Chapter 201.2: Victory and Defeat Part 2

“Where’s Ji Jue?!” Jiang Xuan asked in horror.

Lou Feng sighed hopelessly like he had lost all will to live and pointed ahead.

There, in the middle of the ruins, behind Ji Liu and Ji Xue, who were fighting fiercely and seizing every chance to finish off wounded enemies, a figure was crawling forward on his stomach, glancing left and right sneakily. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ji Jue stretched out his sinful little hand and reached for the still-warm corpses.

The Dissociation Technique activated in his left hand. He seized the matrix, crushed it in his grip, and absorbed all the essence of Supreme Benevolence.

Vortex, Mirror, Ascension, Swarm, Ruins, White Deer, White Deer... Why’s there another White Deer? You people from the Heretic Cult are way too lopsided in your builds!

A jumble of insights flooded his mind, bringing all kinds of aberration contamination with them, but before the corruption could spread, an enraged Pacifier drove it out at once. Ji Jue expertly extracted the scattered spirit matter with his right hand and used Solid Alchemy to merge it into the mercury for storage. He also looted every alchemical creation and every item on the corpses that carried the aura of a blessing.

With Flawless Craft enhancing him, his hands were so quick that even his careful movements somehow blurred into afterimages. His efficiency was astonishing. No matter what, he had to do this while they were still warm!

Ji Jue kept his eyes peeled in every direction, keenly searching for any corpse that had only just begun to cool. If it was close, he charged over and stripped it clean. If it was farther away, he dragged it over with mercury tentacles. Chaos was everywhere on the battlefield, yet Ji Jue was acting as if he was choosing what to eat from a buffet. It felt like New Year’s had come early!

In a short amount of time, by relying on the matrices he had dug out via Dissociation, Ji Jue had filled another twenty percent of the Level Three progress bar on his wristwatch. With a little more effort, he might just fill it all the way up.

Although he was excited, he couldn’t help feeling heartbroken. He could only watch helplessly as so many materials vanished before his eyes like smoke. Without a stable environment, there was no way to preserve them. If Mr. Ball had been here, this one haul could have launched him straight to the next level. Maybe he wouldn’t have to worry about practice materials before reaching the Rebirth Realm.

While Ji Jue felt stuck between pain and joy, his ally was struck speechless. Under the desperate siege, Ji Liu staggered back, struggling to hold his ground. When he turned and saw Ji Jue crouched on the ground, looting like mad, he felt like he was about to go bald from stress. “Will you fucking move back a little? Stop messing around!”

The moment Ji Jue raised his head, what looked like a nearby corpse hidden in his blind spot suddenly sprang up. He had been burned to charcoal and torn to pieces, yet life abruptly returned to him. A vicious light flared in his eyes as he lunged straight at the young man.

No one knew how long he had been lying there in ambush, enduring the agony of being burned without moving an inch. When he finally stood up, he came at Ji Jue like a lightning bolt.

As the saying went, to catch bandits, first capture their leader. Tong Shan was holding his own even in a one-on-two fight, so there was no way a small fry could get to him. Still, as long as he could grab a craftsman, there would still be a chance. At worst, he could use the hostage as leverage to bargain for a way out.

Unfortunately, the moment he sprang up from the ground, he was smacked back down like a fish slapped onto a cutting board in the market. After one brief twitch, he collapsed, completely still. He had made his grand entrance like he was the God of War, then immediately died like an extra. From a fake corpse, he became a real corpse.

Only now, where he lay sprawled on the ground, there was a gruesome hole punched clean through his exposed back. Blood and viscera slowly seeped out from the wound.

As the blood spread around him, the outline of a spirit matter hand emerged from thin air. After piercing the ruined body, it activated the Dissociation Technique, seized the matrix, crushed it in one grip, drained away the last essence of Supreme Benevolence, and vanished without a trace.

On that twisted face, smeared with mud and blood, a pair of eyes bulged wide open, filled with confusion even in death. He had no idea what had just happened. How exactly had his plan been exposed?

Ji Jue let out a breath of relief. Drenched in sweat, he couldn’t help but reach forward and touch the back of his head. Between the strands of his hair, the miniature infrared camera fixed there was still faithfully doing its job. Along with the many cameras on his back and chest, it monitored his surroundings in a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, leaving no blind spots.

Surprised? I know how to ward.

Professor Ye had once put it very well. When entering Time Ruins, exploring rift realms, or feeling your way through ancient tombs, you needed an eye on the back of your head. Ji Jue wasn’t a Vortex-type, and he didn’t have any related blessings, so naturally, he could not grow an actual eye there.

But that didn’t matter. These days, it seemed like everything was expensive except cameras, which got cheaper every year. He hadn’t even used up all the accessories that had come with the drones he bought.

As he hurriedly looted this corpse, his movements halted for a moment. His smile disappeared from his face, leaving only a gloomy expression.

“Now this is bad...” He raised his head and looked at the sky. Scarlet light and shadows churned endlessly overhead. Thunderous shocks and storms raged all around. The Rebirth Realm fighters charged and clashed so fast that even when Ji Jue activated the Blessed Creation of Transcendent Vision, he could barely make out what was going on.

Without a doubt, Tong Shan was at the center of that storm. Telekinesis surged all around him, rushing forward in crushing waves.

He was clashing head-on with Yan Chong and Ling Zhi, two opponents of the same realm. Even in a one-against-two fight, he was somehow not at a disadvantage at all. No, he wasn’t just holding his own. It even looked like he was pushing them back!

Ji Jue’s face twitched. He could only marvel at the sight. This is supposed to be fucking Myriad Defense?! Is this what a top-ranked player looked like?

Telekinesis was one of the most common abilities, and it was also known as one of the most versatile. It didn’t lack offense, defense, mobility, or control capabilities, but by the same logic, that also meant it could very easily end up mediocre at everything.

Myriad Defense was the most common Origin matrix. Because of its versatility and compatibility, it was widely favored by many Origin Chosen Ones. Having no shortcomings meant that it was very likely it had no particular strengths either.

After all, even with the same telekinetic ability, there were countless different ways to use it. From those differences came many branches, such as vector interference, node manipulation, mental extension, and force-field control.

When it came to what the Chosen Ones specialized in controlling, there were also differences. Some favored tangible objects like metal and stone, while others favored intangible things like gas and energy. Not to mention those who specialized in moving massive objects and crushing people like Mount Tai bearing down from above, or those who preferred to control dust, rain, and dew, striking quietly with things too small to notice.

According to Tong Shan, when it came to all these categories and schools, he knew a little about every single one of them. From fine, precise control to large-scale suppression, from control over tangible objects to command over the intangible, and not to mention all the many methods of manipulation, he had grasped and mastered them all. When it came to telekinesis, he had no blind spots.

It wasn’t that rare, specialized matrices were impossible for him to find. Myriad Defense, a matrix with no bias whatsoever and full-range adaptability, was the only path suited for him.

Now, beneath the Burning Star Manifestation, flames filled the sky, spiraling within the chaotic currents of gravity. They formed the eye of the storm and guarded Tong Shan at its center. With practiced ease, he borrowed force to counter force, deflecting the blades that flickered in and out of the shadows. He was completely unharmed.

Yan Chong’s expression grew darker and darker. The broken sword in his hand howled with hunger, yet it couldn’t even touch the seams of Tong Shan’s clothes. This bastard had made up his mind from the very beginning that he was going to stall them.

“What’s wrong, you two? In too deep to back out?[1]?” The Burning Star flag unfurled and swept through the air as Tong Shan’s calm voice drifted over. “I suggest you hurry up. Otherwise, all your lackeys are going to be killed off.”

“You fucking bastard...”

In Yan Chong’s scarlet pupils, flames burned in the most literal sense. He looked like an aberrant monster wrapped in blood and fire as numerous eyes opened angrily across his forehead and cheeks.

Suddenly, he let out a wild roar, but no sound came out. From the faint, scarlet ripples, only cracks resounded. On the ground, the dead bodies rapidly decayed and weathered away, their spirit matter dispersing until nothing remained.

The hilt of the broken sword in his hand grew. It absorbed the death and despair of his subordinates, and under that catalysis, it formed a bizarre giant sword dozens of meters long.

Before the blade, the storm filling the sky came to an abrupt halt, and every raging current of telekinesis completely fell apart.

The blessing Bloodfire Covenant burned remnant spirits without limit and turned them into Yan Chong’s power. Under the observation of First Strike, every path Tong Shan could use to dodge was completely sealed off. Then, a thread of scarlet light broke through all obstructions and advanced straight toward him.

Yan Chong revealed the trump card he had kept hidden since the start of the battle. No one knew how many blessings linked together to form the upper-level effect known as Blood-Oath Duel, an effect that denied both sides any chance to dodge or retreat. Even the space around them seemed to be completely distorted. Front, back, above, below—no matter where Tong Shan tried to dodge, he would only be pulled closer to Yan Chong. There was nowhere to run.

Tong Shan scowled. He thrust forward the flag, wrapped in telekinesis as violent as an erupting volcano, and clashed head-on with the broken sword. Something shattered in the sky above, loud enough to leave everyone’s ears ringing.

Locked in that close-range struggle, Yan Chong’s savage grin grew even wilder. He didn’t care that the raging tide of telekinesis was slicing him apart, stripping flesh away until white bone showed through. The target of this strike had never been Tong Shan. It was the flag in Tong Shan’s hand, the one that had already snapped through the middle.

The Burning Star flag shattered, scattering into silky fragments across the sky. With the flag’s destruction, the Burning Star Manifestation that had covered the entire battlefield collapsed. Like a fortress made from sand, it lost its shape and crumbled.

As soon as the suppression and deflection of the gravity torrent was gone, a blurred figure quietly merged with the shadows behind Tong Shan. He drew closer and closer until it was right behind him, seizing the crucial opening Yan Chong had created to thrust forward the shadow-wreathed Edge of Ruin. The outcome had been decided!

Ji Jue, who had witnessed everything from the ground, let out a breath of relief.

They had won.

1. 骑虎难下 “Riding a tiger and finding it hard to get off” is a classic Chinese idiom. It describes being halfway through something and unable to stop because of the situation, leaving someone trapped in a dilemma with no easy way forward or back. ☜