The Bell Tolls

BOOM! In the blink of an eye, the two crossed paths. Ji Jue lunged forward as the female assassin wielding illusions pursued relentlessly. Even with a dozen meters between them, the moment he hit the ground would have been the exact second her dagger pierced his heart, killing him on the spot. Yet right at that instant, what suddenly detonated were the grenades hanging from the woman's waist. To be precise, two grenades, three hundred grams of phlogiston explosive, and an electrified net restraint launcher... In that fraction of a second, the dizzying illusion ground to a screeching halt. In its place, terrifying flames shot into the sky like a colossal torch. Without even a chance to scream, she was torn to shreds by flying shrapnel, the catastrophic shockwave of phlogiston explosives, and a raging heat akin to a blazing blast furnace. Only half of a charred corpse flew out of the blast wave, tumbled through the air, and crashed down beside the behemoth. Whether a dying flare-up or mere reflex, on that mangled, blackened face, carbonized lips soundlessly parted and closed, as if pleading for something. "Xiao Su!!!" The sudden turn of events left the behemoth scarcely able to react. Watching his daily companion reduce in an instant to a dying, charred ruin, he couldn't help but scream. He couldn't even bother pressing his assault on An Ran anymore. Spinning around, he lunged toward his dying teammate, faint glimmers of spiritus surfacing in his hands as he scrambled to save her. Unfortunately, it was too late. Before her last words could even be shaped, a shard of iron had already wedged into her skull from the left and pierced through the right. Ritual of Pitch-Pot—Through the Ear! The moment he sensed his teammate's death, the behemoth unleashed an earth-shattering roar. His body swelled once more with a guttural bellow as layers of bone erupted across his face. Bony branches resembling the antlers of a giant stag fanned out, laced with crimson veins! Blood-red fire, practically tangible, swirled around his frame. Vortex Matrix—[Wendigo]! At the cost of converting excessive blood and life force, he forcefully elevated his power by an entire rank, transforming into the monster of myths and ghost stories. Braving the barrage of iron shards howling toward him like falling stars, he charged forward! Yet at that exact moment, the voice Xiao An cried out was actually: "Brother Ji Jue, dodge!" Dodge what? Dodge where? How? Not a single question surging through his mind found an answer, yet Ji Jue's body, still flat on the ground, had already shot outward like lightning. Never mind the stabbing sting and burns across his limbs and back, or the dizzying urge to vomit. The aftereffects of the explosion were cast aside. Ji Jue slapped a hand onto himself. White Stag Sigil. Scrambling on all fours, he lunged forward. The very next instant, the wall behind him violently shattered as though struck head-on by an invisible sledgehammer. A red-hot round grazed Ji Jue's thigh, buried itself deep into the wall on the opposite side of the hall, and vanished. *There's a sniper!* Cold sweat drenched Ji Jue. *Bro, you cheating? Aimbot and wallbang? Not even trying to hide it?* The moment the bullet whistled past, his ability captured it, and all its parameters surfaced in his mind: 12.7 mm anti-materiel sniper rifle, Imperial make, operating condition excellent, well-maintained. Straight-line distance: over eight hundred meters! BOOM! Right on its heels, a second shot flew straight toward Xiao An's head. Under Ji Jue's orders, Little Niuma had long since hit top speed, kiting the behemoth around like a non-stick pan, never clashing head-on. Otherwise, given the Wendigo's terrifying brute force, a single punch would have flattened Little Niuma into a meat pie. In the distance, the Aether Celestial Chosen remained expressionless as he pulled the trigger once more. Amidst a deafening roar, the bullet hurtled out, kicking up a startled cloud of dust that rose and fell. He hadn't expected to still be half a beat too slow! To avoid prematurely triggering the White Stag's perception of killing intent or similar blessings, he had waited until the very last moment to prepare—only to watch his teammate perish in the blast with his own eyes. Within the reflection upon the water basin, the battle scene in the ruins came into view. A shifting targeting reticle locked onto Ji Jue once more. Pull the trigger! Another thunderous crack. This time, Ji Jue's body was nearly blown in half just by the near miss. *Run, kid. Keep running—you're dead either way!* Sneering, the sniper cycled the bolt, ejecting a glowing-hot casing. But as he sighted down the scope again, he saw that Ji Jue had stopped in his tracks. Kneeling on one knee, what he raised from afar in his hands toward him... Was actually a rifle?! Yet its model and build made the sniper freeze in disbelief. A Federal Thunder Lever-Action Rifle, overall length 1,134 millimeters, .40 caliber, effective range 800 meters... In the mundane history of firearms, this weapon boasted distinguished honors, having carved out countless kills and battlefield achievements that struck terror into the hearts of its contemporary foes. The only problem was... This was a relic from a hundred and twenty years ago! It had been obsolete for ages! God only knew which antique shop the brat had dug it out of. The sniper nearly burst into laughter—no, he was already laughing aloud. A grotesque, sneering grin. Paying no heed to his opponent's aiming, he lined his crosshairs up on Ji Jue as well. *Come on, kid, let me send you on your way!* BANG! In an instant, two identical roars erupted simultaneously from both positions, muzzle flash and gunsmoke billowing upward. Yet in that split second beyond human perception, what burst from Ji Jue's barrel was a streak of silver light that stung the eyes of all who looked upon it... It was the bullet Xiao An had just tossed over to him. Having never inherited the House of An's matrix, Xiao An's matrix was one she had found herself in the Wild Gathering, named [Sword Resonance]. Its installed effect was simple: after transmuting her own spiritus, it coated physical matter, generating a blade-qi effect for a short duration. Now, what shot out from the chamber was a flowing beam of blade-qi! Howling shrilly as it flew, it bridged the long distance in an instant, colliding head-on with the armor-piercing sniper round and releasing a blinding flash of frigid light. Sliced cleanly down the middle! Then, the silver light surged forward, crossing eight hundred meters to pierce straight through the rifle's scope, finally blasting out from the back of the sniper's skull. A mixture of crimson and ghastly white sprayed and poured forth. The sniper made not another sound. In his final moment, all he managed was a faint whisper: "So fast..." [Reporting to Commander: Target neutralized.] The moment the bullet left the chamber, a phantom-like voice had already echoed from the Thunder in Ji Jue's hands, like a seasoned veteran of few words who hoarded every syllable. Through bloody battles in Mid-Continent, passed down through four successive users and steeped in spiritus for decades, it had eventually returned to the Federation alongside its master, vanishing into obscurity ever since. After hearing Ji Jue's request, Sister Layla had scoured the markets, eventually unearthing this relic of a bygone era from the home of an old veteran at the Veterans Mutual Aid Society. After Ji Jue disassembled, machined, and maintained it, this antique, which had gathered dust on a display rack for over twenty years, finally radiated the fierce, sharp aura unique to a true weapon once more! Next came the last one remaining. Ji Jue turned his head toward the frenzied behemoth. Having lost all response from his teammates over the comms channel, the Wendigo leader finally realized things had gone horribly wrong. Howling with reckless abandon, he lunged furiously at Xiao An, only for a massive pair of wings to suddenly sprout from his back mid-leap. Howling gales swept up as he soared into the air, fleeing into the sky! Unfortunately, it was already too late. After a shrieking storm of pitch-pot shards and deer-hunting slugs swept past, the behemoth crashed down once more in disgrace, completely flanked front and back by Xiao An and Ji Jue. There was no escape left. "Wait, I—" The Wendigo raised a hand, mouth opening to speak, leaving behind only half a sentence as his final words. A wisp of dim, shadowy light shot from Xiao An's sleeve, pierced through his eye socket like a bird, and exited from the back of his skull, leaving behind a gaping hole. Finally, it returned between Xiao An's fingers and vanished. From start to finish, Ji Jue never even caught a glimpse of what it actually was. "You're not keeping a survivor to interrogate?" Ji Jue walked forward warily with rifle raised to confirm the Wendigo's status, only to find he was already lifeless, killed in a single strike! "Oh, right." Xiao An seemed to realize, having a belated epiphany, but quickly waved her hand dismissively. "Well, it's always either revenge or a bounty anyway. It's the same old boring answers every time. You get used to it." "...How the hell does someone get used to that kind of crap?" The corner of Ji Jue's eye twitched. "Well, as time goes on and it happens enough, you just do. You probably will soon too, Brother Ji Jue." Xiao An said candidly, "Out of those folks just now, quite a bit of that hostility was directed at you. Looks like your bounty isn't low either." "..." Ji Jue felt his expression slipping. "Don't worry, don't worry. Those guys can probably only cause trouble inside a Border Realm anyway. Outside, if anyone dares touch you, Sister Wen won't let them off. And if someone can actually beat Sister Wen, they probably wouldn't bother targeting you in the first place." "..." Ji Jue's expression slipped even further. *Fuck, so my bounty is basically a chicken rib, huh? Those who can beat her don't care, and those who care don't dare. A textbook case of 'tasteless to eat, wasteful to discard.'* Wait, no—he was also a freshly hired apprentice at Tide Sound Workshop. He had powerful backers! Even though Professor Ye probably wouldn't bother lifting a finger if she found out about such trivial nuisances, that didn't stop him from borrowing her prestige! With two sets of thick thighs to cling to, what did he have to fear?! During the brief lull, the two took a moment to catch their breath. The closer they drew to the bell tower, the clearer the distant rumbles became, intermittent and drifting from left to right. It seemed the poor saps fighting to the death among the ruins weren't limited to the ones who had delivered themselves to their doorstep. One [Vortex], one [Mirror], and one [Aether]. "What a harvest." Ji Jue took out his puzzle ball, rubbing his hands together as he strode toward the corpses. While the Celestial Chosen had only just breathed their last and their souls hadn't completely dispersed, portions of the blessings bound to their matrices could still be extracted using specialized tools. Blessings extracted from a Celestial Chosen's soul in this manner inevitably suffered wear and tear, and once fused to a soul they could no longer be used by another person, but that did nothing to diminish their value as crafting materials. The puzzle ball incorporated the function of a 'Blessing Cage,' allowing it to temporarily store blessings bestowed by the Virtues for Ji Jue's future alchemical needs. While the Embers lineage couldn't fight worth a damn, when it came to sheer underhandedness, they easily ranked in the top two or three among the Twelve Virtues. Even the folks from Heart Pivot, accustomed to hypnosis and brainwashing, sometimes looked on in awe. After so many years of competing in the dog-eat-dog battle royale of the high-mannered realm, they had developed a comprehensive procedure for destroying evidence and recycling waste. It was highly replicable, and countless theories and schools had emerged from it. Some practitioners who walked both the Paths of Embers and Vortex even went so far as to refine Celestial Chosen corpses directly into puppets and tools. Compared to that, someone of Ji Jue's level practically qualified as benevolent and merciful, giving them a proper rest. He didn't even draw out his opponents' souls to feed the furnace for tinder transmutation—he was so kind, it brought tears to one's eyes. [Wait, something's wrong.] A voice suddenly sounded from the puzzle ball: [Danger detected. Don't move!] Ji Jue's movements froze on the spot. He took a cautious step back, then another. Then, he watched as cracks abruptly surfaced across the two corpses before him—a second, a third, a fourth... Splintering into fragments, they rapidly dehydrated, crumbling into ash. Meanwhile, the viscous blood and spiritus transformed into thin, streaming trickles. Under the pull of an invisible gravitational force, they flowed slowly forward. Heading straight toward... The direction of the bell tower! DONG!!!! At that moment, a soul-shaking chime echoed from afar!