No Lack of Pretext

"After waiting this long, you've finally reared your head." Amidst the torrential gale, on a rain-sheltered terrace, Fan Yun glanced at the monster born of the catastrophe and finally set down his wineglass. He pushed himself up slowly and unbuttoned his cuffs. Step by step, he descended the stairs into the massive esoteric ritual that had long finished preheating amidst the storm. Within the ritual's projection, the mountains and valleys of Mid-Continent rose and fell, and its rivers surged, every detail laid bare. And step by step, it was trampled beneath his boots. He walked across it. At last, he raised his hand. Closing one eye, he narrowed the other. Clenching his right hand into a fist, he raised his thumb, lining it up from thousands of miles away with the starving, screeching calamity beast, until the outline of his thumb completely blotted out its colossal body. Then, with casual ease, he pressed down! A shrill, piercing shriek erupted in an instant, rolling and echoing endlessly between sea and sky. Like an eraser dragging hard across glass, amid the screeching noise, the mountain-sized calamity beast suddenly froze in place. Right after, boundless pressure manifested from the void and violently detonated. Boom! Beneath the press of a finger from thousands of miles away, the gargantuan body plunged into the sea, churning up wild waves. Its numerous limbs thrashed in terror, yet failed to break free. A solitary finger from afar descended from the celestial dome like a Heavenly Pillar. The power of a Celestial-Human manifested at this very moment. Wait— Immediately after, at the Empire's garrison base, Duke Passarella yawned. Complaining about those old fogeys in the Senate, he raised both hands, joining his index fingers and thumbs into a rectangular frame, and aimed across the distance at the immobilized calamity beast. In the void, a square frame suddenly manifested high in the heavens, looking downward and enclosing the calamity beast within. From opposing corners, two intersecting lines extended outward, locking onto the calamity beast like crosshairs. In that instant, all things fell silent. The whole world dimmed. A beam of extirpating light descended from beyond the sky! Effortlessly, it punched clean through the wailing calamity beast. Then, a savage shockwave surged out in all directions, vaporizing untold amounts of seawater and sand with ease. Amidst the titanic roar, a mushroom cloud billowed upward. Of the calamity beast, not even ashes remained. Barely a single second after its birth, it had met the targeted annihilation of two Celestial-Humans, erased without a trace. Bang! Amidst a muffled crash of shattering force, the raging typhoon quickly dissipated at a visible rate, vanishing completely. Mission accomplished. "That will do, everyone. You've worked hard through the night." Fan Yun withdrew his hand. He cast one final glance at the shattered projection beneath his feet, indifferently looking away, and offered a warm smile to the subordinates waiting around him. "I shall report your merits to Midtown shortly." "It is all thanks to the General's seasoned prudence and farsighted anticipation that Mid-Continent has been rid of another scourge." A pale-skinned colonel with emerald eyes grinned, casting a derisive glance at the swaying silhouette atop the sky of Tacheng. "Though that kid from the Security Bureau sure managed to show off." "The young man did well. A bit blunt, but he did make a contribution to the Federation and Mid-Continent." Fan Yun nonchalantly took a towel offered by a subordinate, wiped his hands, and tossed it aside. "Put in a word with the Security Bureau to include him when reporting merits later. It's rare to see a sincere heart in Mid-Continent. "And that kid from Haichao, include him as well. He did contribute after all." He paused, glancing at the man beside him with a slightly sterner expression. "Attitude—you must show the proper attitude, understand? The Federation's laws may be lenient, far from as harsh as the Empire's, but as key pillars relied upon by the Federation, success or failure comes second; your attitude must first be set straight. No slacking." "Understood." Everyone bowed in unison, and the assistant promptly added two more names to the commendation and merit list. "All right, you youngsters go and celebrate." Fan Yun waved a hand and walked off with his hands clasped behind his back. "At my age, I can't pull all-nighters. I need my rest." Everyone followed behind, escorting him to the doorway and watching the General board his vehicle before disappearing. Only then did lively music begin to play. The waiters who had waited so long filed in with fine wine, and dancers who had waited all night in the lounge took the floor amidst song. Amidst the festive clamor, every face broke into a delighted smile, celebrating the victory. *** Tong Shan descended from the sky. In the dying storm, he touched down upon Ji Jue's unfinished building, panting with exhaustion. Cracking sounds echoed from his arm holding Huihao, spreading upward in a dense spiderweb. Now that everything had reached its end, he was so drained that he barely had the strength to breathe. He leaned against the wall. Through the thinning curtain of rain, he looked up at the fading aftershocks. The glorious city still stood, free of mud and dust, brightly illuminated, and as clamorous as ever. The deluge outside the city was too far away. The raging mudslides and floods, the weeping and the tears—none of it could be seen. And outside the city, figures rose into the sky one after another, methodically beginning to mop up and slaughter the lingering calamity beasts. A spark of flame descended from the sky, bursting into open air. From within the blaze, a blurred silhouette quickly solidified, revealing a sneering smile. Director of the Fourth Operations Branch of the Mid-Continent Security Bureau's Operations Department: Jin Wuyan. After a night of watching from afar, his tailored suit was spotless, untouched by a single speck of dust. At this moment, glancing at Tong Shan's wretched state, he clicked his tongue in a sudden grin. "Hard night's work, Little Tong. Not easy at all. Without you, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly for the rest of us. "Who knew that while the Operations Department couldn't reach you, you were out here shining bright? I ought to thank you on everyone's behalf." "Don't mention it." Tong Shan casually raised his wrist to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth and smiled faintly. "Fuck your mother." "..." Jin Wuyan froze, his mocking smile gradually fading. He had never imagined he would hear such words from Tong Shan's mouth. He could hardly believe his own ears. "What did you say?" "He said, fuck your mother." Behind him, someone repeated the phrase. "What, didn't hear him? Want me to give you a tape recorder so you can go home and listen to it at your leisure?" In that split second, a gushing chill whistled in. Only now did Jin Wuyan realize someone had been standing right behind him, quietly watching him. Ji Jue! "This place isn't a helipad. It's private property, and visitors aren't welcome. Where should I send the bill later? To the Security Bureau or the Operations Department?" Ji Jue walked out slowly, placing himself in front of Tong Shan. Glancing at Jin Wuyan, he broke into a sudden smile. "Or you're welcome to stay, so our workshop can properly entertain our guest." With a snap of his fingers, intricate spiritus circuits lit up across the building. The workshop's spiritus lockdown began preheating, ready to deploy. Jin Wuyan's face darkened even further. In the brief silence, he looked at Tong Shan, then at Ji Jue, and suddenly let out a cold chuckle. "A Heavenly Artificer indeed. I almost forgot Little Tong had such a good friend... "Trespassing into a workshop—that truly was my fault." With that, he reached into his pocket, pulled out two metal coins, and casually tossed them onto the ground. "Keep the change." With one final glance at Ji Jue, flames burst forth, and he vanished without a trace. Gone. "The Security Bureau really knows when to yield. I practically hung his mother from the rafters, and he still held back, refusing to give me the slightest excuse to hit him." Ji Jue sighed in regret and turned around. "Brother Shan, your workplace culture seems pretty rotten." "Always has been." Tong Shan shook his head indifferently. "If the newcomers refuse to kowtow, why would the veterans give them a warm face? For Tianyuan's sake, everyone acts friendly on the surface, but that doesn't stop us from being at each other's throats in secret. "It's not my first time." "All right, quit acting tough." Seeing his state, Ji Jue reached out and shoved him. Tong Shan stumbled and dropped straight into a wheelchair that had been prepared in advance. "Sorry, I don't have any other grades of spiritus supplements on hand. The stuff we use in the workshop is a bit too pure, so bear with it." Ji Jue produced an injection gun, uncapped one end, plunged it cleanly into Tong Shan's neck, and pushed the plunger all the way down. Tong Shan convulsed instantly, his pupils dilating. The influx of massive amounts of spiritus was like a deluge raging over scorched earth, violently bringing an overwhelming torrent of nectar that extinguished the fire, but also sent waves of blackness crashing over his vision. "You really aren't cut out to be a doctor," Tong Shan wheezed, coughing. "Next time, do me a favor and call an ambulance." "Do you know how expensive that is? Even if you have money, you don't burn it like that." Ji Jue pressed a hand to his shoulder, assessing the condition within his body. "Hmm, the matrix took some damage, spiritus is depleted, and aside from the burns, you're fine... Want to rest a bit? I have a guest room here, or should I take you back?" "I'd rather stay in your guest room." Tong Shan offered a self-deprecating smile. "Now that my weakness is exposed, in this weakened state, I might just spawn an Evil Transmutation Cult out of nowhere." "Things are that sinister?" Ji Jue was shocked. Tong Shan looked back, casting a glance at the culprit responsible. "You set the precedent, so you tell me." The Evil Transmutation Cult had wrought havoc all its life, yet who would have thought that in death, it would prove more useful than in life? Now that the cult was gone, anyone could claim to be the Evil Transmutation Cult—or even make an occasional cameo... Ji Jue sighed, feeling that his Evil Transmutation Holy Dynasty was truly ill-fated. He looked up through the thinning rain toward the distant city, and then beyond it toward the rain, the floods, and the ruins. He couldn't help but shake his head. "...Busy all night for nothing, pleasing neither side. How does it feel?" Bringing it on himself, stepping forward to play the hero, only to suffer pointlessly. Whether he'd get a useless verbal commendation remained to be seen, but he had certainly earned ostracization and disgust from his colleagues. And the people of Mid-Continent whom he had saved would never know who had done what for them. Even if they did, there would be no gratitude. Only hatred and disgust. "Why care?" Tong Shan gave a self-deprecating laugh, shaking his head indifferently. "If I cared about that, why would I have stepped up in the first place? "If I'd done nothing at all, I might actually be more popular than I am right now." "Then what are you after?" "I'm after the fact that I did it. Regardless of how much or how little, regardless of the outcome, even if it's just a tiny bit, as long as one more person survives, it's worth it." Tong Shan let out an exhausted sigh. "The Path of Tianyuan teaches us to Harmonize with the Light. Trying to stay completely clean is harder than ascending to the heavens. But even if purity is impossible, it's still better than standing by as a bystander—or worse..." He paused, unable to suppress a derisive smirk, and closed his eyes. "—joining the filth." Ji Jue said nothing. He simply patted his shoulder, wheeled the chair around, and brought him to the guest room. Turning back, he walked toward the workshop. The moment he pushed open the door, his face grew cold. Only in solitude could he remove his mask and no longer conceal the gloom, disgust, and even rage that could not be displayed outwardly. "These vermin..." He stared at the satellite imagery on the screen. "What wishful thinking." Over the radio, a spokesperson for the new White Nation government was gleefully announcing that in a time of crisis, aid had poured in from all sides. After the Federation and the Empire dispersed the typhoon, they had committed massive amounts of resources toward disaster relief, rescue efforts, and even job training to help the affected populace acquire new skills and rebuild their lives, and so on and so forth. They could hardly wait to thoroughly bleed those battered, destitute victims dry and send them into the mines and oil fields to burn themselves out. A truly brilliant calculation. The Federation and the Empire had likely reached an understanding in secret long ago. They could not allow this sudden catastrophic typhoon to complete landfall, nor could they allow the disaster to expand further... Otherwise, how many oil fields and mines would a storm tearing straight inland sweep away? In the raging floods that followed, how many calamity beasts and aberrations would be catalyzed? By then, the already precarious stability and order would be shaken once more, even hindering the efficiency of both sides' exploitation and bloodletting. To that end, they had spared no effort in pinning the typhoon to the coastline, and then struck with a merciless hand to kill the chicken and warn the monkeys! By displaying their absolute might, they intimidated everyone once again. As for how many innocents would be caught in the crossfire throughout the plan, that simply fell outside their consideration. Ji Jue stared at the satellite imagery playing at high speed from the previous night to the present, quietly reviewing the events in his mind. Soon, his brow furrowed once more. No— Something was still wrong! In the entire scheme, what was truly astonishing was never that terrifying power capable of utterly crushing the calamity beast. The most troublesome, difficult, and delicate step was how they had pinned down the raging typhoon without a sound or warning... Great sounds are faint; great forms have no shape. Only the Path of Tianyuan could achieve such a feat so seamlessly and without the slightest sign. Yet to accomplish this, preparations had to be made well in advance. The materials consumed and the resources mobilized could only be achieved at top speed by behemoths like the Federation and the Empire. Which brought up a new question. Typhoon White Stag was itself a natural disaster catalyzed by the sudden merger of two storms. From its formation to its arrival at Mid-Continent, only a few hours had elapsed. Ji Jue had only received the warning then, too. Could both sides have drafted a plan that quickly? Maybe. Perhaps. It was possible. But did it truly have to be so tight? Or... had they prepared for it long before? In that split second, Ji Jue froze. What surfaced in his mind were Tong Shan's final words. "...Joining... the filth?" A chill ran down his spine! Whose filth? Whose currents were they joining? The brutal ravaging and callous arrangements of the Federation and the Empire? Even when Ji Jue assumed the absolute worst, the sleaziest plan he could imagine was merely both sides indulging the disaster's emergence so they could hunt and annihilate the calamity beast, thereby flaunting their martial prowess. Yet, what if... What if it was more than that?! What if it was even more sinister... Mohists were born from the evils of Tianyuan, and artificers had never seen eye to eye with Tianyuan. Countless historical precedents had taught Ji Jue never to underestimate the depths to which the Federation and the Empire could sink. Even now, he had not hesitated to view them through the darkest possible lens... yet Ji Jue felt that the darkness in his mind was pitifully naive by comparison! He could hardly believe the wild conjecture forming in his thoughts. *What if this very disaster was catalyzed by the Federation and the Empire themselves?!* Not just this disaster—where had the tribulation qi coursing within a thousand miles of Tacheng come from? Where had the myriad calamities roaming across Mid-Continent originated?! Had they simply popped out of thin air from beneath the Vortex?! Ji Jue sat in silence, instinctively tapping the armrest of his chair, pressing one indentation after another. Once doubt surfaced, dark speculations sprouted like mushrooms after rain, and everything he had ever seen and heard rose in the wake of that single thread of suspicion. The two polar powers of contemporary Tianyuan—the Empire and the Federation—were two titans that accounted for ninety percent of the world. Two stable, prosperous, thriving superpowers. They wielded the supreme achievements of the Tianyuan lineage, the two Supreme Goodness matrices that had once rebuilt the world's order—the Heavenly Overseer and the Earthly Warden—which had allowed a new world to be erected amidst boundless catastrophes. Yet was their power truly limited to this? In their prime, the Heavenly Overseer and Earthly Warden had subdued catastrophes and eliminated disasters with effortless ease. But today, who could still mobilize such colossal entities so lightly? Furthermore, compared to taking precautions beforehand and forcibly suppressing an imminent catastrophe, wouldn't there be a far more convenient method to protect their own prosperity and safety? Faced with a monstrous flood, why hold the line and bear the brunt of it head-on? —Just as Tong Shan had done to save the slums: by adapting to the circumstances, couldn't they simply divert it elsewhere?! Where did the fury of natural disasters originate? And why had the typhoon bearing the name White Stag, born of the wrath of Supreme Goodness, been triggered in the first place? Aside from Tianyuan, what else could provoke White Stag into such agitation?! This natural disaster had originated from the encroachments of Tianyuan and the fury of the wilderness! It was entirely an inflicted calamity! If that was the case, everything made sense. Otherwise, why had the Federation and the Empire waged war repeatedly in Mid-Continent for all these years, propping up one puppet government after another, yet confined themselves to bleeding it dry rather than carving up Mid-Continent directly? Because the entire Mid-Continent had been deliberately set aside by the Federation and the Empire as a digestion pit—a flood discharge basin! Like a scapegoat puppet, a decoy meant to suffer disasters on behalf of the Federation and the Empire, a designated target left behind to foot the bill and pay the price! And what they discharged and deposited... was it truly limited to floods and storms? Thinking of the Lock's structure and the interference the Heavenly Overseer and Earthly Warden could exert, Ji Jue looked at Mid-Continent with its surging corruption index and couldn't help letting out a hollow laugh. He applauded in admiration, bowing in awe. How grand, the Federation! How magnificent, the Empire! Ji Jue closed his eyes, left without a single word to say... *** Before the equally raging downpour and surging floodwaters, weeping children stood at the edge of a cliff, watching their homes slowly submerge. "Children, remember this," a raspy voice sounded. "This is the evil karma wrought by the Federation and the Empire. "From the moment we were born, we lost our homes. From the moment we opened our eyes, we lost our dignity. Before we learned to breathe, we had already lost our future. Before our infants died young, they had already lost their lives... The bearded middle-aged man looked upon it all and told them, "Our lives, our souls, and our bones were all crushed into dust and scattered across the wilderness. Yet this uncultivable land, this last remnant of our homeland, has been turned into this at their hands..." Amidst the dead silence, only the patter of rain fell, like tears. Within those hollow pairs of eyes, a gleam of hatred gradually surfaced. Until heavy footsteps sounded from beneath the cliff. Bristling with fury! "Enough, Shehri!" The returning camp leader glared at the man beside the children. "Stop preaching your garbage here!"