All Things Self-Decay

Boom! Dragon Mountain roared with a tremendous crash, interposing itself before Ji Jue once more. A deep fissure abruptly gouged into its massive frame, nearly cleaving Dragon Mountain in half at the waist... This time, Fernand had chosen to go all out. In his hand, an utterly unremarkable short rod flashed into existence for a split second. Immediately after, the fractures across Dragon Mountain multiplied at blinding speed—one split into two, two into four, four into eight... Like a chain reaction, web-like cracks spidered across it in an instant! [Masterwork: One-Foot Staff] Ancient texts had once posed such a paradox: If you cut half away from a one-foot staff every day, even after ten thousand years, it will never be exhausted... This was a conflict between theory and reality, a paradox formed when the infinite divisibility of matter manifested in the physical world. Thus, in this infinitely divisible realm, a flying arrow could hang frozen in midair for all eternity, and a sprinting Achilles could never overtake a stationary tortoise. Countless paradoxes converged into one. Channeling the principles of the Supreme Good to trigger a collision with reality, it naturally disassembled and sundered any target. Once locked on, a target would be divided downward without limit. Until nothing remained to divide. The redirection of Immovable as a Mountain was entirely useless; a dividing slash that acted upon fundamental essence could not be exempted or deflected. Yet Fernand felt as if his full-power blow had slammed into a mountain! Even an actual mountain should have been reduced to countless motes of dust! Yet how could the vast material properties contained within Juque, fed by the boundless nourishment devoured by dragon blood, be comparable to a mere mountain? And with the control of Three-Phase Alchemy and Non-Offensive, how could it ever be beyond repair? All Ji Jue did was reach out a hand and press it against the steel colossus. In an instant, the massive spiritus reserves within the Doomsday Express plunged drastically, simultaneously drawing upon Luo Island's reserves and driving Lou Feng to clutch his head and let out an indescribable shriek. Within the dense, gaping fractures, silver light surged, rapidly drawing them closed in full restoration. Relying solely on the barehanded transmutation of Non-Offensive, he completely repaired the destruction wrought by the Masterwork, and with effortless composure, he even reinforced Dragon Mountain once more with Earth Bears and Sea Embraces. My turn! Armor up! Pass! Sorry, no matter what tricks you pull, we folks from the Desolate Ruins fight with this exact brand of plain, unpretentious simplicity. If you can't break through my defense, then it's my turn to hit you! Dragon Mountain roared, surging with renewed vigor. Zhanlu's lightning and fire erupted, transmuting light and heat into a blade that pierced back through the infinite crushing weight toward Fernand... The brilliant flare illuminated Fernand's mocking eyes. Paltry parlor tricks! With another flick of his finger, the four-edged rotating blade of light and heat seemed to be imbued with physical solidity, crumbling on impact without singeing a single hair on him. Just that simple. No—it had severed the conversion of light and heat from within, rendering Zhanlu unable to maintain its explosive form, causing it to unravel on its own. Ji Jue knew full well what had transpired, yet he could not react in time because it was simply too fast. Too fast to mount a countermeasure. Worse yet, his opponent was growing faster by the second. It was as if through this brief warm-up, Fernand had reclaimed the seasoned instincts and touch from the days when he commanded the winds and clouds—fluid, seamless, and exhilarated, even climbing a step further and growing stronger still! No, it was more than that... Amid the intuitive alarm sounded by Chunjun, Ji Jue felt a chill run down his spine as he finally grasped the terrifying truth he had subconsciously overlooked and obscured. It wasn't merely that his opponent was getting faster; he was getting slower. In this grueling tug-of-war, the enemy grew ever stronger, while he himself was steadily weakening. Even his once razor-sharp thoughts and perception were cloaked in a layer of mist, becoming increasingly hazy, unable to grasp the crux of anything. His awareness and execution were deteriorating! Even... the innate talent he had long taken for granted and took pride in was being quietly stripped away, erased without a sound. In that split second, a terrified Ji Jue looked up toward the sky filled with stars as venomous as glaring pupils, and at the beams of light looking down from above. He felt unimaginably small, like a speck of dust. What theory was this? What technique? What manner of maneuver? He ought to have encountered it before, yet the moment the impression surfaced in his mind, it distorted. When the word reached the tip of his tongue, it stuck, utterly refusing to come out! Was that it? That was right, wasn't it? Yes... but was it really? Even he began to doubt his own judgment. Facing an increasingly tangled situation, he could not bring himself to make a decision, unable to find any direction. There was only futile struggling, relying on malice perception to dodge passively. No, this couldn't go on! Ji Jue decisively drew the sword of Chunjun and thrust it straight into his forehead—then another, and another! The mechanical frame of his Regeneration form imposed an absolute rationality that wiped away all emotion, while Chunjun's soul imprint conversely supercharged his logic and speed of thought. Then, he forcibly injected massive quantities of spiritus, stimulating his brain into an overclocked frenzy. Even at the cost of scorching his brain to mush, he forcibly hauled his cognition and judgment back to their original levels, yet it was unsustainable for long. "Ha, noticed at last?" A mocking laugh sounded right beside his ear. Fernand's voice seemed to come from everywhere, echoing endlessly from thousands of mouths: "Dyslexia, seeing without comprehending; dysgraphia, understanding without expressing; agnosia, hearing without grasping; aphasia, knowing without articulating... No need to panic, Ji Jue. You are merely becoming like any ordinary mortal." Amid the contemptuous laughter, an overwhelming tide of eerie light poured from the heavens, mercilessly trampling down: "—How does it feel to be reduced to mediocrity, Sir Craftsman?" To see confusion and not ponder is called ignorance; to rack one's brain in vain is called stupidity; to be deaf to good counsel and impossible to shape is called obstinacy; to be accustomed to ignorance without seeking truth is called benightedness; to possess a clouded mind is called darkness... When the reason he took for granted, the composure he took pride in, the vital capacity to think, and the burning aspiration cherished above life itself all deserted him, what remained of Ji Jue? He was on the verge of losing control over his own power! Just keeping himself from drooling, laughing madly at the sky, or recklessly detonating everything to perish alongside this madman took almost every ounce of his willpower. His soul felt split in two. Once impulsive instinct took the upper hand, reason hung by a thread, nearly impossible to sustain. He was plunging downward. Gradually losing his so-called genius, degenerating into an ordinary person... At this moment, understanding struck Ji Jue like a bolt of lightning. Endless ignorance, ceaseless suffering! This was the path and Heaven's Mandate Fernand pursued, and the very mutation and alienation he had inflicted upon the Seven Cities... The Path of Sinking! To extinguish every spark of revolution, to sever every path of the Supreme Good, casting all things into perpetual ignorance and obstinate folly... Trading the descent of the Seven Cities for his own solitary ascension! Precisely because of this, everything Ji Jue had done was such an eyesore, a thorn in his side that he could not abide. It was also the primary reason this grand mutation had not truly reached completion. The Seven Cities were an indivisible whole, bound together by the beacon. As long as even a single city or territory remained free from sinking into stagnant corruption, his ascension could never truly be fulfilled! A near miss in the end... Yet it did not matter. Even if Luo Island and Xiangzhou resisted, Fernand could step in personally to force them down. A lack of polish was still workable; a loss of natural grace could be accepted. He still had time to salvage it, just as he still had time to make Ji Jue face reality! He could even turn Ji Jue's obstruction into a stepping stone. By dragging this unpolished gem of genius into sinking and oblivion, he would elevate himself once more! A wail rang out. Right in Ji Jue's hands. One of his arms shattered into pieces. It was not from Fernand's suppression or assault, but because his own inputs had warped... causing Three-Phase Alchemy to spiral out of control! The curse named mediocrity was continuously settling over him. Degrading everything about him beyond his control. To make matters worse, the mutation across the Seven Cities and the omnipresent resistance made any outward transmutation an uphill battle, yielding half the result for twice the effort, nearly impossible to complete. It was as though he were pitted against the entire world. Facing Fernand, who was now the avatar of the Seven Cities' mutation, how was it any different from waging a tug-of-war against every soul sinking in the mire? No matter how clear-headed and rational an individual was, it was an exercise in futility. Assimilation was only a matter of time... "Tsk!" Ji Jue ground his teeth, ripped off the ruined arm, cast it aside, and snapped on a fresh spare. Having long grown used to dragging his opponents down to his level to beat them in an endurance contest, this was the first time an opponent had dragged him down instead. It felt as if a halo of sheer idiocy enveloped him, making it impossible to hold onto basic rationality. Feeling the mournful cries of countless souls sinking into the mire, he could no longer rein in his fury. "You walking plagues... why the hell can't we ever kill you off completely?!" "Ha. The world is trouble-free; only fools bring distress upon themselves. Ji Jue, are the unkillable ones truly plagues like us, or is it the self-righteous, arrogant pride of you Embers?" The incomplete Celestial-Human silhouette laughed soundlessly. "When you stand on high, fancying yourselves flawless jade, did you ever comprehend the mediocrity ordinary mortals are born with? "It wasn't the Great Sin that changed them; it was they who forged the Great Sin! There was no need for Stagnant Rot to poison and corrupt them—this is simply what they always were! "Most people in this world are born saddled with the original sin called 'mediocrity.' "Even if they strain every nerve to grab and fight, it amounts to nothing. Even if they stake their lives to climb upward, they only fall and shatter their bones. "The anguish between ideals and reality, the torment of shattered dreams... Wasn't it so-called hope that turned the Seven Cities into this state in the end? "Ultimately, they chose to sink of their own accord. They rejected change, chose an eternal, unchanging yesterday and tomorrow, and returned to their true nature! "Mediocrity is such a pitiful thing... Why must you come to disturb their peace?" Within the mire where boundless souls sank, the Celestial-Human silhouette steadily solidified, reclaiming all of this step by step into its grasp. Beneath the beacon's radiance, sounds of shattering rang out incessantly. The entire Dragon Mountain armor felt bound and dragged by invisible tethers, struggling for every inch as though submerged in the deep ocean, incapable of projecting any transmutation outward. Even the Chixiao Tally ground to a sluggish halt. The world's revulsion and rejection of Ji Jue had peaked! Or rather, the souls sinking in the mire instinctively rejected and resisted Ji Jue, refusing to wake from the burning iron house. Waking brought only pain; they would rather sleep forever! "Do you see, Ji Jue?" Fernand sighed with mocking amusement. "This is the nature of the mediocre. Ascension is merely an accidental anomaly; sinking is the ultimate destination. "The so-called All Things Self-Transform... its ultimate result is that All Things Self-Decay!" "Shut the fuck up, you old fossil!" Ji Jue was nearly pushed to angry laughter, his blood pressure spiking through the roof. "You've been yapping and blowing hot air for half a day, yet you haven't breathed a single word about the part where you faked your experiments and fabricated your data! "Fooling others is one thing, but don't fool yourself! If you wrote this garbage up as a paper, forget *Creation*, you wouldn't even pass the initial screening of *Haizhou Correspondence*! "How the hell did you get your Master title back in the day? "Did you pay off a director to buy it?!" The moment the words left his mouth, Ji Jue paused, as if a realization had struck. His expression instantly softened into earnest sincerity, lowering his posture: "Honestly, I've been looking to climb the ladder myself... "If you have connections, could you hook me up with an introduction?"