A Colleague's Goods Are Pure Indeed!

Rumbles echoed without cease. The fortress's silhouette blurred in fits and starts, struggling to fade away, yet failed every time, shackled firmly in place. "Hurry it up. The inner layer is already showing signs of breaking off," the Captain warned the others. "We didn't hook a prize catch just to let it slip away." Atop the frozen expanse of the sea, the group had already closed in on the fortress's grand gates. The Veterinarian and Yellowbeard glanced at the silent Hu Jian. Without a word, Hu Jian decisively pressed his hand against the stone statue, drawing on his knowledge and understanding to begin unraveling the outer defenses. "Hu Jian?!" A rasping voice echoed from within the fortress, furious and demanding. "What do you think you're doing? Bringing these people here—have you lost your mind? You filthy cur, I knew—" *Crack!* Electric arcs flared. Atop the stone statue, Hu Jian's palm suddenly charred, shattering. Cold sweat poured down his back. It was the worst-case scenario. The workshop's verification protocols and architecture were completely different from before; his past familiarity was utterly useless. He went to reach out again, but the person behind him was already out of patience. "What's with all the hassle?" Paying no mind to verification protocols, someone pushed up his sleeves and reached directly for the massive gates. Ji Jue! In an instant, an unnerving series of shattering sounds rang out in rapid succession. The insight of the Mirror of Contained Forms paired with the concussive force of the Dissociation Art, causing the verification sequence of the outer defenses to disintegrate in a flash. Immediately following that, Jingzhen erupted. Chunjun, Pan Ying, Zhanlu. Pale white, crimson, and purplish-black radiance converged and overlapped, flashing briefly as they drilled straight inward. In a split second, everyone's expressions changed. Even the furious curses from within the fortress cut short abruptly, turning an instant later into an anguished howl: "Ye Xian, goddammit, again?!" The moment Ji Jue released his grip, a deep fissure had already opened across the once-impregnable gate. Spiritus bled from within like flowing blood. With just a touch, before the workshop could mount a counterattack, a gaping hole had been punched through that could never be patched. Ji Jue couldn't be bothered to exert himself any further. The weak point had already been found, after all. "Grand Craftsman!" He pointed toward the breach. "Right here. Give it a stab, drive it as deep as you can! Two more layers and you'll hit the core of the outer matrix!" Before his voice had even faded, radiant brilliance burst from the flamberge! A pillar of fire connecting heaven and earth surged from the ground, soaring straight into the clouds. Then, compressing inch by inch, it converged upon the sword's blade, transforming into a searing, blinding crimson. It thrust decisively forward! *Snap.* Then came the roar of collapse. The workshop's sturdiest gate—a Blessed creation forged by generations of craftsmen—cracked wide open in that single instant, severed clean in half. The center path was blown wide open. Ji Jue didn't idle either. With a sweep of his hand under the Dissociation Art, he fed it all to Deus Ex Machina. Just a single taste nearly burned his eyes red. "Holy crap!" Ji Jue's shoulders and face twitched violently, nearly overwhelmed by the rush. "An old workshop's goods are pure indeed! Ninety-nine percent pure, a genuine rarity!" Through the feedback and perception granted by Sovereign Virtue essence, he could practically feel the centuries of renovations and upgrades this gate had undergone. More than sixteen craftsmen had spent sixty years on it, honing it to the absolute limit of what the workshop could bear—to the point where, as long as it maintained a connection to the workshop and kept up a steady supply of spiritus, it could withstand even a low-yield fusion bomb. Alas, high stats meant nothing before pure mechanics. First it had been restrained and suppressed by the Captain, then hollowed out by Ji Jue, and finally struck by Yellowbeard, leaving all of its remaining essence to tumble into Ji Jue's belly. With just those couple of mouthfuls, Ji Jue felt flashes of inspiration surging in his mind, granting him a preliminary grasp of the core theories and techniques of the Haze lineage. "Nothing nurtures a man quite like a fellow craftsman!" Ji Jue was moved almost to tears. Following behind everyone, he made a straight drive inward. "What the hell do you people want?!" The furious questioning still echoed through the old castle. "Hu Jian, Yellowbeard, and you old hag Despina—" "Playing dumb has its limits, Berzuna," the Captain said in a chilled tone. "If I recall, you and I worked together over forty years ago, didn't we? Let me take a guess—back during that Absolute Sentence, did you stash something away?" "Bullshit!" Berzuna's voice caught for a fraction of a second, unable to conceal his rising panic. "I fucking knew it, the Association couldn't stomach me anymore, could they? Listen to me, there's been some misunderstanding! This is all political infighting at the top, I just picked the wrong side—" "Whether you did or didn't, you can come back to the Association with me and explain it at your leisure." The Captain tossed a formal notice to the floor. "Others might be swayed, but the Absolute Sentence order against you was issued personally by Director Jiang." A hysterical roar went up. Yet in that very breath, it stopped dead. A flintlock pistol was suddenly raised in the Captain's hand. With a thunderous boom, a bullet shrieked forth, ricocheting through the fortress and punching straight through layer after layer of defenses to bury itself on the other side. All throughout their seemingly idle banter, their mutual positioning and counter-strikes had never paused for a second. In that single breath of clash, the entire castle came apart, abruptly expanding as it forcibly shed all of its outer structures, preparing to vanish once more into nothingness. Yet at that moment, a glimmer of light fell from the sky. A pure, straight beam of brilliance pierced heaven and earth, pinning down the very core of the workshop and cutting off any possibility of escape— "The Light-Anchoring Mirror!" Berzuna's voice sounded as if he were weeping blood. "Hu Jian, I helped you complete the theoretical framework for the Light-Anchoring Mirror! Couldn't you just let me off the hook?!" Hu Jian's expression twitched slightly, his eyes lowered. "Surrender, Mr. Berzuna. At the very least, there is still a chance to turn back—" "Heh, hahahahahaha! I knew it! I knew a mangy dog like you would never stay loyal, that one day—!" Amid Berzuna's hysterical curses and a tremendous crash, countless piercing glimmers of light suddenly surfaced within the crumbling castle. It was as if mirrors had sprung up out of thin air, spinning the world around in a bizarre, swirling kaleidoscope. "Die, all of you!" Ever since entering the castle, Ji Jue had instinctively shielded himself behind the others before sensing danger. The moment his wolfish perception detected malice, he grabbed Yellowbeard beside him. An instant later, deflected by the mirrored light, he and Yellowbeard were hurled into the deepest recesses of the fortress. The enemy had split their forces, then triggered every defensive system within the workshop. He truly was a craftsman to the bone—never turning back before hitting a dead end, and refusing to turn back even after reaching one. There had never been any chance of him surrendering quietly; he was clearly going to fight to the bitter end! In a flash, they were cast into a pitch-black corridor. One by one, grotesque, savage gargoyle statues slowly opened their eyes, fixing their crimson gaze upon the two intruders. "*Gasp*—" Ji Jue's hairs stood on end. Like a delicate willow swaying in the wind, he leaned weakly against Yellowbeard, his eyes brimming with helplessness. "You've got to protect me, Grand Craftsman!" His answer was an unhesitating kick. "Piss off, handle it yourself!" Yellowbeard couldn't be bothered to waste words with this shameless bastard. Dragging his flamberge, he charged straight forward. With his other hand, he untied a cloth pouch and scattered its contents across the ground. In an instant, grass seeds struck the floor and rapidly expanded, transforming into towering, colossal giants. Hero's Seeds! Immediately after, a domain unfolded! Flames surged through the void, the earth cracked open, and lava spread. Amid billowing smoke, ancient runes surfaced across the bodies of the Hero's Seed giants. —Domain: Cauldron of Smoke and Flame! In legend, within Valhalla where countless heroic spirits gathered, the heroes revelled and fought endless battles each day, only to gather in the grand hall at nightfall to feast and drink. There was a great cauldron named Eldhrimnir, used to stew a divine boar that could never be fully slaughtered or consumed, sustaining the spirits, making the strong even stronger, and restoring the dead to life. Eldhrimnir meant "traces of smoke and flame," symbolizing the subjugation of life and death and the reversal of decay through alchemy. Within this domain, even if the heroes fell in battle, they could be reborn completely intact from the fire! At the same time, it bolstered the heroes, enhancing their strength and bestowing unique traits upon them— One could say that Yellowbeard alone was an immortal, indestructible army of the Swarm! At this moment, Yellowbeard gripped the flamberge in one hand and the Shield of the Precipice that Ji Jue had seen before in the other. Around his waist was Megingjord, the Celestial Craft belt that had long spread his fame across the four seas! Empowered by the belt, his strength surged boundlessly! Wherever he passed, he carved through obstacles like chopping vegetables, grinding everything in his path to dust. No matter how many times one saw it, North Wind Workshop's combat style was a textbook display of pure violent aesthetics. At this rate, who could even tell if you were Embers or the Swarm! Ji Jue couldn't be bothered to hide his amazement, clapping in admiration and fulfilling his duties as the squad's hype man to perfection, all while his little hands felt around here and there. Pure, so pure, far too pure! An old craftsman's stock really was something else. After walking only a few hundred meters, Ji Jue felt like a bear in a cornfield, spoiled for choice and wanting to touch and taste every single thing. As for Yellowbeard's look of utter disgust—well, he pretended not to notice. Rumbles shook the air, followed by thunderous booms. While everyone else fought for their lives, Ji Jue was practically an elementary schooler on a field trip, wishing he had brought a camera to snap some souvenir photos. Until the moment they hacked their way through the corridor and breached the central hall. Ji Jue finally caught sight of living people other than themselves—or rather, could they even still be considered living people? Within the hall that resembled an operating chamber, amidst various ancient pieces of equipment, stooped, withered figures suddenly froze in their work. Stiffly, they turned their heads, revealing bizarre, twisted stone masks. Yet behind the masks lay complete emptiness. Their heads were wide open, their brains long gone, leaving only hollow cavities. The masks manipulated these soulless husks that still retained their matrices and Blessings, causing them to step forward stiffly like puppets. All at once, they threw their heads back and wailed in unison! "Whoa!" Ji Jue's eyes widened in surprise. "Loud pipes, aren't they?!" Their voices were loud, but their threat was louder. The pure scent of Embers radiating from these masked, brainless puppets proved that not a single one was below the Derivation rank, and they even carried various creations on their persons— Every single one of them was a colleague, an even older colleague! Now, Ji Jue finally knew where all the people from the workshop had gone. Yellowbeard's face turned livid. "Ji Jue, if you keep dragging your feet, I'll take you out first!" "All right, all right." Ji Jue shrugged. "Isis?" In that breath, within the shadow behind Ji Jue, a pair of silver eyes slowly opened. *I am here.* "Do as you like," Ji Jue said. "Just don't smash them to bits. They're hard to recycle that way, so try to keep them as intact as possible. Well, if it's too much trouble, don't worry about it, but safety comes first, though when you need to hold back a little, you should still pay attention—" Amid her creator's ceaseless chatter, which sounded as if his hemispheres were wrestling each other, Isis let out a helpless sigh. *Sir—* "Hmm?" *I am begging you—* She said, *Shut up!* *Boom!* Within the darkness beneath Ji Jue's feet, a burning silver brilliance erupted in an instant, roaring forth like a cascading waterfall, devouring everything in its path! Storm and destruction began from this very moment.