Leave Him Be

Cinderfire and thunderclouds raged with flamboyant violence. In the blink of an eye, the thunder and fire roared in, then roared away... It was over! As if nothing had happened at all. That beat-up ship, still riding steady above the ocean waves, hadn't even shed a flake of paint; it barely showed a brush of wind and frost. Only in Ji Jue's hand, as though spawned from thin air, did a fine piece of raw jade appear, delivered right to his doorstep. The Regeneration form harboring boundless destruction was now falling apart. In its futile struggles, it coughed up wisps of thick smoke and sparks, breathing its last. Just like that, right before everyone's eyes, a single blast of Jingzhen had dispatched it clean. Not even leaving behind a name—he hadn't bothered to waste breath on it. Amid the ashes scattering across the sky, only a cool remark remained: "Mediocre goods." Dead silence. A sudden, suffocating quiet. The turbulent waves froze instantly, howling winds locked in place, the boundless sea congealing. Only beneath the Pillar of Ruin, over the blurred silhouettes of countless structures, did a netherly glow abruptly swell! Within that pulsating haze of blurred auroral light, eyes suddenly snapped open one after another, turning their gaze toward this spot and glaring unblinkingly at Ji Jue! Not merely because a corrupted one had died, but because of the faint ripple that had burst from Ji Jue's fingertips... So subtle, yet bearing such distinct hallmarks. So much so that the instant it was perceived, it triggered the highest-level alarm! The Dissociation Art! Ye Xian had come charging in again! Countless figures peered out in an instant, struck speechless with shock. Yet when they realized that what had arrived was merely an unremarkable beat-up boat and a young artisan they had never laid eyes on, they sank into bewildered incomprehension: *What the hell? Who is this? Where's Ye Xian? Ye Xian didn't come?* *Then who is this?* *Why does he look like... her student?* *Oh, so it's a student!* With that, the gaze upon gaze fixed upon him shifted from astonishment to chilling coldness, twisted with savage malice: *Look who walked right into our claws!* —*Since you've come, then stay forever!* *Crack! Crack! Crack!* Between sea and sky, the fissures suddenly shuddered. As if a mirror had shattered, hundreds of massive chains thick as towers manifested from the void. Countless circuits flickered across the pitch-black links, sealing off heaven and earth, freezing everything, pulling all things into deathly stillness. Under the blanket of creations belonging to the Desolate Ruins lineage, a stasis zone crept across the sea surface, thoroughly enveloping the Prosperity, turning it into solidified amber. The frozen sea swelled upward like mountains. The hideous shadow beneath the surface rapidly expanded, as if a colossal beast roused from silence were bursting upward. Bones—countless bones: skulls, spines, hands, feet, and claws erupted like a geyser. Amid sneers from afar, an ocean of flesh sprouted from the skeletons, tangling together into the berserk form of a monstrous whale. Its maw ballooned swiftly, drawing in a deep breath like a manifesting black hole, dragging everything in to be swallowed whole. And high above in the vault of heaven, iron light rippled. Faint, ornate embellishments rapidly solidified, and amid meandering rivers of blood, the chilling silhouette of a guillotine took shape. Locking onto the soul, stripping away disguises. It crashed down toward the artisan! In that mere blink of an eye, drawn by past grudges, who knew how many artisans concealed behind the scenes struck out together—even vying and competing with one another. In this split-second shift, across the gulf between Tianshu and the Shadow of the Profound, countless eyes converged on this scene. Even before this, the artisans within Tianshu had grown restless. The moment the Profound erupted, countless figures instinctively moved to strike, waiting only for the Association's approval and assistance. A brand-new clash of titans hovered on the verge of erupting! To this, Grandmaster Tianlu, having taken command of everything, bypassed Gustav and issued a decision in the Association's name: [Leave him be.] "Leave him be?" Atop the high tower, the master beside Jiang Tongguang knitted his brows, his expression grim. Incomprehensible. Reckless though the youngster might be, he belonged to Embers after all, having journeyed thousands of miles answering the summons to support the Association. Were they just going to leave him to die? What on earth were those vermin on the board doing? Could they not even tell personal grudges from the public good?! At this moment, watching the lone figure trapped in the encirclement, the old man could not help letting out a soft sigh. "That's far too piti..." Dead silence. His words cut off sharply. Piti... Piti-what was it? He suddenly couldn't remember what word he had intended to say. A pity? Pathetic? Pitiable? Or perhaps— "—laughable." A soft sigh arose. As the soul-locking blade of doom plunged from the grand, grotesque guillotine between heaven and earth, its descent was quiet no longer. What rang out was a colossal crash like a wailing shriek. Cracks erupted, spreading outward. Right in front of a raised finger. It was stopped in its tracks! Ji Jue lifted his eyes and glanced up at the vault of the sky. His raised finger braced against the blade capable of annihilating any soul, and then, with a gentle push, he shoved it forward! The light of Chunjun flashed and vanished. Immediately after, the blade of doom broke apart, boundless gory color completely vaporizing into seductive crimson. Under the Dissociation Art, the guillotine dissolved into ash and smoke. The crisscrossing chains in the void shook violently, as if ravaged by an invisible tempest. The blockade meant to seal away all spiritus and suppress all material properties had a gaping hole blasted clean through it under that tiny point of illusory light erupting from his fingertip, destroyed with crushing ruin. Amid spreading fractures, the chains contracted and shifted, countless sparks flying as they prepared to alter form once more. But between sea and sky, streaks of silver illusory light flashed. At some point, myriad threads of quicksilver had already twined around the chains, permeating inward with pervasive reach, transforming, and even usurping them! Behind the netherly glow, an emaciated face stiffened on the spot, the gloating smile from the guillotine's collapse still lingering upon it. He felt it—his chains had violently rebelled! It was as though an unseen hand had gripped his creation, wrenching his painstaking work and fruits from his grasp with brutal cruelty. "Clearly a rare and fine material, yet forged into such a sorry state. If the creation possessed a spirit, it ought to have rotted in the furnace back then." The lamenting critique echoed between sea and sky, crystal clear: "If you can't wrap your head around alchemy, go find some comic picture books to read later. Don't waste good materials." He commanded, "Bring it here!" *Boom!* Under Jingzhen, thousands of chain links wailed and snapped in unison, yet drawn by the silver light, countless fragments gathered out of thin air, reforming into the faint shadow of a chain. In the span of a finger-snap, destruction and remaking—right before everyone's eyes, he smashed the proudest work of the craftsman of the Profound to smithereens, then reforged it into an entirely different form. That was... "Holy shit?" Jiang Tongguang's eyes widened. Leaning closer, he instinctively glanced at the equally dumbfounded old man beside him. "Your Tongxie's Kunwu Lock?" "No, it's different..." After a moment of shock, the Tongxie master shook his head emphatically. He wouldn't fail to recognize his own workshop's Masterwork and signature heritage. It was merely thirty percent similar in spirit; its structure and essence were completely different. Yet even that thirty percent resemblance was enough to throw who knew how many onlookers into a panic. And when Ji Jue's hand closed tightly around the formless lock, he abruptly yanked it taut. A colossal rumble tore through the void, like heaven collapsing! A terrifying force akin to the vault of heaven crashing down was brought to bear upon the skeletal beast before him as the chains erupted, permeating inward from the outside with pervasive intensity. Under the chain's constricting pull, the colossus collapsed into a ball, gouts of blood squeezed out. Immediately following came screams of sheer terror. The chains wrapped around the beast rapidly turned incandescent red, blazing with fierce light amid violent tremors... —*Detonation!* Within link upon link of the chains, massive amounts of spiritus were converted entirely. Purple lightning and black flames gushed out like a raging tide. Amid a terrifying roar as dense as firecrackers, blood evaporated, bones shattered, and everything was incinerated to nothing. A magnificent pillar of fire bridging sky and sea stood tall, blasting a colossal fissure through the frozen ocean that exposed the seabed beneath. "Is it any wonder they say you Great Sin vermin of the Profound can't stand the light of day?" The sneer from the bow rang out, echoing between Tianshu and the projection of the Profound. "You don't understand the first thing about courtesy, don't even know how to offer a proper greeting, and every last one of you is weak and limp. Did you mobilize such a grand army just to come begging for scraps in the mortal realm?" He added, "What a disgrace!" "Holy crap, what a master!" The wine cup Jiang Tongguang had just raised hung suspended in midair as he marveled in admiration: *Bro, only you could pull this off. One taunt and the whole crowd goes dead silent.* Not only were countless faces inside Tianshu clicking their tongues in amazement, but beside Tianlu, Carrion Eater could not help looking over, casting him a complicated glance. "Just what have you been teaching the kid?" "Th-that's not... I..." Tianlu's expression froze as he felt a massive scapegoat pot slam down onto his head. "I didn't teach him that! That girl A-Xian finally managed to pick up a student and treasures him to death—I have to be all sneaky just to catch a glimpse of him... He learned all of this on his own! "He's entirely self-taught!" "Is that so?" Carrion Eater chuckled and asked curiously, "And who did he learn it from?" Tianlu was struck speechless on the spot. Indeed, from whom? What a tough guess that was! *Why don't we just watch that unlucky kid in the distance get taken down a notch instead, folks!* Under this sudden mockery, within the projections beneath the netherly glow, the faces that had been curling their lips to watch the show gradually darkened. Even artisans who previously considered themselves too dignified to bother with a lowly pawn of the Association opened their eyes now, their gazes turning icy. A shrill cackle rang out from the void. The blood-stained silhouette of a young girl faintly materialized behind Ji Jue, grinning with venomous malice without warning. In the very next instant, Pan Ying ran right through her face, and amid burning bloodfire, she shrieked in agony. "Is it that funny?" Ji Jue's expression remained impassive as he twisted his wrist, tearing a gaping rent across that bloated, rotting face. "If it's funny, then laugh a little louder." After all, you won't be able to laugh ever again!