Even If You Can, You Can't!

An intangible power surged from the wailing. Wherever that eerie cry passed, darkness fell before everyone's eyes. Ji Jue's Chunjun quivered, severing an unseen connection, while the sound of shattering came from the watch on Minkler's wrist, leaving it utterly ruined. "There's even a disorder object from the Tower inside this evil thing? How can they even stitch that together? That's badass!" Ji Jue clicked his tongue in wonder, almost tempted to applaud. It was truly an eye-opener. Wild, unconventional paths weren't necessarily strong, but they sure were wild... Though the Bloodstained Mother was inherently a mess of a chimera, its functionality was truly maxed out. Every single move aimed for utter extermination and ruin—from the earlier lightning, howling, and torrents of blood to the wailing now. If this were a densely populated area, a single shriek like that would probably suck tens of thousands of people dry in an instant. Lou Feng felt a sudden wave of dizziness, followed immediately by a cracking sound from his wrist. One bead of his crystal prayer bracelet had shattered. It was an attack aimed directly at his spirituality and soul! In that fleeting instant of daze, the severed head, flayed human skin, heart, and skeletal remains clutched in the Bloodstained Mother's hands seemed to morph into his own. The three weeping faces lifted once more, their pitch-black pupils glaring straight at Lou Feng. In the void, the swaddled infant wailed in mournful anguish. Again?! "This silly child..." Ji Jue sighed. "Why keep poking the sore spot?" At that moment, Lou Feng looked indifferent. He raised both hands and slammed them together. Walking right into the net, are you? "Die!" *Boom!* Within the colossal crystalline tree spanning the entire base, a heartbeat thundered. A torrent of spiritus gathered through the boughs and trunk, as countless spiritus circuits overlapped, extended, and proliferated endlessly... In an instant, the entire colossal tree transformed into a bona fide alchemical—no, Blessed—creation! The legacy of the Haze branch was something Ji Jue had seen, but had Lou Feng not seen it too?! Its standard formulas had taken him less than half a month to grasp eight or nine tenths of! What was more, the compatibility between his own Deft Craft legacy and Haze was far superior to Fluid Alchemy! Spiritus shaping was practically creating matter from the void, an inherent match made in heaven for the condensation of Haze! At this moment, countless spiritus crystals collided, shifted, and restructured like a kaleidoscope, kicking up a dizzying frenzy before settling into shape once more. This very place, this very domain, had long fallen under Lou Feng's control! All reflected beneath that sliver of phantasmal light at his fingertips. This was a fine piece of work he had crafted specifically for that dog Ji Jue... Consider yourself lucky to get a taste of it first! —Mirror Transformation: Star of Bethlehem! Bolts of thunder detonated out of thin air. As the giant tree's heart thrummed, countless massive fruits abruptly sprouted from its branches. Encapsulated within each spiritus crystal was the blinding, searing glare of lightning and raging flames. Now, the fruit fell ripe from the vine, and destruction plummeted from above! Near-infinite spiritus combined with the standard formula's instant output to level everything in the base to flat ground—except for the command center where Ji Jue sat. As if receiving the dedicated attention of an entire bomber squadron, ferocious devastation erupted on the spot. Blinding flares burst continuously, piercing the heavens. Under the violent tremors beneath the giant tree's canopy, the base spun like a nightclub disco ball, flashing countless brilliant beams of light. Every ray of light was a burst of ruin, an unbridled, thoroughly satisfying outpouring of bombardment, devoid of scruples or restraint, uncaring even for Ji Jue... Why care about him? If he blew to death, it would count as a good deed! A terrifying force sufficient to vaporize the entire base dozens of times erupted in the snap of a finger. Piercing shrieks rose endlessly as blood boiled and evaporated. Shattered lingering souls were incinerated to dust within the roaring flames, yet the pulverized spirits only followed with further explosions. One became ten, ten became a hundred, a hundred became a thousand... Everything destroyed turned into destruction itself. This unending cascade of devastation and blast was precisely the essence of the Entropy branch: Extinction Formula: Detonation Conduction Loop! Paired with the Blessing Chain—All Things Return to Cinders—once initiated, every tangible thing within the sealed domain would meet total obliteration. Until reduced completely to nothingness, where not even the most rudimentary material structures could remain, extinguished into ash and smoke! The sight made even Ji Jue's scalp prickle. Oh crap, this move... could it be meant for me? If he ever ran into this in a positional battle, besides having Juque tough it out, he truly wouldn't have many options. Juque, you better hold your ground. No, he had to fleece some more materials when he got back, or he'd be tossing and turning in pain at night. Shrieks! Agonized screams resounded beneath the countless thunderbolts, one shrill screech after another. Not only was the Bloodstained Mother screaming, but the controller behind it was wailing as well, rolling across the altar, breathing faintly as though gnawed upon by invisible, gaping maws. Controlling an evil entity had always been drinking poison to quench a thirst, a nine-to-one gamble with death. Wielding a vicious evil being with one's own soul meant facing backlash at any given second. If it couldn't devour the enemy, it would devour you! Within the raging tide of destruction from the Star of Bethlehem, the Bloodstained Mother's sacred icon repeatedly fractured and reconstituted. Cracks spread across its faces as it roared and repeatedly clawed at Lou Feng's soul, yet it couldn't grasp it in the slightest. Lou Feng's soul remained as steady as Mount Tai, and his blood paid no heed to its summons. The Abyssal spiritus impact was entirely dissipated, while the crying was suppressed by bolt after bolt of thunder. It could only be said that this was what a fully prepared Embers craftsman looked like. One couldn't really blame the Bloodstained Mother for being useless. Forget the Bloodstained Mother—even an actual Transcendent wouldn't have fared much better. But did the Sukarno family even have an Exaltation-stage figure? Oh! They actually had one before! Later on... Later on, that one died inside the Sacrificial Temple of the Ancient Beginning. Ji Jue slapped his forehead, suddenly recalling: What a coincidence, seemed like he was the one who did it! He remembered it particularly well, because he had slaughtered the guy in too much of a hurry and wasted so much! Those had all been his materials! Yet because of old dog Tianlu's single word of catalysis, it had all gone down the drain. As for Lou Feng... He had never been worried in the first place. Young Master Lou's starting conditions were far better than his, better by who knew how many times over. For the Embers branch, lineage and mentorship were paramount. Every artisan was exceedingly prudent when choosing students. Even beasts of burden meant to be exploited needed good teeth, let alone mantle-bearers. When masters taught disciples, they focused on tailoring methods to the individual. Different monkeys needed different tethers. Take teaching a hyper-competitive pauper like Ji Jue, who had nothing left but an empty bowl: the focus was free-range grazing. Once you learned what you needed to learn, get out and carve your own path. Whether you choked on chaff or feasted on delicacies depended entirely on your own wits. Starting out with a single dog and relying on drops for all gear—it was all about making the most of a person's talent. But when teaching a young master born with a silver spoon like Lou Feng, who lacked nothing, one had to teach through words and deeds, offering careful guidance every step of the way. With a guaranteed baseline score of sixty from the start, there was no need to gamble; as long as he didn't die prematurely along the way, he was bound to achieve something in the future. Thus, it was all about putting every material to its fullest use. Whatever equipment or materials were available, use them if useful; if not, stash them on your person until they were... Which meant that compared to the few pieces of gear Ji Jue had scrounged together himself, what Lou Feng possessed was a colossal hoard from his entire lineage and the Lou family's vaults! Ninety percent of an artisan's combat prowess lay in their creations! The only thing shackling an artisan was their own tolerance ceiling and spiritus reserves... Leaving the ceiling aside, spiritus reserves were even less of an issue! Having bridged that most awkward early phase, Lou Feng had already stepped into the true explosive growth phase of the Embers branch just like Ji Jue. And if necessary, his explosive power could be far more ridiculous than Ji Jue's! Compared to what Lou Feng had tucked in his pockets right now, the Bloodstained Mother? What a piece of junk! *Boom!* Beneath the roaring thunder, a crisp fracture echoed. Though subtle and sharp, it cut cleanly through the rolling detonations, reverberating in everyone's ears. The battered Bloodstained Mother had already lost four arms and two heads. Even its current face and torso could barely hold together. Yet the successive blasts of thunder and fire acted like chisels, stripping away the excess fragments from its form... Gradually revealing its true appearance. The sorrowful, compassionate face stitched together from countless pieces of flesh and blood shattered, exposing bizarre scales beneath and a hideous visage. The merciful Mother had become a stooped monstrosity—a hunched effigy covered in razor-sharp scales, ghastly and ferocious, fresh blood continuously oozing and dripping from between the scales. Wisps of darkness billowed outward, spreading to forcibly pry open a gap amidst the thunder and flames. The realm of Tianyuan—no, the Tower! A domain akin to an occult territory surfaced around the evil effigy, warding off the Star of Bethlehem's destruction. And cradled within the effigy's arms, the rag-like swaddling finally loosened... revealing the crying infant inside. Half of its face was tender and infantile, while the other half was a fish head with hollow, pitch-black eyes! The instant the half-fish, half-human infant appeared, boundless darkness rioted and expanded. Abruptly cutting off its cries, the baby slowly tilted its head up to look at Lou Feng. It broke into a silent, gaping grin! Utterly unlike its previous sluggishness and rigidity, the Bloodstained Mother underwent a complete transformation. The account had been hijacked by another player! *Boom!* Countless whispered voices seemed to echo in the ears, sounding like praise, worship, and prayer. Hallucinations surged forward in waves: out at sea, upon barren isles, in the deep ocean, hunched silhouettes bowed before the bizarre half-human, half-fish statue, devoutly offering sacrifices and their very lives. Blood flowed from the statue, scooped up like sacred treasure, and swallowed into bellies. Immediately after, scales sprouted upon the bodies of those worshippers, rapidly mutating and alienating them. They walked into the sea, swam toward the dark waters, plunged into the deeper abyss of the ocean depths, swimming toward that magnificent sunken city beneath the waves, that holy land built from countless corpses. And from the deepest recesses of that holy land, a colossal shadow in the dark stirred faintly, peering down toward this place from thousands of miles away! With just a single glance, a name was carved into Lou Feng's consciousness as if struck by axe and chisel. It grew and spread with terrifying speed, devouring his thoughts and soul, flooding everything. Countless fanatic roars rang in his ears, chanting the same name. Abyssal Lord! Abyssal Lord! Abyssal Lord! Abyssal Lord! —The Abyssal Lord! "What are you babbling about?" A hand appeared out of nowhere and gently pressed down over the infant's face. The baby's expression twitched. Its eyes bulged in dull stupor, only to find an unexpected face leaning in close, peering down at it while clicking his tongue in amazement: "What a cute little baby. Are you really your parents' own child?" In that fleeting instant of bewildered shock, the Abyssal Lord didn't even have time to react. Meanwhile, outside the field, countless onlookers sprang from their chairs, eyes wide as if they had seen a ghost. "Holy crap—" "—Ji Jue!"