Chapter 207.1: No One Wanted a Craftsman Dead More Than Another Craftsman Part 1

A workshop!

The moment Ji Jue and Lou Feng reached that conclusion, everyone’s eyes lit up.

It was a sudden turn for the better. They thought this trip had been a waste, only to discover that the people they had just dealt with were nothing more than the outer security team. Once the shell was pried open, there was such tender, juicy clam meat hidden inside. A trace of delight appeared even on Tong Shan’s face.

But in that brief silence, Ji Xue quickly noticed that something was wrong. She looked ahead. Those two rather suspicious Ember-types had, at some point, put a subtle distance between themselves. When they looked at each other, their smiles grew friendlier and more amiable by the second.

For some reason, though, it gave off the distinct impression that if either of them ever stood behind the other, he would pick up the nearest object at any moment and kindly crack his friend’s skull open with it.

“A workshop...” Ji Jue sighed faintly, his right hand supporting his lower back as though he had strained it while lying on the ground just now.

“Mm.” Lou Feng had both hands in his pockets, as if he had casually taken hold of something entirely unimportant. He gave a slight nod. “A workshop.”

They were both smiling, but their gazes were sharp enough to strike sparks in the air.

“I still remember the last time we were in a rift realm. Mr. Ji, you really made quite a scene back then.” Lou Feng sighed. “After I went back to the workshop and my family, I was in a sorry state for quite a while. I was laughed at every time I went outside and could barely hold my head up. The bitterness of it all is truly hard to put into words.”

“Yes, yes. I had it terrible back then too,” Ji Jue said, shaking his head wistfully. “Together with my companion from the Security Bureau, I was chased through the rift realm by a whole pack of Homecoming Knights. We barely escaped with our lives. At the time, I was sitting on a three-wheeler, sobbing my heart out, and I had to ask myself whether this was the only chance I would ever get in my life...”

Lou Feng’s expression turned serious. “But the one who got kidnapped, extorted, and forced to pay a huge ransom wasn’t you, was it? You saved people. You got the sage’s legacy. I understand that Master Ye looks down on us, but surely you didn’t have to leave us with absolutely nothing?”

Ji Jue shook his head firmly. “That was never what I wanted. There was only one chance. If you couldn’t seize it, then let me—”

As the conversation between the two grew increasingly incomprehensible, Ji Xue tugged at the seam of Tong Shan’s shirt, utterly confused. “What the hell are they talking about?”

Tong Shan sighed, the corner of his eye twitching again. “It’s an Ember thing. Better not ask too much.”

Damn it. These two had only just touched the edge of the workshop, and they were already thinking about how to split the loot.

As expected of Ember-types. The moment they heard there was a place to raid, what little humanity they had left vanished like a scumbag who had just seen a positive pregnancy test.

They were now at each other’s throats, their previous tender affection gone. The honeymoon period had ended so quickly that no one had even had time to react.

Ji Jue shook his head. “The Lou family is rich and powerful. Why must you fight a poor child like me over scraps like this?”

“If you’re poor, then what the hell am I?” Lou Feng was so angry that he burst into laughter. Ji Jue only brought up family background, but said absolutely nothing about the gap between their workshops. “I’m not some pillar of my family like Mr. Tong. At this point, the only thing standing between me and the title of family clown is a red nose. And whose fault is that? If you want to keep everything for yourself, Ji Jue, you’ll have to ask whether I agree first!”

“Then do you agree?” Ji Jue asked curiously.

“What do you think?” Lou Feng flew into a rage, no longer bothering to maintain his composure. “Like hell I do! I don’t agree to a damn thing!”

“So after all that, we still have to settle this by skill, right?” Ji Jue sighed. “Who goes first?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You, of course!” Lou Feng snorted. “Isn’t this exactly what the Dissociation Technique is for?”

While the two of them haggled over how to divide the spoils, they pulled all kinds of bags and cases from their toolboxes or spatial devices, and hurriedly set up their equipment, cables spilling across the floor.

They looked just like two thieves crouched in front of a vault, arguing over how to split the stolen money. Their preparations were quick and efficient without wasting even a second. Neither of them so much as glanced in the direction of the workshop.

When the equipment finished gathering the scanned spirit matter signals, the verification results appeared. Both men’s breathing grew heavy again. They looked at each other in silence, their Ember eyes burning with barely contained hunger.

They were starving for it. There was no doubt about it. A workshop was right beneath their feet!

***

Beneath the mall ruins, under the pale lights, a shrill alarm echoed without end.

Dalton struggled to catch his breath as he stared at the message displayed on the screen: Signal Disconnected. A chill spread through his entire body, and his back was soaked in sweat.

Just moments ago, when the alarm interrupted his work and he stormed out of the production room in fury, he had thought some idiot had accidentally triggered the alarm again or violated the rules.

But what the projection showed wasn’t those brain-dead idiots dumping trash wherever they pleased or interfering with the spirit circuits. It was a field of scarlet after a massacre.

A whole group of Chosen Ones had appeared from who knew where, dropping from the sky without the slightest warning. They had defeated everyone outside as easily as one chopped melons and vegetables, hacking them into pieces that lay scattered all over the ground. In less than two minutes, before he had even managed to process what was happening, it was already over.

They were dead. All of them were dead!

If the preset module in the temporary workshop had not detected the environmental change and activated its disguise at the first possible moment, the blades would probably already be at his throat by now.

What the hell was going on? What happened? How did he find himself in this situation? Had those bastards from the Dragonrite Society turned on him? Were the Heretic Cult people trying to go back on their word? Had the brain-dead monks from Wulou Temple forgotten to take their medicine? Or had his teacher discovered that he had been in contact with the Celestial Heart Society behind his back?

No, that wasn’t right. None of this was right. Not only did those people not look like aberrants, they actually seemed more like...

Shit. Has the Security Bureau come knocking?!

The moment he realized this, the last person still putting up a fight was crushed into paste by Jiang Xuan, as casually as one would wring a chicken’s neck. Only Dalton, the lone craftsman, remained hidden inside the workshop. Drenched in cold sweat, he slumped to the floor, almost unable to get back up.

Calm down. Stay calm!

Even if this was only a temporarily assembled workshop, his preparations had been thorough enough. The entire workshop had been anchored deep into the bedrock and fused with the surrounding realm for several kilometers. It was as stable as a mountain.

The realistic illusion outside that overlaid reality was a defensive maneuver his teacher had personally created. They wouldn’t find anything. Once they came up empty-handed, they would definitely leave.

There’s no way they can see through it. No way they can discover—

Just then, those two bastards lying on the ground stared straight toward the workshop.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! They found it!

Dalton swallowed dryly. He instinctively tried to back away, but failed to even stand up. Instead, he almost started crawling, completely losing his composure.

Don’t panic, Dalton. Don’t panic!

No matter what, this was still his workshop. There was no way they could break in. As long as he made no mistakes, held his position inside the workshop, and waited for reinforcements, everything would be fine.

But then, he saw Lou Feng take out all kinds of specialized equipment designed specifically to crack a workshop’s outer defenses. This time, Dalton couldn’t hold back. He screamed.

No one wanted a craftsman dead more than another craftsman. And no one coveted a craftsman’s workshop more than another craftsman.

Seeing how prepared Lou Feng was, Dalton became drenched in sweat. He almost screamed again.

Then he saw the pretty boy with a faint scar on his face press both hands directly onto the outer entrance of the workshop. Immediately after, the alarm blared again, warning that spirit matter probing had been detected.

Was he really going to do it by hand?!

As someone from the Ember Path, Dalton understood this process all too well. First came spirit matter perception, then analysis of the workshop’s main structure, then the search for weak points...

No. Wait. This didn’t look like probing at all! It looked more like... an invasion.

After a flash of terror, Dalton froze, unable to hold back his fury any longer.

Who the hell do you think you’re looking down on?!