Chosen: Beyond Fate

Ji Jue took a deep breath.

Suddenly, high beneath the bone wheel, Lian Cheng’s vision went black. Before he could even process it, his body was sent flying backward. By the time his lagging senses finally processed the sight of a gigantic hand rapidly approaching him, the words echoing through the air had already reached his ears.

“Go to hell!”

Like spotting a basketball hanging on the rim, Ji Jue leaped and slammed him down with a thunderous dunk, smashing him straight into the ground.

But before Lian Cheng could even bounce back into the air and crash down again, another explosive boom erupted out of nowhere. Like a ghost, Ji Jue appeared right before him again.

Lian Cheng, still helplessly midair, widened his eyes and tried to cover his face, only to realize that under the Ascension’s blessing, time had been slowed down dozens of times. Ji Jue raised his hand and drove forward his elbow before finally unleashing a hammering strike.

Thwack!

Lian Cheng’s eyeballs popped out of their sockets. He folded at the waist and slammed back into the ground, and despite the searing pain, he bounced back up once more.

He could only watch as Ji Jue delivered a high whip kick straight to his chin. The sheer force shattered the invisible defenses formed by his consciousness and poured entirely into his already pulverized jawbone. His neck was almost snapped clean by that kick.

He’s fast, way too fast. He’s faster than even a White Deer. He’s also absurdly tough. As tough as iron and stone... No, even more stable and solid than that. Is this serious? Is my brain malfunctioning? What the hell is going on?! How the hell is he doing this?!

Countless questions surfaced in Lian Cheng’s mind, but they all seemed to point to the same impossible truth. He couldn’t understand it. He couldn’t make sense of it. This was even more incomprehensible than an Upper Abomination’s blessings and corruption.

What terrified him even more than this absurd speed, strength, and toughness was those hands. Every strike that landed on him left behind a spirit matter shockwave. It was as if the attacks had bypassed the limits of the physical body altogether, striking directly at his soul and the matrix that had already undergone corruption. Even his blessings were no longer functioning properly, faltering under the shockwaves and impact of spirit matter.

If it weren’t for the Lord’s blessing still being connected to him, both his body and spirit would have been completely blasted apart by this sudden, overwhelming barrage.

Lian Cheng let out a shrill scream. Illusory light flickered in his eyes as he activated Transcendent Vision, the very same blessed equipment Ji Jue was using. In fact, he pushed it even further than Ji Jue did, accelerating his perception to a far greater degree, hoping to outlast him and counter speed with superior speed.

It suddenly dawned on him that the one getting beaten up was still him.

For practitioners of the Ascension Path, once Transcendent Vision was activated, any fight could be turned into a carefully calculated turn-based battle. But even in a turn-based game, what were you supposed to do when the other guy got dozens of actions every turn, every punch ignored armor and landed critical hits, and even his basic attacks came with cleave damage? This was completely unfair.

In just a few seconds, Ji Jue had unloaded an entire set of Lu Feng’s secret military combat techniques on Lian Cheng as if he was beating a wooden training dummy. He didn’t even break a sweat. He looked refreshingly energetic, if anything.

Amid the endless cycle of shattered and regenerating bones and the relentless agony that came with it, Lian Cheng finally saw the truth. The real problem was not Ji Jue. It was that translucent hand pressing against Ji Jue’s shoulder from start to finish.

From beneath that palm, spirit matter circuits flowed like a waterfall, flooding his entire body. They engraved themselves into his skin, flesh, bones, and internal organs, enhancing him greatly. It was like, after losing several matches in a row, you finally check the boss’s status panel, only to find rows upon rows of buff icons overflowing past the edge of the screen.

Lian Cheng was utterly speechless.

How the hell am I supposed to fight this?! Forget whether the matchmaking system is broken. These damn Supreme Benevolence guys didn’t even bother implementing an anti-cheat system, did they?!

For the first time in years, Lian Cheng, who had once joined the Heretic Cult out of resentment and hatred toward all things Radiant, felt that same old humiliation and helplessness again.

He had searched the world, found a bright future, received the Lord’s blessing, and thought he had regained his dignity, but he still couldn’t find where the hell the report button was. Blood and tears streamed from his furious eyes. He’s been cheating the whole time!

Ji Jue hadn't even bothered to hide it. He wasn't pretending. He hadn't stopped for a single second!

Above in the sky, the Sage’s Remnant Shadow, still busy pinning down and beating the life out of the Lord’s medium, didn’t forget to extend a hand and press it onto Ji Jue’s shoulder in the midst of all that, continuously offering reinforcement. More precisely, it was using Ji Jue’s Pacifier matrix to operate on Ji Jue himself, applying Ember’s specialty: physical state modification.

With precision far beyond Ji Jue’s limits, it strengthened his vital points, enhancing his toughness and structural integrity. At the same time, through the Deus Ex Machina effect, it was turning Ji Jue’s body into a machine.

Ji Jue was covered from head to toe in countless Supreme Benevolence totemic patterns. Even the heels of his feet were engraved with two Ruins Path emblems, reinforcing his flesh.

He came hurtling through the air once more. The mocking grin on his face grew rapidly as he got closer and closer to Lian Cheng until it was right in front of him.

With casual ease, Ji Jue brushed aside the arm Lian Cheng raised to block. He shifted sideways, dodging the long-prepared soul impact, and planted his feet firmly into the ground like iron spikes. Like that, he unleashed the Sun Character Straight Hammer that he had secretly picked up from Professor Ye’s punitive spirit-combat classes.

A continuous, thunderous series of explosions followed. If Professor Ye had been here to see it, she probably would have looked away in disgust. The stance was sloppy, the transitions were slow, and not a single movement was technically correct.

Yet no matter how much Professor Ye might have disapproved, even she couldn't deny one thing—every movement Ji Jue made and every punch he threw perfectly embodied the simplest and most efficient principles of mechanics. There wasn’t the slightest waste. Every bit of force was delivered into his opponent with maximum efficiency, like a machine running under optimal computational logic, executing the most direct and efficient output of power.

And compared to the physical pain, the final straw that broke the camel’s back was the faint voice carried in the wind. “Seems like your Lord doesn’t really like you that much.”

Otherwise, why isn’t He helping you fight like the one I summoned?

Lian Cheng roared, furious. His eyes bulged so wide they seemed ready to split apart. But no matter how furiously he raged, he was powerless to change anything. After all, it was often the truth that cut the deepest, not lies and deception.

I can accept it if the cold and untouchable hottie I desperately chased ignored me. But seeing the sweet, innocent girl sitting on the back of some punk’s motorcycle with her arms wrapped around his waist, then turning back to give him a radiant smile, that’s the real critical hit to a hopeless admirer.

Damn it, why?! Why was it that the powerhouse Ji Jue called in not only showed up, but actually put in the work and went all out the moment it saw a Foolish Abomination? While I, after all my scheming, after sacrificing everything, after paying in blood, sweat, and even the future of my descendants, couldn’t get so much as a shred of protection from the Lord?

As the anchor point for the Lord’s descent, he was not only being beaten by Ji Jue, but was also forced to endure the aftershocks of the Sage’s Remnant Shadow’s assault, and his soul took additional spillover damage.

While scrambling backward in utter disarray, Lian Cheng’s face became soaked in blood and tears as he screamed, shrieked, and wailed. “Die!”

Ignoring the immense pressure exerted by the Lord and disregarding the consequences of his soul collapsing, he pushed every last bit of power to its limit. His shattered hands, forced by his will, reached out again and clamped tightly onto Ji Jue’s shoulders. Lian Cheng leaned in, his face closing in, while vast quantities of spirit matter burst from his eyes like blazing light.

“Witness the true sovereign and become one with us!”

Lian Cheng laughed wildly as the immense torrent of Upper Abomination power, carrying surging streams of heretical insight, malice, fallacies, and delirium, poured directly into Ji Jue’s soul.

Ji Jue’s lips curled into a small smile. It was a smile of relief, as though a tremendous burden had finally been lifted. Then, a faint, almost inaudible sigh drifted through the wind.

“Finally... you took the bait...”

Amid the flooding corruption, Ji Jue, who should have been instantly corrupted without any resistance, slowly raised his head and grinned at Lian Cheng, who was right in front of him. The smile was warm, gentle even, but in Lian Cheng’s eyes, it looked as terrifying as the grin of a demon.

Ji Jue showed no resistance or fear toward the Upper Abomination’s corruption. Instead, he looked almost delighted, greedily absorbing it.

Become one with you? Fine. But there’s one thing I forgot to tell you. Up until just now, the cheat wasn’t actually turned on. And now... Sorry, I forgot to turn it off.

The matrix sealing his soul and body silently contracted, as if unlocking its restraints, allowing the infection of the Undying Disease and Lian Cheng’s corruption to spread through him unhindered. Before Ji Jue’s eyes, a long-lost system prompt appeared.

[External aberrant spirit matter detected. Extract?]

[YES]

The moment he confirmed his intentions, the wailing began.

The screams didn’t come just from Lian Cheng. Even the revolving bone wheel and the evil eye high above let out shrill, agonized wails.

A storm was coming. Within Ji Jue’s soul, a bottomless black hole suddenly opened. With savage hunger, it began devouring every trace of corruption and aberration it could find. In an instant, all the contamination of the Foolish Abomination that had invaded his body was swallowed completely.

Yet it still was not satisfied. Instead, it began to hungrily trace the source and reversed its flow upstream.

Following the connection and spiritual link that Lian Cheng had willingly opened, it surged straight into his body and soul, devouring everything in its path. And it didn't stop there. Tracing the bond between soul and spirit matter in the opposite direction, it climbed ever higher, stretching its hungry little hand toward the lofty Upper Abomination.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!”

Lian Cheng convulsed violently, his entire body spasming. Instinctively, he tried to let go, but it was already too late. His arms were instead seized by Ji Jue, who grabbed his shoulders and forcibly yanked his head upward.

The boundless torrent of corrupted light, completely beyond his control, erupted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, all of it pouring into Ji Jue’s gaze like falling into an unfathomable abyss.

It was instantly drained dry. Not a single trace of spirit matter remained to be squeezed out.

Still, it wasn't over. That terrifying suction had already followed the resonance between him and the Lord, spreading toward the bone wheel and the evil eye in the sky. Even if he wanted to stop it now, it was already too late. He could no longer sever the connection or shut down the resonance with the Lord.

It was like a foolish young man who, due to a moment of poor judgment, latched onto a mature older woman’s black, silk-clad thigh, thinking he had secured endless wealth and pleasure. But when he finally saw her pulling out a whip, candles, steel wool, and nails, it was too late. The only way to stay alive was to keep calling back home and trick more of his buddies into jumping into the same bottomless pit to buy himself a little more time.

The moment that realization struck him, Lian Cheng’s expression cycled through shock, terror, despair, and indignation.

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he cranked the connection and resonance between himself and the Lord to the maximum.

Come on, Lord! You’ve got this! Stay strong! Don’t lose! Kill him!