Free Web NovelChapter 22: The Arrival of Supreme Benevolence
The once abundant and surging dragon blood transformation suddenly came to a standstill. A brief pause, no longer than a blink, was enough to shatter Lawrence to pieces.
Boom!
As Minerva’s iron fist came crashing down once more, a storm of destruction swept away all flesh and blood, even suppressing the incomplete dragon blood and smashing his head into utter ruin. From above, the blow drove straight down into his chest.
As Lawrence roared, intricate scales emerged on his arms, where bone was exposed, and barely managed to block Wen Wen’s fist. Behind him, the broken wings split open. Eyes opening within them, turning toward the direction of the giant tree.
There, he saw Ji Jue awakening among the tangled roots, smiling as he slowly raised his middle finger.
“Surprised?” he greeted softly. “I told them I knew you, and a lot of helpful people sent me right back here!”
Ji Jue opened his mouth and bit down on the roots right in front of him. The giant tree trembled violently as countless tendril-like branches wriggled. Astonishingly enough, they began to dry out.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Lawrence’s voice trembled, filled with disbelief. He was more afraid of Ji Jue’s meddling than of Minerva’s attack. “Stop it! Stop it right now!” frёeweɓηovel.coɱ
The Vortex Cultivation Method! The transformation progress of his Vortex Cultivation Method had actually stalled?!
No, not just stalled—an unprecedented void had formed within, frantically sucking away what should have been his own results, devouring the dragon blood that was meant to flow into his heart!
What’s going on? What happened? How did he do it?
“Stop!” Lawrence shouted.
Ji Jue ignored him completely and spread his arms wide.
His eyes were already filled with crimson. The miserable and despairing spirit matter surged within his body, igniting hunger and madness. As the recipient of the Vortex Cultivation Method, he was supposed to be the passive vessel. Yet not only was he embracing the erosion of the Bloodthirst Syndrome, he also used the countless aberrant spirit matter to turn the tables and seize control from Lawrence bit by bit.
To hell with “Harbinger of Disaster.” To hell with “rare talent.” To hell with everything! In life, you eat when you can. Food, filth, whatever it is, you just eat. I don’t care if it’s aberrant spirit matter. I’ll eat, eat, eat everything!
Thus, he swallowed the dragon blood in huge gulps, as if devouring molten lava. The pain and despair seemed to fade away, and he didn’t care in the slightest.
As Lawrence roared and charged forward, his flesh and bone-like spikes extended outward, trying to interrupt him. Towering crystal pillars burst from the ground, shielding Ji Jue.
Now, the attacking and defending teams switched places. Amid the screams and roars, Lawrence’s body swelled further, growing more frenzied. He launched relentless attacks, no longer carrying the ease or composure he once had. It was as if someone were inside his body, sucking away his life and blood through a straw.
The subject and the recipient had become connected through the Vortex Cultivation Method, and they were inseparable.
When Ji Jue began to undermine Lawrence’s control, the initial one-way flow turned into a struggle and a tug-of-war, with both sides fighting for control over the dragon blood refined through the Vortex Cultivation Method.
Ji Jue’s pulling force was growing stronger and stronger. Under the erosion and transformation of the dragon blood, Ji Jue screamed. His eyes stretched longer and became narrower, taking on a beast-like form. Scales appeared on his limbs before flickering in and out, as if his very genes were mutating.
Wen Wen turned back and shouted, “Stop, Ji Jue! You’re not a Chosen One yet! If you keep absorbing that, you’ll become aberrant! Stop!” ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
But Ji Jue no longer cared. In fact, he accelerated the process. The pain and resentment left behind by countless people surged like a tidal wave within his body, driving him toward the true culprit before his eyes. Like this, he was ready to launch his vengeance. The people wished to trample, crush, tear apart, brutally slaughter this man, and finally tear him to pieces!
“I can't stop now! Don’t worry!”
Ji Jue gritted his teeth and desperately suppressed the violent urges within his soul before he looked up at the empty night sky. Beyond the dim stars, there were those vague silhouettes, those colossal beings faintly gazing down, still watching him.
“Chosen One, huh? You’ve been watching for so many years. What are you waiting for?” Ji Jue waved at them and yelled, “Come on, choose me, choose all you want! Damn it, pick me already! Who the hell said I had to be the one choosing?!”
Minerva’s expression changed. Even under the effects of the matrix, which reduced her emotions to a minimum and turned her heart stone-cold, she still showed a flicker of surprise and confusion. She even instinctively turned her head, as if wanting to pry open Ji Jue’s skull to see what nonsense he was saying.
Do you think being a Chosen One is something you pick yourself? Do you think you can just choose to be one, like you choose a cabbage at a supermarket? Even if you're awakened with talent and potential, it’s not something you can just summon with a flick of your fingers...
She froze, because the sky had shattered. Not just the sky above the hospital or within this enclosed zone, or the one above North Mount District. From where the ripples reached to the green, towering mountains, all the stars within a thousand li across the vast expanse of Cliff City vanished without a trace, as if they had all withdrawn from the stage when the curtain was lifted.
In their place appeared vast radiances that ordinary eyes could not perceive. Within those lights, solemn and austere silhouettes emerged, as though condensed from the gathering of all things. They were the supreme authority manifested from the endless transformations and phenomena of the human world.
An all-encompassing, formless presence; a towering, imposing citadel; a crown woven from bone and blood; a stag’s head with great antlers bearing the carcasses of a pack of wolves; a vortex formed from countless intertwined lives; a blood-weeping sun; and ever-shifting flames and lightning...
“Ascension, Origin, Swarm, White Deer, Vortex, Eternal Gate, Entropy, Ember, Ruins...”
Of the Twelve Supreme Benevolences, nine had descended!
Wen Wen nearly froze in place, doubting her own eyes. Such sudden manifestations of divine signs were like blessings granted by the stars. Those supreme tapestries that countless Chosen Ones spent their entire lives seeking without ever being favored were now filling the night sky, occupying every corner.
They surged across the heavens and expanded rapidly, pressing against and pushing one another out. Gone was their former elegance and nobility. Instead, they resembled shoppers fighting for a sale, waving their money around and scrambling for the only prize. They were each eager to bestow their blessing...
“Shut up, and take my money!”
In the span of a fleeting blink, all collision and struggle vanished without a trace, as if the outcome had already been decided!
All other magnificent visions faded away. What filled the night sky were burning stars erupting with blinding light, as if the entire firmament had been transformed into a colossal furnace.
When the blazing stars were consumed, that magnificent furnace tilted, and from within flowed a faint, flickering glow. It poured down like a heavenly waterfall, engulfing Ji Jue completely, as if it fell into his very soul, igniting his sense of self.
That manifestation was the Supreme Benevolence, Ember!
From an unprecedented blend of agony and fullness, the once vague and dim talent within Ji Jue’s soul now bathed in the afterglow of the stars, undergoing its final transformation.
Within the void, a crest took form. An orange-red radiance flowed continuously as intricate patterns emerged. They resembled overlapping gears and levers, or the silhouette of some complex mechanism... Even Ji Jue could not clearly discern it.
[Chosen Rite: Complete!]
[Registration identity change initiated. Chosen One: Ji Jue. Login complete.]
[Spirit matter reserve: access granted. Error, error, error... Please proceed to the Central Station immediately to complete formal employee registration!]
***
Dozens of overwhelming and dazzling pop-ups burst from the wristwatch, but all those chaotic notifications no longer mattered. From within the burning blaze of embers, Ji Jue grinned and raised his head, looking at the stunned Lawrence.
“Hello there. A lot of my friends asked me to pass on their greetings to you... but after thinking it over, it’s probably more convenient if they tell you themselves.”
Ji Jue raised his hand and asked one final time, “Are you ready?”
...to bear the pain and despair you yourself have created!
A torrential surge of crimson spirit matter burst forth from Ji Jue like a waterfall. Within the deathly silent enclosure, a tidal roar rose as countless wails and cries echoed from every gap and every corner.
There was the screech of metal grinding and the hum of engines coming to life. In the ruins, long-dormant machines began to operate once more. From the collapsed parking sheds piled with shattered electric bikes and motorcycles, to the rows of intact cars in the parking lots, to the phones lying in hospital rooms, the computers that had been shut down—every darkened screen lit up again, glowing with a blood-red hue. Engines roared back to life, vibrating violently in a frenzy.
The lingering remnants of the dead, as well as their resentment and suffering, surged once more within Ji Jue’s soul, then poured into countless machines to awaken them again.
However, it still wasn’t enough! It wasn’t nearly enough!
Even after exhausting all his spirit matter in an instant, it was still nowhere near enough to express even a fraction of that overwhelming scale. From within the burning pain, Ji Jue raised his hand, grabbed a sharp crystal shard, and drove it straight into his own neck.
Blood burst forward. The wristwatch, now flooded with massive amounts of aberrant spirit matter, trembled violently as a familiar notification appeared.
[Detecting that the employee is in life-threatening conditions. Error, error, error, error!]
[Emergency survival protocol activated. During protocol duration, Chosen One abilities will undergo upward evolution by one level. Dual evolution complete!]
On the wristwatch, the numbers in the spirit matter reserve vault fluctuated wildly. In an instant, they plummeted to the bottom, then surged rapidly back up and filled to the brim again under the massive influx of external spirit matter.
Amid the intense operation, it felt as if even the internal mechanism had been burned red, like sizzling, searing-hot steel.
Countless piercing metallic sounds echoed throughout the enclosure, and the ground trembled, because a tidal wave of machinery emerged from the ruins and surged forth!
