Just like that, slow and cautious, taking two steps back for every three forward, Ji Jue edged toward the perimeter of the defense field. He gingerly poked one foot inside, then stepped in with both, until finally... his entire body, along with the moped, passed through.
Not the slightest reaction.
The towering wall of darkness squirmed like a sheer precipice, slowly parting down the middle to clear a path for him. It almost felt as though, had the system been just a bit more intelligent, it would have unfurled a banner welcoming the homeowner back.
Without a hitch, without a ripple, he was in!
Not only Ji Jue, but even the two figures who had quietly crept up behind him were stunned in place.
They stared at each other.
What the hell?
"Could it be that so many people broke in earlier that the power's dead?" one whispered.
The moment they came to their senses, they puffed out their chests and strutted toward the nexus—only to end up screaming, scurrying in panicked disgrace amid a barrage of heavenly thunder and earthly fire.
Immediately after, the darkness squirmed, opened wide, and devoured them whole in a single gulp.
Then silence reigned once more.
In the deepest recess of the darkness, a massive gate, riddled with holes, lay toppled on its back.
Shattered wreckage was strewn haphazardly across the equally devastated hall, looking as if a hurricane had ripped through. Traces of countless explosions were everywhere, with faint hints of bloody stains and charred remains still discernible.
"Aren't they a bit too reckless?"
Catching the strange, burnt aroma in the air, Ji Jue suppressed the urge to gasp. People had really face-checked the bushes like that?
This was a workshop nexus, and the workshop of a Sage no less...
Sensing the faint, broken spiritus circuits lingering in the air, Ji Jue could practically feel how absurdly lethal the traps and defenses triggered by the previous intruders had been.
Even four hundred years later, with the nexus's security decayed countless times over, it was still more than enough to crush him into paste hundreds of times over.
Having barely crossed the threshold, Ji Jue already felt an urge to back out.
A revered Sage could toy with Celestial Chosen who hadn't even attained the Regeneration tier like insects. If defenses were truly deemed necessary, they would undoubtedly have been set to match her own caliber...
To expand the workshop's reach and control the entire Border Realm, she had sacrificed and stripped away almost everything that could be spared, preserving only the bare minimum.
Taking things to such an extreme, he had no idea what had been going through her mind!
Once inside the nexus, the puzzle ball—which had been slacking off and enjoying the show—dared not loaf any longer. It disassembled from Ji Jue's chest and emitted a gentle blue glow that enveloped them, helping to shield them from the workshop's surveillance and detection.
Ji Jue's authorization was sufficient to pass through the main gate, but heaven only knew what internal rules and regulations were in place. If something didn't match and triggered some nightmare protocol, they would be utterly finished.
[Concealment protocol initiated—] A mechanical, droning voice sounded: [Factor collection complete. Parsing sequence loading... Loading complete. Spiritus Sight activated.]
It was impossible to fathom the earth-shattering complexity shifting within the puzzle ball in that instant. Amid the interweaving of several boons, the general outline and structure of the workshop nexus surfaced before Ji Jue's eyes. Immediately following were effects directly mounted from the boons of Ascension and Aether.
Spiritus Sight—the ability to directly observe the shifts, flow, and operational tendencies of all spiritus with both the naked eye and perception, like watching dye diffuse through clear water, clear as day...
There was no time to teach Ji Jue which colors and symbols represented which Sovereign Virtues or spiritus transmutations. A parsing manual thick as a brick was slammed directly into his soul through the ability, forcing itself into his memory and making his vision go black.
When he opened his eyes again, the world was completely transformed.
All turbulence fell within his sight.
"Come on, let me see—"
Ji Jue grinned, letting out the sound characteristic of every Celestial Chosen on the Path of Aether—and then felt as if he had gone blind.
Light!
Too much blinding light, flashing so intensely it was dazzling, as if thousands of flashbangs had detonated simultaneously. The overwhelming flood of information and sensory impact smashed against his forehead like a sledgehammer. Fortunately, as the puzzle ball cycled and filtered the input, the radiance was swiftly dampened to a faint glow.
Then, like a grand curtain being drawn back, the riot of colors concealed behind the fierce glare was finally unveiled.
Though it appeared merely like a palace hall from the outside, the internal space was unfathomably vast, constantly shifting and expanding.
Like a living creature, it possessed infinite transformations.
At this moment, it resembled translucent glass, flickering everywhere with the radiance of spiritus and Sovereign Virtues.
Through the barrier of the walls, intense flashes could be seen across almost every corner of the nexus, whether from the natural fluctuations of functioning circuits or from the destruction and resistance caused by intruders.
Ji Jue couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.
"You people really have your own tricks, don't you?!"
He felt like a safety inspector on his first day at a construction site, looking up to see every single scene playing out in bizarre, spectacular madness, too insane to bear looking at.
There were reckless fools ramming headfirst into the nexus's defenses; there were people like Young Master Lou relying on sheer numbers and armaments for destructive demolition; there were others scurrying about like headless flies; and there were even scavengers hauling burlap sacks, trying to scrape the gilded decorations off the walls to stuff into their packs...
It was as though red-hot iron spheres had suddenly been hurled into a pool of water. Bursts of boiling spiritus reactions erupted one after another, churning the deep, serene pool into a monstrous display of agitation.
Among them, the most eye-catching... was a torrent of spiritus blended from every color imaginable into pitch black. It looked hair-raising, constantly morphing in form!
Right now, inside the nexus, that torrent raged and spread, even preying on other Celestial Chosen who had broken in. Often, after a single encounter, the victim's signal would vanish completely, absorbed into that viscous blackness...
There was no telling where such an utterly sinister thing had even come from!
[Spiritus comparative analysis complete—determined to be: Dragon Cult.]
The instant the puzzle ball delivered its assessment, Ji Jue's vision went dark again.
What the hell, you again?!
Why do you show up everywhere?!
Ji Jue shuddered with cold frustration, unable to fathom how such a massive depth charge had suddenly been dropped into this small pond. It couldn't be that old ghost Lawrence had actually won his resurrection match, could it?!
Especially when he saw the number following the reference tier provided by the puzzle ball...
Tier Eight?!
Are you fucking kidding me?
Surpassing Calling and Metamorphosis to reach the Regeneration tier was already three major realms ahead of a blank-slate novice like Ji Jue who hadn't even stepped through the door!
Wait, how did he get in? Wasn't this place supposed to screen out outsiders?
Boom!
In his brief lapse of attention, a violent tremor suddenly erupted, roaring past like an invisible tidal wave.
The heavens and earth shook.
Not just the nexus and the underground—it felt as though the entire Border Realm had plunged into unprecedented turmoil. Cracking sounds rang out ceaselessly. Across the vault outside the nexus, fissures spread rapidly... The sea of spiritus boiled amid the upheaval, churning with iridescent light.
A faint bell toll echoed.
Like a hallucination, it reverberated by the ear of every soul.
The immense nexus trembled violently as well. Its internal structure shifted swiftly, swelling once more like an animated labyrinth, spawning boundless architecture and variation!
Literally, the world spun.
Ji Jue was nearly thrown onto the ceiling, but before long, the ceiling rotated to become the ground beneath his feet. Little Niuma clung in panic to what had once been the floor, hanging upside down and poking its head out in terror, honking loudly.
Luckily, Ji Jue was quick on his feet and snatched the Prophet back before she could tumble out of the basket.
"What's happening?"
He looked around in shock. "I swear I've seen this scene in an old-era horror flick!"
"Just adaptive reconfigurations, hardly even a defense program,"
the Prophet said calmly. "Fluid Alchemy is the art of adapting matter to essence. Under external stimulation, the nexus expands its territory and alters its internal space to maintain its original functions.
"You can regard the entire nexus as a living space in perpetual flux. All sequences are preparing for the reboot.
"Our time is running short."
"Then where do we go next?" Ji Jue looked around at the undulating stairs and the doors appearing and vanishing along the walls. "Are we supposed to open blind boxes?"
"Do you think Quicksilver needed stairs and a map when coming home?" The Prophet seemed to chuckle. "The nexus is a constantly shifting lock. Any intruder who hasn't mastered its patterns and essence will be trapped in endless permutations, and Fluid Alchemy is the key. Ji Jue, you must learn to look down, not up."
"Huh?"
Ji Jue lowered his head, only to see shifting patterns across the floor, completely bewildered.
"Not look down at the floor, but look toward the 'foundation.' Disregard surface phenomena, refuse to be bound by material properties, and seek the essence. Looking up leads you farther astray amid complexity; looking down seizes the true core.
"One is form; the other is spirit."
The Prophet said slowly, "Form and function are the path of chaos; spirit and truth are the pure essence. Do not let your vision be clouded by messy applications and theories. Trace the essence, adjust the essence, master the essence—that is the true core of Fluid Alchemy."
Ji Jue stood frozen in place.
Dumbfounded, he stared at the Spiritus Sight before him.
Countless shifting lights rose, descended, danced, rippled, and settled. The entire world moved like a sea of stars, as if an invisible palm controlled everything from an unseen height, manipulating it all with ease.
Including himself.
The nexus, the underground, even the entire Border Realm—invisible conduits coiled like threads between those unseen fingers. With a designated command, merely a subtle adjustment triggered endless variations and extensions.
From the singular to the whole.
The invisible fluid wove countless turbulent currents. Immersed within them, one could only feel confused and lost. But to step outside and overlook the whole, one had to—[look down]!
Look down.
"...So, it's not about me finding a path."
Ji Jue murmured in a daze, as though lightning had suddenly flashed across his mind. "It's about making the path appear under my feet, right?"
Take control of the workshop and make everything part for him.
So simple.
Yet unfortunately, he couldn't do it.
He wasn't a Sage, and he was unimaginably far from the level of a master. To even attempt it would be a gross overestimation of his abilities.
"So, the reverse application should work too."
Ji Jue's decisive murmur caused the Prophet's expression to freeze slightly. The words she had been about to say stuck in her throat, and she looked back in astonishment.
For the first time, she sensed a terrifying talent unseen in four hundred years.
True, for a blank-slate rookie like Ji Jue, trying to control the workshop was pure fantasy.
But he could control himself.
Through Fluid Alchemy, he could interfere with his own form, turning himself into a part of the nexus and genuinely participating in its operation...
Even, truly, blending into it!
For anyone else, this would be an equally absurd pipe dream. But for Deus Ex Machina, it was practically effortless!
In fact, it took only an instant...
In the snap of a finger, Deus Ex Machina captured the immense resonance reverberating throughout the Border Realm. Neither seeking communication nor striving for dominance, but simply acting as a part of the entire workshop, Ji Jue integrated himself into it through the authorization from the Old Furnace.
An unspeakable, terrifying roar detonated inside Ji Jue's skull, like the rolling resonance of the world itself turning. Even as a mere aftershock of an aftershock, it was still nearly more than he could bear.
Yet even as blood seeped from his nose and mouth, Ji Jue's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Through the observation of Spiritus Sight, everything shifting in complexity suddenly became crystal clear. The unfathomable mechanisms seemed entirely natural, laid bare without pretense.
The operation, contraction, enlargement, creation, and destruction of countless rooms became clear as day.
He was like a speck of dust, passively driven within a giant Rubik's cube.
Yet now, the cube had unveiled a corner of its mystery to him, revealing the inner gears churning behind it...
Crack!
Amid the violent shaking, a rift surfaced out of thin air on the rotating wall ahead, revealing the shifting, intricate structures beyond, along with a narrow corridor whose destination constantly morphed.
"Hold on tight, Xiao An!"
Without bothering to wipe away his nosebleed, Ji Jue laughed aloud and twisted the throttle. "We're hitching a ride!"
The engine roared.
They sped forward, hurtling into the darkness!
Chapter 80