Chapter 287: Brothers United

The Myriad Hands Form unfolded before everyone. One palm after another reached into the air as though it held all things in its grasp, commanding everything and standing above all else.

And everyone could clearly feel it.

Every contestant could feel the sheer arrogance behind Ji Jue’s seemingly sincere words, as well as the blatant contempt, the utter disregard for everyone present, and the disdain of someone looking down on them all. Just like that, he had challenged every one of his opponents at once.

Before any of them could even react, a storm swept through!

The swirling mercury of the Myriad Hands Form suddenly expanded. The many hands reached out in every direction, sweeping through the air as though gripping something invisible. A tornado so dense it seemed almost tangible rose from the ground, wrapping around the Myriad Hands Form like a tattered white shroud. Then, quite literally, it shot forward like lightning!

Under the full-force bombardment of every workshop, it rushed straight into the broken concentric ring. The scarlet greatsword in its hands swept in an arc, tore free from the pull of the Kunwu Lock, and rose high.

Swiftly, Ji Jue drove the full force of the blow straight into the earth!

In response, the ground erupted as if dragons and serpents had come bursting forth. The crust heaved and overturned as tons of soil and rock were blasted into the sky.

From beneath the Ninefold Earth came a shrill screech. Faint spirit circuits appeared within the spreading cracks, only to rapidly break apart.

Inside Five Flora Workshop, the craftsman’s face had gone deathly pale. Right before his eyes, the enormous Earth-Axis Instrument abruptly ground to a halt under the upheaval caused by that strike. Its deformed components scraped against one another, throwing off bursts of sparks.

After such a long buildup, he had not even gotten the chance to draw upon the earth’s ley lines again and summon magma and earthquakes before Ji Jue spotted the weakness.

The backlash from Ji Jue’s strike had caused the Earth-Axis Instrument to be struck by the collapsing ley lines. It shut down completely, and even the workshop had slowed to a crawl and could barely respond. It had entered its most vulnerable moment, and what made the craftsman despair even more was that he knew there was no chance Ji Jue would let the opportunity slip by.

With Ji Jue’s powers of observation, there was no way he would miss such a crucial opening. All he had to do was press the attack, and he could literally uproot the entire workshop. Once separated from the earth’s ley lines, the workshop would have no ability to resist and could only be left at his mercy.

The craftsman froze. With an earth-shaking rumble, Ji Jue merely swung the enormous sword once, heavily damaging the workshop’s outer defenses. And then, without warning, he changed direction and charged straight toward Mirage Workshop, whose position was nearly impossible to pinpoint within the mist.

A bell tolled in vain.

The chains Clock Tower Workshop had laid around Five Flora Workshop finally revealed themselves, only to close on empty air, having failed to catch the nimble Ji Jue.

They had missed!

“Stop him! Hurry!”

A voice Lin Ke could hardly believe suddenly echoed in his ears inside Dragonheart Workshop. As spirit matter circulated, a message from Andrei of Clock Tower Workshop surfaced directly in his mind.

“I’m willing to pay you two thousand units of spirit matter. Form an alliance with me from this moment on, and I will guarantee the safety of your workshop. Unless only the two of us remain, I will never damage it in any way.”

Lin Ke froze, unable to make sense of the proposal. There simply wasn’t enough time. Between Ji Jue’s speed, Andrei’s sudden message, and the rapidly changing situation, too much was happening at once for him to sort through.

What exactly was Andrei trying to do? Was he trying to trick Lin Ke into taking the hit for him? Why? Were two thousand units of spirit matter really worth releasing the restraints on his Knotbinding Hexcraft and revealing his trump card ahead of time?

Too much had changed in far too short a moment. In that split second, he did not even have time to react, much less make a decision.

And then he saw it. After the enormous Myriad Hands Form broke through the restraints of illusions and rainbow light, it completely ignored Mirage Workshop’s counterattack and abruptly changed direction again. It tanked several attacks that shifted between illusion and reality, yet accomplished nothing in return. In the end, it had looked far more threatening than it really was.

Ji Jue had merely taken a wide detour around Clock Tower Workshop, the greatest threat to him, before bringing his sword down on Nine Seals Workshop, which was already on the verge of collapse.

In an instant, the towering spirit matter tree was severed cleanly through the middle.

Under everyone’s stunned gazes, the crack-riddled Myriad Hands Form suddenly expanded. Ignoring the Hundred-Eyed Giant which wrapped around and tore into it, countless hands reached out and seized Lou Feng’s crystalline tower, pulling hard. The massive crystal tower, which had once been rooted so firmly in place that it seemed impossible to budge, was ripped straight out of the ground by Ji Jue!

Normally, it would never have been that easy, but earlier, the earth’s ley lines had been drawn together by the Earth-Axis Instrument, only for Ji Jue to drive his sword straight through them. Now the entirety of Leafway Island was shaking fiercely from the resulting earthquakes, leaving Lou Feng no time to stabilize his workshop again.

But why?! What was Ji Jue trying to accomplish? For a moment, everyone stared in disbelief.

Wait. Weren’t those two supposed to be friends?! No, even if they were only friends on the surface, given the current situation, shouldn’t they at least have been allies who could cover and support each other? Ji Jue had suddenly decided to turn around and sacrifice his own ally?!

Inside Dragonheart Workshop, Lin Ke still had one hand gripping the interwoven knots, unable to react in time.

“What a shame.”

Andrei’s message was sent belatedly through the spirit matter communication link. Lin Ke could hardly imagine what could possibly make that stone-faced freak sound so regretful. He only grew more irritated as his confusion deepened.

What the hell are you getting at? If you can’t talk like a normal person, then don’t talk at all!

The stone-faced man remained as indifferent as ever and merely told him, “You’ll find out soon enough exactly what you just missed out on.”

In the next moment, the crystalline tower was completely torn free of the earth and lifted high into the air in the grasp of the Myriad Hands Form.

“Ji Jue, you fucking—”

As the earth shook around Lou Feng, he was nearly thrown into the ceiling of his workshop. He clung tightly to a handhold, breathing hard.

“Even now, you’re still not considering surrender, Lou?” Ji Jue’s teasing voice came through the thick crystalline walls. “Maybe, for old times’ sake, I could give you a hand!”

Instead of getting angry, Lou Feng laughed. “Ha! If you’ve got the guts, then keep going! Kill me, then! Make it quick!”

Who the hell are you trying to fool, you bastard? You think I don’t know you?!

He knew Ji Jue far too well. There was a saying that the people who understood you best were often your enemies, and after them, your peers. Unfortunately for Ji Jue, Lou Feng happened to be both!

For a long time, Lou Feng had treated Ji Jue as his hypothetical rival and had put an enormous amount of effort into studying him, whether by developing techniques specifically aimed at countering him, analyzing his way of thinking, or digging deeply into his background. With the Lou family’s resources, there was very little they couldn’t uncover.

Lou Feng had dug up his accomplishments and experiences since entering the field, even records stretching all the way back to his birth, including the hospital in Shuzhou where he had been born, changes to his household registration, as well as his schooling and work history in Cliff City.

Lou Feng had felt envy, resentment, confusion, and even admiration toward him. By now, he could confidently say that no one understood Ji Jue better than he did. No one!

He even suspected that Ji Jue had been behind the Fate Summoning in Cliff City not long ago, but he simply had no evidence and could not be bothered to expose him anyway.

From all his analysis of Ji Jue, one thing stood out beyond question. Besides his astonishing drive and self-discipline, Ji Jue was an absolute pragmatist. If it worked, that was enough. If it got results, even better. As long as it did the job, nothing else mattered.

Unless there was a genuine need, Ji Jue would never waste a single cent’s worth of effort on decoration or embellishment. If he wanted to win, he would do whatever it took, including scheming, tricking, bluffing, cheating, or anything that worked. And if victory were already guaranteed, he would not even bother wasting time talking. He would simply steamroll straight through.

With a bastard like that, you could not listen to what he said. Not a single word of his could be trusted. One had to watch what he did instead, and his opponent could not afford to overlook even a single feint.

Which meant that whenever that bastard started putting on a show, he was hiding something crucial, especially like he was doing now! Going to all this trouble just to pressure him?

“What a joke,” Lou Feng sneered. “How much spirit matter do you have left? How long can you keep that thing moving? Can your reserves even keep up with the consumption?!”

Once he stopped letting himself be distracted by Ji Jue’s deliberate misdirection or intimidated by all that bluster, it became easy to see what those relentless attacks and provocations had really been meant to conceal.

Lou Feng didn’t need to be a genius to figure it out. The larger the construct, the more absurd its spirit matter consumption became, just like how bigger and heavier vehicles guzzled more fuel. The legacy of a sage, Mercury’s workshop, was indeed outrageous, powerful, and terrifying.

But what did it cost?! Even after sucking all those evil creatures dry, how long could he possibly keep it going? Even if he drained two entire workshops, how efficient could the utilization and conversion of all that spirit matter possibly be?!

“As expected of you.” Ji Jue sighed softly, making no attempt to hide his reaction. “Mm. By my estimate, I’ve probably got about twenty seconds left.”

After twenty seconds, the Myriad Hands Form would collapse on its own even if none of the other workshops attacked it, and that was only the cost of maintaining its basic operation. If Ji Jue actually made it move, that time would shrink even further. With every second that passed, he drew one step closer to defeat. He was about to run out of power!

But that was fine...

“Because I’ve still got you!”

Even setting aside Lou Feng’s skill as a craftsman, Ji Jue had already experienced the brilliance of the Lou family legacy more times than he could count.

Spirit Morph was a technique built around directly manipulating and utilizing the soul and spirit matter. Lou Feng could even use spirit matter to shape an entire workshop, and naturally, he could also reverse the process, turning the crystals scattered everywhere around them back into spirit matter.

At that point, could this even still be called Lou Feng’s workshop? This was obviously the giant spirit matter generator Ji Jue had misplaced!

And not just that, it was an all-purpose power bank with enough capacity for him to burn through spirit matter as recklessly as he pleased, without ever worrying about running dry!

The Myriad Hands Form seized both ends of the crystalline tower and threatened to snap it in two, as if it had Lou Feng by the throat.

In an innocently sincere tone, Ji Jue said, “We’ve known each other for so many years. You wouldn’t just stand by and watch me die, would you?”

“Ha!” Lou Feng sneered. “Why the hell shouldn’t I?!”

“You’ve got a choice.” Ji Jue said. “Either get eliminated right now and the two of us go down together, or give your brother a hand and secure second place at the very least!”

“And what makes you think I’m just going to do whatever you say?!” Lou Feng flashed him a cold smile and shook his head stubbornly. “Do it, Ji Jue. Screw this exam! I’d rather die than—”

However, before he could finish, the hundred-thousand-ton straw that finally broke the camel’s back came crashing down.

Ji Jue merely stated a simple fact. He spoke softly, without the slightest hint of hostility or menace. Just as the countdown on his remaining spirit matter was about to hit zero, he sighed again and told Lou Feng, “Your aunt’s phone number really isn’t that hard to find.”

Boom!

The crystalline tower shook violently. Boundless torrents of spirit matter surged through the circuits and interfaces the Myriad Hands Form had already opened, pouring into the deepest reaches of the vortex.

The furnace shook as flames soared. It was as if Ji Jue had suddenly connected an entirely new limb. His spirit matter reserves surged, soared, skyrocketed even. In the span of a heartbeat, they nearly filled to capacity, only to plummet again just as quickly as the Myriad Hands Form devoured them at an astonishing rate. It was practically a bottomless pit!

After this cycle repeated three times, the Myriad Hands Form collapsed. As it disintegrated, vast quantities of mercury reassembled once more, as though it had undergone a metamorphosis and been reborn.

When countless arms re-emerged from that strange vortex, crimson crystal swords had already formed in their hands. Now, with nothing more than casual sweeps of those hands, pale fissures appeared across the sky and spread outward.

In the next moment, an overwhelming barrage of slashes erupted from every direction, whipping up a storm that completely swallowed the Hundred-Eyed Giant. The colossal mass of flesh burst into a rain of blood, staining the earth crimson. Not even a scrap of flesh or bone remained!

Across the sea and sky, the hands spread wide, gripping the swords. Together, they formed a solemn yet terrifying crimson halo behind the Myriad Hands Form, like the divine aureole of some wrathful god.