Chapter 00264: Hello
# Hello
Chapter 264
Novel: Above Destiny
Chapter 264: Hello
“Is that a dog barking?”
Ji Jue turned around in confusion.
Through the iron gate, the sound was vague and unclear.
He almost doubted his own ears…
By rights, the person who had assigned him the task—sort of like an examiner—shouldn’t be making noises like he’d seen a ghost outside the testing ground.
Could it be that he had reached mastery in the Essence Unity Divine Art and was coming with a deadly presence?
Was there still time for him to change his appearance, don the Black Night Embroidery Banner, and welcome the royal army with joy?
Boom!!
The earth trembled suddenly, rippling like a thick woolen mat.
The ceiling of the underground room cracked open, dust cascading down.
Outside the narrow window, a sudden flash of lightning streaked across the sky.
In that brief light, the massive silhouette amidst the heavy rain showed itself—like a strange giant insect crawling above the clouds, its limbs writhing and spreading downward, casting down a shower of black rain.
Sharp screams pierced through the pitch-dark rain.
Inside, a piercing, high-pitched alarm echoed from the dust-covered detection device hanging on the wall.
The readings shot up like rockets—warning of rising corruption values...
No instruments were needed.
Ji Jue’s own body was already experiencing intense discomfort.
Even though he was certain everything before him was an illusion, what his eyes saw, his hands touched, and his soul and self felt all seemed shockingly real.
The symptoms of mild corruption erosion were here—dizziness, shortness of breath, and a racing heartbeat.
Soon, his skin tingled faintly, drowsiness crept in, reactions slowed, and strange voices whispered into his ears.
If left unchecked, the next stage would be delirium, hallucinations, and mental breakdown!
The spiritual energy blockade of the workshop was leaking—it allowed the corruption pollution from outside to invade and spread within.
He needed to react quickly.
Now, Ji Jue finally understood why he’d been handed so many pieces of ash slate!
Ignoring the pitiful screams and wails outside the door, Ji Jue moved swiftly.
Even without his once peerless skill and the Advantageous Attack technique, the muscle memory, experience, and insight he’d gained couldn’t be taken away.
Without hesitation, he put on the unfinished protective suit—patching and piecing together two mismatched sets just barely shielding him.
He reinforced the joints and weak spots with adhesive tape enhanced by physical properties.
Next, he grabbed the still-warm ash slate fresh from the furnace and charged toward the narrow window.
Dropping the jammed nail gun, he picked up a hammer and nails.
Using planks from a dismantled wooden box, he first sealed the window.
Then, he patched it with the ash slate.
For tiny cracks, he ground leftover fragments into powder and filled the gaps.
This was practiced work for him.
He never imagined his plastering skills would actually come in handy during the Afterglow’s craftsman exam.
After sealing the window and patching the ceiling, he filled every crack and flaw in the four walls.
Then, urgently dismantled the pile of scrap, sorting through it carefully.
Throughout, the cries outside never stopped.
From distant to near.
At last, someone seemed to be pressed against the door, pounding it hard: “Help! Help! Save me...”
“Coming, coming!”
“Right away!”
“Almost there!”
“Wait just a little longer...”
Ji Jue replied absentmindedly to those voices, unsure if they were real or hallucinations.
He poured diesel into the fuel chamber, filled it to the brim, then gave the generator a hard pull.
It sputtered to life, belching out thick smoke.
“Just a moment, I’m opening the door!”
Dragging long cables and several iron bars, he reached the door.
Wiping the sweat from his brow, he patiently soothed the desperate person outside.
Then, expressionless, he grabbed the welding torch.
Stepped on the pedal.
Inside the furnace, a scalding stream of spiritual energy blasted through the alloy tube, bursting from the torch like a razor-sharp blade.
It instantly burned away the aluminum powder flux on the iron bars, welding the door slit shut.
One by one, thick iron bars crisscrossed, reinforcing the structure.
Outside the door, the desperate voice had run out of patience and began shrieking: “What are you doing! I’m your teacher! I, I, I am—”
“Sorry, who?” Ji Jue responded coldly, “Don’t know you.”
He took a step back, admiring his work.
“I don’t have teachers who don’t understand the emergency rules of the Association. When there’s an emergency, the workshop locks down. Unless the crisis is resolved, the door must not open.“It’s all posted on the wall over there.
Didn’t you see it?”“You’re lying! You’re lying! You’re lying!!!”Bitter cries burst from behind the door. Amid the muffled sounds, sobs and wails grew harsher. Suddenly, the iron gate shook violently, faint outlines pressing outward. It was as if some enormous creature was furiously battering the door, hammering it nonstop. The screech of metal on metal never ceased, almost as if it would tear the door loose entirely. But all in vain. Not just physically reinforced, Ji Jue pressed his other palm against the door, constantly drawing on his sparse spiritual energy to interfere with the material, strengthening the weak points. For a moment, silence fell outside. Deep footsteps slowly faded away; bitter resentment retreated. But without warning, a violent shock exploded again. As if trying to seize a chance while Ji Jue relaxed—but futile. Between the thunderclaps and rain, sharp knocking sounded repeatedly overhead, as if something was moving through the walls and pipes. The pounding behind the door was endless, but in the intermittent silence, Ji Jue heard a new sound from behind him. Sharp scratching. From within… The furnace!“Really can’t stand anyone having a bit of peace, huh?”Ji Jue almost laughed. What kind of stress test was this? First the corruption pollution, then emergency repairs, a phantom teacher tricking the door open, and now being attacked from both front and rear? The faint scratching grew clearer. Under the corrosion and pollution, the damaged furnace had finally reached its breaking point. For a long time, countless fragments and ashes lingering inside had been writhing, slowly coalescing. Soon, nurtured by the flames and spiritual energy, it would hatch and break free! Until Ji Jue pressed his palm—ignoring the heat—against the furnace—“Sorry, buddy, you picked the wrong place to be born.”He sighed regretfully.“No entry here.”With the crackling sound of burning flesh, a gruesome wail exploded from within the furnace. The rapidly forming and mutating aberration suddenly froze. Then, an intense change emerged from within itself. The aberration halted abruptly. The hardened shell it had formed began shrinking inward like an iron cage, as if a steel wall were pushing to crush its own structure to bits! Alchemical Solidification, lockdown! In an instant, the incomplete aberration was trapped inside the metallic shell. Then, spiritual energy surged like invisible hands— Brutally slashing and remodeling, cutting away swollen flesh, crushing resistance, determined to reconstruct it from the inside out. Boom! The furnace shook violently, cracking open a fissure through which scorching flames burst forth. In the flickering light, the shape struggling fiercely was barely visible—but it was too late. Even without the old corrupt alchemy Yun had forced on him, just modern alchemy alone could turn such things into no less than eighty-one forms of control! Given the current situation… His brief thought process ended instantly. Accompanied by endless screams, the furnace began its process anew. For some, their work was just beginning. For others, the exam was already over. Inside the Tower of Myriad Transformations, Gustav and Jiang Tongguang stared at screen after screen showing deep crimson, pale faces, and endless cries of terror. Within minutes, the alarms had blared constantly, relentless. To protect souls from damage, numerous tests were set up inside the Tower’s simulated universe. Once an apprentice lost their life or their mind collapsed—deemed unable to continue—the simulation cut off, kicking them out. Whether shadows remained was beyond the Association’s concern.“The first test, only ten minutes in, and over three hundred eliminated?”Jiang Tongguang clicked his tongue.“Most can’t even get through the opening stage… Old Gu, I’m not saying anything bad, but isn’t your benchmark a bit too hard?”“Did I set tasks no ordinary craftsman can handle?”Gustav retorted coldly.“Are the problems beyond the students’ capabilities?”All the hints had been given. All the necessary tools were in the workshops. Even apprentices fresh at the door, if they calmly analyzed, composed themselves, surveyed the situation and made strategies could perfectly overcome the challenges. Sadly… Most eliminated couldn’t stay calm, wandering confusedly until they had no clue what was happening. Or they panicked over a slight stimulus, falling into madness, losing sight of the situation, and killing themselves. Some even blew themselves up beforehand. Anyone who had seriously memorized the workshop safety rules and emergency strategies wouldn’t panic and wait for death the moment something went wrong. Anyone halfway smart wouldn’t be foolish enough to open the door and invite mutations inside. Basic skills passed even a little meant timely reinforcing the workshop, a bit of adaptability meant knowing how to contain problems and avoid corruption. Even two protective suits were available. If they were so blind they didn’t even put them on while pollution was under their noses, then death was their own fault. Failing to notice changes or signs inside the furnace, unable to solve the mutation or derangement, unable to summon the courage to decisively destroy the furnace— Ending up crushed by fully grown corruption—that was truly a deserved death. This wasn’t a harsh, arbitrary test designed on a whim, but based on historical cases, with absolutely no challenges outside any apprentice’s capability. Not even reaching the artisan difficulty level! All theories, foundations, Association’s textbooks and tests were written clearly. Every teacher should drill these into any new apprentice relentlessly. Theory, practice, training, and operation—after three plus years, all these should be second nature, requiring no hesitation. If someone still died at the beginning under these premises… their intelligence and brains probably didn’t belong in Afterglow, wasting Association resources.“Oh, look at this one, this is pretty good.”Jiang Tongguang adjusted a projection. Inside the workshop, it was peaceful, orderly. From start to finish, the calm and steady young man showed no panic, casually clearing mistakes, counting materials, reinforcing the workshop. The aberration hadn’t even appeared in the furnace before it was detected and handled. By now, he’d begun repairing the water purification core.“Is that the hot-headed old dragon’s student?”Jiang Tongguang marveled.“So calm, not at all like his teacher.”“No matter how rough Li Lin’s temper is, the Clocktower is a master’s inheritance.
Teaching capabilities won’t be poor.”Gustav glanced, nodding slightly.“This student’s a bit like the old scavenger—steady, not rash.”“This one’s good too, no mistakes at all so far.
Wow, strong intuition; good at defusing.”On screen, a dark-skinned candidate kicked open the furnace door, grabbed tongs, and pulled out the underdeveloped aberration, stuffing it into a barrel of strong acid. The sizzling never stopped. Soon, cooled scraps appeared in the boiling acid. All accounted for.“This one… hmm… very skilled operation, solid foundation, good adaptability—but maybe a bit hot-headed?”Jiang Tongguang’s gaze moved to another projection. Though the workshop was a mess, it remained standing. The aberration that had jumped from the furnace lay twitching on the floor, tightly stepped on and struggling in terror.“You bastard, I’ve put up with you long enough!”The dark-faced candidate stomped on the aberration, enveloped in spiritual energy, hardened like iron hammers. With mighty swings and curses—“You think you’re special? You’re gonna die! You and your damn lifelong partner—”“Die! Die! Die! Die!!”Loud crashes rang out. The aberration screeched, struggling in vain, finally hammered dead. In the brief silence, Jiang Tongguang and Gustav exchanged glances. Both were speechless in near identical fashion.“At least, cough, the fists were skilled, right? Hmm, looks like training, hard work done.”Jiang Tongguang shook his head.“Let me see whose student this is, hmm? Xiao Kong…”Gustav fell quiet.“Fairly… normal.”“Indeed.”Jiang Tongguang nodded.“Definitely his own student.”Countless projections shifted constantly, impossible to watch all at once. Even two councilors could only set alerts and selectively watch key or dangerous scenes, ensuring intervention the moment irreversible damage threatened the apprentices. During their monitoring, another alarm sounded. Someone else had opened their workshop door.“Why are there still fools opening doors now?”Jiang Tongguang frowned and looked over, then froze. After a long pause, he reached out. Poked the focused Gustav, once, twice.“Old Gu, Old Gu, look at this…”“I told you, don’t call me Old Gu!”Gustav groaned, snapped back with a glare, but soon his gaze was drawn to the image. He too went blank. The projection showed, as the door swung open, the aberrations outside stirred excitedly. A grotesque mass made of stitched-together corpses writhed, limbs twitching as it charged mindlessly toward the door. Then, they saw— The figure standing before the furnace. Since opening that furnace door, fiery light had cast only a dark silhouette. So fierce. The suit was covered with scrap steel welded iron armor. A diesel engine on his back roughly output electric currents driving a mechanical structure. Sparks flew from a damaged cable joint. Huge exposed gears slowly turned. Greasy hydraulic rods extended and scraped, forming a crude exoskeleton. In his hand was a massive iron hammer—teeth bared in every sense. Still warm from the furnace. Across the hammerhead somewhere between steel and flesh, odd eyes and mouths wandered, screaming in hunger and pain, but pinned down tight, unable to escape. Sticky saliva and blood tears dripped from the eyes and mouths onto the ground with sizzling sounds. Now, with the mechanical sounds grinding sharply, the iron hammer slowly rose. Its fierce silhouette cast a pitch-black shadow, blotting out the eerily still, twisted faces of the aberrations.“Hello—”
Ji Jue spoke softly.
Then…
Boom!!!
(The End of this Chapter)