and shackling tiny glittering bubbles one by one, swallowing everything. Sinister, grim, and indescribable. It made him unable to hold back a laugh: "—You're watching me, aren't you?" The darkness was silent and formless, acting as if deaf to his words, or perhaps looking down in mockery, scorning the prisoner's brazen speech. How comical. This turbulent sea of phantasms, like a tower piled high with countless bubbles, possessing a grandeur that shattered at a touch and an ephemeral infinity... What was there to be smug about? Compared to true magnificence, it wasn't worth mentioning at all! Ji Jue closed his eyes in disdain, looking no more. Just like that, in the void outside the dreamscape, he followed the thin thread of attraction cast from afar and surged upward, rocketing out of the shattered cage like lightning! Flashing in an instant, he actively plunged into the dream woven from countless bubbles! Like puncturing a fragile bubble. *Pop!* Ji Jue opened his eyes. And so, the blood-red setting sun, the cracked firmament, the stench of blood and ash, a hellish world, and her smiling face all appeared before his eyes. He was awake. Even if he was still within a dream... "Ji Jue." Inside the speeding vehicle that jolted relentlessly, the young girl before him in the cabin called his name. Seeing his opened eyes, she could no longer hold back her joy, the corners of her blood- and mud-stained face curling into a smile. Ji Jue was stunned for a moment, looking at her slightly tender cheeks. She looked to be about seventeen years old—someone he had never seen, yet the contours between her brow and eyes were so familiar, carrying a sense of déjà vu. As if freed from a crushing burden, she let out a sigh of relief, though her smile couldn't hide her exhaustion and injuries. Yet her eyes had not changed. Still clear as crystal, sparkling with a bright glint. "Sister Wen?" Ji Jue came to a sudden realization, finally understanding where the call in the dream had come from. "It's really... been a long time." "You're finally awake, Ji Jue." Looking at him, Wen Wen in her teenage form breathed a sigh of relief. "You took so long. You really kept me waiting..." "I had a really long dream." Ji Jue shrugged. "Almost didn't make it back." "Oh? What did you dream about?" "Probably... something happy? It was very fake, but hard to let go." "Dreams are all fake, don't confuse them." "That's why if you want something, you can't just daydream about it, right?" Ji Jue answered without thinking. "You have to seize it with your own hands, snatch it away, hold it tight in your grip, and never let go." "..." Wen Wen's eye twitched. "Normally, aren't people supposed to create things with their own hands?" Ji Jue smiled and told her: "Either way, pretty much the same thing." Both were within arm's reach. For a moment, Wen Wen hesitated to speak, suspecting this bastard was brewing some nonsense in his head again, but that familiar flavor confirmed beyond doubt that it was the genuine article. Anyone else trying to act it out couldn't pull it off. "Welcome back, Ji Jue." She raised a hand and rapped Ji Jue on the head. Only now did her heart finally settle completely. *Boom!!!* A roar echoed from the distance. The speeding vehicle suddenly shuddered, almost flipping over, as a shrill screech rose from underneath. "Is the chassis broken?" Ji Jue instinctively frowned, grimacing in exasperation. "The transmission's shot too, isn't it? Seriously, how did this beat-up car end up cobbled together like this? How long has it been since it had an oil change?" "Would you shut the hell up already?!" Wen Wen rolled her eyes at him testily. "You'd better pay attention to your own condition first... We're running for our lives right now, get serious!" *Boom!!!* Amid a deafening crash, the entire vehicle seemed to lift off into the air, then slammed back down, the steel groaning as it sped onward. Meanwhile, Ji Jue rolled all over the floor of the cabin. Well, literally... A cracking sound rang out from his own body... Ji Jue saw his broken arm fly up and mingle with the fragments of his legs. Ummm... With difficulty, he lowered his head. His body felt as sluggish as iron and stone. Well, indeed, nearly all of it had turned to stone. Like a battered statue, both legs were snapped, his right arm severed at the shoulder, and his left arm reduced to just half an elbow. A massive fissure ran across his chest, the inside hollow and empty. The crack crawled upward, crossing his neck and climbing onto his face. Behind that deep opening, amid darkness, only a faint, flickering glimmer lingered. A literal petrified torso. "Holy crap—" Ji Jue was stunned. "How did I end up like this?" "It's a long story." Wen Wen sighed wearily—there wasn't even time to make it short. *Boom!* After another violent crash, the voices on the walkie-talkie grew increasingly frantic. "Help, help!! Those damn things are catching up!" "Si Mao! Si Mao!!!" "Big Sis, Si Mao and the guys are gone." Following a shrill explosion and screams, a voice sounded over the line, choked with tears. As if a storm had swept past, something sheared off the crack-riddled roof of the carriage, tearing half the compartment with it into the sky like withered autumn leaves. Revealing the blood-red sky, dense looming clouds, and within the depths of the cloud layer, figures soaring across the firmament! Chasing right behind them!