What tomorrow would hold for the oasis and the White Nation, Ji Jue did not know.
Because he left the very next day.
Leaving Yan Fei behind to continue fighting to his heart's content in his element, Ji Jue returned to Tower City. After inspecting the recent expansion of the factory zone, he unhurriedly boarded a cargo ship belonging to Courier Logistics and set off for Haizhou.
On this long journey, he uncharacteristically opted not to take the Doomsday Express. Tamping down his impatience, he traveled along the newly completed resource-distribution route that now spanned all of Haian Industry.
Thanks to the Paradise system's pervasive surveillance and administration, aside from a few early errors born of inexperience and the friction of the breaking-in phase, no deep-seated maladies had accumulated.
It was nothing more than coordination and material adjustments between the three factory zones, balancing sales priorities, internal competition cropping up between different facilities in regional markets...
The upgraded Paradise system quickly logged these minor issues into its registry, steadily tweaking and updating workflows while standardizing regulations and response templates.
Beyond that, there were no conflicts requiring his personal intervention.
As a company in its ascendant phase, Haian's internal climate had by no means deteriorated into mutual departmental hostility.
After all, every single KPI was quantified, and the Paradise system archived full audit trails at every step. All operational work was conducted under the direct involvement and scrutiny of the spirit of the Lord of the Flies; internal management was running on constant full-spectrum oversight.
From front-line workers to middle management, everything was essentially transparent in Ji Jue's eyes. He could pull up charts at any time and manage the entire outfit with keystrokes, just like playing a business simulation game.
He didn't even bother expending that much effort, tossing the whole thing to Old Gou, Yu Shu, and Minkler to sort out.
With the chairman ruling by non-action, righteous talents filling the ranks of Haian Industry, and Isis assisting as the royal vizier, things were booming and the future looked bright.
After integrating the vital missing puzzle piece that was the Seven Cities, in less than half a month, a flawless artery connecting Haizhou, the Thousand Islands, and the Mid-Continent had been forged into a unified line.
With all three sides integrated, a further master plan unfolded.
Xinquan handled engineering infrastructure, industrial skeletons, and automobiles; the Seven Cities managed civilian appliances, shipbuilding, and logistics; and the Mid-Continent took charge of drones, military maintenance, and specialized processing...
Layer on top of that the mass-produced Sundials and foundational alchemical components rolled out by Haian Tech, along with the munitions manufactured in the industrial parks and raw materials supplied from the Abyssal Depths.
When all of these pieces coalesced, they formed an unprecedented, abstract entity—a monstrous enterprise rising steadily, straddling the wilderness, the Thousand Islands, and the Mid-Continent!
The tiny tricycle factory that once took root in the wasteland had, in just over a year, captured every accessible market through sheer cost-effectiveness. It had consolidated its base at lightning speed, continuously innovating until it became irreplaceable... and impossible to ignore or leave unchecked.
Anyone with eyes could see that once Haian completed its internal self-sustaining cycle, its vigorous outward expansion was merely a matter of time.
Yet whenever outside observers and competitors pored over their subordinates' compiled intelligence reports, their vision would swim and cold sweat would bead on their brows.
They couldn't help it. No one had ever seen such an indescribably bizarre abomination before...
*What in the actual hell is this thing?!*
Strictly speaking, Haian could barely be called a single coherent company.
Even if someone wanted to sue them, there was no way to do it, because finding its legal jurisdiction was practically impossible!
It hadn't even paid a single cent in taxes!
The shell games played with the Seven Cities didn't count—that was just Mr. Ji handing out pocket money and allowances to the Seven Cities' civil servants...
Aside from sharing the name "Haian Industry" and indeed being founded by Ji Jue himself, structurally speaking, Haian Industry, Haian Tech, the Seven Cities' Haian, and the Mid-Continent's Haian were not a single unified entity at all. Their internal cultures, languages, job titles, and divisions of labor were entirely distinct.
Even their management teams were separate rosters, and the backers and investors standing behind them were completely different factions!
It was a chimera!
An absurdly tangled chimera!
You couldn't even categorize which side it belonged to!
Anyone with corporate experience understood what a nightmarish management challenge this should have been. Yet these disparate parts, which ought to have been a scattered heap of sand, ran with immaculate order under Ji Jue's overarching coordination.
Haizhou went without saying: backed by the Security Bureau, supported by the Tong and Lou families along with the two major central cities of Tide City and Cliff City, rooted across the entire wilderness from its base in Xinquan, and binding every scavenger and settlement into a single network.
Yet it wasn't even formally registered in the Federation, having zero official ties to the Federation on paper.
As for the Thousand Islands, the Seven Cities was practically Ji Jue's personal backyard. General Manager Minkler had been reduced to a rubber-stamping machine; it wasn't that Haian belonged to the Seven Cities, but that the Seven Cities belonged to Ji!
And in the White Nation, they enjoyed the staunch backing of the garrison base and maintenance contracts handed down by the military above, endorsed by the Church of Sovereign Light below, with the local Wild Gathering acting as their largest secondhand distributor, and various rebel warlords privately placing enthusiastic orders in bulk...
Every individual piece seemed brimming with potential and a bright future, but once the three were brought together, the chemical reaction and sheer scale of influence rivaled any megacorporation under Huanyu Heavy Industries or the Imperial Axis—perhaps even surpassing them in reach!
It answered neither to the Federation nor the Empire; it belonged neither to Tianyuan nor bowed to the Wild Gathering.
The myriad factions and backers behind it were hopelessly tangled, riddled with contradictions. Yet instead of breaking out into bloody feuds to the death, they all sat obediently at the same table under Ji Jue's rules, waiting for the feast to begin.
In a mere two years, Ji Jue—once an insignificant university student—had started from three-wheeled carts, piecing together, scavenging, and stitching things up from scrap heaps everyone else looked down on, ultimately fashioning an unprecedented, epic Frankenstein monster.
Immediately after that, he had risen to prominence in the Trial of Embers and Stagnant Rot, earned the rank of Master, donned the Crown of Glory, and destroyed the Relic of the Saintly Fool with his own hands.
With such skill and methodology, such achievements and foundations, how could anyone not gape in astonishment?
By now, the artisan known as Ji Jue had become an indispensable figure that no faction could ever afford to slight or overlook.
...At least, that was how the exclusive feature interview on the Wild Gathering's platform phrased it!
As the architect behind Haian Industry, an unprecedented talent the Association had not seen in forty years, the undisputed Chosen of Embers, the youngest Master of the Crown of Glory in the modern era, a craftsman who could never be ignored, and a contender for the position of Grandmaster in the Association—Ji Jue couldn't resist digging into his own pocket to buy dozens of copies after reading it. He gifted them to friends, relatives, colleagues, and peers from the Association, a generous act that earned unanimous acclaim and a flurry of passionate replies.
"Passionate replies," specifically referring to an average of over a dozen sixty-second voice messages per person.
Browsing through the messages flooding his phone, Ji Jue clicked his tongue in admiration. Then he smacked his forehead, realizing he hadn't yet regaled the Salted Fish today with his glorious exploits—outsmarting the Profound, courageously slaying the Sorrowful Mason, and leveling his blade at Elder Zhen!
He had only told her three times yesterday; he needed to reinforce it today.
Unfortunately, after being baited too many times, no matter what news links, coupons, or disguised pop-ups Ji Jue sent, Ye Chun refused to take the bait.
Not only had she stopped answering his calls long ago, but she had even bought an old-school feature phone that couldn't access the internet or view images just to guard against him. Talk about a complete lack of tacit understanding and trust between senior and junior disciples!
*I kindly share my joy with you, and you won't even indulge me?*
*Salted fish like her deserve the chopping block!*
Sadly, in the past, Ji Jue could still pressure her with academic papers. But ever since he received the Crown of Glory, Professor Ye had completely abandoned comparing him to the slacker in her house.
Since she had a true successor anyway—regardless of how far that path led, the foundational knowledge was passed down—the parasite at home merely needed to stay alive and keep breathing.
These days, the only thing the professor remained vigilant against was letting the two of them huddle together behind her back and repeat old habits, causing the uselessness quotient of her workshop to spike in the blink of an eye.
For the time being, Ji Jue lacked the courage to show his face before his mentor... After all, he had been beaten far too ruthlessly back in Tianshu. He genuinely feared that if Professor Ye laid eyes on him, she wouldn't be able to suppress her temper and would decide to give him a few more lessons.
*Better quietly test the waters through the Salted Fish some other day!*
"We've arrived?"
After several days of research inside his workshop, Ji Jue heard the chime.
Beyond the cargo ship, the outline of land emerged faintly at the edge of the water. Haizhou was right before him. As they drew nearer, the corrugated steel structures, temporary dwellings, billowing dust, and roaring din of construction along the coastline came into clearer focus.
Following the official launch of Haian Industry's Phase IV factory expansion project, the pier outside Xinquan—previously just a small fishing port—had undergone complete renovation.
Practically all of Xinquan had turned into a massive construction site. Not only the industrial park, but residential land was growing scarce as well.
As local workers' incomes steadily rose, people who had saved a bit of money grew tired of living in Haian's tenement dormitories and naturally sought better accommodations.
Furthermore, commercial demands had surged. With spending power rising, many businesses from the inner city had opened storefronts in Xinquan, creating a bustling commercial strip.
Yet, vast though the wilderness was, usable land was limited.
In recent days, voices had begun calling for the clearance and redevelopment of the ruins of the Old Spring City.
Ji Jue had set such proposals aside for now.
The operation was already spread too wide and too thin; administering such a massive territory was neither simple nor crude.
Reliable personnel were scarce and their core foundation remained insufficient. If things slipped out of control, the whole bubble might burst, leaving them with nothing and unable to maintain even their current standing. Worse, someone might usurp their hard-earned fruits, turning years of labor into a gift for others.
With countless threads to manage, things had to be tackled one by one. Certain matters simply required patience.
Amid this flourishing vitality, Xinquan had attained a level of prosperity nobody had ever foreseen, truly living up to its reputation as Haizhou's wilderness hub.
A scene bursting with life met his eyes through its untamed growth.
No matter how many reports, photos, and recordings one reviewed, nothing compared to seeing it in person. Even though barely half a month had passed since his departure, the streets and alleys had already grown somewhat unfamiliar.
Including Lou Feng's appearance.
"...Holy crap?"
Still holding a bag of fried skewers from a roadside stall and noisily slurping milk tea through a straw, Ji Jue pushed open the doors of Lou Feng's workshop, only to be greeted by a face as pale as a ghost.
Stubble-covered, disheveled, and gaunt to the point of being unrecognizable.
It looked like he hadn't bathed or changed clothes in ages; his collar was coated in black grime. Nothing remained of his former wealthy-young-master demeanor; instead, he resembled a scavenger from who-knew-where, blending seamlessly into the local aesthetic.
Right now, he was slumped in a bizarre metallic mechanical chair at the center of the workshop. His eyes were unfocused and hollow, drool leaked from his mouth, and sparks sputtered all over his body as he twitched and spasmed uncontrollably.
Slurred, incoherent noises spilled from his lips, overlapping into a sharp, grating drone as if he were possessed.
Even creepier were the translucent phantoms surrounding him—some human, some beastly, others shaped like serpents, spiders, or tangled masses of octopoid limbs.
Silent as wraiths, they flitted through the space, coordinating like a unified hive mind in a frenzy of work.
Noticing the intruder, they turned their heads in eerie unison, staring straight at him...
The scene was so sinister that Ji Jue wondered if he had opened the door the wrong way.
He instinctively took a step back, closed the door,
and opened it again.
*Wait, I didn't come to the Profound, did I?!*
A distinct trace of disgust appeared in the countless eyes watching him: *Ji, are you out of your damn mind?*
Before Ji Jue's eyes, the bustling phantoms dropped their work, collapsed into thin air, and dissolved into an eerie mist laced with iridescent light. The mist swiftly converged and sank into the figure on the chair.
Soon, a familiar spark of awareness relit the hollow pupils.
Lou Feng opened his eyes, gave a minor twitch, and wiped the drool from his mouth before casually unplugging a sharp spiritus-conduction interface from the back of his head.
He finally hauled himself upright against the chair and glared at Ji Jue.
Suddenly, a sneer crossed his face.
"Well, well, isn't it the man of the hour, featured on the Wild Gathering's front page, the hottest rising star in the Association—Master Ji?"
Lou Feng drawled sardonically, "What brings you to slum it in the humble workshop of a lowly Golden Ribbon like me today? I figured you'd forgotten all about the massive mess you stirred up!
"What, do you have fresh instructions and reprimands for me to wash my ears and receive?"
The torrential sarcasm and barbs were just as sharp as ever. Ji Jue narrowed his eyes and nodded repeatedly—*now that's the flavor!*
"Aiya, Brother Lou, why be so polite? Ah yes, I missed you terribly too!"
Responding with his customary nonsensical deflection, Ji Jue caught the hand Lou Feng was pointing at him, gave it a vigorous shake, smoothly shoved him back into his seat, and pushed the milk tea into his grip.
"Here, drink up! I went out of my way to bring you milk tea from the city—limited edition, you know. It won't taste good once the ice melts..."
Lou Feng glanced down at the crummy packaging, his simmering fury instantly giving way to exasperated laughter. "Ji, please use your brain when you lie. Do you really think I don't know what the knockoff milk tea from the corner outside looks like?!"
"Come on, it's all the same, all the same! It's the thought that counts, right?"
Ji Jue waved a hand, clasping his hands behind his back as he strolled around the workshop, poking here, prodding there, clicking his tongue in wonder. "Besides, as chairman, I bear immense responsibilities! I inspected all of Haian Industry—even if there's no glory in it, give me credit for the toil! I just took a little trip... I really don't get it. We're both working for our shared cause, so why can't you show a little understanding?"
"Understanding, my ass!"
Lou Feng squeezed the cup so hard it nearly burst, his eyes instantly turning bloodshot as he looked ready to grab a gun and blow a hole through this bastard's skull. "You call that a trip?! You blew up a cesspool and ran the hell away!
"Do you have any idea how much flak I took for you after you open-sourced the Three Phases?! Do you know how many people you pissed off after showing off?!
"Do you know how much trouble those old dogs have been stirring up lately?!"
"Aiya, mere trifles and tribulations! Don't sweat it. Besides, it's character-building! Without hardship and pressure, how can one grow into a pillar of society? You have to understand my painstaking—ahem, put down the blade, let's talk this out slowly! Don't do it, put it down, Brother Lou!"
After cajoling and pleading, Ji Jue finally managed to pacify the bristling, scapegoated Lou Feng, breaking into a cold sweat in the process.
He couldn't help it.
Deep down, he knew he had been downright shameless.
After showing off in the Association and open-sourcing the method, he had left Old Lou to take the heat. A bit of resentment was only natural. A true gentleman possesses a broad mind—why get hung up on a few harsh words? At worst, he could find an excuse to make Lou's life miserable later.
"...Setting that aside, what kind of new trick have you cooked up lately?"
Ji Jue bent down, scrutinizing the intensely complex alchemical contraption beneath Lou Feng's rear. Narrowing his eyes, his professional curiosity flared, and his hands instinctively reached forward...
Then he caught Lou Feng's icy glare.
Reluctantly, he pulled his hands back.
*What's wrong with letting me touch it? It's not like it'll lose a part.*
*Prejudice runs far too deep in this world!*
"Just an experimental prototype, hardly worth calling a finished result. It can't compare to the grand feats Master Ji accomplished in the Association!"
Lou Feng sneered, flicking his fingers. Right before Ji Jue's eyes, he projected multiple afterimages that returned to their assigned tasks.
"Oho? Fascinating—"
Ji Jue stroked his chin, leaning in close. He touched one afterimage, then nudged another, clicking his tongue in wonder. "Every one of them is an offshoot of your own spiritus... Maintaining so many simultaneously—how do you preserve precision? Can your cognition and control keep up?"
"They're all me to begin with. Why would I need separate cognition and control?"
His hand was slapped away by an irritated phantom nearby. Right in front of him, the split afterimages turned in unison, replying in chorus, "It's merely spiritus manifestation and consciousness projection. Nothing special—it just makes working more convenient."
*He's got even more wild tricks up his sleeve?!*
Ji Jue froze in astonishment, almost inhaling a breath of cold air.
Drawing on the Lou family's Ascent legacy and his own exploration, Lou Feng had leveraged the workshop's architecture to splinter his soul into dozens, even hundreds of slices at once, assigning them to different tasks and having them coordinate to achieve this scale and effect...
Judged purely on its merits, the achievement was staggering.
It was practically strong enough to serve as the bedrock of a workshop—a proprietary art fit to establish a whole new lineage!
However, splintering one's own soul and manifesting them as independent entities... how was that any different from voluntarily inducing multiple personality disorder?
Even if they could be stitched back together, the risk was outrageously high.
Judging by how practiced he looked, Lou Feng had likely been quietly scheming this out for god knew how long.
*Wait, brother, isn't this level of grinding a bit excessive?!*
*I only accidentally became a Master and casually snagged a Crown of Glory—did that really put so much pressure on you?*
Ji Jue sighed and shook his head.
Yet for some reason, even as words of comfort hovered on the tip of his tongue, his eyes instinctively lit up with reflex excitement:
"Doesn't that mean we can pile on more work?"
Instantly, amid the dead silence, countless afterimages slowly turned their heads like vengeful wraiths.
They stared straight at him,
radiating bone-chilling hostility.
"Ahem, just asking, just asking... pure curiosity! Look at you, getting worked up again."
Ji Jue blinked innocently, averting his gaze. "I must criticize you for that, Old Lou. How could I ever do something so devoid of conscience?!"
"...As if I don't know what kind of scoundrel you are."
The countless phantoms ran out of patience. "Say what you have to say and spit it out! If you've got nothing, get the hell out of here and stop being an eyesore."
"Um, well, about that project we discussed before..."
Ji Jue chuckled awkwardly, leaning in and rubbing his hands together. "Going by the timeline, it should be about ready, right? I was just wondering how the progress is..."
"There isn't any. Get out!"
Lou Feng pointed toward the workshop doors.
Several times, Ji Jue opened his mouth, only to hesitate. In the end, he gave a helpless sigh, looking desolate and forlorn as he turned to leave, glancing back over his shoulder every few steps.
As he walked—*thud*.
Two sheets of manuscript slipped from his coat and hit the floor.
"Oh my, how clumsy of me." Ji Jue smacked his forehead, hurriedly bending down to pick them up and dusting off nonexistent dirt. "I nearly dropped my analytical summary of Master Zhou's Convergence of Myriad Sources!"
Lou Feng's expression twitched. He said nothing.
Ji Jue took another few steps.
Then—*thud*.
"Aiya, look at me!"
Ji Jue scrambled flusteredly. "How could I misplace the fragmented legacies and notes I plundered during the Trial of Embers and Stagnant Rot?"
Lou Feng ground his teeth, his eyelid twitching violently, but remained silent.
Ji Jue sighed, taking another step forward.
Finally—*thud*.
"Huh?" He gasped in dramatic shock. "Who dropped the architectural blueprints of Sorrowful Mason's workshop and the preliminary hypotheses on Degradation structures on the floor? Does nobody want this? If nobody wants it, then I'll just..."
*Clack!*
Lou Feng's composure finally shattered. Leaping up from the metal chair, he roared,
"Ji, I swear I'll—"
"Hmm?"
Ji Jue held up the stack of manuscripts, looking utterly innocent.
"—give you the warmest welcome!"
Lou Feng's furious scowl contorted and twitched. He closed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and forcibly plastered an enthusiastic smile across his face. "Upon closer inspection, isn't this our venerable Master Artisan, the representative of the Three Phases lineage—Master Ji? No wonder the magpies were chirping this morning! When did you arrive? Why didn't I notice?"
"Oh, just now." Ji Jue waved a hand, letting out a lonely sigh. "I figured since I've been here all this time without even getting a cup of tea, I might as well go home."
"There is tea!"
Lou Feng squeezed gentle words through gritted teeth. "I have tea! Top-grade Kunwu Golden Leaf—two whole liang I swiped from my grandfather, prepared especially for you! Please, have some!"
"So generous?"
Ji Jue looked bewildered, glancing around. "But there's nowhere to sit."
"There is!"
Lou Feng scrambled off his chair, bowing his head in solemn entreaty. "Please sit right here! Make yourself at home—don't be polite with me!"
"Ah? That doesn't seem right, does it?"
Ji Jue hesitated.
"It's more than right! It's fantastic, exactly as it should be!" Lou Feng insisted, clasping Ji Jue's hands with an intensely 'warm' smile. "Hierarchy must be observed! Who am I to sit in your presence?"
"Well, aren't you making me blush?"
Ji Jue plopped down onto the chair, crossing his legs and clicking his tongue. "I have to criticize you for this, Xiao Lou. We've known each other for years—why stand on ceremony? Aiya, my legs are a bit sore... Ahem, never mind, they're fine now!"
Seeing that Lou Feng was on the verge of exploding, Ji Jue prudently decided to quit while he was ahead.
He raised the teacup and gulped it down in hearty swigs, not even pausing to savor the flavor before swallowing the tea leaves whole.
"Alright, jokes aside. I brought these for you in the first place. Here, take these, these, and these. Hold onto them."
Ji Jue deposited the prepared manuscripts into Lou Feng's hands stack by stack, finally catching a glimpse of genuine gratitude on the man's face.
Then, extending his open palm, he barked shameless demands:
"Where's my stuff?"
Chapter 836