Chapter 00214: above destiny 214
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Chapter 214
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 214
Ji Jue moved.
He moved again, and then once more.
Dodging left and right, helplessly avoiding, he pressed down on the dog's head: "Stop licking, bro, stop licking—"
The CEO grinned, its tongue hanging out, persistently nuzzling its head into Ji Jue's embrace, unyielding.
It kept pushing Ji Jue's hand onto its body, its tail wagging furiously.
Its fur was smooth and glossy, and as Ji Jue's hand landed on it, he instinctively began to stroke it.
From top to bottom.
The CEO, with its tongue hanging out, once it felt comfortable being petted, generously rolled over on the ground, exposing its belly, signaling Ji Jue to continue.
Ji Jue sighed with worry, too distracted to focus on petting the dog.
From last night until now, he had stayed up all night, restless and troubled—the strange occurrences in Quan City were secondary; the real issue was the problem with his own body.
After all, even if others hadn't noticed, how could he not be aware?
How could it be that while everyone else in Quan City was busy killing, burning, and looting workshops, everything seemed to be going smoothly, yet he had somehow inexplicably been struck by the Blade of Transformation?!
Didn't he uninstall it completely last time?! How could there still be residual files?
And now, he was even feeling a bit overwhelmed by it…
Sure, it felt good, and he hadn't suffered any losses.
His understanding of Embers had even taken a leap forward.
But the problem was, this wasn't the right time or place!
Quan City was now overrun with abominations, far from the Sanctuary of Supreme Goodness.
It was practically a literal demon realm.
Last time, before the Rotting One could even poke its head out, Ji Jue had slashed it with a blade.
He didn't know how many stitches it took, but it must have been furious, pounding its chest under the vortex—"Don't let me catch you, kid!"
And now, not long after, Ji Jue was back, this time with nail clippers to give the Rotting One a pedicure…
Fortunately, Du Deng was such a useless little minion that even the Rotting One didn't care about him.
Ji Jue could only pray that the Rotting One, with its vast resources, wouldn't mind such trivial losses.
If it ever found even the slightest clue, it might send a whole convoy of people to deal with him.
Ji Jue let out a long sigh, angrily rubbing the dog's head.
"Tell me, who the hell invented this damn Celestial Rail thing?" he muttered to himself.
"I'm just a temp, you know? A temp! I haven't even signed a contract yet… You should treat your workers better, bro. You haven't paid a single day of social security for me, and even work-related injuries are out of my own pocket. How did I suddenly get promoted to an inspector?"
The CEO smiled, licking its only employee, even if he might be a bit of an idiot, without any disdain.
Ji Jue felt increasingly helpless.
Several times, he had wanted to rip off his wristwatch and stuff it into the CEO's vest, telling it to find someone else.
But he couldn't bear to part with the bond and history he shared with his watch.
Besides, it was too late to cut ties now.
What was he thinking back then?
From the moment the watch saved his life under that truck, he had been tied to this whole mess.
Even if Ji Jue wanted to deny it and freeload, it was Non-Aggression that had sought him out.
The Non-Aggression Matrix originated from the Sage's Mercury, which belonged to the Mo School, and the wristwatch came from the Celestial Rail Group, which in turn was tied to the Central Empire…
They seemed to come from completely different sources, possibly even incompatible, yet Non-Aggression and the wristwatch seamlessly integrated, even compatible with the Blade of Transformation!
Ji Jue even felt that these things might have originally been part of the same set!
Who knows what kind of crazy inventions those Mo School craftsmen came up with, using their extraordinary wisdom to create such deadly things.
Just thinking about the kind of stuff ancient alchemists could come up with made Ji Jue shudder.
Now, trapped in Quan City, struggling to survive, life was already hard enough.
And just as the Blade of Transformation had finished freeloading off him and left, the CEO showed up again.
You can't do this to me!
But the CEO just smiled, wagging its tail, licking his chin and hands, lying in his arms.
As if awarding a model employee.
Calm down, Ji Jue, calm down!
Being approachable is just a disguise for capitalists!
Greedy executives will squeeze every last drop of sweat and blood from their workers, discarding them like trash without a second thought.
How could you fall for such sweet talk?
Even if the CEO suddenly opened its mouth and said, "You, go deal with those Deep Craftsmen," Ji Jue wouldn't be surprised.
But its fur really was so smooth.
Slippery to the touch.
He kept petting it, comforting his wounded soul, calming his nerves.
"You better not mess with me, or I'll go to the Central Empire for labor arbitration… You hear me? Dogs are man's best friend, but capitalists aren't…"
Ji Jue muttered to himself, his eyes never leaving the crude temporary furnace in front of him, quietly waiting for the blessing to rise and the miracle to condense within the flames.
He didn't notice that his teammates had gradually moved farther away.
The large hideout was almost entirely gathered in another corner.
They huddled together, peeking at Ji Jue in the corner, watching him occasionally stroke the air, muttering to himself, their hair standing on end.
"Is he going crazy?" Jiang Xuan worriedly sighed.
"Maybe he's possessed by something dirty!"
Ji Xue decisively said, "When Ji Liu was a kid, he went to play on someone's grave during summer vacation. When he came back, he was like this—crying and laughing, tearing up his homework, even eating poop. A good beating fixed him, and when he woke up, he forgot everything."
"I didn't eat poop!" Ji Liu angrily retorted.
Ji Xue shrugged, even more pleased, "See? I told you, a beating fixes everything!"
"You're asking for it, aren't you?" Ji Liu angrily grabbed her hair, and the siblings started wrestling for the umpteenth time.
Finally calming down a bit, Xu Guan sighed, trying to mediate, "Alright, alright, don't gossip behind his back. No one's perfect. Brother Ji Jue is honest and friendly, so it's normal to have some flaws. We should respect and understand him. Maybe all Embers are like this."
"What's wrong with us Embers?"
Now it was Lou Feng's turn to glare, "We Embers are perfectly normal. You can't generalize like that!"
"Yeah, yeah, sure, that's right."
"Normal, everyone's normal."
"We're all one team, one big happy family!"
For the first time, Lou Feng felt the helplessness of facing slander and prejudice.
Watching as Ji Jue single-handedly ruined the already scarce good reputation of craftsmen.
Meanwhile, Ji Jue's "episode" seemed to have finally ended.
He respectfully stood up, bowing and nodding to the air, waving at the corner, as if seeing off something that wasn't there.
Lou Feng felt even more exhausted watching this.
"What the hell are you doing? Are you on drugs or something?"
"This is the workplace," Ji Jue sighed.
"Being a worker makes you humble."
He had given up trying to explain, "There was a dog here just now, the CEO of the Celestial Rail Group. It came to see me, thought I was an idiot, licked me a couple of times, then wagged its tail and left."
Reality and reason wouldn't allow it.
Besides, he'd rather it was just a hallucination.
On one hand, his connection with the Mo School was too dangerous to talk about.
On the other, reality was already complicated enough; no need to add more trouble.
Boom!
Outside the temporary spiritual barrier, through the observation window, distant rumbles echoed again.
It hadn't stopped since last night!
Under the eternal night, sharp cracking sounds occasionally rang out, with remnant spirits howling and evil creatures running amok.
Quan City had turned into complete chaos.
The good news was, they didn't need to spread the word anymore.
The Cult of Transformation had launched their plan first.
Now, not just the outposts, but the entire Haizhou's forces were likely converging on Quan City, with the Federation's attention focused here…
The bad news was, the Cult of Transformation seemed to have gone overboard.
Shedding their usual shadowy, evasive style, they had gathered such a massive force and, relying on their various operations within Quan City, were now locking horns with the Security Bureau.
Amidst the constant tremors, the two sides were locked in a fierce battle.
This time, it seemed like they were ready to go all out, with nothing to lose, determined to take on the Security Bureau.
The internal lockdown in Quan City had also tightened significantly.
All routes were tangled into a maze, with surveillance and detection scattered everywhere, leaving no gaps.
It was as tight as a steel drum.
Until the situation became clear, to avoid being casually picked off by some powerful evil entity passing by, they had to hide quickly, finding refuge in the cracks.
This was where the value of Tong Plants became apparent.
Using telekinesis, they moved an entire pile of rubble, dug out a basement underneath, reinforced the structure with Jiang Xuan's help, and Ji Jue and Lou Feng temporarily converted it into a workshop, isolating the spiritual energy inside and out.
Xu Guan then erased their tracks and applied confusion.
Finally, they covered it back up with the rubble.
And so, they managed to cobble together a hiding spot.
It wouldn't hold up under a thorough search, but it was enough to lay low for now.
Some rested, others prepared, while workaholic Ji Jue immediately threw himself into processing the stolen goods, racing against time to turn them into something useful.
This was where Lou Feng's usefulness shone.
Not only could he lend a hand at critical moments and help process materials, but he could even pull out a small portable refining furnace from his pocket—a top-tier model, no less, fine-tuned by a master.
Though he repeatedly warned Ji Jue not to break the furnace, when it came to working together, he didn't hesitate.
Now, as the flames died down and the residual heat dissipated, the underground space grew increasingly stuffy.
But the teammates didn't seem to mind.
Instead, they gathered around the furnace, eagerly watching the live show of opening the furnace, like watching a live stream of a potter selling teacups.
Seeing Ji Jue's nonchalant attitude, Lou Feng, who had been roped into helping, didn't bother explaining how taboo this was.
Let them watch.
He wanted to see too…
After Ji Jue spent the whole night tinkering like a madman, what had he come up with?
With a faint metallic scraping sound, there was no dazzling light, no auspicious aura, not even any special effects.
A strand of silver light silently flowed out of the furnace and into Ji Jue's toolbox.
If anything, the surface of the mercury shimmered brilliantly, making one want to take a photo for social media.
But then Lou Feng noticed something strange and instinctively leaned closer.
He stared intently.
In its static state, mercury should maintain a mirror-like surface due to its own density.
Why was it rippling incessantly?
But then Ji Jue's hand gripped his shoulder.
Tightly.
"Don't move—"
Lou Feng instinctively wanted to struggle, but then his pupils rapidly contracted.
Amidst the shimmering ripples, a faint thread seemed to drift past his eyes.
As thin as a spider's silk.
So light that even a breath could disturb it, yet so long, soaring in the hot air above the shelter, dancing endlessly.
Under Ji Jue's careful control and restraint, it contracted and returned.
Disappearing.
And in that final moment, the tip of that silver thread lightly brushed past Lou Feng's eyes, leaving no sensation.
Gone.
"That's it?"
He glanced sideways at Ji Jue.
After staying up all night, wasting so many materials, even investing blessings, and this was the result?
Ji Jue didn't answer.
He just smiled, looking at him.
In the silence, Lou Feng's expression gradually changed.
Right in front of his forehead, a strand of loose hair silently split in half.
Falling, scattering.
---
Sorry, after getting home and sitting in front of the computer, I felt completely drained after finishing this chapter.
I had planned to bring my laptop during the day to work in my spare time, but when I opened it, I realized, like an idiot, I forgot to save the cloud document…
(End of Chapter)