What Are You Looking At?

"Finally..." Amidst the silence, Ji Jue stepped onto the frozen surface of the sea, walking step by step toward the Shadow of the Profound and the Pillar of Perdition. After an endlessly long wait, he had finally reached this moment. He had waited until this moment arrived. He felt no tension, no fear. Though in the very next breath he would be locked in a life-or-death struggle, he was ineffably exhilarated, just like a natural-born killer. He was even gripped by an unbearable hunger! In the sea wind rushing against his face, he began to smile. That kind of smile... In the gloom of the Profound, a stir broke out. The crowd gathered in the shadows shifted slightly, their expressions changing. "Who is that? The artisan from yesterday?" "Ye Xian's student?" "Ji Jue..." Doubt rose in some, while the faces of others grew solemn, but in that moment, the low, murmuring chatter gradually died away, sinking into dead silence. As they looked once more upon that genial, smiling face, their pupils involuntarily contracted a fraction, needles of unease pricking their backs. Even though it was not they who stood on the field. Vigilance, tension, or perhaps, utterly without cause... Fear? "Ji Jue?" The corners of Elder Zhen's eyes lifted slightly as he murmured, "It seems you hold quite high expectations for him." Tianlu nodded. "As a grandmaster of the Association, isn't it only natural to expect great things from the younger generation?" "Is that so? Then why hasn't that student of yours—the one who severed ties and stormed out—come?" "When a master has business, the disciple shoulders the toil. Sometimes, when a teacher can't spare the hands, they send their student on the errand. Whether toiling like an ox or charging at the forefront, not a word of complaint. Isn't your Profound faction supposed to know this routine inside and out? Why bother asking me?" Tianlu paused, offering a mocking smile. "In other words, in his teacher's eyes, to deal with you lot, Ji Jue alone is enough." Boom! The instant Ji Jue stepped into the Border Realm, the figure that had been far off in the distance was suddenly right before his eyes, casting a pitch-black shadow. A towering body over three meters tall was cloaked beneath heavy robes. The exposed face possessed none of the texture of flesh and blood, rendering gender and age indistinguishable, while even the eyes were covered by an elaborately woven cloth. Pulses of spiritus surged forth incessantly, chilling to the soul; it was hard to imagine just how many alchemical creations were hidden upon that body. Now, under the full eruption of an Exaltation rank, it tore through the air—soul suppression, disturbance of vitality, petrifying solidification, soul freezing—the alchemical creations beneath the robes flared continuously. In an instant, countless shackles fell upon Ji Jue, rendering him unable to move. A grotesque hand wrapped in boundless darkness reached out from beneath the robe, pressing down toward Ji Jue's face to seize everything! Yet tragically, the very moment it reached out, it abruptly snapped back without reason! Abandoning this precious opportunity that could decide victory and defeat, life and death, the newcomer shot backward like lightning—even faster than when he had arrived! Beneath the blindfold, the sound of an eyeball rupturing rang out, leaving behind a trail of thick, bloody tears. He had seen it. At the exact moment he had reached out, Ji Jue—who should have been utterly suppressed and defenseless—had reached out toward his advancing hand, as if prepared all along. Every single suppression proved useless, failing even to pose the slightest impediment; instead, he himself had suffered a sudden, grievous blow! The shock that flared in his heart for an instant was forcibly suppressed. Then, completely uncontrollable, it erupted violently! Because right behind him, a curious voice suddenly spoke: "—What are you looking at?" Ji Jue! Even before the figure could regain his footing, Ji Jue had already appeared behind his back at a speed surpassing his own. Then, he raised his palm and pressed it against the robe. Boom! Formed from a blend of Desolate Ruins and Mirror paths, matter and illusion, being and nonbeing mutually giving birth and completing one another—the Water-Moon Attire, a defense sufficient to face and neutralize countless frontal attacks, now shattered on impact as though it didn't even exist. That palm drove forward with unstoppable ruin, piercing through the body. Dissociation Art! Jingzhen erupted, spreading with crushing force, annihilating the soul. The burly body stiffened and crumbled. The artisan's soul was utterly wiped out. At that exact moment, from the dead man's back, another hand emerged, gripping a blade, and severed Ji Jue's head! Beneath the tattered robe, a bloodstained spear shot out, impaling the headless body and hoisting Ji Jue into the air. Scarlet thunder detonated, completely obliterating what remained of the body. Reduced to ash and smoke! "That guy..." In that split-second shift, Aignu's eyes went wide. He subconsciously clenched his fists, finally discerning the identity of the Profound combatant. Even before that, Jiang Tongguang's eyes had already lifted, filled with bone-chilling cold. "Gongjiao!" A target the Absolute Sentence squad had hunted for who knew how many years, a notorious artisan of the Profound, a creature of Stagnant Rot who prided himself on being the vault of all fine artisans under heaven! Rather than an artisan, he preferred to call himself a collector. What he loved most was seizing the painstaking creations and crafts of other artisans to expand his collection. To claim a single prized item, he had once gone so far as to change his appearance and lurk in hiding for a decade, or even several decades... God only knew how many creations stolen from others were concealed upon that body. There might even be... "...fellow artisans on you too?" Beneath the burning crimson flames, the headless body of steel—which should have been completely reduced to ashes—spoke aloud, brimming with puzzlement: "By the way, doesn't this count as a foul?" Boom! The spear cracked and disintegrated into dust. At point-blank range, a molten finger of steel rose, pointing right at that face. A beam of purple lightning and black flame erupted, yet it was once again anticipated in advance by the opponent, who pulled back, even tricking Zhanlu's pursuit lock to evade with ease. "Thank goodness. What a relief." Ji Jue's headless body reached out, yanked the severed head flying back, and set it back on his neck. After restoring it completely and washing away the curses coiled around the wound, he finally wore an expression of lingering relief: "I thought my skills were getting rusty." That was terrifying! When Gongjiao counterattacked at the end, he had been scared out of his wits, thinking that he had slackened too much lately, causing his Dissociation Art to grow unpracticed and fail completely. For an artisan, what could be more frightening than finding one's own craft falling short? Turns out, the other guy wasn't fighting solo in the first place... When the Water-Moon Attire was torn open and the body shattered, Ji Jue finally perceived the soul originating from the artisan through the breach—that wisp of fluctuation was so noisy, flooded with massive clutter and chaotic static. It was as though five or six different souls were stacked atop one another. What Ji Jue's Jingzhen had annihilated was merely one of them! Beneath the tear in the robe, folded and stored inside that burly frame, were over a dozen different arms and various internal organs. Right before his eyes, the dozen-odd arms concealed beneath the robe slowly extended. Held within each palm was a one-in-ten-thousand creation, with no lack of Masterworks among them, and every hand was skilled in an entirely different craft... In fact, even those arms and hands, and even his own body and viscera, had been remodeled from countless creations. This was Gongjiao's Regeneration form—and beyond that, the Encircled Realm built directly upon it in seamless continuity! Refitting his entire body, cramming it full of creations and making them completely compatible to avoid conflict among them... —[Encircled Realm: Vault of Ten Thousand Stored Artisans]! Now, the blindfolded Gongjiao grinned, laughing silently. Dull, lifeless faces surfaced one by one from Gongjiao's body, opening their eyes to stare fixedly at Ji Jue. Ravenously hungry, drooling with craving. Unable to rein in their greedy desire! "Brain, heart, and spine? No, the entire body is... everywhere, from head to toe!" He gasped hoarsely, unable to curb the tremor of his excitement. "So it's the same type of Regeneration form as mine! Ha, hahaha, we are the same! To think someone in this world could be like me—" "Is that so?" A regretful voice sounded, right in front of him. That face materialized before his eyes without warning, telling him, "Then I must have truly fallen on hard times." To have sunk so low as to be lumped together with trash like you! Bang! Amid the detonating roar, an arm thrusting out as a sword blade fell into Ji Jue's grasp. It immediately disintegrated into ash, dissociated by Jingzhen. Yet the Wolf's malice perception flared in repeated surges. As though having foreseen Ji Jue's reactions well in advance, he had prepared beforehand. Those eyes beneath the blindfold had glimpsed the scene that would unfold in the future, lying in wait even before Ji Jue surged forward. Shrill howls shrieked ceaselessly. Pity that before a smile could even form on that face, it stiffened. As reality advanced, a decisive divergence emerged once more in the further revealed future. Besieged on all sides, under the all-out assault of a dozen-odd creations and six artisans, Ji Jue maneuvered with effortless ease, advancing fluidly without strain. With merely a wave of his hand, a crimson blade swept out... —In the end, the one lying dead on the ground would be himself?! By the time he came to his senses, the ringing chime of Pan Ying already echoed in his ears. Crimson blood flames were right before him, slashing down at unbelievable speed! Then, it ground to a sudden halt. It stopped before him by the barest hairsbreadth. A mere sliver away. From a palm reaching out from behind his back, the Chain of Fading Light manifested out of the void, wrapping around Pan Ying's blade and forcibly suppressing it, silencing the blessing chain in an instant. As cold sweat seeped from his forehead, he saw it—in the future of the very next instant, purple lightning and black flame surged toward him like a tempestuous tide. Zhanlu! Right then, Ji Jue snapped his fingers. With the crisp click, a strand of vicious electrical light erupted from the sparks of his fingertips, swelling abruptly. On Gongjiao's chest, a face suddenly opened its mouth, revealing a jewel within. The Phase-Shifting Pearl gleamed with a faint light, casting a dreamlike illusion over everything that forcibly negated and erased Zhanlu's blazing radiance. Gongjiao's eyes went wide once more. Disregarding the tearing agony in his soul, he tried to peer into the future—and froze on the spot. In the future he saw, Ji Jue actually raised his head, as if looking directly at the present him, and asked once more: "Now, what do you see?"