Incalculable Crimes

"Kill this bastard!" Inside the workshop, even though Lou Feng had seen this coming, he could no longer keep from trembling with excitement. His face flushed bright red as he pumped his fists and bellowed, wishing he could announce to the entire world that this was his creation! Even if not entirely, at least half of it was his! Well, at least a good chunk of it, right?! *Boom!* A torrential deluge of spiritus surged behind Dragon Mountain, coalescing into a halo like that of a god or Buddha, radiating sharp, dazzling geometric beams of light in every direction. At this moment, Juque was like a bottomless pit, whale-gulping the torrent of spiritus channeled through the Veil. Gripping the Absolute-rank calamity beast before it, it cocked an iron fist as massive and devastating as a fully insured semi-truck and slammed it ruthlessly toward that crone-like face! It was like a thug bursting into a nursing home and mercilessly beating a terrified elderly person! To hell with sparing the old and the young! If you have a problem with moral standards, take it up with my artisan license! And so, between sea and sky, a brawl between behemoths had begun. A collision between Desolate Ruins and Desolate Ruins. A contest of mass against mass, power against power! Amid the churning, murky currents, the giant jiao and Dragon Mountain clashed with claws, fangs, fists, kicks, and sheer body mass—stripped of all flashy pretense. You coil around me, I heave you overhead. Clinches, entanglements, throws, joint locks— Every single maneuver whipped up rolling waves and apocalyptic tsunamis; every violent tumble ground into the fragile seabed, stirring up shuddering shockwaves. *Boom!* Under the iron fist, a shocking crater was brutally bashed into that crone face. The Azure Jiao was completely losing its mind. What in the absolute hell was this? Did this make any damn sense... How could a broken ship suddenly go clank-clank-clack, transform into a mechanical giant, and start throwing hands in a bloody brawl?! Ji Jue did not give a damn what it was babbling about. By now, his blood was boiling with sheer adrenaline. Jerking the controls, he drove Dragon Mountain leaping into the air, driving an elbow straight down in an Imperial Elbow Drop right into the Azure Jiao! Immediately after, as the Azure Jiao coiled around its body once more, both iron hands seized its head. Aiming directly at that warped face, Dragon Mountain thrust up a knee bristling with razor-sharp barbs, delivering a Federation Lightning Knee! *Boom!* The Azure Jiao shrieked, roared, and struggled frantically. Its Desolate Ruins body, which had rampaged across the four seas undefeated for ages, had been reduced to a punching bag, pinned down in its own home waters and battered so ruthlessly it could not even fight back. Suddenly, that battered, unrecognizable face shifted, morphing from a crone into a youth, while the scales across its body transformed from azure to white... In an instant, Ji Jue's grasp fell empty. Right inside Dragon Mountain's grip, the colossal Azure Jiao disintegrated, melting into a viscous liquid, only to abruptly reassemble as layers of frost-crusted scales grew over it. The Azure Jiao had become the White Jiao! It had swapped accounts! Glaciers erupted from the deep, freezing the entire maritime region into a vast expanse of ice. Amid the raging storm, the surging waves were frozen solid on the spot, encasing Dragon Mountain along with them. The beast did not even care about its own spawn anymore! Immediately afterward, the White Jiao opened its maw and unleashed a shrill, pale tide of white frost that tore forward like a blade. Slashing through, it actually carved a fissure into Dragon Mountain's armor, invading every nook and cranny to freeze joints and pivots, locking Dragon Mountain into complete immobility. Upon that frost ignited pale flames devoid of heat. Instead, they plundered warmth from their surroundings, transforming the driving rain across the entire sea into drifting snow. Under the endlessly plummeting temperature, cracks rapidly surfaced across all physical matter. Including Dragon Mountain! Unfortunately, it also did not include Dragon Mountain... Because right under the White Jiao's eyes, a ferocious grin suddenly appeared on that frozen metal face. Beneath the ice, purple lightning and black flames erupted like a geyser! Thunder and fire burst forth, slashing crisscross from within the absolute subzero chill. Purple lightning and black flames converged and intertwined, collapsing within Dragon Mountain's palm into a four-edged, spiraling blade of flame. It ignited everything that had been frozen solid, utterly blanketing and swallowing the pale fire. Ceaselessly stimulating Zhanlu's spiritual essence, even as its own frame was ignited by the flames, it drew upon the control granted by Chixiao to give tangible form to this violent destruction, binding it into the shape of a blade that could be wielded at will. This was a technique Ji Jue could never have executed on his own. Even now, half of the Dragon Mountain armor was scorched glowing red. Using the power of Desolate Ruins to master the destruction of Entropy, and the dominion of Chixiao to grasp the form of thunder and fire, lightning and flames were truly given substance, forged into an indestructible, peerless blade. This was the true, authentic—Sword of Zhanlu! The White Jiao did not even have time to shriek. The instant the blade materialized, the myriad-zhang sword of thunder and fire impaled its face, pinning it into the boiling sea. Then came a stomp, pinning it down. "Since you're already here, and it's practically New Year's..." The steel face looked down, inspecting the prime material delivered straight to its door, and grinned silently in grim satisfaction. "Nice hide. Hand it over!" With a tearing sweep, the blade sheared through from head to tail, slicing it open. Amid the White Jiao's thrashing struggles, it forcefully ripped, flayed, and tore the scales and hide from the beast's body! Countless torrents of frost-blood gushed forth, splashing into the boiling sea and scattering sparks of biting cold... Unfortunately, before the hide could be fully flayed off, rancor and madness welled up in the White Jiao's eyes. Its body swelled abruptly, expanding without limit. Self-destruction! It would unleash this all-exterminating freeze and bitter chill upon the mortal realm! Yet with a backhanded motion, Dragon Mountain's steel hand clamped down, forcibly restraining it... Ji Jue's eyes lit up. *Now!* Meanwhile, in the pitch-black ocean abyss, a smile finally appeared on the Tyrant's face—pure ecstasy. *Ah, yes, now!* Amid that brutal life-and-death slaughter, the Law of the Tyrant had thoroughly spread across all of Luo Island, progressively eroding its way through the ley lines and quietly bringing everything under its control from blind spots. More importantly, through this, he had finally gathered enough spiritus and traces to lock onto that damned artisan! The instant the burning Sword of Zhanlu slashed down, a roar like a volcanic eruption resonated from the dead center of Luo Island. In the deepest reaches of the reservoir, darkness erupted like a flood, bursting forth, expanding, and swallowing everything. The Tyrant laughed wildly, seizing this crucial moment. Usurpation! He would reclaim everything that was rightfully his, and using the entirety of Luo Island as a conduit, seize both Ji Jue's soul and the Tianyuan forged by Ji Jue! Deep within the boundless darkness of the ocean abyss, the Abyssal Lord clenched his fist. Instantly, Tianyuan churned. It felt as though an invisible hand had gripped Ji Jue's spine, squeezing the foundation of Chixiao, beginning to erode and assimilate him at this moment when he was at his most vulnerable and unprepared. Not only that, in the Abyssal Lord's other hand, the pitch-black volume Ji Jue had once glimpsed for an instant in a vision flared with a malicious glow. Its pages fluttered without wind, flipping rapidly. And upon those pages, a complete name finally emerged, as if brushed by a vermilion stroke of blood: [Ji Jue]! At this moment, the Law of the Tyrant stood above all, usurping everything. *Only the sovereign bestows blessings; only the sovereign wields terrors.* Through the link of Luo Island's Law of Tianyuan, Ji Jue had fallen into his grasp, and next came the merciless—judgment! In the Abyssal Lord's hands, the Tianyuan apparatus left behind by the Eternal Empire of old rumbled into motion! Scarlet light illuminated the Abyssal Lord's eyes. After an agonizingly long period of biding his time, he chuckled silently in feverish anticipation: "Caught you at last!" Who in this world could live free of sin? None were sages—who could go without fault? Once locked on by the Book of Judgment that once belonged to the Eternal Empire's Grand High Justiciar, every sin of the target's entire lifetime would manifest upon its pages. Even if they had committed no crime at all, one could grasp at shadows and fabricate offenses at will, then channel Tianyuan and the Tower to bring down an Absolute Sentence! Now, the conviction began! *Let me see, artisan, the crimes you've committed... committed... committed...* *...crimes?* The Abyssal Lord's smile froze on his face. Dazed. Bewildered. He saw scarlet writing burst forth from the pages like a ruptured dam, an endless deluge of sins surging violently. In the snap of a finger, an entire page was filled, then another, and yet another... *Treason, secession, inciting secession, armed rebellion, subversion of state power, espionage and reconnaissance, bribery, illegal provision of state secrets and intelligence, aiding the enemy...* *Arson, causing explosions, releasing hazardous substances, sabotaging transport vehicles, hijacking aircraft, causing traffic casualties, reckless driving... manufacturing and selling counterfeit or substandard goods... smuggling weapons and ammunition, illegal business operations, counterfeiting currency, fundraising fraud, tax evasion, resisting taxes, infringing registered trademarks, misappropriating trade secrets...* There were too many! From the Eternal Empire's Mandate Laws, the Ten Unforgivable Heinous Crimes, and the Hundred Capital Clan-Exterminating Offenses, to the Federation's and the Empire's criminal codes, civil codes, and national security laws, countless statutes were activated at this moment—so many that the Book of Conviction could barely contain them, groaning under the overload. There was no need to rack one's brains to fabricate charges at all... The Abyssal Lord's hand began to shake. In hundreds of years, he had never witnessed such an outrageous sight. The crimes committed by this bastard were... literally incalculable!!!! How could one single person commit so many crimes?! The Abyssal Lord felt his brain nearing total overload. For some of these crimes, committing just a single one would have seen the Federation and the Empire grind him to dust and scatter his ashes before anyone else could even lift a finger! *How are you still alive?!* What was even more terrifying was that he could not comprehend it at all: *How in the world did Supreme Virtue take a liking to a lawless brute like you, who breaks laws and commits crimes as casually as eating and drinking?!* *Are you blind?!* *Tianyuan, have you shut your eyes too?!* And so, in that very moment... as if hearing his cries and prayers, Tianyuan and the Tower finally opened their eyes and looked over. Only, they did not look at Ji Jue. They looked at the Abyssal Lord. An indifferent scrutiny. *Boom!* The Sword of Zhanlu sheared down, cutting the White Jiao clean in two at the waist! Far across the frozen waters, the colossal iron god held the sword of destruction and glanced back in mild puzzlement. As if accompanied by Supreme Virtue and Great Sin alike, it cast a downward gaze toward the Tyrant cowering far away in the ocean abyss. With just that supercilious glance, as though finally realizing what had happened, it could not help but chuckle silently. How entertaining! Using a sword of the Eternal Empire to cut down the Eternal Empire's Elector Swordsmith and Imperial Sovereign's Hand? *I really appreciate your audacity!* The Book of Conviction wailed, trembling violently. Countless scarlet sins and characters shifted, converged, and materialized anew, condensing into a mocking inquiry: *[Who stands before the bench, daring to accuse this magistrate?]*