A Stumbling Block

People always overlook things that seem unimportant... Trivial aches and pains, troubles that aren't urgent, a dripping faucet, tedious and petty reports, broken tools, creaking chairs and tables... There are always too many reasons: for hope, for tomorrow, for family, for a career... to earn a little more money, to keep a job. Or even just to stay alive. Over so many years, countless people had poured every ounce of their strength into endless torment, struggling just to keep their heads above water. So much so that by the time they collapsed in exhaustion, they realized they had been running in circles the whole time, and everything they laid eyes on had long since changed beyond recognition. The last match went out in the freezing wind. Once the dying light faded away, all that remained in the darkness was utter devastation. By the time they came back to their senses, even their tears had run dry. And so, one hunched figure after another stumbled forward into the black night, numb and docile, drained of even the strength to resist. It wasn't their fault. They were simply too tired. Exhausted to the point that just drawing breath took nearly everything they had. "Did you ever shed a single tear for them, Mr. Fernan?" Ji Jue looked back, gazing upon the burning ruins, filled with curiosity. "Did you ever truly care whether they lived or died?" "Sacrifice is necessary!" Fernan gasped for breath, his face twitching, tears of blood threatening to spill from his clouded eyes. "Without struggle, there can be no progress! Even if change brings agony, this is torment that must be endured for the sake of tomorrow!" His eyes bulged as he cried out in a hoarse, strained voice, "People must face reality! They must fight for a better world! When the fire is lit, is it wrong to wake the people trapped in the iron house?!" "..." Ji Jue fell silent for a moment, looking at him. Back in the Border Realm, the Prophet's shattered face seemed to float before his eyes once more. Yet it could not overlap with the disheveled, pathetic face before him; on the contrary, the two were as distinct as clear and muddy waters, utterly irreconcilable. It was precisely this that made Ji Jue nearly unable to rein in his fury. "Someone asked me that exact same question in the past. Even now, I still don't know how to answer it. But this time, I have a new question for the person asking it." He asked coldly: "—When the fire burns, are you inside the house sharing their fate, or outside admiring their agony? Fernan, did you leap into the mire, desperately reaching out a hand to them? Or did you merely stand on the bank, offering those slowly sinking an emergency number that can never be reached?" "Does that matter? Is there any difference?!" Fernan let out a bitter, tragic laugh, pointing at his life's work reduced to ashes, and roared, "After saying all that, aren't you just reversing cause and effect? If you want to frame someone, you can always find an excuse! With such a malicious accusation, can't you leave me with even the slightest shred of innocence?!" "Naturally, it's because I dislike you," Ji Jue replied decisively, leaving him stunned. "From the moment I first laid eyes on you, I disliked you, Fernan. It was pure, uncontrollable revulsion, without any reason at all. That's right—someone lawless and conceited like me naturally wouldn't give a damn about an old fogey like you. But there's one thing that's very strange..." Ji Jue studied that sickening face and let out an emotional sigh. "I don't dislike Warden Lyu, I don't dislike Brother Shan, and I certainly couldn't bring myself to dislike the Prophet. Even though you seem so similar to them on the surface. So who's in the wrong? It can't be them, which means there's something wrong with you. "As for evidence... sorry, I don't have any. But putting myself in your shoes, if it were me, I definitely would have done this. That's all!" Ji Jue smiled, savoring that stunned, bewildered expression, and spread his hands. "So please don't misunderstand, Master Fernan. From the beginning, this was never some righteous, condescending judgment. At most, it's just mutual repulsion between an honest scoundrel and a hypocrite, nothing more." With that, he drew his sword. Chunjun materialized, leveling its tip at that twitching, terrified face, eager to strike. "Why don't we test it out?" he suggested. "If you truly wanted to change all this from the bottom of your heart, yet were powerless to help the Seven Cities, then let me help you ascend the altar. You will become a martyr who died with the Seven Cities, immortalized for thousands of years to come. Only, if—" Unfortunately, there was no if. Chunjun's brilliant radiance erupted, tearing through ash and flame as it swept out with effortless, fluid grace toward that indignant, despairing face... —Strike! No ifs, and no altar! An old, useless fraud who had swindled the world—alive, he was a waste of food; dead, he deserved to be nailed to the pillar of shame for all eternity. What was there to consider? A kill was a kill, why bother with so much nonsense! Smack! A streak of blood surfaced across Fernan's face, splitting that futile, resentful expression in two. It pierced through brain and artery, leaving behind a minuscule, razor-sharp fragment inside his skull. In the next instant, the tiny fragment trembled faintly—Jingzhen detonated, shattering life and obliterating the soul. Before Fernan could even speak, his expression went blank, and he stumbled backward. He fell flat on his back. Blood gushed out; not a whisper of breath remained. "..." In the dead silence, that indignant expression twitched once, and then again. Across the shattered face, the deep lines around his mouth smoothed out. The corners of his lips silently curled upward. "Haha! Hahahaha!! Hahahahaha—" Though drained of all life, with even his soul utterly crushed, that empty husk broke into a smile, laughing uncontrollably, thoroughly amused. He laughed so hard that tears streamed down. "I've had... fucking enough!" Fernan raised a hand to cover his face, as if trying to hide that shattered grin, clenching his fingers tight, heedless of crushing his own features to dust. Hold back! Hold back! The voice called reason told him: Fernan, you must hold back. Yet right here and now, how could he possibly hold back... this fury and resentment born from the depths of his heart?! He had acted for half his life, sacrificed decades, going so far as to disguise himself as a monkey, a useless fool, pouring in boundless blood and sweat, all for this day, for the harvest of this very moment! So many trials and tribulations, humiliations and obstacles—even reduced to such a pathetic state, he had never once given up. He had never taken a single step back. Even now, he had gritted his teeth and dutifully played the role of Fernan, only hoping to see this final leg of the journey through to the end. And yet, at the very, very end, his curtain call had been turned into an absolute mess. The reason he was exposed wasn't because his acting fell short, nor was it due to some grand justice or emotional bond—it was simply because this opponent, who had popped up out of nowhere, happened to share the same foul temperament?! Because this bastard had a fucking screw loose! Like a total lunatic! It was like a murder mystery in an isolated snowbound lodge where, while everyone was analyzing the clues, someone grabbed a giant cleaver and started hacking to death anyone who rubbed him the wrong way! If he hacked the right person, he won; if he hacked the wrong person, he would say sorry and move on to hack the next... You motherfucker!!! "I originally planned to leave you a way out, Ji Jue," Fernan let out a raspy sigh. Blood drifted up from the ground, flowing back into that empty body. The moment those hollow pupils reignited, a dark light that outshone even the blazing sun appeared within them. He raised a hand, smoothing away the wound on his face, and looked at the opponent before him, making no attempt to conceal his disgust and regret. "Wouldn't it have been better to behave yourself and roll back to the Federation with your factory? I never even tried to stop you. Why must you always seek your own death?" "Sorry, force of habit. Whenever I see something that's an eyesore, I always like to give it two good slaps across the face." Ji Jue smiled. "Besides, if I didn't, how could I enjoy this look on your face, like your parents just died?" He grinned, inquiring curiously, "You haven't told me yet, Master Fernan! After scheming and calculating for so many years, how does it feel to trip over a stumbling block right at the finish line?" Fernan spoke no more. In the dead silence, it seemed as if the Seven Cities themselves were trembling with rage. The flames of Stagnant Rot surged violently from the lighthouse, sweeping outward without restraint. Unfortunately, it seemed incomplete. It was still missing something. It was missing the little bit... that Ji Jue held firmly in his grasp! Right now, under the confluence of the Seven Cities' Tianyuan, Luo Island had completely broken away from the lighthouse's reach, and Xiangzhou was also beginning to tear itself free from Stagnant Rot's erosion... Ninety li was only halfway through a hundred-li journey. To build a nine-fathom mound, wasn't what remained just that final basket of earth? There was nothing in the world more delightful than watching someone else fall into misfortune. Especially when Ji Jue realized that, purely by accident, he had strewn steel nails across the remaining ten li of Fernan's road, dug pitfalls, and laid landmines everywhere... Right now, all he wanted was to drag over a sofa, grab some chips, crackers, and soda, sit back, and enjoy the sight of this cornered dog panicking in impotent rage! As long as Ji Jue remained here, and as long as Luo Island and Xiangzhou could not be covered and dominated by the Domain of Stagnant Rot, no matter what Fernan intended to do, he could forget about achieving complete success! In that instant, beneath the bleak, overcast sky, the radiance of the stars emerged. A purplish-black light. Star after star looked down like blood-stained eyes, harboring boundless malice and infinite bitter hatred. The magnificent, vast river of stars turned into a bottomless mire of malice, as endless light of decay and rot descended from the heavens, shrouding everything. When the final disguise was torn away, the aberrated reality finally revealed its true form. Ma Island, Dancheng, Yamen, Xi Island, Pucheng... from those city-states submerged within the Domain of Stagnant Rot, rumbling echoed, as if some colossal behemoth was slowly rising, converging toward this place. Right before Ji Jue's eyes, within that empty, riddled husk, the phantom sound of a heartbeat suddenly rang out. A dull heartbeat resounded through the whole of Pucheng like thunder. A pitch-black heart rose from the deepest depths of the earth, settling into Fernan's husk. Next, eyes formed from the confluence of countless greedy phantom lights flew from Ma Island, sinking into his sockets. A right hand grasping decay and doom rose from Dancheng, reattaching itself. And a left hand of skeletal remains formed from countless deaths and grudges took shape from Xi Island. Everything he had once discarded returned to him, bearing rewards and prices multiplied thousands of times over! Even the visage of Dragon Poison surfaced once again on Fernan's face. Soul, life, matrix, blessings, and even power! In the void, a magnificent, colossal silhouette seemed to rise before Ji Jue, making him unable to hold back any longer... "Pfft..." Ji Jue threw his head back and laughed, thoroughly delighted! Only now did he finally realize just what a hateful thing he had done. Yet he couldn't stop laughing. No, he couldn't hold it back at all! How could there be someone so infuriating in this world, and how could a victim be so comical? Through a bizarre stroke of fate and a twist of chance, he, this stumbling block, was truly and undeniably blocking Fernan's path to becoming a Celestial-Human!