Chapter 00152: It's Broken
# It's Broken
Chapter 152
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 152: It's Broken
The rain was getting heavier.
Thunder rumbled in the distance.
On his way home, Ji Jue noticed that the water in some areas had already risen to his knees.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t stay at Lu Ma’s house—after all, Lu Feng could sleep on the couch—but the problem was that Lu Feng’s snoring was too loud.
Even the thunder outside couldn’t drown it out.
Ji Jue had no idea how others could tolerate it.
Besides, every time the weather turned like this, he couldn’t help but worry.
The old house had been around for a long time, and leaks—both water and electrical—were common.
If he didn’t take care of it, he was afraid the house might collapse after being soaked for a couple of days.
Now that he had earned some money, he planned to hire someone to fix it up soon.
When Ji Jue finally got home, he checked the second floor and the basement to make sure there were no leaks.
Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.
Following his usual routine, he spent two hours tinkering with his pocket watch and then practiced his disintegration technique on some broken items he had brought back.
After that, he yawned and prepared to go to bed.
But just then, his wrist suddenly vibrated.
It was his long-dormant "cousin"—the mysterious device he carried—springing to life.
A window popped up in front of his eyes, glowing brightly.
—[Warning: Spatial Stability Value Abnormal.
Drifting Time Ruin Detected.
Distance: 979 kilometers.
Connect?]
Time Ruin? And it’s drifting?
Ji Jue’s head started to ache.
Why had this thing suddenly appeared?
These days were far from peaceful.
Life outside the cities was harsh, with frequent earthquakes, floods, storms, and packs of dangerous beasts.
Occasionally, even disaster-level monsters would appear, capable of wiping out an entire armed convoy in an instant.
As a result, apart from a dozen or so major cities like Cliff City, there weren’t many other settlements outside.
Most were small towns or gathering areas built in narrow, stable regions, but even they relied heavily on supplies and support from nearby major cities.
Given the constant threats, every major city had been designed with all possible disasters in mind.
While not impregnable, they were at least built within stable regions that had stood the test of time.
Nine hundred kilometers—that was well within Cliff City’s territory.
At this distance, it might as well have been right in his face.
Now, with a Time Ruin appearing so close, Ji Jue could almost imagine the Security Bureau going into a frenzy.
He wouldn’t be surprised if Tong Shan had already been dragged out of bed to deal with this.
This was a full-blown emergency!
If a Rift was a large, intact fragment peeled off from the present world, then a Time Ruin was a bizarre phenomenon formed by the convergence of countless smaller fragments, fused with out-of-control Essence of Goodness.
Whether due to the entanglement and collision of Essence forces, the ravages of war, tectonic movements, or the aftermath of natural disasters—or perhaps even interference from the Nine Calamities beneath the Vortex—Time Ruins were completely different from the present world.
Their internal rules and ecosystems were entirely abnormal, and even the flow of time within them was inconsistent.
Like malignant tumors born of mutation, once they appeared, they had to be dismantled from the inside as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, as the Time Ruin grew and expanded out of control, who knew what kind of sinister things might emerge after it shattered?
The Security Bureau was in big trouble now.
At least it wasn’t in the North Mountain District, so Ji Jue didn’t have to worry about the fire reaching his doorstep.
With a somewhat amused attitude, Ji Jue whistled and was about to take a shower and read a book in bed when he noticed something was off.
—[Warning: Spatial Stability Value Abnormal.
Drifting Time Ruin Detected.
Distance: 900 kilometers.
Connect?]
Wait, was that number…?
Ji Jue squinted, instinctively leaning closer to get a better look.
But no matter how close he got, the pop-up window didn’t change in size.
Only the numbers on it shifted again: [Distance: 850 kilometers]
And then, [Distance: 700 kilometers]
His face twitched.
Wait…
This was bad!
Late at night, the rain poured down, and thunder rumbled.
“Mom, mom.”
In her drowsiness, Lu Ma felt someone shaking her arm.
She opened her eyes and saw her youngest child holding a pillow: “I can’t sleep.”
Lu Ma propped herself up and gently rubbed his face: “What’s wrong? Did you have a bad dream? Is your sister grinding her teeth again?”
“It’s like… like something passed by,” the child trembled, tears in his eyes. “Something big… really big and scary…”
“Don’t be afraid, mom’s here.”
Lu Ma carefully reached out and pulled the child onto the mat, cradling him in her arms.
Gone was her usual brusqueness; she gently stroked his hair:
“Sleep, sleep. Mom will protect you.”
“Mm.” The child nestled into her embrace, shifting to get closer. “I love you, mom. I want to stay with you.”
Lu Ma smiled.
She glanced at the clock on the bedside table.
Listening to the steady breathing in her arms,
She, too, drifted off to sleep.
Outside, the storm raged on.
Under the same downpour, Wen Wen was jolted awake by her phone.
After a few seconds of listening, all traces of sleep vanished.
She sat bolt upright.
“A drifting Time Ruin? What the hell?!” She scratched her messy hair, her voice filled with shock. “Tong Shan, are you serious?”
“Yes, absolutely.”
The voice on the other end remained calm, despite the urgency: “Fifteen minutes ago, we received a warning from Spring City. There was a breach in the封锁, and a fully formed Time Ruin broke free from the underground caverns and is now drifting toward Cliff City. It’s already entered the North Mountain District…”
Wen Wen gritted her teeth in frustration. “After spending so much money and deploying so many people, you still let something this big slip through? What the hell is your department doing?!”
The alert level for Time Ruins in Spring City’s caverns was already high enough, and now one had drifted into the city?
Who knew how much damage it could cause?
Even stationary Time Ruins had to be sealed off and dealt with quickly.
Anyone who accidentally stepped into their range could be pulled in, and once inside, survival was nearly impossible.
Chosen Ones, with their distinct Essence traits and affinities, were particularly susceptible to being drawn in.
Some even sought out Time Ruins deliberately, hoping to gain blessings or grow stronger.
Experienced Time Ruin hunters handled these situations as smoothly as running a dungeon.
But the problem was, no one entered a Time Ruin without thorough preparation, intel, and emergency plans.
Who expected a dungeon to just float up to your face?
Over the phone, Tong Shan continued: “The Third Department is preparing the ritual to link with the Eternal Gate. We’re hoping to seal it before it goes out of control, but according to our observations, it’s already becoming active. I need the North Mountain Department to be ready. If the Time Ruin goes out of control, we’ll need to clean up the aftermath immediately.”
Wen Wen was already out of bed, sighing wearily: “Could it get any worse?”
“…”
There was a brief silence on the other end, which made Wen Wen pause: “Don’t tell me…”
Tong Shan’s usually calm voice carried a rare hint of anxiety: “Tong Hua is missing…”
“What?!”
Wen Wen’s voice rose, her eyes widening.
“About half an hour ago, she went out to comfort a heartbroken friend, despite the weather.”
Tong Shan sighed: “Before I called, her family found her car by the roadside. It was empty, her phone screen still lit, but the call for help hadn’t gone through…”
Crack!
A fissure appeared on the phone screen as Wen Wen exploded: “Why didn’t you say something earlier?!”
“What good would it do?”
Tong Shan’s tone returned to its usual calm, or perhaps indifference. “Just because she’s my sister, should we risk burning down everything within tens of kilometers by using Mountain Light to forcibly break open the Time Ruin?”
Wen Wen had no retort.
She covered her face and sighed helplessly.
She remembered the first time she met Tong Hua.
The girl, who loved exploring, had been chased through the ruins by a parasitic shadow beast from urban legends.
A ghost-hunting adventure that actually found a ghost.
The first time she met someone even more unlucky than Ji Jue…
Wait!
Her movements suddenly froze.
After a long pause, she spoke haltingly: “I remember… artifacts with Vortex and disaster auras tend to attract each other, right?”
“Correct. The most common method to redirect a drifting Time Ruin is to use Calamity Polymers and rituals to lure it away from its original path,” Tong Shan replied, though he didn’t understand her point. “That’s the backup plan the Third Department is preparing.”
“…”
For a moment, Wen Wen’s tense body relaxed.
She let out a sigh of relief.
Her hurried movements slowed, and she no longer felt panicked.
After all, if this theory held true, then the Chosen One in Cliff City with the strongest attraction to the Time Ruin… was probably only one person.
After calling that unlucky kid’s landline three times and getting no answer, she finally felt at ease.
“Alright, no need to worry.”
After the emotional rollercoaster, Wen Wen let out a bitter laugh: “Let’s take it slow.”
It had only been a few months, but she was already getting used to it.
Whenever Ji Jue was involved, no matter how normal things seemed, something would always go wrong.
But now, hearing that Ji Jue was among the unlucky ones, she actually felt a strange sense of calm…
With him around, no matter how bad things got, they couldn’t get much worse.
Surely it couldn’t be more dangerous than the time he was in Lawrence’s mouth or jumped into the mess of the White Deer’s struggle, right?
Darkness, dizziness, shaking, falling, weightlessness.
Ji Jue felt as if he had suddenly been thrown into a bottomless pit, tumbling around like a ragdoll before finally landing on the ground.
Overwhelmed by unprecedented dizziness and nausea, he coughed violently, struggling to open his eyes.
All he could see was a dim, flickering light.
The air smelled of familiar disinfectant and… the thick stench of blood.
In his confusion, he instinctively got up and looked around, utterly baffled: What the hell? Not only did this damn Time Ruin jump in my face, but where the hell did it drop me?
Is this even still the country?!
Then, he heard a cold voice from the doorway.
“Not bad. You’re the best of this batch of newcomers.”
Ah, it’s the end of the month.
Please vote for me!
(End of Chapter)