Without warning, a crisp sound like porcelain cracking upon emerging from a kiln echoed throughout the subterranean space. One after another, spiritus circuits hidden within the vaulted ceiling and the air surfaced amid the tremors, shattering into scattered light.
It was as if a constellation of stars had manifested in an instant, only to plummet toward the earth.
Bathed in the iridescent glow, it was impossibly beautiful.
Yet even as a novice who had barely stepped through the doorway of alchemy, Ji Jue could tell what this truly signified... In this very instant, the inner defense sequence had utterly collapsed!
Then came the roar of collapse.
A deafening crash.
Far away, a wall along another path came crashing down.
Amid billowing clouds of dust, concussions resounded in rapid succession.
A bedraggled party of figures crawled out from the rubble. The leader clutched a shattered blade in his hand—the very alchemical weapon that had just neutralized the inner defense sequence, a masterpiece forged with the utmost effort by a master for this expedition. Deprived of maintenance for centuries, the defense sequence had shattered in a single strike!
"Found it! I found it!"
Lou Feng shouted in excitement, heaven only knew what he had endured along the way. Caked in grime from head to toe, with a fresh scar across his face, his group had already suffered heavy casualties under the workshop's defensive protocols, and every single survivor bore wounds.
Now, beholding this iridescent, shimmering sea of spiritus with his own eyes, he could no longer hold back his ecstatic dance and burst into wild laughter.
Until...
Across the deep sea of spiritus, he finally spotted the group of figures on the distant pathway.
Two people, a moped, and a severed head. Riding along, feeling the breeze, without a single speck of dust even on their sideburns.
It looked just like an outing in the countryside.
All they were missing was an ice cream cone and a camera in hand, taking selfies to post on Weibo.
Lou Feng's smile froze on his face.
And when he clearly recognized the scar across the leader's face—a scar he would know even if the man were burned to ash... his eyes flared with murderous rage!
"Ji Jue!"
He roared in disbelief.
Why the hell is it you again?!
"...Oh, Young Master Lou."
Ji Jue rubbed his eyes. The reunion had come so abruptly that, for a moment, he didn't know what expression to wear other than a smile. "What a coincidence, huh?"
On the back seat, Xiao An sniffed the air and couldn't help wrinkling her nose, murmuring, "Brother Ji Jue, they smell terrible."
Silence. In the deathly silence, only that murmur echoed.
Like a roaring thunderclap.
Before she could finish, Ji Jue snapped to his senses and covered her mouth. "Don't say such things out loud, hey, don't say that!"
If she said any more, this guy was going to have a complete meltdown...
Granted, watching Lou Feng break down was always entertaining, but he couldn't just shatter the poor guy's composure every single day, could he?
"Ji Jue—"
Lou Feng squeezed out a hoarse rasp between gritted teeth, his expression warping as he could no longer suppress his murderous intent.
Behind him, over a dozen Knights of Homecoming raised their weapons, awaiting orders.
Yet thunderous booms continued unabated.
Right above their heads.
Once again, a massive blast!
The vaulted ceiling shattered.
Crimson blood erupted outward, swirling through the air. Escorted by walking corpses, spiritus converged to form the visage of Formless. His eyes looked down upon the sanctuary below, unable to contain his exhilaration:
"Haha, it really is here!"
Without hesitation, not even sparing a glance for the insignificant little insects in the two distant parties, the Shepherd swooped down toward the sanctuary!
Behind him, countless vengeful spirits cascaded downward like a roaring waterfall.
Immediately following, a door swung wide open out of thin air.
"Found it, it's right here!"
An overjoyed voice rang out from behind the door. A soot-streaked face poked out, eyes sparkling with delight. "It's right here!"
Yet another group!
"Boss, the detectors we left behind picked up signals." Slan's expression changed as he leaned in close to Lou Feng's ear. "Someone must have trailed us."
Lou Feng froze, unable to process it.
He could only watch as, accompanied by fissures cracking across the ceiling and walls, another two figures scrambled out, creeping toward the workshop core he had believed was his for the taking.
The earthquakes and bizarre phenomena over the past few days had already alerted countless Celestial Chosen to the anomalies underground.
As the reboot date approached, the workshop no longer concealed its layout. Anyone with a bit of experience could pinpoint its location... Lou Feng had originally braced himself to defend his discovery, yet he never imagined that the moment he breached the threshold, he would find someone had already beaten him to it.
Fine, that dog Ji Jue getting here first was one thing, but where the hell did all these other people come bursting out from?
It felt just like an unsuspecting cuckold arriving home to find things amiss, only to spot vague silhouettes under the bed, inside the wardrobe, behind the curtains, and outside the window.
The bot lane looked completely deserted, so why the fuck were the bushes packed with people?!
Where did they all come from?!
Yet there was no time to dwell on that now.
Bloodshot eyes glared murderously at Ji Jue before Lou Feng tore his gaze away, leading his squad in a mad sprint toward the sanctuary. Any later and forget about meat—they wouldn't even get leftover broth!
On the other side, Ji Jue completely lost his composure as well.
What the hell?
Is this a farmer's market rush hour or what?!
Why did it suddenly turn into such a circus?
"Prophet..." He instinctively turned toward the silent head beside him. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"I'm not quite sure either,"
the Prophet replied nonchalantly. "A coincidence, most likely."
Everyone just coincidentally found the workshop hidden in the deepest subterranean depths, coincidentally arrived at the exact same moment, and coincidentally scrambled to dive into the workshop core all at once?
Could it really be that much of a coincidence?
Anyone who had bought even a couple of Federation lottery tickets wouldn't entertain such naive notions.
Boom!
Flames suddenly erupted at the end of the pathway.
From within the sanctuary, a tongue of flame as razor-sharp as a blade thrust out without warning and unfurled across the air, radiating a scorching gale that sent countless specks of dust swirling up in panic.
A blackened silhouette could faintly be seen flying backward, disintegrating into ashes midair before showering down alongside the dust.
Bursts of explosive fire flared in rapid succession from within the darkness of that towering sanctuary...
In an instant, the dormant sanctuary seemed to suddenly awaken. Countless spiritus circuits surfaced along its exterior, and a viscous, liquid-like darkness welled up from within, squirming and expanding to reveal an unforeseen, monstrous visage.
Just like an enraged beast.
Hungry to devour anyone in sight!
The defensive measures laid down by Quicksilver centuries ago were fully activated. Four hundred years later, they unleashed once more their terrifying power to bury all intruders!
"Holy shit, she lured this many people here just to serve as pathfinding cannon fodder? This chick is ruthless!"
The first to catch on was the puzzle ball, which could read the workshop's operating status directly through spiritus fluctuations. It cried out in shock: "Did you see that? Did you see that?! What did I tell you?!
"The prettier the Celestial Craft, the better she is at lying! Watch your back, Little Ji!"
Ji Jue asked hoarsely, "Did you do all of this..."
"Merely a contingency measure to ensure the success of this expedition."
The Prophet turned her gaze back, speaking nonchalantly. "With so many people taking the brunt up front, we shouldn't need to worry about being targeted by the workshop's internal mechanisms."
Like a conscientious tour guide smoothing over every stumbling block for her client,
she said,
"Now, we may depart."
First came a deafening crack of thunder as arcs of lightning sprayed.
Brilliant bolts of lightning burst outward. A silhouette shot out from behind a fissure at blinding speed, hurtling straight into the sanctuary of the workshop hub in the blink of an eye.
And then... half a leg, still crackling with lightning and sparks, came flying out and plunged into the sea of spiritus, dissolving rapidly into nothingness.
There wasn't even time for a scream.
Amid the disturbance of the air, a massive beast resembling a giant lion revealed its form the moment it stepped into the perimeter. Taken aback that its invisibility had been penetrated, the beast froze briefly before layers of carapace sprouted from its flesh. Shrugging off the lightning and flames lashing down, it plunged headlong into the darkness and disappeared.
In the quiet, an eerie, soft chuckle suddenly rang out—so sultry and seductive that anyone who heard it had their mind wiped entirely blank. Even across the vast distance, Ji Jue's vision went dark, and blood trickled from his nostrils.
Yet the laughter was abruptly cut short, twisting into a muffled, agonizing groan and a shriek.
Boom!
Amid the roar, crimson spiritus light detonated violently from within, its remnants billowing like a bloody mist and drifting out of the darkness, chilling the marrow.
Lou Feng's group, however, made no attempt to conceal themselves. Once the dozen or so Knights of Homecoming shielded him in their center, he raised his wrist. On the string of prayer beads that looked so familiar to Ji Jue, one bead abruptly disintegrated.
Spiritus shaping!
Yet what materialized this time was neither a construct nor a suit of armor, but a hazy, indistinct phantom—using the ability of spiritus shaping, the elders of the Lou clan had sealed their own spiritus and power within the prayer beads as protection for their junior, capable of producing an avatar-like effect in times of need.
After sensing the surroundings for a brief moment, the indistinct phantom waved its hand. A silver mist diffused out of thin air, enshrouding them. Braving the bombardment and assaults raining down from the defense sequence, they plunged straight inward.
Seeing this, Ji Jue's eyes practically turned red with envy.
We agreed this was Border Realm exploration, yet you little bastard can't stop swiping your gold card wherever you go, huh? How can you carry so many people with you everywhere you go!
Yet now, with the hub stimulated, more and more figures emerged from fissures and passages of all kinds.
Ji Jue watched, dumbfounded.
If he had to describe it, it felt as though a desolate, untouched fairyland had suddenly hit its peak tourist season.
A desolate wasteland where birds wouldn't even bother to shit had suddenly become swarming with crowds...
For a moment, it genuinely gave the illusion of a sea of heads surging about.
Never in his wildest dreams did Ji Jue imagine the Border Realm would become this lively all of a sudden, yet at the same time, his scalp prickled—why the hell were there still so many people lurking in the bushes?
And over the past few days, not a single one had shown any trace of themselves...
There were way too many conniving bastards in this world!
Making it impossible for honest youths to catch a break...
"So what next? How do we get in?"
Looking at that outermost defensive barrier, which was practically an iron fortress, he was at a loss for what to do. Besides Little Niuma, there were him, Xiao An, and the Prophet: one was an Embers artisan who could neither lift with his hands nor shoulder a burden, one was a White Stag who had sunk every stat point into evasion, and the last was an immobile severed head. Not a single one had invested points into defense!
Surely they couldn't just shoulder the moped and charge in, right?
"Just lift your damn legs and walk in!"
Even the puzzle ball couldn't bear to watch any longer, itching to give him a good slap. "The external defense modules only check permissions! Did you fucking forget that you're a local too now?!"
Holy shit, right!
Ji Jue finally realized: he still had the permissions from Brother Furnace on him, along with the verification of Fluid Alchemy!
If his clearance were any higher, he could practically cosplay Quicksilver himself...
The defensive protocols were meant to keep out these filthy out-of-towners; with my authentic local pedigree, I'm a bona fide Border Realm native!
Then what was he waiting for?
Let's roll!
Chapter 79