Boom!

With a deafening explosion, a broken corpse fell backward. Blood sprayed everywhere.

As casualties kept mounting, the brutal clash between the two teams was finally nearing its conclusion. Stepping on the shattered body beneath him, a scar-faced man with bronze-toned skin stood wreathed in crackling electricity, looking coldly at the last remnants of resistance.

“Hand it over, and I’ll spare your lives.”

“Dream on, you son of a bitch!” The heavily wounded captain let out a cold laugh, clutching his backpack tightly to his chest while raising a bundle of explosives in his other hand. “One more step and we all go down together!”

“Is that so?” The scar-faced man stared at him emotionlessly and took a step forward without hesitation. “I don’t believe you.”

A flicker of uncertainty appeared in the captain’s eyes. The man caught it instantly, his smile turning more mocking.

“Relax, I’ll keep my word. Hand it ove—”

BOOM!!!

Another massive blast erupted, this time directly above them, as if something had just rushed past.

From a suddenly opened rift, a vehicle shot out, driving across the ceiling. As it roared past, someone shouted excitedly, “WOOHOO, TAKEOFF!!!”

It vanished through another opening that appeared out of nowhere. The opening closed, and only silence remained.

For a moment, the captain and the scar-faced man both froze, exchanging confused glances with their subordinates. Did something just pass by?

Before they could process what had just happened, the blare of an engine rang out again, as if it had taken a wrong turn. From a different crack in the ceiling, it burst out once more, then raced along the wall from top to bottom, shot toward the floor, and plunged into yet another rapidly opening rift.

“Takeoff number two!”

And then it was gone.

Everyone stood frozen in place. The captain holding the explosives suddenly felt his arms lighten. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a rope come out of nowhere, hook onto his backpack, and yank it away, leaving behind only an awkward, suffocating silence.

The captain swallowed hard. “Uh... so... since the backpack is gone... can we just... leave?”

***

A faint explosion could be heard in the distance, but it was too unclear to make out what exactly it was.

Racing through the chaos, Ji Jue heard An Ran in the back seat cheering. “Mr. Ji, I snatched it!”

Ji Jue turned back and saw the opened backpack in An Ran’s hands, along with something shining brightly inside.

“Holy—!”

Time-sand crystal?! Ever seen a chunk of time-sand crystal the size of a human head?! Well, Ji Jue just did. Wait... it really was a head. A faint sculpted face could be made out, and... it looked like Mercury’s face?

As expected of a sage. A statue of herself was made from time-sand worth millions per ounce, it was this big, and in one piece? If this got out, craftsmen of the Ember Path would probably fight each other until their brains were splattered all over the place.

He patted An Ran on the head and said solemnly, “What do you mean, ‘snatched it?’ This is something we picked up, understand?”

An Ran looked confused. “Huh?”

“No one wanted it anymore, so it was left on the ground, and we just happened to come across it.” Ji Jue stuffed the time-sand crystal back into the bag and had An Ran secure it properly. “We’ll keep it for now. If no one comes looking for it, then we can use it ourselves, right?”

“Ohhh!” An Ran nodded. Even though he didn’t really get it, Mr. Ji couldn’t be wrong. “I picked it up!”

Ji Jue nodded in satisfaction. He was growing fond of this kid. Along the way, the “picked up” loot had already filled the cart of Horsey, piling up into a small mountain. Thankfully, An Ran was skilled with ropes and quick at packing. Otherwise, who knew how much good stuff would have been lost. After all, this was the workshop of a sage. Even the scraps shaved off from random corners were valuable treasures.

Occasionally, when they encountered something Ji Jue did not recognize, the Seer would remind him to take it. He was learning while looting, even getting local souvenirs on the side. If they hadn’t been inside the rift realm, Ji Jue would have thought this was an incredibly pleasant vacation.

Once again, with a boom, a faint light appeared at the end of a rapidly shifting, narrow passage. They had passed through another wall and emerged into a massive hall. Within the vast space, only fine dust drifted down. There was no one there, only a desolate stillness.

A solitary chair stood amid the dust. The once glorious, solemn white robe of honor lay discarded on the ground, thrown away like something worthless. For a brief moment, dazed, Ji Jue thought he saw that figure again, the one with lowered eyes in deep thought. But everything faded away very quickly and was left behind.

Passing through another wall and another tunnel, they seemed to arrive in an unfamiliar boiler room. Massive furnaces filled with ash stood silent, no longer carrying any trace of past warmth or activity. Huge pipes covered the ceiling and floor. Moving through them, they felt as if they were mere insignificant ants and dust.

After passing through, Ji Jue found himself back in a place he had visited before. It was in ruins, and it looked as if someone had already been here, but no figure could be found.

He felt as though he was lost, yet also as if he was still on the correct path. Thus, he went deeper into the central hub, never knowing where he would end up next. He was moving toward the inner layers, but a single misstep would send him off course.

Perhaps exploring the workshop was supposed to be like this. Those who could not find the path only needed to throw themselves forward blindly and brave every trap. But Ji Jue had far more to consider.

For example, where the hell was Pacifier?

All he could feel was that the deeper he went, the harder the path became. If he was even slightly careless, the violently operating workshop would throw him back, sending him to an earlier checkpoint. At times, if not for the Seer’s warnings, he would have already been mercilessly crushed by the workshop’s mechanisms for going the wrong way.

While moving forward, Ji Jue felt his mind constantly buzzing, as if it had been split apart. One part remained Ji Jue’s own perception of self, while another part had already begun to resemble a machine, taking on a different form entirely. One part still held emotion and feeling, while the other was cold, calm, and utterly unmoving, like a mechanism.

Through the resonance of Deus Ex Machina, Ji Jue could feel that, as a component, he was already participating in the operation of the entire central hub. By constantly fine-tuning his own spirit matter and using Fluid Alchemy to adapt to the hub’s changes, he was riding the flow deeper toward its inner layers, sometimes getting close, other times getting distant.

Now, he had truly become part of the workshop, using firsthand experience to feel the operation of the entire rift realm and the vast fluctuations that filled the workshop. It was vast, deep, and yet so hollow, like an empty shell. Even though its operation was intricately complex, there was nothing at all inside. Not even Deus Ex Machina could grant it any spirit, nor could it sense any records or traces.

How strange. The creators[1] clearly possessed reason and intelligence, so why did the workshop seem like a vegetative body, operating only on preset foundational commands?

Ji Jue received no response. He was too insignificant. Even the echo of that hollow operation was enough to completely crush his soul.

Fortunately, he was not alone. There was also the “universal key” left to him by the professor—Mr. Ball, the professional lock-picking expert. After a full journey of analysis and exploration, it had already completely mapped out the structure and changes of the workshop, providing him with crucial directions.

The central furnace, blessing chamber, and warehouse had all been marked within Ji Jue’s field of vision.

In any workshop, these three locations were vital areas. The central furnace was, in the conventional sense, the core of the workshop, a creative space for the craftsman. All arrangements and layouts served it, like the very soul of the workshop. The blessing chamber was where the craftsman’s acquired blessings were stored and preserved, like an indispensable organ. The warehouse was more straightforward: it held all valuable material reserves.

The problem was, all of these were scattered around the outer perimeter of the central hub. So what was inside the core? What exactly was he walking toward?

Ji Jue could not help but drift into a moment of distraction. As he passed through a rift that suddenly closed, he was flung into a layered space of countless operating mechanisms. It felt as if he had stepped into the inner side of machinery itself, with massive modules rising and crashing beside him, stirring up violent gusts.

“Turn left ahead,” the Seer calmly instructed. “You do not need to focus on details. The essence of ‘looking downward’ is to take in the entire system. Even a momentary mistake is insignificant.

“Fluid Alchemy is like ink dropped into water, or marrow extracted from stone. Once the essence is set, purification follows naturally. As long as the overall direction and logic are correct, the outcome will not deviate. I believe this participation in the operation of the central hub is also a valuable opportunity for you to refine your Fluid Alchemy.”

Along the way, the Seer never held back her guidance. Whenever Ji Jue was confused, a few words were often enough to pinpoint the issue or provide clear direction.

Ji Jue could not help but sigh. “Seer, I take it you’re not gonna continue to put up an act anymore?”

The Seer seemed to smile from the scooter basket. “What are you talking about? I have already made a promise, Mr. Ji. Everything I know, I will speak without concealment or falsehood. I already told you, I am the Seer. Within the rift realm, I know everything.”

“So then, are you Mercury?”

The Seer fell silent. She turned back slightly and glanced at Ji Jue, her expression and eyes complex and helpless. Roughly translated, it seemed like she was saying, Do you even realize how stupid you sound?

“I think I understand what you are worried about, Mr. Ji. Don’t worry, I am not,” she answered plainly. “To put it a bit harshly, if I were Mercury and had some shady purpose, would I really need you for it?”

She paused, then let out a mocking sigh. “Besides, isn’t Mercury everywhere around us?”

The engine roared, and the central hub’s operation hummed. Ji Jue froze. It felt like he heard singing from somewhere far away, sounding faint and indistinct.

I think of home...

My home so dear, so lovely...

The sky so clear, the breeze so light,

Homesickness comes in waves tonight...♪

It was such a familiar voice, as if he had heard it in dreams a thousand times before, yet it was so hollow and hoarse that it sent a chill down Ji Jue’s spine.

When another rift opened, he finally saw a sea of crimson spreading from the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, staining everything in sight red. Scattered limbs lay across the ground. Blessings and spirit matter still flickered faintly as they dissipated into the air, slowly rising, but Ji Jue no longer felt any sorrow. He only felt bone-deep cold dread and fear.

Corpses were torn apart, shattered, and crushed between countless hands. The blood kept flowing as the singing went on.

Amid the wreckage of the intruders’ corpses, a bizarre figure stood in the pool of blood. It was several meters tall, with five legs and a deer-like head, and it was singing softly.

I think of home, I think of home,

How are the ones back home these days?

They linger in my thoughts always...♪

The roar of the engine cut off abruptly. Ji Jue instinctively tried to reverse, but it was already too late.

The thing turned around. On its broken face were misaligned and distorted features, scattered without order, yet it was strangely familiar, carrying an eternal sorrow and loneliness. From the slanted eye on its forehead, a tear fell slowly.

The moment Ji Jue regained his senses, the song could be heard from right in front of him. He hadn’t even clearly seen when that figure had appeared before him and towered above him.

Ji Jue held his breath, his pupils slowly dilating.

Instinctively, he reached out and tightly grabbed An Ran, not allowing him to make even the slightest movement. Then he did everything he could to maintain his connection and alignment with the central hub, hoping it would treat them as nothing more than ordinary fixtures within the workshop and simply ignore them.

A thin, elongated arm extended from beneath the tattered, long robe. It traced Ji Jue’s face slowly with an almost gentle touch. Its fingertips brushed past the corner of his eye, making only the briefest contact before withdrawing, as if puzzled.

Very quickly, it turned around. Within strands of long, cascading hair, the tear-filled eyes closed. It slowly turned around, stirring a faint breeze as it stepped through the pool of blood, walking deeper into the darkness ahead, continuing that seemingly never-ending, hoarse singing, and leaving only dead silence behind.

Ji Jue, barely able to even breathe, broke into a cold sweat.

An Ran also relaxed his tense muscles. Noticing Ji Jue’s condition, he quickly pulled out a water flask and handed it to him, finally letting him recover a breath of air.

But the trembling would not stop.

“Seer, what exactly was that?”

The Seer leaned against the scooter basket, gazing in the direction the thing had gone. “That was Mercury. One of the Ember Paths left behind after the furnace known as Mercury cooled...”

Compared to the sages of old, it was as insignificant as a single drop of water in the ocean.

1. The raw specifically uses the plural form of “creator” here, even though I was under the impression Mercury was the sole creator of the workshop since it’s, well, her workshop. My assumption is that others helped her build it, but I don’t think this is ever outright stated. ☜