Click—
Amid the crisp scrape came the faint trembling of metal reeds.
The gaunt artisan beside Ji Jue raised his hand and opened a music box. A sparse, chilly melody rose from it, filling the entire workshop. Everyone continued moving calmly, silently taking out cases, distributing supplies, and adjusting disguises. Not one of them looked up toward the outside.
The enormous eye abruptly stopped opening and drawing closer. Its hollow pupil reflected a scene of emptiness, unable to cross the barrier of time.
The instant the melody began, time within the workshop accelerated hundreds, even thousands of times over, making everything outside slow to a crawl.
There was no warning, no sign of anything unusual. Those inside felt no discomfort whatsoever. As the music box's melody echoed, everything simply began operating at tremendous speed.
Ji Jue took the lead, walking to the furnace and pulling open its door. He scattered in the scrap materials prepared long ago, then "clumsily" employed a series of Fiendification Alchemy techniques to begin constructing their disguise.
Behind him, the "nameless artisan," still holding the dachshund in his arms, pried open the panting dog's mouth. After a bout of rough squeezing, the dachshund vomited up a dozen tiny lumps of flesh. Thick saliva dripped onto them, and the lumps rapidly swelled and sprouted. Soon, a dozen bodies grew from them, men and women of varying ages.
Some of the others began implanting remnant spirits. Others began materializing the bodies, while still others infused them with the essences of various great evils. Finally came cosmetic alterations and clothing.
After a final, meticulous arrangement, the work was complete.
The instant the music box's melody abruptly stopped, accelerated time returned to normal, and a deafening crash erupted within the workshop.
The furnace exploded. Countless fragments shot outward, and pieces