The Advent of Supreme Goodness (Thanks to Mingding Blower and Crow Sister's Solo Supporter for the Overlord Badge)

The Dragon Blood, which had originally been surging abundantly, suddenly stalled.

That brief gap—less than the time it took to snap one's fingers—was already enough for him to be shattered to pieces!

Boom!

As Minerva's iron fist came crashing down once more, the storm of destruction blew away every shred of flesh, even suppressing the incomplete Dragon Blood and smashing his head to bits.

From top to bottom, it had been driven into his chest.

Lawrence roared. Scales appeared across his bare-boned arms, and he forcibly blocked Wen Wen's fist. On the shattered wings behind him, eyes opened and looked toward the Giant Tree.

There, he saw Ji Jue awakening amid the tangled roots—and raising his middle finger with a smile.

"Surprised? Unexpected?"

He greeted Lawrence softly. "I said I knew you, so plenty of warmhearted people sent me back!"

Just like that, Ji Jue opened his mouth and suddenly bit down on the roots within arm's reach.

The Giant Tree shook violently. Countless tendril-like branches writhed, astonishingly beginning to dry up.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Lawrence's voice began to tremble. He was incredulous, even more terrified than he had been by Minerva's attack. "Stop! Stop!"

Vortex Implantation Technique!

The conversion progress of his Vortex Implantation Technique had actually stalled?!

No, it wasn't merely stalled... An unprecedented void had appeared inside it, gulping down the results that should have belonged to him and plundering the Dragon Blood that should have flowed into his heart!

What was happening? What had happened? How had he done it?

"Stop!!!"

Lawrence roared.

Ji Jue turned a deaf ear and spread his arms wide.

His eyes were opened wide, already filled with scarlet. The Spiritual Substance of suffering and despair filled his body, provoking hunger and madness. As the host of the Vortex Implantation Technique, he was actually embracing the erosion of Blood Thirst Syndrome. He was even turning the tables, driven by countless traces of Aberrant Spirit Essence, continuously seizing control from Lawrence!

Fuck your Calamity Artifact, fuck your fine jade, fuck everything!

A person had to eat to live. If there was rice, eat rice; if there was shit, eat shit. Who the fuck cared what Aberrant Spirit Essence it was? I'll eat, eat, eat, eat, eat!

Thus, he gulped down Dragon Blood as though he were swallowing molten lava. The suffering and despair seemed to retreat as well, and he did not care in the slightest.

Lawrence roared and tried to charge over. Flesh grew like thorns, stretching out to interrupt him, but the crystal Giant Pillar tore itself from the earth and blocked Ji Jue behind it.

The tides of offense and defense had turned.

Amid roars and shrieks, Lawrence's body swelled further. He went mad and attacked recklessly, no longer possessing his former ease and delight.

It was as though someone were using a straw inside his body to suck out his life and blood.

The main body and the host were now connected through the Vortex Implantation Technique.

Inseparable.

Once Ji Jue destabilized his control, the pump that had originally flowed in only one direction began to struggle and tug, with both sides fighting over the Dragon Blood extracted by the Vortex Implantation Technique.

The difference was that the suction from Ji Jue's side was growing stronger and stronger!

Amid the erosion and conversion of the Dragon Blood, Ji Jue roared. The pupils in his eye sockets gradually narrowed like a beast's. Scales faintly surfaced across his limbs, then fell away, as though he were undergoing a genetic mutation.

"Stop, Ji Jue!"

Wen Wen turned her head and shouted, "You aren't a Chosen One yet! If you keep absorbing it, you'll be completely corrupted by Sin Corruption! Stop!"

But Ji Jue no longer cared.

He even sped up.

Within his body, the suffering and resentment left behind by who knew how many people surged like a sea tide, driving him to launch his revenge against the culprit before him!

Ravage! Crush! Tear apart! Slaughter!

And finally, reduce him to ten thousand pieces!

"Can't you see I'm busy? What's the rush?!" Ji Jue gritted his teeth, desperately suppressing the violent impulse in his soul. He raised his head and looked toward the hollow night sky.

And beyond the dim stars were those indistinct outlines, those colossal beings faintly looking down from above.

They were watching him.

"So you're Chosen Ones, are you? You've been watching for so many years. What are you still waiting for?"

Ji Jue waved at them and roared, "Come on, choose, choose, choose! Choose all you fucking want!"

"—Who's going to let me choose one?!"

Amid the rumbling, Minerva's expression changed. Even under the Matrix's suppression, with her emotional fluctuations reduced to their absolute minimum and her heart seemingly turned to iron and stone, she was still bewildered.

She could not even stop herself from turning around and wanting to crack open Ji Jue's skull to see what kind of nonsense he was talking about.

Was becoming a Chosen One something you could choose? Did he think he was shopping for Cabbage at a supermarket, picking one whenever he pleased? Even if he was an independently awakened person with Talent and potential, it was impossible to simply hook his finger and—

In that instant, she froze where she stood.

Because the sky had split open.

It was not merely above the hospital, not merely within this Realm of Encirclement, and not even merely across the North Mountain District.

From the reach of the ripples to the verdant mountains, across all of Yacheng, within a thousand miles, every star vanished without a trace, as if it had exited with the raising of a curtain.

In their place appeared vast radiance that ordinary eyes could scarcely perceive.

Solemn and austere outlines emerged within it, a magnificent form as though all phenomena had converged—a manifestation of the Supreme Authority formed from every change and event in the Mortal World!

An invisible thing encompassing all creation; stern, towering palace gates; a crown woven from white bones and crimson blood; a deer's head with enormous antlers hung with the corpses of wolves; a vortex woven from countless lives; faces whose expressions shifted between sorrow and joy; a blood-weeping sun disk; flames and Electric Light changing in endless profusion...

"Ascension, Celestial Origin, The Horde, White Deer, Vortex, Heart Nexus, Eternal Gate, Entropy, Embers, Waste Ruins..."

Nine of the Twelve Supreme Goodnesses had descended!

From that fleeting glimpse, Wen Wen nearly froze in place, doubting her own eyes.

The omen of the Heavenly Mandate had appeared so abruptly, as though the stars had bestowed their Blessing. Yet the Supreme Tapestries, which countless Chosen Ones pursued their entire lives without receiving favor from, now filled the night sky and occupied every inch of empty space!

They flooded the dark sky, rapidly expanding, squeezing and displacing one another. They no longer possessed their former aloofness and nobility. Instead, they resembled customers waving money and scrambling to buy discounted goods at a supermarket, fighting over the sole treasure and rushing to bestow their own Blessings... Shut up, then take my money!

In the briefest instant, all collisions and struggles vanished.

It was as though the victor had already been decided!

All the other glorious visions vanished completely. Filling the night sky were what seemed like burning stars, bursting with dazzling radiance, as though the entire firmament had transformed into a colossal furnace.

When the dazzling stars burned away, that glorious furnace tipped over. Faint, flickering afterglow flowed out from within, becoming a descending line of heavenly light that completely swallowed Ji Jue.

It was as though it had fallen into his soul and ignited his very self.

That manifestation...

—Superior Virtue·[Embers]!

Amid unprecedented pain and fullness, the Talent within Ji Jue's soul, originally vague and dim, bathed in the afterglow of the stars and welcomed its final Metamorphosis.

A sigil took shape within the void. Orange-red light continuously circulated as intricate patterns emerged, like gears and levers overlapping to form the silhouette of some complex mechanism... Even Ji Jue could not make it out clearly.

[Chosen Ceremony complete!]

[Identity registration change initiated. Chosen One Jue, login complete]

[Spiritual Substance Reserve qualification unlocked. Error, error, error... Please proceed to Central Station as soon as possible to complete formal employee registration!]

Dozens of pop-up windows sprang from his Wristwatch, dazzling the eye.

But all that jumbled nonsense no longer mattered.

Amid the burning of the Fire of Embers, Ji Jue bared his teeth, raised his head, and looked toward the dazed Lawrence.

"Hello."

He politely inclined his head. "Many friends asked me to send you their regards on their behalf... But after thinking it over, it would probably be more convenient to let them tell you themselves."

"Are you ready?"

Ji Jue raised his hand and asked one final question—receive this suffering and despair you personally created!

In that instant, a waterfall of scarlet Spiritual Substance erupted from Ji Jue's body!

Within the silent Realm of Encirclement, Tide Sound suddenly surged! Countless cries and wails echoed from every gap and every corner.

Steel scraped, engines turned, and the silent machinery among the rubble of the Waste Ruins suddenly began operating again. From the collapsed parking shelter, where shattered trams and motorcycles lay piled like mountains, to the intact cars remaining in the parking lot, and then to the phones lying on the hospital floors and the computers that had been shut down...

Every extinguished screen lit up once more, glowing with blood-tear-like scarlet as the motors spun madly and vibrated violently.

The remnants of the dead, their resentment and suffering, rose again within Ji Jue's soul. They fell into countless machines and awakened once more!

But it still wasn't enough!

It was still far from enough!

Even if he exhausted all his Spiritual Substance in an instant, it remained impossible to explain even one ten-thousandth of that enormous scale.

Amid the pain of self-immolation, Ji Jue raised his hand, seized a sharp crystal shard, and thrust it backward into his own neck!

Blood gushed and spurted forth!

The Wristwatch, filled with an immense amount of Aberrant Spirit Essence, suddenly trembled, and a familiar pop-up window appeared.

[Employee Ji Jue detected to be facing mortal danger. Error, error, error, error!]

[Standard Emergency Survival Protocol activated—the Chosen One's ability will undergo one upward tier of transformation during the protocol's effective period—Dual Transformation complete!]

The numbers in the Spiritual Substance Reserve on the Wristwatch began to leap wildly. They plunged to rock bottom in an instant, then rapidly climbed back to full under the supply of vast amounts of external Spiritual Substance.

Amid the violent operation, it was as though even the mechanism had been burned completely red, like scorching steel, hissing and crackling.

But at that moment, the ear-piercing sounds of countless machines rang throughout the Realm of Encirclement.

The earth shook.

Because a mechanical tide emerged from the Waste Ruins and surged forth!