I Fired First!

Even in a godforsaken place like the Endless Sea, the sheer depravity of the Sukarno family ranked among the very worst. Once the smallest city-state among the Seven Cities, through three generations of unscrupulous, ruthless accumulation of wealth and status, it had vaulted into becoming the most favored contender for alliance leader and the most powerful free port. Luo City's path to prominence was a rise built out of countless deaths, blood, and tears. To say their crimes were too numerous to record would be an understatement. By comparison, murdering and committing arson every day would look like acts of benevolence. Nowadays, in that gilded sinkhole of extravagance, anything money could buy was up for purchase. And for things money couldn't buy, you could still try your luck... From sex work to human trafficking and the organ trade, those were merely the most trivial branches at the very end of their colossal supply chain. The Venom Fleet—pillaging, murdering, and raiding—was simply the arm tasked with acquiring inventory, running dirty jobs, sabotaging competitors, and raking in extra cash on the side. "Truly magnificent," Ji Jue remarked with heartfelt admiration. "Incredible." On the screen, Minkler went quiet for a moment, eyeing him with a bizarre look. "What?" "Nothing." He shrugged. "I just thought you were someone who... didn't care much for that sort of thing." Both Ji Jue's usual demeanor and an artisan's reputation—a moral Mariana Trench—were exceedingly deceptive, so much so that hearing Ji Jue speak with such genuine wonder felt downright surreal. "No, you misunderstand." Ji Jue smiled faintly. "I'm purely evaluating it from a cost-performance perspective... The fiercer the material, the fresher it is. And materials with such a notorious reputation are usually far more economical." Processing them was cheap and effortless. No matter how many he slaughtered, he never had to worry about scruples, and whatever techniques he chose to test, his conscience would never trouble him. In fact, they were just like leeks—mow down one crop, and another would pop right up. What else could it be? Could he possibly be doing this out of the goodness of his heart? Don't make your factory manager laugh! To Ji Jue's eyes now, the vast Endless Sea looked like endless mountains of gold and silver waiting to be tapped, a treasure trove he could never exhaust. It was simply fantastic. He was already beginning to love the local matchmaking pool. *Boom!* A series of deafening, high-pitched shrieks erupted from within the mist. Seawater boiled, and the surging Prosperity came to a dead halt as if it had slammed into an invisible iron wall. The Joint Defense Fleet charging into the fray only had to face the aftershocks. What the Veil and the Sacrificial Maiden were truly targeting was solely the eerie freighter that had set Renut's instincts on edge. The surrounding sea was already choked with dense, freakish black hair. Countless thick strands spread with the currents, coiling tightly around the propeller blades and the hull. They even crept upward like living things, climbing, extending, and burrowing into the holds... Pity was, there was no feast awaiting them as expected. In fact, not a single living creature could be found. The Prosperity was dead empty. Aside from row upon row of cargo containers packed to the brim, there was not even a solitary crewman on board. It was like a floating iron tomb, now playing host to a ghostly visitor. For a moment, the Sacrificial Maiden was thoroughly bewildered. A disorder object born from the ritualistic, cruel drowning of women in the sea was, by its very nature, a bloodthirsty, venomous monster utterly devoid of reason. Having struck, only to find no living prey to devour, it steadily grew frantic and unruly. Its tendrils even reached toward the survivors who had leaped from the escort frigate into the sea. Even protective talismans offered no defense against the entanglement. Those suffering from open cuts or bleeding could only shriek in agony as ravenous hairs burrowed into their wounds, hollowing them out from the inside until nothing remained but shriveled human husks drifting upon the waves. "Help! Help me!" The pirates, long accustomed to the horrifying power of the Sacrificial Maiden, turned ashen. Shrieking at the top of their lungs, they gasped and thrashed frantically, unconsciously inhaling the thin silver vapor hovering in the air into their lungs. In the end, only a small handful were hauled aboard by their comrades before the Sacrificial Maiden slipped entirely out of control; far more had already been reduced to lifeless pelts swaying among the sea of black strands. Renut couldn't have cared less. They were just cannon fodder anyway. As many as died, he could always recruit more! "Open fire! Fire, blast that wreck to the bottom!" he roared, whipping around. "What the hell are you all dragging your feet for?!" The response he received was a terrified whimper bordering on tears. "W-We did fire!" The second mate was deathly pale, staring at the barrage of error pop-ups flashing across his console. He desperately hammered away, trying to repair them. From the moment the engagement began until now, every single fire-control system in the Venom Fleet had begun malfunctioning... "Damn it all, did you lose your hands along with the system?!" Feeling Renut's frigid glare boring into him, the mate barked orders in panic, "Forget the systems! Switch everything to manual! At this range, what is there to aim at?! If you can't get those guns to fire, I'll personally shove you down the barrels and shoot you out!" Instantly, thunderous roars shook the heavens. The entire Ivory shuddered violently, followed by the screech of shearing steel. Right before everyone's eyes, plumes of fire erupted across the deck alongside billowing smoke, leaving dead and wounded strewn across the platform. The main gun had suffered a catastrophic breach! "Something's wrong, General!" an Ascendant in the hold sounded the alarm. "Our entire fleet's equipment has been hijacked by living spirits! A Tianyuan across the water has commandeered our network!" "Any random Tianyuan can just walk all over our systems?! What the fuck do we feed our artisans for?!" Renut bellowed in fury. "Where is the shipwright? Is he dead? Say something!" The shipwright remained dead silent, not uttering a word. A stifling hush fell over the room. As Renut's rage mounted, a choked, tearful voice piped up: "G-General... our artisan was just killed by a sympathetic detonation of the shells..." Immediately after, another deafening rumble of tearing metal rang out from the distance. In the few minutes everyone had spent dazed and distracted, another escort frigate had actually steamed straight ahead of the freighter, willingly offering itself into that gaping steel maw! *Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!* Amid a sickening crunch of chewing metal that made onlookers dizzy, the frigate snapped cleanly at its waist. Despairing screams echoed endlessly. Even as the Sacrificial Maiden thrashed around it, the monstrous wreck greedily gnawed through the meal delivered right to its door, swallowing down the behemoth into the pitch-black abyss of its belly without spitting out a single scrap. Right after, it opened its gaping maw once more. It didn't even spare a glance at the prey close at hand. Instead, it faced the endless black hair spreading through the sea. Vacuum inhalation! *Disorder Object: Sacrificial Maiden!* The main course was too greasy and heavy; time to have some seaweed to cut the grease! Spine-chilling, piercing shrieks rose from the depths. Countless black locks flailed in fury, ripping and tearing as they coiled around the Prosperity, tearing through its corroded hull and deck to reach inside. Yet the next moment, it felt as though an invisible hand had seized them, giving them no way to break free. And then... *Slurp!* Amid the venomous shrieks of the hair, a gurgling, slurping sound rang out—*gulp, gulp, gulp*—like noodles being inhaled down a gullet. The darkness within the holds seemed bottomless, voraciously devouring the endless torrent of hair. Trapped between the strands, twisted, bloated, pale faces slowly glazed over, stripped of any power to resist! Aboard the Venom Fleet, several sorcerers who had tended the Sacrificial Maiden for years let out agonized howls as strands of pitch-black hair sprouted from their pores and flesh, draining them into shriveled husks. The Sacrificial Maiden was losing control! And the Veil, nudged by an invisible hand, was slowly being drawn back. "Fascinating." Ji Jue pinched a drifting wisp of freezing mist. "The material isn't half bad. Once I take it back, I could tailor a dress out of it... Interested, Isis?" *Please refrain from dragging garbage into the house, sir. There is already enough junk at home.* Watching from thousands of miles away, Isis chose to disregard Ji Jue's teasing message: *If you insist on making a dress, keep it for yourself.* "Fair enough," Ji Jue agreed, nodding. The silence on the other end became positively deafening. When Ji Jue raised his hand once more, boundless quicksilver swirled, diffused, and evaporated, gradually blanketing the entire stretch of water. Aggregation commenced once again! Solid Alchemy! A sudden tempest swept through as an invisible vortex rose from the dead center of the mist. Between Ji Jue's hands, faint, wailing silhouettes rapidly manifested, only to vanish as they were pulled into the crystallizing mass. To Ji Jue's surprise, of all the aspects of Three-Phase Alchemy, the one that resonated best with the countless formulas left by the Haze was Solid Alchemy—the very art he used for transmutation and containment! After incorporating numerous formulas, Solid Alchemy's containment and threat level against all spirits and spiritus surged several tiers higher. Now, with the quicksilver mist acting as a conduit across the entire expanse of sea, countless microscopic vapors spontaneously siphoned the Veil's essence, forcibly concentrating the formless mist into a unified whole! *Boom!* The mist revolted. As if sensing its precious treasure slipping from its grasp, a faint, shadowy face suddenly materialized within the dense fog, glaring across the vast distance at this very spot. And then, it was met with Ji Jue's genial smile. Here solely to add some spice? That worked too. Otherwise, without an incoming call at the climax, something always felt missing... Just like that, right beneath the wrathful gaze of the distant Tyrant, Ji Jue reached out without a shred of hesitation, seizing the invisible Tyrant's spiritual pact within the mist. Then, Dissociation Art! To hell with your claims—once it's in my hands, it's mine! And since you dared scrawl your name on my property, that just means you belong to me, too! "Don't rush. One at a time." Ji Jue glanced at the hideous visage, breaking into a sudden smile. "It'll be your turn soon." *Crack!* The spiritual pact shattered, and the twisted shadow of the Tower spiraled into absolute chaos, only to be completely commandeered by Ji Jue. As for the impotently raging Tyrant on the other side, before he could project his might and punishment across the distance, his furious roar was cut short, snuffed out without a trace. The colossal Veil was now firmly held in Ji Jue's grasp! The Fire of Non-Fate flared and faded, scouring away the taint left behind by the Tyrant, and the refinement of Non-Offensive began anew... To tell the truth, apart from the Tyrant's spiritual pact, the rest of this thing was just a mountain of cheap materials stacked together, utterly lacking in technique or elegance—an absolute eyesore. Retaining the original architecture, he streamlined its framework, patched its flaws, and shored up its shortcomings. Amid a flurry of crackling sounds, the seamless recreation was complete. After grinding through so many problem sets, modifying something like this didn't even require using his brain. Immediately after, pale mist rolled across the ocean surface once more, but this time, faint threads of silver light gleamed within the boundless fog. The thin mist dissolved into the gale, vanishing in a flash. It was as if nothing had ever happened. Only Ji Jue could feel the Veil expanding again, his senses pushing further outward until... one soul and life after another surfaced in his awareness. Like twinkling specks of light, distinct and crystal clear. "Let me see... how does this thing work again?" Ji Jue reached out and lightly tapped his finger. He pointed toward one of them. An instant later, a blood-curdling scream erupted from the distant Venom Fleet! Within the chaotic corridors of the hold, a sprinting pirate froze dead in his tracks. His eyes bulged, his pupils dilated, and his entire body seized in violent convulsions, his throat emitting guttural gasps. "Hey! Hanafiya, what the hell are you doing?!" snapped a crewmate hauling an ammo crate behind him, glaring in fury. "Get out of the way! Move!" "Ha... Ha... Hana... fi... fi..." Hanafiya seemed unable to recall his own name, babbling incoherently and twitching. Amid the violent spasms, viscous bloody foam bubbled from his mouth before he abruptly went still. Then, slowly, he turned his head around. A full one-hundred-and-eighty-degree twist. Those hollow eyes stared unblinkingly at his terrified comrade. A stiff expression stained with blood. Suddenly, his lips split open. He smiled. And then, his skin tore open like flimsy paper. The mutated flesh cracked apart, revealing the underlying bone that gleamed with a faint metallic luster. "M-M-M-My name is... Hana... fiya..."