*Crack—*
A fracturing sound rang out from beneath Ji Jue's hands.
Fissures spread across the hero's body, enveloping him completely.
Hrungnir was torn to pieces once again!
"Useless."
Darsae sneered in mockery, looking down with disdain at yet another futile resistance.
Yet amid the countless fragments, a wisp of silver light quietly sprouted from Ji Jue's fingertips and spread, reconstituting everything that had collapsed in an instant.
Was it reconstituted?
One could only say: maybe, perhaps, sort of.
It looked as if someone hadn't bothered reading the instruction manual at all, purely forcing countless parts and shards together, completely beyond recognition!
Yet its savage, frenzied posture was even more ferocious than before!
*Boom!*
Amid the siege of ten thousand troops, a tremendous roar surged within the endless, tempestuous tide.
Like a black hole, the incomplete creation pulled in surrounding debris, dirt, and rock, coalescing and restructuring once more. Mechanical arm after mechanical arm grew from its body, and a bizarre long tail extended outward.
In an instant, under the watchful eyes of all, the dead wreckage transformed entirely into a metal monster, roaring at the top of its lungs.
That was a...
"...Mermaid?!"
Huang Xu stared, crying out in shock.
Beside Ji Jue, sporting two intensely obtrusive little pointed ears atop its head, the metal monster let out a doggish meow. Then, gleefully flailing its limbs, it charged into the army of heroes spawned by dragon blood, rampaging, clashing, and slaughtering.
In the blink of an eye, beneath chaotic blades and trampling feet, it was crushed to complete smithereens.
Yet its jaws still clamped around a head, suddenly snapping shut.
*Crunch!*
Crushed into powder.
Right after that, when Ji Jue flicked his fingers again, under Non-Offensive's bare-handed alchemy, the wreckage pieced itself back together. The dead mermaid crawled up once more, completely intact.
Only, this time... there were two!
The two rabid mermaids opened their jaws to meow and roar, counterattacking once more. Long tails swept across, six arms ravaged and tore, coordinating with one another amid the throngs of enemies, storming forward heedlessly, kicking up an insignificant ripple of spray before being annihilated once again.
Then Ji Jue raised his hand again.
Countless fragments reconverged, and the mermaids crawling back to their feet became six.
Six mermaids assembled into formation, clutching sharp shards like blades and swords, colliding against the dragon-blooded army, before crumbling into pieces once more.
Then, twelve mermaids crawled out from the debris.
Right before Darsae's eyes, those bizarrely shaped metal monsters were multiplying exponentially, doubling again and again!
In the blink of an eye, hundreds—thousands—of mermaids rose from the ground, flanking and guarding Ji Jue on all sides, standing toe-to-toe against the endless tide of dragon blood.
Blood flames swirled, surging incessantly.
The auras of Swarm and Frenzied Slaughter flowed into each other, practically indistinguishable.
"The Swarm..."
Darsae's pupils contracted. "The Path of Dominion?"
For a moment, he almost doubted his eyes and senses.
*Fuck, when did an old Swarm bastard sneak into Embers?!*
Yet right after, he realized something was off: it was merely similar in form, without any resonance or blessing from Heaven's Mandate.
However, the Swarm aura and the Sacrificial Lord's boon before him were genuinely real. Except for the fact that this damn thing wasn't actually the Swarm, everything else was identical!
If something looks like it, feels like it, eats like it, and even damn well tastes the exact same, what difference is there from the real thing?
It's been completely and utterly bootlegged!
In Ji Jue's grasp, the Blood Wrist insignia upon Pan Ying dissolved, and then—[Colony] reemerged!
The Heritage Burnt Offering began once again!
"Red Lord above!"
Across the clashing of ten thousand troops, Ji Jue grinned at Darsae in the shadows and spoke that oddly familiar line: "What a coincidence. It seems you and I are the same type!"
In his other hand, the Chixiao banner-tally reappeared, and the Manifestation of Tianyuan soared into the sky!
Blessed by Tianyuan, the Burnt Offering of Colony quaked violently and expanded rapidly. Blood flames gushed like a waterfall, shooting skyward and washing over every steel monster, blanketing them together as a single whole.
Amidst the fluttering banner-tally, the Veil unfurled anew. The Deus Ex Machina Mandala reappeared, and countless Spirits of Creation were set into motion once more.
Assembly line, initiate!
Endless silver light fell from the sky and rose from the earth, shrouding the metal monsters and countless remnants, once again collecting, maintaining, and mass-producing.
In an instant, the birth rate of the mechanical mermaids skyrocketed once more!
Ji Jue did not even need to control them anymore; so long as he issued the command, countless fragments were gathered, assembled, and reshaped on their own.
In the slaughter, even if an extra crack appeared on its body, it would be fully restored under the flowing silver light. Unless an individual was destroyed to the point of being deemed devoid of repair value—whereupon it would be dismantled and repurposed—even if half its torso were melted into molten iron, the mechanical mermaid would be repaired and reborn in the very next instant!
Gathering, production, maintenance, remaking, and scrapping.
Under the integration of the three phases, a chilling spectacle emerged within the Border Realm.
Never had there been such a bizarre showdown—not like two artisans, not even like a struggle between Embers and Stagnant Rot, but rather like an internal civil war within the Swarm!
Hordes upon hordes crashed into one another. The roars and hisses they raised spread like a tide, and amid the scattering of countless shrapnel shards, they reached a bitter stalemate.
Looking down from the sky, within the blend of silver light and bloody crimson, it was as if an endless, gaping maw had opened across the earth of the Border Realm.
Every advance and charge was like the opening and closing of that maw; every collision and slaughter was like unrestrained mastication, spitting out countless splinters from its jaws.
[Mouth of Slaughter]!
Amid the flowing essences of Frenzied Slaughter and the Swarm, one of the Swarm's earthly aspects had actually manifested within the clash between two artisans.
Likewise, it caused the face of the artisan once known as the Warlord of Iron, who had governed countless Hero Seeds, to darken—how dared these shallow creations, utterly insignificant on their own, stand toe-to-toe with him purely through sheer numbers?!
"Showing off axe tricks in front of Lu Ban—pure nonsense!"
Darsae gripped the scepter entwined with bloody light and darkness, issuing his decree to the heroes: "Crush these scrap-heap offcuts to dust for me!"
The blood flames of Frenzied Slaughter swirled. Growing more furious with the battle and slaughter, the flames gathered from the myriad dragon-blooded soldiers and descended upon the heroes.
Under the blessing of Encircled Realm: Twilight, the giants rose from the earth holding swords and blades, evolving once more, growing ever more berserk within the burning of black flames and blood fire.
Thunder exploded. The hero Farbauti, cloaked in blinding lightning, unleashed a torrent that incinerated countless mermaids before him with ease, effortlessly carving a straight passage through the dense tide of steel.
Immediately following, Surtr swung his flamberge like an arrowhead, thrusting straight toward Ji Jue, breaking through layer after layer, piercing through ranks.
The accumulated legacy of North Wind reemerged in war. The spirits of heroes born purely for conflict easily turned the tide, rolling forward like sweeping autumn leaves.
No matter how fearlessly the mermaids threw themselves forward, they could not halt their advance by a single step.
The myriad dragon-blooded troops roared with fanatical fervor, their cries rising ever higher.
The moment heroes stepped onto the battlefield, victory and defeat were already decided!
Even broken and battered, covered in wounds with death encroaching step by step, under the drag of countless mermaids, Hrungnir brandished his battle-axe and surged forward with a roar, his gaze locked dead onto Ji Jue, who was now within arm's reach.
He vaulted into the air!
Ignoring the quicksilver lances piercing at him from all directions, the battle-axe in his grip howled, cleaving downward!
Right at that impassive face.
Alas, he was short by a hair's breadth.
Falling short at the final hurdle.
Yet it mattered not. Behind him, more heroes came charging along the path he had blazed, wave upon wave, without a shred of hesitation, launching another assault.
At that instant, toward the dying Hrungnir, Ji Jue reached out his hand once again.
*Snap!*
Darsae's expression froze for a moment.
With Hrungnir's demise, his Hero Seed did not return. Instead, under the dominion of the Ring of Siegfried, it gradually ceased responding!
It was almost as if... it had run out of control!
Pried from his grasp by an invisible hand...
"Hmm, so that's how it is."
Ji Jue nodded and sighed with sudden comprehension. "I get it now!"
At this moment, not only Darsae, but even Huang Xu off the field widened his eyes until the corners almost tore: *You bastard, what the fuck did you 'get' this time?!*
For in Ji Jue's hand, the faint contour of a Hero Seed was emerging.
The seed that should have returned to the King of Heroes had actually been plucked from its host vessel by Ji Jue, clutched in his palm, scrutinized, admired, and toyed with at will.
"No wonder something always felt off. The details never quite matched what I stealthily learned from the Grand Artisan before... Turns out, it's not even the same thing anymore, is it?"
Ji Jue murmured to himself. In his grasp, the ferocious, demented spirit of the hero continued to resist, seeking to devour anyone it could.
Only, it possessed none of its former solemn grandeur and heroic magnanimity.
Like past champions steeped in wine and debauchery, lost in day-to-day revelry, maddened in endless warfare.
Unwitting degradation, unconscious sinking, uncontrollable rot and mutation.
Long ago changed beyond all recognition!
In this state, what right did it have to be called a hero?!
"The title of hero hardly befits your current guise."
Ji Jue looked down coolly, casting a contemptuous glance over the "heroes" near at hand. "Since you have fallen into beasts, then bare your fangs and claws honestly as beasts..."
Now, the Ring of Siegfried jolted abruptly.
[Hrungnir]—out of control!
Accompanied by the snapping of chains, the hero who had long sunk into a beast finally revealed his savagery!
The Hero Seed in Ji Jue's hand disintegrated. Amidst coalescing quicksilver and iron hues, layers of razor-sharp shimmering scales materialized out of thin air, forming an angular, ferocious, mad, and ravenous behemoth!
In the snap of a finger, the remaking was complete!
*Boom!!!*
The striking flamberge crashed against the scaled armor and was deflected. Amid rising blood flames, the reborn beast slowly turned its head and looked toward its former companions.
Upon its face, already transformed into that of a beast, there was not the slightest hesitation. Opening its jaws, inhaling deeply, churning blood flames, it roared at the top of its lungs as boundless black flames erupted from its mouth, boring straight through Surtr's face.
Right after, its massive jaws parted, snapping the fallen hero in half at the waist and chewing ravenously!
Unfit to be compared to dragons, at best a hideous, grotesque lizard; even less could it be called a hero, merely a monster that had lost itself.
Now, it had finally obtained the form it truly deserved.
As if laughing maniacally, crying out in hungry screeches.
Hrungnir bared its fangs and brandished its claws, moving its body and lunging back at the incoming heroes!
And right behind it, Surtr crumbled apart.
When Ji Jue reached out his hand, amidst the spreading flames, a slithering three-headed serpent emerged from the metallic sheen, spreading six metal wings upon its back and soaring into the air!
The second...
Right before Darsae's eyes, a second Hero Seed lost control and turned into a monster.
"Aberration?!"
He blurted out subconsciously, his pupils contracting again and again: what was happening to the Hero Seeds right now was an outright aberration!
Fighting poison with poison, overwriting pollution with stronger pollution, reconstructing aberration through even more thorough aberration... Having seen through the fallen nature of the heroes, with merely a slight nudge, then...
All Things Self-Transform!
In the revolution of Three-Phase Alchemy, freed from all shackles, reborn and reshaped into its current form!
"Insolence!"
Furious, he raised his scepter. The shadow of the Tyrant crashed down like a deluge, suppressing the counterattacking Hrungnir. Yet within the entanglement and binding of shadows, the aberrated Hero Seed no longer obeyed the dominion and command of the Ring of Siegfried, letting out burst after burst of roars.
Suddenly, it self-detonated!
*Boom!!!*
Countless shards flew outward amidst the blazing fire, leaving a massive crater in the ground.
The damaged Hero Seed reappeared within the flames, threads of silver light extending in all directions to haul in those fragments, before being reborn yet again.
Once more, it opened its gaping maw toward Darsae, making the Iron Valve's face twitch violently as he roared:
"A mere creation dares turn on its master?!"
A soft chuckle sounded from afar, dripping with derision.
"Since you turned them from valiant heroes into fallen beasts, how can you blame them for biting back at their so-called 'master' after breaking their chains?"
Amidst steel and monsters, that profile emerged, glancing sideways at him with a disdainful smile.
When heroes fell into beasts, when armies transformed into monsters.
It was already hard to tell which side was Stagnant Rot and which side was Embers.
Yet before everyone's eyes, the Chixiao banner-tally fluttered in the wind. A raging tide surged anew, and an endless torrent reemerged from Ji Jue's hands.
Quantity against quantity!
No matter how Darsae raged or counterattacked.
The heavens raged, the earth split, and countless palms plummeted from above and rose from below, fruitlessly tearing at the spreading silver light.
Yet amid the cascading roars, the silver tide surged upstream. Innumerable steel monsters shrieked with excitement, devouring everything before them.
Inch by inch, they pressed upstream toward Darsae.
Thunderous booms resounded.
Amid the shrieks of countless mermaids, the lightning gradually died out. Farbauti was completely swallowed, without even bones remaining. Immediately following, the moment Ji Jue beckoned, vast purple-black thunder crashed down, and the fallen hero turned into a monster once more, baring its vicious visage.
Besieged by the monsters, the warlord struggled to hold his ground. Steel fractured inch by inch under the strangling grip of machinery.
A cracking sound rang out.
From Darsae's hand, upon that pitch-black scepter, fissures cracked open... The Tyrant's shadow wavered and shattered, unable to exert its power under the suppression of the Chixiao banner-tally.
There was no suspense, nor any reversal.
From this moment on, the outcome was decided.
All that remained was futile struggle and stalling.
"Now, whose tricks are petty? Who was the one overestimating their strength?"
Amid the thicket of beasts and monsters, Ji Jue strolled forward with hands clasped behind his back, glancing at that furious, twisted face, brimming with curiosity.
Letting Darsae counterattack again and again.
Until Darsae raised his scepter one last time, yet received no response from dragon-blooded soldiers or Hero Seeds.
Dead silence.
Behind Darsae, the phantom of the ancient sage remained solemn. Unfortunately, that solemn countenance looked so hollow and blurred, devoid of any divine spirit.
As if its soul had been stripped away.
Rather than the King of Heroes, it was more like a corpse, an empty husk, a numb slave tilling the fields in shackles.
Allowing the scepter's Tyrant Law to mobilize its power, yet offering not the slightest active cooperation.
Once the dust settled, it showed no reaction whatsoever.
Only quietly staring at him.
Waiting for release, waiting for an end, waiting for death.
"A pearl cast in the dust, entrusted to the wrong person."
Ji Jue lowered his gaze. "Creatures of the Profound, scum of Stagnant Rot—do you think you are worthy of speaking of heroes?"
He commanded, "Kneel!"
And so, the weight of Tianyuan erupted abruptly. Beneath the shadow of the shattered tower, Darsae wailed and roared in vain, his face flushing crimson and the corners of his eyes tearing with blood.
Yet no matter how he struggled, his body bent downward, inch by inch.
Until his trembling knees hit the dirt.
Incapable of moving an inch.
Even the scepter he valued as his life was wrested from his grip by an invisible force, flying out and landing in Ji Jue's grasp.
"Disrespecting sovereign rule, blind to Heaven's Mandate—no matter how fireflies flit about, this is the only hideous display they amount to... It is time to end this."
Ji Jue looked down indifferently. The scepter in his hand shattered inch by inch, turning to ash and smoke.
Amid the shattering illusory light, only a golden ring emerged from the dust, so dim and stripped of its past wonder, falling into Ji Jue's hand.
"Decapitation."
He pronounced the final verdict.
And so, Pan Ying shrieked and flashed by in an instant. Blood gushed, and Darsae's head flew into the air, landing at Ji Jue's feet.
As his body dissolved into flying ash, that contorted, spasming countenance was forever petrified under the shroud of quicksilver.
Thus, after meticulous processing, it was hung right beside Gongjiao's mutilated remains before everyone, put on display for the gazes outside the Border Realm to behold.
"...Clay chickens and pottery dogs, utterly fragile!"
Ji Jue raised his head and glanced toward the Profound once more, staring at that churning rainbow light as though gazing upon the shifting faces hidden behind it.
"Don't keep me waiting too long,"
he said. "Next."
Chapter 800