Losing Patience

Twenty minutes earlier, amidst the surging crowd filling the plaza outside the Great Sanctuary of Sacrifice, two figures stood quietly, watching the spectacle before them. Surrounded by an atmosphere of ecstatic fervor, they alone seemed completely detached. They stood in silence for a long, long time... Much like someone waiting for a friend who had sworn they were heading out half an hour ago, only to grow increasingly restless and irritated as the minutes ticked by. Yet the silence between them felt strangely like riding an elevator in a towering skyscraper. Once the button was pressed, there was only a slow, endless ascent into nothingness, the unending quiet thickening into sheer awkwardness. And so, the search for small talk began... "The sky sure is blue." "Mm." "The breeze is quite nice too." "Indeed." "..." "..." The brief exchange did nothing to dispel the awkwardness; if anything, it made the silence deafening. Seeing Wen Wen grow fidgety once more, Ji Jue could not help but sigh. Taking advantage of the fact that he still held the height advantage, he patted her on the shoulder to soothe her, then quickly scrambled for a topic before she could react: "Sister Wen, what are you actually trying to say?" With her arms crossed, Wen Wen stamped her foot. Before she could even get mad at him for patting her shoulder, she fell deep into thought—so much so that she failed to notice the faint smirk tugging at the corners of Ji Jue's lips. He could barely keep a straight face. A pure Desolate Ruins type with a single-track mind like Sister Wen really was easy to handle. "...To be honest, it just feels a little weird," Wen Wen mused after stroking her chin in contemplation for a long while. "We've known each other for so long and worked together on plenty of things, but as far as going out together for a real, proper brawl goes... isn't this our first time?" "Hmm, that's true." Ji Jue nodded, considering it for a moment before remarking with feeling, "We really haven't had much of an opportunity." "..." Instantly, the look Wen Wen shot him turned exceedingly complicated—almost like an elder sister watching a subordinate she had raised go off to do jobs for someone else's household! "Every time that guy Tong the Vegetable talks about you, his eyes practically glow. He goes on and on about how reliable and capable you are, how seamless your teamwork is... All I can do is nod along beside him like an idiot, unable to get a single word in edgewise. And every time he finishes, he asks me how wonderful it must be to have such a dependable friend, how easy going on missions must be, and how jealous he is!" Wen Wen nearly ground her teeth to dust. "Meanwhile, I haven't gotten to leech a single drop of that benefit!" "No, generally speaking, don't you just shatter any opponent you run into with a single punch? And if one punch doesn't do it, you hit them with another," Ji Jue pointed out with a hint of regret. "I don't get any room to show off at all. Besides, aren't craftsmen supposed to stay quietly at base and do their work? Getting dragged into an encounter on the front line is what I'd call rotten luck." Yet thinking about it, having fought so many battles outside the workshop for so long now, he had almost grown accustomed to it... Was it rotten luck at play after all? "A craftsman, huh..." Wen Wen fell quiet for a beat. "Though I still don't know whether going into craftsmanship was actually a good thing for you or not, you seem to have done quite well for yourself. It's only been a little over a year, yet you're already handling Celestial Craft. At this rate, I might have to drop your name when I'm out in the world just to ask for protection." Deep in her reflections, she casually threw a punch at Ji Jue's shoulder, only to misjudge the height and strike him in the chest instead. That was when she finally caught on. Snapping her head up, she glared at him with sharp suspicion: "Wait. Why did you pat my shoulder just now?" "Huh? Did I?" Ji Jue looked back with wide-eyed confusion, but his thoroughly prepared look of innocence only hardened Wen Wen's conviction. Her knuckles cracked audibly. "You little punk! You're taking advantage of the fact that I'm short right now to push your luck, aren't you?!" "No, no! Just a reflex, an accident, I swear it wasn't on purpose!" Ji Jue hurriedly explained, trying to placate her while desperately fighting back a laugh. "Though I honestly think you're pretty cute at this height, Sister Wen, pfft—hey, there's no need to hit me over that! "Fine, fine, I'll shut up!" Ji Jue raised his hands in surrender, fearing Wen Wen might jump up and slap him upside the head. His petrified condition had not yet fully resolved; if she slapped him too hard and sent his head flying, reattaching it would be a massive headache. Seeing him yield, Wen Wen snorted and looked away. She was not in the mood to talk. Ji Jue glanced down. After being fitted with mechanical limbs, his height had increased by more than thirty centimeters. Between his growth and her shrinkage, Wen Wen now barely reached his chest. How should he put it? It felt as though becoming shorter and younger in appearance had also made her mental age regress considerably. No, this world constructed upon the Huangliang Relic was ultimately a dream, an illusion formed of phantoms. Even a person's physical appearance reflected their internal self-perception. In other words... Even though she seemed so mature and steady on the outside, she was an entirely different person on the inside! "Oof—" While lost in thought, Ji Jue felt a sudden sharp pain in his stomach and instinctively doubled over. He had been elbowed! "Hey, Sister Wen, what was that for?" "Huh? I don't know. I just felt an inexplicable urge to smack you twice," Wen Wen replied solemnly. "Usually at moments like this, the guy getting beaten up is thinking of something obnoxious. You weren't, were you?!" "Not at all, alright?!" "Then why do I want to hit you even more?" "Because you just feel like beating someone up!" "You'd better watch yourself, kid!" ... It was nothing more than aimless chatter to kill the time, yet somehow, the awkwardness and distance from before melted away without either of them noticing. They stood naturally together, bantering and nudging each other. Amidst the countless fervent prayers and shouts echoing all around, they resembled two distinct drops of water merged into a vast ocean, slowly drifting forward with the current. Patiently waiting. Until at last, the booming roar of heavy doors swinging wide echoed across the plaza. A figure bathed in what appeared to be holy light slowly emerged amidst the deafening cheers of the multitude. Like an emissary of the divine descending upon the mortal realm, he cast a contemptuous glance over all creation, wholly unmoved by worldly splendor. Finally— Ji Jue let out a silent, gentle sigh. After casting so much bait and chumming the waters for so long, a behemoth of sufficient weight had finally risen to the surface and shown its head! "Good luck, Sister Wen," he whispered, offering one final word of encouragement. "Tch, like I need you to tell me." Wen Wen grinned. Flipping back her hood, she stared straight at the Saint hundreds of meters away and rolled her wrists. "Watch me." After all that endless jabbering, she could finally have a good, clean brawl! She gripped the spear strapped to her back, which had been disassembled into two sections, and snapped the halves together. It had been finely calibrated, its weight and remarkable balance feeling as though it were crafted specifically for her fingers. Dimensions, weight, center of gravity—every detail was flawless. In that single instant, she gripped the reconstructed spear and hurled it with brutal force! A thunderous gale erupted. The iron flared incandescent red as it traced a razor-straight line through the air. Crossing the immense distance in an eyeblink, it tore through the chest of Saint Yidela like paper. The terrifying kinetic force surged again, dragging his body upward into the air and pinning him hard into the Sacred Gate. A deafening shockwave shattered the silence. Screams, furious roars, fevered ravings, and wails erupted in a chaotic din. The crowd scattered like a receding tide, though a few reckless zealots still attempted to charge forward. Beneath the sleeve of his robe, a pistol rose. Without even turning his head, Ji Jue squeezed the trigger, picking them off one by one. The silver bullets bored into their spinal cords like living things, spreading rapidly to siphon their mental faculties and hardening in an instant. They transformed the zealots into broken, rigid stone statues. Merely dust in the wind. For a sound of genuine divine wrath was already roaring from the highest reaches of the sanctuary! "Heretic... Heretics!" Nailed to the Sacred Gate, the mangled Saint convulsed. Raising his shattered, ruined face—once handsome and solemn, now twisted with grotesque fury—his crimson eyes locked onto Wen Wen and Ji Jue. He opened his mouth and roared: "Heretics, die!" Boom—! The battered vessel suddenly expanded, bloating like a grotesque balloon to its absolute limit before violently bursting apart. Blood and tendrils of flesh surged outward in an encroaching tide. Clang! The spear was flung back, striking the flagstones. Corrupted by the surging scarlet filth, it rapidly rusted. Amidst a furious roar, Yidela cast off the fragile constraints of mortal flesh, revealing the true form of the so-called Apostle! Like a bizarre, colossal serpent, it surged forth from the ruined husk, coiling and writhing relentlessly. Countless fanatical faces studded its hide like glistening scales. Across that serpentine body, six wing-like appendages unfurled, woven from white bone and raw flesh into a ghastly, savage display. Four heads—bearing four distinct faces—sprouted from the serpent's crown: sorrowful compassion, callous indifference, boiling fury, and a mocking smile, their expressions shifting without pause. All at once, the mouths opened and thundered in condemnation. A roar like a pride of lions. An invisible deluge erupted, sweeping in every direction. An immense, crushing weight manifested out of thin air, grinding bricks, tiles, masonry, and fragile mortal flesh alike into fine dust! Such was divine majesty—yet every believer who failed to flee in time was instantly crushed into paste, leaving only clouds of bloody mist drifting in the air. Including the zealots Ji Jue had petrified. No demon or heretic had tormented them; rather, the power of their own god had pulverized them without a second thought. To the Saint, mortals who had not washed away their original sin were entirely undeserving of pity. To say nothing of the heretics before him! Yet the heretics cared even less about him. Even as the gravitational torrent surged toward them, Wen Wen did not bother to spare it a glance. The Saint might not care for his flock, but Sister Wen would always shield her subordinate! Wen Wen reached out. The rust-covered spear flew backward into her grasp. Gripping it in a reverse hold, she slammed the butt into the earth! Like an unyielding reef, it shattered the incoming torrent on impact, forcing the invisible wave to cleave right down the middle and flow harmlessly around their flanks. "All you, Sister Wen!" Ji Jue called out, utterly shameless as he retreated out of range. Pumping his fist with the bluster of a trainer sending out a Pokémon, he cheered, "Take him down!" "Shut your damn mouth—!" Seeing the scoundrel acting so completely unbothered made Wen Wen's blood boil. But blowing off steam was easy enough—there was a perfectly good punching bag right in front of her. Boom! A fissure split the ground beneath her boots. Wen Wen launched forward, kicking off the earth and soaring skyward, shooting like an arrow straight toward the angelic Saint hovering in midair. The golden spear in her grasp flared with brilliant light once more, effortlessly slicing through the gale and defensive barriers whipped up by his wings. She breached the perimeter, smashing past the two wings shielding his faces, and thrust the reverse-held spear toward Yidela's head. Only then did she see the mockery dawning across all four faces. They opened their jaws and spewed! Crimson lightning intertwined and crackled outward, surging toward her like a hail of razor-sharp blades! When the spear collided with the crimson lightning, a piercing screech of grinding metal tore through the air. Violent vibrations rippled through the shaft, and the patch of rust spread with alarming speed until the weapon... snapped clean in half?! Wen Wen froze in momentary shock. Riding the momentum, she flipped back through the air and hit the ground, tumbling across the flagstones in an ungraceful roll as a torrential rain of crimson lightning blades hammered down, pursuing her relentlessly. "Ji Jue, what the hell is this?!" Wen Wen barked in fury. "Why did this piece of junk break?!" "It was forged out of an angel to begin with, and a defective, half-baked one at that! It's only natural for it to break when colliding head-on with another!" Ji Jue poked his head out and waved an airy hand. "Just hold the line for a bit, I'll fix it right away!" "Hold the line my ass—!" Wen Wen ground her teeth, finally understanding what people meant when they said craftsmen were lying swindlers! Did she come here just to be his damn guinea pig?! With things already having come to this, she had no choice but to whip the two broken halves of the spear back toward Ji Jue. Meanwhile, on the other side of the plaza, Ji Jue was already besieged by descending angels, parrying desperately on all sides. Before she could worry about anyone else, another roar tore through the heavens above. A torrential downpour began. Countless bolts of crimson lightning blanketed the sky, raining down amidst the Saint's mocking fury! "Heretic, perish!" Yet in the very next heartbeat, the endless barrage of falling lightning abruptly stalled—before splitting down the middle. A figure shot back into the sky at unbelievable speed, resembling a reverse meteor smashing through the fragile bolts of lightning. She was right in his face! Before four faces and eight staring eyes, Wen Wen clenched her fist and threw it with merciless ferocity. An instant of utter shock followed—and then, the colossal Apostle was... Flung backward! BOOM! Amidst a tremendous roar, the enormous angel crashed into the crumbling sanctuary, lodging deep within the collapsed ruins. A single punch! Through the swirling plumes of rising dust, the outline of a figure stepped forward, one stride at a time. "Your memory must be pretty terrible, huh?" Wen Wen raised her hand, nonchalantly wiping away a smear of blood beneath her nose. Her chin lifted in contempt. "Did you forget how I used to beat the shit out of you before I ever had that stuff?"