Chapter 288: Too Late to Abandon Darkness for the Light

Everything changed. In an instant, the Myriad Hands Form transformed yet again. It was like a boss that had barely appeared on-screen before skipping the dialogue and going straight into phase two!

Endless crimson light coursed through the crystal swords, vivid and vicious, dyeing the entire world blood-red. Silver and crimson intertwined as the radiance continued to spread, like a bloodstained deity presiding over the destruction of the mortal world.

Under the frenzied slashes of countless blades, the massive flesh construct disintegrated into a rain of blood that splattered in every direction, yet the Hundred-Eyed Giant’s furious roar did not cease. Before its fragments could even hit the ground, they began writhing and regenerating at incredible speed. Millions upon millions of strands of flesh drifted down through the air, only to rise again.

Wherever the blood rain fell, eyes emerged from the spreading crimson light, all of them locking firmly onto the Myriad Hands Form. Their gazes even pierced through every obstruction and fell directly upon Ji Jue. Every single stare seemed filled with endless hunger and venomous hatred, exerting an invisible pull.

And when hundreds of millions of eyes turned toward him at once, even his soul seemed to be caught in an unseen tide as it was pushed, dragged, and tossed about.

Under that relentless pull, his mind rapidly turned muddled and dazed. If this had happened to Ji Jue before, his spirit matter would probably already have started slipping out of control and dispersing. In the middle of a group assault, even the slightest lapse could have ended with his soul being torn apart and devoured by the gravitational pull of countless blood-red eyes.

Unfortunately for them, Ji Jue was no longer the only craftsman inside the Myriad Hands Form. There was one more now—Lou Feng!

The spirit matter within the Myriad Hands Form surged and wavered for only a second. Then, under Lou Feng’s control, it immediately drew back together, ignoring the ravenous pull of the blood eyes and stabilizing itself, solid as bedrock and utterly unmoved.

This is Spirit Morph, kid!

The hands spread open once more as Lou Feng snapped, “What the hell are you staring at?! Keep staring and you’ll get a stye!”

At once, countless blood-red crystalline swords swept outward again and rapidly extended all around. Like the spines of a hedgehog, they stabbed toward the crimson sky and the innumerable eyes with meticulous precision, not missing a single one.

If staring at him wouldn’t give them styes, then he could always poke their eyes out himself!

The sound of shattering rang out without end. The Hundred-Eyed Giant was pierced through and torn apart under the relentless assault, and its shrill roars spread through the air once more.

This time, however, it was nowhere near as lucky as before. A fully developed Hundred-Eyed Giant naturally would not have feared such a targeted attack. Unfortunately, forget a complete version, the candidate controlling this one did not even have a craftsman license yet. Simply learning the workshop’s secret theories and managing to create their first Hundred-Eyed Giant was already an impressive feat.

The Unbreakable Carapace, Edge-Shattering Breath, Blood of Annihilation—aside from the Soul-Devouring Eyes, the giant’s other three signature traits were little more than imitations. This was essentially a stripped-down beginner’s version. At most, it just had an absurdly terrifying amount of vitality. Unless every last scrap of flesh was annihilated in an instant, it could always reassemble itself and regenerate.

Unfortunately, even that advantage was useless now.

Maybe the giant had lost sight of checking the almanac[1] before leaving home today. It had forgotten that today was family reunion day! And so, the moment the door opened, countless Ex-Wives and Stepmothers came calling!

Blood-red light surged across the crystalline swords and transformed once more. Half erupted like raging flames, while the other half darkened and drifted like shadows. As the myriad hands swept outward, a storm of blades tore through everything. The giant’s anguished howls rang out without end as destruction shook heaven and earth. It had no chance to fight back!

Once the Myriad Hands Form’s overwhelming output combined with Lou Feng’s spirit matter supply, then fitted with the Ex-Wives and Stepmothers, the result countered anything alive. Blood energy was absorbed to feed the blades, while spirit matter was plundered and offered to their vicious edges.

In mere moments, the raging storm of swords completely shredded the Hundred-Eyed Giant, and there was still power to spare. The blades tore apart every incoming attack against them, swept all their opponents into their range, and unleashed destruction and death without restraint!

Across the entirety of Leafway Island, scarcely a single patch of ground remained intact. The earth overturned, mountains split apart, and dense forests burned to ashes in flames. The clouds parted overhead, yet even the dim sun could not cast its light. Only the shriek of blades tearing through the air remained, roaring across the sea like thunder. Blood-red radiance surged in waves, blanketing the heavens.

“That’s it, Lou! Nice work! Keep it up!” Ji Jue laughed wildly, reveling in the abundance of spirit matter pouring in like never before. “I told you! When brothers work together, there’s nothing they can’t overcome! Come on, give me more! Let me see how far you can go. We’re going to be partners for life, after all!”

“Partners, my ass!” Lou Feng roared in exasperation. “You bastard, keep your filthy hands away from my family!”

Through the crystalline walls came Ji Jue’s increasingly sinister laughter. “Heh heh heh... That depends on how well you behave. Where’s that Spirit Morph? Hurry up and get it moving! You wouldn’t want to lose here, would you?”

“Ji Jue, you motherf—” Lou Feng’s face flushed crimson with rage. He wanted nothing more than to blow that bastard to pieces, but blowing him up would not solve the problem.

The craftsman license was almost secondary at this point. What if Ji Jue really did set his sights on Lou Feng’s aunt? Sure, according to everything Lou Feng had dug up, Ji Jue had always kept his personal life remarkably clean. But what if?!

If he couldn’t beat the bastard, fine. He could always go back to Tide City, hole up there for the rest of his life, and avoid him entirely. But if Ji Jue started pestering his aunt, and she somehow got talked into it and actually fell for him, wouldn’t that mean Lou Feng would spend the rest of his life with this damn beast lording over him?!

For the sake of his family and his future, no matter how furious and unwilling Lou Feng was, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and submit to Ji Jue’s relentless demands.

Besides... besides! If he could secure second place, he would still come out ahead, right? Working together benefited both sides. Yes, both sides!

Stay calm, Lou Feng. Stay calm! You’re only doing this because he threatened you. It doesn’t count. You don’t actually want to cooperate with him!

Yet no matter how unwilling he was, Lou Feng still gritted his teeth and got to work.

Boom!

At the heart of the Myriad Hands Form, the crystalline tower transformed once more under Lou Feng’s control. It contracted and reshaped itself into armor, wrapping around the flowing silver light. Vast quantities of spirit matter crystals rose under the pull of the radiance and converged, forming another immense, magnificent halo outside the vortex.

Pouring everything into it, Lou Feng activated the technique once more and launched another ferocious assault against every opponent.

Inside Dragonheart Workshop, Lin Ke’s eye twitched violently. He felt like he was about to have an aneurysm. Now that the Myriad Hands Form had patched its final weakness, it had completely surpassed anything he could deal with. At this point, all he could do was rage and curse.

“Andrei, why the fuck didn’t you say that earlier?! What was with all the cryptic bullshit?!”

Amid the booming toll of bells, only a brief reply came back. Andrei almost sounded puzzled. “If I had told you, would you have gone?”

Lin Ke fell silent. He had no answer. Even now, after realizing that Andrei had tried to trick him into taking the brunt of the attack, he still had to admit that it really had been the best solution at the time. Ji Jue had never once approached the range of Clock Tower Workshop. Whenever the bell tolled, all transformations ceased, separating physical matter from spirit matter once more. Even now, it remained the single greatest threat to Ji Jue.

But even if Andrei wanted to act against him, there were too many workshops in between. He simply could not reach him. So how was he supposed to convince everyone to lift their workshops’ restrictions and give him free rein?

Dream on!

The only thing he could do was offer Lin Ke enough incentive to stand in front and take the hit. But would Lin Ke really go if he knew Ji Jue was almost out of power? Of course not! He would only retreat even faster! Even if Ji Jue were stopped before he could reach his “charging station,” he could still take someone down with him before he fell. And when that happened, Lin Ke would be the one pushed to the edge of the cliff.

Was he really supposed to gamble his life on Andrei keeping his word and coming to his aid? Even if Andrei swore up and down and beat his chest promising it, would Lin Ke dare believe him?

From the very beginning, they had never been teammates. There had never been an alliance. They had simply happened to share the same enemy. That was all.

Andrei sent another message. “Do you want to win? There’s still a chance.”

“What are you planning?” Lin Ke asked suspiciously.

“Open your workshop to me and let me coordinate and control it. Same terms as before, and the offer applies to everyone. But there will be no spirit matter compensation. Until Tidesound is dealt with, I won’t attack any of you.”

You motherfucker. Are you insane, or am I?!

Lin Ke was so furious he actually laughed. But at this point, did he really have any other choice? No matter how arrogant, extreme, deranged, or cold craftsmen were, they still retained their reason. Losing their reason was as good as losing their lives. Sometimes, it was even worse than losing their lives.

Lin Ke had no other choice. Or rather, even if he did, Andrei had no intention of giving him one.

“Can you win?” Lin Ke asked as he released the final restriction on his workshop.

This time, Andrei did not immediately give his usual decisive answer. There was only silence.

In less than half a minute, every surviving workshop except Nine Seals had entered into a wartime pact. Ji Jue had casually hacked Nine Seals apart, and Lou Feng had even recycled its giant tree of spirit matter afterward. It was completely gone!

The remaining survivors no longer hesitated, and they joined forces. Explosions erupted without end from the sky, from beneath the earth, and from every inch of the air. Five Flora’s Earth-Axis Instrument restarted, coordinating with Concord’s Kunwu Lock as both closed in.

The boiling earth seemed to rise abruptly while the sky descended. Heaven and earth contracted toward one another as invincible walls of iron formed from every direction, closing inward inch by inch.

At the same time, countless knots snapped inside Dragonheart Workshop. Lin Ke drew his sword and cut through the mass of intertwined cords at the center, releasing every Knotbinding Hexcraft restraint at once. Vicious curses spilled from the shadows and surged upward, intertwining in the air to form the hazy outline of a heart that beat with frenzied force.

All the calamities and suffering of the mortal world seemed to be born from within that heart. With every pulsing heartbeat, everything around it withered, decayed, and rapidly fell apart.

Throne’s Shadow manifested once more, its enormous silhouette filling the sky. As it looked down from above, an intense gravitational vortex formed around the Myriad Hands Form and collapsed inward, crushing everything in its grasp.

As one workshop after another opened its restrictions and linked together, the tolling of bells spread in vast waves across the battlefield. Wherever the sound passed, matter and spirit were forcibly separated, returning everything back to its original state and drawing it closer to immutable stillness.

The operation of Fluid Alchemy slowed considerably. Under the combined pressure of gravity, decay, and interference, it became increasingly difficult for the Myriad Hands Form to even maintain itself.

Meanwhile, on the outside, the Kunwu Lock drew the crushing weight of the heavens while the Earth-Axis Instrument stirred the turbid power of the Ninefold Earth.

The two forces collided. At that moment, heaven and earth attempted to close, but everyone realized they couldn’t. Between the descending sky and the rising earth, something seemed to have been wedged in place like a stone, preventing the two from drawing any closer.

In the dead silence, only a faint sigh could be heard. It sounded almost regretful. It was certainly impressive that they had managed to join forces now. Unfortunately...

“You’re too late,” Ji Jue said.

1. The Huangli, also known as the Old Huangli, Imperial Calendar, Farmers’ Almanac, or Tung Shing, is a traditional Chinese almanac based on the lunar calendar and compiled using systems such as the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches and the Twenty-Four Solar Terms. ☜