Chosen: Beyond Fate

The appearance of a familiar face did not make Ji Jue lower his guard in the slightest. The first thing he did was fire the Corruption Bullet. A deafening roar blasted through the room. For a moment, it even drowned out the wails drifting in from the corridor.

As the bullet tore through the air, its mercury seal broke apart. Within ten paces, the condensed aberrant matter streaked forward in a brief straight line before smashing into an invisible barrier.

It shattered instantly. The aberrant matter dispersed rapidly, yet failed to produce any contamination, as though some unseen force had absorbed it entirely. It vanished without a trace as the attack was blocked!

Ji Jue frowned. This was the problem with Corruption Bullets. Their properties were too unstable. Once the primer ignited and they slammed into something, the corruption activated almost instantly. At a range longer than ten paces, it would begin to dissipate, making it incapable of inflicting meaningful damage.

And since its core substance was cremation ash, its penetrating power was lacking. Even body armor could stop it.

His skills were also lacking. He could not yet stabilize its properties to the point where impact with the primer would not trigger it immediately while still allowing it to activate and spread rapidly after piercing a target’s body.

The moment Ji Jue fired without hesitation, the figure that had suddenly appeared let out an earsplitting scream. Instinctively, she crouched, clutching her head to protect herself. Her cries were even louder than the gunshot.

The scream made Ji Jue’s ears ache. Still, that equipment did look familiar.

Tong Hua shouted, “Ahhh! Help! Help! It really is me! It’s me!”

Seeing that she wasn’t making any other suspicious moves, Ji Jue felt a flicker of surprise. He strode forward, crossing the area that had previously been protected by the barrier. He pressed the gun barrel against her forehead and fired off questions like a machine gun.

“What’s Ms. Wen’s full name?”

“Wen Wen!”

“Her age?”

“Twenty-six.”

“Ahem. Third question. Who am I?”

“You’re Ji Jue, a nineteen-year-old man from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Tianmen University. Your teacher is Ember Master Ye Xian of the Tidesound Workshop. Your senior is Ye Chun—”

“What’s inside Tong Ting’s pockets?”

“They’re all dried fruits I bought!” Tong Hua burst into tears. It was impossible to tell whether she was crying from fear or indignation.

Watching the teary-eyed woman answer every question correctly, Ji Jue could not help freezing. His eyes widened. His thoughts raced.

Damn. Looks like it’s actually her.

Then didn’t that mean he had almost blown the head off the naive young lady of the Tong family just now? If word of that ever got out, and the Tong family found out...

Should I silence her?

Well, nobody knew they were here. Inside a Time Ruin, as long as he disposed of the evidence thoroughly enough, nobody would be able to investigate. After he got out, he could simply claim he had never seen her.

Perhaps sensing the increasingly dangerous look in his eyes, Tong Hua clung to his leg and burst into louder sobs.

“Mr. Ji, please don’t kill me! You know me! I’ve always respected you the most! I can even offer tribute to you! From now on, all of my monthly allowance is yours! Waaaah! The password to the company’s bank account is 865—”

Before she could finish, Ji Jue pinched her mouth shut. “Alright, stop talking already.”

The final trace of suspicion in Ji Jue’s mind faded away. There was no mistake. Someone this pathetic had to be the real Tong Hua.

But Tong Hua looked even more horrified than before. She stared at him with wide eyes. “I already offered you my money. You can’t possibly be after my body too, can you?!”

A long silence followed. Ji Jue put away the gun and let out a helpless sigh.

“Tong Hua, do me a favor and look in a mirror.” He dragged her over to the mirror beside the sink and pointed at their reflections. “Am I not better-looking than you? Why are you always thinking about taking advantage of other people?”

Heh, what a clown. So cringe.

Fortunately, the water inside the Time Ruin was still usable. At the very least, after Ji Jue checked it, he could confirm it didn’t cause any adverse effects after use. After Tong Hua finally washed up and regained some semblance of composure, Ji Jue asked, “Why didn’t you show yourself from the beginning?”

They knew each other. Being cautious around strangers was one thing, but surely there was no reason to trail behind Ji Jue for so long without even giving him a hint.

“I, um...”

Tong Hua stared at Ji Jue. Several times she opened her mouth, only to close it. Deep down, she desperately wanted to ask, Do you seriously have no idea how terrifying you look right now?

Ji Jue blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

He reached for his phone, only to remember he did not have it. So he turned and looked into the mirror instead. “I look normal, don’t I?”

In Tong Hua’s eyes, the figure standing next to her was engulfed in crimson flames from head to toe. He looked like a skeleton forged from fire. That blazing apparition rubbed its chin thoughtfully as he studied the reflection bearing Ji Jue’s face.

Completely puzzled, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

She didn’t even need to observe him through the Aether Eye. With nothing more than her ordinary vision, Tong Hua could already glimpse the terrifying essence beneath that calm exterior. It was as though the eternal flame left behind in the soul by the Tidefire Calamity still burned, leaving an indelible mark.

Ji Jue’s appearance kept alternating between that of an ordinary human and a monstrous form. Stimulated by the corruptive aura permeating the Time Ruin, countless tiny sparks rose from his soul like drifting embers. Beneath his feet, the crimson shadow shifted and stretched alongside his movements. It expanded and contracted restlessly, as though countless indistinct shapes were struggling to climb up from hell, reaching out while wailing in despair.

Tong Hua thought, Alright, no need to explain anymore. You’re practically about to reveal your true form, aren’t you?!

Even without her explanation, Ji Jue could feel the change. Ever since he entered the Time Ruin, his spirit matter had been unusually active, as though it had entered an environment perfectly suited to its growth. It flourished almost instinctively.

Fortunately, once Ji Jue restrained his spirit matter and activated the blessing of Spirit Primacy, it quickly stabilized again. Every strand of flesh and every trace of spirit matter throughout his body returned to his control. The reckless, agitated aura had vanished completely.

In Tong Hua’s eyes, all the strange phenomena disappeared as well. She could not help letting out a sigh of relief. A moment later, realization struck her. Her eyes widened as she pointed an accusing finger at him. “Wait a second! That’s not right! The moment we met, you opened fire! Were you actually trying to kill me?!”

Ji Jue tutted. This was exactly why he disliked smart brats. He turned around and smiled warmly. “Of course not! I knew you had defensive equipment on you, didn’t I? You used it back when we were dealing with that corrupted Swarm guy! I remember it perfectly.”

Tong Hua looked at him suspiciously. “Really?”

“Really.” Ji Jue nodded, his smile utterly sincere. “I was just worried that someone might be disguising themselves as you. You have to be extra careful in a Time Ruin. You know me. I value my friends more than anything. Surely I wouldn’t kill you over a simple test, right?”

Tong Hua nodded in realization. “That makes sense.”

She looked ready to open her mouth again, but Ji Jue smoothly changed the subject. “Anyway, I’ve finished investigating on my side. Have you found anything?”

In a sense, a Time Ruin was like a furnace, or perhaps more like a giant stew pot where everything imaginable was thrown together without regard for rank or order. It was a contradictory realm pieced together from numerous essences of Supreme Benevolences and fragments of various phenomena. But if such a place could exist at all, then some kind of internal logic had to be sustaining it, no matter how twisted that logic was.

The problem was that Ji Jue wasn’t an Aether. He couldn’t simply touch a clue and have the answers deliver themselves automatically. Fortunately, an Aether had practically walked right up to him.

Distracted by the new topic, Tong Hua sighed in frustration. “More or less the same as you. There’s too much aberrant aura around. I don’t dare look too deeply. I can only identify a possible direction and then investigate clues very carefully. What I can confirm so far is that the hospital regulations really do work. Inside a Time Ruin, they’re basically our lifesaving talisman as explorers.”

From the moment they entered the Time Ruin, their identities had already been assigned: they were resident physicians in standardized training, brought into the hospital to toil like beasts of burden, the very bottom of the food chain.

Yet even the bottom of the food chain was still part of the chain. As long as they followed the hospital rules and completed their work, their safety was guaranteed. The problem was that neither their so-called “colleagues” nor the “patients” would wait patiently for them to learn the ropes. The moment a mistake was made or a hospital rule was broken, a price would have to be paid.

The hospital would fine them, and the patients would demand compensation. But whether it was a fine or compensation, the only thing the residents could offer as payment was themselves.

A newly hired doctor, ostracized and coveted by colleagues, watched warily and hungered after by patients, would gradually lose flesh, blood, and soul amid endless competition and work. In the end, even their sense of self would be shattered into pieces, swallowed and assimilated by this bizarre hospital, and transformed beyond recognition into lifeless puppet-like figures of clay and wood.

Tong Hua sighed in despair. “Ah, this is awful.”

After hearing everything, Ji Jue actually seemed relieved. He patted her shoulder. “What’s so awful about it? Isn’t it exactly the same as reality? Knowing that the hospital rules are a lifesaver is already enough. We don’t have to worry about our safety, at least for now. But in the long run, we’ll still have to find a way to dismantle the Time Ruin from within. Do you have any leads?”

Tong Hua shook her head. Time Ruins like this usually had a core, an anchor point for all contradictions and distortions of higher principles, like the loose end at the center of a tangled ball of yarn. It could be a person, an object, or something else entirely.

Such a figure was commonly called a Lord by the Chosen Ones who entered from outside. The entire chaotic Time Ruin was built around them. Within it, Lords typically possessed all kinds of unimaginable authority and power, making them almost impossible to confront directly.

However, once the Lord was dealt with, the Time Ruin would collapse on its own. That was the key.

“Is it the director?” Ji Jue asked.

He recalled the bloated figure at the front of the conference room, a grotesquely swollen creature that looked like a drowned corpse.

Tong Hua shook her head. She couldn’t be sure. The moment the director appeared, she had examined him carefully. He was certainly powerful and terrifying, but he did not seem to have any deep connection with the Time Ruin.

Perhaps the crucial moment had not yet arrived, making that connection impossible for her to discern. Or perhaps...

Tong Hua finally voiced the question that worried her the most. “What if the core of the Time Ruin, the Lord, is the hospital itself?”

If the entire hospital had been corrupted and became the foundation of the Time Ruin, then how was all of this supposed to end? Did the two of them have to end this on their own?

Ji Jue was an Ember Chosen One, while Tong Hua was an Aether-type. Even if they spent their whole lives doing demolition work, they probably wouldn’t be able to tear it all down.

With a smile, Ji Jue said, “That would actually make things easier. On the way here, I looked around. This hospital is actually quite large and well equipped. It has a full range of departments. From what I know, a hospital like this should have an oxygen generating station.”

And not just an oxygen generating station. The water supply here was clearly still running, and there seemed to be no shortage of it. As long as there was water, there would be no need to worry about a source of oxygen. If there was water and electricity, that meant there was gas.

With Pacifier, Ji Jue was like a mobile workshop. If necessary, it wasn’t impossible to blow the entire hospital sky-high.

The smile on his face gradually grew more cheerful. For some reason, it only made Tong Hua feel increasingly uneasy.

They heard footsteps coming from the far end of the corridor. Tong Hua froze for a moment, instantly becoming tense, but the moment Ji Jue realized what was happening, he frowned. He sprang to his feet, stepped onto the desk, and lunged toward Zhao Zhou’s stiff, lifeless remains. Grabbing the corpse, he yanked it upright.

Frantically, he started stripping off its clothes at incredible speed.