Which Is Orthodox, Which Is Wicked

Heaven and earth were dead silent; the vast sea made no sound. Between the gloomy sea and sky, towering walls of darkness rose on four sides, cutting off the isolated island from the world like a massive cube on high alert. Countless mirrored reflections and iridescent gleams faintly flickered within the tangible blackness, dazzling the eyes. Such heavy security guarded the column of dim, grayish light that pierced the sky and rooted itself deep into the island. Unfortunately, that light flickered incessantly. Even under such vigilant protection, it gave the distinct impression of tottering on the brink of collapse... "It's about time to call it quits, don't you think?" On the dead-calm surface of the water, a yawning artisan councilman tore open a bag of peanuts. Beneath his feet, within the single skiff he occupied, peanut shells had already piled into a small hill. From the white porcelain jug warming atop a clay brazier, the aroma of liquor drifted through the air, growing pleasantly warm and releasing a faint, delicate fragrance. "Stubbornly holding out is pointless. We're all artisans here. At this stage, it's not like you can't read the writing on the wall. Why not just surrender obediently and come be a guest at the Association? Wouldn't that be nice?" Jiang Tongguang shook his head and sighed. "How many living sacrifices do you have left to burn? Even if you use them, how long can you hold out? Just give up. Elder Zhen won't blame you." The towering darkness remained aloof and silent. "See? Why make things so difficult?" Jiang Tongguang sighed. The smile gradually faded from his face, leaving behind a cold, blank expression. "Since you refused the toast, you don't even get the forfeit drink now." He murmured, "Safe travels to the underworld." *Crack—* For a fleeting moment, what sounded like the snapping of glass resonated across the water. Silently, the sea rose inch by inch, spreading upward and gradually swallowing the shoals and high cliffs... No, the sea wasn't rising—the isolated island was sinking with terrifying speed! As if stripped of its very foundation, it plummeted toward the bottomless abyss. Shrill, piercing screeches echoed from the void, but before any counterattack could even materialize, it dissolved without a trace, leaving only the continuous fracturing of mirrors. The vast ocean remained dead silent, baring its vicious fangs like a transformed monster. Stone crumbled, steel turned to mud, and the massive island tilted abruptly, toppling over... Like a capsized leviathan of a ship, it dissolved inch by inch into the endless stagnant water. Not a single ripple remained. The darkness vanished; the light was gone; everything had disappeared without a trace. When the overcast clouds tore open with a whistling wail and sunlight spilled from the firmament, only a solitary skiff was left upon the boundless expanse, carrying an artisan quietly pouring himself a drink. "No wonder... Even after slaughtering so many peers lately, it always felt like something was missing..." Jiang Tongguang slightly lifted the coarse porcelain wine bowl in his hand to mirror the heavens. Within the limpid liquor, tiny ripples stirred, reflecting the buoyant, intoxicated grin on his face. He clicked his tongue in admiring wonder: "As expected, the blood of you Profound dogs pairs best with wine." No one answered. A gentle breeze brushed past, leaving the waters unruffled. The warm wine went down like sweet nectar, drained in a single gulp. "That kid really reeled in a big fish this time." Jiang Tongguang casually carved another notch into the gunwale of his boat. Having reaped a bountiful harvest, he sighed with emotion. "Old Gu, have you figured out how we're going to treat him when he gets back?" "Let me emphasize this one more time: do not call me 'Old Gu,'" a cold, indifferent voice sounded from the radio beside him. "It will simply be a commendation in accordance with Association regulations. What is there to waste thought on?" "Ha, you're really going through with it?" Jiang Tongguang scratched his chin, genuinely unable to tell whether his colleague was hopelessly rigid or aggressively radical. "It's only been a few years! Don't tell me you're actually planning to award a Crown of Glory to an artisan who isn't even a Master?" "Whether a Crown of Glory is awarded or not is not up to me; it is decided by a vote of the Council," Gustav replied calmly. "Furthermore, all he lacks to become a Master is the title itself. Word just arrived from the old Captain—Dragon Poison has already been killed by him." "That old geezer was still alive? Not bad at all." Jiang Tongguang immediately broke into laughter, raising his wine bowl once more. "That definitely calls for a celebratory drink." "Stop drinking... Don't you have anything better to do?" A weary sigh drifted from the radio. "Take the Absolute Sentence squad and clean up the mess right in front of you first!" "The Absolute Sentence squad doing their job is their business, and whether I have free time is entirely another," Jiang Tongguang said, sipping his warm wine. Looking out over the vast expanse of sea and sky, he sighed softly. "You have to understand, whether this mess can be resolved has never depended on the likes of you or me." "We do what little we can," Gustav's voice turned heavy and low. "Leave the rest for later." Jiang Tongguang said nothing more. In the distance, wild winds suddenly howled. Under the rampage of the Blightwind, rough waves surged anew. With the collapse of the light pillar, a grayish stream raced silently through the depths of the ocean, spreading with tremendous force... Only when the fortress of darkness vanished and the pillar of light crumbled did the essence of Great Sin concealed within finally reveal itself. Obeying a summons from afar, it sped away at breakneck speed! At this moment, viewed from above through satellite imagery, as pillars of light collapsed and annihilated one after another, what flowed from the ruins was an endlessly spreading black tide. To the naked eye, those dark expanses seemed vast and boundless, yet viewed from beyond the present world, they were nothing more than minuscule dots connected in a continuous, thread-thin line. It was as if black rivers and torrents had manifested across the Endless Sea, snaking forward, intertwining with one another, and dispersing into thousands of tangled threads. Aided by the Blightwind, it resumed its ferocious rampage and rampant growth. Wherever it passed, calamity beasts wailed as they dissolved, devoured down to the last scrap. The immense Endless Sea appeared as though it had abruptly grown a horribly intricate network of arterial vessels. Pulsing incessantly through these veins was the essence of Great Sin originating from Stagnant Rot, the vitality and aberrations harvested from countless calamity beasts, and even... the tormented remnant spirits meeting annihilation within endless sinking! No matter how swift the Association moved, no matter how thorough their destruction, this grand transmutation—operating under the law of All Things Self-Transform—continued unabated! In fact, even the Association's sabotage had been factored into the predetermined process... From the very beginning, every preparation had already been made. It wasn't merely Fernand's death or the collapse of the Westernmost Pillar that proved inconsequential—even the survival of the Thirty-One Pillars didn't affect the grand scheme. Their fracturing and collapse could all be regarded as links within this grand transmutation: an act of catalysis, a distillation, an 'aberrant sinking' bordering on ascension. Once set in motion, it could no longer be stopped. Just like the cycle of the four seasons or the rising and falling of the tides, it was entirely part of nature. A butterfly flapped its wings, and far away, a tempest swept across heaven and earth. The true crucible was the world itself. The raising and collapsing of the thirty-one pillars had merely been the introduction of the first batch of raw materials into the furnace, serving as the spark for a chain reaction. Under the Blightwind, the lives and deaths of countless calamity beasts were fed into the blaze as kindling. A century of silent preparations and quietly spreading spirits of sinking were ignited within the fire, naturally triggering infinite permutations... As the immense volume of black rivers surged across the ocean, they eventually overlapped and converged into a single point above a deserted stretch of southern sea spanning tens of thousands of miles. And so, from the squirming darkness of the sea, a sharp silhouette slowly emerged... It was the rusted husk of a scrapped automobile. Immediately following it was the mangled, severed boom of a crane, then a three-legged table, a tangled mass of shredded cables... A dilapidated, ruined building; a half-shattered statue with unrecognizable features; a broken searchlight; a moss-covered wicker chair; a cracked iron gate; a rusted fence... Garbage, garbage, garbage—a torrential spew of endless junk erupted at dizzying speed. Yet, the discarded pieces fit together as though born to be one. Different scraps joined to become an entirely new object; viewed from another angle, the railing seemed to become part of the statue, transforming into yet another shape. In an endless cycle of shifts, rises, and falls, form, nature, silhouette, and function ceaselessly alternated within the chaos. In the end, countless fragmented creations converged into a colossal pillar bridging heaven and earth, towering between sea and sky, half-visible and ephemeral. There was no discordance whatsoever. The harmony was miraculous, as though it were the natural order of things, meant to be since time immemorial. A concise, blunt aesthetic emerged from within it. It was breathtakingly mesmerizing. At the same time, it sent tremors through the present world, leaving it rocking and unstable. Using these countless transmutations as a foundation, the collapsed and fallen pillars as anchor points, and the blood of myriad calamity beasts along with tortured souls as chains, a new framework wound layer upon layer around the Lock and Chain that enveloped the present world, introducing a brand-new structure to the original bindings. Using this seed of Stagnant Rot to implant itself into the mortal realm, it sought to rewrite the world with the principles of the Profound! Defying the suppression of the Lock and the rejection of the present world, the forbidden, large-scale Mutual Transmutation of Virtue and Vice began once more! The Well of Profoundness, submerged beneath the Vortex, began to rise—slowly, yet inexorably! Surging toward the locked present world! And so, the distant, drifting projection of an abyss gradually emerged from the darkness beneath the surface of the sea. Then it came to a screeching halt! It was jammed! In the firmament above, stars flared like kindling. The heavenly crucible manifested! "Old bastard, what are you stirring up now?" A white-robed artisan leaning on a cane as though crippled appeared out of nowhere before the colossal tree. Utterly exasperated, he rolled his eyes. "Turn my back for a second and you crawl out to disgust people. Can't you tone down the stench?" "This old man resides within the Profound and has never set foot in the present world. If Your Excellency Tianlu finds it foul beyond endurance, you ought to know full well where that stench truly comes from." Within the darkness of the sea, amidst the projection of the Profound, the image of a jade-flame crucible faintly materialized. Bathed in the firelight, an emaciated, hunchbacked old artisan lifted his gaze and let out a helpless sigh. "'Heaven and Earth as Crucible'—is that not your honored title? "If the present world is the crucible, then you and I are merely ingredients within it. No matter what I have done, what unfolds before us is nothing more than all things transforming of their own accord. "How can you blame me for harboring vile intentions?" "Cut down on the smut from Truth Publishing House. You're a Grandmaster, yet here you are spouting metaphysics and trying to debate me? Are you Tianlu, or am I?" Tianlu sneered, making no attempt to hide his disdain. "When I say it isn't, it isn't. Got a problem with that?" "Then let it not be, if you say so." Elder Zhen kept his eyelids drooped, showing neither pleasure nor anger. "Since Your Excellency Tianlu has spoken with your golden tongue, what choice do we artisans of the Profound who cannot see the light of day have but to bow in reverent submission? What else could we do?" "Oho, look at that tongue—every word dipped in venom. The older you get, the more passive-aggressive you become, huh?" Tianlu chuckled. Leaning on his cane, he stepped closer and offered an enthusiastic invitation: "We don't have to use our mouths; we can settle this with our fists. I don't mind. "If you win, you're Tianlu, and whatever you say goes." "No rush." Elder Zhen remained still, sitting firmly within the Profound, completely unmoved. No matter how Tianlu baited him. "That day will come," he said. "Just not today." The existence of the Lock separated the present world from the Vortex. Any Celestial-Human Sins from beneath the Vortex seeking to show their heads in the mortal realm would be suppressed to varying degrees. For a Sage like Elder Zhen, who had attained his state through the grace of Great Sin, stepping beyond the boundaries of the Vortex would drastically reduce his combat strength. Aside from the three Saintly Fools, no one could ignore the constraints of the Lock. Moreover, stepping out right now meant confronting Tianlu, the man closest to the realm of Supreme Overseer in the present world! That dog of a man was also the administrator of the Lock, an unrepentant abuser of administrative authority whose favorite tactic was weaponizing the Lock against his opponents. If Elder Zhen slipped up and fell into a trap, never mind whether he could win—it would be a question of whether Elder Zhen would even continue to exist! Besides, he wasn't the one who needed to be in a hurry! He had already seized the initiative! "Cut the crap and speak plainly, old fogey." Tianlu shook his head, glancing at the scene before him. "Going through all this trouble—what are you really after? Surely you didn't do all this just to blow up an outhouse to spice up the drinks down in the Profound?" "Hm? Isn't everything I've done laid out plain for all to see?" Elder Zhen appeared bewildered, offering Tianlu a blunt, mocking smile without the slightest attempt at concealment. "Naturally, it is what you wished to accomplish yet lacked the courage to do... "Naturally, it is the 'Change' that your Embers lineage cherishes above all else! "Shouldn't the Association offer its full support?" "Change? Where is the change?" Tianlu retorted. "Are you trying to tell me that aberration counts as change, and worsening qualifies as transformation?" "If ascension is the starting point of alchemy, how does sinking not count?" Elder Zhen's hunched frame straightened inch by inch until he stood tall. No longer joking, he questioned sternly, "Was today's aberration wrought by my hand? "This world has sunk to such depths, yet where does the blame lie? With Tianyuan? With the White Stag? With Ascension? With the Barren Ruins? With the atrocities of the Federation and the Empire? ...Yet the true culprits—aren't they precisely you good-for-nothing cowards of the Embers! "Even when the Pillar of Tianyuan collapsed, the world still retained the potential for change. But before the Association was founded, which of Heaven's Chosen of the Embers dared call themselves mere artisans? "You high-and-mighty Grandmasters—why do you lack the guts to tell those artisans that their current state was deliberately engineered by the Association? "That the hidden perils plaguing the Association today were planted by your own hands? "Aren't the instigators behind it all precisely you so-called Tianlus? "Imprisoning yourselves in a web, twisting Heaven's Mandate. "Turning Heaven's Chosen of the Embers into mere craftsmen, immersing yourselves day and night in petty technique, while the revolutionary change inherent to the Embers was completely eradicated. "To the point that ever since, every Embers follower across the entire world seeks craft over change... allowing the realm of Stagnant Rot to flourish and expand at breakneck speed, leaving every artisan in the Association sinking down the wrong path without even realizing it! "Even now, the Profound undergoes ceaseless renewal, so why has your Association become a pool of stagnant water? Where is your revolution? Where does your kindling remain?" Elder Zhen roared with laughter, demanding mockingly, "Setting aside the so-called distinction between virtue and sin—between the two of us today, who is the Stagnant Rot, and who is the Embers?" "Setting aside physiological differences, what makes you any different from a dog?" Tianlu yawned, entirely unimpressed. "Nice tongue-twister. How long have you been saving up that speech? Does your farting always have a rhythm to it? "I've told you: drop the rhetoric. The Association's existence has its own way; what does right or wrong have to do with it? "Renewal in the Profound? "You're making me laugh! "Come back and brag when you're the one being replaced! "Those below tear each other apart in endless slaughter, turning themselves into fertilizer to feed you unchanging old fossils at the top. And after stuffing your maws until grease drips from your lips, you still have the nerve to bark like dogs. "Even if the Association does nothing, what achievements can you point to from that putrid quagmire of yours?" "How do you know towers cannot rise anew from putrid soil? In a quagmire, worthless trash naturally sinks, but how could true talent ever be extinguished?" Elder Zhen lifted his chin with pride. "Since all things self-transform, let us see what this world will forge!" Accompanying his words, flames of Stagnant Rot surged violently. Right before Tianlu's eyes, the colossal pillar forged from countless aberrant creations solidified once more, taking root in the present world like a seed. No longer concealing his objective, he used the collective sinking of the entire mortal world as a foundation to execute a transmutation of Mutual Transmutation of Virtue and Vice... Through this, the essence of Stagnant Rot would infiltrate the Embers, transmuting a portion of the mortal realm's Embers into Stagnant Rot, which would naturally anchor the Well of Profoundness firmly to the present world! What he sought was not merely the achievement before them. He wanted to spread the essence of Stagnant Rot—the blessing of Great Sin—through the Embers and onto every single artisan! He even planned to use this foundation to gradually replace the Association with the Profound, supplanting the Embers with Stagnant Rot... until Great Sin and Supreme Good were completely overturned and exchanged. Even if it was bound to take ages, even if it was bound to be fraught with difficulties, under Elder Zhen's leadership, the Profound had undeniably taken this step forward once again. After a long dormancy, they had finally bared their fangs at the towering Association! And so, the light, mocking smile on Tianlu's face gradually faded away. His expression went completely flat. You sons of bitches really have some nerve. "Nothing to discuss?" "Nothing to discuss," Elder Zhen answered decisively. "Since virtue and sin are one and the same, why should the Embers be superior to Stagnant Rot? If we share the same origin, why must the Association triumph over the Profound? "I demand to know: why can the Profound not be the orthodox path!" "Fine. Then let's fight." Tianlu nodded. "Once four hundred years ago, once two hundred years ago. If your treasonous ambitions still won't die after all these years, it's about time for another round..." He asked considerately, "Do you have enough wings and reinforcements? Want me to give you a bit more time to prepare?" "No need. Since this is a creation of the Profound, it will naturally be achieved by the Profound alone. Why would we need outsiders getting underfoot?" Elder Zhen smiled contemptuously. "On the contrary, the Ring of Taiyi can call upon all its friends. I certainly wouldn't mind things getting livelier." "Splendid!" Tianlu clapped his hands, eager to begin. "Then please wait a moment while I go fetch those old farts: Heavenly Overseer, Earthly Warden, Lord of Weapons, Broken Tome, Mirage, and Sacred Blessing!" During that brief pause, he glanced at Elder Zhen's utterly unchanging expression and let out a disdainful scoff. "What are you pretending for? "If I actually said that, old bastard, could you still sit still?" "I wouldn't mind," Elder Zhen chuckled as well, acting as though he genuinely didn't care. Or perhaps he was simply secure in his advantage. There was no truth in an artisan's mouth, just as power armor had no rearview mirrors. How could there be any logic in taking their words at face value? Yet by that same token, whether they claimed to have something or not, sometimes not having it meant exactly that! Tianlu understood, Elder Zhen understood, and every artisan understood—when you stepped out into the world as an artisan, you could discard your shame, flip the table, and throw the rules out the window! Yet before doing any of that, the first thing one had to discard was their own arrogance! Faced with a challenge that determined orthodoxy, no artisan would ever choose a second option. *Who the fuck do you think you are?!* —*Do I need to call for backup just to beat your ass?* Never mind calling for help; even if outsiders tried to interfere, they would tell them to piss off and stay out of the way! Call it reckless arrogance or self-confident pride—there was no difference between the two. Whether it was virtue or vice, it was merely two sides of the same coin. Both were original sins and virtues rooted in the deepest depths of an artisan's soul. Yet could anyone who reached the pinnacle be any different? Without absolute confidence in their own talent, how could they have achieved anything? It was true for the Embers, and it was true for Stagnant Rot. It was true for the Association, and it was true for the Profound. Every motive stemmed from the artisan's desire for victory, the question of superiority, and the contest of strength! The decision jointly made by Tianlu and Elder Zhen, by the Association and the Profound at this very moment, could even be called an act of absolute reason. Otherwise, victory and defeat would hold no meaning, superiority could never be judged, and strength could never be distinguished. "Then let it begin once more!" Tianlu let out a cold laugh, declaring to all phenomena between sea and sky: "Beginning here, and ending here as well—let the centennial duel between the Association and the Profound, between the Embers and Stagnant Rot, commence anew!" Elder Zhen raised his hand. Phantom clapped against phantom, sealing an oath that neither held in high regard, yet neither would ever violate. Artisans killing artisans; peers slaughtering peers! Here and now—fair and square, by any means necessary, completely aboveboard, and shamelessly underhanded—they would fight to the end! The loser is Stagnant Rot; the victor alone is the Embers!