Endurance

This time, the harbor exploded! Thirty percent of the ships registered to Luo Island suffered catastrophic navigational failures. Another ten percent suffered engine explosions, turning them into floating iron coffins drifting across the open sea. Vessels packed to the brim with supplies and armaments cleaved through the waves and charged at full throttle straight into... the pirate dens. Door-to-door delivery. A cruise ship bound for the Empire sailed for two days, only to find itself docking in the Federation. Meanwhile, a gargantuan Federation phlogiston transport freighter lost contact for two days after departing Tacheng, before inexplicably pulling into the Sukarno family's most clandestine smuggling dock. As Ji Jue indulged his sudden whim, more and more farces took the stage. He had become so thoroughly immersed in it that he lost all sense of time and heaven and earth. As it turned out, the only thing worse than being cast overnight back into the Stone Age was being cast intermittently, unpredictably back into the Stone Age... And worse still was that, through all of this, other parts were somehow kept barely functioning. In a blind fury, the Sukarno family spared no cost, unleashing sweeping spiritus shockwaves across the entirety of Luo Island to obliterate vast swaths of the Spirits of Creation. Yet after losing three-quarters of their number, the remaining Spirits of Creation evolved once more. Like roaches developing drug resistance or mosquitoes adapting to the bitter cold, they acquired a resistance to the spiritus shockwaves and disruptions. At the same time, they dodged faster, burrowed deeper, and moved with ever more audacious tricks. All digitized files and records quietly deteriorated, riddled with errors. The figures on the screens steadily drifted apart from the numbers on paper, blurring the line between fact and record. And yet, all anyone could do was watch in futile attempts to put out the fires, venting useless fury to no effect whatsoever. Amid howls of despair and agony, Luo Island's entire managerial echelon went thoroughly insane. It felt as though an invisible giant hand had clamped around their vitals at some unknown moment, gently weighing them, flexing in anticipation. A cold sweat broke over everyone—they were terrified it would keep fondling them, yet terrified it would suddenly clench... And the bad news kept pouring in. Among the fleets, a horror story began to spread: a battered, rust-encrusted freighter, drifting in and out of the fog, was silently prowling the waters around Luo Island, hunting. It arrived without a shadow and vanished without a trace. In just three or four days, more than sixteen ships loaded with cargo vanished without a trace. The final radio transmissions received from them were filled with nothing but delirious babbling about pure bliss and ecstasy. Now, from top to bottom, everyone on Luo Island had begun to dread the rising of the sun. Yet they equally dreaded the fall of night. No one knew what fresh catastrophe the next second would bring. Commerce, shipping, finance—every business enterprise was deteriorating and collapsing at visible speed. Even all the prestige and assets accumulated over generations seemed to evaporate like foam. "It's all Chopra! No, it's all that bastard Ji!" Inside the family's ancestral manor, a bloodshot-eyed young man burst into the office, barely able to hold back his tears. "Everything's ruined! All our investments in the Federation have been frozen! Uncle, we can't endure this any longer!" He roared, unable to contain himself. "Let's go to war, Uncle! We muster everything we have, march out, and burn that damn Xiangzhou and that Ji bastard to ashes! I'm going to butcher his entire family—" *Crack!* Flying straight toward him was an ornate, heavy crystal ashtray. It smashed into his head, blacking out his vision and sending him crashing to the floor. Half his face went entirely numb as blood streamed down, but terror kept him from making another sound. "Elkana. Since when do you make decisions for the family?" The aging patriarch, Saino, stared at him without expression, questioning coldly, "And since when do you have the right to scream and shout in my office?" "B-but, Uncle..." Elkana whispered incoherently, tears of blood nearly welling in his eyes. "If this goes on, our losses..." "Rules are rules." Saino shot him an icy glance. "Do not question my judgment, and do not be as useless as your father. Do you understand?" Elkana fell deathly silent, not daring to utter another word. These were the rules. The Sukarno family's rules. And some rules belonged to the Seven Cities. A man could not enjoy the advantages of rules without also being bound by them. Just as the Sukarnos could use the rules to restrain the Chopras, the Chopras could use the rules to restrain the Sukarnos. The Blood Feud Trial was a rule of the Seven Cities, a code of conduct recognized by everyone at the table. Since they had sat down to play, they had to accept it. Since the Sukarno family had laid down the terms and the Chopra family had accepted them, both sides had to comply. No one wanted to play with someone who flipped the board. This was the premise by which the Chopras rallied allies to their side; it was an indispensable prerequisite for the Sukarnos to claim the seat of Alliance Leader; and, likewise, it was the best compromise both sides could currently tolerate. It was a stall tactic understood by all. Time. Both sides needed time. The Chopras could not swallow the Sukarnos in one gulp, and the Sukarnos could not crush the Chopras in a single stroke. So, during these seven days, both invited reinforcements far and wide, building up their strength to fight for ultimate supremacy! And during this protracted wait, it was just garbage time for mutual torment. The Sukarno family would not hand the Chopras an excuse to strike first, and Ji Jue would never be stupid enough to let the Sukarnos catch any hard evidence or slip-ups. If that was how it had to be, then let's see who can suffer longer! Compared to Luo Island—which madly targeted hospitals, gas stations, and schools to stage terror attacks, assassinations, and subversion—Ji Jue had not even raised a hand against civilians. Nor was there any trace or evidence directly linking him to any of it. Because... this was never the work of a mere day or two! It was not even limited to Luo Island. Through the Riot Cats and the vast number of tricycles, vehicles, and products rolled out by Haian Industry, the Lord of the Flies had long since permeated the entirety of the Seven Cities! After all, it had just been done in passing while tracking down the wolf. The reason it had never been triggered was simply that there had been no need! A single awakening through Deus Ex Machina was all it took to fully revive them, activate them, and bring everything under Ji Jue's control, just like now... *BOOM!!!* A muffled thunderclap abruptly shook the air. Even within the depths of the manor, the terrifying shockwave could be heard. Saino's expression shifted slightly as a specially treated, shielded, and encrypted phone rang from inside Elkana's coat. Elkana glanced cautiously at Saino, and only upon receiving a nod of permission did he answer the call. His face drained of color almost instantly. "S-Sixth Uncle... Uncle, something happened to Sixth Uncle!" Elkana lost his voice. "He was inspecting the substation when he got caught in the blast! And your son, Eldest Brother, Eldest Brother was also..." Saino froze, his face turning an ashen green. As his fist clenched instinctively, an explosive blast tore through the air right before his eyes. Right in front of him... *BANG!* The phone pressed against Elkana's cheek suddenly detonated. The screen shattered, flying outward, and the battery pack self-ignited, exploding across the handmade carpet and leaving a blazing mess of fire and scorch marks. Elkana's face was coated in blood as a shriek tore from his throat. "Help! Help me, Uncle!" He clutched his face instinctively. "M-My eyes, my face, I... I..." Saino said nothing more. The corners of his eyes twitched in fury, his pupils turning bloodshot. With a wave of his hand, he had the people rushing in from outside carry Elkana out for medical treatment. Only after the door clicked shut did the faint sound of shattering echo from within. Something had been smashed to pieces, followed closely by another... It was not until midnight that Saino, who should have returned to his manor, appeared before a secluded house, carrying no devices whatsoever and completely off any surveillance grid. Beneath the moonlight, the dilapidated villa exuded waves of chilling dread. In the dead silence, even the crunch of dry leaves underfoot sounded piercingly loud. Behind a dark window, a pale, hollow human face seemed to surface for an instant before vanishing without a trace. In the garden, an exquisite, brand-new wooden horse abruptly began to rock. Rust and fractured fissures spread across it at terrifying speed, pushing it to the brink of ruin in the blink of an eye. The creaking only grew more shrill. Like an invisible hand, something clamped tightly around his throat, slowly tightening to wring out his breath and life. Utterly merciless! It lasted until Saino was completely suffocated, falling to his knees, twitching and convulsing on the verge of shock. Then, the force abruptly vanished. He gasped violently, coughing as he raised his head, only to find the villa's front door standing open by a sliver in complete silence. The bleak, ruined villa was vast and hollow, as though long abandoned. Yet Saino could feel that, besides himself, other things were here—beneath the dust, behind the floorboards, within the shadows of the chairs and statues, watching with cold eyes. They were everywhere. They were inches away, like the true masters of this domain, encircling Saino. If their master loosened their leash by even a fraction, Saino would be flayed alive and picked clean of marrow in the very next instant! In the dead silence, a gash suddenly split open across Saino's face. It looked like a scratch left by a razor-sharp fingernail. The flesh peeled back as blood welled up, only to be lapped clean by unseen things the very next second... Saino remained motionless, enduring the punishment. Until a raspy voice echoed from a peeling, faded oil painting. "You should not have come here, Saino." The blood-stained face on the oil painting tilted upward, its lips parting and closing stiffly to issue a warning: "Until the Blood Feud Trial, you should never have shown yourself! Your actions will only stir up needless complications!" "I... I only wished to know..." Saino bowed his head, asking meekly, "How much longer must we endure? If this continues, the Sukarno family will be reduced to a laughingstock. The clan is already falling apart, on the verge of losing control completely." The swarm of the Lord of the Flies? Was it terrifying? Yes, deeply terrifying. Yet to the entity before him—to a behemoth like the Spirit-Ruling Xu family, which had toyed with spirits for untold generations—it was nothing more than an itch on the skin! If they so desired, it could be eradicated in a matter of moments! And yet the Xu family refused to act. Not only did they refuse to budge, but they also concealed their presence, leaving not the slightest trace of themselves behind. Leaving the Sukarno family pushed out front to silently bear the brunt. "If you are told to endure, keep enduring." The blood-stained face remained indifferent. "You have no right to question the main clan's decisions. The Grand Patriarch could put you in power, and he can just as easily replace you with someone more obedient. "Until Lou Yanyue is dead, there must be no lapses and no vulnerabilities. Do you understand?" "Understood." Without hesitation, Saino nodded, dropping to his knees to kowtow in absolute reverence. "Since you are so perceptive, I might as well share a piece of good news..." The face looked down upon him and suddenly curled into a grin. "Through a bizarre stroke of luck, your lot has actually accomplished a great feat. Once this matter is settled, the Grand Patriarch has additional rewards for you!" Saino froze, lifting his head in bewilderment. Only then did he notice a wisp of firefly light held in the figure's hand within the oil painting—a Spirit of Creation derived from the Lord of the Flies, darting back and forth against the binding, unable to break free of his grasp. "After all these years, they've actually stirred up a bit of a wave for the Lou family." The hollow face gave a cold chuckle, clenching its hand violently until the wisp of light was nearly crushed to oblivion. "That old fossil of the Lou family, along with that bitch currently running the house, actually placed a heavy bet on an artisan outside the orthodoxy. Silently, without a whisper, they managed to produce something like this... The main clan has already verified it. When the time comes, as long as the Sukarno family cooperates with us to capture that House God, it will be a momentous contribution. "Once the deed is done, forget the Alliance of the Seven Cities—even reclaiming the deed to your spirit pact will be trivial. Understand?" Saino gasped, his eyes widening. Disbelief washed over him. At the same time as instinctive ecstasy surged, a bone-chilling dread crept through his body. Beneath that profoundly meaningful gaze looking down on him, he shook his head frantically in sheer terror: "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare! The spirit pact between the Sukarno family and the main clan was established by our ancestors, meant to endure for thousands of autumns and myriad generations. How could it be dissolved so lightly? "I beg you, please do not say such things! Without the spirit pact, how could the Sukarnos ever stand upon the Thousand Islands?" "Hmph." The man in the oil painting offered neither agreement nor denial. With one last chilling sneer, he slowly closed his eyes. In the silence, the front door swung open once more. A signal telling him to get out. Saino scrambled up from the ground, respectfully stepping backward several paces until he cleared the doorway, before turning and vanishing into the darkness. The door closed once more. Amid silent endurance, the long, agonizing seven days slipped past at last. At high noon, beneath the watching eyes of every faction, the war horns and drums of the Blood Feud Trial sounded from Pucheng!