Chapter 241.1: Craftsman, Craftsman, and Craftsman Part 1

Without warning, disaster struck from within. The artificial Skyrail slipped out of control, plunging the vast expanse of Spring City into turmoil.

The breach had come from the very heart of it all. Jian Yuan, the craftsman of the Depths, should have been the safest from attack, yet he was the first to suffer an unexpected blow. No, perhaps this outcome had been inevitable from the very beginning. Even if he had never kept this tiger by his side, it would have still crossed mountains and valleys, braving any cost to reach him and bare its fangs!

Jian Yuan said nothing, yet he couldn’t suppress the urge to laugh. It was as if he could feel the Divine Mandate mocking him. Here he was, untouched by corruption, destroying the world before him, yet the monster who should have been enjoying all of this stood in his way instead.

What kind of farce was this?!

No. This was perfect. Since this failed lesson had ended in his apprentice’s foolishness, what followed would be a battle between craftsmen, a merciless struggle in which neither side would hold anything back.

“Very well...” Jian Yuan said. All cold malice and fury vanished from his face, replaced by a grim look that seemed to freeze the air around him.

The shadow behind him expanded and transformed into a doorway. He merely extended a hand and pointed forward. Beyond that dark doorway, vague outlines emerged within the vast realm on the other side, and a cold metallic gleam flashed as the Divine Creation was unsheathed. Instantly, a cold, solemn radiance swept across more than half of Spring City, so overwhelming that it seemed to tear apart every gaze attempting to observe it.

Every piece of metal cried out. Blades trembled as cracks split across their surfaces. For a split second, an invisible blade formed at his fingertip before he brought it down in a slash. The lightning within the dark clouds broke apart, and a deep gash appeared across the dim neon-lit sky, showing no sign of closing.

In that split second, Jian Yuan weighed his options and went all out. A metallic flash tore through the air, only to stop before Ji Jue.

As the engine roared, boundary membranes appeared one after another, rising from the ground and enclosing Ji Jue within them. Dozens of rifts seemed to overlap in place, forming a terrifying defense like an iron wall that kept everything outside.

The engine was protecting its master.

As it continued to operate, it briefly displayed the grandeur Skyrail had once possessed. For an instant, an overwhelming grandeur capable of unifying all things manifested, turning the mere inches between the two into an unfathomable abyss.

Anyone else would have snapped, What’s so impressive about relying on a tool? But to Chosen Ones of the Ember Path, it was only natural. They used tools, controlled tools, and created tools. Losing those tools was no different from losing their own limbs.

In that brief clash, Jian Yuan had tested the defense and immediately figured out how it worked. In the past, when Skyrail had traveled between rifts and reunited the fractured world into a single whole, it had relied on precisely this ability: warping space, manipulating boundary membranes, opening passages, and traveling freely through them.

Blessings from the Eternal Gate were rare, without a doubt, but that didn’t mean they were invincible. They simply needed the right counter.

Jian Yuan remained impassive. Within the doorway behind him, many silhouettes of creations shifted and cycled past. In the blink of an eye, the most effective weapons emerged.

There was the Refracted-Light Nails, whose spatial distortion took effect directly inside the target’s body; the demonic spear, Limit Break, which could pierce through every obstacle between two opponents; the Divine Creation, Dewfall, which twisted time so that it struck before it was even unleashed; and the world-renowned blade Kingsford, which anchored space and sealed all change.

There were too many to count and far too many to choose from. In that case, why choose at all?

Jian Yuan bared his teeth in wild laughter. He reached toward Ji Jue, then clenched his hand into a fist. He’d just use all of them at once!

At that moment, Jian Yuan showed just how much power a craftsman held inside his own workshop. Here, he could adapt to almost anything and unleash power on an entirely different scale. Any one of those violent weapons alone would have been enough to drain a Celestial Being’s entire reserve of spirit matter. Now, all of them were unleashed at once!

Countless sparks of light scattered across the sky like fireflies, and tiny nails repeatedly tore through the air and appeared without warning, leaving no visible trajectory as they shifted through the air. They flashed eerily like a swarm of glowing insects.

A bizarre spearhead barely more than a meter long pierced forward with a shrill whistle, tearing a perfectly straight fissure through all the boundary membranes. At the same time, a dreamlike gleam of steel flashed behind Ji Jue’s neck and slashed down before he could react. A heavy tachi[1] also came crashing from above and buried itself in the iron and stone, freezing everything around it in place.

Still, even all that wasn’t enough for Jian Yuan!

Beyond the shadowy doorway, the silhouettes of vicious blades took shape. There were hundreds of them; no, thousands; no, tens of thousands! Everywhere Ji Jue looked, there were brilliant flashes of steel that covered the entire area around him. Even the faintest stray shockwave from those weapons would have been enough to tear him apart and grind what remained into dust.

Jian Yuan’s attacks were fast, way too fast! They had no warning and no buildup whatsoever. By the time Ji Jue reacted, it was already too late. There was no room left for him to do anything.

In that final moment Jian Yuan had seemingly granted him out of mercy, all Ji Jue could do was shrug regretfully. Ji Jue indeed had some clever tricks up his sleeve, but unfortunately...

He sighed softly. “It’s too late.”

Beams of blazing light burst from the dense smoke and dust behind him, as though a monstrous beast had opened its eyes and let out a piercing howl. After two hundred years, the Doomsday Express that had once helped rebuild the world was finally running again!

A blizzard of pop-up windows flooded Ji Jue’s vision.

[Registration updated. Login complete. Conductor authorization verified.]

[Special operating authority approved and issued.]

[Operator: Acting Chief Controller, Ji Jue.]

Beneath a paw print resembling a signature that acted as the final authorization was another message.

[Total Network Control activated!]

Intricate spirit circuits stretched toward him. Threads of silver light flowed across the sky and poured into Ji Jue before linking directly with Pacifier. The entire process unfolded seamlessly, as if this was exactly how things were supposed to be.

Ji Jue’s consciousness and perception broke free from the confines of his tiny body and rapidly expanded before streaming outward like light, just as they had back at Mercury’s Workshop.

Wait, what the hell? This is the exact same system!!!

The workshop and everything within it, all of which had previously been seized by Skyrail’s emergency recovery system, now reappeared within his perception.

That wasn’t all. It felt as though he had used it to connect to something far greater, a vast, almost unimaginable system that seemed to stretch across the entire world. For one infinitesimal moment, Ji Jue even felt as if the whole world had fallen under his control, but that was nothing more than an illusion brought on by the sheer scale of what he was experiencing.

Even when he pushed his soul to its absolute limit, the area he could reach and control extended no farther than Spring City. Beyond that, all he could sense were the distant, indistinct fluctuations of spirit matter rising and falling across the vast expanse of Haizhou.

Still, that was enough!

The instant Pacifier began operating, boundless torrents of spirit matter stirred through the enormous structure behind him. They answered his call, received his requests, carried out his instructions, and obeyed his commands.

With Ji Jue as the central axis, tens of millions of invisible hands manifested and swept outward, covering everything and seizing control of all within their reach. This was what the system meant by “Total Network Control.”

Boom!!!

A thunderous crash erupted from the top of the workshop. The entirety of Haizhou seemed to tremble ever so slightly.

Visible ripples rose beneath Ji Jue’s feet, passed through the entire workshop, and plunged into the earth before spreading outward. Wherever they passed, cracks as thin as hair appeared. Dust billowed up in countless clouds, while the sharp snapping of rebar rang out without end, like strings breaking one after another. At that moment, Spring City appeared to sink by a cun.

A thunderous roar came from the distance.

The Mortal World Abomination, which supported the vortex and Spring City like a Celestial Pillar, bent down another fraction. Cracks spread across his face as his three eyes widened in fury. “Jian Yuan! What are you doing?!”

Why had his all-out attack suddenly struck the entirety of Spring City?

The thunderous noise faded, leaving clouds of dust churning in its wake. Ji Jue remained perfectly fine, without a scratch on him. No, in fact, he was already injured so badly that one or two more insignificant wounds would have been impossible to notice!

Faced with an attack powerful enough to pulverize him countless times over, Ji Jue did one thing and one thing only—spread his hands.

1. Tachi (太刀) is a traditional Japanese long sword (nihonto) that is longer and more curved than a katana, designed to be worn suspended from the waist with the sharp edge facing downward. ☜